November 26, 2024 • 29 mins
What if the deepest scars of Southern history were hidden within one family's tragic saga? Join us as we unravel the haunting mystery of the Woolfolk family massacre, a tale rooted in post-Civil War Georgia's tumultuous soil. Through the eyes of Thomas George Woolfolk, we walk a path littered with personal tragedy, failure, and a legacy of resentment. This episode paints a haunting portrait of a man ensnared by the complex web of family dynamics and Southern tradition, leaving listeners pondering the intricate interplay of emotion and history.
As we dissect this chilling case, you'll be transported to a time when justice was swift, and evidence was questionable. Despite the gravity of his accusations, Tom Woolfolk stood alone, his cries of innocence echoing into infamy as history judged him harshly. Through historical accounts and literature, we piece together the narrative from multiple perspectives, exploring the broader social context of the era, including the racially charged atmosphere that further darkened these events. Prepare to confront the unsettling questions and lingering mysteries that remain woven into the fabric of this Southern tragedy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carole Townsend (00:07):
Family.
Funny how that one wordconjures up a sea of emotions
and memories, isn't it?
I know that family is what somany Southern traditions are
built on.
Family relationships buildstrong roots and an unwavering
set of morals and values.
Family sustains us throughdifficult times and it gives us
(00:32):
reason to celebrate the goodtimes.
Family shapes us.
Sometimes, though, familyrelationships become derailed.
Often, these relationships canbe repaired in time, but at
other times the bad blood runsso hot and so deep that it must
(00:54):
be shed.
Such was the situation nearly150 years ago, when the state of
Georgia recorded the largestsingle mass murder in its
history.
(01:16):
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated southern history
for more than 20 years, and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:40):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth, and shame and courage,
and, make no mistake, there isevil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(02:01):
out of reach, that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe, and the best place fortelling tales about such things
is the comfort and safety of anold front porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(02:24):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction.
And I'll turn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:44):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(03:16):
On June 18, 1860, thomas GeorgeWoolfok was born to his parents,
richard F Wolferk, who wouldbecome a Civil War veteran, and
Susan Moore Wolferk, who wasfrom Athens, georgia, in Clark
County.
The couple married in 1854, theyear that Richard graduated
from the University of Georgia.
They had two daughters, flo andLily, before Tom was born.
(03:39):
He was the couple's youngestchild and their only son.
Sadly, susan never fullyrecovered from the birth of her
third child.
During the years that shestruggled to get well, her
husband went to war fighting forthe Confederacy.
Eventually he became captain ofCompany A Ross's battalion of
the Georgia State Troops.
(04:00):
With the defeat of theConfederacy in 1865, he returned
home from the war.
Richard found his wife verynear death and his sprawling
plantation in financial disarray.
In the same year that the CivilWar ended and Richard returned
(04:20):
home, susan Wolferk died.
Tom was just five years old.
Tom and his sisters were sent tolive with their maternal aunt,
annie Crane, in Athens.
(04:40):
This practice of sendingchildren to live with relatives
after the demise of their motherwas not an unusual one.
Captain Woolfolk had businessto attend to and he had neither
the time nor the skills to raisechildren alone.
Tom and his sisters lived withFanny for seven years, and
(05:01):
during that time Tom became veryclose to his aunt.
By all accounts, she was a kindwoman and took loving care of
her nephew and both nieces.
In 1867, however, captainWoolfolk married a woman named
Maddie, and Tom was sent back tothe family farm in Macon to
(05:24):
live with his father and his newstepmother.
Maddie's father was a wealthyfarmer and the couple's union
did much to help CaptainWoolfolk sustain his sprawling
867-acre plantation.
The main crop, not surprisingly, was cotton.
Most of the farm's workers,many of them sharecroppers who
(05:48):
had recently been emancipatedbut still worked on large
southern farms, lived either onor very near the Woolfolk farm.
In time, captain Woolfolk andMaddie brought six more children
into the world.
Woolfolk and Maddie brought sixmore children into the world.
What might have grown to be alarge, loving and happy family
(06:15):
was not.
Tom did not bother to hide thefact that he hated his
stepmother and all of thechildren that she and the
captain had brought into theworld.
He missed his Aunt Fanny, andhe felt jealous and threatened
by the new family his father andMaddie had created.
It should be noted here that bymany accounts, Tom Woolfolk was
(06:36):
, from a young age, a mentallydisturbed young man.
Young man, sullen and angrymuch of the time.
He made few friends and in facthe seemed to make a point of
isolating himself from societyin general.
Young Tom was just as unluckyin love as he was in his other
(06:58):
relationships.
When he was 27 years old, hemarried a woman named Georgia,
whose father was a wealthyfarmer.
After just three weeks, however, georgia left Tom and returned
to her father.
When asked why she left herhusband so soon, she stated that
(07:20):
he wasn't deranged or mentallydisturbed, as many who knew him
thought.
Rather, he was just plain mean.
Unfortunately, tom's failures inlife were not limited to just
his personal relationships Inbusiness.
He had tried running aplantation, managing a store,
(07:43):
driving a streetcar in Macon andowning a grocery store, but
none of his ventures wassuccessful.
Having spent all of the moneyhis father had given him to
start his own life, he had runout of options by the time he
reached 27 years of age.
In defeat, tom returned to thefamily farm to work for his
(08:06):
father.
While he planned his next steps, he earned $9 a month for his
efforts.
This string of failures thatcharacterized Tom's adult life
undoubtedly compounded hisunhappiness.
The work he was doing on hisfather's farm was, in Tom's eyes
(08:28):
, menial and degrading.
His father's new wife and theirbrats were nothing more than
roadblocks between him and thefamily fortune he so rightfully
deserved.
While his anger seethed androiled inside of him, it also
grew stronger by the day, and ashis anger grew more evident, so
(08:51):
did his peculiar behavior.
A storm was brewing.
While young Tom Woolfolk hadalways seen his stepmother and
step-siblings as threats to theinheritance he felt he was owed,
one more occurrence would serveas the breaking point.
(09:11):
Because of several of CaptainWoolfolk's business
complications, the family farmand other holdings the captain
had amassed had been transferredto his wife, maddie.
When Tom learned of thisdevelopment, he became furious.
In June 1887, tom returned toAthens to pay his beloved aunt
(09:37):
what would be a final visit.
Fanny, who was accustomed toTom's strange, abrasive ways,
couldn't help noticing hisexceptionally bizarre behavior
during this visit, and sheexpressed her concern to other
family members.
While in Athens, Tom actedsuspicious of everything and
(10:00):
everyone and he was irrationallyparanoid.
Fanny said that he rambledincoherently, sometimes talking
to her, sometimes to himself,and at other times to an unseen
companion.
He uttered vague but violentthreats and he lashed out at
demons that only he could see,demons that only he could see.
(10:23):
For the first time since shehad known her dear nephew, fanny
was frightened of the young manshe loved and had helped raise.
In August 1887, tom left hisaunt's home in Athens and
(10:50):
returned to the family farmoutside of Macon.
Sometime between 2 and 4 am onSaturday, august 6th, nine
members of the Woolfolk familywere brutally murdered with an
axe Tom's father, 54.
Tom's stepmother, 41.
There are six children whoranged in age from 18 months to
(11:10):
20 years, and Mrs TemperanceWest, age 84, who was Maddie's
visiting aunt.
In fact, there was only onesurvivor of this bloody massacre
, Tom Woolfolk.
In the wee hours of thatdreadful Saturday morning 137
(11:33):
years ago, Tom Woolfolk, wearingjust his socks and underwear,
ran to the nearby home of a mannamed Green Lockett, an
African-American sharecropperwho lived nearby and worked on
the Wolferk family farm farm.
(11:57):
Tom banged on Lockett's doorfrantic and shouted for him to
get a gun their killing.
Pa Lockett refused to go backto the big house with Tom as it
was an unspoken rule in that daythat black people did not
intervene in white people'sbusiness.
Instead, he sent his son toalert the white families in the
area to the trouble at theWoolfolk home place.
Before long, a crowd hadgathered at the Lockett's house
(12:22):
to see what all the commotionwas about.
In the distance, dogs at thebig house barked wildly,
sounding the alarm thatsomething was very wrong.
The crowd of people ran to theWoolfolk house when they heard
Tom begging for help, but as itwas still dark, no one would go
(12:45):
inside the captain's home untilthe sun began to rise.
Tom did go back inside to makesure that everyone was indeed
dead, as he believed.
He also pulled on some trousersand a shirt while in the house.
He then went back outside andmade a point of telling
(13:05):
onlookers that his father wasclearly the last to die, that
the killers killed everyone elsein the house and waited to kill
the captain last.
Some in the crowd thought itodd that Tom would make a point
of telling them this.
As the neighbors and familyfriends waited, tom paced and
(13:27):
repeatedly shouted that a gangof murderers had broken into the
house and killed his entirefamily.
He was only able to escape, hesaid, by jumping out his bedroom
window and running away.
When the day finally dawned,several men from the gathering
(13:50):
crowd went inside the house tosee for themselves if tom was
right that his entire family wasdead.
What they saw inside thewolfric home was gruesome.
There were thick pools of bloodon the floors and brain matter
was splattered on the floor,walls and even on the ceiling.
(14:13):
Indeed, nine people ranging inage from 18 months to age 84,
had been hacked and bludgeonedto death.
Some were killed where theyslept and others had obviously
been awakened by the noise andtried to escape through doors
and windows where their bodieswere found.
(14:37):
News of the murder spreadquickly throughout the community
and neighbors, police andmembers of the community and no
(15:03):
one could imagine why someonewould commit such violent
murders in this man's home.
Family friends tried to consoleTom, and one offered him a
drink of water drawn from a wellnear the house.
Tom started to take a drink,hesitated and then put the cup
(15:23):
down.
That very afternoon a coroner'sjury was formed to investigate
the heinous crime.
Jury was formed to investigatethe heinous crime.
They asked Tom to strip down tohis underwear, since someone
had mentioned that he had gottendressed.
When he went back inside thehome after he had summoned the
neighbors for help, there was abloody handprint on his thigh
(15:52):
that he could not explain.
His ears had specks of blood inthem.
Someone from the jury found abloody undershirt under Tom's
bed, and later that day bloodypants and a shirt that belonged
to Tom were fished out of thewell.
This, the coroner's juryconcluded, explained why Tom
(16:12):
wouldn't drink the water offeredto him earlier that day, though
he was clearly parched.
There was no sign of forcedentry or theft in the house.
With these findings, and afterobserving Tom's obvious lack of
grief or sorrow, the coroner'sjury suggested the sheriff take
(16:34):
Tom to Macon for furtherquestioning.
The sheriff escorted Tom outthe back door of the house as
the crowd out front was growingagitated and angry.
Having already concluded thatTom had to be the culprit behind
this sickening scene, when theylearned that the sheriff had
(16:54):
secreted Tom away out the backdoor of the house, several men
chased after them.
It seems Tom Wolferk justbarely escaped a lynching right
there on his father's farm.
The bloody Woolfolk familymurders shocked the entire
nation.
Even the New York Times printeda front-page story about the
(17:17):
slayings.
The murders were brutal,gruesome and shocking and as a
result, the media coverage wassensationalistic.
The Greensboro Herald andJournal described the crime as
(17:44):
being more bloody, more fiendishand exhibiting a deeper
depravity than any crime evercommitted in the state of
Georgia.
The press nicknamed Tom BloodyWoolfolk, and the case was the
most publicized criminalproceeding in the state's
history.
Tom Woolfolk was indicted onnine counts of murder, but he
was only tried for the murder ofhis father.
(18:06):
No-transcript.
Prosecutors said that the motivefor the murders was Tom's greed
concerning what he consideredhis rightful inheritance.
They demonstrated hispremeditation by asserting that
(18:26):
Tom did murder his father last,because by doing so he would
indeed be next in line toinherit the captain's assets,
and not his stepmother, maddie.
What Tom didn't know was thatthe captain was in dire
financial straits.
An inheritance, if any, wouldbe meager at best.
(18:47):
After just 12 minutes ofdeliberation, the jury convicted
him on December 15th and onthat same day he was sentenced
to death.
However, on February 11th 1889,the Supreme Court of Georgia
granted Wolford a new trialbecause the trial court had
(19:11):
permitted the introduction ofdamaging, inadmissible testimony
and also because the judge haddone nothing when, during
closing arguments, courtroomspectators began shouting Hang
him, hang him.
After the Supreme Courtdecision, wolford was granted a
(19:34):
change of venue.
The second trial began on June3rd 1889 in Perry, georgia.
On June 24th, afterdeliberating for just 45 minutes
, the jury convicted Woolfolk,who was sentenced to death the
following morning, and on July29th 1890, the Georgia Supreme
(19:57):
Court upheld the conviction andthe sentence.
Now, during this time inGeorgia's history, hanging was
the usual method of stateexecution.
On Wednesday, october 29th 1890, Tom Woolfolk was hanged before
(20:17):
a crowd of 10,000 people.
Reports indicate that vendorssold tea and possum sandwiches
to people in the crowd.
As they anticipated theproceedings, street vendors
hawked souvenirs andphotographers milled around
aiming to preserve the scene andhopefully sell their
(20:39):
photographs to the highestbidders.
Ironically, the site of thishanging and others in Perry was
in a beautiful natural valley,lush with trees, flowers and
green grass.
The pastoral scene stood instark contrast to the dark
business of Execution Day.
(21:03):
Standing on the scaffold andlooking out into the crowd so
anxious to see him hang, TomWoolfolk again protested his
innocence, disappointingonlookers who had hoped he'd
finally confess his crimes atthe 11th hour.
Instead, he read this statementI, Thomas G Woolfolk, realizing
(21:27):
the existence of an infinite,wise and holy God, and so as to
meet him, knowing all that Ihave ever done and fully
understanding that I must standbefore the judgment bar of God
and that today, in a few hours,I shall be called into his
presence, do solemnly declare myinnocence.
(21:50):
And I leave as my lastdeclaration that I did not take
the life of my father or anymember of his family, nor do I
have any knowledge of the personor persons who did the
murderous deed.
At precisely 1.31pm, theexecutioner sprung the trap door
(22:16):
in the scaffold floor and TomWoolfolk dropped six feet, a
distance scientificallycalculated by formula to break
the person's neck and result ininstant death.
But Tom's neck did not breakand he swung and struggled
(22:40):
mid-air for fifteen minuteswhile he slowly strangled to
death.
Now, as we might have expected,this dreadful scene does not
tie this story up in a neatlywrapped package.
Not long after the Woolfolkfamily was murdered, a young man
(23:04):
named Simon Cooper, the son ofAfrican-American farm workers
who lived nearby, suddenly leftBibb County In 1898, simon was
lynched in Somerville, southCarolina, for reasons unknown to
me, but on his body was found anotebook that included these
(23:25):
few lines Tom Wolfer was mightyslick, but I fixed him.
I would have killed him withthe rest of the damn family, but
he was not at home.
Had Simon Cooper butchered theWoolfolk family?
Some say he had a reputationfor claiming responsibility for
(23:46):
crimes he did not commit.
But does this confession shednew light on Tom's conviction?
And the questions don't endthere on Tom's conviction.
And the questions don't endthere.
Listen to the claims asserted ina Valdosta Georgia newspaper
dated April 27, 1889.
Quote the report reaches Maconthat the trunk of Miss Pearl
(24:13):
Woolfolk, the murdered17-year-old daughter of Captain
Richard and Maddie Woolfolk, themurdered 17-year-old daughter
of Captain Richard and MaddieWoolfolk, has been found in the
home of Green Lockett.
Remember, Mr Lockett is thefirst man Tom Woolfolk ran to
for help on the morning of themurders and he was a key witness
(24:33):
for the state in Woolfolk'strials.
The article goes on to reportthat a picnic basket full of
quote eatables and belonging tothe Woolfolks was also found in
Lockett's home, as was ashort-handled axe like that used
(24:57):
to murder the nine familymembers.
We can ask the same questionasked at the end of the Valdosta
newspaper article.
What does this mean?
Tom Woolfolk was clearly not alikable young man and in the
words of his one-time wife ofthree weeks, many believed he
was just plain mean.
He made no bones about the factthat he was entitled to the
(25:22):
lion's share of the familyinheritance.
And greed is a powerful motivefor murder, but is there a
possibility that an unlikable,greedy, abrasive man was wrongly
convicted and executed?
It certainly wouldn't be thefirst time the wrong person paid
(25:44):
the ultimate price foranother's crimes, would it?
The Woolfolk family murderswere Georgia's first mass murder
and the tragedy remains to thisday the largest single mass
killing in the state.
The nine murdered Woolfolkfamily members are buried in
(26:06):
Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon,georgia, the same cemetery in
which Allman brothers Duane andGreg, along with bandmate Barry
Oakley, are interred.
Tom Woolfolk is buried inOrange Hill Cemetery in
Hawkinsville, georgia.
(26:26):
In 1909, the Woolfolk familyhome place was occupied by the
Macon Auto Club as itsheadquarters.
This arrangement was a briefone, and afterward the house
again sat empty and quiet formany years.
At some point the house appearsto have burned, though not
completely.
(26:47):
The cause of the fire remainsunknown and, 70 years after the
murders, captain RichardWoolfolk's plantation was
flooded when the Tobesofke Creekwas dammed to create Lake
Tobesofke, a popularrecreational destination.
The hill upon which the oldhome place was situated is still
(27:12):
there, and it sits above water,but residential development is
steadily encroaching.
Some remnants of the farmhousewere found in 1997 by university
of georgia law professor DonaldWilkes Jr.
He has identified the well onthe property, as well as the
(27:34):
tree under which Susan Woolfolkwas buried.
Soon, it's likely that eventhese remnants of the family's
tragic history will be erased.
The disastrous legacy, however,will surely live on.
Join me next time as we uncoverthe evil legacy of the Hart
(27:58):
brothers, two men who cut abloody trail through Appalachia
as the first documented serialkillers ever in the United
States.
The brothers were born just afew years before the American
Revolution began, their parentshaving immigrated to the New
World from Scotland.
(28:18):
Accounts of their lives and thewanton killings earned both men
the dubious distinction ofbeing called the devil in
Appalachia.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
(28:39):
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at www
.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends.
Southern history and lore Ihope you'll tell your friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
(29:05):
anywhere you listen.
My team and I based thisretelling of the story of the
Woolfork family murders on thefollowing works the article
Woolfork Kanged, the Tennesseannewspaper, thursday.
The article Wulfur Kanged, theTennessean newspaper, thursday,
october 30th 1890.
The article New SensationConnected with the Woolfork
(29:28):
Murder, the Valdosta Times,april 27th 1889.
The article Bloody Woolfork byDonald Wilkes Jr.
And the book the WulfurkTragedy by Carolyn DeLoach.
Family.
Funny how that one wordconjures up a sea of emotions
and memories, isn't it?
I know that family is what somany Southern traditions are
built on.
Family relationships buildstrong roots and an unwavering
set of morals and values.
Family sustains us throughdifficult times and it gives us
(00:32):
reason to celebrate the goodtimes.
Family shapes us.
Sometimes, though, familyrelationships become derailed.
Often, these relationships canbe repaired in time, but at
other times the bad blood runsso hot and so deep that it must
(00:54):
be shed.
Such was the situation nearly150 years ago, when the state of
Georgia recorded the largestsingle mass murder in its
history.
(01:16):
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated southern history
for more than 20 years, and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:40):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth, and shame and courage,
and, make no mistake, there isevil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(02:01):
out of reach, that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe, and the best place fortelling tales about such things
is the comfort and safety of anold front porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(02:24):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction.
And I'll turn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:44):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(03:16):
On June 18, 1860, thomas GeorgeWoolfok was born to his parents,
richard F Wolferk, who wouldbecome a Civil War veteran, and
Susan Moore Wolferk, who wasfrom Athens, georgia, in Clark
County.
The couple married in 1854, theyear that Richard graduated
from the University of Georgia.
They had two daughters, flo andLily, before Tom was born.
(03:39):
He was the couple's youngestchild and their only son.
Sadly, susan never fullyrecovered from the birth of her
third child.
During the years that shestruggled to get well, her
husband went to war fighting forthe Confederacy.
Eventually he became captain ofCompany A Ross's battalion of
the Georgia State Troops.
(04:00):
With the defeat of theConfederacy in 1865, he returned
home from the war.
Richard found his wife verynear death and his sprawling
plantation in financial disarray.
In the same year that the CivilWar ended and Richard returned
(04:20):
home, susan Wolferk died.
Tom was just five years old.
Tom and his sisters were sent tolive with their maternal aunt,
annie Crane, in Athens.
(04:40):
This practice of sendingchildren to live with relatives
after the demise of their motherwas not an unusual one.
Captain Woolfolk had businessto attend to and he had neither
the time nor the skills to raisechildren alone.
Tom and his sisters lived withFanny for seven years, and
(05:01):
during that time Tom became veryclose to his aunt.
By all accounts, she was a kindwoman and took loving care of
her nephew and both nieces.
In 1867, however, captainWoolfolk married a woman named
Maddie, and Tom was sent back tothe family farm in Macon to
(05:24):
live with his father and his newstepmother.
Maddie's father was a wealthyfarmer and the couple's union
did much to help CaptainWoolfolk sustain his sprawling
867-acre plantation.
The main crop, not surprisingly, was cotton.
Most of the farm's workers,many of them sharecroppers who
(05:48):
had recently been emancipatedbut still worked on large
southern farms, lived either onor very near the Woolfolk farm.
In time, captain Woolfolk andMaddie brought six more children
into the world.
Woolfolk and Maddie brought sixmore children into the world.
What might have grown to be alarge, loving and happy family
(06:15):
was not.
Tom did not bother to hide thefact that he hated his
stepmother and all of thechildren that she and the
captain had brought into theworld.
He missed his Aunt Fanny, andhe felt jealous and threatened
by the new family his father andMaddie had created.
It should be noted here that bymany accounts, Tom Woolfolk was
(06:36):
, from a young age, a mentallydisturbed young man.
Young man, sullen and angrymuch of the time.
He made few friends and in facthe seemed to make a point of
isolating himself from societyin general.
Young Tom was just as unluckyin love as he was in his other
(06:58):
relationships.
When he was 27 years old, hemarried a woman named Georgia,
whose father was a wealthyfarmer.
After just three weeks, however, georgia left Tom and returned
to her father.
When asked why she left herhusband so soon, she stated that
(07:20):
he wasn't deranged or mentallydisturbed, as many who knew him
thought.
Rather, he was just plain mean.
Unfortunately, tom's failures inlife were not limited to just
his personal relationships Inbusiness.
He had tried running aplantation, managing a store,
(07:43):
driving a streetcar in Macon andowning a grocery store, but
none of his ventures wassuccessful.
Having spent all of the moneyhis father had given him to
start his own life, he had runout of options by the time he
reached 27 years of age.
In defeat, tom returned to thefamily farm to work for his
(08:06):
father.
While he planned his next steps, he earned $9 a month for his
efforts.
This string of failures thatcharacterized Tom's adult life
undoubtedly compounded hisunhappiness.
The work he was doing on hisfather's farm was, in Tom's eyes
(08:28):
, menial and degrading.
His father's new wife and theirbrats were nothing more than
roadblocks between him and thefamily fortune he so rightfully
deserved.
While his anger seethed androiled inside of him, it also
grew stronger by the day, and ashis anger grew more evident, so
(08:51):
did his peculiar behavior.
A storm was brewing.
While young Tom Woolfolk hadalways seen his stepmother and
step-siblings as threats to theinheritance he felt he was owed,
one more occurrence would serveas the breaking point.
(09:11):
Because of several of CaptainWoolfolk's business
complications, the family farmand other holdings the captain
had amassed had been transferredto his wife, maddie.
When Tom learned of thisdevelopment, he became furious.
In June 1887, tom returned toAthens to pay his beloved aunt
(09:37):
what would be a final visit.
Fanny, who was accustomed toTom's strange, abrasive ways,
couldn't help noticing hisexceptionally bizarre behavior
during this visit, and sheexpressed her concern to other
family members.
While in Athens, Tom actedsuspicious of everything and
(10:00):
everyone and he was irrationallyparanoid.
Fanny said that he rambledincoherently, sometimes talking
to her, sometimes to himself,and at other times to an unseen
companion.
He uttered vague but violentthreats and he lashed out at
demons that only he could see,demons that only he could see.
(10:23):
For the first time since shehad known her dear nephew, fanny
was frightened of the young manshe loved and had helped raise.
In August 1887, tom left hisaunt's home in Athens and
(10:50):
returned to the family farmoutside of Macon.
Sometime between 2 and 4 am onSaturday, august 6th, nine
members of the Woolfolk familywere brutally murdered with an
axe Tom's father, 54.
Tom's stepmother, 41.
There are six children whoranged in age from 18 months to
(11:10):
20 years, and Mrs TemperanceWest, age 84, who was Maddie's
visiting aunt.
In fact, there was only onesurvivor of this bloody massacre
, Tom Woolfolk.
In the wee hours of thatdreadful Saturday morning 137
(11:33):
years ago, Tom Woolfolk, wearingjust his socks and underwear,
ran to the nearby home of a mannamed Green Lockett, an
African-American sharecropperwho lived nearby and worked on
the Wolferk family farm farm.
(11:57):
Tom banged on Lockett's doorfrantic and shouted for him to
get a gun their killing.
Pa Lockett refused to go backto the big house with Tom as it
was an unspoken rule in that daythat black people did not
intervene in white people'sbusiness.
Instead, he sent his son toalert the white families in the
area to the trouble at theWoolfolk home place.
Before long, a crowd hadgathered at the Lockett's house
(12:22):
to see what all the commotionwas about.
In the distance, dogs at thebig house barked wildly,
sounding the alarm thatsomething was very wrong.
The crowd of people ran to theWoolfolk house when they heard
Tom begging for help, but as itwas still dark, no one would go
(12:45):
inside the captain's home untilthe sun began to rise.
Tom did go back inside to makesure that everyone was indeed
dead, as he believed.
He also pulled on some trousersand a shirt while in the house.
He then went back outside andmade a point of telling
(13:05):
onlookers that his father wasclearly the last to die, that
the killers killed everyone elsein the house and waited to kill
the captain last.
Some in the crowd thought itodd that Tom would make a point
of telling them this.
As the neighbors and familyfriends waited, tom paced and
(13:27):
repeatedly shouted that a gangof murderers had broken into the
house and killed his entirefamily.
He was only able to escape, hesaid, by jumping out his bedroom
window and running away.
When the day finally dawned,several men from the gathering
(13:50):
crowd went inside the house tosee for themselves if tom was
right that his entire family wasdead.
What they saw inside thewolfric home was gruesome.
There were thick pools of bloodon the floors and brain matter
was splattered on the floor,walls and even on the ceiling.
(14:13):
Indeed, nine people ranging inage from 18 months to age 84,
had been hacked and bludgeonedto death.
Some were killed where theyslept and others had obviously
been awakened by the noise andtried to escape through doors
and windows where their bodieswere found.
(14:37):
News of the murder spreadquickly throughout the community
and neighbors, police andmembers of the community and no
(15:03):
one could imagine why someonewould commit such violent
murders in this man's home.
Family friends tried to consoleTom, and one offered him a
drink of water drawn from a wellnear the house.
Tom started to take a drink,hesitated and then put the cup
(15:23):
down.
That very afternoon a coroner'sjury was formed to investigate
the heinous crime.
Jury was formed to investigatethe heinous crime.
They asked Tom to strip down tohis underwear, since someone
had mentioned that he had gottendressed.
When he went back inside thehome after he had summoned the
neighbors for help, there was abloody handprint on his thigh
(15:52):
that he could not explain.
His ears had specks of blood inthem.
Someone from the jury found abloody undershirt under Tom's
bed, and later that day bloodypants and a shirt that belonged
to Tom were fished out of thewell.
This, the coroner's juryconcluded, explained why Tom
(16:12):
wouldn't drink the water offeredto him earlier that day, though
he was clearly parched.
There was no sign of forcedentry or theft in the house.
With these findings, and afterobserving Tom's obvious lack of
grief or sorrow, the coroner'sjury suggested the sheriff take
(16:34):
Tom to Macon for furtherquestioning.
The sheriff escorted Tom outthe back door of the house as
the crowd out front was growingagitated and angry.
Having already concluded thatTom had to be the culprit behind
this sickening scene, when theylearned that the sheriff had
(16:54):
secreted Tom away out the backdoor of the house, several men
chased after them.
It seems Tom Wolferk justbarely escaped a lynching right
there on his father's farm.
The bloody Woolfolk familymurders shocked the entire
nation.
Even the New York Times printeda front-page story about the
(17:17):
slayings.
The murders were brutal,gruesome and shocking and as a
result, the media coverage wassensationalistic.
The Greensboro Herald andJournal described the crime as
(17:44):
being more bloody, more fiendishand exhibiting a deeper
depravity than any crime evercommitted in the state of
Georgia.
The press nicknamed Tom BloodyWoolfolk, and the case was the
most publicized criminalproceeding in the state's
history.
Tom Woolfolk was indicted onnine counts of murder, but he
was only tried for the murder ofhis father.
(18:06):
No-transcript.
Prosecutors said that the motivefor the murders was Tom's greed
concerning what he consideredhis rightful inheritance.
They demonstrated hispremeditation by asserting that
(18:26):
Tom did murder his father last,because by doing so he would
indeed be next in line toinherit the captain's assets,
and not his stepmother, maddie.
What Tom didn't know was thatthe captain was in dire
financial straits.
An inheritance, if any, wouldbe meager at best.
(18:47):
After just 12 minutes ofdeliberation, the jury convicted
him on December 15th and onthat same day he was sentenced
to death.
However, on February 11th 1889,the Supreme Court of Georgia
granted Wolford a new trialbecause the trial court had
(19:11):
permitted the introduction ofdamaging, inadmissible testimony
and also because the judge haddone nothing when, during
closing arguments, courtroomspectators began shouting Hang
him, hang him.
After the Supreme Courtdecision, wolford was granted a
(19:34):
change of venue.
The second trial began on June3rd 1889 in Perry, georgia.
On June 24th, afterdeliberating for just 45 minutes
, the jury convicted Woolfolk,who was sentenced to death the
following morning, and on July29th 1890, the Georgia Supreme
(19:57):
Court upheld the conviction andthe sentence.
Now, during this time inGeorgia's history, hanging was
the usual method of stateexecution.
On Wednesday, october 29th 1890, Tom Woolfolk was hanged before
(20:17):
a crowd of 10,000 people.
Reports indicate that vendorssold tea and possum sandwiches
to people in the crowd.
As they anticipated theproceedings, street vendors
hawked souvenirs andphotographers milled around
aiming to preserve the scene andhopefully sell their
(20:39):
photographs to the highestbidders.
Ironically, the site of thishanging and others in Perry was
in a beautiful natural valley,lush with trees, flowers and
green grass.
The pastoral scene stood instark contrast to the dark
business of Execution Day.
(21:03):
Standing on the scaffold andlooking out into the crowd so
anxious to see him hang, TomWoolfolk again protested his
innocence, disappointingonlookers who had hoped he'd
finally confess his crimes atthe 11th hour.
Instead, he read this statementI, Thomas G Woolfolk, realizing
(21:27):
the existence of an infinite,wise and holy God, and so as to
meet him, knowing all that Ihave ever done and fully
understanding that I must standbefore the judgment bar of God
and that today, in a few hours,I shall be called into his
presence, do solemnly declare myinnocence.
(21:50):
And I leave as my lastdeclaration that I did not take
the life of my father or anymember of his family, nor do I
have any knowledge of the personor persons who did the
murderous deed.
At precisely 1.31pm, theexecutioner sprung the trap door
(22:16):
in the scaffold floor and TomWoolfolk dropped six feet, a
distance scientificallycalculated by formula to break
the person's neck and result ininstant death.
But Tom's neck did not breakand he swung and struggled
(22:40):
mid-air for fifteen minuteswhile he slowly strangled to
death.
Now, as we might have expected,this dreadful scene does not
tie this story up in a neatlywrapped package.
Not long after the Woolfolkfamily was murdered, a young man
(23:04):
named Simon Cooper, the son ofAfrican-American farm workers
who lived nearby, suddenly leftBibb County In 1898, simon was
lynched in Somerville, southCarolina, for reasons unknown to
me, but on his body was found anotebook that included these
(23:25):
few lines Tom Wolfer was mightyslick, but I fixed him.
I would have killed him withthe rest of the damn family, but
he was not at home.
Had Simon Cooper butchered theWoolfolk family?
Some say he had a reputationfor claiming responsibility for
(23:46):
crimes he did not commit.
But does this confession shednew light on Tom's conviction?
And the questions don't endthere on Tom's conviction.
And the questions don't endthere.
Listen to the claims asserted ina Valdosta Georgia newspaper
dated April 27, 1889.
Quote the report reaches Maconthat the trunk of Miss Pearl
(24:13):
Woolfolk, the murdered17-year-old daughter of Captain
Richard and Maddie Woolfolk, themurdered 17-year-old daughter
of Captain Richard and MaddieWoolfolk, has been found in the
home of Green Lockett.
Remember, Mr Lockett is thefirst man Tom Woolfolk ran to
for help on the morning of themurders and he was a key witness
(24:33):
for the state in Woolfolk'strials.
The article goes on to reportthat a picnic basket full of
quote eatables and belonging tothe Woolfolks was also found in
Lockett's home, as was ashort-handled axe like that used
(24:57):
to murder the nine familymembers.
We can ask the same questionasked at the end of the Valdosta
newspaper article.
What does this mean?
Tom Woolfolk was clearly not alikable young man and in the
words of his one-time wife ofthree weeks, many believed he
was just plain mean.
He made no bones about the factthat he was entitled to the
(25:22):
lion's share of the familyinheritance.
And greed is a powerful motivefor murder, but is there a
possibility that an unlikable,greedy, abrasive man was wrongly
convicted and executed?
It certainly wouldn't be thefirst time the wrong person paid
(25:44):
the ultimate price foranother's crimes, would it?
The Woolfolk family murderswere Georgia's first mass murder
and the tragedy remains to thisday the largest single mass
killing in the state.
The nine murdered Woolfolkfamily members are buried in
(26:06):
Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon,georgia, the same cemetery in
which Allman brothers Duane andGreg, along with bandmate Barry
Oakley, are interred.
Tom Woolfolk is buried inOrange Hill Cemetery in
Hawkinsville, georgia.
(26:26):
In 1909, the Woolfolk familyhome place was occupied by the
Macon Auto Club as itsheadquarters.
This arrangement was a briefone, and afterward the house
again sat empty and quiet formany years.
At some point the house appearsto have burned, though not
completely.
(26:47):
The cause of the fire remainsunknown and, 70 years after the
murders, captain RichardWoolfolk's plantation was
flooded when the Tobesofke Creekwas dammed to create Lake
Tobesofke, a popularrecreational destination.
The hill upon which the oldhome place was situated is still
(27:12):
there, and it sits above water,but residential development is
steadily encroaching.
Some remnants of the farmhousewere found in 1997 by university
of georgia law professor DonaldWilkes Jr.
He has identified the well onthe property, as well as the
(27:34):
tree under which Susan Woolfolkwas buried.
Soon, it's likely that eventhese remnants of the family's
tragic history will be erased.
The disastrous legacy, however,will surely live on.
Join me next time as we uncoverthe evil legacy of the Hart
(27:58):
brothers, two men who cut abloody trail through Appalachia
as the first documented serialkillers ever in the United
States.
The brothers were born just afew years before the American
Revolution began, their parentshaving immigrated to the New
World from Scotland.
(28:18):
Accounts of their lives and thewanton killings earned both men
the dubious distinction ofbeing called the devil in
Appalachia.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
(28:39):
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at www
.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends.
Southern history and lore Ihope you'll tell your friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
(29:05):
anywhere you listen.
My team and I based thisretelling of the story of the
Woolfork family murders on thefollowing works the article
Woolfork Kanged, the Tennesseannewspaper, thursday.
The article Wulfur Kanged, theTennessean newspaper, thursday,
october 30th 1890.
The article New SensationConnected with the Woolfork
(29:28):
Murder, the Valdosta Times,april 27th 1889.
The article Bloody Woolfork byDonald Wilkes Jr.
And the book the WulfurkTragedy by Carolyn DeLoach.
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