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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

The Amazing Legacy of Harmony Mills and the ruins of Alice The ruins of a grist mill and former gold mine entrance sit adjacent to Town Creek The Harmony Mills at Alice, was the most spectacular accomplishment of the Atherton brothers. Built in 1882, this combination grist and textile mill had 800 spindles and was funded with capital of $25,000. Water flowed through a system of ditches around a mountain for more than one mile and a half to provide a drop. A wooden race

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

As early at 1899, there was a beautiful two story home located right off the tracks of the railroad. For decades visitors would come and stay as guests, and even eat dinner on the holidays. Its location near the Tate Depot made for easy accommodations for travelers. The Tate Hotel remained under the care different people over the decades, including Amanda Evans of Tate, P.W. Walton, and Mr. and Mrs. Wythe until 1936 when it was converted into a hospital. The Tate Hospital

There are two sections of Mineral Springs Road in Pickens County, north and south. Oddly, the dividing line in our county is Highway 515. Mineral Springs North is east of 515, and south is west of 515. In 1895, The Republican, an early Pickens County paper mentioned both springs, although the distances to one of the two springs was incorrect. An 1895 ad about the benefits of living in Pickens County that also happens to refer to Jasper as the Mountain Queen City. This cha

By the late 1890s North Georgia virtually extinguished all its deer population. Overhunting, not disease, was the cause of their downfall. And as the stories go, it wasn't until the "Barefoot Ranger" Arthur Woody brought in 5 deer from North Carolina circa 1927-1928 to the Rock Creek Refuge near Suches and Hightower Gap, that deer began to come back. By the 1940s, the work paid off and controlled hunts were offered by the State of Georgia. Arthur Woody, the "Barefoot Range

The Talmadge School was nestled in the small Bennett District of Southwest Pickens County, at the intersection of Jerusalem Church and Henderson Mountain Road in Land Lot 125. It was one of the last small rural schools of Pickens County to remain standing. These rural schools existed before the consolidation of the public school system in Pickens County and were mainly attended by children who lived within walking distance. Doyle Turner, Enoch Owen, and Oma Lee Holmes atte

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

In mid-December of 1942, A little over a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Joe Loggins, 31, of Nelson, Georgia, was incarcerated in the Old Jail on Jasper's Main Street. The previous Wednesday, December 16, Joe had gone to his in-law's house in a drunken stupor to confront his wife. He grabbed his youngest daughter Nancy and fled the scene to his brother-in-law's house and an arrest warrant was issued. Later that night Joe was apprehended by the Pickens County Sheriff

The metal jail cells of the Old Jail as seen in the early 80s. Many a ghost hunter have claimed they've encountered spirits of the dead in the Old Pickens County Jail on Main Street in Jasper. Reports and rumors abound of the death of two prisoners hung by the gallows. Official reports emphatically state that no prisoner was ever executed from the gallows during the seventy plus years the jail was operational. And yet, newspapers from the 80s made the claim that two priso

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

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

The weaver school changed locations depending on the map you've looked at. Around 1900 it was located within the area that is now Big Canoe. By the 1910s it was located near the entrance of Cove Lake off of Cove Road on Land Lot 91. Like most schools of its day, there was one teacher, and a small group of about 30 local students who attended. Most of the students stayed until about 8th grade. Most of the students had surnames like Blackwell, Cox, and Padgett - families w

For Our Defense Aerial of the Jasper Airport built in December 1941, less than three weeks after Pearl Harbor (photo by J.H. Dilbeck) In December 1942, not even a month had passed since the horrendous attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, when a group of men from Pickens County leased a section of land about three quarters of a mile north of town on the east side of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Their purpose? To build Pickens County's first airport as a defensive

Many newcomers to Jasper drive past Church Street and Burnt Mountain Road, look at the Walgreens without giving it a second thought. Some residents likely remember when Greystone Village had been there - a series of small shops and a restaurant known as the Yellow Bird. A few elders who lived their whole lives here might remember the Greystone as a reincarnation of the Archer Tourist Court. Fewer still remember the Archer Hotel which burned down at the site back in 1947.

The Myth The folktale goes like this: There's a haunted house in the south of Gilmer County where the owner used to pick up and send his mail. All the kids in Gilmer called it the Elf House. The builder was a lawyer from New York or the Midwest. He retired and moved to North Georgia and built the Elf House so his rejected manuscripts would have a place to land because they wouldn't fit in a regular mailbox. It was said he only lived there for ten years in a small house wi

When Bent Tree was being designed in the late 60s, Atlanta-based developer Spratlin and Associates hired two different firms to map out the planned locations of facilities and roads. Zachery W. Henderson & Associates and landscape architects Hudson - Welch and Associates mapped out the layout. While some of the primary areas like the front gate and the Clubhouse location (later named Club Tamarack) remained true to their original planned locations, other areas like the over-

This information is based on interviews conducted with Colonel Lemuel J. Allred and Mr. James Simmons, by the Ellijay Courier newspaper in 1887. Not long after Pickens County was carved out of Cherokee County and Gilmer in 1853 by legislation drafted by Colonel Lemuel Allred, a new town was proposed as the county seat. James Simmons, the former legislator who moved to the area in 1835 and lived in Colonel Haney Nelson's old Tavern along the Federal Road, originally proposed