The Felon File

Crime and punishment in the Appalachian Mountains.

 On Oct. 2, 1905, A man was hung at Marshall NC the County seat of Madison County.  Most of us history nuts in the Western NC area are familiar with the Hanging of Peter Smith.  

Growing up in Madison Co. I had heard the stories and have seen the photographs of Smith standing on the gallows in Marshall out side of the Jail in  1905...

Episode -15 The 1925 Murder of W. W. “Bill” Ormond by Mr. William Bonaparte Cole. 

Part one. Saturday June 1st at 7:00 pm.

William Bonaparte Cole started in N.C. textiles at the age of fifteen as a mill bookkeeper in Rockingham, NC. Cole was able to advance himself to becoming a powerful Mill Owner, Businessman and resident of Rockingham North Carolina.

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The Murder of W. W. “Bill” Ormond by Mr. William Bonaparte Cole.  

Episode - 16- Part 2. 

 Part two of the Murder of W. W. “Bill” Ormond by Mr. William Bonaparte Cole.  

W. “Bill” Ormond, a veteran of the trench warfare of World War One was a young man returning home from war. He becomes romantically involved with Influential Mill owner, Mr.  William Cole’s daughter...

Episode- 17- A 1960s unusual disappearance and missing person case with connections to Western N.C. 

A new shade of blue looking at an unusual disappearance and missing person investigation. In the mid 1960’s  Mary Little was a Bank secretary in Atlanta, Georgia, she disappeared from the parking lot of Lenox Square Mall shopping one night...

A cold 1904 January in Mitchel County North Carolina, the body of a young man is found lying near the railroad tracks. Lying face first in or near a small creek, The young man shot three times in the head and five in the back.  

The county Coroner was summed and an inquest held. In 1900’s North Carolina many times the initial investigation of a death or homicide was completed by a coroner's jury. They would make the initial determination of foul play...

Episode -20- The Right Rev. George Washington Carawan and the school teacher Charles  Lassiter. 1852.

Though a preacher of the gospel, The Reverend George Washington Carawan, was a  prominent and powerful North Carolina Baptist minister. A man of violent temper and strong animal passions, more likely to inspire terror than piety in the community and those around him...

Episode -21-The story of Namoni Wise. Was  Bob Dylan and Doc Watson correct in telling the story?  

A shade of blue that starts with a sound clip by Doc Watson. A recorded Ballad of the story of Namoni Wise. Down loaded from  Smithsonian Folkways. The nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution.   Naomi Wise was said to be an extraordinarily beautiful, young teen age orphan indentured as servant to a farming family in North Carolina...

Episode -22- The 1970s  Virginia Bunny man mystery and Investigation.

Who was the Virginia Bunny man? Ghost? Specter from the past? A crazed ax welding man in a rabbit costume?. Perhaps a simply misunderstood guy who liked to dress up as a Bunny. If so why the ax?

Find out the reality of the 1970’s story of the Virginia Bunny Man and the police investigation into his existence. 

scottlunsfordauthor...

Episode-23-   The Ballad of Poor Ellen Smith and the truth behind the song.

This episode starts with The Ballad of Poor Ellen Smith.  The morning of July 21, 1892, the body of Ellen Smith was found behind the Zinzendorf Hotel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Shot through the heart. The story of Ellen Smith’s murder is a classic tale of seduction and betrayal...

Episode -24- Jane Doe of the Mountain. Identification of a 50 year  old cold case murder Victim.

Jane Doe of the Mountain. If you took  a short walk through a wooded area on a hill overlooking the city of Harlan Kentucky in the 1970s or 80s  you would find a grave marker that simply said, “Unidentified Girl Burial, June 5th, 1969”.  This was the resting place of Jane Doe of the Mountain. Found murdered on a mountain in Kentucky...