Mystery of the Talking Skull: Family Secrets in Southern Appalachia

Abstract:

When an out-of-town merchandiser goes missing in 1930s rural Southern Appalachia, whiskey and foul play are suspected. The small town of Woodbury, Tennessee, soon forgets and moves on, until the man's skeletal remains are uncovered three years later by two boys digging for mayapple root. Two men are immediately charged with the murder, though only one would be convicted. The trial would attract newspapers from across the state and beyond through the end of the decade. The story was lost to time and largely unknown to the descendants of those involved. The tale might have stayed buried in the past if not for a pulp fiction magazine that made its way back to the family some seventy years later.