reward for info postcard for blaize harsell

Old money, blackmailed judges, moonshine and murder

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Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Photo above: Harsell family friend Franck Taylor reached out to Horace Kephart, sending him a bunch of these cards and asking for his help finding the lost man. Kephart had extensive correspondence with the family for several years after.

“Blaize L. Harsell, of New Bedford, NY, naturalist, writer and clubman, disappeared in the mountains of this section in March 1921,” begins the Lexington Herald-Leader, July 9 1923, p. 11. “More than a year spent in investigating his disappearance led to the conclusion that he was mistaken for a prohibition agent and slain in the Pigeon Roost section of Mitchell County, NC, a section famed for lawlessness and countless moonshine stills. Harsell appeared in Roanoke, VA, remained there two days and took a train for a point near Bristol, from whence he had planned to begin a journey afoot through the hills with Jasper, GA as his destination. 

“He had made arrangements to accompany an expedition to South America the following summer and the jaunt through the mountains was partly to condition himself for the trip southward later.

Bakersville, probably in the late summer of 1899 or 1900. The Baptist church is on the left, the Methodist church on right. The 1868 Mitchell County Courthouse is in the foreground.
Bakersville, probably in the late summer of 1899 or 1900. The Baptist church is on the left, the Methodist church on right. The 1868 Mitchell County Courthouse is in the foreground. 

“Relatives of Harsell heard from him direct the last time while he was in Roanoke. The clubman carried a light camping outfit, rifle and pistol. 

“When Harsell had been missing for six months his relatives became uneasy and his brother, Norman Harsell, of New York City, later came to Bristol to begin an investigation. Elmo W. Brimm, detective of Galax, VA, mountain-born and familiar with every range in this section, was engaged to aid in the quest.

“Bristol was made headquarters. Norman Harsell began an inquiry that carried him more than 800 miles through the mountains. Brimm’s investigations led to the arrest of Bill Rainwater at Johnson City. Rainwater was taken [ed.—by Sheriff J.C. Pritchard of Bakersville, who died Feb 24, 1922 of pneumonia contracted after accompanying Brim through his 800 mile trek] to Bakersville, NC where arrangements were hurriedly made for his trial on a charge of first degree murder.”

Accomplices Fons Buchanan and John Buchanan were also extradited to Bakersville, from Virginia, by one Sheriff S.A. Corn, said Knoxville’s Journal and Tribune (Jan 24, 1922). 

Norman Harsell picks up the story in a 14 page document, presented as “Exhibit C” in the 1922 preliminary hearing in his brother’s murder case:

Shortly after our arrival in Bakersville, and while in lawyer Greene’s offices, we were told by one of the lawyers for the defense, who came in abruptly and went out the same way, that the preliminary hearing of the men under arrest was set for Saturday, January 28th. 

This was news to us, and we, as I recall, spoke of the advisability of a postponement. We were not prepared to go ahead. We had not been consulted in the matter. We had not summoned a single witness. Therefore we demanded a postponement of the preliminary trial. We were informed that Justice of the Peace J.B. Craigmiles had the power to grant postponement but that he was not inclined to do so and that the lawyers for the defense would not consent to a postponement. 

J.B. Craigmiles portrait
J.B. Craigmiles

Thursday, January 26th, Mr. Brim, Attorney Greene and I called J.B. Craigmiles while he was at lunch and insisted that the preliminary trial be postponed to a future date.

He said he would have to consult with the attorneys for the defense before he could act. He then called on one of the attorneys, Mr. Berry, I believe it was. He said he could not consent without the approval of the other two lawyers, and that he did not know where they were. 

He then irritated me beyond measure by condoling about ‘the poor boys languishing in jail.’ I then told him frankly that if there was any crooked work in this case, any attempt to thwart the course of justice, that those responsible would be exposed to the full light of publicity and tried before the court of public opinion.

Craigmiles was then kacked up as to his duty under the circumstances, and the case was postponed till Monday, January 30th. The ‘poor boys languishing in jail’ were all wanted on liquor charges, except Bill Rainwater, and he was held on another murder charge. 

It was essential that we have the preliminary hearing postponed so that we could get witnesses. Getting witnesses in a case like ours is fraught with difficulty, or danger, or both. The local officers got none for me. 

In order to get them Brim arranged with Green Buchanan to guide into the Pigeon Roost. Green Buchanan is one of the clan. His going into the outlaw territory with the detective, who it was well known had run down the case, was a situation both novel and dangerous for them both. Buchanan might easily be regarded as a traitor against his own people, while Brim was known as their mortal enemy.

As Buchanan, Brim and I sat around the fiery little stove in my hotel room, the night before the proposed trip into Pigeon Roost, discussing the plans for the same, Brim suddenly shot out his neck, a habit of his, in the direction of Buchanan, and in his Virginia drawl said, while his blue eyes held Buchanan’s gaze, 

“Green, you and I have got some job to do. I trust you, Green, to come through clean, but I want to tell you right now that if there’s any shooting up in there I’m going to kill you first. That’s the western way, and I was a cowboy, Green. After I kill you, I’ll get as many of the others as I can take along with me when I’m snuffed out, for I’m a sociable guy and like company.”

Elmo Brim had already won his spurs as a crack detective when Norman Harsell hired him. He'd been one of the Baldwin-Felts Agency men who brought down the Sidna Allen gang.
Elmo Brim had already won his spurs as a crack detective when Norman Harsell hired him. He’d been one of the Baldwin-Felts Agency men who brought down the Sidna Allen gang.

The long, lean, middle-aged moonshiner sensed that Brim meant every word that he had said. For a moment he seemed stunned, then in his soft, smooth way he replied, “There ain’t a-going to be no shooting Mr. Detective if I kin help it. I’m a-goin’ to play fair and be right smart with you all.”

“Well, I was just telling you, Green,” replied Brim, “what will happen if you don’t. They say thin Bill Rainwater is a two-handed gunman. They tell me he can take a gun in each hand, stand off twenty-five paces, shoot into a tree with his left hand, and then shoot into the same bullet hole with his right. That ain’t so; no man living can do that regular. But I’m a pretty good shot, Green.”

Then from his pocket Brim produced a cartridge shell that was bent double. He handed the shell to Green.

“I stuck the end of that shell in a tree and doubled her us that way at 25 feet.” Green was greatly impressed, as Brim intended he should be, with the latter’s marksmanship.

Green Buchanan, like others of his clan, has nothing of the savage about him when in friendly conversation. His is low, his manner ingratiating, his smile ready. And such men, ever on the defensive, have the heritage of keenness and cunning bred into them, which is sharpened and seasoned by the wary and elusive lives they lead.

Turning to me, his good eye wide opened, his droop eye half closed, Green Buchanan said “Friend Detective Brim seems right smart tired out. Supposin’ you and me go to the Pigeon Roost ‘n he stay behin’ ‘n rest up. He shore needs it.”

I had to smile, for I reasoned Green figured me a tenderfoot and not to be feared as a man-killer. After Brim had finished laughing, he explained to Green that I was only learning to be a mountain detective, and that I had a lot to do while he and Green would be in the Pigeon Roost.

Then Brim said “Green, I’m going to play fair. I won’t take advantage of you, and you haven’t a gun with you, I’ll give you one of mine.  And if you get into a muss with your own people, I’m going to fight right along with you. While we’re in there we’re buddies.”

When Brim stepped out to telephone, Green suggested that it might be possible to get Fons Buchanan, his son, out of jail, and if that could be arranged, Fons could sleep in Brim’s bed and keep me from being lonely while Brim was in the Pigeon Roost.

Brim and Green Buchanan left for the Pigeon Roost Thursday, January 26th. Before going he was given full powers of deputy-sheriff. He had 23 subpoenas to serve. They had a hard and dangerous trip, Green Buchanan served faithfully and Brim returned in time for the preliminary, tired and strained from his labors and vigilance. He announced his witnesses, but only ten of the twenty-three appeared for the hearing.”

On February 2, the Bristol Herald Courier reported “Bill Rainwater, Fons Buchanan, and John Buchanan, who were held on a charge of murder in connection with the mysterious disappearance of Blaize L. Harsell, eminent writer and naturalist, in the Pigeon Roost section of North Carolina last spring, were released after preliminary trial before Justice of the Peace J. B. Craigmiles at Bakersville, NC. Justice Craigmiles is understood to have charged that insufficient evidence was presented upon which to hold the men.”

“Rainwater went west and it was later reported that he died there. This report reached here from three sources but was never officially confirmed,” stated the Lexington Herald-Leader. [The Charlotte Observer reported that Rainwater had enlisted in the Army and was stationed in the west.]

Mitchell County courthouse, ca. 1907
Mitchell County courthouse, ca. 1907

“Norman Harsell and Brim continued their inquiry with indifferent success and finally gave up in disgust after remaining in this section for several months. Brim returned to his home at Galax and died a few weeks later (November 8, 1922). Broken in health and spirit as a result of his disappointment, Norman Harsell returned to New York City.”

Meantime, J.C. Pritchard’s brother Clyde succeeded him as Bakersville sheriff. One M.V. Lewis “spilled something” to the new Sheriff Pritchard (says Franck Taylor in a May 13, 1923 letter to Horace Kephart), and Pritchard in early 1923 sought to reopen the case and re-arrest Rainwater and the Buchanans based on the new evidence. Lewis, a farmer who lived in the Pigeon Roost neighborhood of the Buchanans, claimed he had found a watch, haversack, and part of the gun that had belonged to Harsell on the Buchanan premises.

Grady Buchanan was jailed in early February 1923 in Bakersville, Fons Buchanan was detained in Jonesboro, TN and shipped back to Bakersville, and warrants were put out for Green Buchanan (Fons’ father), Joe Buchanan (Grady’s father), and Bill Rainwater. Joe Buchanan and Bill Rainwater were not rounded up. Green surrendered to the court on March 3. 

Gus Miller, a Pigeon Roost resident, testified at the 1923 hearing that he’d witnessed the murder of a stranger by Bill Rainwater. Rainwater apparently thought he had murdered a man named Harry Shipley, but it was in fact Harsell. Like M.V. Lewis, Miller verified that some of Harsell’s possessions—revolver, coat, a camera—were with Green Buchanan.

A grand jury, seeing the evidence confirmed, indicted Green Buchanan as an accessory to the murder in early April, reported the International News Service on April 16, stating he would be tried in superior court in May and held in jail meantime without bond.

At last it looked like the Harsell family would see justice served. But then…

“This spring [1923] Norman Harsell spent in Florida,” said the Lexington Herald-Leader, “and friends a day or two ago received telegrams from Mrs. Norman Harsell at West Palm Beach, FL that her husband had died there suddenly. His death [on May 5] was attributed to heart trouble.”

Blaize Harsell’s only remaining close next of kin after this was Norman’s daughter Mary Augusta Clark.

On November 17, 1923 Clark asked Horace Kephart in a letter if he’d heard anything about the case lately. “I had hoped it would come up at the November Court, but have heard nothing about it.”

So apparently Green Buchanan’s superior court date for May had been postponed.

Green Buchanan’s name does not appear in any newspaper items pertaining to the Blaize L. Harsell case after this. 

Franck Taylor letter to Horace Kephart May 13, 1923

“The ‘Harsell Case’ seems one of those sad affairs, where fate was against the leading figures, and I doubt whether justice will be done on this earth,” wrote Franck Taylor to Kephart. “I never questioned but what we once had in custody the men who were present when ‘Duke’ Harsell was killed, and that Bill Rainwater did the shooting. Of course, the Harsell family is now eliminated from the case, and if any conviction is had, the State will have to do it.”

Sources: Lexington Herald-Leader, July 9 1923

Horace Kephart Correspondence/ Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

Bristol Herald Courier, February 2, 1923

The Charlotte Observer, March 15, 1923

More articles on mysterious murder cases:

We had just as good as no law at all in Buchanan County(Opens in a new browser tab)

Was it murder? Or a heart attack?(Opens in a new browser tab)

The unsolved murder of Mamie Thurman(Opens in a new browser tab)

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