1958: Tom Dooley Hits # 1 on Music Charts ... Based on a notorious North Carolina Murder

On November 17, 1958, the Kingston Trio hist #1 on the Billboard charts with the song "Tom Dooley." Bob Dylan and Joan Baez may have gotten their political and musical inspiration from folk music legends Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, but their commercial appeal can be traced to the success of the Kingston Trio. With their clean-cut looks, smiling faces and winsome harmonies coupled with banjo strumming, the Trio put a non-threatening face on the folk music culture of the 1950s, and brought the music into mainstream America.

Their most popular song, "Tom Dooley" has one of the most interesting and sinister back stories of any American popular song.    

Tom Dula: The Murder of Laura Foster, and the Birth of a Legend

Victims: 1

  Happy Valley sits on the Yadkin River in Wilkes County, North Carolina.  Tom Dula was a happy-go-lucky man with many lady admirers, in particular cousins Laura and Anne Foster.. Even though both girls were sought after by several other men, they both had a special fondness for Tom. He was so unlike all the other men. He was happy, and fun, always singing and playing his banjo. He played for the local square dances and was a very popular young man with the ladies around the community. 

   But he also had a cruel side. Most men remembered him as “quite a mean individual.” He was also considered a “womanizer of a very low level.”

   Laura and Ann Foster were not genteel southern bells from polite society. They were country farm girls. Ann's mother, Lottie Foster, discovered Tom and Ann in bed together when they were just fourteen years old. Both women had a reputation of being loose with their bodies who would have sex with anyone. Ann was also considered “mean as hell” by the locals. Today, they would be called white trash.

  March 1862. Like most of the men in the south, Tom joined the Confederate cause when he was seventeen years old. As a private, he served as regiment musician and soldier. He served under Colonel Zebulon B. Vance, a former governor of North Carolina, and saw action at Morehead City and the battle of Swift Creek in February 1864.

   March 10,1864. Tom was captured and taken to Point Lookout, Maryland as a prisoner of war. He returned home after the Civil War, the survivior of many brutal battles and harsh treatment, but his war heroism was second to his real claim to fame - music. Just as he had entertained the people of Happy Valley with his music, Tom had often entertained his Confederate comrades-in-arms around the campfire with his banjo-playing and singing. It gave them a few moments of joy between long marches and bloody battles.

   June 10, 1865. Tom signed the oath of allegiance and returned to Happy Valley. He discovered that during ihs absence Ann had married James Melton, so Tom began to woo Laura, even though she had several other suitors. Bob Grayson, a local school teacher, was totally smitten with Laura and wanted her for his wife. Laura and Tom met secretly at night. However, Tom was also seeing the married Ann Melton on the sly. Ann had discovered that, marriage or not, her passion for Dula had not waned at all, so the two cousins, shared Dula as their lover.

   Tom finally proposed to Laura and she accepted. They planned an elopement.

  Friday, May 24, 1866. That evening, Laura packed a few clothes and snuck out of her family's house, hopped on her old horse, Belle, and rode off quietly into the night to rendezvous with Tom Dula. She was never seen again.

   Most locals initally suspected Laura had eloped with Dula, but the family organize search parties were formed, but to no avail. Three weeks after Laura's disappearance, Belle was discovered tied to a tree in a hidden copse of thick brush. The soil around was disturbed with horse tracks. By this time, most people thought Laura's body had been dumped in theYadkin River.

   Months later, Ann's relationship with the third Foster sister, Perline, was on edge. Ann had always been critical of her younger sister, but lately the criticism had become more pointed.

   Perline told Ann, “You better be careful, or I'll tell what I know about Laura.”

   “You wouldn't dare,” Ann retorted. “You're as deep in the mud as I am in the mire.”

   Soon the authorities were suspicious of the women's behavior, sure that the women had information about Laura's disappearance. They were taken in for questioning. Perline broke down and shouted, “Tom Dula killed Laura! And Ann has taken me to the grave!” 

   Perline told them where Laura's body was buried. The search party, led by Bob Grayson, began their grim task of looking for Laura's grave. When James Isbell's horse became nervous and shied away from an area of loose dirt the men started digging and unearthed the body of Laura  Foster. Her legs had been broken and there was large wound was found  in her breast. They also found a small bag of Laura's clothing and one other thing -  Bob Grayson found a lady's handkerchief which he claimed did not belong to Laura.   

   Laura's body was brought home and she was buried on a high hill known ever since as "Laura Foster Hill".

   The handkerchief was identified as belonging Ann Melton. She was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of Laura Foster. As she was led away she shouted, “They'll never put a rope around this pretty neck!”

   However, Bob Grayson would not be satisfied until he had the true murderer of his love - Tom Dula,

   July 1866.  A man walked onto the farm of Lt. Col. James W. M. Grayson near Trade, Tennessee. He said his name was Tom Hall from Wilkes County and that he wanted to work just long enough to earn money for a new pair of boots. His were falling apart. Grayson put Tom to work as a hired hand and by July 10, Tom had his new boots and was gone.                                                                                                                                                             

   Later that afternoon the posse fromWilkes County arrived at Colonel Grayson's farm, led by Bob Grayson, no relation.  They told the colonel they werelooking for a man named Tom Dula. From their description of the man, the colonel knew they were looking for his hired man, Tom Hall.                                                                                      The colonel joined with the posse to search for Dula. Nine miles west of Taylorsville (now Mountain City) a place called Pandora they fuond Dula sitting on a rock in the creek soaking his feet. His new boots had rubbed blisters. The colonel dismounted  and told Tom he was under arrest, but when members of the posse began to discuss hanging Tom then and there,  the colonel pulled out his gun. He told the posse that Tom was going to get a fair trial. Tom insisted that he was not guilty.

   Three weeks after Laura's body had been found, the posse rode into town. Colonel Grayson was in the lead followed by Tom Dula with his hands shackled behind his back.   

   A crowd had gathered. Dula, unconcerned as he always was, asked that he be un-shackeled and so he could play a little tune on his banjo for the crowd.  He was incarcerated by A. T. Ferguson and quickly joined by Ann Foster Milton in an adjoining cell.   

  Colonel Zebulon Vance, Tom's former commander and governor, agreed to defend Tom. He negotiated a change of venue because the local people were so passionate against Tom and several continuances. It wasn't until the spring of 1868 that tom went on trial for the murder of Laura Foster.

   The trial was held in Statesville, about thirty miles from Wilksboro, Judge Ralph Burton presiding. Most of the evidence was circumstantial.

    Evidence was introduced that Tom Dula and Ann Foster Milton were having an affair, “criminal intercourse” the court record called it. Tom had contracted syphilis, possibly from either Laura or Ann. Several locals testified that Tom was so outraged about the disease that several times he threatened to “put through” whoever had given him the infection.  

   Bob Grayson brought Betsey Scott as a witness and she testified that she had talked to Laura Foster the day before she disappeared. Laura claimed she was going to “the Bates place” to meet Dula. On Thursday Tom had borrowed a mattock - a shovel - from Ann's mother . He was seen Thursday afternoon near the Bate's place. Ann was also seen leaving town on Thursday and wasn't seen again until Friday morning. When she arrived home her dress and shoes were wet and muddy.  

   The prosecution claimed that Tom's motive for murder was his anger at contracting a venereal disease; Ann's motive was her jealously of Tom and Laura's impending marriage. Other's claimed that Laura's murder was done out of mercy. There was no cure for syphilis in the 19th century and victims faced an agonizing death, so Tom killed her so she would not have to endure the approaching suffering.  

   During the defense Tom insisted he was innocent, but Vance could not get Tom to testify against anyone else. He refused to say anything about his relationship with Ann, or with Laura Foster. He was pronounced guilty and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.   

   May 1, 1868. Tom Dula rode through the streets of Statesville in a wagon for the last time.  He sat on the top of his coffin with his banjo on his  knee, joking with the throng of  people walking along. He played his favorite ballad and laughed as the wagon neared the gallows.  

   As the rope was placed around his neck, he joked with Sheriff W. E. Watson, "I would have washed my neck if I had  known you were using such a nice clean new rope". 

   Asked if he had any last words to say, Tom Dula held up his right hand and replied,  "Gentlemen, do you see this hand?  Do you see it tremble?  Do you see it shake?  I never hurt a hair on the  girl's head".

   The trap door was dropped.

   The drop did not break his neck. He performed “the dead man's dance” for more than five minutes, meaning he kicked his feet in the air while he was being strangled to death. After ten minutes, he still had a pulse. Thirteen minutes after he was dropped, Tom Dula was pronounced dead by the attending physician. 

   Tom was buried in a cemetery in Happy Valley on the side of the old North  Wilkesboro Road near Elksville, North Carolina, near where Big Elkin Creek  meets the Yadkin River a few miles northeast of Roaring River.   

  Vance also defended Ann Melton. People in town thought she was a witch, and that evil lived within her, but she was found not guilty. For the rest of her life the shadow of Laura's murder followed her, but one day the shadow caught up with her. She was killed in a freak accident, a wagon overturning crushed her.

   The graves of Laura and Ann are visited each year by thousands of tourists. Tom Dula's grave is on private  property and not open to the public. The "Tom Dooley" museum is located in Ferguson, North Carolina at the Whippoorwill Academy and Village. Tourists can also visit the Old Wilkes Jail where Tom and Ann were held before their trials.

   The famous 'Ballad of Tom Dooley' was written by a local poet, Thomas C. Land,  at the time of Dula's hanging. It became very popular among the mountain people. In 1958, the Kingston Trio had a #1 song with their version of the song titled 'Tom Dooley'.

HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD, TOM DOOLEY

(traditional; as performed by the Kingston Trio)

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Hang down your head and cry

Hang down your  head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you're bound to die

I met her on the mountain

There I took her life

Met her on the mountain

Stabbed her with my knife

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Hang down your head and cry

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow

Reckon where  I'll be

Hadn't a-been for Grayson

I'd a-been in Tennessee

Hang down your head, Tom  Dooley

Hang down your head and cry

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow

Reckon where I'll be

Down in some lonesome  valley

Hangin' from a white oak tree

Hang down your head,  Tom  Dooley

Hang down your head and cry

Hang down your head,  Tom Dooley

Poor  boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your  head, Tom Dooley

Hang down  your head and cry

Hang down your  head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you're bound  to die

Poor  boy, you're bound to die

Poor boy you're bound to  die

Poor  boy, you're bound to die...

THANK YOU MR. WILSON .. for Repairman Jack and the-end-of-the-world

Today, with mixed emotions, I will begin to read the last Repairman Jack novel by F. Paul Wilson, Nightworld. The odd thing is: I've already read this book before, but not really. For those of you who don't know Jack, continue reading!

 I first discovered Wilson when I read his classic horror novel, The Keep, in 1981. The book was later turned into a truly awful movie several years later - avoid! Then, in 1984, I read The Tomb, which introduced us to one of the coolest, baddest and most complex action heroes ever created, Repairman Jack. Jack is part Travis McGee, part Rambo, part Indiana Jones and pure entertainment. He is a mercenary who  "lives off the grid" and "repairs" situations for people who hire him, often through violence, but just as often through clever scams Some of Jack's adventures have a mystical, supernatural element in them, but mostly, they are pure adventure. If you are looking for a great beach book this summer, look no further than The Tomb.

CLICK HERE to see a list of Wilson's novels.

Unfortunately, for the next fourteen years, Wilson did not write another Jack novel, even though he continued to write some of the best contemporary fiction of the 80s and 90s - medical thrillers, horror novels and science fiction. In the early 90s he published three connected novels titled Reborn, Reprisal and Nightworld. In those books, the evil entity called Rasalom, supposedly destroyed The Keep, manages to have its essence stored as the soul of a cloned human, Jim Stevens. When Jim marries and has a child, Rasalom transfers its essence into the soul of Jim's son, who is born preternaturally aware and feeds off human misery and fear. Rasalom has been reborn! The last book, Nightworld, is literally the end of the world, as Rasalom transforms earth into a world of a perpetual hellish night. Wilson himself has claimed that he will never write another novel that takes place after Nightworld., since in his fictional universe, nothing exists after that timeline.

Original editions of The Adversary Cycle

In 1998, Wilson finally published Legacies, a full blown Repairman Jack novel. And he kept writing them, fifteen in all. He also managed to crank out three Repairman Jack Young Adult novels, letting us meet Jack as an adolescent, learning how and why Jack the kid became Jack the Repairman.  And with each subsequent book, the story of Rasalom's emergence in the world creeps into Jack's world. Which leads us to the new edition of Nightworld, completely rewritten to incorporate the entire Jack storyline.

I approach the reading of this novel with torn emotions. Like anyone who loves fiction, I cannot wait to SEE WHAT HAPPENS, but on the other hand,  I also DO NOT WANT to see what happens to Jack, Gia, Vicki, Abe and the other characters who have become part of my life.

F. Paul Wilson

So, thank you Mr. Wilson for making the reading of Nightworld such a bittersweet experience, and thank you for creating such an amazing story and character. LONG LIVE JACK!





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R.I.P Robert Parker & "Spenser"

I have just recently finished the 39^th (and the last) “Spenser” novel completed by Robert B. Parker before his death in 2010 and I’m sorry to report that Susan Silverman, Spenser’s “main squeeze,” is still alive and well and annoying as ever.

 I discovered Parker (and Spenser) in the late 70s after he won the Edgar Award for the 4^th Spenser novel, PROMISED LAND. It was witty, sarcastic – funny!! - and introduced a character named Hawk who was a stone-cold (but v-e-r-y cool) hired killer. So I went back and read the previous books. Everything was fine until novel #12, A CATSKILL EAGLE. That novel was so wrong … and the blame can be entirely placed on Susan Silverman. She gets kidnapped and Spenser, with Hawk’s assistance, goes to extreme lengths to rescue her. He even becomes an assassin for the Federal government! It was the first hint of what was to become the ruin of a great mystery series – Susan’s prediliction to over-analyze everything and bring the story to a screeching halt!

Over the next 20+ novels, the Susan chapters became more annoying and cloying and you begin to wonder what the hell Spenser sees in this high-maintenance woman. For someone supposedly so smart, she does stupid things. For someone who claims to be so in touch with Spenser’s psyche, she’s constantly badgering him to “look at himself.” Soon, their conversations became nothing more than parodies of their earlier conversations. So, I just started skipped the Susan chapters.

All this leads to the last Spenser novel (but maybe not, the Parker estate has announced Ace Atkins will writer more Spenser novels … uuGGG!. Ask Margaret Mitchell how well that has worked out.) which gives me mixed emotions. In one way I am relieved that I will never have to read another Spenser/Susan scene, but I am also sad that I will never again get those great scenes between Spenser and Hawk. Like this scene when black Hawk and white Spenser discuss the name of black client they are going to see. To them, his name sounds suspiciously made up.

HAWK: "Name don't sound like no brother."

SPENSER: "Maybe he changed his name."

HAWK: "What do you think his real name is?"

SPENSER: "Old Black Joe?"

HAWK: "Mostly they ain't naming us that no more."

Robert B. Parker

The Spenser novels are filled with small little scenes like that. Great wry banter between the characters. As anyone who writes fiction can tell. Anyone can create a plot, but creating characters through dialogue is the mark of a master. And Parker was a master. It is his enduring legacy as a mystery writer.

So, rest in peace, Mr. Parker, you gave us about 15 great Spenser novels, and the rest of them … well, they have Susan Silverman in them waaay too much to be recommended. 

Today In History: Edward Rutledge is a Reluctant Rebel

On this day in 1776, Edward Rutledge, one of South Carolina''s representatives to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, expresses his reluctance to declare independence from Britain in a letter to the like-minded John Jay of New York.

Contrary to the majority of his Congressional colleagues, Rutledge advocated patience with regards to declaring independence. In a letter to Jay, one of New York's representatives who was similarly disinclined to rush a declaration, Rutledge worried whether moderates like himself and Jay could "effectually oppose" a resolution for independence. Jay had urgent business in New York and therefore was not able to be present for the debates. Thus, Rutledge wrote of his concerns.

Rutledge was born in Charleston, to a physician who had emigrated from Ireland. Edward's elder brother John studied law at London's Middle Temple before returning to set up a lucrative practice in Charleston. Edward followed suit and studied first at Oxford University before being admitted to the English bar at the Middle Temple. He too returned to Charleston, where he married and began a family in a house across the street from his brother. As revolutionary politics roiled the colonies, first John, then Edward served as South Carolina's representative to the Continental Congress. Neither Rutledge brother was eager to sever ties with Great Britain, but it fell to Edward to sign the Declaration of Independence and create the appearance of unanimity to strengthen the Patriots' stand. At age 26, Edward Rutledge was the youngest American to literally risk his neck by signing the document.

Today In History,1994: Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman Murdered by ...?

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson became the chief suspect.

Although he had agreed to turn himself in, Simpson escaped with friend A.C. Cowlings in his white Ford Bronco on June 17. He was carrying his passport, a disguise, and $8,750 in cash. Simpson's car was spotted that afternoon, but he refused to surrender immediately. Threatening to kill himself, he led police in a low-speed chase through the freeways of Los Angeles as the entire nation watched on television. Eventually, Simpson gave himself up at his home in Brentwood.

The evidence against Simpson was extensive: His blood was found at the murder scene; blood, hair, and fibers from Brown and Goldman were found in Simpson's car and at his home; one of his gloves was also found in Brown's home, the other outside his own house; and bloody shoeprints found at the scene matched those of shoes owned by Simpson.

However, Simpson's so-called "Dream Team" of defense lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, claimed before a national television audience that Simpson had been framed by racist police officers such as Detective Mark Fuhrman. After deliberating for three hours, the jury acquitted Simpson. He vowed to find the "real killers," but has yet to turn up any new leads.

In a civil trial brought about by the families of the victims, Simpson was found responsible for causing Goldman's death and committing battery against Brown in February 1997, and was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million, little of which he has paid.

In 2007, Simpson ran into legal problems once again when he was arrested for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and taking sports memorabilia, which he claimed had been stolen from him, at gunpoint. On October 3, 2008, he was found guilty of 12 charges related to the incident, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

TODAY IN HISTORY,1973: Secretariat wins Triple Crown

With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America's coveted Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance.

Secretariat was born at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia, on March 30, 1970. He was sired by Bold Ruler, the 1957 Preakness winner, and foaled by Somethingroyal, which came from a Thoroughbred line known for its stamina. An attractive chestnut colt, he grew to over 16 hands high and was at two years the size of a three-year-old. He ran his first race as a two-year-old on July 4, 1972, a 5 1/2-furlong race at Aqueduct in New York City. He came from behind to finish fourth; it was the only time in his career that he finished a race and did not place. Eleven days later, he won a six-furlong race at Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, New York, and soon after, another race. His trainer, Lucien Laurin, moved him up to class in August, entering him in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, which he won by three lengths. By the end of 1972, he had won seven of nine races. With easy victories in his first two starts of 1973, Secretariat seemed on his way to the Triple Crown. Just two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, however, he stumbled at the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, coming in third behindAngle Light and Sham.

The amazing photo of Secretariat's 31 length victory in the Belmont Stakes, 1973. Jockey Ron Turcotte claimed he did nothing during the race but hold on.

On May 5, he met Sham and Angle Light again at the Churchill Downs track in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat, a 3-to-2 favorite, broke from near the back of the pack to win the 2 1/4-mile race in a record 1 minute and 59 seconds. He was the first to run the Derby in less than two minutes and his record still stands. Two weeks later, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Secretariat won the second event of the Triple Crown: the Preakness Stakes. The official clock malfunctioned, but hand-recorded timers had him running the 1 1/16-mile race in record time. On June 9, 1973, almost 100,000 people came to Belmont Park near New York City to see if "Big Red" would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat gave the finest performance of his career in the Belmont Stakes, completing the 1.5-mile race in a record 2 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking nearly three seconds off the track record set by Gallant Man in 1957. He also won by a record 31 lengths. Ron Turcotte, who jockeyed Secretariat in all but three of his races, claimed that at Belmont he lost control of Secretariat and that the horse sprinted into history on his own accord. Secretariat would race six more times, winning four and finishing second twice.

In November 1973, the "horse of the century" was retired and put to stud at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Among his notable offspring is the 1988 Preakness and Belmont winner, Risen Star. Secretariat was euthanized in 1989 after falling ill. An autopsy showed that his heart was two and a half times larger than that of the average horse, which may have contributed to his extraordinary racing abilities. In 1999, ESPN ranked Secretariat No. 35 in its list of the Top 50 North American athletes of the 20th century, the only non-human on the list.

The REAL History of the Holy City - Merriment!

In Charleston, change is often a four letter word. More than any American city, Charleston guards its heritage with a passion. A few notable examples include:

• 1902 - the Powder Magazine (17 Magazine St) was preserved.
• 1911 - Susan Pringle Frost began purchasing the slums along eastern Tradd Street for renovation.
• 1913 - Congress authorized the transfer of the Old Exchange Building (122 East Bay St.) to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• 1920 - The Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings was established.
• 1924 - Joseph Manigault House opened as the first house museum, and the Heyward-Washington House was purchased by the Charleston Museum.
• 1931 – Charleston established the Board of Architectural Review and established the Old and Historic District.

These are only a few of the official acts the city has taken to protect its buildings. But when it comes to protecting the social and cultural heritage of the Holy City it’s not as easy as just passing a city ordinance. After all, the state dance is the Shag, a watered down caucasian version of the much more challenging African-inspired the Charleston. But worse of all is the gradual deterioration of one of Charleston’s longest traditions – merriment!

No more street parties on St. Patrick’s Day. No smoking in ANY building in Charleston. No tailgating at Citadel football games (I guess fireworks at 11 pm after a baseball game in a park named after the current mayor is less disruptive). The only approved street “parties” these days are politically correct cultural events like the Art Walk (even then you can’t carry your topless plastic cup from site-to-site, the MOJO Arts Fesitval and various SPOLETO and Piccolo Spoleto happenings.

By the 1980s all of the “adult clubs” and “massage parlors” that used to be located around the Market area were pushed to the extreme northern end of the city. During the 1990s as the price of real estate began to rise in the downtown area, a new crop of self-important persnickety puritans arrived and slowly strangled the real social character of Charleston. After all, we can’t allow blue collar drunks on the streets of the Holy City having fun, can we?

Well, yes we can. Charleston is called the Holy City due to its number of churches, not due to the behavior of the locals. Maybe if these persnickety puritans had taken the time to learn the “real” heritage of their new city BEFORE they decided to purchase that million dollar home, things might be different. A quick primer on Charleston social behavior:

The city’s namesake, King Charles II was called the Merry Monarch. English historian Samuel Pepys described Charles’ court “as there being so much . . . swearing, drinking and whoring that I do not know what will be the end of it.” Charles admitted to fathering “more than 35 bastards.”

One of the most important men in the establishment of Carolina was Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper. John Dryden noted that Cooper was a man who “loves fumbling with a Wench, with all his heart.” Charles II referred to Cooper as “the greatest whoremaster in England.”

When the first settlers arrived in April 1670, the cargo included 12 tons of beer and 50 barrels of brandy. Seven months later, Captain Joseph West complained that many of the settlers “were so addicted to the Rum, that they will do little whilst the bottle is at their nose.”

In 1768, one hundred and thirty-two taverns were licensed in Charles Town - one for every five adult males. Rev. Charles Woodmason complained that each Saturday so many people in Charleston became so “drunk and stupid, as to be utterly unfit to attend Public Worship on Sunday.” Francis Asbury preached at Old Bethel Church in 1789 and called Charleston the “Sodom and Gomorrah of the South.”

The upper floors of the former Planters Hotel (present location of the Dock Street Theatre) were reserved for “gentlemen and their private guests.” Richard Hofstadter noted: “The Charleston hedonistic life put the other seaboard towns in the shade.” John C. Calhoun became one of Charleston’s most treasured citizens despite the fact that he loathed the city. He called Charleston “intemperate and full of debauchery.”

The Reverend Arthur Crain wrote in 1900: “The city is wide open. No liquor law is being enforced. Drunkenness greets us on every hand. I can meet more drunken men in a 15-minute walk in Charleston than I could in New York, Chicago or any other city.” Six years later the state of South Carolina granted 297 liquor licenses - two hundred and thirteen of them were issued in Charleston. Fifteen bars were located around City Hall and nineteen operated within a block of St. Philip’s Church. During Prohibition, more than 20,000 South Carolinians made a living as a bootlegger.

In October 1942, Charleston police raided Market Street and arrested 626 prostitutes – 346 white and 280 black. Nearly half were found to be infected with venereal disease.

So, welcome to the REAL Charleston, named after the Merry Monarch who fathered more than 35 bastards. The city’s two main rivers are named after “the greatest whoremaster in England,"and until recently we were renowned to be full of debauchery and loose and idle women.

As we approach another summer tourism season I urge everyone to help preserve one of Charleston’s most important heritages: eat drink and be merry, as often as possible. Or, if you’re feeling particularly inspired, eat, drink and be with Mary! And for you cross-dressers – go ahead and eat, drink and BE Mary. After this is the former Sodom and Gomorrah of the South.

FIRST MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION: Charleston 1865.

A number of towns around the nation claim holding the first Memorial Day, although the distinction generally goes to the town of Waterloo, in upstate New York. Not so fast.

MAY 1, 1865. More than 10,000 people gathered for a parade, to hear speeches and dedicate the graves of Union dead in what is now Hampton Park in Charleston, SC.The group consisted of several thousand black freedmen, northern missionaries and teachers who had arrived in Charleston to teach in freedmen schools post-War.

Hampton Park was originally the Planters Race Course and, during the final months of the Civil War, it was a hellish open-air Confederate prison. A total of 267 Union troops died at the camp, some of whom had been moved from infamous Andersonville in Georgia before it was liberated. The dead were originally buried in a mass grave by the Confederates, but after the war, members of black churches buried them in individual graves at the site of the camp.An arch over the graveyard entrance identified those buried there as "The Martyrs of the Race Course." The Union dead were later moved to national cemeteries.

Union cemetery, 1865 @ Planters Race Course

The Charleston commemoration was referred to at the time as Decoration Day, as were other early Memorial Day observances.The northern troops went home and the memory remained generally with blacks. Memory of the event was suppressed when white Democrats took back control of the state in 1876 and Southern states held their own Confederate Memorial Days.

Hampton Park, 1902

David Blight, a history professor at Yale, has researched the event. "As the Lost Cause tradition set in — the Confederate version of the meaning and memory of the war — no one in white Charleston or the state was interested in remembering the war through this event. At the end of the day you have to ask does it really matter who is first. But if the issue is what is the first event, Charleston occurred a full year earlier."

Memorial Day through the years was generally celebrated May 30. Beginning in 1971, the federal holiday was designated as the last Monday in May.

Hampton Park, today

Oprah Book Club: Hits & Misses

The best thing about Oprah going off the air is that she will stop recommending bad novels to people too lazy to decide what they want to read.

Since 1996, Oprah has chosen 65 selections for her book club that have engaged, enlightened, entertained, bored and baffled readers. Other than an overabundance of "I'm-a-victim-poor-poor-me" type of stories, there is the out-and-out fraudulent travesty of A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.

Unfortunately, Oprah has bought completely the elite literary sham that for a book to be "taken seriously" it must be overwrought, self-indulgent and mainly ... boring. However, she did occasionally choose a great book, probably by accident.

H I T S

___________________________

A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest K. Gaines. A legitimate classic. Should be read as a companion with To Kill A Mockingbird.

TARA ROAD by Maeve Binchy. Finally, a fun, uplifting book. Oprah should have chosen more than one Binchy novel, instead of the 4 by Toni Morrison, 2 by Wally Lamb, Jane Hamilton, and Kaye Gibbons.

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers. One of the first "adult" novels I read as a teenager that blew me away.

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner. Classic Faulkner weirdness.

NIGHT by Elie Weisel. A genuinely great book.

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett. Possible the best book Oprah chose. Follett's masterpiece.

EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck. One of Steinbeck's books (not my first choice) that could have been chosen.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES BY Charles Dickens. The best Dickens book that Oprah could have chosen.

M I S S E S

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THE BOOK OF RUTH by Jane Hamilton. A depressing mess.

SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison. Like everything Morrison writes, it's messy, often unintelligible and perfectly worthy of a Nobel Prize.

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN by Jacquelyn Mitchard. A TV Movie-of-the-Week idea that somehow caught Oprah's attention.

ELLEN FOSTER by Kaye Gibbons. A short novel (144 pages) that seems longer than Gone With The Wind.

SHE'S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb. Here's a two word review: IT SUCKS!

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver. An absolutely incoherent mess.

THE ROAD by Cormac MacCarthy. An awful mess. An example of a literary snob thinking he's being clever when he's really just re-cycling ideas that have been done before. The Road is filled with cliques stolen from (much better) end-of-the-world novels by science fiction writers (gasp!)

A L T E R N A T E S U G G E S T I O N S

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CANNERY ROW and SWEET THURSDAY by John Steinbeck over EAST OF EDEN.

ZOMBIE by Joyce Carol Oates over WE WERE THE MULVANEYS.

CAT'S CRADLE by Kurt Vonnegut.

CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller.

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card.

TODAY IN CHARLESTON HISTORY, 1660: Restoration of the English Throne

May 24: 1660: Under invitation by leaders of the English Commonwealth, Charles II, the exiled king of England, lands at Dover, England, to assume the throne, ending 11 years of military rule.

The Prince of Wales at the time of the English Civil War, Charles fled to France after Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians defeated his father, King Charles I in 1646. In 1649, Charles vainly attempted to save his father's life by presenting Parliament a signed blank sheet of paper, thereby granting whatever terms were required. However, the Puritan, Oliver Cromwell, was determined to execute Charles I, and on January 30, 1649, the king was beheaded in London.

After his father's death, Charles was proclaimed king of England by the Scots and by supporters in parts of Ireland and England, and he traveled to Scotland to raise an army. In 1651, Charles invaded England but was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. Charles escaped to France and later lived in exile in Germany and then in the Spanish Netherlands. During Cromwell's rule, the Puritan faction of the English government outlawed anything remotely fun! Taverns, theaters and brothels were closed. Public whistling was banned because we all know that whistling means you're happy, and if you're happy you're having fun, and if you're having fun you must be committing a sin - so you're going straight to hell. It was NOT jolly ole England. After Cromwell's death in 1658, the English Puritan republican experiment faltered.

In 1660, in what is known as the English Restoration, General George Monck met with Charles and arranged to restore him in exchange for a promise of amnesty and religious toleration for his former enemies. On May 25, 1660, Charles landed at Dover and four days later entered London in triumph. It was his 30th birthday, and London rejoiced at his arrival. In the first year of the Restoration, Oliver Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason and his body disinterred from its tomb in Westminster Abbey, beheaded and hanged from the gallows at Tyburn. It was referred to as the "twice dead body of Cromwell."

Charles II went on to become known as the Merry Monarch, leadingEngland into the era of Eat, Drink and be Merry. He became legendary for his sexual prowess and debauchery. He died in 1685 after fathering more than 30 bastard children, but no legitimate heir to the English throne, which passed to his brother, James II.

Princess Diana was a direct descendant of one of Charles II's illegitimate heirs. When her son, Prince William, becomes the King of England sometime in the future, he will be the first direct heir of Charles II to sit on the throne. Below is a photo taken during the celebration of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, proving, beyond a doubt, that William is most definitely a direct heir of the Merry Monarch.

April Reading List

1. CHARLESTON IS BURNING / Daniel J. Crooks, Jr. *** Slight volume covering the history of Charleston's major
   fires and fire fighting.
   
2. JOHN C. CALHOUN . Margaret L. Coit *** Pretty good (but dated) bio of Calhoun.
   
3. PIED PIPER / Nevil Shute *** The only Shute novel I had never read. Good, but not great.
   
4. THE PEACH KEEPER / Sarah Addison Allen *** Charming, but v-e-r-y- slight novel. Allen has a great way of
   creating characters and making magic seem normal, but she is in danger of becoming a parody of herself.
   
5. GIDEON'S SWORD / Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child ** Very poor thriller. Almost as slight as a James
   Patterson book.
   
6. WHAT THE NIGHT KNOWS / Dean Koontz * Awful. Koontz has gotten progressively worse. I guess some
   people only have 30 good books in them! I miss the classic (good) Koontz.
   
7. LITTLE BEE / Chris Cleave * Virtually unreadable.
   
8. JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER / Jonathon L Howard. *** Entertaining but way too much cleverness.
   
9. LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME: EVERYTHING YOUR AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOK GOT WRONG / James W.
   Loewen. *** Excellent review of stories American history textbooks don't teach, but I'm sorry, Mr. Loewen,
   everything is NOT about race. Maybe in your mind, but not in most people's.
   
10. FOOL: A NOVEL / Christopher Moore ** Docked one star for working too hard to be funny and clever.
    
11. ON THE BEACH / Nevil Shute *** Shute's most famous novel, but not his best by any stretch.
    
12. FREEDOM / Jonathon Franzen ** It's good to see that Franzen's famous novel THE CORRECTIONS was not an
    aberation. This book is quite boring also.