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True Crime Stories of Western North Carolina
Explore the international headlines and the little-known crimes, the solved and the wrongly solved, in these tales of the North Carolina mountains.
Western North Carolina is known for mountain vistas and wild, rocky rivers, but remote wilderness and quaint small towns can have a dark side. Learn the truth behind the famous murder ballad Tom Dooley. Delve into the criminal history of moonshine, and the tales of two unexpected bombers in idyllic Mayberry.
Crime writer Cathy Pickens brings a novelist's eye to Western North Carolina's crime stories that define the sinister--and quirky--side of the mountains.
Western North Carolina is known for mountain vistas and wild, rocky rivers, but remote wilderness and quaint small towns can have a dark side. Learn the truth behind the famous murder ballad Tom Dooley. Delve into the criminal history of moonshine, and the tales of two unexpected bombers in idyllic Mayberry.
Crime writer Cathy Pickens brings a novelist's eye to Western North Carolina's crime stories that define the sinister--and quirky--side of the mountains.
- GenresTrue Crime
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 26, 2022
4 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Pickens
24 books65 followersCrime writer Cathy Pickens started her writing life as a mystery novelist. The first of five mysteries in the Southern Fried series won St. Martin’s Award for Best New Traditional Mystery.
Her fascination with the power of real crime stories led to a series for History Press, starting with Charleston Mysteries and Charlotte True Crime Stories.
She is a frequent mystery convention panelist, speaking on topics ranging from Southern mysteries to classic true crime stories to the use of poisons. At various times and under various aliases, she’s been a trial attorney specializing in complex civil litigation; a university provost; a business school professor (at Queens University of Charlotte); a church organist and choir director; and a ballroom and clog dance coach.
She has served as national president of Sisters in Crime, on the national board of Mystery Writers of America, and a founding board member of the regional Forensic Medicine Program.
Based on her book CREATE! Develop Your Creative Process, she offers workshops on developing the creative process. She also coaches and teaches new writers through Charlotte Lit, and works with former inmates and those in rehab on starting their own businesses and writing their own stories.
Her fascination with the power of real crime stories led to a series for History Press, starting with Charleston Mysteries and Charlotte True Crime Stories.
She is a frequent mystery convention panelist, speaking on topics ranging from Southern mysteries to classic true crime stories to the use of poisons. At various times and under various aliases, she’s been a trial attorney specializing in complex civil litigation; a university provost; a business school professor (at Queens University of Charlotte); a church organist and choir director; and a ballroom and clog dance coach.
She has served as national president of Sisters in Crime, on the national board of Mystery Writers of America, and a founding board member of the regional Forensic Medicine Program.
Based on her book CREATE! Develop Your Creative Process, she offers workshops on developing the creative process. She also coaches and teaches new writers through Charlotte Lit, and works with former inmates and those in rehab on starting their own businesses and writing their own stories.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 22, 2022
If you’re into true crime, you may like these accounts. These are mostly older crimes, some still unsolved, but there are some more recent. I remember a few of them.
I also remember being on the Blue Ridge Parkway near places where some of these crimes took place. A little unnerving to know while I was getting out of our car to look at a view, down below could’ve been a disposal site at some time.
I also remember being on the Blue Ridge Parkway near places where some of these crimes took place. A little unnerving to know while I was getting out of our car to look at a view, down below could’ve been a disposal site at some time.
October 15, 2022
This is basically a recap of many author's recounts of crime in NW NC. It includes newspaper accounts, police reports and authors. The stories are from the 1800s to 2000s. I find it uninspiring and very dry reading.
October 5, 2023
Interesting and decently researched. Not over-sensationalizing.
October 18, 2022
Many thanks to Stuart Ferguson at Shakespeare and Company Bookseller in Highlands for recommending True Crimes of Western North Carolina.
The mountains and valleys from Murphy to Mount Airy are mysterious, treacherous, glorious. As are the humans capable of evil as dark as a wintered midnight there.
The border between North Carolina and Tennessee arbitrarily divides the mountain ranges as anyone who has hiked in the Smoky Mountains understands. There’s no boundary in deep woods. It’s as thin and imaginary as the boundary between evil and good.
Cathy Pickens has collected mountain accounts from three centuries, many that criss-cross state borders. If murder and mayhem are not your genre, I’d still recommend these collected true stories for the history, geography, and independent-minded mountain spirit captured here.
You’ll meet everyone from a moonshiner named Popcorn to Tsul’kalu,’ Great Slant-Eyed Giant, of Cherokee legend. And that one fellow who was shot in Tennessee by a man standing in North Carolina, starting a judicial jurisdiction battle worthy of a moonshiner feud.
The mountains and valleys from Murphy to Mount Airy are mysterious, treacherous, glorious. As are the humans capable of evil as dark as a wintered midnight there.
The border between North Carolina and Tennessee arbitrarily divides the mountain ranges as anyone who has hiked in the Smoky Mountains understands. There’s no boundary in deep woods. It’s as thin and imaginary as the boundary between evil and good.
Cathy Pickens has collected mountain accounts from three centuries, many that criss-cross state borders. If murder and mayhem are not your genre, I’d still recommend these collected true stories for the history, geography, and independent-minded mountain spirit captured here.
You’ll meet everyone from a moonshiner named Popcorn to Tsul’kalu,’ Great Slant-Eyed Giant, of Cherokee legend. And that one fellow who was shot in Tennessee by a man standing in North Carolina, starting a judicial jurisdiction battle worthy of a moonshiner feud.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews