March 30, 2023

11. The Legend of Tom Dooley

11. The Legend of Tom Dooley

One morning in May 1866, just before daybreak Laura Foster quietly left her home with a bundle of clothes and her father's horse. She was going to rendezvous with her beau, Tom Dooley. Rumor had it they were going to run off and get married. However, Tom did not run off and Laura never returned home. When her body was found in a shallow grave, someone was bound to hang for her murder.

Intro Narrator: Curtis Hildreth

Intro song: Isaiah Hildreth

"Tom Dooley" murder ballad - performed by Luke Abbott

Sources:

 Pickens, Cathy, True Crime Stories of Western North Carolina

 West, John Foster, Lift Up Your Head, Tom Dooley

https://web.archive.org/web/20031208114158/http://www.wilkesnc.org/history/tomdula/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5915/laura-foster

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-civil-war-soldiers-gave-themselves-syphilis-while-trying-to-avoid-smallpox#:~:text=Using%20pocket%20knives%2C%20clothespins%2C%20and,wound%20with%20the%20overflowing%20lymph.

 

www.hardtimesandtruecrimes.com

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