Infamous America - HATFIELDS & MCCOYS Ep. 3 | “Retaliation”

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

A brutal attack pushes Devil Anse Hatfield to an extreme act of revenge. The feud enters its bloodiest phase, and the consequences force the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia into a showdown. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It was late summer, 1882, two days after Election Day. That meant it was two years since the election day when John C. Hatfield and Rosanna McCoy snuck off together into the woods. Those events, and maybe you couldn't quite call them a scandal, but those events added new layers of stress to the tense relationship between the Hatfields and McCoys. But now, two years later, they paled in comparison with the gravity of the current situation. Three of Rosanna's brothers were in serious trouble. They were locked in an old schoolhouse and guarded by a group of Hatfields.

There had been a terrible fight at the Election Day festivity two days ago, and now the smell of revenge was in the air. Ranel McCoy's wife, Sally, arrived to plead for the lives of her boys. They had committed a horrible crime. there was no question about it. Everyone had seen it, but it didn't mean they should receive Old Testament punishment.

Devil Ants Hatfield disagreed. It was his brother who had been brutally attacked. It was his brother who was now fighting for his life. To Devil Lance, the equation was clear and simple. If his brother lived, he would take Sally's boys to Pikeville for trial. If his brother died, well, he didn't really need

to finish that sentence. Did he? From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a six-part series on the most infamous family feud in American history, the Hatfields and McCoys. This is episode three, retaliation. Election days in Southern Appalachia were quite the scene. Men who were 21 years or older could vote, and in 1882, there were no secret ballots. When it was your turn to vote, you stood up in front of the group and announced your choice for all to hear.

That meant you'd better be ready to defend your politics. Allegiances and alliances became apparent real quick. But the voting was just one small part of the day. In actuality, it was probably the smallest part. Election Day was a party. And on this day, in late August 1882, the party was at the home of a Hatfield on Blackberry Creek. Fiddle music played as people from all over the Tug Valley converged on the site. This was a Kentucky election, but that didn't mean the festivities were limited to people from Kentucky.

The Hatfields from West Virginia crossed the Tug River to join in the fun. Election Day was a time for friends and families and neighbors to take a rare day off to socialize. The men drank moonshine and swapped stories and made deals for all kinds of things. The eligible bachelors flirted with young. ladies. The women wore their best dresses and bonnets and traded everything from pies to livestock. It was in such a setting two years ago when the son of Devil Lance Hatfield and the daughter of Randall McCoy had begun a short-lived relationship. It had roiled the waters at the time, but it was nothing compared to the confrontation that exploded on this election day.

As the whiskey flowed, Tolbert McCoy's short fuse burned quickly. Tolbert was leaned in Wiery and he was one of eight sons of Ranel McCoy. As one of eight, he would probably inherit very little land from Rannell as it was passed down from father to son. At the moment, he worked as a tenant farmer on another man's land. In addition to that lot in life, he had experienced recent humiliation at the hands of the Hatfields. He and his brother Bud had tried to arrest Johnsey Hatfield during John C's secret rendezvous with their sister Rosanna. They'd captured Johnsey, but then devil ants and a posse of Hatfields had stopped them on the road to Pikeville. The Hatfields forced Tolbert and Bud to give up their prisoner.

Tolbert had hurried to the Justice of the Peace to get warrants against the Hatfields. Three months later, the warrants were served, but then two McCoy cousins testified against Tolbert during the legal proceedings. The Hatfields won the case. In the eyes of Tolbert McCoy, they always seemed to win. They had land and timber and money, while the McCoys struggled as farmers. On Election Day 1882, Tolbert was fueled by repeated humiliation, family struggles, and whiskey, and he picked a fight with Elias Hatfield. Elias Hatfield lived on the Kentucky side of the Tug River, and he was generally on good terms with the McCoys.

Some years earlier, he purchased a fiddle from Tolbert, and the fiddle was now the source of the problem. For some reason, Tolbert picked Election Day to call out Elias for a debt on the fiddle. Elias said he'd paid off the debt three years ago, but Tolbert wasn't satisfied. They argued until a fist fight broke out. Preacher-Ans Hatfield broke up the fight, and the men went their separate ways. Unfortunately, another Hatfield wandered into the mix at about this time. He ran into Tobbert McCoy, who was lit and ready to explode. Devil Anz was not at the election day festivity, but many of his kinfolk were.

His younger brother Ellison had imbibed his fair share of whiskey throughout the day and had laid down to take a little nap. When he woke up, he discovered that his cousin had just gotten into a fight with Tolbert McCoy. The situation had been diffused, but Tolbert was still primed and ready for action. At that point, he boasted with a line that was surely one of the great ones ever uttered at an election day party. He said, I'm hell on earth. Ellison Hatfield replied, you're a damn shit hog. And they began to fight, obviously. Ellison was bigger and stronger, and he quickly gained

the advantage. As Tolbert started to lose the fist fight, he pulled out a knife. In a rage, he stabbed Ellison multiple times in the abdomen. Then Tolbert's brother Bud rushed into the fight, and he also had a knife. Ellison was unarmed and bleeding, and he grabbed the closest thing to a weapon he could find, a large rock. As he lifted the rock over his head, a third McCoy brother, Farmer, picked up a pistol.

He shot Ellison in the back. The gunshot ended the fight, but it did not kill Ellison Hatfield. The three McCoy brothers ran into the woods, but they didn't make it very far. Preacher-Ans-Hatfield ordered Pike County deputies to find them and arrest them, and the boys were quickly captured. The decision was made to take them to Pikeville, Kentucky, for trial.

But Pikeville was the headquarters of the McCoy faction, and there was very little chance the devil ants would allow that to happen. Pikeville was more than a day's ride from the Hatfield Farm on Blackberry Creek where Ellison had been attacked. If Ellison died, Pikeville was the closest town that could handle a murder trial, and it was also a McCoy stronghold. The most prominent citizen in town was Colonel John Dills, and he was an old enemy of Devil Ances from the Civil War. Colonel Dills exerted heavy influence over the courts, and he placed his friends in key positions.

One of those was Perry Klein, who was now a lawyer and a deputy sheriff in town. Klein and Dills were firmly against Devil Ants Hatfield for taking Klein's lands several years earlier. Preacher Anz Hatfield thought the three McCoys would only be safe in Pikeville, so he told the Pike County deputies to take the three young men to the county seat. Rannell McCoy would ride with them, and he recruited three other men to go along. The four of them would escort Rannell's three sons and the deputies to Pikeville. But they started late in the day, and darkness caught up with them. They weren't very far from Blackberry Creek when they stopped for the night.

The delay cost them valuable time. News of the attack raced through the Tug Valley during those hours. Numerous people had witnessed the unfair fight, and on top of the brutality of the act, Ellison Hatfield was a respected man in the community. When Devil Ants heard about the attack, he hurried across the Tug River and made it to his little brother's bedside. He arranged for Ellison to be transported over to Hatfield lands in West Virginia. At about the same time, a Hatfield cousin and one of Ants's older brothers chased the party of McCoys. The group hadn't made much progress, and it was easy to catch.

Ant's older brother was Wall Hatfield, who was a justice of the peace in West Virginia. When the two Hatfields confronted the McCoy group, Wall argued that the boys needed to stay in the Tug Valley. That's where the crime occurred. That's where the participants lived, and that's where all the witnesses lived. There was no reason to take the attackers all the way to Pikeville. The Pike County deputies accepted that ration. Chanel. Preacher Anz Hatfield was a respected Justice of the Peace here on the Kentucky side of the river,

so the contingent of Hatfields and McCoys rode to his house. When they arrived, they found Devil Ants Hatfield and about 25 supporters waiting for them. The scene could have turned into a shootout and a bloodbath, but it didn't. Preacher Anz convinced all parties to go inside and talk. And now, like the Hogtrial a few years earlier, Preacher Anse's cabin was packed with angry Hatfields and McCoys. Except this time, the charges were far more severe. Devil Ants said that he and his brother should keep an eye on the three McCoys while they waited for the fate of Ellison. If Ellison died, then the trial should be held right there in the Tug Valley.

The McCoys undoubtedly wanted to take the boys to their stronghold at Pikeville. But Devil Ants quickly put an end to the debate. He was out of patience. He marched outside and shouted to his 25 men to fall in line. They took the prisoners into custody and drove them across the river to West Virginia. Devil Ants and his men tied the three McCoy brothers to a corn hauling sled. They strapped Holbert, Bud, and Farmer McCoy to the rough wood pallet and dragged them across the Tug River to Hatfield Territory.

The Hatfields took their prisoners to an abandoned long schoolhouse near the mouth of Mait Creek. and there they waited for news of Ellison Hatfield. But Devil Ants had looked into his brother's eyes, and he knew how this would end. Preacher Anz was one of the first to petition for the freedom of the McCoys. He rode up to the schoolhouse and demanded custody of the prisoners. He was a justice of the peace, so he had some legal authority. But Devil Ants refused. And then Sally McCoy arrived to plead for the lives of her sons.

She had Tolbert's wife with her. and together, they tearfully begged for the release of the young men. Sally wanted them to go to Pikeville for trial. She also said her husband, Rannell, would not organize a rescue party if the boys were released. Devil Anz's older brother, Wall Hatfield, seemed to consider this option. He'd been a Justice of the Peace here in West Virginia for the last 14 years, and he believed in the rule of law. He and a Hatfield cousin discussed the idea with Devil Ants.

But again, devil ants refused. He said again, if Ellison lived, the McCoys would go to Pikeville for trial. If Ellison died, he strongly implied the boys would be killed in retaliation. And it wasn't necessarily bloodlust that drove Anz's decision-making process. He'd been a fixture in the courthouses in Kentucky and West Virginia because of his business dealings and personal matters. But a criminal trial was a different story. Over in Pikeville, Anz was worried that his old enemy, Colonel John Dills, would influence a jury to find the McCoy's not guilty, no matter how many witnesses testified against them.

If Ellison died, Anz was not willing to trust a Pikeville jury to deliver justice. He'd do it himself. Two days after Devil Ants took the McCoy's hostage, he had his answer. The tragic news arrived at the schoolhouse on August 9, 1882. Ellison Hatfield had died. Devil Ants hadn't said explicitly what would happen if his younger brother didn't survive, but everyone knew. And now he carried out his own sentence on the three sons of Ranah McCoy. Devil Ants and 20 of his supporters hauled the three young men down to the river and tied them to some bushes. The Hatfields placed blindfolds over the eyes of the McCoys.

The brothers were given a chance to say their final words, and then their punishment was carried out. Tolbert, Bud, and Farmer McCoy were executed by firing squad. Their bodies were riddled with bullets. Bud was the youngest victim at 18 years old. The top of his head was nearly blown off. The Tug Valley was stunned by the level of violence over the last 48 hours. It was unprecedented, and for a few years, the bloodlust was satiated. But there was more killing on the horizon, and soon, the feud would reach the highest levels of state government. The people of the Tug Valley reluctantly accepted the outcome of the latest round of Hatfield-McCoy violence. Devil Ants had killed the men who'd killed his brother.

That was considered justice to lots of people. They may not have liked his methods, but no one was going to challenge him. Ranel McCoy did not accept any of this, as you'd expect. He went to the Pike County Circuit Court and called a grand jury, and named the men who'd killed his son, all 20 of them. The grand jury indicted them, but it was an empty gesture. No one was willing to go over to West Virginia and drag the Hatfields back to Kentucky for trial. Most everyone urged Ranel McCoy to let the issue rest, no matter how painful it was.

But he had no intention of forgetting about the executions of his sons. For the next three years, he reminded everyone about the injustice suffered by his family. As the years progressed and the talk continued, the Hatfields grew suspicious of the McCoys, more suspicious than usual. The McCoys seemed to learn inside information about the Hatfields. The Hatfields thought they had a spy in their camp. They began to focus their suspicion on Nancy and Mary McCoy. They were the daughters of the murdered Harmon McCoy.

Nancy had married Jonsie Hatfield after Jonsie's relationship with Rosanna fell apart. Johncy was Devalance's first-born son, and he knew all the family business. The Hatfield suspected that Jonsie told details to Nancy during the course of their marriage, and then Nancy and Mary passed the details to their uncle Rannell. Based on this suspicion, Devalance's son, Cap Hatfield, decided to teach the sisters a lesson. Cap and his hired man Tom Wallace allegedly broke into Mary's cabin and beat her with the tail of a cow. According to the story, they also attacked her teenage daughter. But like many events of the feud, the details of the possible assault can't be confirmed.

Supposedly there was bad blood between Tom and Mary's daughter. Apparently a romance between them had ended poorly, so some say the attack didn't happen the way the story said. And some people said it didn't happen at all. But something must have happened because Jeff McCoy went after Tom Wallace. Jeff was the brother of Nancy and Mary, and he was hiding at Nancy's house when he heard something about an attack on their sister. Jeff had fled a murder charge and found shelter at his sister's home. Now he rode over to Cap Hatfield's house hoping to find Tom Wallace. Cap Hatfield, Jonsie's younger brother, was not at home.

He'd probably gone to work at the family timber operation. Jeff McCoy and one of his buddies rode up to the house and found Tom Wallace working in the yard. They surprised him and grabbed him and threw him on his horse. Before Tom really understood what was happening, he was under some kind of citizen's arrest and was on the road to jail. Tom rode along for a little while, but when he found his moment, he jumped off his horse and ran into the woods. He hurried back to Cap's house and barricaded himself inside.

Jeff McCoy and his friend galloped back to Cap Hatfield's house and tried to force their way inside. When that didn't work, they opened fire on the cabin. But Cap's house was a log fortress. The bullets didn't do anything. Eventually, Jeff and his friend gave up. They couldn't get in and they couldn't get Tom to come out, so they began the journey home.

While they were on their way, Cap Hatfield returned home. He found his house peppered with bullets, and inside were his frightened wife and Tom Wallace. Cap and Tom immediately raced away to find Jeff McCoy. They caught up with him at the Tug River. They said they were going to arrest him and take him to the authorities, but Jeff didn't believe them. He dove into the river and swam to the other side.

Cap and Tom began firing their rifles. As Jeff McCoy climbed out of the water, a bullet struck him and he died on the riverbank. Devil ants knew the situation looked bad. one of his sons had just been involved in the murder of a McCoy. In an effort to keep the peace, he sent a letter to his old nemesis, Perry Klein. Ants didn't write the letter himself, because he was illiterate. He was smart and clever and clearly understood business in the law, but he couldn't read a right.

The letter expressed apology and regret for the death of Jeff McCoy. It also conveniently blamed Tom Wallace for the killing, but it was still an attempt to calm the waters. And it was telling that it was addressed to Perry Klein and not Rannell McCoy. It seemed to show that Devil Ants believed the real power lay with Klein. The letter didn't work. Perry Klein was not impressed. Ants was right about where the power lay. Politics had changed rapidly and dramatically on both sides of the Tug River. On the Hatfield side in West Virginia, Ants was similar to his enemy Colonel John Dills over in Kentucky. Ants exerted heavy influence over local government and the local courts.

He put his friends in high places, and he relied on them to help him with legal documents like contracts and land deeds, because he was illiterate. In the 1870s, the court system controlled all the county decisions, like laying out roads and giving licenses to ministers and taverns. But in 1880, that started to change, and Devil Ants lost some control over Logan County. The courts started to favor outside businessmen and rich investors. They ignored local dynamics, and as a result, Devil Ants Hatfield never won another legal case again. From 1880 to 1891, nearly 20 cases were brought against ants, most involving land, and he lost them all. But this didn't mean Devil Anz resigned himself to the new order and quietly slinked away into a corner. He fought back.

He reportedly used a posse to intimidate voters into choosing his candidate for state representative. The opponent was supported by the power elite, but Ants got his man elected. That representative soon became a cabinet member for the new governor of West Virginia. Ants may have lost some control over local government in Logan County, but he gained an ally in the governor's office. And that would come in very handy as Perry Klein's power reached all the way to the governor's office in Kentucky. Perry Klein became a member of the power elite in Pite County, Kentucky. As the protege of Colonel John Dills, he already had a leg up on most people, but he excelled

in his own right. He was active in local politics, and he had his eye on new industries in eastern Kentucky. The timber business was about to boom. The coal industry was gaining steam, and to transport the timber and the coal, they needed railroads. There was a good chance a railroad would come to Pike County, and that would make land prices spike. And then, in 1887, he helped the new governor, Simon Buckner, get elected. Perry delivered Pike County for Buckner, and Perry wanted something in return, the Hatfields in jail. A power trio from Pike County traveled to Frankfurt to meet the new governor. The team was Colonel John Dills and his two legal guardians, Perry Klein and Frank Phillips.

Back in episode one, I said Dills had two guardians, one who would chip away at the Hatfields with the law and the other who would go at them with bullets. The lawyer was Perry Klein, and the gunman was Frank Phillips. Now, Dills, Klein, and Phillips met the governor to discuss the Hatfield-McCoy feud. But the governor was already inundated with feud violence in Kentucky. 1887 was the year of the family feud in Kentucky. In Perry County, the French Eversal feud sprang to life and lasted until 1912. In the town of Moorhead, Kentucky, the Martin Tolliver feud raged.

Fifteen people died in a span of three years, and the previous governor had to send in the state militia three times. In Harlan County, the Turner Howard feud killed 13 people in four years. In Brethet County, violent family feuds plagued the area for 25 years. When Governor Buckner was elected, he formed a special committee to address feud violence. And the trio from Pike County were there to talk about that very thing. They informed the governor that in this case, the worst perpetrators were not actually in Kentucky. They were in West Virginia. If the governor could stop the Hatfields in their own state, it would help Kentucky.

The governor complied. He took a series of steps to bring down the Hatfields. Ironically and predictably, those actions had the opposite of their intended effects. Instead of stopping the violence, they sent it soaring to new levels. Detectives and bounty hunters flooded the Tug Valley, and their only allegiance was to the almighty dollar. Next time on Infamous America, Frank Phillips moves into a starring role in the drama, and He earns the nickname Bad Frank Phillips.

He charges into West Virginia to round up the Hatfields, but the Hatfields aren't going to go anywhere. A war begins between the Hatfields and Bad Frank Phillips, and it leads to more tragedy for the family of Rannell McCoy. That's next week on Infamous America. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in our show notes or on our website, Black Barrel Media. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This season was researched and written by Jen Laverins, script editing by Christopher Marcaquis,

audio editing and sound designed by Dave Harrison, original music by Rob Valier. I'm your co-writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media. channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for infamous America podcast. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more. Thanks for listening.