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 »
While filming a movie about two bumbling detectives, comedian Tim Conway unintentionally triggered an investigation into a multi-year scheme to steal rare books by a Harvard graduate art professor and part-time bookbinder posing as a Turkish security guard. If you had told me that Vin Diesel and the cast from the Fast & Furious movies
Case Of The Vanishing Volumes: The Great Biltmore Book Heist Read More »
Shortly before 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 25, 1917, Mr. C.C. Beaver, foreman for the street car barns and shops of the North Carolina Public Service Company in Salisbury, NC, walked into work and found a nightmare. The safe containing the money from the previous day’s fares was broken open and empty. On further investigation,
A Life for a Leg: Baxter Cain’s Deadly Bargain Read More »
In 1871, Phillip Arnold and John Slack entered the Bank of California in San Francisco. They were clad in worn clothing and covered in a generous layer of dirt and grime. One of them clutched a leather bag. They wanted to deposit it for safekeeping. The teller summoned a manager who told the pair that
Glittering Deception: The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 Read More »
In part one, we met Garrett Hedden and his brothers, Bill, Joe, and Riley. All of them were moonshiners who followed in the footsteps of their father, John. Garrett had killed multiple men, including his brother, Bill, in 1898, and in 1900, he fought a party of seven revenue agents to a standstill in a
The Meanest Moonshiner in Tennessee Part 2 Read More »
In 1900, Garrett Hedden was the most feared man in mountainous Polk County, Tennessee, a rural district in the southeast corner of the state. He was a well-known moonshiner who the local newspapers labeled a desperado and credited with killing eight men. One killing, in particular, made citizens, marshals, and revenue men reluctant to cross
The Meanest Moonshiner in Tennessee Read More »
I had been anxiously awaiting the 5th Annual American Revolution Symposium: State of Rebellion: South Carolina’s Place in the American Revolution, and it exceeded my expectations in every way. Two of the presentations on the agenda immediately caught my attention: Bioarchaeology of the Camden Battlefield Burials: Dr. Madeline Atwell and Dr. Bill Stevens, Richland County
State of Rebellion: South Carolina’s Place in the American Revolution Read More »
Picture it like the movie Ocean’s Eleven went country: A down-to-earth, Southern-style heist. Instead of Danny Ocean and his crew of con men, explosive and electronics specialists, and an acrobat, we have David Ghantt, his married girlfriend, her petty criminal friend from high school, that guy’s cousin, one of his high school buddies, and a
The Gang that Couldn’t Think Straight Read More »
In 1792, 100 years after the Salem witch trials in Colonial Massachusetts, a similar drama played out in Winnsboro, SC, a small community about 30 miles north of Columbia, SC. Cattle mysteriously became ill. There were reports of people being levitated or changed into animals. Some claimed to be cursed with peculiar maladies. There were
Conjuring Fear: The Forgotten South Carolina Witch Trials Read More »
