The Chilling Story of Corpsewood Manor

What drove Dr. Charles Scudder, a disillusioned pharmacology professor, to trade a life of urban hustle for the shadowy solace of the Appalachian foothills? Join me, Carole Townsend, as we unravel the enigmatic and tragic tale of Corpsewood Manor, a story that defies conventional wisdom and leaves us questioning the boundaries between idyllic dreams and chilling realities. Dr. Scudder and his partner Joey Odom sought refuge in the Chattahoochee National Forest, constructing a secluded sanctuary far from the mundane grind of Chicago life. Their quest for authenticity and freedom, however, led them into a nightmare on the night of December 12, 1982—a night marked by horror that still echoes through the southern woods.

Explore the sinister events that unfolded when Avery Brock and Tony West shattered the peace of Corpsewood Manor, leaving a haunting legacy in their wake. This episode guides you through the chilling details of that fateful night and the subsequent realm of eerie legends that linger at the site. Drawing from insightful sources like BT Hartman and Amy Petula, we piece together the narrative of murder, mystery, and the macabre, inviting you to reflect on the unsettling truths and folklore that entwine Southern history. Settle into the comfort of my front porch as we journey through stories stranger than fiction, exploring the haunting lore of North Georgia.

Chapters

• 0:06 The Story of Corpsewood Manor
• 16:14 Tragic Events at Corpsewood Manor
• 23:45 Southern History and Lore Tales

Transcript

Carole Townsend: 0:06

Tryon, georgia, is a small town, snugly nestled among the pine forests, hills and lush valleys of northwest Georgia. Small town charm and southern hospitality characterized this community, which was founded in 1869. Tryon was first settled by the pioneer William Penn and its history is deeply connected to the Tryon factory, which was established in 1846 and has been in operation ever since, almost without interruption. Like many small southern towns built around textile mills, Tryon is a friendly, traditional, largely conservative community. It was these very characteristics a simple life, a less complicated world that beckoned Dr Charles Scudder and Joey Odom to the area. The two had long dreamed of building a castle in the woods, an off-the-grid escape in which they could revel in each other and in nature. How could they have possibly known nearly 50 years ago, when they built their secluded dream home in the middle of the Chattahoochee National Forest, that what they were building was actually a nightmare?

Carole Townsend: 1:34

Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small, trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the South, and shame and courage. And, make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction. And I'll turn on the light. You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my Front Porch. The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

Carole Townsend: 3:17

Charles Scudder was an intelligent man, a man of academia, and after he earned his undergraduate degree back in the 1970s, he went on to earn his PhD in pharmacology. Not long after that, loyola University in Chicago hired him as an associate professor of pharmacology. He was well liked by his students and he held the bar of excellence high for them for more than 10 years. His colleagues considered him to be brilliant. As much as he loved his field of teaching and his research in pharmacology, the rewards of the career he had treasured for so long were fading for Charles. He had grown tired of students that he described as being unteachable, and he despised university politics. He had also become disenchanted with the community that he called home. While he lived in a fine home many might even call it a mansion on the west side of Chicago, urban blight was advancing knocking at his door.

Carole Townsend: 4:32

Charles needed a change by this time in his career. The professor and his second wife were divorced and their grown children had moved out and embarked on their own lives. The only two people left in the rambling house were Charles and his longtime housekeeper and companion, joey Odom. Charles and Joey at first glance might be considered polar opposites with respect to compatibility. While Charles was well-educated and worldly, joey only had a fifth-grade education and was 12 years, charles Jr. Joey did, however, have a flair for the gastronomic arts, and Charles had remarked at one time that he could whip up meals fit for a king.

Carole Townsend: 5:24

In 1976, charles would get the opportunity for which he longed to change his life and Joey's. His mother had passed away and left him a moderate inheritance. He could take that money, combine it with what he had managed to save and with the proceeds from the sale of his home, and he could build the dream life he so desperately wanted for himself and for his lover. But where would they go? Charles began searching for just the right location, someplace hilly and green, with four seasons but without the bitterly cold winters of Chicago. He wanted a place with a steady supply of clean water, plenty of wood for cooking and heating and, probably most important, the new place had to be private and isolated. Above all else. That search, and all its criteria, brought his attention to the foothills of the blue-green Appalachian Mountains. There he found a 40-acre plot situated deep inside the Chattahoochee National Forest, a location that is just about as quiet and secluded as anywhere east of the Mississippi River. When he made the 10-hour drive to check out the property and the area, he fell in love with the wildlife, the natural resources and the sheer beauty of the place. There was no question beautiful property in North Georgia would be where he and Joey could finally live as they chose, as lovers living off the grid and out of the scrutiny of the judging eyes of an otherwise cold, impersonal, blighted city.

Carole Townsend: 7:26

On October 6, 1976, charles Scudder's 50th birthday, the professor submitted his resignation to Loyola University. He listed his home for sale and sold every piece of the elaborate ornamental furniture inside it. He sold everything in the house that had a plug, because he and Joey intended to live truly off the grid, to fetch their own water, generate their own heat, cook over a wood fire and even grow as much food as they could on their property. One of the few items he kept was his beloved gold encrusted harp. Finally, charles and Joey would have the freedom they had always desired but could never fully express under the gaze of prying eyes in Chicago.

Carole Townsend: 8:27

By January 1977, charles and Joey had closed the door on their lives in Chicago and set their sights on their private 40 acres in northwest Georgia. Their drive south was a difficult one, having navigated a powerful blizzard in the midwestern part of the country, but the two men arrived safely with their two beautiful English mastiffs just a couple of days later. Here the men would build their dream home, a sort of mini-castle, one brick at a time, and by hand they dug their own. Well, by hand and they dug the home's foundation the same way. Loving every minute of the work, they slept in their car at first, then in a tent, until the walls and roof were far enough along to keep the interior dry on the first floor. The building techniques the men used have been described as medieval and the house doesn't have even one squared corner in the entire structure. When it was finished, the men had laid 45,000 bricks each by hand. The process took about two years.

Carole Townsend: 9:48

Charles and Joey named the trail that led to the property Dead Horse Road because of a dead and rotting horse they found there. They named their home Corpsewood Manor because of the unusual number of dead and dying trees on the property. When the house was finished, the men placed a large pink gargoyle above the front entrance of the house. Charles also made and installed some rather morbid stained-glass windows depicting human skulls and satanic images such as Baphomet, the goat-headed deity that symbolized Anton LaVey's then relatively young Church of Satan. The satanic church was founded in 1966 in San Francisco and followers are quick to point out that the church does not espouse worshiping Satan. Rather, satanists claim to promote humanistic values. In other words, they promote mining and strengthening the ego and individual wisdom. They rebel against societal restrictions and are in fact their own gods. They represent indulgence and vengeance and they believe that all sin leads to physical, mental and emotional gratification. Atheism and hedonism are the cornerstones of the Church of Satan. Satanism are the cornerstones of the Church of Satan.

Carole Townsend: 11:24

Clearly, charles Scudder and Joey Odom required privacy not only to live their lives as lovers, but also to openly and freely practice a religion considered blasphemous and taboo by Christians. Another interesting characteristic of the couple's castle is the three-story structure they built next to the main house. The first story housed chickens in a coop, the second story served as a pantry and it held the pair's pornography collection, and the third floor they called the pink room. In this room, charles, joey and their guests would indulge in wild, no-limits sex parties, and the men kept a logbook of all the guests who had indulged their secret pleasures in the pink room at Corpsewood Manor Manor. To add to the secret activities of the pair, their visiting friends from Chicago and the friends they eventually made at Corpsewood, charles had brought some of his work at Loyola down to Georgia with him.

Carole Townsend: 12:33

As a professor of pharmacology, charles's work was far from that of the run-of-the-mill academic. His purple hair and his pet monkey clued most people into that fact. But as the assistant director of the Institute for the Study of Mind, drugs and Behavior, part of his work included performing government-funded experiments with mind-altering drugs. Government-funded experiments with mind-altering drugs. When he left Loyola, he took with him two human skulls and 12,000 doses of LSD. With these particular souvenirs, charles was free to practice Satanism and explore his indulgences within the walls of his private castle. As additional protection from prying eyes, the two mastiffs prowled the grounds and guarded Corpsewood Manor. Their names were Beelzebub and Arsoneth, one a nod to the Prince of Devils and the other a nod to a character in a Lovecraft novel.

Carole Townsend: 13:44

Now, area locals were of course intrigued and more than a little curious about the eccentric pair who had built the strange castle far out in the woods. In Tryon, charles and Joey would sometimes navigate the dirt logging roads around Corpsewood. They would reach the main highway and head into town for groceries and supplies. Townspeople did not know what to make of the two so-called hippies who drove a black Jeep with a pentagram painted on the side. Those curious enough to learn more about the strangers would make the long drive out to Corpsewood just to see what they could see. But a sign at the main drive read Beware of the Thing. And no one dared go any closer to the house. Rumors were seeded and spread, claiming that the sign meant that the two men had summoned a demon to guard the property. Others said they had seen robed figures holding seances and other dark ceremonies deep in the woods. Still others have said that when they had visited the two barons at Corpsewood, the food, wine and hospitality flowed freely but without an invitation. No one could be sure and no one could have ever imagined the truth about these two men, their Satanism and their parties in the pink room. For the time being, rumors had to suffice.

Carole Townsend: 15:18

A few years into the couple's residence in their secluded home, two locals finally did meet and eventually befriend the two men. A young man named Avery Brock had wandered onto the men's land and asked permission to hunt on their property. Brock returned several times and he began bringing his friend Tony West with him. Avery had taken note of how the two men lived and he had shared his observations with Tony. Charles and Joey's Satanism, their unusual residence and their odd lifestyle had Avery convinced that the men were wealthy and that they were hiding a fortune in riches inside the house. The truth of the matter is that they were hiding a fortune in riches inside the house. The truth of the matter is that they had spent almost everything they had on the land and on their secluded castle.

Carole Townsend: 16:14

On the night of December 12, 1982, avery Brock and Tony West decided to rob the couple. They picked up Tony's nephew Joey Wells and his friend Teresa Hudgens, and the four drove the rough and winding dirt roads that led to Corpsewood Manor. Joey and Teresa had no idea what was about to happen. When they arrived, scudder happily greeted them and soon he and his guests were climbing the 40-foot extension ladder to the third floor of the chicken house, to the pink room. There, charles and his guests drank homemade wine and sniffed a substance they called Tudeloo, a mixture of varnish, paint, thinner and other chemicals mixed in a plastic bag. Charles did not partake in this practice called huffing, but he did share his homemade wine with the others and indulged in it himself. Joey stayed behind in the main house preparing dinner.

Carole Townsend: 17:24

The partying went on for several hours until Avery Brock left the pink room saying he was going to get more toodaloo from his car. In truth, he left to get his .22 caliber Remington Speedmaster rifle. He walked back to the main house and shot Joey four times. He then shot the two mastiffs who were sleeping peacefully near the stove. By then, west, charles and the others had also left the pink room and entered the kitchen of the main house. When Charles saw Avery holding a rifle, he laughed and said bang, bang, but then he saw his lover dead on the floor. Brock and West demanded that Charles give them all the money and valuables he had inside Corpsewood. Devastated and pleading for his life, Charles explained that he had no money to give them. Ignoring the murderer's demands for him to sit still and be quiet, charles walked over and knelt beside Joey's lifeless body. The last words he uttered were I ask for this, I asked for

Carole Townsend: 18:45

this. Seeing the horror that was unfolding, teresa and their other friend tried to flee the scene, but the car that the four had driven to Corpsewood wouldn't start. Brock and West ransacked the house, but they found nothing of any value. West shot Charles Scudder in the head at point-blank range and the group ran out of the house, but not before attempting to steal Scudder's harp. It would not fit in the black Jeep that they also stole, which belonged to Charles. The two murderers left Teresa and the other friend behind and drove West on I-20 to a rest stop in Vicksburg, mississippi. There they murdered Navy Lieutenant Kirby Phelps and they stole his

Carole Townsend: 19:34

car. On December 16th, a neighbor in Tryon, georgia, discovered bullet holes in the front door of Corpsewood Manor and called the sheriff. On that very same day, teresa Hudges went to the police and told them the entire gruesome story, adding that she had been held captive by Joey Wells at his mother's house. Before she could escape. Immediately, a nationwide manhunt began. Immediately. A nationwide manhunt began At some point during their time on the lam, brock and West disagreed about which direction to drive. Originally they headed straight for Mexico, but eventually the two disagreed on that choice and they split up, each going his separate

Carole Townsend: 20:28

way. On December 20, 1982, avery Brock returned to Georgia and turned himself in. On Christmas Eve, west did the same thing in Chattanooga, tennessee. Brock's attorney used a defense that claimed that Charles Scudder had drugged him and tricked him into performing sexual acts. However, the homemade wine was tested for drugs and none were found. Both men were convicted of murder, among other charges, and both received a sentence of life in prison. While in jail, brock attempted suicide but failed. Both men still reside in Georgia prisons

Carole Townsend: 21:11

today. During the investigation that followed these horrific crimes at Corpsewood Manor, officers found a painting, a self-portrait painted by Dr Charles Scudder himself. He painted the portrait after Joey had told him of a dream he'd had in which Charles had been murdered. The likeness depicted Scudder gagged with blood dripping from his mouth. There were five bullet wounds in his head. He had painted this self-portrait five months before the murders took place. What did Charles Scudder mean when he uttered his last words? I ask for this Was he referring to his judgment in letting two murderers into their home? Was he referring to his choice to practice Satanism or just to move to Georgia? Was he lamenting his many life choices that led him down a path less traveled through the years? We will never know what this man meant or why his dreams of moving south and living off the beaten path ended in such

Carole Townsend: 22:24

tragedy. The isolated property in North Georgia is now privately owned, as I understand it, and it's used primarily for hunting purposes. The skeleton of Corpsewood Manor still stands vigil among the trees, though she shows clear signs of inoccupation and disrepair. Years back, a fire destroyed parts of the castle that were made of anything except brick, but the pink gargoyle still watches over the thick forest and the woodland creatures, and many hunters have come back with more than wild game for their efforts. Some have carried tales of hearing dogs barking inside what's left of the manor. Others have reported hearing screams and gunshots. Perhaps those experiences can be explained easily enough After all, hunters expect to hear dogs and guns in the woods. But the harp, the haunting notes of a harp that rise and fall on the wintry winds those are much harder to explain away, don't you

Carole Townsend: 23:38

think? I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at www. caroletownsend. com. As always, thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen. My team and I used the following materials to bring this story to you the Corpsewood Murders 40 Years Later by BT Hartman, dated October 27, 2022, in Atlanta Magazine. Death Comes to Corpsewood Manor, northgeorgiahistorycom, march 14, 2024. The Corpsewood Manor Murders in North Georgia by Amy Petula, arcadia Publishing.