Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
Today we want to tell you about the second oldest case we've covered. A case that claimed the
lives of four family members. A case that after 114 years people are still searching for answers
of the Hood family massacre. George Washington Hood Sr. was in Caswell County, North Carolina,
in 1892. He married first to Ivana Webb, daughter of Martin and Francis Webb. Ivana Webb Hood died
in 1857. Her death record stated her cause of death was a hemorrhage of the womb. Where Ivana
and George were married is unknown. However, they were in Raleigh County, Virginia, in 1857.
When Ivana died, George Washington Hood Sr. enlisted in the 8th Virginia Infantry later
to become the 7th West Virginia Calvary during the Civil War. After the war, he was approved to
receive a pension for his service in the Federal Army. George Washington Hood Sr. later married.
Armincha Bailey, daughter of Brooker Bailey and Sarah Stover on January 10, 1867 in Raleigh County.
George and Sarah's children were Sarah Almeida Hood, Aletha Hood, Joel Hensford Hood, George
Washington Jr., whose twin died at birth, Lucy May Hood, Royal J. Hood, Winfred Hezekah Hood.
Armincha Bailey Hood was born about 1846, died February 14, 1894. She is buried in the Mount
Tabor Cemetery located in Raleigh County. October 31, 1909, started as a normal day for the Hood
family. In their home, four miles outside of Beckley in Mount Tabor, they made the most of
the Sunday by attending church. The four younger members of the Hood family attended the evening
service at the Mount Tabor Baptist Church. It was an exciting day for the family because 12-year-old
Emma had been baptized that Sunday morning. Almeida, Emma, Winfred, and Roy attended the evening
service, but their father decided to stay home. After the service, Almeida, Emma, and Roy went home.
While Winfred and his friend Walter Harper decided to go to a neighbor's home where they had taken
some young ladies. Winfred and Walter were stunned to find the house on fire when they got back home
around 11 p.m. The kitchen was nearly consumed and the flames had reached the second story and the
fire was beyond controlled. Walter and Winfred rushed to the front door and knocked it down,
but the heat and flames were too intense that they were driven back after several attempts. Only a
few minutes went by until the roof fell. The boys couldn't hear any cries from the house.
As soon as the flames had died down on Monday morning, the search for the Hood family began.
The four charred bodies were found in the debris. The legs and arms of all four bodies were burned
off. The bodies of George Hood and Roy, their skulls, had fractures in them. The girls' bodies
were found missing their arms and legs as well. They were also missing another part of their body.
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The heads of Almeida and Emma Hood were missing. Officials began to wonder why the flames burned
hot enough to destroy the heads of the girls, but not the men. They also wondered about the
fractures in the men's head. Could it have been from a gunshot? Why did they find an empty cartridge
shell near where the father and son were laying? As Monday went on, a large crowd traveled to the
site of the fire. One member of the crowd was prosecuting attorney Dunn, Squire, Pee Pee,
Rael. So court, this kind of actually reminds me of Nellie and Ray's case where the people were coming
from all over just to see the smoke and where the family was found dead. Right. The day after the
murders, the Black Knight Country Club workers recalled their day was basically showing people
to the spot the murders took place. Immediately afterwards, they implemented a coroner's jury.
Dr. Schum, Snuffer, and Sampson were instructed to examine the bodies. Each doctor confirmed that
all of the bodies were in such bad shape that it was impossible to determine whether the death was
the result of the suffocation from the fire or in the Hood family had been murdered the night before.
The coroner's inquests continued in Beckley on Tuesday morning. All three of the doctors
were called on to testify concerning the examination of the bodies. Dr. Schnuffer said that the
remains of Almeida, Emma, and Roy were found in the east wing of the house. George was found laying
partially upon a bedside spring in the west end of the house. The doctor also stated that the
skulls of two of the victims showed conclusively that there had been violence and that the death
had not been caused by suffocation. Actually, small pieces of bone were found embedded in the
brains and cavities of the head of Roy, which basically indicated a blow to the head. The jury
returned with their verdict. We the jury find that the deaths of G.W. Hood Sr., Almeida Hood,
Roy Hood, and Emma Hood were caused by burning or other violence. The remains of the Hood family
were placed in two caskets and entered in at the Mount Tabor Cemetery on Monday afternoon.
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Immediately after the Hood family were laid to rest, officials started to find the murderer.
The nearby communities were uneasy at the thought that there could be a cold-blooded killer just
wondering about. The person's suspicion fell on was Mike Farrell, who had been interested in Almeida.
The Sunday of the fire, Farrell had gone to the Hood family to visit her. However, he had been
drinking and his actions were found to be offensive by her father. George had told Mike to leave.
Farrell left but remarked that he would return later that night to escort Almeida to church.
He didn't show, so the girls went alone. By Saturday, investigators were ready to make an
arrest. They tracked Mike down, who worked on a five-man bridge carpenter crew for the Virginia
Railway, taking no chances on missing any clues. You want to guess what they did, Court?
Arrested Mike Farrell? They arrested the entire crew. Oh, shit! They had been living in a shanty car
on the sidetrack near Herbertton, which is now Willis Branch near Pax, West Virginia.
The crew included Mike Farrell, Nelson Thompson, Riley Durham, Ed Scruggs. Farrell,
Lively and Thompson were transported to Bluefield, where they were given a sweating by the Baldwin
Felts officer, James O'Connor. Durham and Scruggs were taken to the Beckley Jail. No matter the
amount of intimidation, nothing shook their story and they all proved to have adequate alibis.
The Raleigh County officials were determined to solve this case and ease the minds of the citizens.
Two weeks after the murders, Raleigh County Court offered a thousand-dollar reward,
which would be $33,420.55 in 2023 for the arrest of the murderer or murderers of the Hood family.
Deputy Marshal Dan Cunningham was brought in to assist with the case. Not too long after joining,
he uncovered a clue that seemed promising. He learned that a couple of days after the murder,
Nick Keane had sent a suitcase full of his clothes from Harper to his wife in Beckley.
He sent a clothes by the hack driver. He wrote, Keane told Hugh to tell his wife that she
did not be excited because of the bloody condition of the clothing in his case. He instructed Hugh
to tell her that the blood came off of the other fellow. The very next day, Keane was placed under
arrest by Cunningham and George W. Williams and transported to Charleston. However, Keane would
be able to prove that he was not in the Beckley area during the time of the murder and police
were forced to release him. The next case might remind you of someone from Episode 9 in Season 1.
The Greenberg Ghost? How is there a connection? Well, I'm glad you asked. A woman from Huntington
named Miss Blake, who was famous for her ability to communicate with the dead, with no one being
arrested yet, a friend of the Hood family visited Miss Blake and begged for her help. She agreed,
and the visitor later reported that he had a chance to interview the shade of George Hood.
The shade? Yeah, I guess he meant the apparition of George to me and this might shock you. I'm not
talking about the interview with the shade. I'm taking the interview with the shade as a grain
of salt. There's a lot of evidence that people back in the day would fake apparitions and stuff
just to make people think they were actually talking to someone. But I'm not saying talking
to George was fake, but I'm saying that the shade might definitely been fake. According to the witness,
Hood explained that he and his three children were murdered before their bodies were burned.
The two girls were strangled and their heads were chopped off and placed into a sack. After
the heads were taken to the deepest ravine on the Hood property and buried in the sand.
Roy had been shot and George was killed by a heavy blow to the head by the butt of a pistol.
The house was ransacked. Courtney, do you want to guess what was taken? Was it jewelry,
money, guns, clothing? I just, I don't know. Just $40. What the hell? Right. The ghost of George
maintained that the crime was planned by white men but carried out by three African Americans in
masks. Officials denied any faith in the communications amidst Blake. A search for the heads of the
Hood girls took place, but it was unsuccessful. In April of 1910, West Virginia Governor William E
Glasscock offered a $500 reward which would be around $16,710.27 in 2023 for any clues in the
Hood case but no one came forward. Today, the only thing left with this case is a white marble
pillar with the names of the Hood family and the words gone but not forgotten. If you have any
information on the case of the Hood family, email us at Mount State Mysteries 304 at gmail.com.
Courtney, do you have any final thoughts on this case? Oddly, this is one of the cases to where
it's not as fumbled up as what a majority of our other cases have been. Right. I mean,
even back in the day, I'm sure it went and taken a genius to figure out that somebody's head
was severed off before the bodies were burned. I feel whoever done this was a sick individual
and in reality, with everything that we know about this case, they just seem like really good
people who none of this really deserved to happen to them. And you know, when you think about now
compared to back then, I'm sure now we would have more information and you know, be able to see if
there was any fingerprints on the bodies or anything of that nature. I mean, I just, I don't know.
I don't know. It's sad. Actually, fingerprints, if like something is burned, it actually kind of like
melts or like burns into the item to where like you get like a better fingerprint or like
something like that. So Mark, do you have any final thoughts on this case? So I know that we
both learned about this case at the same time. We actually learned about it from our friend
Scott Whirly from Haunted Beckley. And like you kind of just blows my mind how like they
really couldn't, they thought the heads were burned off. And to me,
maybe they were on the property somewhere. Maybe they were buried somewhere else. I'm not sure.
But definitely, I feel like if DNA was around, then something could have been
found. They could have figured out who did it. I know I kind of discredited Ms. Blake, not saying
she was fake. But I do believe if, because this was years after the Greenberg Ghost case,
I want to know why they didn't believe her or the visitor to her.
Because I mean, they believe Zona's mom. So it also makes you wonder too, how much was this
case? Was it in the press? Oh yeah, it was definitely in the press because a lot of this came from
whatever the newspaper was back then, the register, Harold, Raleigh register, whichever it was at the
time, a lot of this information came from there. So I mean, it kind of makes you wonder like,
could she have just seen it and then we're from there? You know? And I can say we visited the
graveyard twice. The first time completely fine, nothing weird. The second time was definitely
creepy. We actually went to both parts of the cemetery, which the other part closest to the
church, very sketchy to get into, won't even lie. It's sketchy. But you can actually see
pictures of their grave on our social media and on our blog. Next time on Mountain State Mysteries,
we're going to tell you the story of Juliet Buffington Insulow. If you find yourself enjoying
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