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A young Ace Patterson On Christmas Eve 1925, 80-year-old Asa Patterson a.k.a. Ace and Uncle Asa was pulled over in Pickens County. Asa assumed he was being stopped for something in which he was not. Asa had traveled to Jasper from South Carolina to visit his son. The season's sentiments had gotten a hold of him and he badly missed his son. To the prohibition agents' astonishment, he told them he was convicted of murdering a man during a drunken game of cards in Marble

We left off at Redden W. Randell's sentencing of 5 years for the murder of Theodore Samms in November of 1949. Two months later, on January 14, 1950, Redden went to the Lawrence A. Powell Funeral Home and ordered a $250 wooden coffin for himself to be delivered to Madison, Florida, where the first woman he murdered was buried. Redden told the funeral home that his wife would pay for the expenses later. The next day, he wrote a suicide note and left it on a ledge in his pan

In 1938, Redden married Evelyn Ray of Gilmer County. She was 12 years his junior. At the time Redden was 49 and his bride was 23. Redden and his young bridge pose beneath the stucco arch in front of the old White Path Hotel property. Ten years later, at one of R.W. Randell's rentals events were set in motion that would set a course for disaster. Another Murder On February 1, 1949, Mr. Randell and his wife traveled together to collect rent from one of his African-American t

The Beginning White Path, a small hamlet in the mountains of North Georgia, takes its name from the famous Cherokee Indian leader who disagreed with the policies of European assimilation and acculturation. He lived in a small village in the Cherokee Territory known as Turniptown, not far north from present day Ellijay, Georgia. When the Cherokee were rounded up into removal forts, White Path was likely at Fort Hetzel and later forced to leave his homeland to walk the Trail

In 1988 the United States Supreme Court denied Larry Romine’s petition for rehearing on January 25, 1988, leaving his death sentence undisturbed. There was one dissenting opinion by justice Thurgood Marshall. His opinion, which varied from the rest of the court was a minority opinion, but still should be shared. Justice Marshall felt the circumstances could be viewed as jury coercion based on the following: The jury was not going to agree, the judge initiated further instr

After Larry's arrest he was transferred out of Pickens County to the Forsyth County Jail for his own safety. It was common in Pickens County History to do this when people were upset enough to go after the suspect. After his sentencing he was transferred to a state prison on March 30, 1983. That state prison was Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center (GDCC) in Jackson, Georgia. In 1983, the Georgia Supreme Court reviewed the original case. But before they reached

In early 1981, 29 year old Larry Romine and his wife Diane separated. He subsequently spent most nights with his girlfriend, Ginger McEntire. According to later court testimony, his parents disapproved of aspects of his lifestyle. After a recent argument with his father, Larry told Ginger not to worry because “It would not go on much longer.” Larry Romine's prison photo at age 44 On Thursday, March 19, 1981, according to Larry’s later statement to investigators, he took Gi

Juanita, 15, was killed by her husband on October 24, 1940 James M. Carney was born in 1921. Carney's father was from Ball Ground but moved to Texas to sell marble for the Georgia Marble Company. James moved back to Georgia after his parents died and moved in with his uncle Tom. James met his future bride, Juanita, while living in Tate. She was a senior at Tate High School. They were married in May of 1940, a few months after she turned fifteen, and promptly moved into

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 Body In the Well On Tuesday, February 22, 1949, a grey 1947 Chevrolet with a blue top with a sign that read Veteran’s Cab arrived at the Asta Café on Main Street in Jasper. The driver, Earl Holbert, thought it was going to be a short evening. He was right, but not in the way he planned. G. "Earl" Holbert Around 6 p.m. Earl had picked up a passenger at the cafe (inside what is now the Old Mule House building). At 7 p.m. he traveled to Low’s Service Station in Talki

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