Southern Mysteries Podcast

Once a thriving community along the Natchez Trace, Rocky Springs, Mississippi, has nearly vanished into the woods. An old brick church, a cemetery, and a handful of remnants are all that remain of a town once home to thousands. In Part Three of The Devil's Road, Southern Mysteries explores the forgotten history and haunting legends of one of Mississippi's most intriguing ghost towns.

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Episode Sources

National Park Service. Rocky Springs Town Site. Natchez Trace Parkway.

National Park Service. Civil War: Rocky Springs Area. Natchez Trace Parkway.

National Park Service. Hiking the Rocky Springs Section of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail.

Historic American Buildings Survey. Rocky Springs Park, Mission 66 Structures. HABS No. MS-291.

Historical Marker Database. The Town of Rocky Springs Historical Marker.

Mississippi Genealogy and History Network. Rocky Springs Historic Cemetery. Claiborne County, Mississippi.

Mississippi State University Extension Service. Rocky Springs, MS. Bug's Eye View, Vol. 2, No. 27, 2016.

John Y. Simon, editor. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8: April 1–July 6, 1863. Southern Illinois University Press, 1979.

U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I, Volume XXIV.

Mississippi State University Libraries. Orville Elias Babcock Diaries.

Emilye Crosby. A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

J. L. Power. The Epidemic of 1878 in Mississippi: Report of the Yellow Fever Relief Work. 1879.

Mississippi Encyclopedia. “Yellow Fever.”

The Richmond Planet. “Horrible Crimes.” May 12, 1894.

Equal Justice Initiative. Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.

Mississippi Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. 2010 Conference Journal.

Alan Huffman. “Finis.” April 18, 2010.

Karen Steele. “Learning from the Grandmothers: Sarah.”

Karen Steele. “Learning from the Grandmothers: Joan.”

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

In the early 1800s, travelers carrying money north from Natchez became targets for highway robbers along the isolated Natchez Trace.In Part Two of The Devil’s Road, Southern Mysteries follows Samuel Mason and Joseph Thompson Hare, two notorious land pirates whose robberies, violence and encounters with the law helped shape the road’s dangerous reputation. Mason’s story ends in mystery, while Hare’s own confession reveals how he preyed on unsuspecting travelers.

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Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Episode Sources

Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Samuel Mason Trial Records, Z/0273.000, 1803.

Mississippi Department of Archives and History. English translation of the Samuel Mason Trial Records, Z/0273.000.

Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Territorial Records, Administration Papers, records concerning Samuel Mason and his accomplices, 1803–1804.

Claiborne, William C. C. Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, correspondence concerning Samuel Mason, highway robbery, the Mississippi River and roads between the Mississippi Territory and Tennessee, 1802–1804.

Claiborne, William C. C. Letter to James Madison concerning Samuel Mason, robberies and protection of travelers, July 1803.

Vidal, Nicholas Maria. Correspondence to Governor William C. C. Claiborne concerning Samuel Mason and his accomplices, their prosecution by Spanish authorities and transfer to American custody, 1803.

Rothert, Otto A. The Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock: Historical Accounts of the Famous Highwaymen and River Pirates Who Operated in Pioneer Days upon the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and over the Natchez Trace.

Hare, Joseph Thompson. Dying Confession of Joseph Hare, Alias Joseph T. Hare, One of the Mail Robbers. 1818.

Hare, Joseph Thompson. The Life and Dying Confession of Joseph T. Hare: The Noted Robber Who Was Executed at Baltimore in September Last for Robbing the Mail. 1818.

United States v. Hare, Circuit Court, District of Maryland, May 1818.

Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser. “Joseph Thompson Hare,” September 19, 1818.

Daily National Intelligencer. Report of the executions of Joseph Thompson Hare and John Alexander, September 14, 1818.

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. Historical interpretation of the Old Natchez Trace, early travel and transportation.

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. Historical interpretation concerning boatmen, travelers and the development of the Natchez Trace.

Tennessee Encyclopedia. “Natchez Trace.”

Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Territorial records concerning highway robbery, piracy and law enforcement in the Mississippi Territory during the early nineteenth century.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

Today, the Natchez Trace Parkway is a peaceful road through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. But the old Trace was once known as the Devil’s Backbone, a dangerous route marked by robbery, murder and stories that became legend. In The Devil’s Road, a four-part October series, Southern Mysteries explores the darker history and folklore of the Natchez Trace. Part One begins at ancient Native American mound sites along the route and at Pharr Mounds in northern Mississippi, where a brutal murder in 1992 brought a much more recent story to this ancient landscape.

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Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists.

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Episode Sources

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “History & Culture.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “American Indian Mounds Along the Natchez Trace Parkway.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Pharr Mounds, Milepost 286.7.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Bynum Mounds, Milepost 232.4.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Emerald Mound.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Historic Places.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Old Natchez Trace Sections.”

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Trade From Afar,” Pharr Mounds interpretive exhibit and transcript.

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. “Objects and Ideas,” Pharr Mounds interpretive exhibit and transcript.

National Park Service, Natchez Trace Parkway. Natchez Trace mound-site interpretive exhibits and archaeological timeline.

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. United States of America v. Danny McGee, No. 93-7503, July 8, 1994.

United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Federal proceedings arising from the murder of Thomas Alan Byram at Pharr Mounds.

Tishomingo County News/The Vidette and Belmont News. “One Arrested in Murder of Iuka Man,” September 10, 1992.

Tishomingo County News/The Vidette and Belmont News. Coverage of the federal indictments of Danny McGee and Greg Dingler, October 8, 1992.

Tishomingo County News/The Vidette and Belmont News. Coverage of the upcoming federal murder trials and preliminary-hearing testimony, November 5, 1992.

Tishomingo County News/The Vidette and Belmont News. Coverage of Danny McGee’s conviction and sentencing, 1993.

Tishomingo County News/The Vidette and Belmont News. Coverage of Greg Dingler’s second-degree murder conviction, August 5, 1993.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines and Burial Grounds, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

In February 1972, Bryce, Virginia and Bobby Durham were found murdered in their Boone, North Carolina, home during a heavy snowstorm. Within months, four men were charged and two were eventually indicted for murder, but the case against them collapsed. Nearly fifty years later, a story remembered by the son of a Georgia criminal led investigators to four entirely different men and an unexpected explanation for what happened that night.

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Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries

Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists.

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Episode Sources

Watauga County Sheriff’s Office, “Sheriff Hagaman Announces That 50-Year-Old Triple Homicide ‘Durham Case’ Solved”

Watauga Democrat, “Suspects Get Counsel for Current Term,” May 15, 1972

Watauga Democrat, “Investigation of Durham Family’s Slaying Continues”

Watauga Democrat, contemporary coverage of the June 1972 preliminary hearing in the Durham murder case

Watauga Democrat, contemporary coverage of the September 1972 grand jury indictments of Jerry Ray Cassada and Dean Chandler

Watauga Democrat, contemporary coverage of Dean Chandler’s 1973 speedy-trial motion and scheduled trial

Winston-Salem Journal, contemporary February 1972 coverage of the Durham family murders and early investigation

The Charlotte Observer, “Family Was Found Dead in a Bathtub 50 Years Ago. Now NC Cops Say They Know the Killers”

The News & Observer, retrospective coverage of the Durham family murders and crime scene

Associated Press, contemporary coverage of the dismissal of the remaining murder charges against Jerry Ray Cassada

Watauga County Sheriff’s Office / Watauga Online, “Sheriff Hagaman Announces That 50-Year-Old Triple Homicide ‘Durham Case’ Solved”

High Country Press, “Watauga County Historical Society Speaker Series: ‘Convoluted: The 1972 Durham Family Triple Homicide,’ with Terry Harmon”

Missing in the Carolinas, “Episode 130: The 1972 Murders of Bryce, Virginia, and Bobby Durham in Boone”

WSOC-TV, 2022 coverage of the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office announcement identifying the men investigators believe killed the Durham family

WBTV, 2022 coverage of the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office announcement that the Durham case had been solved

Georgia Supreme Court, Birt v. State

Georgia court records concerning the murders of Reid and Lois Fleming

Federal court records concerning Bobby Gene Gaddis and crimes associated with Billy Sunday Birt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reporting on Billy Sunday Birt, his family and his criminal history

North Carolina Newspapers / DigitalNC, Watauga Democrat archive, 1972–1973

Terry Harmon, Convoluted: The 1972 Durham Family Triple Homicide

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

In this updated and remastered Southern Mysteries Classic, we revisit the strange disappearance of Connie Franklin and the mystery of the man who returned from the dead. In 1929, five men in Stone County, Arkansas, were charged with the murder of Franklin, a drifter who had vanished from the Ozarks. A teenage girl said he had been brutally attacked and his body burned in the woods, and investigators believed they had found his charred remains. Then, just days before the murder trial began, a man appeared claiming to be Connie Franklin. The bizarre case drew reporters from across the country and became known as the Arkansas Ghost Trial.

Join the Community on Patreon:

Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries

Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists.

📱 Follow on Social Media:

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Episode Sources

Brooks Blevins, Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Memory in the Upland South, University of Illinois Press, 2012.

Brooks Blevins, “The Arkansas Ghost Trial: The Connie Franklin Case and the Ozarks in the National Media,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 3, Autumn 2009, pp. 245–271.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Connie Franklin (Alleged Murder of).”

Deane Allen, “Man at Batesville Identified as Franklin,” Arkansas Democrat, Dec. 8, 1929, pp. 1, 8.

“Connie Franklin Reported Living,” Arkansas Gazette, Dec. 5, 1929, p. 1.

“Five Indicted as Climax to Murder Probe,” Arkansas Democrat, Nov. 24, 1929, pp. 1, 6.

Fletcher Chenout, “Four Cleared of Slaying Franklin,” Arkansas Gazette, Dec. 20, 1929, pp. 1, 7.

Carl Olsson, “Startling Franklin Case Development Predicted,” Arkansas Democrat, Dec. 15, 1929, p. 1.

TIME, “The States: Arkansas Vindicated,” Dec. 30, 1929.

“From Baxter Bulletin Files,” Baxter County History, Vol. 7, 1981, pp. 41–42.

Steven Teske, Unvarnished Arkansas: The Naked Truth about Nine Famous Arkansans, Butler Center Books, 2012.

University of Illinois Press, “Q&A with Ghost of the Ozarks Author Brooks Blevins,” July 6, 2012.

KSMU Ozarks Public Radio, “Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Scandal in the Hills,” April 30, 2012.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 11, 1942, retrospective account of the Connie Franklin case.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.