Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina
Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina
Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina
Ebook206 pages4 hours

Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

2.5/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Violent dealth is amazingly apt to remind us of vigorous life; these ten stories of classic North Carolina murders which occurred between 1808 and 1914 represent a much neglected part of the exciting history of the state. Victims include a Confederate general, a lovely orphan girl, a pathetic little boy, and a highly offensive political boss. The motives are the usual ones -- gain, revenge, "elimination," and jealousy.

The plaintive history and untimely death of Naomi Wise -- "poor 'Omi" they called her in Randolph County over five generations ago -- strikingly counterparts Dreiser's An American Tragedy; Ida Bell Warren, the veritable Lady Macbeth of Forsyth County; the arsenic poisoner of old Fayetteville; the kidnapping of Kenneth Beasley near the site of the Lost Colony; the almost perfect crime, the murder of the hated Reconstruction Senator "Chicken" Stephens of Caswell County, which in spite of the efforts of Claude G. Bowers and others went unsolved for years; the mad jealousy of Frankie Silver of Burke County which ended with bitter justice at the end of the law's noosed rope, the first woman hanged in the state -- these and other lively stories of famous North Carolina murders make fascinating reading.

The stories, told with authority and inviting informality, employ material from newspapers, court records, letters, family collections, and numerous works of local history. They evoke a feeling for a past time and place as well as for the untidy events themselves.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 9, 2000
ISBN9780807867174
Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina

Read more from Manly Wade Wellman

Related to Dead and Gone

Related ebooks

United States History For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Dead and Gone

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
2.5/5

3 ratings1 review

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book is a lot like your brother-in-law: You really want to like him, but it's very hard.Manley Wade Wellman was probably best known as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, but he was also interested in folklore (his work appeared frequently in the North Carolina Folklore Journal) and history. This book seems to have been his attempt to combine the latter two.Unfortunately, the folklore won. And it was the worst sort of folklore: The kind that didn't just evolve but was made up.I can't say much about most of the events described in this book; I don't have any other sources about them. But I do know about the murders of Naomi Wise by John Lewis, of Charles Silver by his wife Frankie, and of Laura Foster by Thomas Dula ("Tom Dooley"). And in all cases Wellman has reached for the most readily available sources and not tried to research further. In the case of Frankie Silver, there isn't much we can add to those sources, for the good and simple reason that very little is known; Wellman may have the facts right, although I'm dubious about his interpretations. In the case of Dula, the broad outline is right but a lot of the details are wrong, sometimes in a way that is somewhat prejudicial to our understanding. In the case of Naomi Wise, the result is pure garbage. He took his "facts" from the account written by Braxton Craven, and Craven's story is pure fiction with about eight accurate words in it "Naomi Wise," "John Lewis," and "drowned in Deep River." It's true that the Wise case is another one where the truth mostly eludes us, because it was long ago and records are few, but we can prove Craven was wrong. (For an obvious example, Craven said Wise was a 19-year-old "maiden." But she had two illegitimate children, the older of whom would have had to have been conceived when Wise was nine years old if Wise had been 19 when murdered!)The writing is good. The subjects interesting. But if the book is wrong when I know the truth, how can I trust it in cases where I don't? If you want to read this as fiction, great; it has several interesting crime tales. But don't believe anything it says without verifying it.

Book preview

Dead and Gone - Manly Wade Wellman

,ebook_preview_excerpt.html}[ے䶕>mFT,^k-sfd]&#DUQM@vM=fHV/tsɓ/ϟ}ebN_}>so몗Osz7|I>:~gg?WapccT]:i îz64UaW}/{nm^\NTj B熦jm;MՋ0uǫ6U\S]Ԝ|uisNۮs7b}~qVMM8{D_lNro4]a]48 U$}b{rMK.~!Ķqÿaap Ē/ \{ŽV@W']etY]Iu 9 濌zV}ۙF'^A{X7sN 'Hs_v2Fbkar`eP'#`hqCϽi+rDv%|0$Z̤N.;4~-؄E_=#/-xP8$PFR x#g+vq(:%jKnT&A8g< Fe2O'# 'C"`Ä=>]!8W6:O=:UT)]\NvIFg& m L^`ٺ=V~a1{#(VK=L/4&&cP\x9CMG&o,h[;~:_@wedӁT3i qvZʩD,e&Pn+[BbMF.~ctW,?`dAj&zvN::{Ǒ r`zƀstb@Dk*A3KΎWZD>yAڪ$:%ىJaI-&QW?j|'0~8!E+,l%n92<^} X=Ft?JSLɝ &0CiEee%","NL07J#&N|yC=^&6cV2; Հ#2~kE|iABۊ͐9nL'3cMV(foؚq&:=nk+MZ{AKLq98lKY6;W|_wM Ÿ'sF !RDR&j0@g[5XT"-IfM .b)g&AY+!CiAq &Yޑ /$gF̼a B? HGwO,{_:.pȬBdQT0qʙ1;^y`֝ 㑶@W!€Zp M,5KQEკ /4yq7eNuYRb؆7$h TF ·B u[0XiK _T *q/Rs (")/\jIrA0-6Yf5[צi'BR3b"^?QU<3]kBX u6\x\800`!wz K`'7TD*ý XYp0N& Af09; T58\u!zdK]l!8R?]:1R$ a ?e/e/NJ^&;9Y" pS٪b'َrDE;gAM\ܯcp"i+%f%X2SĚYio =6_~9ú}h4gh%(=7.5ˣ;XfY[5|r麼mȤadݒXZjSI]G1oMeFגFO¡2:߭DB.1n 2KN!JMn: V%AQypFqG51T>̺.UĭHئ6m5ք73qV@-"]p sb2~oU.M6=P!ڂR¥eD%m,ņh{&veIWXFƢOyd6*]V =͞vUs΢KLmvEH.Y-5$5KPyK2_+ n}TwT#u)eO4ZrA<%79Hg-i}Dn}w]aRP?ܑ rQo2.&G w?Zr<$E3sʕbOz[Ԁ{PQ[' [eONo$qJnXoqu,=;`Q͝jޥLdUjҎԗ6EG\I䨥qm^eMljkз ? B#Uyw抮E'6k]nؚ1 SCRUTtYPOː`"9}SWkFH@WcZpF+,X8nJ||`,*AXąJ҄c!FČ* a{1CMYD˺=v9`*7Ν_@")U@?8R[jt)Yodg T  gnJ"8nFYiY@'#`>̍\7V^rFi憵Tg>iԿi.dP|Ʒy`fGb]~`[Q%O?wYdr Dl:-Ym*ӲdVn38SR*Ŏ"\;R HB̷zhUN<,̒`gGj{qpub?XޫŇld5}+8J86=k$23홦9h"_5_ (OW?1oضE%{I,σ׾4[GbvifHu\(n'ͲmޙνxkոjIƃû:8)`wd#G+RjdЇԓi)qތʎ}3sgeGZap4'uƖe$YG)fvFAfTW7"5hut*`C܁g&+BRwIQ``ru_?<^Ja<]6A˼;[ir(0IE ZiD%Rno).w@Tl<8&BRn3`xv#;V4g*mGo9P$`(A2X,cYS7%ARFpJ6@jZKkod5璕Ś ,1DvP{?Ly%3@4d?Isʑ_kK |4A5@i3 yyWi)e3k<D\@T)HAo!nY:5wp263ܞQo&6ŀBqQ4$ .bYo (Rn͈sr:6mX|],|i2nM՟%)˷ʋ5ͬ!2}7|y H1.652 )o×`V:h)q'ϥp6X[&u4u 6ܜ3ZҪhBmmIKbXrw h7L@{b֏q-@ۯ(\y87@
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1