crime in Appalachia Archives - Appalachian History

History and Haints Abound!!

Treacherous English Lords. Murderous American doctors. Haints rapping loudly. Lelia Jane Grubb Musser told tales of these things, and more.

It was peculiar not so much on account of the crime as it was because of the unheard-of conduct of the sheriff and prisoner after conviction.

He hiked without care through the lawless back country of Mitchell County. His tweeds & mahogany cane telegraphed ‘revenuer’ to moonshiners.

Floyd’s last words? Asked by agent Melvin Purvis about the Kansas City Massacre, he snapped, “I won’t tell you anything, you son-of-a-bitch.”

Howard Little was convicted of the murders on Laurel Creek and sentenced to death. He was electrocuted in Richmond on January 7, 1910.