We’re pleased to present the third edition of THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAINS Blue Ridge Country’s new bimonthly digital issue. This edition features Famous Crime Tragedies.
These stories, chosen from the BRC archive that now goes back 32 years, recall some of the most memorable and most-sought-out pieces in the magazine’s history:
• Death in the Dark: The Murder of Ty Cobb’s Father If there is a player in the history of baseball with a stronger reputation for fierceness and anger than North Georgia’s Tyrus Raymond Cobb, then we don’t know who it is. But how much did a tragic murder of his father by his mother—when Ty Cobb was 18—influence his life as both one of the greatest players ever and as a man overall?
• Hang Down Your Head, Tom . . . Or Not? The intrigue, the love triangle, the hidden motives and jealousies! Yes, the famous song about Tom Dooley (actually Dula) added to the legend, but the mysteries surrounding the 1866 murder of Laura Foster in the North Carolina mountains are so deep, interwoven, seamy and steamy that we present two perspectives on the events, one from award-winning author Sharyn McCrumb.
• The Hillsville Courthouse Massacre. Feuds, tempers and threats had run on somewhere between simmer and full heat for years in the little Virginia town of Hillsville. And yet there was no real expectation that the hot-tempered Allen Clan would, upon hearing of the conviction of one of their members, pull out their weapons and take aim at the judge, the jury and others. A deadly day that spawned national headlines in 1912.
• The Child-Bride Murderess: The tragic events in the North Carolina mountains on the night of December 22, 1831 revolve around a 19-year-old husband murdered, and 18-year-old wife charged with the crime and an infant daughter left without parents. Speculation about what actually happened and why has given way over the many years to healing in the little community of Kona in Mitchell County
Please note, we’ve digitized these pieces just as they appeared in their original print form. Please remember that as a result, all quotes and references to “present day” things such as artifacts and other items are contemporaneous to the time of publication rather than the current time.
This is the third in our ongoing HEART OF THE MOUNTAINS series. If you have not already, we invite you to enjoy the first two installments: Heroic Women of the Blue Ridge and Tales of the Strange but True. Coming soon: Remembering the Mountains’ Favorite TV and Showbiz Stars.