September 28, 2025 • 66 mins
In a case that captured national attention in 1929, a beautiful young schoolteacher went missing one Friday afternoon. Her husband was ill and in bed all day, at least according to him. This week we cover the scandal that spurred legend, lore, and facination for the past century in York County.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:26):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two forty one.
I'm one of your hosts, Matt Hyres along.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
With Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Welcome back from Administrative Lee. Thank you, and we are
over the moon thrilled that you joined us here for
this one this week. This is absolutely wild. You are
gonna enjoy this one. This this song. I'm sorry, this story.
It spurned a song back in the nineteen thirties, Yes,
(01:14):
and it gained national media attention. It was a huge story,
and we are gonna get into all that. But yeah,
you're gonna like this one. Yeah, And this is this
is one of the good ones that all our episodes
are kind of like our children. You know, you can't
say you have a favorite child, but this is probably
(01:34):
gonna be one of mine. And it has been one
that I've heard about for years and years. And as
soon as we started Carolina Crimes, shout out to Tim Jones,
good friend of the family, a friend that owned a
music store here in York County for a long time,
and he is, uh, we're praying for his health, but
he brought this story to me. It was like, you
(01:57):
gotta cover this one. Yeah, you just got to from
the history of York County. And I said, all right,
well we're Tim, We're gonna do this one. So before
we get into that, just a little bit of housekeeping.
Huge thank you from last week to our fill in
hosts Ashley Richards and Amanda Hall, the second time they've
been on the show.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I appreciate the filling in, them filling in while
I was getting my attitude together.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, she was getting her attitude together down on a
beach in Florida.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And yeah, she I mean, is there any other way?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes, Well, we appreciate them so much. They did a
great job filling in. We're able to add some things,
getting more comfortable behind the microphone and well.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
As a person you know who can speak from experience,
I didn't start out very comfortable, well.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Me either, and we just I just like to talk.
But thank you to those ladies. Always a joy to
see them, just a pleasure to be around. Just fun, fun.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
People, yeah, sure they are.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes. And before we start as well, I just want
to remind everybody, if you're not following us on social media,
check us out over at Carolina Crimes Podcast, over on Facebook,
on Twitter at sc crimes pod, and also if you're
listening on Spotify, Apple iTunes, Apple Podcast, make sure to
throw us a five star review and write a little
(03:20):
something you like about the show, your pets names, anything
in there that that can help that algorithm. And we'll
have a lot of thank yous for folks that did
that later on in the show, and some huge thank
yous to folks that went over to Carolina crimesstore dot
com and got some Carolina Crimes merch, So thank you
(03:43):
so much. Well. As I kind of alluded to to
begin this in my ramblings here at the beginning of
the episode, this week, our story is coming from York County,
South Carolina, where we're sitting where we record it is
coming from actually Western York County and the town of Sharon,
(04:06):
South Carolina, or effectually known as Shiron Shon. Yes, yes, now,
Sharon is located in Western York County. And if you're
not familiar with the state of South Carolina, York County
is the central most northern county in South Carolina. Excuse me, folks,
(04:29):
it's about ten minutes south of Charlotte, North Carolina. But
please don't lump York County in with Charlotte. It has
an identity all its own. Now, Western York County is
a much more rural area than the eastern cities of
rock Hill and Fort Mill, places that we've done episodes
(04:51):
from as well. It's you know, York. The county seat
is technically, I guess in Western York County. We did
the Melvin Roberts episode from there about one hundred episodes ago. Wow, gosh,
yes it does. But Western Nework County really stays true
(05:11):
to its roots, the agrarian roots that it grew from,
a lot of farms, a lot of sprawling land, wooded areas,
and Sharon is part of that. Sharon, South Carolina. It's
known for its good people hard working people, strong family ties,
(05:32):
and they continue to find Sharon to this day. Now.
Sharon was incorporated in eighteen eighty nine and was established
from land given to the Sharon Associate Reform Presbyterian Church
by a man named John L. Rainey, a local farmer
who owned quite a bit of land, but he gave
(05:55):
the land for the town to the church, which actually
gave it to the city or to the people to
create a community.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Rainy also donated land for the town's first rail station
to come through. And we knew from all our previous
episodes how important rail stations were to communities, especially in
the upstate South Carolina. That's how they got their goods.
Some rail lines used to transport people. It was their
connection to the outside world. Okay, so this is interesting
(06:30):
as well. The First National Bank of Sharon back when
the stock market crashed. I don't know if anybody's seen
the movie It's a wonderful life, but people may are
run on banks wanting to take their money out. The
First National Bank of Sharon was the only bank in
Western York County to survive the Great Depression.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Wow. Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It is it is now today Sharon remains a rural,
tight knit community of about four hundred and sixty residents,
has a historic downtown district, got its own historic marker,
and if you're there, you're passing through, or it's a
little bit out of your way, it is worth it
to go to the Sharon Grill. They serve breakfast, lunch, dinner,
(07:21):
and they may or may not have an item on
the menu call Matt's two dog platter. Yeah, and you
can get two dogs and a side for under ten dollars.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
And just called that, or did you inspire it?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's just called that. But you can.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
They don't have to know that. You can claim it.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I mean I've eaten it. I've claimed at least one
or two of those mats. Two dog platters. Well, our
story is going to start in January of nineteen twenty nine,
or it's going to be from January in nineteen twenty nine.
And as I mentioned, a song was written and recorded
(08:03):
about this event. We're gonna play it at the end
of the episode because it's definitely a spoiler. It is, okay,
more a ballad, I guess it just tells the complete
story of what I'm about to tell you. In about
three minutes without all the details and all the reasonings,
and it's a broad stroked overview of this story, and
(08:27):
it's a spoiler. It's creepy. It only sold about fifteen
hundred copies. But yeah, we got a we're gonna play
that before we tell everybody thank you here at the
end of this one. So we're gonna start off talking
about a couple, Fay and Rafe King now Faye. Her
(08:52):
maiden name was Faye Wilson. She was born on October
second of nineteen oh four to a farming family in Sharon.
Now six years after her birth, her family, her mother, father, siblings,
they moved to Shelby, North Carolina, which is right across
(09:13):
the border from Cherokee County, South Carolina, not too far
from Sharon. It's maybe a forty minute drive maybe from
Sharon up to Shelby, North Carolina. That's around where Gardner
Webb University is. You just go through Blacksburg and on
up north. But the Wilson family moved to Shelby, North Carolina,
(09:37):
and Fay's father, he actually got a job. He gave
up the farming deal and he was the tax collector
for Cleveland County, North Carolina, which was a pretty high paying,
high profile job back in those days. Now, over the years,
Fay she went through school, graduated college, and became a
(10:01):
French teacher. And Fay was described as very nice looking,
very attractive lady, long black raven hair, caught the eye
of a lot of men, but she caught the eye
of one in particular, and that was raf King Raife.
He came from a prominent Shelby family, had quite a
(10:24):
bit of family money themselves, and Raife was in the new,
exciting and budding business of auto sales. Oh okay, in
nineteen twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, a model Tea So.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't know if it was Model t's or that time.
About that time, maybe they were becoming a little bit
more advanced, but yeah, everybody wanted and needed a car
in that neck of the woods, also needed pickup truck sir,
work vehicles. So Rafe King he he capitalized on that
(11:01):
and got in the car business. Now, both Fay and Raife,
they were both well liked, described as attractive, but Fay,
she was actually twelve years younger than Raife came. Okay,
so not exactly, I don't.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Think that was that uncommon, not back then.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
No, I mean it still happens now, of course, but
back then it wasn't anything for I mean, I hate
to say it, but someone who's still technically a teenager
me and was someone who's almost thirty years old, and
people didn't scoff at it.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Right now, in November of nineteen twenty seven, Faye than
twenty three years old and Raife thirty five years old.
They were married. Okay, so this newly married couple, they
ended up purchasing some land from Fay's parents. Remember they
(11:57):
were farmers down in Sharon before he got the job
as a tax collector. They bought some land in Sharon,
South Carolina to move to, and Raife was going to
start his own farm. Okay, Now this wasn't printed, so
(12:17):
I don't know how factual this is, but legend and
lore that you hear through word of mouth, like from
our friend Tim Jones. Raith was considered what they called
a fancy back then, Okay, effeminate.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Maybe would it be maybe comparable to like a metrosexual
kind of thing, a little.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Twist, But folks were surprised Raife was married, So let's
let's leave it as that. Yes, But now that is
like I said, I don't have a source from that.
That is legend lore passed down through Western York County.
(13:13):
Myth you know, so rathe he was going to be
a farmer now set of a car salesman and face.
She got a job teaching French at the Sharon High School.
They joined the Sharon arp Church that we mentioned earlier.
Very involved there, very nice. I'm not detracting. I was
(13:37):
just saying it was surprising for some to think of
Raf as a farmer. But they were great people, always outgoing.
Like I said, Faye, she sang in the choir. Ray
attended service every time he could. Well. On Friday, January
twenty fifth, nineteen twenty nine, he fell ill. Faye was
(14:04):
tending to him as any wife would. She gave him
a sedative which he was complaining about insomnia, not any
real other symptoms, but he felt himself ill, so she
gave him a little sedative. She went to buy milk
and then went to school to teach. Well. About three
(14:28):
pm that afternoon, Wraith he he had been trying to
rest in bed, but he got up and this is
this is bizarre. I listened to an episode of this
on Mountain Murders as well. They do a great job.
Another podcast. But he said about three pm, Raith woke
up and he flagged down a young boy that was
(14:52):
passing in front of their house and he said, hey,
young man, I need you to go get me a
doctor Burris. And they kind of like this to like
in the uh Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, like throwing the
pennies out the window and they get me the fattest goose.
But yeah, yeah, Mount Murders they do an awesome job.
(15:12):
But uh yeah, yeah, hey boy, go fetch me the doctor.
I mean, imagine having to do that what and more
amazingly to us in this time of day. Doctor Burris
he came. The little boy. They listened and he went
and got.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Were a big thing. Yeah, and uh it wasn't uncommon.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Raife King. He ended up telling doctor Burris. He said, look,
I'm not able to sleep. Something's wrong with me. And
so doctor Burris he said, okay, I'm gonna check you out.
I couldn't find anything wrong with him, Like I said,
no symptoms, nothing bothering his you know, gastrointestinal nothing, head cold,
(15:59):
nothing like that. At so doctor Burr said, okay. So
you're having trouble sleeping, how about I just give you
some opium.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
That'll do it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, So that'll usually do it, but Raith still couldn't sleep.
Around five pm, he went to a neighbor's house, the Ferguson's,
and he let them know. He said, hey, I'm sick.
(16:31):
I can't sleep, and they're like, well, all right, you
know what do you want from us?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Knock me over the head?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, And he also said, I'm also concerned Fae hadn't
made it home from school yet. I don't know where
she is. So the wife, Missus Ferguson, the wife of
the neighbor, she said, well, let me go out and
look for you know, maybe she's got caught up doing
(17:01):
some chores out back or something. I'll go look. I
know you said you're feeling ill. You and my husband
just sit here and kind of hang out, and I'll
go look and see if I can find they.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
M h.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, Rafe, He's sat there with her husband for a
little while and he just said, you know, I'm just sick.
I can't sleep. I think I'm gonna go visit the
preacher down the road, Pastor McCauley, Okay, kind of odd.
So Rafe set out to this preacher's home with the
(17:34):
sole intention of tell him he wasn't feeling well. He
was sick. I don't know why. And this is going
to be a recurring theme in this story. This guy
just won't shut up.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You want everyone to know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I am sick? Yes?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Is this the equivalent to like the band cold? Now?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Because when I get sick, I get sick. It's bad. Yeah,
made for Kevin. So pastor McCauley's like, well again, I
don't kind of like his neighbors. I don't know what
you want me to do about it, but uh, why
not walk you back home? Man? So the pastor he
walked Rayfa home. He said, probably need to lay down,
(18:15):
just try to go to sleep. And once there, McCauley
he asked rape. He's like, well, where's Faye? And he said, well,
she hasn't come home from school yet. She must be missing.
I don't know where she's at. And of course, back then,
I mean, people didn't go to the bar, I hit
(18:37):
happy hour after work. They didn't all the stores were
closed by five pm. You really didn't have anywhere to
be accept home at this point on a Friday, evening,
so McCauley he actually got Fay's sister's phone number. She
lived up in Charlotte, and McCauley called Face's sister, Blanche
(18:59):
and said, Hey, I'm here with Rafe. He's sick. I
just want to but more importantly, your sister Faye. She
didn't come home from school and we're we're kind of
worried about her. Rafe's worried about her. Is she up
there with you by chance? Or do you know of
any plans that she may have had? Or did Rafe
(19:21):
just forget where she was at? And Blant she said,
I don't have a clue. I hadn't heard from Faye.
I don't know where she's at. And uh, by this
point in time, both of Fay's parents, the Wilson's, they
had passed away, so he couldn't call them back in Shelby,
North Carolina. Well, Rafe decides to go ahead and let
(19:43):
the pastor. This pastor McCauley in on another piece of information.
He said, Uh, you know, I'm really worried about Faye.
Faye's been talking about hurting herself.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
And so he leads being sick, but he doesn't lead
with that.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, nothing about her missing, just I'm sick. So yeah.
Pastor McCauley, he thought that was odd because he knew
Faye pretty well. Everybody and Sharon knew each other. He
said he never got that impression that she was depressed.
She was always you know, lit up, always put together,
(20:27):
a happy, go lucky teach, school teacher. And he said
later on he said, I had no inkling that she
was even thinking about self harm. Uh well, words started
to spread through sharing this night that the French teacher
(20:47):
Fay king she's missing. What's going on here? So others
started to show up, saying, hey, how can I help heard?
Miss Fay is missing? What can we help do? So
they started searching around the York County sheriff Still I
went to a hard hard looking for his first name,
(21:09):
but it was Sheriff Quinn of York County and the
Sharon arp pastor eb Hunter, he also came over to
the house, so Rafe went in his story. Of course,
he led with, I have been so sick all day.
I have been so sick. This house is so cold.
(21:32):
I wouldn't even well enough to keep the fire going.
Of course, that's how you get homes back then, he said,
I hadn't even been able to keep the fire going,
and I've just been cold and sick and can't sleep
all day long. Well, Reverend Hunter, not really thinking. He
had a mouthful a chewing tobacco, as a lot of
(21:53):
guys had back then. And when you're in the house,
you don't see a spatoon available, you spit in the fireplace. Well,
when Reverend Hunter spit in the fireplace, spit sizzled. He
was like I thought. He said, he didn't have a
fire today. Let the fire go out. He also kind
(22:16):
of touched around after seeing that the bricks around the fireplace,
around the hearth, and he said, bricks are still warm.
This dude had a fire and didn't even know it.
Maybe it was the opium playing tricks Reverend Hunter. He
also noticed some other things that he later reported to
(22:38):
Sheriff Quinn. When he went in the kitchen, he saw
there were damp spots on the floor, a couple other
things that we'll get into a little later. That kind
of raised his eyebrows a little bit. But the crowd
that had gathered they searched until after dark got dark
early in January, and Sharon and the neighbors they searched,
(23:03):
and out on the property they had a small outbuilding
they called a smokehouse where they would store dry goods
things of that nature. I don't think it was actually
used to smoke meats anymore, but it's called smokehouse and
the door to it usually stayed open. But one of
(23:25):
the neighbors that Miss Ferguson that the original searcher, saw
that the door was closed. She thought that was odd,
so she went over, opened the smoke house door and
slumped over a pile of walnuts.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
She found faking right there behind her house.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Right behind her house, in the smokehouse, and she she
was dead. So folks were going to take a quick break,
and when we come back, we're to get into this
story from Rafe King. We're gonna talk about how sick
he really was, and how Fay Wilson King she met
(24:09):
her de Maize and the aftermath. Folks, we'll be right
back after this quick word from our sponsors. Hi friends,
Matt Hires here. One of my favorite parts of bringing
you Carolina Crimes each week is spotlighting the many wonderful
(24:32):
towns and communities within our great state. And today I'm
proud to encourage you all to check out one of
my personal favorites. Rather on a road trip or a
weekend getaway, discover Mullins. Once a vibrant depot town and
the former tobacco capital of South Carolina, Mullins is a
hidden treasure in the PD region. Explore our offerings by
(24:54):
savoring a cup of coffee at our delightful coffee shop,
enjoying lunch at any of our charming restaurants, visiting old
Brick Square, and shopping at our quaint retail stores, which
include an antique market located in a repurposed tobacco warehouse.
Your visit would not be complete without a stop at
the South Carolina Tobacco Museum, situated in the historic train
(25:17):
depot in downtown Mullins, South Carolina. Here you can explore
various exhibits such as models of tobacco plants at each
growth stage, a blacksmith shop, a log tobacco barn filled
with cure tobacco, a farmhouse kitchen showcasing vintage equipment, and
a photo gallery highlighting contemporary tobacco practices. The Mullins Room
(25:39):
honors our town's origins and its swift growth driven by
the railroad and the tobacco industry. Additionally, in late June
twenty twenty five, the Reverend Daniel Simmons Museum will open
its stores to the public. Within the Tobacco Museum, Reverend
Simmons was one of the victims of the Mother Emmanuel
nine tragedy, and he spent his childhood in Mulleins and
(26:01):
work in its tobacco warehouses. Thanks to a generous loan
from his daughter Rose, we will exhibit many of his
personal belongings, including his beloved Bible. The documentary of his life,
One Last Breath, will be continuously streamed in the museum.
Rather it's for a road trip or a weekend getaway,
Mullins is a perfect place to visit and a place
(26:24):
to call home. Visit Mullins, South Carolina and Welcome Back
(26:59):
to Carolina Crimes episode two forty one out of Western
York County, out of the town of Sharon, South Carolina
and just an absolute wild classic. So when we left off,
we talked about Faye Wilson King, the twenty four year
(27:22):
old school teacher who had been found dead in the
smokehouse behind her home. Faye was over a pile of walnuts.
They noticed immediately when the neighbor that found her called
authorities over. There's some blood on her, on her dress,
(27:48):
on her shoes. Nothing really popped out to him about
a wound, but when they looked at her lips, they
were burned like corrosive. There was a bottle beside her
of it was a chemical called no Mop like n omp.
(28:16):
It was a household cleaner. It was also a two
in one. It was a household cleaner and a veterinary
product for chickens. Okay, multipurpose yeah, really specific purposes and
(28:36):
only chickens. No Mop It did contain arsenic so worth noting. Now,
remember Ray he said, you know, I do have a
bad feeling that they might want to harm herself or
may want to to take her own life. So the
(29:00):
authorities there, Sheriff Quinn. He started searching the home with
some more other folks there. Some interesting things were found.
They found a bottle of lysol, which I mean it's
not the spray that it is today. The lysol is
(29:21):
found that also contained carbolic acid. RAFs pajamas were found.
They were actually found in a bin of other clean clothes,
but they were soiled and they had some blood on them, okay,
(29:42):
and I say pajamas. It wasn't like it wasn't like
something Ward Cleaver would wear, like a top and bottom.
It was one of the old fashioned onesies with the
flap in the back of them. Also, there were some
papers it looked like that Faye had been grating had
blood on it. And there was blood on the door
(30:06):
threshold and the door jam leading between the kitchen and
the dining room, and some blood streaks in their storage
room that led out to the backyard. Okay, raithe he
went ahead and he had told mcaulay, the pastor that
he was visiting with. He went ahead and told Sheriff Quinn.
(30:30):
He said, you know, I was afraid of this. I
was sick today. But Faye, he said, Faye had been threatening.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
To hurt herself.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Okay, well, Doctor Burris he had to come back for
the second time to the king household and he he came.
He noticed the corrosive burns on Fay's lips and a
small wound to her head. I mean, it was hard
(31:03):
to tell. She was very dirty, walnutshells on her. He said,
you know, it looks like she may have hit her
head or something. That's probably the source of the blood
didn't think anything about it, but was more concerned about
the lips. There was blood on her dress and shoes,
as we mentioned, but none in the smokehouse, so there
(31:25):
was none on the ground there.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So that's not where it took place.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
You're catching on. So police started asking Rafe King a
bunch of questions, and he did admit to the sheriff.
Of course Faye was suicidal, and the reason she was
suicidal was because he said, I, I don't really want
(31:51):
to tell you this, but FaZe got a social disease.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
An st D?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Oh, that's what they called it. Yes, I'm thinking like
fear of being out in public.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Or or like, yeah, I don't do sensory phobia. Hey,
I don't like I don't like being out and around
a bunch of people. No social disease back then, and
I learned this too looking this up. But uh, social
disease is a nice term for an STD. I'm gonna
start using that. No, because I don't. People listen to this. No,
(32:37):
I do that, but when I'm when I talk about
if it ever comes up in conversation, I'll say it's
a you know, so you know it's a social disease.
I like that. Yeah, and that's what the the transcript had.
In fact, the specific social disease that he said Faking
(32:59):
had or so differed from, was syphilis. He told that
to doctor Burris as well. He said, yeah, Faye she
you see, she had syphilis and she was suicidal because
of this. And the doctor really wasn't asking him any questions.
(33:20):
He was more concerned about Faye and how she got
in that condition. But Rafe decided to tell her anyway,
and he said, yeah, Fay caught it before we got married,
and you know that's why she lost her job teaching
up in Shelby, North Carolina. She's got syphilis. Well, doctor
(33:42):
Burris called him out and was like, false, no, dude,
I am your doctor. He said, I'm your doctor, Rafe.
And remember I have actually treated you for syphilis, not
your wife, and you are the one with it, and
(34:02):
maybe you've passed it to your wife maybe not. I
don't know. But this is the first as your family
physician that I'm hearing about this. So good on doctor
Burris for saying, dude, no, that's not true. Well then
Rath swapped it up. He said, well, what I really
(34:22):
meant to say, was you see, Faye is pregnant and
she is very scared of giving birth, absolutely terrified. You know,
her social disease may play part of this, but that's
in fact why she was suicidal as she was pregnant.
(34:43):
She was scared raife. He also continued talking to Sheriff Quinn.
He said, actually, you know, I've been sick all day.
I was sick. I'm not sure if you knew or not,
but I was sick today and all day long. I
couldn't go to sleep. But I heard a dog barking
(35:04):
outside all day long, you know now that I'm thinking
about it, So what that must have meant? That was
somebody was lurking around in the bushes around our property.
That's exactly what that meant. There was a dog barking.
I was sick, but the dog was barking in the
So yeah, a prowler that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
That makes more sense, That's what.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
It was, and it actually, I mean it does make sense.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I mean you could say that when she left to
go to work is when this person attacked.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, we're kind of clowning on rape here, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
That's well, it sounds like he keeps changing his story up,
and it sounds like when you're going through a thought
process and you're trying to work through something, So you're
talking out loud to all these different scenarios.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yes, until you get to the end where you're like this,
I figured out the problem. This is what it is.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
And it's like you're working through what you were doing,
what you think happened.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, it's like when you have an inner dialogue with yourself.
But he's not keeping it to himself.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
He's trying to get he's bouncing ideas off of everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, see, try and see what'll stick.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
This makes sense.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
So while these stories kind of keep spewing out, fay
King's body was taken for an autopsy, which was performed
by doctor Burres. He's a big player in this one.
Now keep in mind doctor Burris, he was not a pathologist.
In fact, fay King's autopsy was the first one that
(36:34):
he ever performed.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
His conclusion was that it was death by poisoning, more
than likely a suicide, but the investigation did continue. Uh,
fay King's body and I'm really not sure I need
(36:58):
to go more into depth about funeral procedures. Around nineteen
twenty nine, I guess I could have. But Phase body
was actually being prepared for her burial by her female
friends and neighbors, you know, doing whatever makeup needed to
be done.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
They might wash the body, I think, maybe put it in, yeah,
and put it in you know, like the burial outfit.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah. And they were getting her clothes ready, a nice dress,
making her as presentable as they could, considering the tragedy
that happened, Well, what are the women? She needed to
get the iron to iron an accessory for Phase burial outfits.
(37:45):
So she went to the closet and got the electric
iron out which was pretty cutting edge technology for this time.
The first electric iron it did come about in eighteen
eighty eight, but it really hit the market and was
hot in like the nineteen twenties. Oh my gosh, yeah,
(38:08):
oh yeah, because you think of what they used to
have to have. It was a cast iron like heat
them up iron jail, like leave them on the wood
stove and get them hot, and then iron your clothes
with it if you wanted to have press clothes. I
don't really know what kind of priority that was up
until I mean nineteen twenties, folks were pretty dapper.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Well, it could also be for like church clothes, yeah,
or special occasion clothes and rape.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
He liked to dress nice. He was a clothes horse too. Okay,
I don't know if you ever heard that name. A
close horse, not but a close horse. He he dressed
very fine to impress for a farmer. Yes, and he
they said he was fancy. The But the iron when
(38:58):
the lady ironing the success it was a belt she
was ironing. They called it a kimono belt, which is
I don't know what that is. Chime in listeners if
you do. But this lady, the iron wasn't working. It
was just kind of going in and out intermittently. And
she looked at this thing and the cord had been manipulated.
(39:21):
It had been pulled and stretched. And I still remember
my grandmother having an older electric iron when I was little,
and it had like a curly que cord, like wrapped
in a cloth. It wasn't like a straight AC DC
plug in. And I think this was what she was meaning.
(39:43):
It was stretched straight, it was pulled a little bit
from the iron itself, causing it to maybe short out
and not stay on. But she was like, that's weird.
That's weird. This is you know, fairly new iron, but
it's been abused and not taken care of well. So
these ladies they did get faking ready for burial, and
(40:05):
she was buried up in King's Mountain, which was right
on the North Carolina South Carolina border, home of very
famous Revolutionary War battle. But even after the funeral for faking,
a lot of fishy things still going on. The investigation
(40:26):
was still kind of open. You know. Yes, Dr Burr
said this was a suicide by poisoning, but we're still
going to have to collect some evidence. So York Police
Chief Frank Faulkner got involved as well, and he helped
comb the house very thoroughly. And he went up into
the attic at the King's house and found something very odd.
(40:55):
He found some clothes up on the eaves above the
front porch, up in the attic, obviously intentionally put here.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
M h.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
It was a coat and bundled up inside it were clothes.
It was a suit belonging to Raf King. You ask
how we knew it belonged to Raf King? Had the
uh the monogram r FK on them?
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I was gonna ask written in sharpie raef F King
on the tag.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Oh no, it was even better than that. It was
embroidered on.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There so everyone could see it.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yes, but along with the monogram on his clothes, there
was also blood.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Oh Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
So Sheriff Quinn and Chief Faulkner they thought that there
were just way too many anomalies with this thing just
wasn't sitting right the theory of a suicide. There was
blood throughout the house. Rafe's stories kept changing, you know,
with the breeze and then the bloody clothes that were
(42:01):
attempted to be hidden that suit up in the attic.
So they decided, you know what, let's this is a
very circumstantial. What we need to have is a coroner's inquest.
We've talked about that before here on.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
The show, Yes, I remember.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And what a coroner's inquest is is it's not exactly
a trial. Even though there is a jury present that
hands down their decision, the judge is the coroner, and
there's evidence presented around a death that may be suspicious
to determine the cause of death and more importantly, if
(42:38):
someone was responsible for this thing. Okay, So this corner's
inquest was scheduled for February fourth, nineteen twenty nine. So
ten days after the death of Fa King, and word
had spread throughout the upstate of South Carolina about this thing.
(42:58):
In a weird day at the King's home, a lot
of people interested in the outcome of this. So they
had to have the Corner's inquest not at the courthouse
but at the Sharon High School auditorium so they.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Could fit all these spectators.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yes, and they still didn't all fit in there. You know,
word spread, everyone wanted to attend, and all the York
County was talking about this. And finally at the inquest,
this auditorium set one hundred people, but there were people
waiting outside, piled out, more people outside than inside. Raf
(43:37):
King he took the stand and of course the first
thing he said is I was sick all day. I
was sick all that day. You know, Doctor burst couln't
find anything wrong with me, but I couldn't sleep. I
was just just sick.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Something was wrong with.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Me, sick, didn't feel right. So when Rafe was asked
about the bloody pajamas he had on the Onesie Rafe
he said, you know what, I need to get off
the stand and I need to speak to Sheriff Quinn.
Sheriff said well all right, yeah, let's let's do it,
(44:18):
and he said, let's walk outside and talk. I need
to talk to you. So they went outside and Rafe
told Sheriff Quinn, he said, I don't think I'm getting
a fair deal here at this inquest. He said, you know,
nothing's been brought up. Remember I heard a dog barking
(44:38):
all day and I was sick, but I couldn't sleep,
and it had to be a dog barking at a
prowler that was responsible for.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
This, but he couldn't check because he was sick, right.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
And Raf said, you know this prowler, he may have
come in the house and hurt Fai. And the sheriff said, okay,
well let's go back in and you can tell this story.
Why did you stop this whole thing to take me outside?
And by this time all the people outside that had
been wanting to get in they were getting a front.
(45:15):
Oh yes, the action's spilled outside. So they all circled
around and were listening to this exchange, like, oh my gosh,
we're getting the juice. Now, this is what it says happened, yes,
and what they heard they it made most of the
crowd outside think Rafe was guilty. That they were like this, dude,
(45:36):
he he keeps changing this story and the way he's acting.
And if they didn't think he was guilty, at the
very minimum, they realized he didn't know when to shut up. Yeah,
So the prosecutor came outside that was present, and he said, hey,
are we going to do this or not? Guys, let's
go in and he said, Rafe, you know, you and
(45:57):
Sheriff Quinn, you're getting all this out in front these people.
Come inside. Let's go to a classroom somewhere private where
we all can talk and get this done. So Rafe
and Sheriff Quinn they went back into the school into
a classroom. One of Rafe's brothers came in there as well,
and Rafe he continued to say, you know, we we've
(46:20):
got to find this prowler. We've got to find you know,
the real killer, very OJL like and saying, hey, we
gotta we gotta find the real prowler who did this. Well,
raf King's brother he interjected himself and was like, hey,
I think you've said enough. You know, let's let's go
(46:41):
back out here. This is in the way things handled
are handled, So let's go back out to this corner's inquest.
So they went back out. The inquest continued and it
was determined by the jury or the jury that Fa
King she died of poisoning, but at the hand of
someone else. So at the conclusion of this, Rafe King
(47:07):
he was arrested for the murder of his wife, Fay
Wilson King and given a three thousand dollars bond through
that in the old inflation calculator, and what that equals
to today is about fifty seven thousand dollars. Okay, So
the bond was paid. Remember Rape King had very wealthy parents,
(47:29):
and a trial date was set. Folks were going to
take our second break here, and after this quick word
from our sponsors, we're going to come back and talk
about the end of this wild, wild tale. Folks will
be right back and welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode
(48:03):
two forty one at a Sharon, South Carolina and the
mysterious but getting not so mysterious death of Fa King.
When we left off, her husband, Rafe King, he had
been arrested for her murder, given a three thousand dollars bond.
He was promptly bonded out by his parents and went
(48:24):
to stay with him and Shelby, North Carolina until time
for his trial. Well after his arrest, after this coroner's
inquest where the jury said, yeah, we believe she died
at the hands of her husband, public infatuation with this
crime exploded. I mean, true crime is very well, it's
(48:51):
a very well watched and monitored genre today. I mean,
look at this podcast. Yeah, look at all the true
crime podcasts out there, date lines, your forensic files, at
the public. That fascination has never seemed to wane as
time goes on. But back here in nineteen twenty nine,
(49:11):
it was in newspapers they said coast to coast.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
I mean, that was probably the biggest thing that had
happened in that community in a very long time. So yeah,
everyone was very interested, like watching your you know, something
unfold on TV.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yes, and this story was picked up nationally by journalists.
A enterprising man by the name of ce mcgirkin. He
actually when Rafe was out on bond, he said, Hey,
I'm gonna do you a solid. Do you mind if
I rent your home from you? Rafe said yeah, I
(49:47):
mean all right, it's just a stream of income that
I need. And what mister mcgirkin did was he rented
the King home and he gave twenty five cent of
the King murder House to people. People from out of
town would come all over. They got to see the
(50:08):
smokehouse where Fay was found, the attic where the bloody
clothes were found by Frank Faulkner. Lookie Loose from as
far away as New Jersey came down to see this
and take a tour. It said. On one Sunday, over
two thousand people came to tour this house and at
twenty five per cent of pop, that's five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
This guy made me it was on something.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
One Sunday afternoon. That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
This is that more bi curiosity.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
He knows, Yeah, what people are gonna come.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
So the prosecution, Sheriff Quinn and Chief Faulkner at this time,
they said, you know, if we're gonna build this case,
we hate to do it, but we're probably gonna have
to exhume fake King's body. So they ordered they got
(50:59):
the paperwork in order to get her body exhumed, and
they did just that. And they they really wanted a
true pathologist and medical examiners to look at phase remains
to see what happened. One of the biggest finds when
they did this were ligature marks around her neck. They
(51:21):
said that the cause of death was in fact strangulation.
Remember that ironing board. They determined that one of Ray's
stories was a lie. They was not pregnant. They sent
her stomach to Clemson University for pathological tests and they
(51:41):
were able to determine, in fact, she was not poisoned,
that the chemical burns on her lips were likely staged
to make it look like she committed suicide. They took
a closer look at that wound to her head and
her hair. When doctor Burris, I mean, in his defense,
he wasn't a pathologist. They took a closer look, and
(52:07):
her hair had been matted down. It was not in
good condition when he looked at her body. But the
harder they looked, they saw that there was in fact
blunt force trauma to her head. There was a large
gash where she was hit with something forcefully, maybe sharp
(52:30):
on the edge, but a blunt object. Still.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
I wonder if it was the iron.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Something very similar to maybe an iron on her head.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
So he hit her either to knock her out or
stun her and then proceeded to strangle her so she
wouldn't put up as much of a fight.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Possibly. Now, raf King he assembled quite a defense team.
He hired seven attorneys. Some of the more notable names
Thomas McDowell of York and John Hemphill of Chester, both
of whom I have very close friendships with some of
(53:10):
their descendants.
Speaker 7 (53:12):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah, And in fact, I think it was one of
Thomas McDowell's grandsons actually, right out of college, rented a
place from him, the place on MIKEL Court.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Oh wow, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
That we always talk about the little party house we had.
But these defense attorneys, they made a wise move and
they made a motion for a change of venue due
to the publicity. Now everybody in the country was talking
about it, except and especially I mean in York County.
(53:46):
So they did move the venue to Chester County, South Carolina,
and the trial was set for September of nineteen twenty nine. Now,
the Chester County courthouse was quite small, anticipating large crowds
of spectators for this raf King trial. They had to
(54:08):
actually make renovations and accommodations for the mob that the
mob of people they expected on the day of the trials,
people would get there before dawn or stay overnight to
ensure that they got seats in the courtroom to see this.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Yes, the day Raith King was set to take the
stand and testify, it was so packed. There was such
a large crowd around the courthouse that the only way
to get Raith King into the courthouse to testify, his
attorneys had to get him a ladder. The courtroom was
up on the second story and he actually had to
(54:48):
climb up a ladder and through a window to go
testify at his own murder trial.
Speaker 8 (54:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
Now, during the trial and testimony, King he remained calm
duck to his story that he was sick. I was sick.
He had been sedated. Remember he said his wife gave
him that sedative. Doctor Burst did give him administer opium
to him. And he claimed that a prowler killed his wife. Well.
(55:20):
On September twentieth, nineteen twenty nine, a verdict came through
and the verdict was guilty and the sentencing handed down
for rape King was the death penalty. Now rathe King.
He was sentenced to death and taken to Colombia to
(55:41):
be how's Chester was like, Okay, thank god, this is over.
Let's get this guy to Columbia. He's out of our hair.
This is over. But he was promptly returned from Columbia
back to Chester. The South Carolina Department of Corrections at
that time one of their policies was not to house
those sentence to death until twenty days prior to their execution,
(56:05):
So back to Chester he went. This caused a huge
headache for the county at Chester. Chester actually ended up
sending York County a bill for two three hundred and
sixty eight dollars for having the House King one hundred
and twenty dollars for damages that spectators calls to their courthouse.
(56:28):
During all this tomfoolery and Chester County jailed, they were
faced with another problem. The cells that they had were
along the ground level there at the county jail, and
the windows were open or open air. Basically they had
bars there, but people could still talk to people through them,
(56:51):
so inmates could speak to people on the street. Well,
Rafe King, he had a lot of visitors after that,
Oh let's speak to Raf King, And of course he
was more than happy to oblige them by talking because
he just could not shut his mouth. Yes, So all
these visitors kept swarming there to talk to this convicted
(57:13):
killer who was sentenced to death, until finally they appealed
over and over to the state government, and the Governor
of South Carolina, John Richards, had to step in and say, hey, Okay,
enough's enough. I don't care what the policy is. You
got to move this guy to Columbia. You gotta give
Chester County.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
A break, get him out of here, get him out of.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
There, and put him behind bars where he can just
talk to the walls. Well, an appeal was filed. Looking
at it looked like due to circumstantial evidence, which playing
devil's advocate, it really was. Yeah, the circumstantial evidence used
to convict Rafe King, and a new trial was granted
(58:00):
after the appeal was filed, and they said, Okay, this
one is not gonna We're not gonna put Chester through
this anymore. We're gonna move the trial to Lancaster County.
They have a larger courtroom, better facilities. Their courtroom actually
seats three hundred and fifty people, and a new trial
was set for May fourth, nineteen thirty one. Well, on
(58:21):
May seventh, three days after the trial started, a verdict
was reached. Seven hundred people packed the Lancaster County courtroom,
which only sat three point fifty. Several other people brought
ladders to the courthouse and climbed up to the window
so they could peep in and see this thing.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
Oh gos.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
And ultimately Rafe King he was found guilty. The judge
did hand down his sentence with a modicum of mercy
and said, okay, Raef King, you are going to be
a sentenced to life in prison without parole. And in
nineteen fifty, Raife King he died in Central Prison in
(59:07):
nineteen fifty. Wow, so a wild one. There lots of
wild changing stories and a murder story that captivated the nation.
And we talked at the beginning of the program about
this just creepy, creepy song that I said, we're gonna play.
(59:29):
It's by Mason Stapleton. It was recorded way back in
nineteen thirty one. It was recorded actually May twenty ninth,
so not even three weeks after the verdict, and we're
gonna go ahead and play it. It's creepy, it tells
the whole story. It's just a guy put the story
(59:51):
to music. So before we get to thank you, so
we're gonna play this. It's only three minutes and thirty
five seconds long. So take a listen to this one
from uh I won't I don't want to call it
a bop. But this morbid song called the Rape King
murder case by Mason Stapleton and the Stapleton brothers in
(01:00:30):
a town.
Speaker 7 (01:00:30):
Name in the same ovesy and this gultycously I should
be she called in the wee I one time dyke
by the name of this they will tame one day
(01:00:59):
he was bad in nineteen two nine, breaking her one
of q dollir time my four thouar call healthy and
where friend win the lady they brought him to and
(01:01:29):
paintil and Jay.
Speaker 8 (01:01:32):
Three thousand dollars want him ole off his bad.
Speaker 7 (01:01:38):
King had seven longs for him day eighteen to find
him not Gill and let him go free. King Clinty was.
Speaker 8 (01:01:55):
Four day in his bad thirty nine wow they found
his white day just howling all my and God on
me all King was houp and Gilly by the blood
(01:02:15):
on his fall.
Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Judge Henry or Chair.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Was judge and the drive when the gery said Gilly
came his barrens myle m in the court outside chair.
Speaker 6 (01:02:34):
In the monoty live Judge and re Lay came or
the trying He Must die m he was placed in
the jam house and say Clarah.
Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
Wi the frame for drive.
Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
King of In tries he was in fried in Land
there for killing.
Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
It came walk on me and then fall.
Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Him like all lifetime me bas the dressed him.
Speaker 7 (01:03:18):
In all overall and hoping he's number two.
Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
Seven from beginning life to.
Speaker 7 (01:03:33):
Work for the Dame.
Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
So wow, that does give all the information.
Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
We could have just played that song be like, yeah,
that's episode two forty two.
Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
They even talked about how he was ailing in his
bed all day.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Oh yeah, you can't leave that out. You can't leave
that out. But we appreciate you all listening to this
one this week. A wild story at a sh share
in South Carolina and one that lives in Lore around
York County, and we've heard about it. We appreciate my
good friend Tim Jones for sharing that one with us.
(01:04:13):
He is Tim's one of the most talented musicians you
ever want to meet. We wish him well. Him and
his wife Rose just fine people. But he he was
chomping at the bit as soon as we started, you know,
almost five years ago this podcast. He said, you gotta
do Rape King. Daw, you gotta do raf King. He
said I would if he was able to, he would
be here and he sings that song, play the guitar. Yeah,
(01:04:37):
he's a great historian, great person. But thank you, Tim Well.
Thank you to everyone. We thank everyone that's followed us
on social media at Carolina Crimes Podcast on Facebook, also
at sc Crimes pod over on Twitter. We thank those
that have given five star reviews and subscribed on Apple.
(01:04:57):
Thank you so much. Also those that have gone over
to Carol Line of crimestore dot com and bought some
sweet sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia, and we want to say
thank you to Christy Vinson who did just that this week.
Also over on Apple, thank you to Salt Blooded, Amazing
people in Shaw, to j T m F zero three
(01:05:20):
two zero, and to Joe Coop, thank you so much.
We also want to say thank you for reaching out
and giving us some good feedback. Melissa Justice, Ashley Kato,
good Friend, Andy Hendricks, Tory Hudson, Terry Pearson, Andrew Love,
Trey Glover, Kathy Lynd, Stephanie Mitchell, Amy Mullins, Allison Switzer,
(01:05:40):
Christy Nicole, Nicki Porter, Stephanie Haygood, Amy Smith, Chris Nef,
Connie Lopez and her pups, Bean and Zeus. Thank you
to Lynn Brogden, to Rosehowe, to Gina Henderson, Morgan Wilson,
You're a great contributor. You're a funny lady. I like her.
(01:06:01):
Thank you to Lynn Trebble, Julia Kane, Crystal Bosars, Tiny Willis,
Angie Melton, Chuck Garnes, to Rachel Likely, I hope I'm
saying that right. Rachel and her pictures of her cats,
her fish, and I believe that's an iguana. I don't know.
I'm not very up to date on my lizard ology.
(01:06:22):
Thank you to Blair Koblisky, to Brad Edwards, to Rush
Schumard and Alison Green. And if you've listened to us
here this week, thank you so much for listening to
episode two forty one, and we'll see you next week
on Carolina Crimes,
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:26):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two forty one.
I'm one of your hosts, Matt Hyres along.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
With Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Welcome back from Administrative Lee. Thank you, and we are
over the moon thrilled that you joined us here for
this one this week. This is absolutely wild. You are
gonna enjoy this one. This this song. I'm sorry, this story.
It spurned a song back in the nineteen thirties, Yes,
(01:14):
and it gained national media attention. It was a huge story,
and we are gonna get into all that. But yeah,
you're gonna like this one. Yeah, And this is this
is one of the good ones that all our episodes
are kind of like our children. You know, you can't
say you have a favorite child, but this is probably
(01:34):
gonna be one of mine. And it has been one
that I've heard about for years and years. And as
soon as we started Carolina Crimes, shout out to Tim Jones,
good friend of the family, a friend that owned a
music store here in York County for a long time,
and he is, uh, we're praying for his health, but
he brought this story to me. It was like, you
(01:57):
gotta cover this one. Yeah, you just got to from
the history of York County. And I said, all right,
well we're Tim, We're gonna do this one. So before
we get into that, just a little bit of housekeeping.
Huge thank you from last week to our fill in
hosts Ashley Richards and Amanda Hall, the second time they've
been on the show.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I appreciate the filling in, them filling in while
I was getting my attitude together.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, she was getting her attitude together down on a
beach in Florida.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And yeah, she I mean, is there any other way?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes, Well, we appreciate them so much. They did a
great job filling in. We're able to add some things,
getting more comfortable behind the microphone and well.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
As a person you know who can speak from experience,
I didn't start out very comfortable, well.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Me either, and we just I just like to talk.
But thank you to those ladies. Always a joy to
see them, just a pleasure to be around. Just fun, fun.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
People, yeah, sure they are.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes. And before we start as well, I just want
to remind everybody, if you're not following us on social media,
check us out over at Carolina Crimes Podcast, over on Facebook,
on Twitter at sc crimes pod, and also if you're
listening on Spotify, Apple iTunes, Apple Podcast, make sure to
throw us a five star review and write a little
(03:20):
something you like about the show, your pets names, anything
in there that that can help that algorithm. And we'll
have a lot of thank yous for folks that did
that later on in the show, and some huge thank
yous to folks that went over to Carolina crimesstore dot
com and got some Carolina Crimes merch, So thank you
(03:43):
so much. Well. As I kind of alluded to to
begin this in my ramblings here at the beginning of
the episode, this week, our story is coming from York County,
South Carolina, where we're sitting where we record it is
coming from actually Western York County and the town of Sharon,
(04:06):
South Carolina, or effectually known as Shiron Shon. Yes, yes, now,
Sharon is located in Western York County. And if you're
not familiar with the state of South Carolina, York County
is the central most northern county in South Carolina. Excuse me, folks,
(04:29):
it's about ten minutes south of Charlotte, North Carolina. But
please don't lump York County in with Charlotte. It has
an identity all its own. Now, Western York County is
a much more rural area than the eastern cities of
rock Hill and Fort Mill, places that we've done episodes
(04:51):
from as well. It's you know, York. The county seat
is technically, I guess in Western York County. We did
the Melvin Roberts episode from there about one hundred episodes ago. Wow, gosh,
yes it does. But Western Nework County really stays true
(05:11):
to its roots, the agrarian roots that it grew from,
a lot of farms, a lot of sprawling land, wooded areas,
and Sharon is part of that. Sharon, South Carolina. It's
known for its good people hard working people, strong family ties,
(05:32):
and they continue to find Sharon to this day. Now.
Sharon was incorporated in eighteen eighty nine and was established
from land given to the Sharon Associate Reform Presbyterian Church
by a man named John L. Rainey, a local farmer
who owned quite a bit of land, but he gave
(05:55):
the land for the town to the church, which actually
gave it to the city or to the people to
create a community.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Rainy also donated land for the town's first rail station
to come through. And we knew from all our previous
episodes how important rail stations were to communities, especially in
the upstate South Carolina. That's how they got their goods.
Some rail lines used to transport people. It was their
connection to the outside world. Okay, so this is interesting
(06:30):
as well. The First National Bank of Sharon back when
the stock market crashed. I don't know if anybody's seen
the movie It's a wonderful life, but people may are
run on banks wanting to take their money out. The
First National Bank of Sharon was the only bank in
Western York County to survive the Great Depression.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Wow. Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It is it is now today Sharon remains a rural,
tight knit community of about four hundred and sixty residents,
has a historic downtown district, got its own historic marker,
and if you're there, you're passing through, or it's a
little bit out of your way, it is worth it
to go to the Sharon Grill. They serve breakfast, lunch, dinner,
(07:21):
and they may or may not have an item on
the menu call Matt's two dog platter. Yeah, and you
can get two dogs and a side for under ten dollars.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
And just called that, or did you inspire it?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's just called that. But you can.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
They don't have to know that. You can claim it.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I mean I've eaten it. I've claimed at least one
or two of those mats. Two dog platters. Well, our
story is going to start in January of nineteen twenty nine,
or it's going to be from January in nineteen twenty nine.
And as I mentioned, a song was written and recorded
(08:03):
about this event. We're gonna play it at the end
of the episode because it's definitely a spoiler. It is, okay,
more a ballad, I guess it just tells the complete
story of what I'm about to tell you. In about
three minutes without all the details and all the reasonings,
and it's a broad stroked overview of this story, and
(08:27):
it's a spoiler. It's creepy. It only sold about fifteen
hundred copies. But yeah, we got a we're gonna play
that before we tell everybody thank you here at the
end of this one. So we're gonna start off talking
about a couple, Fay and Rafe King now Faye. Her
(08:52):
maiden name was Faye Wilson. She was born on October
second of nineteen oh four to a farming family in Sharon.
Now six years after her birth, her family, her mother, father, siblings,
they moved to Shelby, North Carolina, which is right across
(09:13):
the border from Cherokee County, South Carolina, not too far
from Sharon. It's maybe a forty minute drive maybe from
Sharon up to Shelby, North Carolina. That's around where Gardner
Webb University is. You just go through Blacksburg and on
up north. But the Wilson family moved to Shelby, North Carolina,
(09:37):
and Fay's father, he actually got a job. He gave
up the farming deal and he was the tax collector
for Cleveland County, North Carolina, which was a pretty high paying,
high profile job back in those days. Now, over the years,
Fay she went through school, graduated college, and became a
(10:01):
French teacher. And Fay was described as very nice looking,
very attractive lady, long black raven hair, caught the eye
of a lot of men, but she caught the eye
of one in particular, and that was raf King Raife.
He came from a prominent Shelby family, had quite a
(10:24):
bit of family money themselves, and Raife was in the new,
exciting and budding business of auto sales. Oh okay, in
nineteen twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, a model Tea So.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't know if it was Model t's or that time.
About that time, maybe they were becoming a little bit
more advanced, but yeah, everybody wanted and needed a car
in that neck of the woods, also needed pickup truck sir,
work vehicles. So Rafe King he he capitalized on that
(11:01):
and got in the car business. Now, both Fay and Raife,
they were both well liked, described as attractive, but Fay,
she was actually twelve years younger than Raife came. Okay,
so not exactly, I don't.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Think that was that uncommon, not back then.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
No, I mean it still happens now, of course, but
back then it wasn't anything for I mean, I hate
to say it, but someone who's still technically a teenager
me and was someone who's almost thirty years old, and
people didn't scoff at it.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Right now, in November of nineteen twenty seven, Faye than
twenty three years old and Raife thirty five years old.
They were married. Okay, so this newly married couple, they
ended up purchasing some land from Fay's parents. Remember they
(11:57):
were farmers down in Sharon before he got the job
as a tax collector. They bought some land in Sharon,
South Carolina to move to, and Raife was going to
start his own farm. Okay, Now this wasn't printed, so
(12:17):
I don't know how factual this is, but legend and
lore that you hear through word of mouth, like from
our friend Tim Jones. Raith was considered what they called
a fancy back then, Okay, effeminate.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Maybe would it be maybe comparable to like a metrosexual
kind of thing, a little.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Twist, But folks were surprised Raife was married, So let's
let's leave it as that. Yes, But now that is
like I said, I don't have a source from that.
That is legend lore passed down through Western York County.
(13:13):
Myth you know, so rathe he was going to be
a farmer now set of a car salesman and face.
She got a job teaching French at the Sharon High School.
They joined the Sharon arp Church that we mentioned earlier.
Very involved there, very nice. I'm not detracting. I was
(13:37):
just saying it was surprising for some to think of
Raf as a farmer. But they were great people, always outgoing.
Like I said, Faye, she sang in the choir. Ray
attended service every time he could. Well. On Friday, January
twenty fifth, nineteen twenty nine, he fell ill. Faye was
(14:04):
tending to him as any wife would. She gave him
a sedative which he was complaining about insomnia, not any
real other symptoms, but he felt himself ill, so she
gave him a little sedative. She went to buy milk
and then went to school to teach. Well. About three
(14:28):
pm that afternoon, Wraith he he had been trying to
rest in bed, but he got up and this is
this is bizarre. I listened to an episode of this
on Mountain Murders as well. They do a great job.
Another podcast. But he said about three pm, Raith woke
up and he flagged down a young boy that was
(14:52):
passing in front of their house and he said, hey,
young man, I need you to go get me a
doctor Burris. And they kind of like this to like
in the uh Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, like throwing the
pennies out the window and they get me the fattest goose.
But yeah, yeah, Mount Murders they do an awesome job.
(15:12):
But uh yeah, yeah, hey boy, go fetch me the doctor.
I mean, imagine having to do that what and more
amazingly to us in this time of day. Doctor Burris
he came. The little boy. They listened and he went
and got.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Were a big thing. Yeah, and uh it wasn't uncommon.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Raife King. He ended up telling doctor Burris. He said, look,
I'm not able to sleep. Something's wrong with me. And
so doctor Burris he said, okay, I'm gonna check you out.
I couldn't find anything wrong with him, Like I said,
no symptoms, nothing bothering his you know, gastrointestinal nothing, head cold,
(15:59):
nothing like that. At so doctor Burr said, okay. So
you're having trouble sleeping, how about I just give you
some opium.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
That'll do it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, So that'll usually do it, but Raith still couldn't sleep.
Around five pm, he went to a neighbor's house, the Ferguson's,
and he let them know. He said, hey, I'm sick.
(16:31):
I can't sleep, and they're like, well, all right, you
know what do you want from us?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Knock me over the head?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, And he also said, I'm also concerned Fae hadn't
made it home from school yet. I don't know where
she is. So the wife, Missus Ferguson, the wife of
the neighbor, she said, well, let me go out and
look for you know, maybe she's got caught up doing
(17:01):
some chores out back or something. I'll go look. I
know you said you're feeling ill. You and my husband
just sit here and kind of hang out, and I'll
go look and see if I can find they.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
M h.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, Rafe, He's sat there with her husband for a
little while and he just said, you know, I'm just sick.
I can't sleep. I think I'm gonna go visit the
preacher down the road, Pastor McCauley, Okay, kind of odd.
So Rafe set out to this preacher's home with the
(17:34):
sole intention of tell him he wasn't feeling well. He
was sick. I don't know why. And this is going
to be a recurring theme in this story. This guy
just won't shut up.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You want everyone to know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I am sick? Yes?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Is this the equivalent to like the band cold? Now?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Because when I get sick, I get sick. It's bad. Yeah,
made for Kevin. So pastor McCauley's like, well again, I
don't kind of like his neighbors. I don't know what
you want me to do about it, but uh, why
not walk you back home? Man? So the pastor he
walked Rayfa home. He said, probably need to lay down,
(18:15):
just try to go to sleep. And once there, McCauley
he asked rape. He's like, well, where's Faye? And he said, well,
she hasn't come home from school yet. She must be missing.
I don't know where she's at. And of course, back then,
I mean, people didn't go to the bar, I hit
(18:37):
happy hour after work. They didn't all the stores were
closed by five pm. You really didn't have anywhere to
be accept home at this point on a Friday, evening,
so McCauley he actually got Fay's sister's phone number. She
lived up in Charlotte, and McCauley called Face's sister, Blanche
(18:59):
and said, Hey, I'm here with Rafe. He's sick. I
just want to but more importantly, your sister Faye. She
didn't come home from school and we're we're kind of
worried about her. Rafe's worried about her. Is she up
there with you by chance? Or do you know of
any plans that she may have had? Or did Rafe
(19:21):
just forget where she was at? And Blant she said,
I don't have a clue. I hadn't heard from Faye.
I don't know where she's at. And uh, by this
point in time, both of Fay's parents, the Wilson's, they
had passed away, so he couldn't call them back in Shelby,
North Carolina. Well, Rafe decides to go ahead and let
(19:43):
the pastor. This pastor McCauley in on another piece of information.
He said, Uh, you know, I'm really worried about Faye.
Faye's been talking about hurting herself.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
And so he leads being sick, but he doesn't lead
with that.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, nothing about her missing, just I'm sick. So yeah.
Pastor McCauley, he thought that was odd because he knew
Faye pretty well. Everybody and Sharon knew each other. He
said he never got that impression that she was depressed.
She was always you know, lit up, always put together,
(20:27):
a happy, go lucky teach, school teacher. And he said
later on he said, I had no inkling that she
was even thinking about self harm. Uh well, words started
to spread through sharing this night that the French teacher
(20:47):
Fay king she's missing. What's going on here? So others
started to show up, saying, hey, how can I help heard?
Miss Fay is missing? What can we help do? So
they started searching around the York County sheriff Still I
went to a hard hard looking for his first name,
(21:09):
but it was Sheriff Quinn of York County and the
Sharon arp pastor eb Hunter, he also came over to
the house, so Rafe went in his story. Of course,
he led with, I have been so sick all day.
I have been so sick. This house is so cold.
(21:32):
I wouldn't even well enough to keep the fire going.
Of course, that's how you get homes back then, he said,
I hadn't even been able to keep the fire going,
and I've just been cold and sick and can't sleep
all day long. Well, Reverend Hunter, not really thinking. He
had a mouthful a chewing tobacco, as a lot of
(21:53):
guys had back then. And when you're in the house,
you don't see a spatoon available, you spit in the fireplace. Well,
when Reverend Hunter spit in the fireplace, spit sizzled. He
was like I thought. He said, he didn't have a
fire today. Let the fire go out. He also kind
(22:16):
of touched around after seeing that the bricks around the fireplace,
around the hearth, and he said, bricks are still warm.
This dude had a fire and didn't even know it.
Maybe it was the opium playing tricks Reverend Hunter. He
also noticed some other things that he later reported to
(22:38):
Sheriff Quinn. When he went in the kitchen, he saw
there were damp spots on the floor, a couple other
things that we'll get into a little later. That kind
of raised his eyebrows a little bit. But the crowd
that had gathered they searched until after dark got dark
early in January, and Sharon and the neighbors they searched,
(23:03):
and out on the property they had a small outbuilding
they called a smokehouse where they would store dry goods
things of that nature. I don't think it was actually
used to smoke meats anymore, but it's called smokehouse and
the door to it usually stayed open. But one of
(23:25):
the neighbors that Miss Ferguson that the original searcher, saw
that the door was closed. She thought that was odd,
so she went over, opened the smoke house door and
slumped over a pile of walnuts.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
She found faking right there behind her house.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Right behind her house, in the smokehouse, and she she
was dead. So folks were going to take a quick break,
and when we come back, we're to get into this
story from Rafe King. We're gonna talk about how sick
he really was, and how Fay Wilson King she met
(24:09):
her de Maize and the aftermath. Folks, we'll be right
back after this quick word from our sponsors. Hi friends,
Matt Hires here. One of my favorite parts of bringing
you Carolina Crimes each week is spotlighting the many wonderful
(24:32):
towns and communities within our great state. And today I'm
proud to encourage you all to check out one of
my personal favorites. Rather on a road trip or a
weekend getaway, discover Mullins. Once a vibrant depot town and
the former tobacco capital of South Carolina, Mullins is a
hidden treasure in the PD region. Explore our offerings by
(24:54):
savoring a cup of coffee at our delightful coffee shop,
enjoying lunch at any of our charming restaurants, visiting old
Brick Square, and shopping at our quaint retail stores, which
include an antique market located in a repurposed tobacco warehouse.
Your visit would not be complete without a stop at
the South Carolina Tobacco Museum, situated in the historic train
(25:17):
depot in downtown Mullins, South Carolina. Here you can explore
various exhibits such as models of tobacco plants at each
growth stage, a blacksmith shop, a log tobacco barn filled
with cure tobacco, a farmhouse kitchen showcasing vintage equipment, and
a photo gallery highlighting contemporary tobacco practices. The Mullins Room
(25:39):
honors our town's origins and its swift growth driven by
the railroad and the tobacco industry. Additionally, in late June
twenty twenty five, the Reverend Daniel Simmons Museum will open
its stores to the public. Within the Tobacco Museum, Reverend
Simmons was one of the victims of the Mother Emmanuel
nine tragedy, and he spent his childhood in Mulleins and
(26:01):
work in its tobacco warehouses. Thanks to a generous loan
from his daughter Rose, we will exhibit many of his
personal belongings, including his beloved Bible. The documentary of his life,
One Last Breath, will be continuously streamed in the museum.
Rather it's for a road trip or a weekend getaway,
Mullins is a perfect place to visit and a place
(26:24):
to call home. Visit Mullins, South Carolina and Welcome Back
(26:59):
to Carolina Crimes episode two forty one out of Western
York County, out of the town of Sharon, South Carolina
and just an absolute wild classic. So when we left off,
we talked about Faye Wilson King, the twenty four year
(27:22):
old school teacher who had been found dead in the
smokehouse behind her home. Faye was over a pile of walnuts.
They noticed immediately when the neighbor that found her called
authorities over. There's some blood on her, on her dress,
(27:48):
on her shoes. Nothing really popped out to him about
a wound, but when they looked at her lips, they
were burned like corrosive. There was a bottle beside her
of it was a chemical called no Mop like n omp.
(28:16):
It was a household cleaner. It was also a two
in one. It was a household cleaner and a veterinary
product for chickens. Okay, multipurpose yeah, really specific purposes and
(28:36):
only chickens. No Mop It did contain arsenic so worth noting. Now,
remember Ray he said, you know, I do have a
bad feeling that they might want to harm herself or
may want to to take her own life. So the
(29:00):
authorities there, Sheriff Quinn. He started searching the home with
some more other folks there. Some interesting things were found.
They found a bottle of lysol, which I mean it's
not the spray that it is today. The lysol is
(29:21):
found that also contained carbolic acid. RAFs pajamas were found.
They were actually found in a bin of other clean clothes,
but they were soiled and they had some blood on them, okay,
(29:42):
and I say pajamas. It wasn't like it wasn't like
something Ward Cleaver would wear, like a top and bottom.
It was one of the old fashioned onesies with the
flap in the back of them. Also, there were some
papers it looked like that Faye had been grating had
blood on it. And there was blood on the door
(30:06):
threshold and the door jam leading between the kitchen and
the dining room, and some blood streaks in their storage
room that led out to the backyard. Okay, raithe he
went ahead and he had told mcaulay, the pastor that
he was visiting with. He went ahead and told Sheriff Quinn.
(30:30):
He said, you know, I was afraid of this. I
was sick today. But Faye, he said, Faye had been threatening.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
To hurt herself.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Okay, well, Doctor Burris he had to come back for
the second time to the king household and he he came.
He noticed the corrosive burns on Fay's lips and a
small wound to her head. I mean, it was hard
(31:03):
to tell. She was very dirty, walnutshells on her. He said,
you know, it looks like she may have hit her
head or something. That's probably the source of the blood
didn't think anything about it, but was more concerned about
the lips. There was blood on her dress and shoes,
as we mentioned, but none in the smokehouse, so there
(31:25):
was none on the ground there.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So that's not where it took place.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
You're catching on. So police started asking Rafe King a
bunch of questions, and he did admit to the sheriff.
Of course Faye was suicidal, and the reason she was
suicidal was because he said, I, I don't really want
(31:51):
to tell you this, but FaZe got a social disease.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
An st D?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Oh, that's what they called it. Yes, I'm thinking like
fear of being out in public.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Or or like, yeah, I don't do sensory phobia. Hey,
I don't like I don't like being out and around
a bunch of people. No social disease back then, and
I learned this too looking this up. But uh, social
disease is a nice term for an STD. I'm gonna
start using that. No, because I don't. People listen to this. No,
(32:37):
I do that, but when I'm when I talk about
if it ever comes up in conversation, I'll say it's
a you know, so you know it's a social disease.
I like that. Yeah, and that's what the the transcript had.
In fact, the specific social disease that he said Faking
(32:59):
had or so differed from, was syphilis. He told that
to doctor Burris as well. He said, yeah, Faye she
you see, she had syphilis and she was suicidal because
of this. And the doctor really wasn't asking him any questions.
(33:20):
He was more concerned about Faye and how she got
in that condition. But Rafe decided to tell her anyway,
and he said, yeah, Fay caught it before we got married,
and you know that's why she lost her job teaching
up in Shelby, North Carolina. She's got syphilis. Well, doctor
(33:42):
Burris called him out and was like, false, no, dude,
I am your doctor. He said, I'm your doctor, Rafe.
And remember I have actually treated you for syphilis, not
your wife, and you are the one with it, and
(34:02):
maybe you've passed it to your wife maybe not. I
don't know. But this is the first as your family
physician that I'm hearing about this. So good on doctor
Burris for saying, dude, no, that's not true. Well then
Rath swapped it up. He said, well, what I really
(34:22):
meant to say, was you see, Faye is pregnant and
she is very scared of giving birth, absolutely terrified. You know,
her social disease may play part of this, but that's
in fact why she was suicidal as she was pregnant.
(34:43):
She was scared raife. He also continued talking to Sheriff Quinn.
He said, actually, you know, I've been sick all day.
I was sick. I'm not sure if you knew or not,
but I was sick today and all day long. I
couldn't go to sleep. But I heard a dog barking
(35:04):
outside all day long, you know now that I'm thinking
about it, So what that must have meant? That was
somebody was lurking around in the bushes around our property.
That's exactly what that meant. There was a dog barking.
I was sick, but the dog was barking in the
So yeah, a prowler that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
That makes more sense, That's what.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
It was, and it actually, I mean it does make sense.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I mean you could say that when she left to
go to work is when this person attacked.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, we're kind of clowning on rape here, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
That's well, it sounds like he keeps changing his story up,
and it sounds like when you're going through a thought
process and you're trying to work through something, So you're
talking out loud to all these different scenarios.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yes, until you get to the end where you're like this,
I figured out the problem. This is what it is.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
And it's like you're working through what you were doing,
what you think happened.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, it's like when you have an inner dialogue with yourself.
But he's not keeping it to himself.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
He's trying to get he's bouncing ideas off of everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, see, try and see what'll stick.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
This makes sense.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
So while these stories kind of keep spewing out, fay
King's body was taken for an autopsy, which was performed
by doctor Burres. He's a big player in this one.
Now keep in mind doctor Burris, he was not a pathologist.
In fact, fay King's autopsy was the first one that
(36:34):
he ever performed.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
His conclusion was that it was death by poisoning, more
than likely a suicide, but the investigation did continue. Uh,
fay King's body and I'm really not sure I need
(36:58):
to go more into depth about funeral procedures. Around nineteen
twenty nine, I guess I could have. But Phase body
was actually being prepared for her burial by her female
friends and neighbors, you know, doing whatever makeup needed to
be done.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
They might wash the body, I think, maybe put it in, yeah,
and put it in you know, like the burial outfit.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah. And they were getting her clothes ready, a nice dress,
making her as presentable as they could, considering the tragedy
that happened, Well, what are the women? She needed to
get the iron to iron an accessory for Phase burial outfits.
(37:45):
So she went to the closet and got the electric
iron out which was pretty cutting edge technology for this time.
The first electric iron it did come about in eighteen
eighty eight, but it really hit the market and was
hot in like the nineteen twenties. Oh my gosh, yeah,
(38:08):
oh yeah, because you think of what they used to
have to have. It was a cast iron like heat
them up iron jail, like leave them on the wood
stove and get them hot, and then iron your clothes
with it if you wanted to have press clothes. I
don't really know what kind of priority that was up
until I mean nineteen twenties, folks were pretty dapper.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Well, it could also be for like church clothes, yeah,
or special occasion clothes and rape.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
He liked to dress nice. He was a clothes horse too. Okay,
I don't know if you ever heard that name. A
close horse, not but a close horse. He he dressed
very fine to impress for a farmer. Yes, and he
they said he was fancy. The But the iron when
(38:58):
the lady ironing the success it was a belt she
was ironing. They called it a kimono belt, which is
I don't know what that is. Chime in listeners if
you do. But this lady, the iron wasn't working. It
was just kind of going in and out intermittently. And
she looked at this thing and the cord had been manipulated.
(39:21):
It had been pulled and stretched. And I still remember
my grandmother having an older electric iron when I was little,
and it had like a curly que cord, like wrapped
in a cloth. It wasn't like a straight AC DC
plug in. And I think this was what she was meaning.
(39:43):
It was stretched straight, it was pulled a little bit
from the iron itself, causing it to maybe short out
and not stay on. But she was like, that's weird.
That's weird. This is you know, fairly new iron, but
it's been abused and not taken care of well. So
these ladies they did get faking ready for burial, and
(40:05):
she was buried up in King's Mountain, which was right
on the North Carolina South Carolina border, home of very
famous Revolutionary War battle. But even after the funeral for faking,
a lot of fishy things still going on. The investigation
(40:26):
was still kind of open. You know. Yes, Dr Burr
said this was a suicide by poisoning, but we're still
going to have to collect some evidence. So York Police
Chief Frank Faulkner got involved as well, and he helped
comb the house very thoroughly. And he went up into
the attic at the King's house and found something very odd.
(40:55):
He found some clothes up on the eaves above the
front porch, up in the attic, obviously intentionally put here.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
M h.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
It was a coat and bundled up inside it were clothes.
It was a suit belonging to Raf King. You ask
how we knew it belonged to Raf King? Had the
uh the monogram r FK on them?
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I was gonna ask written in sharpie raef F King
on the tag.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Oh no, it was even better than that. It was
embroidered on.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There so everyone could see it.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yes, but along with the monogram on his clothes, there
was also blood.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Oh Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
So Sheriff Quinn and Chief Faulkner they thought that there
were just way too many anomalies with this thing just
wasn't sitting right the theory of a suicide. There was
blood throughout the house. Rafe's stories kept changing, you know,
with the breeze and then the bloody clothes that were
(42:01):
attempted to be hidden that suit up in the attic.
So they decided, you know what, let's this is a
very circumstantial. What we need to have is a coroner's inquest.
We've talked about that before here on.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
The show, Yes, I remember.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And what a coroner's inquest is is it's not exactly
a trial. Even though there is a jury present that
hands down their decision, the judge is the coroner, and
there's evidence presented around a death that may be suspicious
to determine the cause of death and more importantly, if
(42:38):
someone was responsible for this thing. Okay, So this corner's
inquest was scheduled for February fourth, nineteen twenty nine. So
ten days after the death of Fa King, and word
had spread throughout the upstate of South Carolina about this thing.
(42:58):
In a weird day at the King's home, a lot
of people interested in the outcome of this. So they
had to have the Corner's inquest not at the courthouse
but at the Sharon High School auditorium so they.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Could fit all these spectators.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yes, and they still didn't all fit in there. You know,
word spread, everyone wanted to attend, and all the York
County was talking about this. And finally at the inquest,
this auditorium set one hundred people, but there were people
waiting outside, piled out, more people outside than inside. Raf
(43:37):
King he took the stand and of course the first
thing he said is I was sick all day. I
was sick all that day. You know, Doctor burst couln't
find anything wrong with me, but I couldn't sleep. I
was just just sick.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Something was wrong with.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Me, sick, didn't feel right. So when Rafe was asked
about the bloody pajamas he had on the Onesie Rafe
he said, you know what, I need to get off
the stand and I need to speak to Sheriff Quinn.
Sheriff said well all right, yeah, let's let's do it,
(44:18):
and he said, let's walk outside and talk. I need
to talk to you. So they went outside and Rafe
told Sheriff Quinn, he said, I don't think I'm getting
a fair deal here at this inquest. He said, you know,
nothing's been brought up. Remember I heard a dog barking
(44:38):
all day and I was sick, but I couldn't sleep,
and it had to be a dog barking at a
prowler that was responsible for.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
This, but he couldn't check because he was sick, right.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
And Raf said, you know this prowler, he may have
come in the house and hurt Fai. And the sheriff said, okay,
well let's go back in and you can tell this story.
Why did you stop this whole thing to take me outside?
And by this time all the people outside that had
been wanting to get in they were getting a front.
(45:15):
Oh yes, the action's spilled outside. So they all circled
around and were listening to this exchange, like, oh my gosh,
we're getting the juice. Now, this is what it says happened, yes,
and what they heard they it made most of the
crowd outside think Rafe was guilty. That they were like this, dude,
(45:36):
he he keeps changing this story and the way he's acting.
And if they didn't think he was guilty, at the
very minimum, they realized he didn't know when to shut up. Yeah,
So the prosecutor came outside that was present, and he said, hey,
are we going to do this or not? Guys, let's
go in and he said, Rafe, you know, you and
(45:57):
Sheriff Quinn, you're getting all this out in front these people.
Come inside. Let's go to a classroom somewhere private where
we all can talk and get this done. So Rafe
and Sheriff Quinn they went back into the school into
a classroom. One of Rafe's brothers came in there as well,
and Rafe he continued to say, you know, we we've
(46:20):
got to find this prowler. We've got to find you know,
the real killer, very OJL like and saying, hey, we
gotta we gotta find the real prowler who did this. Well,
raf King's brother he interjected himself and was like, hey,
I think you've said enough. You know, let's let's go
(46:41):
back out here. This is in the way things handled
are handled, So let's go back out to this corner's inquest.
So they went back out. The inquest continued and it
was determined by the jury or the jury that Fa
King she died of poisoning, but at the hand of
someone else. So at the conclusion of this, Rafe King
(47:07):
he was arrested for the murder of his wife, Fay
Wilson King and given a three thousand dollars bond through
that in the old inflation calculator, and what that equals
to today is about fifty seven thousand dollars. Okay, So
the bond was paid. Remember Rape King had very wealthy parents,
(47:29):
and a trial date was set. Folks were going to
take our second break here, and after this quick word
from our sponsors, we're going to come back and talk
about the end of this wild, wild tale. Folks will
be right back and welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode
(48:03):
two forty one at a Sharon, South Carolina and the
mysterious but getting not so mysterious death of Fa King.
When we left off, her husband, Rafe King, he had
been arrested for her murder, given a three thousand dollars bond.
He was promptly bonded out by his parents and went
(48:24):
to stay with him and Shelby, North Carolina until time
for his trial. Well after his arrest, after this coroner's
inquest where the jury said, yeah, we believe she died
at the hands of her husband, public infatuation with this
crime exploded. I mean, true crime is very well, it's
(48:51):
a very well watched and monitored genre today. I mean,
look at this podcast. Yeah, look at all the true
crime podcasts out there, date lines, your forensic files, at
the public. That fascination has never seemed to wane as
time goes on. But back here in nineteen twenty nine,
(49:11):
it was in newspapers they said coast to coast.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
I mean, that was probably the biggest thing that had
happened in that community in a very long time. So yeah,
everyone was very interested, like watching your you know, something
unfold on TV.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yes, and this story was picked up nationally by journalists.
A enterprising man by the name of ce mcgirkin. He
actually when Rafe was out on bond, he said, Hey,
I'm gonna do you a solid. Do you mind if
I rent your home from you? Rafe said yeah, I
(49:47):
mean all right, it's just a stream of income that
I need. And what mister mcgirkin did was he rented
the King home and he gave twenty five cent of
the King murder House to people. People from out of
town would come all over. They got to see the
(50:08):
smokehouse where Fay was found, the attic where the bloody
clothes were found by Frank Faulkner. Lookie Loose from as
far away as New Jersey came down to see this
and take a tour. It said. On one Sunday, over
two thousand people came to tour this house and at
twenty five per cent of pop, that's five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
This guy made me it was on something.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
One Sunday afternoon. That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
This is that more bi curiosity.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
He knows, Yeah, what people are gonna come.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
So the prosecution, Sheriff Quinn and Chief Faulkner at this time,
they said, you know, if we're gonna build this case,
we hate to do it, but we're probably gonna have
to exhume fake King's body. So they ordered they got
(50:59):
the paperwork in order to get her body exhumed, and
they did just that. And they they really wanted a
true pathologist and medical examiners to look at phase remains
to see what happened. One of the biggest finds when
they did this were ligature marks around her neck. They
(51:21):
said that the cause of death was in fact strangulation.
Remember that ironing board. They determined that one of Ray's
stories was a lie. They was not pregnant. They sent
her stomach to Clemson University for pathological tests and they
(51:41):
were able to determine, in fact, she was not poisoned,
that the chemical burns on her lips were likely staged
to make it look like she committed suicide. They took
a closer look at that wound to her head and
her hair. When doctor Burris, I mean, in his defense,
he wasn't a pathologist. They took a closer look, and
(52:07):
her hair had been matted down. It was not in
good condition when he looked at her body. But the
harder they looked, they saw that there was in fact
blunt force trauma to her head. There was a large
gash where she was hit with something forcefully, maybe sharp
(52:30):
on the edge, but a blunt object. Still.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
I wonder if it was the iron.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Something very similar to maybe an iron on her head.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
So he hit her either to knock her out or
stun her and then proceeded to strangle her so she
wouldn't put up as much of a fight.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Possibly. Now, raf King he assembled quite a defense team.
He hired seven attorneys. Some of the more notable names
Thomas McDowell of York and John Hemphill of Chester, both
of whom I have very close friendships with some of
(53:10):
their descendants.
Speaker 7 (53:12):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah, And in fact, I think it was one of
Thomas McDowell's grandsons actually, right out of college, rented a
place from him, the place on MIKEL Court.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Oh wow, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
That we always talk about the little party house we had.
But these defense attorneys, they made a wise move and
they made a motion for a change of venue due
to the publicity. Now everybody in the country was talking
about it, except and especially I mean in York County.
(53:46):
So they did move the venue to Chester County, South Carolina,
and the trial was set for September of nineteen twenty nine. Now,
the Chester County courthouse was quite small, anticipating large crowds
of spectators for this raf King trial. They had to
(54:08):
actually make renovations and accommodations for the mob that the
mob of people they expected on the day of the trials,
people would get there before dawn or stay overnight to
ensure that they got seats in the courtroom to see this.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Yes, the day Raith King was set to take the
stand and testify, it was so packed. There was such
a large crowd around the courthouse that the only way
to get Raith King into the courthouse to testify, his
attorneys had to get him a ladder. The courtroom was
up on the second story and he actually had to
(54:48):
climb up a ladder and through a window to go
testify at his own murder trial.
Speaker 8 (54:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
Now, during the trial and testimony, King he remained calm
duck to his story that he was sick. I was sick.
He had been sedated. Remember he said his wife gave
him that sedative. Doctor Burst did give him administer opium
to him. And he claimed that a prowler killed his wife. Well.
(55:20):
On September twentieth, nineteen twenty nine, a verdict came through
and the verdict was guilty and the sentencing handed down
for rape King was the death penalty. Now rathe King.
He was sentenced to death and taken to Colombia to
(55:41):
be how's Chester was like, Okay, thank god, this is over.
Let's get this guy to Columbia. He's out of our hair.
This is over. But he was promptly returned from Columbia
back to Chester. The South Carolina Department of Corrections at
that time one of their policies was not to house
those sentence to death until twenty days prior to their execution,
(56:05):
So back to Chester he went. This caused a huge
headache for the county at Chester. Chester actually ended up
sending York County a bill for two three hundred and
sixty eight dollars for having the House King one hundred
and twenty dollars for damages that spectators calls to their courthouse.
(56:28):
During all this tomfoolery and Chester County jailed, they were
faced with another problem. The cells that they had were
along the ground level there at the county jail, and
the windows were open or open air. Basically they had
bars there, but people could still talk to people through them,
(56:51):
so inmates could speak to people on the street. Well,
Rafe King, he had a lot of visitors after that,
Oh let's speak to Raf King, And of course he
was more than happy to oblige them by talking because
he just could not shut his mouth. Yes, So all
these visitors kept swarming there to talk to this convicted
(57:13):
killer who was sentenced to death, until finally they appealed
over and over to the state government, and the Governor
of South Carolina, John Richards, had to step in and say, hey, Okay,
enough's enough. I don't care what the policy is. You
got to move this guy to Columbia. You gotta give
Chester County.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
A break, get him out of here, get him out of.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
There, and put him behind bars where he can just
talk to the walls. Well, an appeal was filed. Looking
at it looked like due to circumstantial evidence, which playing
devil's advocate, it really was. Yeah, the circumstantial evidence used
to convict Rafe King, and a new trial was granted
(58:00):
after the appeal was filed, and they said, Okay, this
one is not gonna We're not gonna put Chester through
this anymore. We're gonna move the trial to Lancaster County.
They have a larger courtroom, better facilities. Their courtroom actually
seats three hundred and fifty people, and a new trial
was set for May fourth, nineteen thirty one. Well, on
(58:21):
May seventh, three days after the trial started, a verdict
was reached. Seven hundred people packed the Lancaster County courtroom,
which only sat three point fifty. Several other people brought
ladders to the courthouse and climbed up to the window
so they could peep in and see this thing.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
Oh gos.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
And ultimately Rafe King he was found guilty. The judge
did hand down his sentence with a modicum of mercy
and said, okay, Raef King, you are going to be
a sentenced to life in prison without parole. And in
nineteen fifty, Raife King he died in Central Prison in
(59:07):
nineteen fifty. Wow, so a wild one. There lots of
wild changing stories and a murder story that captivated the nation.
And we talked at the beginning of the program about
this just creepy, creepy song that I said, we're gonna play.
(59:29):
It's by Mason Stapleton. It was recorded way back in
nineteen thirty one. It was recorded actually May twenty ninth,
so not even three weeks after the verdict, and we're
gonna go ahead and play it. It's creepy, it tells
the whole story. It's just a guy put the story
(59:51):
to music. So before we get to thank you, so
we're gonna play this. It's only three minutes and thirty
five seconds long. So take a listen to this one
from uh I won't I don't want to call it
a bop. But this morbid song called the Rape King
murder case by Mason Stapleton and the Stapleton brothers in
(01:00:30):
a town.
Speaker 7 (01:00:30):
Name in the same ovesy and this gultycously I should
be she called in the wee I one time dyke
by the name of this they will tame one day
(01:00:59):
he was bad in nineteen two nine, breaking her one
of q dollir time my four thouar call healthy and
where friend win the lady they brought him to and
(01:01:29):
paintil and Jay.
Speaker 8 (01:01:32):
Three thousand dollars want him ole off his bad.
Speaker 7 (01:01:38):
King had seven longs for him day eighteen to find
him not Gill and let him go free. King Clinty was.
Speaker 8 (01:01:55):
Four day in his bad thirty nine wow they found
his white day just howling all my and God on
me all King was houp and Gilly by the blood
(01:02:15):
on his fall.
Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Judge Henry or Chair.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Was judge and the drive when the gery said Gilly
came his barrens myle m in the court outside chair.
Speaker 6 (01:02:34):
In the monoty live Judge and re Lay came or
the trying He Must die m he was placed in
the jam house and say Clarah.
Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
Wi the frame for drive.
Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
King of In tries he was in fried in Land
there for killing.
Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
It came walk on me and then fall.
Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Him like all lifetime me bas the dressed him.
Speaker 7 (01:03:18):
In all overall and hoping he's number two.
Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
Seven from beginning life to.
Speaker 7 (01:03:33):
Work for the Dame.
Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
So wow, that does give all the information.
Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
We could have just played that song be like, yeah,
that's episode two forty two.
Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
They even talked about how he was ailing in his
bed all day.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Oh yeah, you can't leave that out. You can't leave
that out. But we appreciate you all listening to this
one this week. A wild story at a sh share
in South Carolina and one that lives in Lore around
York County, and we've heard about it. We appreciate my
good friend Tim Jones for sharing that one with us.
(01:04:13):
He is Tim's one of the most talented musicians you
ever want to meet. We wish him well. Him and
his wife Rose just fine people. But he he was
chomping at the bit as soon as we started, you know,
almost five years ago this podcast. He said, you gotta
do Rape King. Daw, you gotta do raf King. He
said I would if he was able to, he would
be here and he sings that song, play the guitar. Yeah,
(01:04:37):
he's a great historian, great person. But thank you, Tim Well.
Thank you to everyone. We thank everyone that's followed us
on social media at Carolina Crimes Podcast on Facebook, also
at sc Crimes pod over on Twitter. We thank those
that have given five star reviews and subscribed on Apple.
(01:04:57):
Thank you so much. Also those that have gone over
to Carol Line of crimestore dot com and bought some
sweet sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia, and we want to say
thank you to Christy Vinson who did just that this week.
Also over on Apple, thank you to Salt Blooded, Amazing
people in Shaw, to j T m F zero three
(01:05:20):
two zero, and to Joe Coop, thank you so much.
We also want to say thank you for reaching out
and giving us some good feedback. Melissa Justice, Ashley Kato,
good Friend, Andy Hendricks, Tory Hudson, Terry Pearson, Andrew Love,
Trey Glover, Kathy Lynd, Stephanie Mitchell, Amy Mullins, Allison Switzer,
(01:05:40):
Christy Nicole, Nicki Porter, Stephanie Haygood, Amy Smith, Chris Nef,
Connie Lopez and her pups, Bean and Zeus. Thank you
to Lynn Brogden, to Rosehowe, to Gina Henderson, Morgan Wilson,
You're a great contributor. You're a funny lady. I like her.
(01:06:01):
Thank you to Lynn Trebble, Julia Kane, Crystal Bosars, Tiny Willis,
Angie Melton, Chuck Garnes, to Rachel Likely, I hope I'm
saying that right. Rachel and her pictures of her cats,
her fish, and I believe that's an iguana. I don't know.
I'm not very up to date on my lizard ology.
(01:06:22):
Thank you to Blair Koblisky, to Brad Edwards, to Rush
Schumard and Alison Green. And if you've listened to us
here this week, thank you so much for listening to
episode two forty one, and we'll see you next week
on Carolina Crimes,
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