754 Doc Watson (1923-2012) “Tom Dooley” 1964

Tom Dula was a lover of Ann Melton and her cousin, Laura Foster. After Tom contracted syphilis, Laura mysteriously disappeared. “Tom was arrested, condemned and taken to Statesville for execution. Evidence strongly pointed to Ann as an accomplice, but Tom refused to implicate her…Ann was eventually tried, but acquitted for lack of evidence. Locals claimed her remarkable beauty had swayed the all-male jury. But the mountain folk had their retribution. Years later, as Ann lay dying—according to some who claimed to have stood at her bedside, including the grandmother of famed folksinger Doc Watson—she screamed that she could see black cats crawling up the walls, and the fires of hell at the foot of her bed” (Ron Soodalter, American History, February 2014). 

Doc Watson “Tom Dooley”