famous murders in alabamafamous murders in alabama

The victims were 37-year-old Connie R. Woolfolk of Flossmoor, Illinois; 22-year-old Sarah Szafranski of Oak Forest; 42-year-old store manager Rhonda McFarland of Joliet; 33-year-old Carrie Hudek Chiuso of Frankfort; and 34-year-old Jennifer Bishop of South Bend, Indiana. According to legend, he spent his time sitting and watching wild animals and could forecast the severity of winter based on their actions, such as how many nuts the squirrels were storing. However, the description for her memoir "A General Betrayal: The Sufferings and Trials of Carlotta Frances Roddey" says: "This is the true story a woman swindled out of a fortune by her famous ex-Confederate-general husband, Philip Dale Roddey. He was an escaped convict that had been on the run for 4 years, before being captured. (Carter's gravesite via Iris Plowman/FindaGrave.com), Jefferson Davis Carter, merchant and outlaw killer, 1860-1920. Because Richard was away on business a lot, Emma was left alone to tend to their daughters. Engineer Richard Hawes, his wife, and two children were brutally murdered in an event that baffled people for years. He didnt want May murdered. BhamWiki.com says: "The Hawes murders were a notorious and sensational crime discovered in December 1888 that produced a deadly riot and gained nationwide media attention for the young city of Birmingham." Click here to read more. He eventually renounced segregationism. Jim had been known to escape from captivity, where he would be sent to work in mines. After a small group was released from the Hayneville Jail, four people, two white clergymen and two young black women went to Varners Cash Store for soft drinks. He was buried in the Old Fellows Cemetery in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In December 1888, the famous Hawes murders took place in the earliest days of Birmingham, Alabama. After being taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia, Hilley suffered from a heart attack and died. "Alabama Scoundrels: Outlaws, Pirates, Bandits and Bushwhackers. She vanished for four days and was found crawling in the woods, soaked from the rain. The legend is printed on a historical marker outside the courthouse, which replaced the previous facility after a fire in 1876: "A freedman, Henry Wells, was accused of burning the second [courthouse] on Nov. 16, 1876. On December 7, 1888, Mayes Hawes admitted that Richard told her he was divorced and only had one son, Willie. On May 3, 1889, after deliberating for only 55 minutes, the jury decided that Richard deserved the death penalty. He was arrested in January 1878 and held in the garret of this building. John McEwen was born and died in Coosa County, and in between was a well-known businessman. He and Starr, also a famous outlaw, may have been romantically involved. He was stabbed to death in North Carolina in 1941. She enjoys discovering new places and currently calls North Alabama home. According to the Hawes housekeeper, the weekend before Mays body was discovered, she saw Richard and May assist Emma with packing. Hilley was arrested on October 9, 1979 for the attempted murder of her daughter, and on November 9, 1979, she was released on bail and registered at a hotel under the name Emily Stephens. More than 200,000 unsolved cases have gone cold since 1980, and murder clearance rates continue to drop. Rumors attributed other slayings to this violence-prone man who in 1867 had fled another county after killing his brother-in-law. According to the Clarke County Museum, sometime in the early 1800s, Hal, an "enormous" and strong slave, took his wife and several others to the southernmost portion of Clarke County. Walter Cagle was a large man who lived in an isolated area atop Sand Mountain and gained a reputation for being able to foretell the weather. ", (Albert Fuller is shown on the left looking at the spot where Patterson was killed in the AP Photo), Albert Fuller, assassin of Albert Patterson, 1919-1969. On his twenty-first birthday on May 26, 1874, notorious Texas outlaw John Wesley "Wes" Hardin committed the crime that forced him to take an alias and go into hiding for three years, 18 months of which were spent in Escambia County, Ala.: he shot and killed Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb in Brown County. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Willie Maxwell, voodoo preacher and murderer, 1925-1977. He would guess their ages and vocations and was usually correct. Cagle died of a heart attack in 1938 and was buried in a 3-foot-wide casket in Thrasher Cemetery. Other famous murders in Alabama include mass murders, including the 2009 Geneva County Massacre and the 1963 Baptist Church Bombing. Wallace is known for his pro-segregation stance in the 1960s, famously saying in his 1963 inaugural address he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Mize was a sailor aboard the collier USS Cyclops when it vanished that March along with 306 crew members and passengers on its way from Brazil to Maryland. According to his entry on FindaGrave.com, he also used his office for personal gain. He was one of three inmates killed after a failed escape attempt led to a two-day battle in which two guards also died. According to the prosecution, Betty wanted the money, but not her husband. (Greene County Courthouse/Historic American Buildings Survey/Library of Congress), Unidentified, masked killers of Guilford Coleman in the Eutaw riot. Marshall Herff Applewhite came to teach chorale students at the University of Alabama in 1961. He led the local Ku Klux Klan in 1868-69, participated in the Meridian riot of 1871, and took part in the killing of two active Republicans, one white and one black, in 1874. People were paying as much as $200 for tickets to watch the execution. The people of Florence dedicated a memorial plaque to mark the grave, the inscription of which reads, in part: "The notorious outlaw gang leader who boasted that no one would ever run over Tom Clark lies buried near the center of Tennessee Street where now all who pass by do run over him. Audrey Elaine Reed Ferguson, 1978 Audrey Elaine Reed Ferguson went to a coin laundry near her home in Prichard on the night of September 5, 1978. ", Nancy Nannie Hazel Doss, black widow killer, 1905- 1965. Or, if youre a fan of the macabre, then you might want to learn more about the most notorious murders in Alabama, starting with the Hawes Murders. [1] Murder of Judge Edward Aaron - Birmingham, Alabama 1957. (Source: Reita Jones via Encyclopedia of Alabama), Christopher Sheats, declared neutrality in Civil War, ca. But like every state, Alabamas history was created by plenty of colorful characters. An article in the Coosa River Newsat the time said he was killed by a man named Will Chandler, who used Smith's own gun against him, following a dispute of unknown origin. Rhonda Bell Martin of Montgomery was executed in 1957 in Alabama's electric chair after confessing to killing her mother, two of her husbands and three of her children with arsenic, reportedly for the insurance money. Charles Bannister, outlaw, unknown birth and death. He would leave again at 9 a.m. Friday mornings and Kate would return to business as usual. A man confessed to the crime in 1965, saying he had been drunk, but the jury didn't buy it and the trial ended in a hung jury. In May of 1992, Betty Wilson and her twin sister, Peggy Lowe, were arrested and tried for hiring James White to kill Betty's wealthy, well-known husband, Dr. Jack Wilson, an eye surgeon in Huntsville, Alabama. Audrey Marie Hilley was an American murderer who was found guilty for poisoning her husband, Frank Hilley, with arsenic. Why would he want to kill his family? However, the late Vincent Bugliosi, Charles Mansion prosecutor and author, calls Files the "Rodney Dangerfield of Kennedy assassins" in his book, "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. As Lackey tried driving himself to the hospital, he had to make a stop. Later, the parents of the two little girls sued the insurance companies, saying they should have been suspicious of Dennison's reasons for taking policies on the children without the family's knowledge. In recent news, there was a rise in the reward for the 1991 murder of Elizabeth Spence, who is one of the many unsolved murders Montgomery, Alabama. On December 4, 1888, two boaters, John Keith and Ben Culbalson, discovered the body of a young white female in East Lake. Bart Thrasher was one of Alabamas most notorious outlaws, one who helped Bibb County earn the moniker Bloody Bibb at a time when it was an extension of the Wild West. In 1896, Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Henry Cole, a famous lawman, killedThrasher. The Talladega Creeks, including Selocta, son of Chief Chinnabee, had chosen not to join the war against the settlers so Selocta devised a way to warn Gen. Andrew Jackson who was camped 30 miles north. Sanders became their leader. Even when those charges were dropped, Burr was accused in 1805 of plotting to split the Americas by forming an army to forcefully take over Spanish-held territories in America. Click hereto read more. Although he publicly denied his involvement in the bombing, relatives and friends testified that he continuously "bragged" about being part of the crime. Dr. Wilson had planned a trip to Santa Fe to help their marriage, but the night before they were to leave on their trip, Betty found her husband clubbed to death. After a duel with Alexander Hamilton in which Hamilton was killed, Aaron Burr, former war hero, was suddenly a wanted man. His ex-wife claimed he lit the fuse. The study later became controversial: "When penicillin became the standard treatment for the disease in 1947 the medicine was withheld as a part of the treatment for both the experimental group and control group. Rhonda Bell Martin, black widow, 1907-1957. Love Alabama? Yvonne Coley - May 25, 1984. (Source: Alabama Department of Archives and History). Charles Henderson pardoned Wilson and he was released from jail. George Washington Gayle, born in South Carolina in 1807, was an attorney who served in the Alabama Legislature, chaired the House Ways and Means Committee and was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. Ethel's parents, overcome with the loss of their young daughter, buried her in Newville Baptist Church Cemetery in Henry County. The 22-year old mother was considered missing after. Residents believed it to be folly that Pitts was building such a huge mansion when he already owned two other mansions, Rurill Hill and Kings. In Phenix City, Serafin writes, things got so bad that after the bloody assassination of a local reformer named Albert Patterson, the governor of Alabama was forced to declare martial law, and bring in a decorated World War II general to straighten the town out. Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale Gibbons Flanagan Jefferies High Brown Routt married and buried six men before the Civil War. He is best known for his Stand in the Schoolhouse Door when he blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop the enrollment of black students. He had a reputation for frugality and shocked the people of Montgomery when he brought his own milk cow to the governors mansion. He was employed at Georgia-Pacific and often left his family alone at home while he worked. Epicenter Press, 210 pages, 2020. . In 1976, Clarence Norris, the only one living at the time, was pardoned by then-Gov. Let me know by emailingkkazek@al.com. On July 8, 1918, Alabama Gov. Drawing of bushwhackers from The Civil War Trust, Ham Carpenter, Civil War guerilla, dates unknown, According to a 1976 Journal-Register Newspaper, Ham Carpenter of Hamilton was one of the most notorious people of Marion County. In the late 1800s, Katherine Lackner gave up a respectable life to be with portly but rakish riverboat captain named William Simpson "Simp" McGhee. Jonathan Myrick Daniels pushed her to the ground and was shot and killed in her place. According to Tuskegee University the purpose of the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" was to find proven treatments for the disease. The best hidden gems and little known destinations - straight to your inbox. In November 1880 Garrett was elected Lincoln County Sheriff. By this time, even Lamar County residents were turning against Rube. In 1896 Railroad Bill met his demise in front of Wards General Store in Atmore. Hearing of Burr's plans, Thomas Jefferson declared him a traitor and issued an order for his arrest. Kelsey Turner, 28, entered an Alford plea in the case which means she still insists she's innocent but agrees a conviction is highly . They took about $19,000 in cash but were later arrested. According to legend, Elizabeth and one or more of her husbands are buried in the cemetery adjoining the ruins of the mansion. Dennison, born in Wetumpka, was convicted in 1952 and became the first white woman sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair. $15.95. (Photo of Ira Thompson from a 1928 edition of Collier's magazine entitled "The Whip Wins. Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. In 1872, Clark, who terrorized helpless citizens during the Civil War, confessed to at least nineteen murders, including a child, and was hanged with two companions , (Carlotta Roddey from her book cover and Philip Roddey by Ronald Deavy via FindaGrave.com), Philip Dale Roddey, beloved general accused of scandal, 1826-1897, The accolades for Confederate brigadier general Philip Roddey are many and overshadow a questionable part of his life. Read all the AL.com coverage of the Bentley scandal here. No bodies or trace of the ship were ever found. Following the 1890 death of Rube Burrow, Alabamas previous King of the Outlaws, Thrasher stepped into the spotlight as the states most vicious and wanted outlaw, committing a streak of robberies and murders that made news across the nation. They found her floating face down. Richard Hawes, family annihilator, 1857-1890. (Photos: Garden by Greg Richter of AL.com/Rice by stuthehistoryguy via FindaGrave.com), W.C. Rice, religious folk artist, 1931-2004, William Carlton Rice was a legend in Alabama and was posthumously featured in Time magazine for his Cross Garden. Click hereto read more. The homicide rate in Alabama, as of 2017, was 12.9, meaning that there are almost 13 homicides per 100,000 individuals living in Alabama. He made it to Jackson, who gathered 1,200 infantry and 800 cavalry and marched toward Talledega, saving the town. Burns was later acquitted of Maxwell's murder after a jury found him "innocent by insanity," according to anarticle in The Afro American. While some might assume the creepiest place is the site of a famous murder in Alabama, its actually much different. Men could come to Miss Kate's Place any night of the week to enjoy the company of women for a fee - except Thursdays. Fifteen of these famous American crime houses deserve special mention, the crimes and criminals associated with them a timeless collection that won't ever be forgotten. In addition, the major was erroneously credited as the man who wrote the bugle call played at military funerals, "Taps. Injured were James Finney and Bob Patterson. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. 1880-death unknown. ", Marvin Franklin Hubbard, battle of Alcatraz, 1912-1946. In 1813, A group of Red Sticks led by William Weatherford surrounded Talladega, a Creek town, and demanded its people join them or they would destroy the town. Cherry died in prison on November 18, 2004 at the age of 74. 1868. It was called the Free State of Winston. (Photo from the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center). By the time he donated his collection to the Alabama Department of Archives and History in 1937, he'd amassed more than 50,000 native artifacts from surrounding counties, including jewels from a long-dead Indian princess, according to a 1928 Associated Press article published in thePrescott, AZ, Evening Courier. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Construction on the home was begun in 1852. Robert Bentley (R) to find out if heconducted an affair using state resources. Hal Hollinger, slave and freedom fighter, unknown birth-death in early-1800s. The Greek Revival mansion was designed by architect B. F. Parsons, who also designed the Perry County Courthouse in Marion. "Jacob" Armstrong. 1898-1953. However, Sequoyah's early life made it doubtful he would become so famous. In the 1910s, a religious sectwas formed in Limestone County by the Rev. He escaped and formed a colony for escaped slaves in Clarke County in an area that became known as "Hal's Lake" or "Hal's Kingdom." On January 29, 1998, Eric Rudolph left a deadly FedEx package at the front door of New Woman All Women Clinic, in Birmingham. "Carpenter, a southerner, became a feared terrorist during the Civil War. After the children were found chained at the bottom of Lakeview Lake a mob came to the jail for vigilante justice and 10 people were killed by deputies. She died in 2004 at the age of 97and was buried with much fanfare in New Ebenezer Cemetery in Coffee County. Robert Bentley, embattled current governor, 1943-?? The sixth woman was also held captive but managed to survive. She didn't believe her colleagues were really dead. These murders resulted in a delay riot that quickly garnered media attention across the country. Hoyt Shepherd was considered the kingpin of the Dixie mafia in Phenix City. 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