In 1938, a moonshine raid took a turn no one in Hancock County, Tennessee, has ever forgotten. What the deputies killed that day wasn't just a prize bull; it was the Hayes family's future. The death of their prized bull, Tennessee Thunder, sparked the deadliest act of family vengeance in Tennessee history and the bloodiest … Read more
In September 1931, a 41-year-old widow named Marie Jackson systematically killed 12 Gibson County deputies in rural Tennessee. She did it because those deputies had shot and killed her 16-year-old son, Thomas, while he was fleeing an arrest for a theft he did not commit. Thomas Jackson was a polite, hard-working boy who had finished … Read more
In the rugged back country of Scott County, Tennessee, along the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, the federal marshal was not seen as a protector. He was an invader, an outsider enforcing laws the mountain people had never consented to. In the 1890s, this isolated region was fiercely independent, and its inhabitants often … Read more
Jeg hedder Claire Wilson, og jeg vidste, at noget var galt, i det øjeblik min svigermor pegede på en stol ved siden af toilettet. Det var hendes jubilæumsfest, afholdt på en dyr country club. Alle var klædt smukt på. Hendes nærmeste veninder sad ved hovedbordet. Min mand, Daniel, gik med hen til bordet med mig. … Read more
In the autumn of 1938, federal marshal Vernon Crawford led a raid on the property of Ezekiel Combs, a mountain farmer in Harlan County, Kentucky. Ezekiel operated a small whiskey still, a tradition passed down through generations of his family. Under the Volstead Act, this was illegal, but it was a common practice in the … Read more
In the summer of 1956, the Baker family of Avery County, North Carolina, was an extended kinship group of about 38 members living on a 150-acre compound in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They had farmed, hunted, and, like many families in the isolated region, run moonshine to supplement meager incomes. At the center of their … Read more
In the rugged mountains of Letcher County, Kentucky, a region known simply as “the Kingdom,” the Wright clan had dominated the upper Kentucky River for generations. Hemmed in by the ancient Pine Mountains, the area was cut off from the outside world, and its inhabitants lived according to ancient codes of loyalty and honor. In … Read more
In the summer of 1976, a false story told under oath set off a chain of events that led to the deadliest attack on law enforcement in Virginia history. Over 23 days, 17 officers were killed across a 90-mile stretch of the southwestern Virginia mountains. The perpetrators were the six Blevins brothers, who said they … Read more
In the summer of 1995, the most famous woman on Earth was, in every way that mattered to her, alone. Diana, Princess of Wales, was 34 and separated from the Prince of Wales, with the divorce that would legally end the marriage still more than a year away. She lived at Kensington Palace and spent … Read more
Ich wachte am Muttertag auf, und das Haus war so still, dass ich die Wanduhr im Flur ticken hörte. Mein Mann Wolfgang war vor vier Jahren gestorben, und seitdem lag an Feiertagen immer eine gewisse Schwere in der Luft. Aber ich ließ mich nie unterkriegen. Ich machte mir Kaffee, setzte mich auf die Terrasse und … Read more