The Woolfolk Family Murders

What if the deepest scars of Southern history were hidden within one family's tragic saga? Join us as we unravel the haunting mystery of the Woolfolk family massacre, a tale rooted in post-Civil War Georgia's tumultuous soil. Through the eyes of Thomas George Woolfolk, we walk a path littered with personal tragedy, failure, and a legacy of resentment. This episode paints a haunting portrait of a man ensnared by the complex web of family dynamics and Southern tradition, leaving listeners pondering the intricate interplay of emotion and history.

As we dissect this chilling case, you'll be transported to a time when justice was swift, and evidence was questionable. Despite the gravity of his accusations, Tom Woolfolk stood alone, his cries of innocence echoing into infamy as history judged him harshly. Through historical accounts and literature, we piece together the narrative from multiple perspectives, exploring the broader social context of the era, including the racially charged atmosphere that further darkened these events. Prepare to confront the unsettling questions and lingering mysteries that remain woven into the fabric of this Southern tragedy.

Chapters

• 0:07 Southern Family Massacre Unsolved Mystery
• 13:47 Wolferk Family Massacre Investigation
• 29:09 Wolford Family Murders Literature Review

Transcript

Carole Townsend: 0:07

Family. Funny how that one word conjures up a sea of emotions and memories, isn't it? I know that family is what so many Southern traditions are built on. Family relationships build strong roots and an unwavering set of morals and values. Family sustains us through difficult times and it gives us reason to celebrate the good times. Family shapes us. Sometimes, though, family relationships become derailed. Often, these relationships can be repaired in time, but at other times the bad blood runs so hot and so deep that it must be shed. Such was the situation nearly 150 years ago, when the state of Georgia recorded the largest single mass murder in its history.

Carole Townsend: 1:16

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: 3:16

On June 18, 1860, thomas George Woolfok was born to his parents, richard F Wolferk, who would become a Civil War veteran, and Susan Moore Wolferk, who was from Athens, georgia, in Clark County. The couple married in 1854, the year that Richard graduated from the University of Georgia. They had two daughters, flo and Lily, before Tom was born. He was the couple's youngest child and their only son. Sadly, susan never fully recovered from the birth of her third child. During the years that she struggled to get well, her husband went to war fighting for the Confederacy. Eventually he became captain of Company A Ross's battalion of the Georgia State Troops. With the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, he returned home from the war. Richard found his wife very near death and his sprawling plantation in financial disarray. In the same year that the Civil War ended and Richard returned home, susan Wolferk died. Tom was just five years old.

Carole Townsend: 4:36

Tom and his sisters were sent to live with their maternal aunt, annie Crane, in Athens. This practice of sending children to live with relatives after the demise of their mother was not an unusual one. Captain Woolfolk had business to attend to and he had neither the time nor the skills to raise children alone. Tom and his sisters lived with Fanny for seven years, and during that time Tom became very close to his aunt. By all accounts, she was a kind woman and took loving care of her nephew and both nieces. In 1867, however, captain Woolfolk married a woman named Maddie, and Tom was sent back to the family farm in Macon to live with his father and his new stepmother. Maddie's father was a wealthy farmer and the couple's union did much to help Captain Woolfolk sustain his sprawling 867-acre plantation. The main crop, not surprisingly, was cotton. Most of the farm's workers, many of them sharecroppers who had recently been emancipated but still worked on large southern farms, lived either on or very near the Woolfolk farm. In time, captain Woolfolk and Maddie brought six more children into the world. Woolfolk and Maddie brought six more children into the world.

Carole Townsend: 6:04

What might have grown to be a large, loving and happy family was not. Tom did not bother to hide the fact that he hated his stepmother and all of the children that she and the captain had brought into the world. He missed his Aunt Fanny, and he felt jealous and threatened by the new family his father and Maddie had created. It should be noted here that by many accounts, Tom Woolfolk was, from a young age, a mentally disturbed young man. Young man, sullen and angry much of the time. He made few friends and in fact he seemed to make a point of isolating himself from society in general. Young Tom was just as unlucky in love as he was in his other relationships. When he was 27 years old, he married a woman named Georgia, whose father was a wealthy farmer. After just three weeks, however, georgia left Tom and returned to her father. When asked why she left her husband so soon, she stated that he wasn't deranged or mentally disturbed, as many who knew him thought. Rather, he was just plain mean.

Carole Townsend: 7:30

Unfortunately, tom's failures in life were not limited to just his personal relationships In business. He had tried running a plantation, managing a store, driving a streetcar in Macon and owning a grocery store, but none of his ventures was successful. Having spent all of the money his father had given him to start his own life, he had run out of options by the time he reached 27 years of age. In defeat, tom returned to the family farm to work for his father. While he planned his next steps, he earned $9 a month for his efforts.

Carole Townsend: 8:15

This string of failures that characterized Tom's adult life undoubtedly compounded his unhappiness. The work he was doing on his father's farm was, in Tom's eyes, menial and degrading. His father's new wife and their brats were nothing more than roadblocks between him and the family fortune he so rightfully deserved. While his anger seethed and roiled inside of him, it also grew stronger by the day, and as his anger grew more evident, so did his peculiar behavior. A storm was brewing. While young Tom Woolfolk had always seen his stepmother and step-siblings as threats to the inheritance he felt he was owed, one more occurrence would serve as the breaking point. Because of several of Captain Woolfolk's business complications, the family farm and other holdings the captain had amassed had been transferred to his wife, maddie. When Tom learned of this development, he became furious.

Carole Townsend: 9:31

In June 1887, tom returned to Athens to pay his beloved aunt what would be a final visit. Fanny, who was accustomed to Tom's strange, abrasive ways, couldn't help noticing his exceptionally bizarre behavior during this visit, and she expressed her concern to other family members. While in Athens, Tom acted suspicious of everything and everyone and he was irrationally paranoid. Fanny said that he rambled incoherently, sometimes talking to her, sometimes to himself, and at other times to an unseen companion. He uttered vague but violent threats and he lashed out at demons that only he could see, demons that only he could see. For the first time since she had known her dear nephew, fanny was frightened of the young man she loved and had helped raise. In August 1887, tom left his aunt's home in Athens and returned to the family farm outside of Macon.

Carole Townsend: 10:55

Sometime between 2 and 4 am on Saturday, august 6th, nine members of the Woolfolk family were brutally murdered with an axe Tom's father, 54. Tom's stepmother, 41. There are six children who ranged in age from 18 months to 20 years, and Mrs Temperance West, age 84, who was Maddie's visiting aunt. In fact, there was only one survivor of this bloody massacre, Tom Woolfolk.

Carole Townsend: 11:29

In the wee hours of that dreadful Saturday morning 137 years ago, Tom Woolfolk, wearing just his socks and underwear, ran to the nearby home of a man named Green Lockett, an African-American sharecropper who lived nearby and worked on the Wolferk family farm farm. Tom banged on Lockett's door frantic and shouted for him to get a gun their killing. Pa Lockett refused to go back to the big house with Tom as it was an unspoken rule in that day that black people did not intervene in white people's business. Instead, he sent his son to alert the white families in the area to the trouble at the Woolfolk home place. Before long, a crowd had gathered at the Lockett's house to see what all the commotion was about. In the distance, dogs at the big house barked wildly, sounding the alarm that something was very wrong. The crowd of people ran to the Woolfolk house when they heard Tom begging for help, but as it was still dark, no one would go inside the captain's home until the sun began to rise. Tom did go back inside to make sure that everyone was indeed dead, as he believed. He also pulled on some trousers and a shirt while in the house. He then went back outside and made a point of telling onlookers that his father was clearly the last to die, that the killers killed everyone else in the house and waited to kill the captain last. Some in the crowd thought it odd that Tom would make a point of telling them this. As the neighbors and family friends waited, tom paced and repeatedly shouted that a gang of murderers had broken into the house and killed his entire family. He was only able to escape, he said, by jumping out his bedroom window and running away.

Carole Townsend: 13:47

When the day finally dawned, several men from the gathering crowd went inside the house to see for themselves if tom was right that his entire family was dead. What they saw inside the wolfric home was gruesome. There were thick pools of blood on the floors and brain matter was splattered on the floor, walls and even on the ceiling. Indeed, nine people ranging in age from 18 months to age 84, had been hacked and bludgeoned to death. Some were killed where they slept and others had obviously been awakened by the noise and tried to escape through doors and windows where their bodies were found.

Carole Townsend: 14:37

News of the murder spread quickly throughout the community and neighbors, police and members of the community and no one could imagine why someone would commit such violent murders in this man's home. Family friends tried to console Tom, and one offered him a drink of water drawn from a well near the house. Tom started to take a drink, hesitated and then put the cup down. That very afternoon a coroner's jury was formed to investigate the heinous crime. Jury was formed to investigate the heinous crime. They asked Tom to strip down to his underwear, since someone had mentioned that he had gotten dressed. When he went back inside the home after he had summoned the neighbors for help, there was a bloody handprint on his thigh that he could not explain. His ears had specks of blood in them. Someone from the jury found a bloody undershirt under Tom's bed, and later that day bloody pants and a shirt that belonged to Tom were fished out of the well. This, the coroner's jury concluded, explained why Tom wouldn't drink the water offered to him earlier that day, though he was clearly parched. There was no sign of forced entry or theft in the house. With these findings, and after observing Tom's obvious lack of grief or sorrow, the coroner's jury suggested the sheriff take Tom to Macon for further questioning. The sheriff escorted Tom out the back door of the house as the crowd out front was growing agitated and angry. Having already concluded that Tom had to be the culprit behind this sickening scene, when they learned that the sheriff had secreted Tom away out the back door of the house, several men chased after them. It seems Tom Wolferk just barely escaped a lynching right there on his father's farm.

Carole Townsend: 17:09

The bloody Woolfolk family murders shocked the entire nation. Even the New York Times printed a front-page story about the slayings. The murders were brutal, gruesome and shocking and as a result, the media coverage was sensationalistic. The Greensboro Herald and Journal described the crime as being more bloody, more fiendish and exhibiting a deeper depravity than any crime ever committed in the state of Georgia. The press nicknamed Tom Bloody Woolfolk, and the case was the most publicized criminal proceeding in the state's history. Tom Woolfolk was indicted on nine counts of murder, but he was only tried for the murder of his father. No-transcript.

Carole Townsend: 18:14

Prosecutors said that the motive for the murders was Tom's greed concerning what he considered his rightful inheritance. They demonstrated his premeditation by asserting that Tom did murder his father last, because by doing so he would indeed be next in line to inherit the captain's assets, and not his stepmother, maddie. What Tom didn't know was that the captain was in dire financial straits. An inheritance, if any, would be meager at best. After just 12 minutes of deliberation, the jury convicted him on December 15th and on that same day he was sentenced to death. However, on February 11th 1889, the Supreme Court of Georgia granted Wolford a new trial because the trial court had permitted the introduction of damaging, inadmissible testimony and also because the judge had done nothing when, during closing arguments, courtroom spectators began shouting Hang him, hang him. After the Supreme Court decision, wolford was granted a change of venue. The second trial began on June 3rd 1889 in Perry, georgia. On June 24th, after deliberating for just 45 minutes, the jury convicted Woolfolk, who was sentenced to death the following morning, and on July 29th 1890, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the sentence.

Carole Townsend: 20:03

Now, during this time in Georgia's history, hanging was the usual method of state execution. On Wednesday, october 29th 1890, Tom Woolfolk was hanged before a crowd of 10,000 people. Reports indicate that vendors sold tea and possum sandwiches to people in the crowd. As they anticipated the proceedings, street vendors hawked souvenirs and photographers milled around aiming to preserve the scene and hopefully sell their photographs to the highest bidders. Ironically, the site of this hanging and others in Perry was in a beautiful natural valley, lush with trees, flowers and green grass. The pastoral scene stood in stark contrast to the dark business of Execution Day.

Carole Townsend: 21:03

Standing on the scaffold and looking out into the crowd so anxious to see him hang, Tom Woolfolk again protested his innocence, disappointing onlookers who had hoped he'd finally confess his crimes at the 11th hour. Instead, he read this statement I, Thomas G Woolfolk, realizing the existence of an infinite, wise and holy God, and so as to meet him, knowing all that I have ever done and fully understanding that I must stand before the judgment bar of God and that today, in a few hours, I shall be called into his presence, do solemnly declare my innocence. And I leave as my last declaration that I did not take the life of my father or any member of his family, nor do I have any knowledge of the person or persons who did the murderous deed. At precisely 1.31pm, the executioner sprung the trap door in the scaffold floor and Tom Woolfolk dropped six feet, a distance scientifically calculated by formula to break the person's neck and result in instant death. But Tom's neck did not break and he swung and struggled mid-air for fifteen minutes while he slowly strangled to death. Now, as we might have expected, this dreadful scene does not tie this story up in a neatly wrapped package.

Carole Townsend: 23:00

Not long after the Woolfolk family was murdered, a young man named Simon Cooper, the son of African-American farm workers who lived nearby, suddenly left Bibb County In 1898, simon was lynched in Somerville, south Carolina, for reasons unknown to me, but on his body was found a notebook that included these few lines Tom Wolfer was mighty slick, but I fixed him. I would have killed him with the rest of the damn family, but he was not at home. Had Simon Cooper butchered the Woolfolk family? Some say he had a reputation for claiming responsibility for crimes he did not commit. But does this confession shed new light on Tom's conviction? And the questions don't end there on Tom's conviction. And the questions don't end there.

Carole Townsend: 23:59

Listen to the claims asserted in a Valdosta Georgia newspaper dated April 27, 1889. Quote the report reaches Macon that the trunk of Miss Pearl Woolfolk, the murdered 17-year-old daughter of Captain Richard and Maddie Woolfolk, the murdered 17-year-old daughter of Captain Richard and Maddie Woolfolk, has been found in the home of Green Lockett. Remember, Mr Lockett is the first man Tom Woolfolk ran to for help on the morning of the murders and he was a key witness for the state in Woolfolk's trials. The article goes on to report that a picnic basket full of quote eatables and belonging to the Woolfolks was also found in Lockett's home, as was a short-handled axe like that used to murder the nine family members. We can ask the same question asked at the end of the Valdosta newspaper article. What does this mean? Tom Woolfolk was clearly not a likable young man and in the words of his one-time wife of three weeks, many believed he was just plain mean. He made no bones about the fact that he was entitled to the lion's share of the family inheritance. And greed is a powerful motive for murder, but is there a possibility that an unlikable, greedy, abrasive man was wrongly convicted and executed? It certainly wouldn't be the first time the wrong person paid the ultimate price for another's crimes, would it? The Woolfolk family murders were Georgia's first mass murder and the tragedy remains to this day the largest single mass killing in the state. The nine murdered Woolfolk family members are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, georgia, the same cemetery in which Allman brothers Duane and Greg, along with bandmate Barry Oakley, are interred. Tom Woolfolk is buried in Orange Hill Cemetery in Hawkinsville, georgia.

Carole Townsend: 26:26

In 1909, the Woolfolk family home place was occupied by the Macon Auto Club as its headquarters. This arrangement was a brief one, and afterward the house again sat empty and quiet for many years. At some point the house appears to have burned, though not completely. The cause of the fire remains unknown and, 70 years after the murders, captain Richard Woolfolk's plantation was flooded when the Tobesofke Creek was dammed to create Lake Tobesofke, a popular recreational destination. The hill upon which the old home place was situated is still there, and it sits above water, but residential development is steadily encroaching. Some remnants of the farmhouse were found in 1997 by university of georgia law professor Donald Wilkes Jr. He has identified the well on the property, as well as the tree under which Susan Woolfolk was buried. Soon, it's likely that even these remnants of the family's tragic history will be erased. The disastrous legacy, however, will surely live on.

Carole Townsend: 27:53

Join me next time as we uncover the evil legacy of the Hart brothers, two men who cut a bloody trail through Appalachia as the first documented serial killers ever in the United States. The brothers were born just a few years before the American Revolution began, their parents having immigrated to the New World from Scotland. Accounts of their lives and the wanton killings earned both men the dubious distinction of being called the devil in Appalachia. 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. Southern history and lore I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen.

Carole Townsend: 29:09

My team and I based this retelling of the story of the Woolfork family murders on the following works the article Woolfork Kanged, the Tennessean newspaper, thursday. The article Wulfur Kanged, the Tennessean newspaper, thursday, october 30th 1890. The article New Sensation Connected with the Woolfork Murder, the Valdosta Times, april 27th 1889. The article Bloody Woolfork by Donald Wilkes Jr. And the book the Wulfurk Tragedy by Carolyn DeLoach.