Home

Lindsey Evans a.k.a. Milton Lewis Coleman, the murderer of Lee Cape In the summer of 1933, a violent confrontation at a small service station in Devore, California, escalated into a criminal case that drew weeks of newspaper coverage across San Bernardino County. At the center of the controversy were Lewis M. Coleman, a 30-year-old service station operator, and Frank E. Medock of the Glen Helen Ranch. The incident occurred on June 16, 1933, at Coleman’s filling station in Dev

At the turn of the 20th Century, Forsyth County was mostly rural and white. There were small contingents of African Americans living in pockets in areas like Big Creek, Sawnee Mountain, and Oscarville, but for the most part, they were poor and lived a hardscrabble existence. In September and October, several heinous crimes drew the ire of the White community. After the slaves of the South became Freedmen, they competed for the same resources as the whites. In times of eco

Bent Tree Community, a private gated community located four miles east of Jasper, Georgia, had its first houses built in 1970. Today, there are over 1,100 homes. When I moved into the community in late 2018, I was told a murder had never happened within Bent Tree's gates throughout its entire history. Forever a skeptic, I set out to determine the truthfulness of that statement. In 2022, as we approached the 50th Anniversary of the Bent Tree Golf Course, I reached out to two

Corpsewood Manor 1981 Click here for directions on how to get to Corpsewood Manor. The tragic tale of Dr. Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom began in Chicago in the 1960s. Dr. Scudder was a pharmacologist at Loyola University. Charles and Joseph met shortly after Charles' arrival in Chicago around 1960. When they met, he was living in a mansion on Chicago's West Side with his wife. Joseph became his housekeeper. Not long

The history of violence, especially when used to protect tradition, and/or fighting against a centralized power structure is frequently found in the historical record. A common perception is that all, if not nearly all of the violence committed by vigilantes groups in the United States was inspired by racism. (K.K.K., Christian Nationalist Movement, Black Panthers) And while this is historically accurate, the anti-revenuer groups of North Georgia during the late 1800s did

CLICK HERE TO BUY TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH: A COMPENDIUM OF NORTH GEORGIA HISTORY After four years of research and countless hours and excursions, I'm proud to release my first book about North Georgia history. The book spans four centuries of events with original content. Over thirty separate pieces of research are organized into six sections: The First Inhabitants - Pretribal Indians through the Cherokee Enter the Europeans - British and American Colonists from the Revolutiona

As with Lindsey Williams Evans, Carter Lee Smith, C.L. “Seal” (a pronunciation of the C and L together) Smith, was determined not to spend a life in jail. He was convicted and sentenced to life along with Hoyt Evans. Carter Wilson and Carter Jones were sentenced to 12 months of hard labor. Like Lindsey Evans and his wife, Carter, and Rosetta Harriet Matilda Rosetta Smith, nee McCollum, gave birth to a daughter about two weeks before Cape was murdered. Once incarcerated, C

Kate Southern In 1887 in the mountainous forests of Northeast Pickens County, in an area once known as the Lansdown, Kate Southern murdered Narcissa Fowler with a knife at a small gathering. The remote land was located northwest of Burnt Mountain and occurred at what various papers described as everything from a ball, dance, or fiddling party. The sensationalist papers of the day grossly distorted the events of the murder. A short version of the facts follows: In February

Juan Contreras, Sr.'s grave marker - Pleasant Union Baptist Cemetery, Waleska This is the tragic story of the Contreras family of Cherokee County, Georgia. In 1976, two teenagers killed their father and tried to make it look like an accident. For whatever reason, they decided the fictional site of the murder would be at the S-Curves below Cove Mountain, across the road from the entrance to the Perseverence Quarry. In early 1976, Juan Contreras, Sr., and his wife Peggy d

61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton, a.k.a. The National Forest Serial Killer, finally got caught in 2008 after committing a grizzly series of murders. He had killed several people in the National Forests of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The entire scope of his murders is beyond what I'll cover in this article. I will focus on the tragic case of Meredith Emerson, due to its proximity to North Georgia. (In no way do I mean to diminish the importance of the other lives he

Chief Vann was a controversial figure. Born in the 1760s, the half Scotsman/half Cherokee, grew to become a wealthy businessman, plantation owner, and slaveowner. He took advantage of the rules set by the United States government in regard to the Old Federal Road. He constructed a beautiful brick mansion near Spring Place, Georgia, and operated several ferries (One near the former Oscarsville, near the Chattahoochee River - relocated to New Echota) across the state. He ow

In 1877, a one-story dogtrot-style home was built off of the old Dawsonville-Jasper Road (present-day Cove Road). Over the hill and south of the main east-west thoroughfare, the home sits in a field surrounded by woods. A dogtrot home has an open breezeway built between two sections of the enclosed house. This home was constructed of hewn logs, most likely oak. The dogtrot style of architecture was common in the late 19th Century and in many instances, these homes were u

Pickens County has a history replete with convicts who escaped local authorities. This particular story took place near Sharptop Church (near the present-day corner of Grandview and Pendley Road) and moved to the Connahaynee Lodge grounds within Tate Mountain Estates before the convict escaped our county. On September 2, 1937 a group of convicts were near Sharptop Church, when one of the convicts, a man convicted of murder, escaped from the group and ran up an embankment. A