“Shelton Laurel, a placid realm of earth in Madison County, is a valley with deep, hardwood forests, thickets of rhododendron, and picturesque coves that define its boundary.”
—Bloody Madison
“Nancy grew up surrounded by trees with roots as deep in the earth as hers were in the people of Shelton Laurel.”
—Bloody Madison
“She’d sensed the foreboding cloud moving overhead like a large, dark hand that threatened to reach down and choke the life out of her."
—Bloody Madison
“Shelton Laurel men and women saw themselves in a continuum of the human saga of struggle to give their progeny the secure right to be free.”
—Bloody Madison
“What bedding the other prisoners had, was ‘swarming in lice,’ and the flies and fleas required ‘the constant slapping of handkerchiefs, and hats, to secure a moment’s relief.’”
—The Weston Family Massacre
“Half-brothers Aaron and Samuel Biggerstaff had deep roots in Rutherford County, being descendants of British loyalist Aaron Biggerstaff, who died in the Revolutionary War at the
battle of King’s Mountain.”
–The Whipping of Aaron Biggerstaff
“At that moment, he cracked under the pressure. He confessed to being a witness to the murders and an accessory who helped bury the bodies.”
–Murder in Big Bend
“As the crazed mob encircled them, Margaret, Mary Ann, and Mary Ann’s husband remained to face the Klan. The terrorists began dragging each of the women into the woods but were miraculously stopped when suddenly their mules and horses got spooked and took off running.”
–The Whipping of Aaron Biggerstaff
“They loaded his coffin into a wagon and drove it up the Tuckasegee River then up a stream called Deep Creek. They took him out of the coffin and ‘the cool waters of the creek were applied by loving hands to the body.’”
–The Hanging of Jack Lambert
“Five desperate escapees, presumed to be armed, were now on the lam. The fire bell rang out the alarm. Asheville was ‘thrown into a state of excitement surpassing description.’”
—Buncombe’s Boasted Bastille Busted