Hey y'all, before I start this episode, I have an exciting announcement.
On Halloween night, Appalachian Ghost Tours will be going back to the Mayberry Mansion
for another paranormal investigation.
Then on November 1st, we will be hosting another paranormal investigation at the Price Mansion
in Scarborough, West Virginia.
We would love to see you at both events.
Event info will be in the show notes.
Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host Mark, and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The case I have for you today happened on a day that was supposed to be full of love.
Instead, it ended with three people being murdered in a mansion on a hill.
This is the case of David Henderson, Jeanette K. Henderson, and Martha Lane Barber, better
known as the Murderer at the Mayberry Mansion.
All of the mansions that were built in the early 20th century by wealthy coal barons
who made their fortunes from southern West Virginia, none of them compared to the mansion
on Powerhouse Hill that was built by James L. Wood Jones.
James died at the age of 58 of a heart attack on November 25, 1932.
He was one of the region's most powerful coal barons and the only one who spent most
of his life living and working in the coal fields.
James was the son of Mercer and McDowell County Coal Field Pioneer Jerkin Jones.
The McDowell County Coal Pioneer had the town Jerkin Jones named in his honor.
James went to school at Roanoke College in Columbia University where he earned his degree
as a mining engineer.
As vice president and general manager of the Pocahontas Fuel Company, he was among West
Virginia's wealthiest men.
While the home he built on Powerhouse Hill is spectacular, his philanthropy was even
more impressive.
During his lifetime, he paid for a college education for hundreds, maybe even thousands,
of people from the coal fields who received the money with the singular requirement of
never disclosing who the money came from.
He established and provided financial support for dental and tonsil clinics in McDowell
County, built the gym and swimming pool, built at Elkhorn High School, and switched back
and spent 25 years on the county commission working to bring good roads to the county.
He shared the home with his wife Edith and their children, Nancy and Jimmy.
It's spacious like many mentions in the coal fields, but there are two features that most
didn't have.
There are 66 stained glass windows that were imported from Scotland and the wood in the
grand room was imported from Brazil.
When James died, he was near the fireplace, playing cards with physician Dr. I.C. Peters
when he suffered his fatal heart attack.
After his death, the mansion had some use, but was eventually abandoned and ultimately
sold at the sheriff's sale in the early 1950s for $15,000.
The mansion soon became the Jones Mansion on Powerhouse Hill.
Judy McDaniel said, quote, when daddy bought it, my mother had no control in the way it
was decorated, end quote.
Her father, Dale Henderson, owned the old Henderson market in Mayberry and her mother,
Grace Henderson, took care of the house, quote, she went along with what daddy said, end quote.
After Judy's father died, Grace kept the mansion and lived there with her husband, Paul Haines.
Grace Haines knew the history of the home and was always eager to share the story of
James L. Wood Jones.
It was Grace who saw that the house was going to be sold at the sheriff's sale and she
went with her husband to make the winning bid.
After Grace passed away, her son David Henderson and his wife, Jeanette, moved into the mansion.
After her father died, Jeanette Henderson brought her mother Martha E. Barber to live
with them, sadly, on February 14, 1998, the state police made the gruesome discovery that
David, Jeanette, and her mother had been shot and killed.
Within days, the state police arrested Stanford Tony Allen of Barlow Hollow for the murder.
Tony provided claims that were described as outrageous and bizarre in trying to explain
who killed David, Jeanette, and Martha.
His claims were that the drug cartel had murdered the three.
Tony basically shocked McDowell County prosecutor, Sid Bale, when he claimed to be working as
a federal informant for an assistant U.S. attorney investigation.
Tony said that Jeanette was a bookkeeper for the cartel and she asked him to visit on the
night of the murders.
There was never any mention of Mr. Allen working as a federal informant, said Bale.
I'm sure we would have heard something from them if there was any truth to it.
Tony, whose taped testimony was heard in the court proceedings, didn't sway away the
jury from those claims, finding him guilty and later sentencing him to three life terms
with no possibility of parole.
He was sentenced to life without mercy on all three counts, said Bale.
In a report by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, we are very thankful for this jury.
I'm really happy for the family of the victims.
This is what they've hoped for.
On February 14, 1998, Tony went to Powerhouse Hill.
He entered the home and killed David Henderson, a night custodial worker at the Cole Motors
Company.
Jeanette Henderson, who had recently taken a leave of absence from her longtime position
at Kroger in Bluefield, West Virginia, along with Martha, the widow of well-known area
Southern Baptist member Reverend Dallas Barber Sr.
According to West Virginia State Police Trooper B.K.
Cochran, the trio was expected to have a family dinner on February 15 in Richlands.
When they didn't show up, the family called and only got the entering machine.
Cochran said, after that, they called McDowell Control to get them to check it out.
The volunteer firemen entered the home, saw where there was forced entry, noticed bullet
holes and blood in the house and immediately called us.
What they found was a gruesome crime scene, with photos shown during the trial that appeared
to leave many jurors visibly disturbed.
Circuit Court Judge Booker T. Stevens described the crime as horrific and said, something
he had never seen in his lifetime in McDowell County.
Some clues led authorities to Tony, who had lived in a mobile home in nearby Barlow Hollow
for around five years.
Police found a pair of 9mm weapons on his property, along with a purchase receipt from
a Bluefield hardware store.
A Vietnam veteran, Tony was arrested in Richmond after being transported from Bluefield Regional
Medical Center to a VA hospital.
Records reveal that he confessed to the crime on the ride back to Welch.
Although the defense claimed the confession was coerced with a gun held to his head,
police officers called the claim ridiculous.
Ronald D. Hason said to Cochran during the trial, quote, how many times did you call
him a murderer?
End quote.
Tony was arranged on March 2nd and remained in McDowell County Jail.
He repeatedly claimed his innocence to all, including bail on more than one occasion, quote,
bail.
I've told you from day one, I didn't do it.
And I'm telling you today, I didn't do it.
Tony said, Tony remained behind bars on a $750,000 bond for more than 18 months before
the trial could even begin.
He originally pled not guilty in October of 1998.
While a pair of trial dates, February 1st, 1999, and June 14th, 1999, were changed due
to a request for a continuance, a third continuance was requested in September of 1999.
But Tony denied it, quote, I want the trial to go forward, end quote.
Tony said, quote, I've been waiting 19 months to get this trial started, end quote.
What followed was an intense few days of testimony representing both sides, with claims from
everything from a drug cartel to the supernatural and marijuana found in the mansion.
Defense attorneys argued that Tony wasn't the killer because no fingerprints, footprints,
or witnesses connected him to the crime.
Trooper GA Bishop described the scene in vivid detail, saying a bloody footprint in a military
boot was discovered by state police in the house.
Bishop later testified that no military boots were found at Tony's home and no items from
the mobile home contained gunshot residue.
He said less than 15 grams of marijuana was discovered in the mansion, quote, David Henderson
was laying on the second floor, and we saw a bloody military style footprint, end quote.
He said, quote, there was a great deal of blood there.
There was nine millimeter cases laying everywhere.
There were also rounds that had not been fired laying around the bodies, end quote.
Sergeant Mark Neal with the West Virginia State Police testified that most of the fingerprints
in the mansion belong to the victims, with no fingerprints matching Tony's.
However, Howard R. Myers, also of the West Virginia State Police testified that the DNA
samples of Martha's blood were found on the nine millimeter firearm.
He said that only one in 124 billion people would have a matching DNA profile.
The defense continued claiming there was not enough evidence to convict Tony and had their
request dismissal of the case denied, quote, I submit to you, there were two people in
the house at night, end quote.
He also said, quote, there has to be two shooters in the house because no one person could do
all of these mass killings.
It's just not possible.
This was execution style murders, end quote.
Tony's taped confession on the trip back to Welch was played during the trial.
He said, quote, I was on crack cocaine.
I was going to try to leave and she didn't want me to leave.
I pulled my gun out.
I shot her.
That cocaine that crack is a bad drug.
It's a bad drug, end quote.
He later denied murdering the family, telling the court that he confessed because he was
scared, quote, I was scared.
I was scared.
The drug dealers, they would try to kill me.
They are going to kill me no matter what, end quote.
Tony testified during the trial that a firearm was sitting on his coffee table on February
13 when he went to sleep.
When he woke up, the gun was sitting next to his kitchen table, quote, did some phantom
come in your trailer when you went to sleep, steal your gun, go up there and murder them.
And bring your gun back, end quote.
Bell asked, quote, is that your only explanation, end quote.
Tony's uncle, Chester Springs, testified at the trial that he was staying at Tony's
house the night of the murders and was awakened by Tony around 3am to 4am.
The defense asked if he could have dreamed the incident after telling the court this,
quote, when I was in the kitchen, end quote, he said, quote, have you ever smelled the
scent of fresh blood?
He told me he had just whacked some people and pointed out Powerhouse Hill.
Tony continued his claims that he was an informant for the Justice Department saying
he had contacted the organization through an operator.
Bell asked for some kind of proof of this, quote, do you have anything to validate your
wild claims that you were working for the US government, end quote.
Bell asked, quote, Mr. Allen, you've told the jury that you've been in contact with
the US Attorney's Office and the Justice Department.
How did you contact the Justice Department?
Do you have any records showing you were in contact with them?
Do you have any records, end quote.
The jury took less than two hours from deliberations, with Tony showing no emotion while the guilty
verdict was read.
Tony was sent to prison to serve the rest of his life behind bars.
Tony passed away on March 9, 2020.
In the late fall of 1998, before the trial, Judy McDaniel was distraught over the loss
of her brother, she decided to sell the mansion and most of its furnishings.
The auction drew a few hundred people to Powerhouse Hill and the bidding was robust.
Billy Cherry, the chairman of the board of the First National Bank of Keystone, bought
the mansion for $160,000.
Cherry built a deck around the pool Jones had built on the grounds and tried to open
it as bed and breakfast called the Blair House in memory of her late mother.
It closed on September 1, 1999.
Cherry was convicted on various fraud charges in October of 2001 and died in prison on December
29, 2006.
Today the mansion lives on as a beautiful property on Powerhouse Hill.
You can rent it on Airbnb through the property manager, the West Virginia Way.
You can also visit the mansion with Appalachian Ghost Tours on Halloween 9.
For more information, check out the Appalachian Ghost Tours Facebook page.
We will be off next week, but we will return on November 1 with a new episode.
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