In 1925 a man from Coal Creek, Tennessee, named Condy Dabney came to Harlan County, Kentucky, looking for work down in the mines. He soon tired of that work and started a taxi service that shuttled folks around Harlan and other towns in the county.

Things were looking bright for Mr. Dabney, until he was arrested and charged with killing a 14-year-old girl who it was said had taken a ride in his cab. He was convicted of her murder.

Then, things got strange.

Today we tell the story of a Harlan County murder that never happened.

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Back during the Great Depression East Tennessee was visited by a mysterious beast, a large dog with, some say, glowing red eyes. This dog, called the Witch Dog by some, terrorized farms in the region. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the Witch Dog vanished, never to be seen again.

Today we bring you the story of the Witch Dog, in honor of Halloween...

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Every now and then there appears a man or woman with a sense of the true importance of the culture of Appalachia. Bascom Lamar Lunsford was one of those people.

Trained as a teacher and as a lawyer, Lunsford not only taught and practiced law in Western North Carolina, he also spent time as a fruit tree salesman, a beekeeper, a newspaper publisher, and an auctioneer, among other pursuits.

But it was his love of old-time Appalachian music that made him famous. Lunsford is known for his travels through the hills and hollers collecting songs and tunes, many of which he recorded himself.

Today we tell the story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

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In 1935 a young Appalachian teacher from Pound, Virginia, was arrested for the murder of her abusive father. The trials that followed attracted the attention of the national press, which chose, as it always does, to portray Appalachia as a land of ignorant, backward and poor folks while they focused on the more lurid details of the case.

Today we tell the story of Edith Maxwell.

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In the 1880's and early 1890's Harlan County, Kentucky was the scene for one of the most notorious feuds aside from the one between the Hatfields and McCoys.

Two prominent families, the Howards and the Turners, and their allies, fought to avenge wrongs inflicted by the other side, for control of the county and for control of the local whiskey trade. Harlan itself was the scene of gun battles, murders and even threats to burn the town itself to the ground.

Today we tell the story of the Howard-Turner feud.

On January 7, 1938, a blast rocked the little community of Hampton, Tennessee. After the smoke cleared, the home of Harmon and Pauline Gouge was in ruins, their three daughters lay dead, and Pauline Gouge was in a coma.

On this episode of the Stories podcast, Steve and Rod tell the story of this bit of Appalachian history.

During the post-Civil War coal boom in West Virginia, many new towns were founded to serve the coal industry and the railroads that hauled that coal to market. One of these towns was Thurmond, founded by a former Confederate captain of Thurmond's Rangers which was based in the area.

Along with those towns came hotels to accomodate visitors and businessmen. In Thurmond one of those hotels gained quite a saucy reputation: the Dunglen Hotel.

Today we tell that story.

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Talt Hall had a very interesting life. Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, he had been a Confederate soldier, a deputy sheriff, a U. S. Marshal, a feudist, a railroad employee and a traveler who lived in various places across the country.

He was also alleged to have killed nearly a hundred men in his lifetime. He was tried for 6 of those killings over the years and was acquitted of 5 of them. It was that 6th one, the last one attributed to him, that sent him to the gallows...just a short time before the hanging of the man who captured him in Memphis, Tennessee.

Today we tell the story of Bad Talt Hall.

During the Civil War a man from Kentucky who had moved to Tennessee joined the Confederate side as a guerrilla fighter. Due to his extreme anger issues he soon became a Confederate vigilante, killing anyone he knew who had any connections with the Union. It was an infamous incident at a Confederate hospital in Saltville, Virginia, that resulted in his capture and arrest by Confederate authorities in 1865.

Today we tell the story of an outlaw from both sides in the Civil War: Champ Ferguson.

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A man's family in the Smoky Mountains community of Cade's Cove is torn apart by the Civil War, with tragic results for him.

Today we share that story.

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