As you know, I spend a bit of time scouring Appalachian history books in search of extraordinary crime stories and often try to separate the facts from the legends. I’ve pulled stories from Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913) (1914) by John Preston Arthur, A History of Buncombe County, North Carolina (1930) by F. A. […]
Larkin Liles, Man of Honor and Mayhem: Fact or Fiction Read More »
The September 29, 1882, New York Times carried the following item on the front page: NOVEL CAPTURE OF A MOONSHINER DRIVEN FROM HIS HIDING PLACE BY RATTLESNAKES “DALLAS, N.C., Sept. 28.–An old moonshiner named Charles Folias, for whom the revenue officers have been searching for a long time, was captured in the northern part of
Charles Folias, Whiskey Caveman: Fact or Fiction Read More »
I’ve been working on a quiz for a while now. The struggle is where you start and where you stop, both timewise and geographically. This one starts in 1836 and goes to 2009, and at least nine states are involved. The topics covered include embezzlement (fancy theft), murder, prison breaks, executions, bank robbery, hijacking, and
Appalachian True Crime Quiz Read More »
Were the 1909 Virginia murders a robbery or the work of a madman? Late on the night of September 21, 1909, someone murdered six members of the Meadows family, and set their log cabin on fire. The crime took place near Hurley, a tiny village in Buchanan County, VA, about 100 miles (160 km) south
Death Rides A Fast Train: The Laurel Creek Murders Read More »
On Tuesday, August 21, 1934, Raban County Sheriff Luther Rickman was getting a haircut at Roy Mize’s barber shop when he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. He ran out the door and discovered that across the street, five men were robbing the Bank of Clayton. The gang had parked in front of the bank.
A Twisted Road to Justice: The Great Clayton, GA, Bank Heist Read More »
Two Ghost Stories Reveal Hidden Crimes. The most famous ghost story in Australia is Fisher’s Ghost; the most famous in West Virginia is the Greenbrier Ghost. Legend has it that each returned from the grave to bring their killers to justice. Although the two murders happened half a world away and 70 years apart, they
The Greenbrier Ghost: Did An Australian Ghost Story Solve A West Virginia Murder? Read More »
In September 1985, the Blue Ridge region witnessed one of the most bizarre and quintessentially 80s crimes ever committed. On the morning of Thursday, September 12, Fred Meyers, an 85-year-old retired engineer, looked out his bathroom window while shaving and saw a dead body in his gravel driveway. The body was wearing a parachute, had
A Smuggler’s Airdrop Turns Deadly in the Appalachians Read More »
A riveting new book, Blood on the Blue Ridge: Historic Appalachian True Crime Stories 1808-2004, promises to captivate readers with a collection of true crime tales spanning nearly two centuries in the Appalachian Highlands. The book opens in 1808 with the story of The Nearly Fatal Footprint. A man is sentenced to hang based entirely
Blood on the Blue Ridge: Historic Appalachian True Crime Stories 1808-2004 Read More »
On Wednesday evening, January 14, 1942, David “Herman” Allen, his wife, Ruth Lee Massengill Allen, Leon Allen, and Lettie Ballinger were having a night out in Benson, N.C., a small town about 35 miles south of Raleigh. After visiting a number of places, they drove to Bill Benson’s filling station, arriving there at about 1:00
A Jealous Man, a Triple Murder, a Night of Terror Read More »
1927 was remarkable for technological firsts. Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. Philo T. Farnsworth transmitted the first electronic TV image. Warner Bros released The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with synchronized sound. On the crime front, Paul Jaworski and the Flathead Gang advanced the science
The Flathead Gang’s Daring Armored Car Heist in 1927 Read More »
