Southern Mysteries Podcast

In 1970, Thomas Gilmore became the first Black sheriff in rural Greene County, Alabama. He refused to carry a gun. How did a man of peace earn the trust to enforce the law in a place shaped by deep racial divides? And why does his story remain largely unknown?

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Episode Sources

Richard Bailey — Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1572687

Eric Foner — Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction . https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858863/freedoms-lawmakers/

Alabama Department of Archives & History — Reconstruction‑era election record. https://archives.alabama.gov

Greene County Historical Society. https://www.greenecountyhistoricalsociety.org

University of Alabama — Black Belt Heritage Collections. https://guides.lib.ua.edu/blackbelt

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute — Oral Histories. https://www.bcri.org/oral-history-project

U.S. Department of Justice — Voting Rights Act historical materials. https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-rights-act-1965

Frye Gaillard — Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America . https://ugapress.org/book/9780820324722/cradle-of-freedom

Marshall Frady — The Southerner . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1358422

Southern Christian Leadership Conference Archives. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Digital Gateway. https://snccdigital.org

Birmingham News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-birmingham-news/268/

Tuscaloosa News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-tuscaloosa-news/2681/

Equal Justice Initiative — Historical reports on policing in Alabama. https://eji.org/reports/

Douglas A. Blackmon — Slavery by Another Name. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18327/slavery-by-another-name-by-douglas-a-blackmon/

Isabel Wilkerson — The Warmth of Other Suns. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/19076/the-warmth-of-other-suns-by-isabel-wilkerson/

This Man Stands Alone (film about Thomas Gilmore). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250463/

Episode Music

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

In June 1948, 21-year-old Mary Virginia Carpenter left Texarkana for college in Denton, Texas. She was last seen after a taxi dropped her near Brackenridge Hall at Texas State College for Women. The letter she promised her mother never came, and neither did Virginia. More than 70 years later, her disappearance remains one of Denton’s quiet, enduring mysteries.

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Episode Sources

Denton Record‑Chronicle. Coverage of the disappearance of Virginia Carpenter. https://dentonrc.com

Texarkana Gazette. Reporting on the Carpenter case and related community response. https://www.texarkanagazette.com

Texas Woman’s University Libraries, Special Collections. Historical information on TSCW campus life and 1940s dorm policies. https://twu.edu/library/special-collections/ (twu.edu in Bing)

Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum. Background on Ranger Lewis C. Rigler and investigative practices. https://www.texasranger.org

The Charley Project. “Mary Virginia Carpenter.” https://charleyproject.org/case/mary-virginia-carpenter (charleyproject.org)

The Doe Network. Case File 1198DFTX. https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1198dftx.html (doenetwork.org in Bing)

Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. “Virginia Carpenter.” https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Virginia_Carpenter 

Texas Monthly. “The Phantom Killer.” https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-phantom-killer/ 

FBI Vault. Archival documents related to mid‑20th‑century missing persons investigations. https://vault.fbi.gov

Newspapers.com. Digitized historical newspapers used for timeline verification. https://www.newspapers.com

Ancestry.com. U.S. Census and public records consulted for background verification. https://www.ancestry.com

Episode Music

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

Off the coast of South Carolina, on Edisto Island, a mausoleum at the back of an old churchyard has become the center of one of the state’s most persistent ghost stories. The name “Legare” is carved over the entrance, and for generations people have whispered that a young woman named Julia was buried alive inside. This episode follows the legend to the historical record and asks what we can really know about the woman whose name turned a family tomb into one of South Carolina’s most talked-about hauntings.

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Episode Sources

"Tomb of Julia Legare." South Carolina Picture Project. https://www.scpictureproject.org/charleston-county/tomb-of-julia-legare.html

"The Legend of Julia Legare." Edisto Beach. https://edistobeach.com/the-legend-of-julia-legare/

"Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island." South Carolina Picture Project. https://www.scpictureproject.org/charleston-county/edisto-island-presbyterian.html

Jaime Rubio. "The True Legend of Julia Legare – Fact vs Fiction." Dreaming Casually, Aug. 7, 2014. https://dreamingcasuallypoetry.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-true-legend-of-julia-legare-fact-vs.html

"Julia Georgiana Seabrook Legare (1829–1852)." Find a Grave memorial 65651815. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65651815/julia-georgiana-legare

"Hugh Swinton Legare (1847–1854)." Find a Grave memorial 65655039. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65655039/hugh-swinton-legare

"Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island Cemetery." RootsWeb transcription https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cemphoto/history/sc/charleston/edisto/scehmedtall.html

"Julia Georgianna (Seabrook) Legaré (1829–1852)." WikiTree profile Seabrook-911. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Seabrook-911

"Julia Georgiana Seabrook (1829–1852)." FamilySearch. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/M4KR-51C/julia-georgiana-seabrook-1829-1852

"William Seabrook (1773–1836)." FamilySearch. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKLK-T93/william-seabrook-1773-1836

"Robert Chisholm Seabrook (1821–1852)." FamilySearch. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/MZJY-FBZ/robert-chisholm-seabrook-1821-1852

"Seabrook Plantation – Edisto Island – Charleston County." .https://south-carolina-plantations.com/charleston/seabrook.html

"Cassina Point Plantation." South Carolina Picture Project. https://www.scpictureproject.org/charleston-county/cassina-point-plantation-2.html

Historic Houses of South Carolina. J. H. Easterby et al. (PDF). https://archive.org/download/historichousesof00leid/historichousesof00leid.pdf

"The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. XVII." (PDF). https://www.carolana.com/SC/eBooks/SCHGM/The_South_Carolina_Historical_and_Genealogical_Magazine_Volume_XVII.pdf

"James Hopkinson Papers, 1847–1921." ArchiveGrid / WorldCat summary. https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/archiveComponent/41963032

"Slaves of James Hopkinson (1810–1875), South Carolina." https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Slaves_of_James_Hopkinson_%281810_-_1875%29%2C_South_Carolina

"1865 List of Abandoned Plantations, Edisto Island, South Carolina." https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1865_List_of_Abandoned_Plantations_Edisto_Island%2C_South_Carolina

"Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands – Berwick Legare, Edisto Island." Smithsonian NMAAHC Freedmen’s Bureau Digital Records. https://nmaahc.si.edu/freedmens-bureau/record/fbs-1662423774659-1662426204172-3

"Lowcountry Ghost Stories." South Carolina Lowcountry Tourism. https://southcarolinalowcountry.com/lowcountry-ghost-stories/

"Old Churchyard Cemetery" brochure, Parish Church of St. Helena, Beaufort (PDF). https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/09fbc323/files/uploaded/Churchyard%20Brochure-website.pdf

"Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor." National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/places/gullah-geechee-cultural-heritage-corridor.htm

"Port Royal Experiment." South Carolina Lowcountry Tourism. https://southcarolinalowcountry.com/beaufort-the-port-royal-experiment/

"Emancipation Day: The Freed People of Port Royal." South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium.https://www.scseagrant.org/emancipation-day-the-freed-people-of-port-royal/

Episode Music

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

In the summer of 1924, a railroad worker was found dead near tracks in Little Rock. Weeks later, his wife was found dead in another state. What followed was a series of headlines that pointed to one woman—Winona Spriggs. Her name would appear again and again over the next fifty years, linked to crime, escape, and murder. This is the story of a family broken, and of the woman who never stopped running.

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Episode Sources

Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), 1924–1974

Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, AR), 1924–1954

The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), 1924–1954

Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, OK), 1924–1948

Miami News-Record (Miami, OK), August 1946

The Salinas Californian (Salinas, CA), 1953–1954

The San Bernardino Sun (San Bernardino, CA), October–November 1974

The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), March 16, 1954

Associated Press (AP) wire reports, 1924–1954

Pulaski County Circuit Court records (Arkansas)

Oklahoma criminal investigation records (Miami, OK)

California Superior Court records (Salinas, CA), 1954

Arkansas State Penitentiary records and parole files

Oklahoma Department of Corrections records

California Department of Corrections records

U.S. Census records (1910, 1920, 1930, 1940)

Marriage and divorce records for Winona Spriggs / Winona Green / Winnie Ola Freeman

Death records for J.R. Green, Lena Green, Robert Sheldon Wilkinson, Harold Jonassen, and Winnie Ola Freeman

Library of Congress, Chronicling America newspaper archive

Newspapers.com archival database

Ancestry.com historical records

Unknown Misandry blog: “Winnie Ola Freeman (Winona Green): The Cat Woman” (2014)

Episode Music

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

In December 1968, Barbara Jane Mackle was kidnapped from a motel room outside Atlanta, Georgia. The circumstances surrounding her abduction were so strange, investigators could barely make sense of them. The search for twenty year old Barbara Jane Mackle became a race against time that gripped her family and drew national attention. 

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.


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Episode Sources

Miller, Gene. 83 Hours Till Dawn. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.

“FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives: Ruth Eisemann-Schier, 1969.” Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ten Most Wanted Program Archives.

“Kidnapped Heiress Rescued from Buried Box.” The Miami Herald, December 21, 1968.

“Barbara Mackle Found Alive.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 21, 1968.

“Agents Seize Suspect in Mackle Kidnapping.” The Miami Herald, December 21–23, 1968.

“Man Held in Heiress Kidnap Case.” The New York Times, December 22, 1968.

“Girl in Box Case.” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1968.

“Suspect Caught in Marsh After Days on the Run.” Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), December 1968.

“Woman on FBI List Seized in Oklahoma.” The Oklahoman, February 8, 1969.

United States v. Gary Steven Krist, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1969.

United States v. Ruth Eisemann-Schier, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1969.

FBI, Supplemental Case Report: Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle, December 1968 (declassified portions).

Jordan, C.D. “Account of the Mackle Kidnapping Rescue.” Interview, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 1970.

Associated Press. “Heiress Found Alive in Buried Box; Ransom Paid.” December 21, 1968.

United Press International. “Search Intensifies for Kidnappers After Ransom Drop Fails.” December 1968.

“Krist Granted Medical License Despite Record.” The Indianapolis News, July 23, 1985.

U.S. Department of Justice. “South Florida Man Sentenced in Cocaine Trafficking Case.” DOJ Press Release, 2006.

“Eisemann-Schier Paroled and Deported.” The Miami Herald, 1973.

Emory Wheel (Emory University). “Student Kidnapped from Decatur Motel.” December 18–22, 1968 coverage.

“The Mackle Kidnapping Revisited.” People Magazine (retrospective feature), 1998.

“Buried Alive: The 1968 Abduction of Barbara Mackle.” CNN.com, Crime Retrospective Series, 2003.

“83 Hours in the Earth.” CBS News Sunday Morning, archival retrospective segment.

Episode Music

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