Americas Feud Hatfields Mccoys 2012

LegalDramaDaily

Transcript

00:00:00It's the most iconic of all American feuds,

00:00:04one that began at the end of the Civil War

00:00:06and involved two legendary families,

00:00:09the Hatfields and the McCoys.

00:00:13Family against family, friend against friend,

00:00:15blood against blood. It was awful.

00:00:17The legend would evolve from stories of gun battles,

00:00:21knife fights, assassination attempts,

00:00:25point-blank executions,

00:00:26a volatile Romeo and Juliet romance.

00:00:30And the public hanging of a man who may have been innocent.

00:00:33Everybody's heard of the Hatfield-McCoy feud,

00:00:35but the truth is today, nobody knows what actually happened.

00:00:49America's feud, the Hatfields and McCoys.

00:00:55The clashes between the Hatfield and McCoy clans began in 1865.

00:01:00In the absence of any strong local authorities

00:01:03in West Virginia and Kentucky,

00:01:04minor disputes between the families began to escalate.

00:01:09You get him!

00:01:10There were 11 recorded murders of Hatfield and McCoy family members

00:01:14and their supporters.

00:01:15Four Hatfields and seven McCoys.

00:01:18The feud is violent.

00:01:20The feud is violent. It's awful.

00:01:22It seemed no one could really let go of revenge and payback.

00:01:28Both clans traced their ancestry to the Scots-Irish

00:01:31who immigrated to America in the early 1800s.

00:01:34They moved into the Appalachian region of the Tug River Valley,

00:01:38settling into an area of rough timber terrain

00:01:40with little possibility of farming.

00:01:44The only reason it was settled at all

00:01:46is that the government made these very cheap land grants

00:01:49to allow people to come here and begin to populate it.

00:01:51And it was very, very sparsely populated,

00:01:53but there also wasn't very much farmable land,

00:01:56and everybody at that time was subsistence farmers.

00:01:59Located in the border region

00:02:00between modern-day Kentucky and West Virginia,

00:02:03the Tug River was a wild land,

00:02:06tall timber, shallow-running streams,

00:02:08and little flat land to plant crops.

00:02:11It's very remote and very rugged.

00:02:13It tends to form the people in a certain way.

00:02:16They tended to be very suspicious of outsiders.

00:02:19They tend to be very rugged individualists.

00:02:22They put a lot of stock in being a self-reliant person.

00:02:26They had a great deal of pride.

00:02:28They didn't have a great deal of education,

00:02:30but you saw a great deal of common horse sense in these people.

00:02:33This little enclave in America that was sort of passed by,

00:02:36You know, you had culture on the east and a lot of activity,

00:02:41and then you had this little pocket in the mountains

00:02:44that it had some appeal for these people,

00:02:47but America just passed it by and moved out west.

00:02:51The Hatfield clan mostly settled

00:02:53on the West Virginia side of the river,

00:02:56the McCoys on the Kentucky side.

00:02:58But members of both families did spread throughout the valley

00:03:01and even called one another neighbors.

00:03:04According to family history,

00:03:05there was no record of conflict

00:03:07between the clans and previous generations.

00:03:10Up until the time of the feud,

00:03:12it was very common for them to intermarry.

00:03:14You go very far into a family,

00:03:16and you find out that nearly everyone's related.

00:03:20The Hatfield-McCoy feud was a border war

00:03:23fueled by resentment and hatred from the war.

00:03:27West Virginia was originally part of Virginia

00:03:29until the Civil War 1863 when it seceded from Virginia

00:03:33and became a Union state.

00:03:35It was the only state born out of the Civil War.

00:03:39While the ancestors of the Hatfield and McCoy clan

00:03:41settled in the Kentucky-West Virginia region

00:03:44and set down their family roots,

00:03:46it was not until the mid-1800s

00:03:48that the key players in the feud emerged.

00:03:52William Anderson Hatfield, 26 years old,

00:03:56better known to his family and friends as Devil Annes.

00:04:00And Randolph McCoy, 40 years old,

00:04:03known most simply as Randall,

00:04:05or by his nickname, O'Rannell.

00:04:08He was a farm laborer from his youth on up

00:04:13until he was a grown man,

00:04:15and then he's a farmer and a woodsman.

00:04:19And that was typical for the time period.

00:04:23The difference was that he wasn't that successful with it.

00:04:26Randall McCoy was not a good businessman,

00:04:29nor was his father.

00:04:30His father, Dan, was sort of a famous ne'er-do-well,

00:04:33and he left his children destitute.

00:04:36Randolph McCoy, I don't think,

00:04:39had the physical appearance

00:04:43nor the solid upbringing and support.

00:04:48It put him at a disadvantage with Hatfield.

00:04:53Hatfield was well-known in the area,

00:04:55having grown up an expert marksman

00:04:56hunting bears in the steep hills of West Virginia.

00:05:00He married a local girl, Levice,

00:05:02and together they raised 13 children.

00:05:04Although illiterate, Devil Lanz was a natural businessman

00:05:08and established himself as a well-respected leader.

00:05:12We see the name Devil Lanz,

00:05:14and we immediately think evil.

00:05:18He is an evil character,

00:05:20and he looks very imposing.

00:05:23When you see the pictures of him,

00:05:24he looks somewhat threatening with his long beard

00:05:27and his very stern expression.

00:05:30There's some argument of what the name means.

00:05:32Some people say it was because he actually

00:05:34was a little bit devilish,

00:05:36had a good sense of humor,

00:05:37very playful when he was younger.

00:05:39According to his grandchildren,

00:05:41he was a loving man that would tell wonderful stories.

00:05:46He was a very physically active, fit, strong character,

00:05:50and that physical presence was with him all his life.

00:05:53That's why he was a leader of men.

00:05:55During the time of the Civil War

00:05:57and the early time of the feud,

00:06:00he was a man not to be reckoned with.

00:06:03He had a logging operation.

00:06:05He had 20-some roughneck men living out in the woods,

00:06:08cutting timber for him all the time.

00:06:10You know, so he had his own little army right there.

00:06:14So he was uneducated, but not stupid.

00:06:20Up until the feud broke out,

00:06:22these men and their families had more in common than not.

00:06:26They were both born and raised in the same area

00:06:28with similar values.

00:06:29Their families knew and liked each other,

00:06:32some even married.

00:06:34And the patriarchs both fought formally and informally

00:06:37on the same side in the Civil War as Confederates.

00:06:44All records indicate that both were Confederate in sympathies.

00:06:51Randolph McCoy did serve in some of what you would call

00:06:56the guerrilla bands that did exist,

00:06:59or the home guard units for the Confederacy.

00:07:02Devil Anse Hatfield was a captain for the Wildcats.

00:07:06The Wildcats were a Confederate militia group.

00:07:10Logan County Wildcats was a unit made up of mountain people,

00:07:15Logan County people.

00:07:17Of course, Logan County was much bigger then.

00:07:19They had a mission, and that was to defend the honor of the South

00:07:23and the honor of Virginia.

00:07:25Hatfield's loyalty stayed with Virginia,

00:07:27even though he lived in West Virginia,

00:07:29a Union breakaway state.

00:07:31This is the battleground.

00:07:33This isn't a southern area.

00:07:34It's not a northern area.

00:07:35It's split right down the middle.

00:07:36So the soldiers actually joined in a ratio of about 2 to 1

00:07:40for the north in Pike County.

00:07:42Most in southern West Virginia

00:07:45were inclined toward the Confederate cause more so

00:07:48than the Union cause.

00:07:51It wasn't that they went away to fight in some distant war

00:07:54and then came back home and joined their neighbors

00:07:56and started raising crops.

00:07:57It's that they were fighting right here.

00:07:59When Devil Anse joined the war,

00:08:01you've got to remember that he was from what was then Virginia,

00:08:04and he was one of the very early people

00:08:07who volunteered for the Civil War.

00:08:09Devil Anse and his brothers and his father

00:08:11all fought in legitimate Confederate armies.

00:08:14He got to the point where he was in northern West Virginia,

00:08:17and he was hearing about all these raids that were happening

00:08:20in his homeland where he was from,

00:08:21and there was really nothing he could do about it.

00:08:23When the Confederate armies moved out of their territory,

00:08:26they wouldn't go

00:08:27because they had to protect their homes.

00:08:29Their wives and their big families were there,

00:08:31and they knew that if they went away

00:08:33at a crucial time in the farm cycle,

00:08:36they weren't going to have any food.

00:08:37It was a horrible time where the home guard

00:08:39were not invaders from up north or from down south.

00:08:42They were your neighbors,

00:08:44and they're coming in here

00:08:45and doing these horrible things to you

00:08:46that's starving your children to death.

00:08:48In June of 1863,

00:08:50the part of Virginia that he was a part of

00:08:52seceded from Virginia and joined the Northern Army.

00:08:55And so here's a guy that was suddenly a traitor.

00:08:58And not only that,

00:08:59that some of the marauders from the other side

00:09:01just across the river,

00:09:03you know, not a mile or two,

00:09:05would come over and potentially burn their houses,

00:09:07steal their livestock.

00:09:08So they wouldn't go.

00:09:10They continually deserted

00:09:11whenever the Confederate forces left their area.

00:09:14The whole system's broken down.

00:09:15I mean, county government's broken down.

00:09:17There are no local governments.

00:09:19So basically, it's ruled by no law.

00:09:22There's total lawlessness here.

00:09:24There is no civil authority.

00:09:25There's no court records

00:09:26because there's no court taking place.

00:09:28There's no sheriff.

00:09:29There's no state police.

00:09:30So imagine living in a remote area

00:09:32where every week,

00:09:34it just depends on which group ran through.

00:09:36If it was Devil Ants and his group

00:09:38that came through of home guard,

00:09:39that was the law that day.

00:09:40On the West Virginia side,

00:09:42you had the Wildcats.

00:09:43On the Kentucky side of the river,

00:09:45you had the home guard.

00:09:47The home guard was a Union militia group

00:09:51headed by General Bill France.

00:09:55Historians don't agree on the role

00:09:57the Civil War played in the feud.

00:09:59But there is one credible account

00:10:01that has Devil Ants Hatfield

00:10:02and Randall McCoy working together

00:10:04against the Union.

00:10:05The mission was to assassinate

00:10:07a Union general, Bill France,

00:10:09who was terrorizing the local populace.

00:10:15Randall basically said to Devil Ants,

00:10:18I live in Pike County.

00:10:20I know Bill France's ins and outs.

00:10:23I know where he can be found.

00:10:26I will lead you to him.

00:10:29Using McCoy's information,

00:10:31Hatfield devised a plan

00:10:32to ambush General France.

00:10:33He formed a group of confederate

00:10:36home guard troops

00:10:37and hid them along the road.

00:10:38McCoy said he would travel.

00:10:40As General France approached the road,

00:10:43Hatfield's troops opened fire.

00:10:47Although wounded,

00:10:49Hatfield was said to have extracted

00:10:50some information from the general.

00:10:52This successful mission

00:10:53was the last time Devil Ants Hatfield

00:10:56and Randall McCoy would be allied.

00:10:58There's a lot of debate.

00:11:01There's a lot of disagreement

00:11:02as to whether or not that is true.

00:11:05But that seems to be the place

00:11:07where most discussions of the feud start

00:11:09is a friendship or a relationship

00:11:12between the two of them

00:11:13from the Civil War time.

00:11:15But what actually started the feud

00:11:16has been a subject of debate for decades.

00:11:19Trying to say when the feud start

00:11:21is kind of like trying to determine

00:11:23when a hurricane starts.

00:11:25You know, is it when the low-pressure system,

00:11:27you know, creates a storm?

00:11:29Is it when the hurricane hits the land?

00:11:31Is it, you know, when it devastates

00:11:33an urban region?

00:11:35Where is that beginning?

00:11:36Where is the end?

00:11:36For me, it's obvious

00:11:38it started at the end of the Civil War.

00:11:40If you look back

00:11:41in eastern Kentucky history

00:11:43and the history of this region,

00:11:44there were no feuds

00:11:46that we could find anywhere.

00:11:47There's no mention of a feud

00:11:48for the first 50 years.

00:11:50It was only after the Civil War

00:11:52that all the great feuds break out.

00:11:54It's where the seeds of future strife,

00:11:56were planted.

00:11:57While the debate continues

00:11:59over the exact role

00:12:00of the Civil War and the feud,

00:12:02it was in 1865

00:12:04when the first death

00:12:05attributed to the conflict

00:12:06between the Hatfields and McCoys came.

00:12:10It involved Asa Harmon McCoy,

00:12:12the younger brother of Randall McCoy,

00:12:14and the one member of the family

00:12:16who joined the Union Army.

00:12:22By whose story,

00:12:23we don't know for sure,

00:12:24but he goes home to his wife

00:12:27to find out that his life is in danger

00:12:30because he's gone with the Union cause

00:12:32and these Confederate sympathizers.

00:12:34They decide that Harmon

00:12:36should no longer exist

00:12:39because he had served the Union cause.

00:12:43Asa Harmon soon found himself

00:12:45facing the scrutiny

00:12:46of Devil Anse Hatfield

00:12:48and the Logan Wildcats.

00:13:05Devil Anse Hatfield

00:13:06and a guy named Crazy Jim Vance

00:13:08came in and they killed Harmon McCoy.

00:13:12It's complicated.

00:13:13Harmon McCoy was on the Union side

00:13:16and he lived in that region,

00:13:18but he was one of the very few people

00:13:20who was a Union supporter.

00:13:23And so some people have jumped on that

00:13:25to say, okay, he's a McCoy,

00:13:27he was on the Union side,

00:13:28so all the McCoys were on the Union side,

00:13:30which is far from the truth.

00:13:31He was maybe the only one

00:13:33or one of the very few.

00:13:35Now, subsequent historians,

00:13:36for some reason,

00:13:37have written that off.

00:13:38They say that Harmon McCoy

00:13:41fought for the Union

00:13:42unlike the other people

00:13:43of eastern Kentucky,

00:13:44that he was an anomaly

00:13:45and that everybody wanted him killed

00:13:46because they didn't like him.

00:13:48Patently untrue.

00:13:50The McCoys on the Kentucky side

00:13:52of the river

00:13:52all fought for the Union.

00:13:54There was an area called Peter Creek

00:13:55where Harmon McCoy lived

00:13:57and they all fought for the Union.

00:13:59You know, the fact that the feud

00:14:01didn't heat up again

00:14:02until, you know,

00:14:05until 14 years later

00:14:06and a little bit after that

00:14:08is not evidence

00:14:10that the feud didn't start

00:14:12in the Civil War.

00:14:13This was the beginning,

00:14:15the act that many now believe

00:14:17began the feud.

00:14:18If you think about it,

00:14:19you don't forget somebody

00:14:20murdering your brother.

00:14:22Family against family,

00:14:24man against man,

00:14:25from deadly encounters

00:14:26with only the voice

00:14:27of a single bullet to be heard

00:14:29to large-scale attacks

00:14:31lost in the volley

00:14:32of a massive gunfire.

00:14:33The feud between the Hatfields

00:14:35and the McCoys

00:14:36only grows louder

00:14:37and deadlier.

00:14:45In 1865,

00:14:46Asa Harmon McCoy,

00:14:48brother of Randall McCoy,

00:14:49was shot to death.

00:14:51Whether the motivation

00:14:52was that he was a Union soldier

00:14:54in a sea of Confederates

00:14:55or something else

00:14:56isn't clear.

00:14:58And it remains in dispute

00:15:00whether this killing

00:15:01was the catalyst

00:15:01for the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

00:15:04It wasn't until the fall

00:15:06of 1878

00:15:07that one of the most famous

00:15:08feud events took place.

00:15:10It involved the ownership

00:15:11of a single hog,

00:15:13which pitted the two clans

00:15:14against each other

00:15:15for the first time

00:15:16in a court of law.

00:15:18Floyd Hatfield

00:15:20was a cousin

00:15:22of Devil Ants,

00:15:24but he was more related

00:15:25to the McCoys.

00:15:27He had more blood relationships

00:15:29to the McCoys

00:15:30than he did

00:15:31to the Hatfields.

00:15:32It was the season

00:15:33for the hogs

00:15:33to be returned

00:15:34to their pens for slaughter.

00:15:36Floyd Hatfield

00:15:37had rounded up his

00:15:38when his neighbor

00:15:39Randall McCoy

00:15:39stopped by.

00:15:41Randall McCoy

00:15:42comes in

00:15:43and he sees these hogs

00:15:45in a pen

00:15:45of a guy named Tom Stafford.

00:15:47And Tom Stafford said,

00:15:48okay, Randall,

00:15:49if you say so,

00:15:50they're your hogs.

00:15:51Well, that same evening,

00:15:52Floyd Hatfield

00:15:53comes across the river

00:15:54and tells Tom,

00:15:56hey, those are my hogs.

00:15:57And Tom says,

00:15:58you know what?

00:15:59Randall was just here.

00:16:00He said they were his hogs.

00:16:01Pigs roamed free

00:16:01in the mountains.

00:16:02They notched their ears,

00:16:05but the notches

00:16:06could be changed easily.

00:16:07Sometimes pigs would fight

00:16:08and the ear would be damaged.

00:16:10So it was difficult

00:16:10to tell whose pig was whose.

00:16:12Floyd said,

00:16:13no, those are my hogs

00:16:14and I'm going to take them

00:16:15right now.

00:16:16And so Randall came back

00:16:17the next day.

00:16:18The hogs were gone.

00:16:18He was furious.

00:16:19He went into a rage

00:16:21and went straight

00:16:23to the justice of the peace,

00:16:25preacher Ants Hatfield.

00:16:27One of the things

00:16:28that I think

00:16:28is often interesting

00:16:30when we look at the feud

00:16:32is people have an image

00:16:34of vigilante justice

00:16:35with weapons

00:16:36and all of the dramatic things.

00:16:38And in fact,

00:16:39the Hatfields in particular

00:16:41were exceptionally litiginous.

00:16:43They went to court

00:16:45for everything.

00:16:46The courthouse

00:16:47is packed with records,

00:16:49land deeds,

00:16:51court minutes.

00:16:53These folks went to court

00:16:54at the drop of a hat.

00:16:56They didn't pick up their guns.

00:16:58They went to court

00:16:59and over and over

00:17:00I found them going to court

00:17:01to try to settle

00:17:01their differences.

00:17:02They weren't uncivilized,

00:17:05you know,

00:17:05the way that we came

00:17:07to think of them

00:17:08and the way that the,

00:17:10sort of the muckraking

00:17:12journalists portrayed them.

00:17:13They weren't savages.

00:17:15Now, a lot of people

00:17:15think that it's funny

00:17:16that you could have

00:17:17a trial over a hog,

00:17:18but you've got to remember

00:17:19these are subsistence farmers

00:17:21and the only source

00:17:22of protein that they had

00:17:23were the hogs

00:17:24that they raised

00:17:25and the game

00:17:26that they killed.

00:17:27And so,

00:17:28a hog was actually

00:17:29a very important part

00:17:30of what people needed

00:17:30to be able to survive

00:17:31and that was one

00:17:32of the reasons

00:17:32that it was a big enough

00:17:34issue that there was

00:17:35actually a trial over it.

00:17:37While the majority

00:17:38of the Hatfields

00:17:38were residents

00:17:39of the West Virginia

00:17:40side of the valley,

00:17:41Floyd Hatfield

00:17:42happened to live

00:17:43on the Kentucky side,

00:17:44which is where the case

00:17:46would go to trial.

00:17:48This area was

00:17:49by all accounts

00:17:50McCoy country,

00:17:51so the selection

00:17:52of a jury of his peers

00:17:53was a delicate matter.

00:17:56There was only one

00:17:57Justice of the Peace

00:17:58in the area

00:17:59and he was a Hatfield.

00:18:02Preacher Ann's Hatfield

00:18:03was known to be

00:18:04a temperate and honest man

00:18:06respected by both clans.

00:18:08There is no evidence

00:18:09that the McCoys

00:18:10complained about a Hatfield

00:18:11officiating the proceedings.

00:18:14The Justice of the Peace

00:18:15knew that this was

00:18:16going to be

00:18:17a very contentious trial.

00:18:19It was going to be

00:18:19trouble for him

00:18:20because he's got

00:18:21Hatfield relatives

00:18:22over in West Virginia.

00:18:23He's got McCoys

00:18:24living all around him.

00:18:25You know,

00:18:26how's he going to

00:18:27come out of this thing?

00:18:28That pig trial

00:18:31was to me

00:18:31one of the most

00:18:32interesting trials

00:18:33I've ever read about

00:18:35because you had

00:18:36a court set up

00:18:37where you had

00:18:37a Hatfield as a judge,

00:18:39then you had

00:18:40six Hatfields

00:18:40on the jury,

00:18:41six McCoys on the jury,

00:18:42and so you can't imagine

00:18:44there being anything

00:18:44but a hung jury

00:18:46in this case.

00:18:47But the testimony

00:18:48of an eyewitness,

00:18:49Bill Staten,

00:18:50threw the case

00:18:51into an unexpected direction.

00:18:53He claimed he saw

00:18:55the actual marking

00:18:56of the hog

00:18:56by none other

00:18:57than Floyd Hatfield.

00:18:59This was enough evidence

00:19:00for one of the jurors,

00:19:02Selkirk McCoy.

00:19:04The juror who was

00:19:06on the Hatfield side

00:19:07and who caused

00:19:08the Hatfields to win

00:19:09actually was Selkirk McCoy.

00:19:11And he was much more

00:19:14closely related

00:19:15by marriage

00:19:16and by cousins

00:19:18by blood

00:19:19to the McCoy family.

00:19:21So what's that all about?

00:19:23People tend to think

00:19:24of them as two separate,

00:19:25very separate families.

00:19:27When in fact,

00:19:29there were a lot

00:19:30of intermarriages

00:19:31between the families

00:19:32or between branches

00:19:34of the families.

00:19:35And so when the McCoy,

00:19:37who sides with

00:19:38the Hatfields

00:19:39in this case,

00:19:40sides with what

00:19:42some people perceive

00:19:43as the enemy,

00:19:44in fact,

00:19:44he was related

00:19:46to the Hatfields,

00:19:46he worked for the Hatfields,

00:19:48he lived near the Hatfields.

00:19:49He may have been

00:19:50a McCoy by name,

00:19:52but in fact,

00:19:53he was very closely

00:19:53associated

00:19:54with the Hatfields.

00:19:55And this kicks off

00:19:57some family issues,

00:19:59shall we say.

00:20:00Randall McCoy

00:20:01couldn't believe

00:20:01his own flesh and blood

00:20:02would vote against him.

00:20:04Furious,

00:20:05he refused to accept

00:20:06the verdict.

00:20:07While the dispute

00:20:08at first glance

00:20:09was simply over

00:20:10the ownership of a hog,

00:20:12Randall McCoy

00:20:13hadn't forgotten

00:20:13that his brother

00:20:14had died at the hands

00:20:15of the Hatfields.

00:20:16The 13-year-old memory

00:20:18was still painful,

00:20:20and now fuel

00:20:21was being thrown

00:20:21on that fire.

00:20:31Randall McCoy

00:20:32couldn't get over

00:20:32this insult to him.

00:20:35You know,

00:20:35it was a matter of honor

00:20:37losing this trial.

00:20:38Not only that,

00:20:38he had to pay

00:20:39the court costs.

00:20:40You know,

00:20:40so he was very unhappy

00:20:42about it.

00:20:42He griped about it

00:20:44always,

00:20:45you know,

00:20:45when people would avoid him

00:20:47because they were tired

00:20:48of hearing about

00:20:49this trial

00:20:50and how angry he was

00:20:51and how he had gotten

00:20:52abused

00:20:53and how he was

00:20:54going to get his revenge.

00:20:56After the hog trial,

00:20:57Selkirk McCoy

00:20:58and Bill Staten

00:20:59were shunned

00:21:00as untrustworthy.

00:21:05Staten was careful

00:21:06to maintain his distance

00:21:07from the McCoy side

00:21:08of the river,

00:21:09choosing instead

00:21:10to remain on the

00:21:11West Virginia side

00:21:12close to the Hatfield clan.

00:21:14Bill Staten knows

00:21:15that he,

00:21:17you know,

00:21:18has enemies

00:21:18as a result of this.

00:21:20And a meeting

00:21:20was inevitable.

00:21:22Two years later

00:21:23in 1880,

00:21:24Staten crossed paths

00:21:25with two McCoys,

00:21:27Paris and Sam.

00:21:28They immediately

00:21:29sing each other

00:21:30because bad words

00:21:32had been exchanged

00:21:32in the past

00:21:33and rocks had been thrown.

00:21:34They'd even shot

00:21:35at each other

00:21:36across the river

00:21:36a bit.

00:21:38They immediately knew

00:21:40that they were

00:21:41going to have a battle.

00:21:42And so Bill Staten

00:21:44pulled up his gun

00:21:45and shot at Paris

00:21:47and Sam McCoy.

00:21:59Staten fired at Paris McCoy,

00:22:01wounding him

00:22:01in the shoulder.

00:22:08Sam McCoy

00:22:09returned a single shot

00:22:10to Bill Staten's chest,

00:22:11killing him.

00:22:12In the coming years,

00:22:14there would be retribution.

00:22:15Small skirmishes

00:22:16and large,

00:22:17each side looking

00:22:18looking for justice,

00:22:19whether it be

00:22:20in a courtroom

00:22:21or in the woods.

00:22:30The bad blood

00:22:31between Hatfields

00:22:32and McCoys

00:22:33had been going on

00:22:34for 13 years.

00:22:35The latest incident

00:22:36was a showdown

00:22:37between Bill Staten,

00:22:39who testified in favor

00:22:40of the Hatfields

00:22:41in the stolen hog case

00:22:42and two McCoy brothers,

00:22:44Paris and Sam.

00:22:45Staten ended up dead.

00:22:48There's also indications

00:22:50that evidence

00:22:51left at the scene,

00:22:52Bill Staten

00:22:53was in the process

00:22:55of killing

00:22:57at least one,

00:22:58if not both,

00:22:58of the McCoy boys.

00:23:01Although the Hatfields

00:23:02could have easily

00:23:03fanned the flames

00:23:03of the ever-growing feud,

00:23:05they did not pick up

00:23:06their guns

00:23:07and set out

00:23:07after the McCoy boys

00:23:09to seek their own form

00:23:10of mountain justice.

00:23:12Instead,

00:23:12they followed

00:23:13the rule of law

00:23:14and got warrants

00:23:15for the arrest

00:23:15of Sam and Paris McCoy.

00:23:18It took a long period

00:23:20of time.

00:23:20I mean,

00:23:20Paris McCoy

00:23:21was actually found

00:23:22rather soon afterwards,

00:23:24but Sam McCoy

00:23:26was on the run

00:23:27or on the lam

00:23:28for an extended period

00:23:30of time

00:23:30before he was brought in.

00:23:31It had to be hunted down.

00:23:33Elias Hatfield,

00:23:35Wall's brother,

00:23:36hunted down

00:23:36squirrel hunting Sam

00:23:37and brought him in.

00:23:38They captured him,

00:23:41took him to trial.

00:23:42Remember,

00:23:43this is West Virginia,

00:23:44Devil Anse's territory,

00:23:45and had a trial

00:23:47in which the judge

00:23:48was Wall Hatfield,

00:23:50Anse's brother.

00:23:51Wall Hatfield

00:23:52was a pretty clever,

00:23:55independent-minded guy,

00:23:56and he listened

00:23:57to all the evidence,

00:23:58and what he heard

00:24:00was basically,

00:24:01because there were

00:24:01three guys there,

00:24:02one of them was dead.

00:24:03He heard Paris

00:24:04and squirrel hunting

00:24:05Sam McCoy's testimony,

00:24:06and he did what he thought

00:24:09was the right thing

00:24:10by the law.

00:24:10He had no choice

00:24:11but to declare them innocent

00:24:14because there was no evidence

00:24:16against them, really,

00:24:17other than dead body,

00:24:18but they said

00:24:18it was in self-defense.

00:24:19So, there again,

00:24:20I think it shows

00:24:21that these aren't,

00:24:23these aren't savages.

00:24:24They did have

00:24:25some social structure,

00:24:25they had morals,

00:24:27and, you know,

00:24:28they were just in a cauldron,

00:24:30you know,

00:24:31because it was such

00:24:32an isolated small place.

00:24:33They faced each other

00:24:34every day,

00:24:34and M&T's had no place

00:24:36to go but into

00:24:37violent interaction.

00:24:40There are many folk stories

00:24:41surrounding the Hatfield

00:24:42and McCoy feud,

00:24:43some true,

00:24:45some half true,

00:24:46and some not true at all.

00:24:48But there is one emotional story

00:24:50that most agree on.

00:24:52In 1880,

00:24:54there was a romance

00:24:56that occurred,

00:24:57sort of a Romeo and Juliet

00:24:59type romance

00:25:00on Election Day.

00:25:02The people

00:25:03in the Tug River Valley

00:25:04which straddle

00:25:05the Kentucky-West Virginia border

00:25:07look forward every year

00:25:08to the annual

00:25:09Election Day

00:25:10social gathering,

00:25:11an event more festive

00:25:13than political.

00:25:14In 1880,

00:25:15an election took place

00:25:16at Blackberry Creek

00:25:17in Pike County, Kentucky.

00:25:19What happens here

00:25:20that's a little bit unusual

00:25:21is that the Hatfields

00:25:23of West Virginia

00:25:24really have no business

00:25:25coming to an election

00:25:26in Kentucky.

00:25:28But their relatives

00:25:29are over there,

00:25:29and they know their relatives

00:25:30are going to be there.

00:25:31And so this day,

00:25:32actually,

00:25:33Devil Anse didn't come over,

00:25:34but his son,

00:25:35Johnsey, came over.

00:25:36Johnsey was 18 years old,

00:25:39blonde-haired,

00:25:40blue-eyed,

00:25:40strapping.

00:25:41He was a moonshiner.

00:25:44The young woman

00:25:45he took a shine to

00:25:45that election day

00:25:46was Rosanna McCoy,

00:25:48the 21-year-old daughter

00:25:50of his father's

00:25:50archenemy, Randall.

00:25:53Johnsey and Rosanna

00:25:54immediately had eyes

00:25:55for each other.

00:25:56Johnsey was known

00:25:57as a ladies' man.

00:25:58He had relationships

00:26:00with all the young women,

00:26:01and he loved to go out

00:26:02dancing and get drunk.

00:26:04Johnsey was a really

00:26:05interesting character.

00:26:05When he met Rosanna,

00:26:06he was 18 years old.

00:26:08He had sent off

00:26:09to Sears and Roebuck

00:26:11for a brand-new suit,

00:26:12and it was a yellow suit

00:26:14with a cardboard-tabbed collar.

00:26:16So it was the height

00:26:17of the fashion of the day,

00:26:18and you think about it,

00:26:18yellow suit is fairly loud.

00:26:20Rosanna was a little bit

00:26:21older than he,

00:26:22and she was getting up there

00:26:25in years for being

00:26:26a single woman,

00:26:27and so she was probably

00:26:30looking for a potential

00:26:32husband as well.

00:26:33Well, they saw each other.

00:26:34She was very attractive.

00:26:35He was a very handsome guy,

00:26:37and it was like,

00:26:38you know, magnets, boom.

00:26:39Was it love?

00:26:40I don't think it was

00:26:41for Johnsey.

00:26:44Possibly it was

00:26:45for Rosanna.

00:26:46She saw someone

00:26:46who was from a family

00:26:49that was more well-to-do

00:26:50than her family.

00:26:51She saw someone

00:26:52who perhaps offered

00:26:54her a way out

00:26:55of the area,

00:26:58and was she interested

00:26:59in him for that?

00:27:00I think so.

00:27:01They're seen talking.

00:27:02They're told to stop talking

00:27:04by Randall,

00:27:06Rosanna's father,

00:27:07but then he goes off

00:27:07and gets in a political

00:27:08discussion at another part

00:27:10of this election ground

00:27:11thinking that matter's soft.

00:27:13Johnsey's uncle,

00:27:14Jim Vance,

00:27:15comes up and says,

00:27:15hey, you shouldn't be

00:27:16talking to a McCoy girl,

00:27:18you know,

00:27:18but that attraction

00:27:20is stronger than

00:27:21either of these warnings.

00:27:23Pretty soon,

00:27:24they slip off

00:27:24into the woods

00:27:26to do some romance,

00:27:27and they're lost track of.

00:27:30Randall McCoy

00:27:31eventually thinks

00:27:31that Rosanna's gone home

00:27:33with his wife and family

00:27:35back to the cabin,

00:27:36and that hasn't happened.

00:27:39Having lost track of time,

00:27:40Rosanna's afraid

00:27:41of going home,

00:27:43knowing that she would

00:27:43have to face her father

00:27:45and explain her disappearance.

00:27:47So Johnsey takes her

00:27:48to the Hatfield cabin

00:27:49in West Virginia.

00:27:50The two emerge from the woods

00:27:52and cross the river,

00:27:53not really thinking

00:27:54about what would be

00:27:55confronting them

00:27:56on the other side.

00:27:58And Johnsey says,

00:27:59you know,

00:28:00I want to marry you.

00:28:01I'm going to take you home

00:28:02to my place,

00:28:04and he does.

00:28:04So she rides with him

00:28:06back across the river,

00:28:07back to their cabin.

00:28:09Devil Anse informs Johnsey

00:28:10that under no circumstances

00:28:11will he be marrying

00:28:13a daughter of Randall McCoy.

00:28:14Well, there's no evidence

00:28:16for that.

00:28:17That's pure legend.

00:28:19And when you consider

00:28:20that later after Rosanna

00:28:21and Johnsey

00:28:22were no longer together,

00:28:23Johnsey married Nancy McCoy,

00:28:27and Devil Anse

00:28:28had no objections to that,

00:28:29it seems probably

00:28:31that he didn't care

00:28:32whether they got married

00:28:33or not.

00:28:34Now they're in a very

00:28:35difficult position

00:28:36because Roseanne

00:28:37hasn't gone home

00:28:38and Devil Anse

00:28:39is not going to let

00:28:40them get married,

00:28:41but she ends up

00:28:42staying there.

00:28:43She knows if she goes home,

00:28:44she's going to be

00:28:46probably abused,

00:28:47if not physically,

00:28:48certainly verbally.

00:28:50While living in Devil Anse's home,

00:28:52Rosanna became pregnant

00:28:53with Johnsey's child.

00:28:56But she was also finding out

00:28:58that Johnsey was not going

00:28:59to be a very good partner

00:29:01or husband,

00:29:03and because he was going out

00:29:06with other women

00:29:06when she was pregnant.

00:29:09So Johnsey abandoned her.

00:29:13What we do know about that

00:29:15is that she would have liked

00:29:16to go home to her family

00:29:20and take refuge with them

00:29:22after she realized

00:29:23it was not going to work

00:29:24with Johnsey,

00:29:25and Randall McCoy

00:29:26would not have her.

00:29:27He never allowed her

00:29:29back under his roof,

00:29:30ever.

00:29:32And so he obviously

00:29:34had very hard feelings.

00:29:35As a matter of fact,

00:29:35she had to go to her aunt's house

00:29:37to have her baby.

00:29:38So there was obviously

00:29:39a schism there

00:29:40between the family

00:29:41and between her and her father

00:29:42that was never really mended

00:29:45until very, very later on

00:29:46in the feud.

00:29:47A young girl

00:29:48becoming pregnant

00:29:49by someone she was not married to

00:29:54was problematic.

00:29:56Was it an issue?

00:29:57Was it someone that her father

00:29:59would allow her to marry?

00:30:01Probably not.

00:30:02And one of the reasons

00:30:02he didn't want her to marry him,

00:30:04I think it has less to do

00:30:06with him being a Hatfield

00:30:07and more to do with him

00:30:08being the man that got

00:30:10his little girl pregnant

00:30:11and he wasn't real happy

00:30:12with the situation.

00:30:13If you look at other families

00:30:15in Appalachia,

00:30:16it was not uncommon

00:30:18for young people

00:30:19to get together

00:30:19and not get married

00:30:22and then break up.

00:30:24And invariably,

00:30:25those young women

00:30:26went back to their families.

00:30:28So this was not uncommon.

00:30:30But yet,

00:30:31Randall McCoy

00:30:32was so upset

00:30:33with, you know,

00:30:35he was so angry

00:30:36at the Hatfields

00:30:36that he would not

00:30:37let her come home.

00:30:38And even his wife

00:30:40and other members

00:30:41of family

00:30:42tried to persuade him

00:30:43that that was too harsh.

00:30:45He wouldn't listen.

00:30:47Chauncey's

00:30:48and Rosanna's relationship

00:30:49was tumultuous for them.

00:30:51It was tumultuous for them

00:30:52and for their families.

00:30:54Chauncey decides

00:30:56that he misses Roseanne

00:30:58and he comes back

00:31:00across the river

00:31:00and they have secret liaisons.

00:31:04It's said that Roseanne

00:31:05has gone off

00:31:06to live with her aunt Betty McCoy

00:31:10in a place called Stringtown.

00:31:13And so Chauncey would come there

00:31:15and meet up with her

00:31:16or they would meet in the woods.

00:31:19But Roseanne's brothers

00:31:20had had enough

00:31:21of Chauncey's

00:31:22off-again, on-again attitude

00:31:23toward their sister.

00:31:25They knew there was

00:31:26an outstanding moonshine charge

00:31:27against them.

00:31:28So they decided

00:31:29to capture Chauncey themselves

00:31:31during one of his liaisons

00:31:32with Rosanna.

00:31:35Well, the McCoy boys,

00:31:38having gotten wind of this,

00:31:39goes to a justice of the peace

00:31:41and gets a warrant

00:31:42for the arrest

00:31:43of Chauncey Hatfield.

00:31:44There are outstanding

00:31:46warrants for him.

00:31:47You know, there are many counts

00:31:49of carrying a concealed weapon,

00:31:52selling whiskey,

00:31:53illegally.

00:31:54And so these are misdemeanor charges

00:31:56and nobody,

00:31:57no sheriff in his right mind

00:31:58is going over to West Virginia

00:32:00to try to serve that warrant.

00:32:03It's never been totally clear

00:32:05what they wanted.

00:32:07But she knew

00:32:08that he was going to pay

00:32:10a huge price.

00:32:11And I think she was more

00:32:13in love with him

00:32:15than he was with her.

00:32:20So she goes and finds a horse

00:32:23and rides over

00:32:24and informs Devil Lance.

00:32:26She was riding in the night.

00:32:28She was pregnant.

00:32:30It was the mountains

00:32:32of eastern Kentucky

00:32:33which are very rough.

00:32:35This was a courageous thing to do,

00:32:37a thing that a woman in love

00:32:39would do,

00:32:39but to her family

00:32:40it was the ultimate betrayal.

00:32:42Her motive

00:32:44has never been

00:32:45completely clear.

00:32:47I would argue

00:32:48that her motive was

00:32:50that she still wanted

00:32:52to marry John Z.

00:32:55And obviously

00:32:56if her brothers

00:32:57got him

00:32:59arrested,

00:33:00got him thrown

00:33:01in the jails

00:33:01or even beat him up,

00:33:04the possibility

00:33:05of her marrying him

00:33:07would be pretty slim.

00:33:10I don't think he'd want

00:33:11to marry into that family.

00:33:14On Rosanna's information,

00:33:16Devil Lance led

00:33:16a gang of Hatfields

00:33:17to get John Z. back.

00:33:21Taking back trails

00:33:22to the mountains

00:33:23they catch up with

00:33:24and surround the McCoys

00:33:25who now find themselves

00:33:26at a disadvantage.

00:33:29And it's a total shock

00:33:30to the McCoys.

00:33:31They're outnumbered

00:33:32and Devil Lance

00:33:34lets them have it.

00:33:38He's so angry

00:33:39that he tells them

00:33:41to get down

00:33:41on their knees

00:33:42and pray

00:33:42like he's going

00:33:43to kill them.

00:33:44One of the McCoys,

00:33:45the oldest McCoy son,

00:33:46Jim McCoy,

00:33:48is said to have

00:33:50basically stood up

00:33:51to Devil Lance

00:33:51and said,

00:33:52there's no way

00:33:53I'm getting down

00:33:53on my knees

00:33:54before you.

00:33:55The only person

00:33:56I get down

00:33:56on my knees

00:33:57before is God,

00:33:58you know.

00:33:58And in Devil Lance,

00:34:00he admired the pluck

00:34:02in Jim for that.

00:34:03He backed off.

00:34:04It cooled him down,

00:34:05really.

00:34:05And without a shot

00:34:06being fired,

00:34:07John Z. Hatfield

00:34:08is taken back home

00:34:09by his father.

00:34:11This was an event

00:34:12that isn't talked

00:34:13about as much,

00:34:14but I think

00:34:15really raised

00:34:16the volume

00:34:17of vitriol

00:34:18even more so

00:34:19than the misalliance

00:34:21between Roseanne

00:34:22and John Z.

00:34:24It was this

00:34:25confrontation

00:34:26between the men

00:34:28on that hilltop

00:34:29that created

00:34:31now a really

00:34:32incendiary atmosphere.

00:34:36Tragically

00:34:37and shortly

00:34:37after birth,

00:34:39Roseanne

00:34:39and John Z's

00:34:40baby dies.

00:34:41Not long after,

00:34:42Roseanne receives word

00:34:43that John Z is

00:34:45to be remarried

00:34:45to her first cousin,

00:34:47Nancy McCoy.

00:34:49Roseanne takes a job

00:34:50as a governess

00:34:51for Perry Klein,

00:34:52who would soon come

00:34:53to be a key player

00:34:54in the feud.

00:34:55After the romance fails,

00:34:58John Z actually

00:35:00has fallen in love

00:35:01with Roseanne's cousin,

00:35:04Nancy.

00:35:04And so they get married,

00:35:06a bitter thing

00:35:07for the Randall McCoy family.

00:35:13Roseanne's had a daughter,

00:35:14little Sally,

00:35:15who will only live

00:35:16for eight months

00:35:17and is buried

00:35:19now right at Stringtown

00:35:22outside of

00:35:22Betty McCoy's house.

00:35:25She betrayed the family,

00:35:27not so much

00:35:28by getting pregnant,

00:35:29but by warning him

00:35:30when he was going

00:35:31to be taught a lesson

00:35:32by her brothers.

00:35:34Roseanne McCoy

00:35:35would ultimately

00:35:35become one of the

00:35:36true tragic figures

00:35:38of the Hatfield

00:35:39and McCoy feud.

00:35:40Roseanne actually

00:35:41told her relative

00:35:43that the worst tragedy

00:35:44was not the relationship

00:35:46with John Z that broke down,

00:35:48but her relationship

00:35:49with her father,

00:35:50who refused

00:35:51to have her come home

00:35:53and refused to support her

00:35:54when she needed support.

00:35:56The feud was now

00:35:57in its 16th year

00:35:58and showed no signs

00:35:59of abating.

00:36:00The next confrontation

00:36:02was a bloody knife fight

00:36:04eyewitnessed by the entire town

00:36:05of Pikeville, Kentucky.

00:36:07This time,

00:36:08there would be no question

00:36:09as to who would be blamed.

00:36:13August 7, 1882.

00:36:16Election Day festivities.

00:36:18A year after

00:36:19John Z Hatfield

00:36:20and Roseanne McCoy

00:36:21had sparked

00:36:22their ill-fated romance

00:36:23at the annual event,

00:36:25the Tug River locals

00:36:26flocked to the polling place

00:36:27in Kentucky again.

00:36:28In attendance

00:36:29at the carnival-like gathering

00:36:31were several young members

00:36:32of the McCoy clan

00:36:33and Ellison Hatfield,

00:36:35brother of clan leader,

00:36:36Devil Anse Hatfield.

00:36:38Not very many Hatfields

00:36:39were there

00:36:41except for Devil Anse's

00:36:42brother, Ellison.

00:36:45Devil Anse and Ellison

00:36:46were close.

00:36:47Ellison was his younger brother.

00:36:48He was a tall,

00:36:49handsome guy.

00:36:51He fought at Gettysburg.

00:36:52He was known as a hero.

00:36:54And Devil Anse and Ellison

00:36:56were very close.

00:36:57And Ellison actually let

00:36:57Devil Anse in his early years

00:36:59live on some of his land.

00:37:00Ellison Hatfield

00:37:01doesn't have much of a history.

00:37:03We don't know a great deal

00:37:04about him.

00:37:05But he appears to have gotten

00:37:07somehow or another

00:37:08on the wrong side

00:37:08of the McCoy boys.

00:37:10The men start drinking

00:37:11and as the afternoon wears on,

00:37:13ill words are exchanged

00:37:14between Tolbert McCoy,

00:37:17Randall's oldest son,

00:37:18and a guy named Bad Lias.

00:37:21He's a brother of preacher

00:37:23Anse Hatfield.

00:37:24And they have words

00:37:27over a debt

00:37:28that Bad Lias owes

00:37:31about $1.75

00:37:32to Tolbert McCoy

00:37:34for a fiddle.

00:37:35So Ellison gets up

00:37:36and comes over

00:37:37and he tries to introduce

00:37:40some humor at first

00:37:41and get Tolbert

00:37:43to stop and back down.

00:37:44And, well,

00:37:45that just infuriates

00:37:46Tolbert McCoy.

00:37:48And they exchange words,

00:37:51some of which

00:37:51I can't repeat right here.

00:37:53According to many

00:37:54eyewitness accounts,

00:37:55what started as an exchange

00:37:56of words quickly escalated

00:37:58into a violent confrontation.

00:38:01They didn't fight

00:38:02the way we typically

00:38:03think a fair fight might be.

00:38:05A fair fight to them

00:38:06would be pulling knives,

00:38:07would be wrestling, grappling,

00:38:09tripping, kicking,

00:38:10even biting.

00:38:11You know, that was a fight.

00:38:12There's agreement

00:38:13that Tolbert McCoy

00:38:14attacked the elder

00:38:15Ellison Hatfield

00:38:16with a knife.

00:38:18It's clear that

00:38:19Tolbert McCoy

00:38:20is getting the worst

00:38:22of the fight.

00:38:23His brothers

00:38:23start getting involved

00:38:25while Farmer

00:38:25and Bill

00:38:27both have knives.

00:38:28Tolbert and his two brothers

00:38:29were so furious,

00:38:30they pulled out knives

00:38:32and they were literally

00:38:33cutting into pieces,

00:38:34stabbing.

00:38:34Ellison gets on top

00:38:35of Tolbert.

00:38:36He knows he needs

00:38:37to end this fight.

00:38:38So he sees a big rock

00:38:39and he picks it up

00:38:41and he's getting ready

00:38:42to hit Tolbert

00:38:42on the head with it

00:38:44and it was going

00:38:45to kill Tolbert.

00:38:47At that point,

00:38:48Bill has a gun

00:38:50and he shoots Ellison.

00:38:56When it was all

00:38:57said and done,

00:38:58Ellison Hatfield

00:38:58had been stabbed

00:38:59more than 27 times,

00:39:01then shot

00:39:02and left for dead.

00:39:11It doesn't kill Ellison.

00:39:12He's a remarkable man.

00:39:14He staggers off

00:39:15in shock

00:39:16and he just sits down

00:39:17and he's bleeding

00:39:19from all these wounds.

00:39:20It was very bloody,

00:39:25very painful

00:39:26and he lived for a while

00:39:29after they stabbed him.

00:39:32The three McCoy brothers,

00:39:33Tolbert, Farmer, and Bill,

00:39:35knew they'd be arrested.

00:39:37Bill was only 14

00:39:38so at the last moment,

00:39:40out of a sense

00:39:41of loyalty and protection,

00:39:43Randolph Bud McCoy Jr.,

00:39:44his brother,

00:39:46took his place.

00:39:46And so people think

00:39:48that Bud is Bill.

00:39:50He doesn't deny it

00:39:51because he's protecting

00:39:52his younger brother.

00:39:54Mortally wounded,

00:39:56Ellison is loaded

00:39:56on a makeshift stretcher

00:39:57by his brother,

00:39:58Good Elias,

00:39:59and transported across

00:40:00the river

00:40:01to the West Virginia side

00:40:02where Devil Lanz awaits.

00:40:05Basically after that,

00:40:06there is a death watch.

00:40:08In the meantime,

00:40:09the three McCoy brothers

00:40:11have been arrested

00:40:12and the McCoys

00:40:13and the Hatfields

00:40:14on that side

00:40:15realize there's going

00:40:16to be a big problem here.

00:40:17The best thing

00:40:18that can happen

00:40:18to these McCoys

00:40:19is to get them

00:40:20to Pikeville in jail

00:40:21where they're actually safe.

00:40:23It was a quick decision

00:40:24at that point

00:40:25that as far as

00:40:27Devil Lanz was concerned,

00:40:29justice could not be served

00:40:30in Pike County, Kentucky,

00:40:32and that instead

00:40:35the Hatfields would have

00:40:37to carry out justice.

00:40:39Although already in custody

00:40:41and on the way to jail,

00:40:42the three McCoys

00:40:43were captured

00:40:44by a posse of Hatfields.

00:40:47Faced with a violent confrontation,

00:40:49the Kentucky law enforcement officials

00:40:51hand over Tolbert,

00:40:52Farmer, and Randolph,

00:40:53Bud McCoy Jr.,

00:40:54to Devil Lanz Hatfield.

00:40:57Devil Lanz clearly has the might.

00:41:00He's got more guns.

00:41:02He's just a tougher guy,

00:41:03you know,

00:41:04and he's an action-first kind of guy.

00:41:06So they slowly co-opt this group

00:41:10and they slowly take over the prisoners.

00:41:13They take them across the river

00:41:14and they take them

00:41:15to an old abandoned schoolhouse

00:41:17and they lodge them there

00:41:19with guards.

00:41:20And so in this one house,

00:41:23you have Ellison Hatfield

00:41:24on his deathbed.

00:41:25In this other house,

00:41:26you've got the three McCoy brothers.

00:41:27They realize they're

00:41:29in a pretty bad situation.

00:41:30Now, Randolph has gone on.

00:41:31He has gone on to Pikeville

00:41:33to try to get legal help.

00:41:36Meanwhile,

00:41:37the mother of the three jailed McCoys,

00:41:39Sarah, also known as Sally,

00:41:41couldn't stand by and do nothing.

00:41:43She sets out into Hatfield territory

00:41:45in an attempt to beg Devil Lanz for mercy.

00:41:47The boy's mother goes to the schoolhouse

00:41:50with Tolbert's married

00:41:52and has a young child.

00:41:53And his wife, Mary,

00:41:55and the child come

00:41:56and they're pleading there.

00:41:57Wall Hatfield is guarding the schoolhouse.

00:41:59He's sitting on the porch

00:42:01with Winchester across his lap.

00:42:02And, I mean,

00:42:04the boy's mother's distraught.

00:42:06Mary's crying.

00:42:07She says to Devil Lanz,

00:42:08please, let them be tried in Kentucky.

00:42:11We'll make sure that, you know,

00:42:13they're put in jail

00:42:14and that this all happens the right way.

00:42:16Sarah's attempt to save her boys

00:42:17has a breakthrough.

00:42:19Devil Lanz tells her,

00:42:21look, if Ellison lives,

00:42:23I'll let that happen.

00:42:24You can take them back

00:42:25and they can be tried.

00:42:26But if Ellison dies,

00:42:27we'll try them right here.

00:42:29Meaning Devil Lanz

00:42:30was going to take the law

00:42:31into his own hands

00:42:32if his brother died.

00:42:35Not unsympathetic to a mother,

00:42:37he allows Sarah to spend

00:42:38a precious few hours with her sons,

00:42:41hours that could be their last.

00:42:45The Hatfields held vigil

00:42:47over Ellison's stabbed

00:42:48and shot up body.

00:42:50And the three young McCoy brothers

00:42:52held by Devil Lanz

00:42:53awaited their fate.

00:42:55Finally, on the third day,

00:42:57Ellison Hatfield died.

00:42:59The Hatfields were going to take justice

00:43:01into their own hands.

00:43:09You might wonder

00:43:10why they didn't go through

00:43:11the legal system

00:43:12since they were known

00:43:15for using the legal system

00:43:17for all kinds of other things.

00:43:18I think a lot of it had to do

00:43:20with the emotion of the murder.

00:43:22In this case,

00:43:24the stakes were too high.

00:43:25They had their reasons.

00:43:27It wasn't the right thing to do,

00:43:28but there was a lot behind

00:43:30that decision-making process.

00:43:32At that time,

00:43:33he kept his promise

00:43:35to Sarah McCoy

00:43:37and took them

00:43:39to the banks of the tug,

00:43:40crossed the tug.

00:43:42It's this very eerie scene

00:43:43because you have McCoys

00:43:46at various houses.

00:43:48They can hear the party passing,

00:43:50you know,

00:43:51and they don't know

00:43:51what's going on there.

00:43:52They haven't been privy to this.

00:43:53They've all been driven off.

00:43:55And Randall's not there.

00:43:56Jim McCoy, the boy's brother,

00:43:58is listening to them pass.

00:44:00He knows it's them

00:44:01and he can't do anything

00:44:02because his mother

00:44:02has made him swear

00:44:04that he won't.

00:44:04She said, look,

00:44:06I don't want to lose you, too.

00:44:08You know,

00:44:08and I don't know

00:44:09what they're going to do exactly,

00:44:10but I don't want you going in there.

00:44:12And so he's sort of bound

00:44:13by that promise to his mother.

00:44:15And at that point,

00:44:17tied the boys to pawpaw bushes.

00:44:29They form up in execution style.

00:44:32The boys, some are pleading.

00:44:35They're taunting the boys.

00:44:37There's back and forth.

00:44:39Wall Hatfield,

00:44:40who's been a part of this,

00:44:41has had apparently

00:44:42a dispute with Devil Lance.

00:44:44He doesn't want this to happen.

00:44:45He doesn't want them

00:44:46to be executed.

00:44:47He leaves the party,

00:44:48goes back over to,

00:44:49West Virginia.

00:45:23It was truly done

00:45:26as an execution.

00:45:27An unlawful execution,

00:45:29but done as an execution.

00:45:31And I think there was

00:45:32also a statement.

00:45:33They kill Tolbert

00:45:35and Farmer right away,

00:45:36the two older boys.

00:45:37Tolbert's 23,

00:45:39Farmer's 18.

00:45:40But Bud,

00:45:40who's taken Bill's place,

00:45:42is 15, almost 16,

00:45:44and they don't want to kill the boy.

00:45:46You know,

00:45:47nobody wants to shoot the boy.

00:45:48So they kill the two older young men

00:45:50and leave Bud alive.

00:45:52Well,

00:45:53they're starting to leave

00:45:55and Devil Lance

00:45:56tells one of the men,

00:45:59dead men tell no tales.

00:46:01And we can't leave him alive.

00:46:11He puts his Winchester

00:46:13to the boy's head

00:46:15and blows his skull off.

00:46:20A few years after,

00:46:21in 1884,

00:46:23Sam Squirrelhuntin' McCoy

00:46:24wrote down his account

00:46:26of the execution.

00:46:28The charge blew off

00:46:29the top of Bud McCoy's head.

00:46:31It lay about six feet

00:46:33from the body.

00:46:34Next morning,

00:46:35Melvin Larson

00:46:36picked the boy's skull

00:46:37and brains off the ground

00:46:39and placed it

00:46:39back in his head.

00:46:42The accounts of that

00:46:43jump all over the place.

00:46:45None of them

00:46:45describe a pleasant scene.

00:46:48It would be

00:46:51an extremely

00:46:52brutal account

00:46:54by all accounts.

00:46:55That moment of the feud

00:46:56is when,

00:46:58for some reason,

00:46:59everyone seemed to realize

00:47:02that it had to stop.

00:47:07The deaths in 1892

00:47:08of Ellison Hatfield

00:47:10and Tolbert,

00:47:11Farmer,

00:47:12and Randolph McCoy, Jr.,

00:47:14brought a period

00:47:14of surprising calm

00:47:15to the feud.

00:47:17Legal warrants

00:47:18were issued

00:47:18in Pike County, Kentucky

00:47:19for 20 members

00:47:20of the Hatfield clan

00:47:21for the killing

00:47:22of the three McCoy boys.

00:47:24After the boys

00:47:26were murdered

00:47:26at the Pawpaw Massacre site,

00:47:28Randall began trying

00:47:29to get charges

00:47:30brought against

00:47:31the Hatfields

00:47:32to get them arrested,

00:47:32and he was actually

00:47:33able to get the charges.

00:47:34But there was never

00:47:35any extradition.

00:47:37There was never

00:47:37any attempt

00:47:37to cross the border

00:47:38into West Virginia

00:47:39to arrest the villains.

00:47:40And Randall tried

00:47:41for years to begin

00:47:43to get something

00:47:43to happen with this,

00:47:44but nothing ever did.

00:47:45There was a,

00:47:46I think they called it

00:47:47the coroner's jury

00:47:48at that time,

00:47:50that investigated

00:47:51the death

00:47:52of these three McCoys.

00:47:54They said that

00:47:55they could not determine

00:47:58who murdered these people.

00:48:00I think that

00:48:01that if you would have been

00:48:03living in that time period,

00:48:04I think everyone

00:48:06had a very good idea

00:48:08of who killed these men.

00:48:10What happens is

00:48:11that a grand jury meets

00:48:12and they indict 23 Hatfields

00:48:16and the men

00:48:16who work for the Hatfields.

00:48:18And so these warrants

00:48:19are out for the arrest

00:48:21of these men

00:48:22in West Virginia,

00:48:23but the grand jury

00:48:24is a Kentucky grand jury.

00:48:26And so what would

00:48:27have to happen

00:48:28is that somebody

00:48:28would have to go

00:48:29into West Virginia

00:48:31and serve these warrants

00:48:32or catch them

00:48:33on the Kentucky side

00:48:34and serve the warrants.

00:48:35But Deb Lance

00:48:36went to the governor

00:48:37of West Virginia

00:48:37and got those extradition

00:48:39orders refused.

00:48:41And so there was

00:48:42a stalemate there

00:48:43for a number of years.

00:48:45Over a five-year period,

00:48:46there were no arrest

00:48:47or extradition actions.

00:48:49The Kentucky officials

00:48:50didn't have the authority

00:48:52to cross the state line

00:48:53into West Virginia.

00:48:54The Hatfields

00:48:56who had business

00:48:56and relationships

00:48:57in Kentucky

00:48:58often traveled there

00:48:59in well-armed groups,

00:49:00but they were feared

00:49:01and Kentucky lawmen

00:49:03let them go their way.

00:49:04Now, Randall McCoy

00:49:07continued to try

00:49:09to persuade officials

00:49:10in Pikeville

00:49:11to do something about this,

00:49:13to reinstate the warrants.

00:49:14Randall McCoy

00:49:15asked for help

00:49:16from a relative by marriage,

00:49:17a Pikeville, Kentucky attorney

00:49:19named Perry Klein,

00:49:21whose sister Martha

00:49:22was the widow

00:49:23of Asa Harmon McCoy.

00:49:25Randall McCoy

00:49:26has gone to Pikeville

00:49:28and alerted his cousin,

00:49:30Perry Klein.

00:49:31Randall's daughter, Roseanne,

00:49:34has lived with Perry Klein

00:49:35after the Johnsey affair.

00:49:36So Perry Klein's very up

00:49:38on what's going on here

00:49:39in this part of eastern Kentucky

00:49:42on the Tug River

00:49:43because that's where

00:49:43he was raised, too.

00:49:44Many people feel

00:49:45that he was

00:49:46a bit of a troublemaker.

00:49:51Klein had his own history

00:49:53with the Hatfields.

00:49:54It dated 16 years earlier

00:49:56in 1872.

00:49:59Devil Ann's Hatfield

00:50:00found success

00:50:01in the lumber business,

00:50:02hiring crews to clear land,

00:50:03even hiring

00:50:05some of the McCoy clan.

00:50:07Timber was the big deal

00:50:08at the time.

00:50:09You know,

00:50:10the amount of timber

00:50:10they took out of there

00:50:11and the riches

00:50:12that were made out of timber

00:50:14were truly phenomenal.

00:50:15Klein saw an opportunity

00:50:17for payback.

00:50:18Perry Klein

00:50:19had a large piece of property

00:50:20which was given to him

00:50:22when he was a teenager.

00:50:23In 1872,

00:50:24a dispute broke out.

00:50:26Hatfield discovered

00:50:27that Klein

00:50:28had been trespassing

00:50:29on his land

00:50:29and was reaping

00:50:31the financial benefits

00:50:32of his lumber.

00:50:33He timbered part

00:50:34of Devil Ann's Hatfield's

00:50:35property accidentally

00:50:37or on purpose

00:50:38thinking he wouldn't

00:50:39get caught,

00:50:39and that's how

00:50:40Devil Ann's took that

00:50:41out to court

00:50:41and ended up winning

00:50:42all of Perry Klein's property.

00:50:44Again,

00:50:45the court was in West Virginia.

00:50:46You had the divide

00:50:47with the tug.

00:50:48You had Union on one side,

00:50:49Confederate on the other.

00:50:51Did Perry Klein

00:50:51get a fair shake

00:50:52in West Virginia?

00:50:53I don't think so.

00:50:54The court decision

00:50:55was harsh.

00:50:56Instead of awarding

00:50:57damages to Hatfield,

00:50:58they directed Klein

00:50:59to deed over

00:51:00all his land,

00:51:015,000 acres

00:51:02to Ann's Hatfield.

00:51:04Perry Klein

00:51:04never forgave him for that.

00:51:06So he had a couple

00:51:07axes to grind, really.

00:51:08He had the attacks

00:51:09on the McCoy family

00:51:10and the fact

00:51:11that he lost his property

00:51:12to Devil Ann's.

00:51:13After that decision,

00:51:15Ann's Hatfield

00:51:15became one of the

00:51:16largest landowners

00:51:17and wealthiest men

00:51:18in the Tug Valley.

00:51:20And Klein was a man

00:51:21with a 16-year grudge.

00:51:23In the process

00:51:24of becoming a lawyer,

00:51:25Perry Klein

00:51:26was in a position

00:51:28in the 18...

00:51:29post-1882 period

00:51:31to position himself

00:51:34to take Randolph McCoy's

00:51:38grievances

00:51:39to the next level.

00:51:40Perry Klein

00:51:41decided that,

00:51:44oh, well,

00:51:45maybe he had a chance

00:51:46of getting his land back.

00:51:47Maybe he had a chance

00:51:48of getting revenge

00:51:50for what had gone on.

00:51:52And so suddenly,

00:51:54he too became interested

00:51:55in listening

00:51:56to Randolph McCoy.

00:51:58My personal opinion

00:51:58is he was seeking

00:52:00revenge,

00:52:01that he was

00:52:02an angry man.

00:52:04And if he was...

00:52:06if he could use

00:52:07Randolph as a tool

00:52:09to go after

00:52:10Devil Ann's,

00:52:11all the better.

00:52:12It's all going to be

00:52:13to Perry Klein's advantage

00:52:14and poor Randolph McCoy

00:52:17isn't shrewd enough

00:52:18to see that

00:52:19he's really just

00:52:20a pawn on Perry's

00:52:22chessboard.

00:52:23Klein's role

00:52:24in the feud

00:52:24would lead

00:52:25to a chain

00:52:25of events

00:52:26where innocents

00:52:27on both sides

00:52:28of the families

00:52:28were killed.

00:52:331887.

00:52:34Randolph McCoy

00:52:35had spent

00:52:36the last five years

00:52:37trying to get

00:52:37the Hatfields tried

00:52:38for the execution

00:52:39of his three sons.

00:52:41He turned

00:52:42to a distant relative

00:52:43and lawyer,

00:52:44Perry Klein,

00:52:44for help.

00:52:46Klein had lost

00:52:475,000 acres

00:52:48of timberland

00:52:49to Devil Ann

00:52:4916 years before.

00:52:51The lawyer,

00:52:52who now had

00:52:53political power

00:52:53in Pike County,

00:52:55saw a path

00:52:56for revenge.

00:52:57Perry Klein

00:52:58helps a gentleman

00:52:59named Simon Boulevard

00:53:00Buckner get elected

00:53:01governor of Kentucky.

00:53:03And Pike County

00:53:03is the largest county

00:53:04east of the Mississippi,

00:53:05so bringing in Pike County

00:53:06for Buckner

00:53:07was a big deal.

00:53:08And Governor Buckner

00:53:10owed him.

00:53:10Payback was that

00:53:11Buckner would post

00:53:12bounties on the heads

00:53:13of the Hatfields,

00:53:14including $500

00:53:16for Devil Ann's

00:53:17Hatfield himself.

00:53:18So now things

00:53:19are going to start

00:53:20heating up.

00:53:21Perry Klein

00:53:21is on the ball.

00:53:23He's getting

00:53:24Buckner

00:53:24to go to

00:53:25the West Virginia

00:53:26governor,

00:53:27Willis Wilson,

00:53:28who has some

00:53:29allegiance to

00:53:30the Hatfields,

00:53:30but he's getting

00:53:31him to pressure

00:53:32Wilson to go

00:53:34arrest the Hatfields

00:53:35and send them

00:53:35to Kentucky.

00:53:36Now you get into

00:53:38a long battle

00:53:39of letters

00:53:40between the governors.

00:53:42Perry Klein

00:53:42jumps in there.

00:53:43The Hatfields

00:53:44are powerful

00:53:45in this part

00:53:45of West Virginia,

00:53:46and politics being

00:53:47what they are,

00:53:48the governor knows

00:53:48what's the upside

00:53:49for turning over

00:53:50the Hatfields,

00:53:51and the Hatfields

00:53:52can deliver

00:53:52that part of

00:53:53West Virginia

00:53:54to him in elections.

00:53:56As extradition

00:53:57proceedings move forward,

00:53:59Klein hired teams

00:54:00of private detectives

00:54:01and bounty hunters

00:54:02to cross into

00:54:03West Virginia

00:54:04to arrest the murderers

00:54:05of the McCoy boys.

00:54:07And in this phase

00:54:08of the fuse,

00:54:09the leader was really

00:54:10Perry Klein,

00:54:11because he raised

00:54:12the posse.

00:54:12In some ways,

00:54:13it would be more

00:54:14accurate to say

00:54:15there was a

00:54:15Klein-Hatfield feud

00:54:17after 1888.

00:54:19Perry Klein

00:54:20has an ace card,

00:54:21and that ace card

00:54:22is Frank Phillips,

00:54:24better known

00:54:24as Bad Frank Phillips.

00:54:26Phillips was well

00:54:27known in the territory

00:54:28as a ruthless lawman,

00:54:30not afraid to use

00:54:31his gun

00:54:32and take no prisoners.

00:54:34He needed a heavy,

00:54:35and here was this

00:54:37sort of stepbrother,

00:54:39Frank Phillips,

00:54:40who he then recruited

00:54:41to come in

00:54:41to be his strong arm.

00:54:43Frank Phillips

00:54:43was short,

00:54:44lightweight,

00:54:45but supposedly

00:54:46much like Anderson

00:54:47had to feel

00:54:48quick with his temper

00:54:49and quick to get involved

00:54:51in any kind of

00:54:52hard fighting

00:54:53and killing.

00:54:54I have never read

00:54:55an account

00:54:55of Frank Phillips

00:54:57being the kind of guy

00:54:59I would want

00:54:59to sit down

00:55:00and have a cup of coffee with,

00:55:01much less drink with.

00:55:03Frank Phillips,

00:55:04he decides that

00:55:05he's going to cross the line

00:55:06and go in

00:55:06and make arrests

00:55:07on his own,

00:55:08and this is what's

00:55:09really going to ignite

00:55:11a new phase

00:55:11in this feud,

00:55:12which is going to

00:55:13take the states

00:55:14nearly to war

00:55:15and is going to

00:55:16hit the national media

00:55:17and become,

00:55:18you know,

00:55:19a much bigger deal.

00:55:21The first person

00:55:22the client posse captured

00:55:23was none other

00:55:24than Selkirk McCoy,

00:55:26the man who some felt

00:55:27betrayed his family

00:55:28by being the swing vote

00:55:29in favor of the Hatfields

00:55:31in the Hogg trial

00:55:32of 1878.

00:55:33He takes him back

00:55:34and puts him in jail

00:55:35in Pikeville,

00:55:35and he arrests

00:55:37two other men.

00:55:39In 1888,

00:55:40with the governors

00:55:41of Kentucky

00:55:42and West Virginia

00:55:43now involved

00:55:44and multiple raiding parties

00:55:45crossing the border

00:55:46into West Virginia,

00:55:48the key players

00:55:49in the Hatfield clan

00:55:50scattered into the hills

00:55:51to hide out.

00:55:52At this point,

00:55:53Devil Anse knew

00:55:54what was going on,

00:55:55knew Perry Kline

00:55:57had done this

00:55:58and was obviously

00:56:00getting nervous.

00:56:01West Virginia's

00:56:03Governor Wilson

00:56:03made a courageous

00:56:04political decision

00:56:05by agreeing

00:56:06to the extradition

00:56:07of 20 members

00:56:08and supporters

00:56:09of the local

00:56:10Hatfield clan.

00:56:11Yet soon after,

00:56:13it's been said

00:56:13that Wilson became aware

00:56:14of some double dealings

00:56:16by Kline

00:56:16and his associate,

00:56:18Frank Phillips.

00:56:19John C. Hatfield

00:56:20had actually gone

00:56:21across the river

00:56:22and had a private meeting

00:56:24with Perry Kline,

00:56:25gave him $200

00:56:26and an agreement

00:56:27that you sort of

00:56:28back off the family.

00:56:30And Perry Kline

00:56:31apparently gave John C.

00:56:34a reasonable amount

00:56:35of surety

00:56:36that could deal,

00:56:39give me the money.

00:56:40The governor

00:56:40immediately withdrew

00:56:41his approval

00:56:42for the extraditions.

00:56:44I personally

00:56:45don't believe it.

00:56:45I think Perry Kline

00:56:46was a man

00:56:47of more integrity.

00:56:48The money they're

00:56:49talking about

00:56:49just wasn't enough.

00:56:50The property

00:56:51that he had taken

00:56:52from him

00:56:52was worth thousands

00:56:53and thousands

00:56:54of dollars

00:56:54at this point.

00:56:55What is true

00:56:56is that Devil Anse Hatfield

00:56:57realized that he was

00:56:58being backed

00:56:59into a corner

00:56:59and had limited options

00:57:01for self-preservation.

00:57:03He needed a new plan

00:57:05and he needed it quickly.

00:57:07You can see something

00:57:08familiar going on here.

00:57:09It looks like

00:57:10the Civil War again.

00:57:11You've got

00:57:12Union-affiliated

00:57:13Kentucky men

00:57:14coming in

00:57:15raiding West Virginia.

00:57:17And what are

00:57:18the Hatfields thinking?

00:57:19These guys are coming

00:57:20in here

00:57:21making raids

00:57:21on our turf.

00:57:22We can't take

00:57:23this sitting down.

00:57:24We've got to do

00:57:25something about it.

00:57:26Eventually,

00:57:26what got decided

00:57:28was they would

00:57:29cross the river

00:57:30and try to

00:57:31intimidate

00:57:32Randolph McCoy

00:57:33and his family

00:57:34so they would

00:57:35stop this.

00:57:36I mean,

00:57:37even though

00:57:37it was Perry Klein

00:57:38leading it,

00:57:39I think they figured

00:57:40that if they

00:57:41got rid of the McCoys

00:57:42or the McCoys

00:57:43wouldn't testify,

00:57:44there would be no case.

00:57:45At sunrise

00:57:46on the morning

00:57:47of New Year's Day,

00:57:481888,

00:57:50the Hatfields

00:57:51put their newly

00:57:51hatched plan

00:57:52into motion.

00:57:53What happens

00:57:54is they get

00:57:55their posse together

00:57:56on New Year's Eve.

00:57:57They go over.

00:58:00Devil Anse Hatfield's

00:58:01not part of it.

00:58:02He's feeling sick.

00:58:03He stays at home.

00:58:04But crazy Jim Vance

00:58:06is back in the picture.

00:58:07Taking Devil Anse's

00:58:08place as leader

00:58:09of the armed men

00:58:10was Jim Vance,

00:58:12Anse's uncle.

00:58:13He is a plausible

00:58:14leader when

00:58:15Devil Anse

00:58:16steps aside.

00:58:17He's a little bit older.

00:58:18He is a war veteran

00:58:20and he has

00:58:21that kind of

00:58:22charismatic leadership.

00:58:24Included in the

00:58:25raiding party

00:58:26was Johnsy Hatfield,

00:58:27Devil Anse's

00:58:28oldest son,

00:58:30along with

00:58:31Cap Hatfield,

00:58:32Johnsy's younger

00:58:33brother and the

00:58:34most eager of the

00:58:35bunch,

00:58:36and Ellison

00:58:37Mounts,

00:58:38fondly called

00:58:39Cottontop,

00:58:40the illegitimate son

00:58:41of Devil Anse's

00:58:42murdered brother

00:58:43Ellison.

00:58:43All three were

00:58:44well known to be

00:58:45some of the more

00:58:46violent and aggressive

00:58:47members of the

00:58:48Hatfield clan.

00:58:49I think that

00:58:50idea may have

00:58:52appealed to Devil Anse

00:58:53quite a bit.

00:58:55It has a certain

00:58:56logic to it.

00:58:57If you get rid of

00:58:58the enemy,

00:58:58the feud will end.

00:59:00My conclusion is

00:59:01that there was a lot

00:59:02of disagreement about

00:59:03this was too drastic

00:59:04a measure,

00:59:05and they only managed

00:59:06to get eight people

00:59:07out of the, say,

00:59:0935 to 40 supporters

00:59:10you could count

00:59:11as supporters.

00:59:12They actually

00:59:13go over on

00:59:14New Year's Day

00:59:15very stealthily.

00:59:17They start shooting

00:59:18in the windows.

00:59:21The Hatfields are

00:59:22there for blood.

00:59:23Some accounts

00:59:24have it that

00:59:25Johnsy Hatfield

00:59:25fired the first

00:59:26shots into the

00:59:27cabin.

00:59:28Inside, the McCoys

00:59:29scrambled for cover.

00:59:31The McCoys start

00:59:32shooting through

00:59:33the roof.

00:59:34They've got some

00:59:34portholes in the

00:59:35roof of their cabin.

00:59:37One of the men

00:59:37sets fire to the

00:59:38house.

00:59:39One of the girls

00:59:41goes outside to

00:59:42get water to put

00:59:43the fire out.

00:59:45She's shot.

00:59:46That's Alifair.

00:59:47It's an awful

00:59:48event.

00:59:49It's believed that

00:59:50Ellison Mounts is

00:59:51the one who shot

00:59:53Alifair.

00:59:53Now Sally comes

00:59:55down.

00:59:55She's hysterical

00:59:56because her daughter

00:59:56has been shot.

00:59:57She crawls out

00:59:58there, and Johnsy

01:00:00Hatfield clubs her

01:00:01with his gun.

01:00:02Doesn't kill her,

01:00:03but it knocks her

01:00:04out, and she's

01:00:05left for dead.

01:00:07Calvin tells

01:00:08Randall, look, I'm

01:00:09going to make a run

01:00:10for it, and you

01:00:11come out after me.

01:00:13Calvin, he gets

01:00:14all the way to the

01:00:15other end of the

01:00:16yard, and almost a

01:00:17freak shot.

01:00:18Catches him in the

01:00:19skull, and kills him

01:00:20right on the spot.

01:00:22Randall comes running

01:00:23out, blazing away.

01:00:24He shoots Johnsy in

01:00:25the shoulder.

01:00:26Randall actually does

01:00:27get away.

01:00:28He runs off in the

01:00:29mountains.

01:00:30The Hatfields burn the

01:00:31house, and this really

01:00:33was the egregious, the

01:00:35heinous act of the feud

01:00:37that made the Hatfields

01:00:39clearly the bad guys.

01:00:42The hornet's nest had

01:00:43been stirred.

01:00:43The Hatfield and

01:00:44McCoy feud was at its

01:00:46most intense, and would

01:00:47soon find itself being the

01:00:48subject of a case in the

01:00:50highest court in the land.

01:00:54The attacks on Randall

01:00:55McCoy's family on that

01:00:57New Year's Day in 1888 took

01:00:59the feud to a new low.

01:01:01Never before had the

01:01:03conflicts in the feud been

01:01:04so premeditated.

01:01:07And by now, McCoy had

01:01:08lost a brother, four sons,

01:01:11and a daughter.

01:01:12And his wife suffered

01:01:14mental and physical

01:01:15damage.

01:01:16The New Year's Day raid was

01:01:18a real turning point.

01:01:20This was such a heinous,

01:01:21cold-blooded act.

01:01:23Killing the daughter and

01:01:24maiming the mother, that's

01:01:27kind of hard to overcome in

01:01:30anybody's environment,

01:01:32especially where family meant

01:01:33so much.

01:01:34That definitely had to have

01:01:36cost the Hatfield clan a lot

01:01:38of reputation.

01:01:40I think they were convinced

01:01:41that they were back in a

01:01:43warlike situation.

01:01:44During the war, raids were

01:01:45made on both sides.

01:01:47They assassinated people.

01:01:48It was what you did because

01:01:49they were trying to

01:01:50assassinate you.

01:01:51In some ways, it was

01:01:52accepted.

01:01:53But they didn't kill women

01:01:55and children.

01:01:57After Randall's home was

01:01:58burnt, he was left

01:01:59penniless.

01:02:00He had nothing.

01:02:01And he went to live with

01:02:02Perry Klein.

01:02:03And one really interesting

01:02:05coincidence here is that

01:02:06Randall had never allowed his

01:02:08daughter, Rosanna, back

01:02:09under his roof.

01:02:10Rosanna was basically sort of

01:02:11a governess for Perry Klein's

01:02:13children.

01:02:14And the only time he lived

01:02:15under the same roof was when

01:02:17he went with head in hand to

01:02:18live at Perry Klein's house.

01:02:19Within days of the New

01:02:21Year's massacre, bounty hunter

01:02:23Bad Frank Phillips and his

01:02:24posse intensified their efforts

01:02:26to capture the Hatfields.

01:02:28He caught Crazy Jim on a

01:02:30hillside along with Cap

01:02:32Hatfield, probably his two main

01:02:35targets in addition to Devil

01:02:37Lance.

01:02:38Outnumbered and trapped, Vance and

01:02:40Cap Hatfield dug in and tried to

01:02:42hold off the advancing Kentucky

01:02:43posse.

01:02:44Cap takes off and he runs back

01:02:47through the woods and he goes

01:02:48over to try to get other Hatfields

01:02:50to come help.

01:02:50So Tracy Jim's left fighting Bad

01:02:52Frank and this crew and he's got a

01:02:54couple guns and he holds them off

01:02:55for a while.

01:02:56But Bad Frank's not going to give

01:02:58up.

01:02:59Frank Phillips' men quickly surrounded

01:03:01them, flanking their position in the

01:03:02woods.

01:03:03Jim Vance was shot.

01:03:05As he lay dying, Bad Frank Phillips

01:03:08put a single bullet through his

01:03:09head.

01:03:12And so that was the end of Crazy Jim

01:03:15Vance, the first major Hatfield to

01:03:17go.

01:03:18However, it's a completely illegal act

01:03:21that Bad Frank Phillips has just

01:03:23perpetrated in the state of West

01:03:25Virginia.

01:03:25It's just out and out murder, you

01:03:27know, because he has no legal right

01:03:29to be there.

01:03:30And I think this was the primary

01:03:31confrontation between the two states,

01:03:34between the two governors, which blew

01:03:36up into what it became, a national

01:03:39event of interest to more than just

01:03:41the local folks of Pike and Logan

01:03:43County.

01:03:44The feud was making headlines beyond

01:03:46local news stories.

01:03:47But reliable coverage of the events

01:03:50would be few and far between.

01:03:54This is sensational news.

01:03:56Hallelujah.

01:03:56We've got something to read about it.

01:03:58as good as the serialized novels that

01:04:01all the newspapers published at the

01:04:03time to try to keep people reading

01:04:05their newspaper every week.

01:04:06Well, the Hatfield-McCoy thing was

01:04:08doing just that.

01:04:09The feud helped instigate a new form

01:04:11of journalism.

01:04:12Yellow journalism is journalism that's

01:04:14not based in fact.

01:04:16It was telling a story because it

01:04:18sounded good, because it was

01:04:19interesting.

01:04:20The more sensational it was, the

01:04:21better, because it sold more papers.

01:04:23Knowing their readers' appetite for

01:04:25dark tales of violence and mayhem,

01:04:27newspapers clamored to get a piece of

01:04:29the Hatfield-McCoy feud, sending city

01:04:32reporters into the Appalachian region

01:04:34for any and all lurid details.

01:04:37You know, this was a big-time

01:04:38adventure coming down from New York City

01:04:40to these hollers of West Virginia.

01:04:42For them, it was almost like going

01:04:44into the heart of Africa, discovering

01:04:45the headwaters of a river or something.

01:04:48You know, they were going in there and

01:04:49meeting with Devil Ants Hatfield was a

01:04:51big deal.

01:04:51You know, they felt like they were taking

01:04:52their lives in their hands, so that

01:04:54interaction became pretty fascinating.

01:04:57In order to feed the headlines,

01:04:58reporters knew their editors wanted

01:05:00the most sensational aspects of the

01:05:02story.

01:05:03When you look at the newspapers of

01:05:04that day, you had sensational murders

01:05:06going on all over the place.

01:05:08It wasn't just happening in this

01:05:09little part of West Virginia and

01:05:10Kentucky, but there was something

01:05:12about the Hill people that really

01:05:14captured the imagination.

01:05:15Put it into context, same time period

01:05:17you have the dime novels that are going

01:05:19crazy in the East about the West.

01:05:21All of a sudden, there was a fascination

01:05:24with this world that people did not know.

01:05:27And so you get John R. Spears and T.C.

01:05:30Crawford, who wrote stories that appeared

01:05:33in The Sun and The World.

01:05:34You had Louisville Courier journalists

01:05:36reporting on the feud.

01:05:37And then you have some people, you have a

01:05:38guy named Squirrel Hunt and Sam McCoy,

01:05:40who was the only actual feudist to write

01:05:43his full account.

01:05:44And so there are details in that account

01:05:46that are unbelievable, that you won't

01:05:49find anywhere else.

01:05:49And it's sort of that thing where fact

01:05:52is stranger than fiction.

01:05:53You know, he didn't make that up.

01:05:56Frank Phillips and his growing Kentucky

01:05:58posse continue to make raids into Hatfield

01:06:00territory on the West Virginia side

01:06:02of the Tug River.

01:06:04They tracked down and captured eight more

01:06:06of the 23 Hatfield Klan members indicted

01:06:09for murder under Kentucky warrants.

01:06:11Phillips went across into West Virginia,

01:06:14arrested nine Hatfields and Hatfield supporters,

01:06:18including Ellison Maltz, brought them back

01:06:20into Kentucky to stand trial.

01:06:22They're not the central figures in the feud

01:06:25or in any of the events.

01:06:26So it was pretty easy to pick up these nine guys.

01:06:29But the heat was on and he decided,

01:06:32I'm going back.

01:06:33Realizing they were helpless against the power

01:06:35of these warrants, the Hatfields sought the protection

01:06:38of West Virginia law, convincing Logan County officials

01:06:41to form a posse of their own in order

01:06:44to arrest bad Frank Phillips for the murder

01:06:46of family member Jim Vance.

01:06:48By this time, the Hatfields were prepared.

01:06:51They were ready.

01:06:52They had pulled together their own posse.

01:06:54They even had a sheriff with them.

01:06:56So the law in West Virginia is on their side.

01:06:59The two opposing posses, one from Kentucky favoring

01:07:02the McCoys and the other from West Virginia favoring

01:07:05the Hatfields, finally came face-to-face

01:07:07at Grapevine Creek in West Virginia

01:07:09on January 19, 1888.

01:07:15Jim McCoy comes leading the posse around the corner

01:07:18and they start shooting at Jim McCoy

01:07:20and pretty soon they're in an all-out battle.

01:07:24Historically, this land was significant to both parties.

01:07:27It was the exact parcel of timber-rich land

01:07:30the young Perry Cline had lost to Devil Land's Hatfield

01:07:33during their logging dispute in 1872.

01:07:36There was a group of Hatfields on one side

01:07:38and a group of bad Frank Phillips men on the other side

01:07:41and they had this gunfight.

01:07:43Jim's first shot felled the deputy sheriff

01:07:45that's there with the Hatfields, a man named Dempsey.

01:07:48The Hatfields fight for a while

01:07:50but they realize they're outnumbered

01:07:52and they're not going to win this battle if they stay.

01:07:54They retreat up into the hills.

01:07:56But not before bad Frank Phillips took the opportunity

01:07:59to once again send a message to the Hatfields.

01:08:03As if what they're doing isn't bad enough,

01:08:06bad Frank Phillips comes up to Dempsey

01:08:08who's wounded in the leg

01:08:11and Dempsey's pleading for his life

01:08:13and says, you know, I'm a deputy sheriff.

01:08:16You know, I'm not a Hatfield.

01:08:17Phillips paid no heed

01:08:19and killed Dempsey on the spot.

01:08:22Frank Phillips just went out of his way to say,

01:08:25and this is what we do to those who support the Hatfields.

01:08:29The feud had taken a new turn.

01:08:33The battle of Grapevine Creek, while massive in scale,

01:08:37yields little in the actual capture of Hatfields or McCoys.

01:08:40What does make itself clear is that bad Frank Phillips,

01:08:44working for the McCoy side,

01:08:45has established himself as a ruthless killer

01:08:48based on the blatant execution of West Virginia deputy Bill Dempsey.

01:08:53This is when the McCoys realize that bad Frank

01:08:57is not necessarily an agent for good,

01:09:00and they will later say that, you know,

01:09:02they're scared of this man now,

01:09:03and bad Frank eventually is going to lose his support from everybody.

01:09:08So now the Hatfields have gone from the really bad guys

01:09:11to, well, maybe the McCoys aren't so good either.

01:09:14It took five years, but finally some justice

01:09:17for the 1888 New Year's Day McCoy murders.

01:09:22The captured Hatfields clan members and supporters

01:09:25were rounded up by Frank Phillips and brought to Kentucky.

01:09:29But it was unclear if the men could be legally held

01:09:32and tried in Kentucky,

01:09:33as they were all captured in and citizens of West Virginia.

01:09:38In those days, it was illegal to cross state lines

01:09:42in pursuit of a felon.

01:09:44Each state had its own laws,

01:09:46and for bad Frank to cross into West Virginia

01:09:49and arrest a Hatfield was actually illegal.

01:09:52This ended up causing a lot of consternation between the states.

01:09:56There were actually militias that were sent in

01:09:58by both governors on each side of the state.

01:10:01Both governors really had to get a grasp

01:10:03on what was going on down here.

01:10:04This little mini-war on their border

01:10:06was becoming a big headache.

01:10:07So both of them sent emissaries down

01:10:10to vet what was going on down there.

01:10:13Governor Wilson sent a man named W.L. Mahone down,

01:10:17and Governor Buckner sent the adjutant general

01:10:20of Kentucky down, a guy named Sam Hill.

01:10:23Hints comes to saying,

01:10:25what in the Sam Hill's happening?

01:10:27You know, what in the Sam Hill's going on?

01:10:30Because Sam Hill went down there to find out

01:10:32what was going on between the Hatfields and McCoys.

01:10:34Attorneys representing the states of West Virginia and Kentucky

01:10:37met in Louisville and federal court

01:10:39to determine if the Hatfield prisoners

01:10:41could be legally tried in the state of Kentucky.

01:10:44The governors of both states were keenly aware

01:10:47of the importance of this meeting

01:10:48and took an active role in making sure

01:10:51each of their state's rights were protected.

01:10:53So the judge in Louisville said,

01:10:56I'll hear this case.

01:10:59He ordered the jailer in Pikeville

01:11:01to send the Hatfield 9 to Louisville.

01:11:04The district court judge heard the arguments

01:11:06and made a deft decision.

01:11:08There were many arguments.

01:11:10You know, is this a place that this should be adjudicated?

01:11:12Kentucky said, no.

01:11:14You know, this is clearly a case between two states.

01:11:17You know, this belongs straight in the Supreme Court.

01:11:21What it started out as a feud between two families

01:11:24in an isolated region of the American frontier

01:11:26moderated by the laws and conventions of local justice

01:11:29now became a national issue,

01:11:32one to be handled by the highest court in the land,

01:11:35the United States Supreme Court.

01:11:38They ruled that while the arrest was technically illegal

01:11:43and that West Virginia could press charges

01:11:45against bad Frank Phillips,

01:11:48the holding of the prisoners was not illegal.

01:11:50Kentucky was holding the prisoners wanted for murder,

01:11:53in their state, legally.

01:11:55So it doesn't matter how the Hatfields got to Kentucky.

01:12:01They're there, so they can be tried.

01:12:05Seven long years after the executions

01:12:07of the three McCoy boys, in August 1889,

01:12:11the Hatfield family members and supporters

01:12:13were put on trial in Pikeville, Kentucky.

01:12:16There were actually two trials,

01:12:19one for the McCoy executions

01:12:21and one for the New Year's Day murders

01:12:23of Calvin and Alifair McCoy.

01:12:25A total of nine men would stand trial.

01:12:28Once the Supreme Court case was finished,

01:12:30they began to prosecute the Hatfields that were arrested.

01:12:34Devil Lance was not one of those.

01:12:35Many of his sons and many of his friends were,

01:12:38but he was not one of the people that was put on trial.

01:12:40They were facing life sentences

01:12:42for the New Year's Day raid,

01:12:44in which they beat his wife nearly to death

01:12:47and they killed a daughter and a son.

01:12:50But these guys honestly thought that they would get off.

01:12:54After two and a half weeks of often intense discussion

01:12:57and deliberation,

01:12:59the jury returned its verdict against the Hatfield Nine.

01:13:03Guilty.

01:13:04Eight were sentenced to life in prison.

01:13:07One would receive the death penalty.

01:13:09The only person given a life sentence

01:13:12who actually died in prison

01:13:13was Valentine Hatfield,

01:13:16who was Devil Lance's brother.

01:13:17He also was the only person

01:13:19who was completely innocent of any of the charges.

01:13:22Really, in addition to Ellison Mounts,

01:13:25came out the worst of anybody.

01:13:27He ended up getting convicted.

01:13:28He ended up getting a life sentence

01:13:30and he wasn't a man who could last in prison.

01:13:32He died within two years.

01:13:34The toughest verdict handed down

01:13:36was against Ellison Cottontop Mounts.

01:13:39Mounts was considered to be slow,

01:13:41of less than average intelligence.

01:13:43And unlike the other men on trial,

01:13:45Mounts gave a full confession,

01:13:47detailing his actions

01:13:49during the execution of the McCoy boys in 1882

01:13:52and the murder of Alifair McCoy in 1888

01:13:55during the New Year's Day massacre.

01:13:58Some say that his accounts of both murders

01:14:01provided the prosecuting attorney's

01:14:03key evidence against the other men.

01:14:05Because of his relationship to the Hatfields,

01:14:09because he was a Hatfield,

01:14:10even though his last name is Mounts,

01:14:12he was related to the Hatfield family,

01:14:14getting him to confess

01:14:17to the murder of Alifair

01:14:18and to the attack on the McCoy family,

01:14:21that allowed the McCoys

01:14:24to point at the Hatfields.

01:14:26And so he was the perfect scapegoat.

01:14:30But the jury had a detailed confession from Mounts,

01:14:34the only confession it had,

01:14:36and it sentenced him to death by hanging.

01:14:39It's really impossible to know the real motivation,

01:14:42but it just seemed as though so many people thought

01:14:44someone should be hanged.

01:14:46It was obvious that people wanted blood,

01:14:49and he just happened to be the person

01:14:51that became the sacrificial lamb.

01:14:52There was a newspaper article

01:14:54where he was interviewed at the time period,

01:14:57and he said he was forced by the Hatfields

01:14:59to go on this raid with the rest of them,

01:15:01and, you know, he was just a product of circumstances.

01:15:09Crowds from the Pikeville, Kentucky area

01:15:11gathered on a hillside

01:15:13to witness the hanging of Ellison Mounts,

01:15:15the first hanging in the county in over 40 years.

01:15:19It would also be the last.

01:15:20It was an event that was sort of made for the media,

01:15:24made for the people,

01:15:25and it was, as you might expect,

01:15:27a pretty momentous occasion.

01:15:30And hundreds of people came from all over.

01:15:31It was a cold winter day.

01:15:34The officials there wanted to make a statement, however,

01:15:37so what they did was

01:15:38they set up the gallows in a hollow.

01:15:41But if you were sitting on the hill,

01:15:43you could see the scaffold.

01:15:46There was all these rumors

01:15:48after he'd been sentenced and before he was hanged

01:15:51that, oh, the Hatfields are going to ride into Pikeville

01:15:53and shoot up the place and rescue him,

01:15:56and everyone was waiting for that to happen,

01:15:57and it was just, no.

01:16:00Some accounts claim that Mounts

01:16:02wasn't fully aware of the gravity of the situation

01:16:05and that he met his fate in a confused state.

01:16:08He seemed very confused

01:16:10as to what was happening to him.

01:16:14He seemed surprised.

01:16:16Am I going to die?

01:16:19You know, and am I going to go to hell?

01:16:22And all of those things seemed to be a surprise to him.

01:16:26At the very last moment,

01:16:28he shouted out,

01:16:29the Hatfields made me do it.

01:16:31That was kind of his parting words.

01:16:55Ellison Mounts was hanged on February 18, 1890.

01:16:59He was the only person

01:17:00in the entire 25-year-long Hatfield-McCoy feud

01:17:03who would be executed for any of the murders,

01:17:06and it was the last official death attributed

01:17:09to the battle between these two clans.

01:17:13The idea that possibly an innocent man was executed

01:17:18has lived in the psyche of this area for quite a while.

01:17:23There is a historic marker

01:17:25for the execution of Ellison Mounts.

01:17:29It is still controversial.

01:17:31Following the hanging death of Ellison Mounts in 1890,

01:17:35the feud all but stopped.

01:17:37He sort of took the fall for the Hatfield clan,

01:17:40and, you know, I think it was an event

01:17:43that was sort of made for the media,

01:17:45made for the people,

01:17:46and it brought a sort of closure to the feud.

01:17:50After nearly 25 years of on-again, off-again raids,

01:17:55murders, intimidation, and attacks,

01:17:58the Hatfield and McCoy families

01:17:59gradually began to go about their respective lives

01:18:02in West Virginia and Kentucky.

01:18:05There are various stories

01:18:07about what sparked the feud between the families

01:18:09headed by Devilann's Hatfield and Randall McCoy.

01:18:12Many believe it grew out of the Civil War resentments

01:18:15with the murder of Randall's brother, Asa Harmon,

01:18:18setting off two-and-a-half decades

01:18:20of revenge and retribution.

01:18:22I think it's clear when you research the record

01:18:26that the Hatfield-McCoy feud,

01:18:28along with the White feud, the Hall feud,

01:18:32many other feuds in this area,

01:18:33they were just a continuation of the Civil War.

01:18:36The Civil War ended,

01:18:37and we came back together as a nation pretty quickly,

01:18:40except for this area.

01:18:42Others claim it didn't really begin

01:18:44until the killing of Ellison Hatfield

01:18:46and Devilann's revenge on the three McCoy brothers.

01:18:49The 25 years of feuding brought the deaths

01:18:52of 11 Hatfield and McCoy family members

01:18:54and their supporters.

01:18:56Asa Harmon McCoy, murdered.

01:18:59Bill Staten, murdered.

01:19:04Ellison Hatfield, stabbed 27 times,

01:19:08then shot to death.

01:19:10Tolbert McCoy, executed.

01:19:13Farmer McCoy, executed.

01:19:16Randolph Bud McCoy Jr.,

01:19:18executed.

01:19:20Alifair McCoy, murdered.

01:19:24Calvin McCoy, murdered.

01:19:28Jim Vance, shot at point-blank range.

01:19:32Ellison Mounts, death by hanging.

01:19:35But an untold number of bounty hunters,

01:19:38private detectives, and others went missing

01:19:40during this feud era,

01:19:42rumored to have been bushwhacked and buried

01:19:44in unmarked graves

01:19:45and sporadic frenzies of mountain justice.

01:19:48The legend is hundreds of people over years

01:19:52with no reason.

01:19:53And, you know, even 12 people,

01:19:56from thinking the legend,

01:19:58it's like, well, that's nothing

01:19:59compared to the hundreds.

01:20:01But, you know, I would argue that for the people

01:20:04living in that region at the time,

01:20:06to have 12 murders or people killed

01:20:09was astounding.

01:20:11You still had the matter of the outstanding warrants

01:20:14for Bad Frank Phillips,

01:20:15for John C. Hatfield,

01:20:16for Cap Hatfield, Devil Lance.

01:20:18So you still had bounty hunters,

01:20:20and there were prices on heads of these men.

01:20:23So they were hiding out in the hills,

01:20:25or some of them fled out west.

01:20:28John C. Hatfield went out west,

01:20:29and he was hunted down out there

01:20:31and came all the way back

01:20:34to Kentucky, West Virginia area,

01:20:36and he was arrested there

01:20:38and tried and put in prison.

01:20:41He was actually a fairly model prisoner,

01:20:45and one day, one of the inmates

01:20:47had attacked the warden,

01:20:48and John C. tackled him

01:20:50and actually killed the attacker.

01:20:53And so the warden went to bat for him,

01:20:57and John C. was given a pardon

01:21:00and left prison after, I think,

01:21:03six or seven years.

01:21:05Frank Phillips, who was living

01:21:07sort of a wild life,

01:21:09he had two wives living in the same house

01:21:12with kids from each of the marriages,

01:21:14and he finally got in a battle

01:21:16with a young man over another woman

01:21:19that both of them were pursuing,

01:21:21and that guy shot him,

01:21:23and he died from that wound.

01:21:25And the patriarchs of the two clans,

01:21:28men who had seen so much violence,

01:21:30both lived well into their old age.

01:21:33Randall McCoy spent the rest of his life

01:21:35in Pikeville, Kentucky,

01:21:37working as a ferry boat operator.

01:21:39Haunted by the deaths

01:21:41of his children and relatives,

01:21:43he was often seen wandering the streets,

01:21:45raving about his losses

01:21:46and his hate for the Hatfields.

01:21:49Well, Randall never stopped

01:21:51trying to convince the authorities

01:21:54that more should be done

01:21:56against the Hatfields,

01:21:57but he never moved back

01:21:59to the Tug Valley region.

01:22:00He stayed in Pikeville,

01:22:02and through the offices of Perry Kline,

01:22:05he got various jobs.

01:22:07He ran the ferry that went across the river.

01:22:09After being severely burned

01:22:11in an accidental fire,

01:22:12Randall McCoy died March 28, 1914,

01:22:16at the age of 79,

01:22:18and was put to rest

01:22:20with a small private ceremony.

01:22:23He was actually buried

01:22:24in the cemetery

01:22:26that's known as the Dills Cemetery,

01:22:28that is, John Dills,

01:22:29who was one of the leaders in Pikeville

01:22:32and who was actually

01:22:33one of Perry Kline's supporters

01:22:35when he was also very wealthy.

01:22:36So he was supporting a lot of what went on,

01:22:39and he was, so he had Randall McCoy,

01:22:42who was virtually destitute

01:22:43by the end of his life,

01:22:44buried in that cemetery.

01:22:47Devil Ann's Hatfield

01:22:48led a more solid and public life,

01:22:50even going on speaking tours

01:22:52and posing for formal press portraits.

01:22:55He continued to prosper

01:22:56even later in life.

01:22:58Devil Ann's, however,

01:22:59was a very different story.

01:23:01He lived to a very old age,

01:23:03and in this very big house

01:23:05he built on Main Island Creek

01:23:08with his family,

01:23:09and he had a fort

01:23:10to watch out for people

01:23:12who might come after him,

01:23:13but he was very peaceful.

01:23:16On January 6, 1921,

01:23:19Captain William Anderson Hatfield

01:23:21died at the age of 81.

01:23:23With more than 5,000 people

01:23:25at his funeral,

01:23:27Devil Ann's was buried

01:23:27in a family cemetery

01:23:29in Island Creek,

01:23:30Logan County, West Virginia.

01:23:36He lived a pretty peaceful life

01:23:41and died of old age.

01:23:43When he died in 1921,

01:23:45they had a huge funeral.

01:23:47His family commissioned

01:23:49a marble statue,

01:23:51Italian marble statue,

01:23:52which imported from Italy

01:23:54to put in this graveyard,

01:23:56which is an incredible place.

01:23:59When I first went there,

01:24:01practically all of the stones

01:24:02are very primitive,

01:24:04small stones

01:24:05with handwritten etching

01:24:07on the tombstones

01:24:08about the name and date.

01:24:10And his is there

01:24:12this huge, grand marble statue,

01:24:15life-size statue.

01:24:17So it's very interesting,

01:24:19and there's pictures of him,

01:24:20the dedication of the statue,

01:24:23the memorial service.

01:24:24So to the end,

01:24:26he was, you know,

01:24:27venerated by his family

01:24:29and treated with great respect.

01:24:30And Randall McCoy died

01:24:33pretty much in poverty.

01:24:35And there is a tremendous difference.

01:24:38And that rivalry,

01:24:39I think, is very important.

01:24:48I think the feud

01:24:50is a sad part of our history,

01:24:52but I think it is a part

01:24:52of our history

01:24:53that we need to understand.

01:24:56I think also, though,

01:24:59it is merely a dispute

01:25:01between a few individuals.

01:25:04You know, I like to look

01:25:05at the people involved

01:25:09in this story

01:25:11as part of our fabric

01:25:14of what it means

01:25:15to be an American

01:25:16and who we are.

01:25:17I mean, these people came here

01:25:18looking for an opportunity.

01:25:20They struggled

01:25:21and fought for their opportunity.

01:25:24They seized it.

01:25:25You know, they pulled themselves

01:25:26up by their bootstraps.

01:25:28It wasn't always pretty.

01:25:29You know, there was conflict.

01:25:32But for me,

01:25:34they're sort of American archetypes.

01:25:36You know, they're the people

01:25:37who enlist in the armies.

01:25:39They're the people

01:25:39who do our work.

01:25:40They've also become leaders.

01:25:42You know, they've become

01:25:42political leaders,

01:25:44labor leaders.

01:25:45So I think they speak

01:25:47to who we are as Americans.

01:25:50They're good, tough people.

01:25:52They're moral people.

01:25:53And at that time,

01:25:55in that day,

01:25:56they were in a place

01:25:56where there was

01:25:57a lack of infrastructure.

01:26:00And that's why

01:26:01the violence resulted.

01:26:03But I don't think

01:26:03the violence is who they are.

01:26:05I don't think it's true.

01:26:06I don't think it's true.

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