Download or read book Who killed Laura Foster written by Jan Kronsell and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-02-24 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The murder of Laura Foster in 1866 has been the source of many legends and both in fiction and non-fiction it has inspired many authors. The murder, which in the end led to the conviction and execution of Thomas C. Dula, also inspired the famous song, The Ballad of Tom Dooley. In this book I go through the surviving records from the time and tell the story based on these facts, before I try to give my own explanation of what actually happened in Western North Carolina in the difficult times following the American Civil War.

Download or read book The Ballad of Tom Dooley written by Sharyn McCrumb and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a literary triumph—what began as a fictional re-telling of the historical account of one of the most famous mountain ballads of all time became an astonishing revelation of the real culprit responsible for the murder of Laura Foster Hang down your head, Tom Dooley...The folk song, made famous by the Kingston Trio, recounts a tragedy in the North Carolina mountains after the Civil War. Laura Foster, a simple country girl, was murdered and her lover Tom Dula was hanged for the crime. The sensational elements in the case attracted national attention: a man and his beautiful, married lover accused of murdering the other-woman; the former governor of North Carolina spearheading the defense; and a noble gesture from the prisoner on the eve of his execution, saving the woman he really loved. With the help of historians, lawyers, and researchers, Sharyn McCrumb visited the actual sites, studied the legal evidence, and uncovered a missing piece of the story that will shock those who think they already know what happened—and may also bring belated justice to an innocent man. What seemed at first to be a sordid tale of adultery and betrayal was transformed by the new discoveries into an Appalachian Wuthering Heights. Tom Dula and Ann Melton had a profound romance spoiled by the machinations of their servant, Pauline Foster. Bringing to life the star-crossed lovers of this mountain tragedy, Sharyn McCrumb gifts understanding and compassion to her compelling tales of Appalachia, and solidifies her status as one of today's great Southern writers.

Download or read book The True Story of Tom Dooley written by John Edward Fletcher and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crime that shocked post-Civil War America and inspired the folk song that became The Kingston Trio’s hit, “Tom Dooley.” At the conclusion of the Civil War, Wilkes County, North Carolina, was the site of the nation’s first nationally publicized crime of passion. In the wake of a tumultuous love affair and a mysterious chain of events, Tom Dooley was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Laura Foster. This notorious crime became an inspiration for musicians, writers and storytellers ever since, creating a mystery of mythic proportions. Through newspaper articles, trial documents and public records, Dr. John E. Fletcher brings this dramatic case to life, providing the long-awaited factual account of the legendary murder. Join the investigation into one of the country’s most enduring thrillers. “Fletcher has spent a great deal of time researching almost all of the characters involved with the Foster homicide and has gone further than any researcher I know in establishing the relationships—blood, marriage and social—between the major actors in the tragedy.”—Statesville Record & Landmark

Download or read book Lift Up Your Head Tom Dooley written by John Foster West and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Dula's trial unveiled a sordid story of sexual immorality, resentment, jealousy and bitterness, and he was convicted and hanged before a huge crowd in Statesville, an event that drew national attention. The story lived on, in time becoming entwined with myth and legend, because it inspired a ballad that was sung throughout the mountains.

Download or read book Unprepared To Die written by Paul Slade and published by Soundcheck Books. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gory Stories Behind The Murder Ballads Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest ‘orrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead, they mutate – morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic and continue to fascinate each generation’s biggest musical stars. Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre’s history through eight of its greatest songs. Stagger Lee’s “biographers” alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including “Knoxville Girl”, “Tom Dooley” and “Frankie & Johnny”, Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other leading musicians add their own insights.

Download or read book The Jolly Roger Social Club written by Nick Foster and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the remote Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert, aka 'Wild Bill,' is awaiting trial for the murder of five fellow American ex-patriots. Holbert's first victims were the Brown family, who lived on a remote island in the area's Darklands. There, Holbert turned their home into the 'Jolly Roger Social Club,' using drink- and drug-fueled parties to get to know other ex-pats ... But this is not just a book about what Holbert did and the complex financial and real estate motives behind the killings; it is about why Bocas del Toro turned out to be his perfect hunting ground, and why the community tolerated--even accepted--him for a time"

Download or read book White Oleander written by Janet Fitch and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unforgettable story of a young woman's odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes on her journey to redemption. Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery - but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison. White Oleander is the unforgettable story of Astrid's journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become. Oprah Winfrey enjoyed this gripping first novel so much that she not only made it her book club pick, she asked if she could narrate the audio release.

Download or read book The Tom Dooley Files written by Barnes and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-30 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1958, when the Kingston Trio released their popular ballad "Tom Dooley," every time I heard the sad refrain on the radio about Tom going to be hanged for the murder of his sweetheart I'd cry. In my heart, I believed Tom was innocent. The authorities would be hanging an innocent man. Thirty years later, I saw an article in the Charlotte Observer that told about Tom Dooley, including the fact that he'd been hanged in Statesville, N.C. an hour from my home! Edith Ferguson Carter, whose family was intertwined with the story from its very beginning, was opening a Tom Dooley Museum just a mile from where the tragedy occurred. I contacted Edith and listened to her story about a young Confederate soldier and POW who returned from the Civil War to find his first love Ann had married another man, but still wanted Tom. Since he could no longer marry Ann, Tom began courting Laura, the girl who was later murdered. Area residents believe a jealous Ann was the actual murderer. On my search to find the truth, I interviewed people whose ancestors told stories about their involvement in events surrounding Laura's May 25, 1866 murder. I interviewed Edith's father, whose brother was Tom's jailor; Edith's husband's grandfather, who was the coroner; the great grandson of "Grayson" who helped the posse catch Tom and then stopped them from lynching him in Tennessee; Frank Proffitt, Jr. whose great grandmother heard Tom singing the song in his cell in Statesville and passed it down through her family and many more. Next, I searched the N.C. state archives which had summaries of Tom's two trials; interviewed experts on the "place and the times;" searched contemporary newspapers and the Wilkes, Caldwell and Iredell Heritage books to find out about the jurors, sheriffs and judges. Studying the life of his attorney, Zebulon Vance, the ex-Confederate governor of N.C., I believe I found the real reason this famous man represented Tom. The result of my research is found inside The Tom Dooley Files.

Download or read book The Terrorist written by Caroline B. Cooney and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A terrorist attack in London sends a teenage girl on a dangerous hunt for revenge in this gripping suspense novel from the author of The Voice on the Radio. Laura and Billy Williams are two ordinary American expat kids living with their parents in England. Then, in an instant, everything changes when Billy is handed a mysterious package in a London Underground station . . . Billy’s tragic death leaves a hole in Laura’s heart, one that soon becomes filled with anger and a burning obsession to find the terrorist responsible for taking her brother’s life. Her search for the truth takes her into dangerous territory, forcing Laura to question everyone she knows and everything she believes. The bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton ratchets up the tension in this thriller about a girl who will stop at nothing to separate the truth from the lies. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Caroline B. Cooney including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Download or read book Keeper of the Lost Cities written by Shannon Messenger and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestselling series A USA TODAY bestselling series A California Young Reader Medal–winning series In this riveting series opener, a telepathic girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world before the wrong person finds the answer first. Twelve-year-old Sophie has never quite fit into her life. She’s skipped multiple grades and doesn’t really connect with the older kids at school, but she’s not comfortable with her family, either. The reason? Sophie’s a Telepath, someone who can read minds. No one knows her secret—at least, that’s what she thinks… But the day Sophie meets Fitz, a mysterious (and adorable) boy, she learns she’s not alone. He’s a Telepath too, and it turns out the reason she has never felt at home is that, well…she isn’t. Fitz opens Sophie’s eyes to a shocking truth, and she is forced to leave behind her family for a new life in a place that is vastly different from what she has ever known. But Sophie still has secrets, and they’re buried deep in her memory for good reason: The answers are dangerous and in high-demand. What is her true identity, and why was she hidden among humans? The truth could mean life or death—and time is running out.

Download or read book Foster s War written by Carolyn Reeder and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2000 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When his older brother joins the army during World War II in order to escape the rages of an authoritarian father, eleven-year-old Foster fights his battles on the homefront.

Download or read book Cold Mountain written by Charles Frazier and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wounded Confederate soldier treks across the ruins of America in this National Book Award–winning novel: “A stirring Civil War tale told with epic sweep.” —People Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His journey across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. Meanwhile, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

Download or read book David Foster Wallace The Last Interview written by David Foster Wallace and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In intimate and eloquent interviews, including the last he gave before his suicide, the writer hailed by A.O. Scott of The New York Times as “the best mind of his generation” considers the state of modern America, entertainment and discipline, adulthood, literature, and his own inimitable writing style. In addition to Wallace’s last interview, the volume features a conversation with Dave Eggers, a revealing Q&A with the magazine of his alma mater Amherst, his famous Salon interview with Laura Miller following the publication of Infinite Jest, and more. These conversations showcase and illuminate the traits for which Wallace remains so beloved: his incomparable humility and enormous erudition, his wit, sensitivity, and humanity. As he eloquently describes his writing process and motivations, displays his curiosity by time and again turning the tables on his interviewers, and delivers thoughtful, idiosyncratic views on literature, politics, entertainment and discipline, and the state of modern America, a fuller picture of this remarkable mind is revealed.

Download or read book Sleeping Murder written by Agatha Christie and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernize the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs. In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they were to solve a “perfect” crime committed many years before.

Download or read book Dooley written by Charlotte Corbin Barnes and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the Kingston Trio's 1958 international hit ballad "Tom Dooley" plus 30 years of in-depth research into the life and times of Confederate Civil War Veteran Thomas C. Dula, "Dooley!" is Charlotte Corbin Barnes' latest literary achievement. A factual novel, "Dooley!" deftly chronicles the multiple sides of the legend of Tom Dooley from the perspective of the New York Herald newspaper reporter who was assigned to cover Tom's 1868 hanging in Statesville, NC. Barnes relies on the wealth of information she's collected surrounding the legend to tell what she believes really happened during that fateful spring of 1866 when Laura Foster "just up and disappeared." "Edith Carter, my dear friend and founder of the Tom Dooley Museum in Wilkes County, North Carolina, challenged me to first publish the factual book, which I did with the 2016 release of 'The Tom Dooley Files: My Search for the Truth Behind the Legend.' It won a prestigious Book of the Year Award for 2017 from the North Carolina Society of Historians and has been called 'The Tom Dooley Bible.' 'Its information is priceless!' Edith said about The Tom Dooley Files. 'Then, when you've finished with that, you can write a novel that reveals what you believe, according to what your research and your gut tell you could be the real story behind the stabbing murder of Laura Foster.' So that's what I've done." Charlotte Corbin Barnes

Download or read book When the Bough Breaks written by Matthew Benns and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of Australia's worst convicted female serial killer, Kathleen Folbigg. She killed her four children over 10 years. Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura Folbigg died one by one over a 10-year period in similar circumstances - suddenly, unexpectedly and while sleeping. Each was discovered by Kathleen, their mother, who raised the alarm to her husband, Craig, that they were not breathing. When the Folbiggs' marriage fell apart six weeks after the death of their fourth child, Laura, Craig was devastated. It only got worse when he discovered Kathleen's diary in her bedside drawer. Horrified at his wife's ramblings about losing control with the children, her 'terrible thoughts' and her fears she was her 'father's daughter', he took the diary to the police. The diary was the crucial evidence Detective Bernie Ryan had been searching for to confirm his suspicions that the babies had been murdered. With his career and credibility on the line, he made the decision to charge Kathleen Folbigg with the murder of her four innocent babies. No one who knew Kathleen could believe she had murdered her own children. Yet few knew of her tragic past - the fact that her own father had stabbed her mother to death four decades earlier. When The Bough Breaks exposes the secret life of Australia's worst convicted female serial killer, a woman jailed for the unthinkable crime of killing her own children. It raises important issues about parents who do not feel emotionally attached to their children and about the diagnosis of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as a cause of death.

Download or read book Justice for Bonnie written by Karen Foster and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking true crime story of an Alaskan college student’s murder and her mother’s relentless crusade for the truth. When police told Karen Foster that her eighteen-year-old daughter, Bonnie Craig, had died in a hiking accident, she knew the pieces of the investigation just didn’t add up. Bonnie would have never ditched her classes at the University of Alaska to go hiking. And she didn’t drive—so how would she have reached McHugh Creek, miles outside of Anchorage, in the first place? Armed with little more than her own conviction, Karen set out to find the truth behind her daughter’s death. After a long series of false leads and dead ends, it seemed the case would forever go unsolved. Then, after twelve years of public campaigning, private despair, and increasingly tense dealings with the detectives working the case, Karen received an e-mail that would change everything: the system, at long last, had produced a match for the unknown DNA in the case—from a man in a jail all the way across the country. Here is the chilling tale of a mother’s unflagging fight to track down the monster who stole her daughter’s life—and the battle to ensure that he, and others like him, would no longer be able to evade justice. INCLUDES PHOTOS