Tom Dooley [Laws F36A]
DESCRIPTION: Tom Dula/Dooley has killed Laura Foster. He has few regrets except that he didn't get away with it. He curses Sheriff Grayson, who has captured him. He expects to be hanged tomorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution fiddle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 25 (?), 1866 - Murder of Laura Foster, allegedly by Thomas C. Dula (and possibly his sweetheart Ann Melton). Dula apparently killed Foster because he had contracted a venereal disease from her, which she folklore falsely reports she had caught from Grayson.
c. July 1, 1866 - Dula leaves North Carolina for Tennessee, where he briefly works for James W. M. Grayson
c. July 12, 1866 - Dula apprehended in Tennessee and returned to North Carolina
c. Sept 1, 1866 - Body of Laura Foster found in a remote grave
Oct 4, 1866 - Beginning of Dula's first trial. There will be a separation of his case from Ann Melton's, a change of venue, a guilty verdict, a successful appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court resulting in an order for a new trial, a second trial before a different judge, a second conviction, and a second, unsuccessful, appeal before Dula's case is finally settled
May 1, 1868 - Dula is hanged for the murder.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws F36A, "Tom Dooley"
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 228, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 118, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 59-60, "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 303, "Tom Dula" (3 texts, all very short; in addition, the "B" text of Brown's #304, "Tom Dula's Lament," is a single stanza found in the Proffitt version of "Tom Dooley")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 303, "Tom Dula" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 9, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 82, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 139, "Tom Dula" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 235-240, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 137, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 207-208, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 188, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 225, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 28-29, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 173, 230, 289, 550, "Tom Dooley" (notes only)
DT, TOMDOOLY*
ADDITIONAL: John Edward Fletcher, PhD (with a foreword by Edith Marie Ferguson Carter), _The True Story of Tom Dooley: From Western North Carolina Mystery to Folk Legend_, History Press, 2013, pp. 149-150, "Tom Dooley" (the Profitt/Warner version)
John Foster West, _The Ballad of Tom Dula_, Moore Publishing Company, (second printing) 1977, pp. 17-34, (various titles) (12 texts and fragments of "Tom Dooley" plus 1 of Land's "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36], 4 tunes)
Manly Wade Wellman, _Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina_, 1954 (I use the 1980 University of North Carolina paperback), pp. 185-186, "(no title)" (1 text; the historical background to the text is very inaccurate)
Frances H. Casstevens, _Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown_, History Press, 2006, pp. 110-111, "(Untitled Folk Version of the Tom Dula story)," "Tom Dooley" (2 texts, one from Manley Wade Wellman and perhaps rewritten, the other based on Profitt)
Roud #4192
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "The Ballad of Tom Dula" (on LegendTomDula)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Tom Dooley" (Victor 40235, 1930; rec. 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
Yvonne "Mollie" Hicks (Hagie), Derek Piotr, "Tom Dooley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #177, recorded 05/13/2022 -- a rewritten version which claims that Dooley was innocent and had an alibi. Since the informant also claimed Laura Foster was drowned, not stabbed, there is no reason to think the alibi valid)
Travis Johnson, "Tom Dooley (Nellie Forster)" (Piotr-Archive #511, recorded 03/08/2023)
Glenn Neaves & band, "Tom Dooley" (on GraysonCarroll1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Tom Dooley" (on NLCR02) (NLCR12)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Tom Dooley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #23, recorded 11/05/2020)
Frank Profitt, "Tom Dooley" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Evelyn & Douston Ramsey, "Tom Dooley" (on FarMtns2)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "Tom Dula" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36] (subject)
cf. "Tom Dula's Lament" (subject, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tom Dooly
NOTES [15698 words]: G. B. Grayson, who (along with Henry Whitter) made the earliest known recorded version of the song, was descended from the sheriff who captured Dula. - PJS
Nitpick: The man Paul refers to who helped capture Dula was not a sheriff and was not an ancestor of G. B. Grayson. Nonetheless there is a family linkage; according to Fletcher, pp. 45, 116, James W. M. Grayson was the uncle of the performer G. B. Grayson.
Briefly, the story of Tom Dula, Laura Foster, and company is as follows: After the Civil War, a young unmarried woman named Laura Foster disappeared from her home in North Carolina. After a lot of searching, her body -- which had been stabbed to the heart -- and clothing were found in a shallow grave. Thomas C. Dula, a returned Confederate veteran, was charged with the murder of Foster and his seeming lover Ann Melton with being an accessory before the fact. The trial was moved to a different venue, and after some maneuvering, Dula and Melton were tried separately and Dula was convicted of murder. The trial was badly conducted, and Dula was granted a new trial by the state supreme court. The verdict did not change. Dula, on his last day, wrote a statement to the effect that he was solely responsible for the murder. Belief at the time seemed to contradict this. At least one witness said that Melton would have hung with Dula had she not been so beautiful. But she was let go; only Dula was executed.
Those are the bare facts. There is a lot of folklore about the Dula case, most of it false (West-Ballad, starting on p. 35, gives many pages of errors and inconsistencies in the various reports, many of them clearly copied from each other). The story is, if anything, even more ugly than the folklore. And yet, Peña/Hayes, p. 72, says that many in Wilkes County still believe Dula was innocent. One of the informants Derek Piotr talked to, Yvonne "Mollie" Hicks (Hagie), actually sang a verse, which she said was by her grandfather, "You didn't kill Laurie Foster Because you were with me." This is beyond improbable -- if someone had been with Dula at the time Laurie Foster went missing, then this person would have been called to testify -- but it shows how the legend evolved.
In 2001/2, an attempt was made in North Carolina to convince the governor to grant Dula a posthumous pardon (Casstevens, p. 31). This seems rather far-fetched. Dula may not have been guilty of murder, but he *did* abandon Foster, and if he didn't commit the crime, he was probably an accessory after the fact to murder by Melton. And it is unlikely that much can be done to clarify the matter now, because most of the evidence has been lost. Laura Foster was reburied, but the site of her original grave, the "Bates Place," is not certain and the area has been clearcut and otherwise modified in the last century and a half (Fletcher, p. 30).
-- Accounts of the Dula Case --
In addition to a useful summary in Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, and an eight-page summary in Polenberg (pp. 66-74) which adds nothing that I can see to the information given below (and which is often so brief as to prejudice the case), there seem to be at least four non-fiction books about the Dula/Foster/Melton affair, as well as two or more fictional works (one of which, by Karen Wheeling Reynolds, seems to have been deliberately marketed as non-fiction even though it is a patent dramatization of the tale and doesn't even really list sources; according to Casstevens, p. 31, it blames Pauline Foster and perhaps Jack Keaton). Unfortunately, all the books were written after the Kingston Trio hit, so all are based on court records and the like rather than eyewitness testimony. The books I have seen, which I believe are the only recent non-fiction books about the event, are:
-- West-Lift, which was written by a twentieth century resident of the area and one-time president of the North Carolina Folklore Society -- a man who knew descendants of the Dula and Foster families
-- West-Ballad, a longer but earlier book by the author of West-Lift; they obviously overlap but also have significant differences. West-Ballad is more a source book than anything else; it consists largely of capsule biographies of the principal parties, a transcript of the court papers, and a catalog of extant versions of the song with a comparison of the false statements accompanying each printing.
-- Fletcher, who is the great-great-grandson of Ann and James Melton (Fletcher, p. 79. It would seem that the Tom Dula craze, these days, exists mostly among those from the area of the murder)
-- Gardner, a largely-undocumented pamphlet with some useful records but little in the way of firm evidence.
All the books seem to have axes to grind. Fletcher's is to make Dula entirely the guilty party, making everyone else seem like an upstanding citizen (He often finds simple, straightforward explanations for complex testimony -- but I often suspect his explanations are too simple). West-Lift's is to make Dula's trial appear unfair; West-Ballad has less of this but very early on calls Laura Foster a loose woman. And Gardner's is to try to blame everything on Melton and Pauline Foster, with Dula innocently caught between Melton and Laura Foster. (Gardner, p. 4, mentions Dula's musical skills and even says that such a musician couldn't have been a murderer, as if that is in any way relevant!) Nor are any of them well-written; West is disorderly; Fletcher easy to read but not good at presenting an argument, and Gardner is just goofy.
There are also some shorter accounts, often with their own idiosyncrasies. Casstevens, which devotes only a few pages to the case, on pp. 32-33, also suggests that Pauline Foster and Ann Melton had stronger motives than Dula. Winkler, like Fletcher, was a member of the extended Dula/Foster family: his great-grandmother Robbins "had been born a Dula and, as my mother tells it, would slip into a paroxysm of rage at the merest drop of the name Ann Melton." He adds that the name Dula "figured prominently in the Caldwell County of my growing up. It was shared by rich and poor, black and white -- which may or may not hint at sizable slave holdings at one time" (p. 84). Trying to trace the family name, Winkler encountered a family in Marburg, Germany. No connection has been demonstrated in immigration records, but it seems not unlikely that this part of Germany is the origin of the Dula name.
-- About Tom Dula --
West-Lift, p. 10, says Thomas C. "Tom" Dula had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and was of roughly average height. West-Lift, p. vi, describes him as rather a catch by local standards; handsome and a few weeks short of 22 at the time of the crime, his family was slightly better off than most others in the area of Wilkes County, and since both of Dula's brothers had died in the war, the land would be his -- although he doesn't seem to have had any interest in working it.
Dula had lost his father in 1854, when he was about ten (Fletcher, p. 19); there doesn't seem to be any record of this affecting Tom's behavior for the worse at the time. He was still living with his mother at the time of the murder (West-Lift, p. 87. You have to pity poor Mary Dula, who lost two sons in the war and her only surviving boy to the Foster murder case) -- he was still unmarried, after all, and he had been too young to move away from home prior to his enlistment.
Dula had enlisted in the Confederate army in March 1862 (West-Lift, p. 9), meaning that he was not yet 18 at the time (born June 20, 1844, according to West-Lift, p. 8, making him probably a few months younger than his future victim Laura Foster). Give him credit, perhaps, for volunteering rather than being drafted. It was an interesting choice, given that many in the mountains of Wilkes County were pro-Union (Peña/Hayes, p. 70) and slavery, although not unknown, was rare (Peña/Hayes, p. 69).
Although some sources claim that he was a member of the 26th North Carolina along with James Melton (and his future lawyer Zebulon Vance), the records show clearly that he was a member of the 42nd North Carolina regiment (West-Lift, p. 70, although West-Lift's military reporting is very bad -- he confuses battalions, which weren't even a normal Civil War formation, with brigades! Both Rigdon and NorthCarolinaTroops show him in the 42nd, although Rigdon, p. 260, uses the spelling "Thomas C. Dooley," as on Dula's parole notice, despite spelling his brother's name "Dula"!).
Tom's real unit, the 42nd North Carolina, was organized in April 1862 (Rigdon, p. 62); thus Dula was a member of the regiment from the time it was formed. He was a member of Company K, which, unlike the other companies which were organized from particular counties, seems to have been composed of odds and ends from several counties that could not supply enough men to fill a full company. Nonetheless he probably had family members in the regiment; there were two other Dulas, including his older brother William, and two Meltons in his company (NorthCarolinaTroops, pp. 282-285). Tom and his brother William were with the regiment until they were captured at Wise's Forks on March 10, 1865 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282).
There are three interesting items about Dula's service. One is that he was promoted to musician (drummer) in the first two months of 1864 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282; Fletcher, p. 21, explicitly calls him a drummer). That didn't really get him out of the firing line, but it does imply that he had more musical skill than some men in the company. The second thing is that, despite being with Company K for almost three years, he never became a non-commissioned officer. To be sure, many privates were never promoted; it's not really a mark against him, particularly since he was so young. But neither is it exactly a sign of confidence in him.
The third is something I noticed in looking at the list of members in Company K on pp. 280-287 of NorthCarolinaTroops. Company K had twenty men from Wilkes County (so about a fifth of the company). Ten has been lost (killed, deserted, whatever) before the Battle of Wise's Forks/Wyse Fork/Kinston, March 7-10, 1865 (i.e. a week before the 42nd's last battle at Bentonville). Eight others were present with the regiment in 1864, but nothing is known about their last year of service although most were later paroled. Two -- just two -- were captured at Wise's Fork. They happen to have been William and Tom Dula. Wise's Fork started with Confederate success but ended with Confederate failure (Hughes, pp. 27-28). Did the brothers stick so close together that they were captured together -- or did they desert together?
It would be hard to blame them. They came from a Unionist part of North Carolina, and the Confederacy was clearly losing -- and Wise's Fork must have seemed like a disaster to the people of the 42nd. It had started with a Confederate success in which they captured a bunch of isolated Union troops, but the attack ran out of steam (Sokolosky/Smith, pp. 125-126 and elsewhere). As a result, two days later, the Confederates tried again -- and Kirkland's Brigade ended up making an unsupported charge straight into a mass of entrenched Federals (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 163; according to p. 168, one Federal officer concluded that they "could not possibly have struck our line in any [other] position... [that would] have been more to our advantage and to their discomfort"; Sokolosky/Smith, p. 168). It would be easy for a random Confederate or 150 to conclude that there was no more point in fighting for generals that stupid -- and, indeed, Kirkland's Brigade lost a fourth of its strength (341 out of 1357) in the battle (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 236), with the 42nd North Carolina having 4 killed, 22 wounded, and 140 captured (166 total) out of an initial strength of perhaps 450 (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 244). This was 40% of the captured of the entire Confederate army, based on Sokolosky/Smith, p. 243. (To be sure, Kirkland's Brigade was the largest in the army, bsed on Sokolosky/Smith,, p. 238, but it was only 14% of the total. For one regiment -- a third of the brigade -- to have that many men captured means it had men captured at nine times the rate of the rest of the army -- about 31% of the regiment, versus 3.5% for the whole force.)
Both Tom's brothers had enlisted (William, as we saw, in the same company as Tom), as had James Melton (Fletcher, p. 19; Casstevens, p. 21, reports that James Melton was twice wounded, once at Gettysburg and once late in the war; he was a member of the 26th North Carolina, which as a unit of Pettigrew's Brigade was part of Pickett's Charge; according to Hess, p. 376 n. 43, he actually carried the regimental colors for a time on July 1, when he was wounded). There were at least six Fosters from Wilkes County in the 26nd North Carolina (Hess, p. 332); odds are that most of these were also Dula relatives (Hess thinks, based on enlistment dates, that they were conscripts, though I'm not sure that follows since they could have enlisted together). The oldest Dula brother, John, died of disease in 1862, and the middle brother, William, died of typhoid as a POW on June 5 1865 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282; Beitzell, p. 135, confirms William's death at Point Lookout prison camp although he does not list the cause),
The 42nd regiment was mostly on isolated service; it was not even formed into a brigade until May 1863 (Rigdon, p. 65), and saw almost no combat until 1864.
Many of the men later involved in Tom Dula's trial had known him in the army (Fletcher, p. 21). At least one of them, Washington Anderson, said that Dula's conduct while in the army had been good (West-Lift, p. 85). Gardner prints several of Dula's military records, and they seem to confirm Anderson's statement.
Reading the accounts of Dula's behavior after the Civil War makes me wonder about some sort of trauma disorder (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder). I know of no research on this point, but Wallis, pp. 30-31, observes that crime statistics in the United States soared after the Civil War. Wallis blames the increased availability and efficiency of firearms, but in fact all major weapons types available after the war had pre-war equivalents. All recent difficult wars, from Vietnam to Iraq, have left many veterans with trauma problems, and there a signs of them in veterans of the World Wars. Surely the Civil War would have done the same!
And perhaps the nature of Dula's service might have made him especially vulnerable. Unlike a lot of North Carolina regiments, the 42nd for the larger part of the war stayed in its home state and did not serve with the Army of Northern Virginia. (It had a confusing career, being occasionally brigaded with what Hess calls the Pettigrew/Kirkland/McRae brigade and sometimes with the Martin/Kirkland brigade, but it spent much of its career essentially un-brigaded; Hess, p. 54.) Eventually, however, the need for troops around Richmond was such that it was called north in time for the Richmond campaign of 1864 -- the grimmest example of trench warfare in the entire conflict.
NCRegiments, p. 796, says that the 42nd in late 1863 became part of James G. Martin's Brigade, which served to guard the Bermuda Hundred lines around Richmond; the regiment fought hard when the Army of the James attacked this position. Martin's brigade then became part of Robert F. Hoke's division (NCRegiments, p. 798), and took part in the appalling battle of Cold Harbor, where thousands of Federals were killed in just a few minutes -- although Hoke's own casualties were so light that he claimed there were none at all (Furgurson, p. 161). Rhea, p. 340, reports, "Martin's three North Carolina regiments had done yeoman's work, fending off portions of [three brigades]... Martin, a forty-five-year-0ld professional soldier who had lost his right arm in the Mexican War, reveled in the fight.
"General Martin cheered his men, and their enthusiasm was great,' the adjutant [Charles G.] Elliott remembered. 'Mostly armed with smooth-bore muskets, they poured an incessant fusillade of buck and ball into the brave lines that charged and recharged, and fell, many of them, on our works.' Martin's losses were slight, although among them was Colonel A. Duncan Moore, commanding the 66th North Carolina" (Rhea, pp. 340-341).
The map on p. 321 of Rhea shows the 42nd in the middle of Martin's brigade, which faced John Gibbon's assaulting division (although the map on p. 146 of Furgurson implies that Martin's brigade was between assaulting columns); in either case, it was well-entrenched and faced Federals attacking over open ground. Gibbon in the charge lost on the order of 1100 men (Rhea, p, 361; other estimates are higher). Thus Dula, in his first major battle, was probably involved in inflicting many casualties without seeing many of his comrades die. Gibbon's casualties were so high that they approached the total strength of the brigade they were assaulting. So odds are that someone died as a direct result of Dula's shooting. For the Confederates, Rhea, p. 362, reports that the divisions of Kershaw and Hoke together lost no more than 300 men, which would make the losses in Martin's brigade perhaps fifty. So they inflicted casualties at a 10:1 rate or better.
Late in the day, the brigade was ordered out of its trenches to attack the Federals -- an attack which, like all attacks on trenches, was repulsed with ease. The Confederates suffered about a hundred casualties for absolutely no benefit (Rhea, pp. 383-384). So in their first real day of battle, Dula's regiment first slaughtered their enemies and then were slaughtered themselves for no reason whatsoever. If that isn't traumatic, I don't know what is.
Later, the regiment was one of those involved in the desperate fight to hold Petersburg until Lee's army could arrive (NCRegiments, pp. 799-800), and it then settled down to trench warfare outside that town. It just missed being blown up in the Battle of the Crater, having left that part of the trenches just two days before (Rigdon, p. 74). In August 1864, the unit it belonged to became Kirkland's Brigade. During this three month period, the unit supposedly lost two-thirds of its numbers (Rigdon, p. 75). In December, 1864, it was released from the lines outside Petersburg and Richmond to help with the defense of Wilmington (NCRegiments, p. 802; Gragg, p. 60, although he notes that it took quite a while to get there because of the failing Confederate rail network). Within hours of arriving, parts of the unit came under fire from the Federal navy assaulting the area -- artillery fire which they had absolutely no way to answer (Gragg, pp. 81-82). Fort Fisher, which guarded the port, managed to hold out for the moment, but was captured by the Federals soon after. Meanwhile, William T. Sherman's troops were marching north from Savannah through the Carolinas, The 42nd was finally run down at Bentonville (NCRegiments, pp. 803-804), where Joseph E. Johnston tried and failed to defeat Sherman. It was the last significant battle of the war, apart from those involved in the surrender of Robert E. Lee. And it sounds as if Kirkland's Brigade was mishandled in the battle (Hughes, p. 128). The regiment was then surrendered and disbanded.
Although other regiments took more casualties, there can't have been many with more traumatic experiences.
There is a record of Dula being in hospital in late 1864 (West-Lift, p. 71) -- although we have no record of whether this was the result of injury or illness (an earlier hospital stay, in 1862, was more likely illness; Gardner, p. 39; West-Ballad, p. p. 63). He was captured by the Federals, along with 1500 or so others, on March 8, 1865 (West-Lift, p. 71; Gardner, p. 40, reports that he was released on June 11 of that year). It all adds up to a military career that was likely to have been psychologically particularly hard on those who experienced it..
The other side of it is that Dula's morality seems to have been questionable all along. There were reports that he had shown a violent streak even while in the army, with rumors that he had committed an earlier murder (so the New York Herald reporter, as cited on West-Lift, p. 123; West-Ballad, p. 180; Gardner, p. 28) -- although there seems to be no evidence of it elsewhere; I suspect it was an attempt to blacken Dula's name at the time of his death. Still, West-Lift, p. 10, indicates that he had already been sleeping around for years even before the war; according to West-Ballad, p. 66 and West-Lift, p. 14, Ann Melton's mother Lotty Foster had actually caught him in bed with in 1859 when he was 14 or 15 and she a year older (West-Ballad, p. 119; although Fletcher, p. 82, suggests that this was an error of understanding and that this actually referred to the period in late 1861 when James Melton was in the army but Dula had not yet signed up, meaning that Ann had married Melton before she became involved with Tom, who shacked up with Ann when she was a lonely army wife). Pauline Foster also testified to them embracing and Tom offering to take Ann away (West-Ballad, p. 125). Tom may also have chased a Caroline Barnes (at least, Melton reportedly fought with him over her), and there are indications he slept with other girls while in the army (West-Ballad, p. 67).
-- The Other Principals: Ann Melton --
Ann Melton (properly Angeline Pauline Triplett, according to Fletcher, p. 19) was a year older than Dula, and also fatherless. She had been married to the cobbler James Gabriel Melton in 1859 at the age of 16 (he was 21 at the time, according to Fletcher), but apparently the marriage was not happy (reportedly James and Ann slept in separate beds; West-Ballad, p. 81) and Ann Melton was very temperamental (West-Lift, p. vii). They nonetheless had -- or at least Ann had and James raised -- a daughter Jane, born probably in 1861 (Fletcher, p. 23). (Given the possibility that Tom and Ann had been sleeping together by then, there is obviously doubt about the father of Ann Melton's child.) According to Wade Gilbert, a grandson of James Melton by his second wife, Ann Melton had a second daughter, Ida, who left the area when she grew up (West-Ballad, p. 76).
The New York Herald account, from 1868, said that "She is apparently about twenty-five years of age, is the illegitimate daughter of one Carlotta (Lotty) Foster [Fletcher, p. 132, argues that Lotty's children were not illegitimate but were abandoned by their father, causing Lotty to change the family name from "Triplett" back to her maiden name "Foster"], and is a most beautiful woman. She is entirely uneducated, and though living in the midst of ignorance has the manner and bearing of an accomplished lady, and all the natural powers that should grace a high born beauty" (West-Ballad, pp. 176-177; West-Lift, p. 120; Gardner, p. 26).
The notes in Brown to "The Murder of Laura Foster" mention that Ann Melton in later life is said to have admitted a part in the killing -- and that she later went blind. Blindness is a known side effect of syphilis. But no one else mentions Melton's blindness, and there are folkloric elements in the stories Brown recorded. In fact, it appears (West-Ballad, p. 47) that no one even knows when Melton died!
One witness, James Isbell (whom Dula would call a liar in his final speech; West-Ballad, p. 181) but who played a major role in finding Laura's body (West-Ballad, p.89) claimed that Ann Melton slept around with other men as well (his testimonry is in West-Ballad, p. 132), but he had this only as hearsay and he was clearly a hostile witness (Fletcher, p. 83). There seems to be no other evidence that Ann slept with anyone except her husband and Dula. James Melton is said to have adored his wife despite her behavior (Fletcher, p. 84 -- but Fletcher is descended from the Meltons, so he had reason to try to make them look good).
Ann Melton certainly had a temper -- at Tom Dula's trial, Pauline Foster described Ann coming looking for Pauline and choking her when she found her. Much of what Pauline reported is dubious, but Celia Scott (Mrs. James Scott) corroborated this particular story (West-Ballad, pp. 128-129; Fletcher, p. 51; I have no idea why this was considered relevant to Dula's guilt).
It appears that Melton and Dula were so often together that Ann had actually set up a mechanism for him to alert her when he showed up: Pauline Foster described Ann drilling a hole in the wall by her bed (separate from her husband's), and ran a string through it, which she wrapped around her wrist so Dula could awaken her when he arrived (West-Ballad, pp. 152-153, with explanation on p. 41 of Fletcher).
-- The Other Principals: Laura Foster --
Laura Foster was the first cousin of Ann Melton; Wilson Foster, the father of Laura, was the brother of Ann's mother (Fletcher, p. 55).
West-Lift, p. v, says Laura Foster was the oldest of five children of Wilson Foster; her father reported at trial that, at the time of her disappearance, her mother Martha Bowman Foster was dead (West-Lift, p. 73). (By contrast, Gardner, p. 6, reports only that Laura had two brothers, and that they were tenant farmers. West-Lift is right; Casstevens, pp. 20-21, lists the 1860 census records for Laura's four siblings, three boys and a girl.)
A number of sources claimed Laura was 18 at the time of her murder (so, e.g., Gardner, p. 37), but her father said that she was 22. The 1860 census gave her age as 17 (Casstevens, p. 20), so obviously the people who listed her as a teenager at the time of her death were wrong although census records of this period are often wrong by a year or two about ages. Folklore also credits her with suitors other than Dula, but these other suitors can't even be shown to have existed (e.g. Gardner, pp. 37-38, tells of one Bob Cummings, who elsewhere is said to have helped capture Dula; but this "Cummings" who captured Dula can only be "Grayson," who lived in Tennessee and never saw Laura in his life. He was so unknown in North Carolina that the first court mention of him calls him "Grason"; West-Ballad, p. 140). Nor are other suitors likely; after all the losses in the Civil War, there were a lot more young women than young men in western North Carolina!
It is likely that she was illiterate; it is clear that her father Wilson Foster couldn't write, since he signed his court papers with an X (e.g. West-Ballad, p. 141).
Gardner describes Laura Foster as "a lovely girl with chestunt (sic.) hair and dark brown eyes" who was a weaver. However, Gardner also calls her a "respected girl," but every other report seems to say she had round heels; she was reported to be "wild as a buck" (Casstevens, p. 21). West-Ballad, p. 79, says there is no surviving genuine description of her; we simply don't know what she looked like, except for a few minor things such as a gap between her front teeth (and even that was disputed by trial witness J. W. Winkler; West-Ballad, p. 122. It was asserted by Pauline Foster; West-Ballad, p. 126.). The fact that she was unmarried at 22, in an area where most women married in their teens, is perhaps indicative, although the Civil War obviously reduced the number of men available.
The New York Herald reporter who covered Dula's last days wrote that there was a rumor that she was pregnant at the time of her murder (West-Lift, p. 118; Gardner, p. 24; Casstevens, p. 34, seems to accept the rumor without offering evidence), but there seems to be no record of this in the court papers (Fletcher, p. 30, and I saw no hints of it in the testimony in West). Laura Foster is called "frail" in the newspaper reports, as is her cousin Pauline Foster (West-Lift, p. 119; West-Ballad, p. 174, reprints the May 2, 1868 New York Herald article that called Laura "beautiful, but frail"; p. 175 has the reference to Pauline as "also frail"; p. 183 has a reference from the Statesville American that also calls Laura "frail"). It seems pretty clear that "frail" is code for "not a virgin." The best evidence is that Laura took up with Tom early in 1866; her father apparently saw her in bed with Tom (West-Ballad, p. 67). But she must have slept with someone else if she gave Tom syphilis in their short time sleeping together.
It seems clear that Dula was sleeping regularly with both Ann and Laura in early 1866 (West-Lift, p. 15), as well as having (perhaps only one) roll in the hay with Pauline Foster. Laura's father Wilson Foster said that Dula had visited Laura several times, and that he had once caught them in bed together (West-Lift, p. 73) -- or perhaps more than once (Fletcher, p. 24). He said Dula had started visiting regularly about two months before the murder; Fletcher estimates that this translates to around March 1, 1866.
I know of no absolute confirmation of the story that Laura Foster, Tom Dula, and company all suffered from a venereal disease, although Dula and Foster certainly did -- Dr. George Carter, the only doctor in that area of North Carolina (West-Ballad, p. 89), would testify that Dula had had it, and that Dula thought he got it from Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 78; West-Ballad, p. 120; Fletcher, p. 90); and Pauline Foster testified that Dula's lover Ann Melton eventually became sick and used the blue pills that were the standard syphilis treatment (West-Ballad, p. 123), and furthermore that Melton had gotten "the pock" from Dula (West-Lift, p. 80; Fletcher, p. 24). It is usually stated that Dula killed Laura Foster to avenge her making him sick -- but apparently there was a report that it was Melton who wanted to kill Foster for being ultimately responsible for Ann getting it (West-Ballad, p. 74).
-- The Other Principals: Pauline Foster --
Ann, Laura, and Lotty were not the only Fosters involved. There was also another cousin, Pauline Foster -- a fourth cousin of Laura, according to Fletcher, p. 22. She was even closer to Tom -- his second cousin, if I read Fletcher, p. 23, correctly. Add her to the list of those who slept with Tom. And, seemingly, with anyone else who came along. The "unidentified transcript" of her testimony say she was 21 at the time of the murder case (West-Ballad, p. 151). A reporter wrote of her, "Pauline Foster, the principal witness against the accused... may be dismissed with the statement that she has since married a white man and given birth to a Negro child" (West-Lift, p. 16; West-Ballad, p. 76; the full context is on pp. 120-121 of West-Lift, West-Ballad, p. 177, and p. 26 of Gardner. Fletcher, p. 131, thinks the charge false, but can only suggest that her prospective husband may have been a mulatto whose son somehow ended up darker than either his father or mother; the odds of this are low). Fletcher, p. 89, says that Pauline was engaged as early as January 1866, then sought treatment for syphilis. She arrived in the Wilkes area where Dula lived around the beginning of March, 1866 (West-Ballad, p. 186). She did not marry until some time after Dula's 1866 trial but before his 1868 trial. In other words, Pauline not only slept with Dula, but slept with him while she was engaged). At least three other men, including Ann's brother, were said to have slept with Pauline, although one of them denied it. Washington Anderson would testify to her going into the woods with Dula (West-Ballad, p. 131). She officially admitted in court that she had a venereal disease, and had come to the Meltons to earn the wages to pay for treatment (West-Lift, p. 82). West-Ballad, p. 127, quotes her at the trial as having caught the disease in Watauga County before coming to work for the Meltons.
(Exactly what Pauline did with Dula is disputed. Fletcher, p. 91, has her claim that she did not have intercourse with him. But the trial record in West-Lift reports her as saying, p. 83, that "I also slept with Dula for a blind at Ann Melton's insistence.")
Pauline Foster isn't mentioned in the ballads or in short accounts of the case, but she was a key witness; keep her in mind. By the sound of things, Pauline was none too bright, even by the standards of the Fosters (I find myself wondering about in-breeding; West-Lift, p. 2, notes that many in the large Dula family were double first cousins, and Pauline had both Dula and Foster blood). It sounds as if Pauline Foster, among all her other "frailties" (read: extreme promiscuity that resulted in her contracting syphilis) was an alcoholic; she apparently threatened to kill a deputy while dead drunk and talking to other deputies (Fletcher, p 49). West-Ballad, p. 78, declares that "Pauline Fister was indeed depraved, immoral, and promiscuous. Furthermore, she might have been a drunkard, and certainly did not have much common sense regarding a matter a matter as grave as murder. Ann Melton called her a 'drunken fool.'"
The situation was so extreme that the New York Herald writer reported that "A state of immorality unexampled in the history of any country exists among these people, and such a system of freelovism prevails that it is 'a wise child that knows its father'" (Fletcher, p. 17; West-Lift, p. 3, has a slightly different version of the quote; West-Ballad, p. 174, has the whole article;West-Lift, p. 119, and Gardner, p. 24, print it in context). West assures us that this is exaggerated, but clearly there wasn't much social control over the young people of the district, at least in the post-War era when poverty and recriminations were widespread.
Pauline came to Wilkes County to see a doctor, and was granted lodging by James and Ann Melton in exchange for work. West-Lift, p. 15, says she is the first of all these people who is known to have actually sought treatment for "the pock" (syphilis) -- but she later said that "We all have it" (West-Lift, p. 16 -- West-Ballad, p. 130, shows this in her testimony in response to Ann Melton telling Pauline that she was diseased). However, there is no evidence that anyone had it until Pauline showed up; she came to Wilkes County specifically to see the only doctor in the area. That was early in March 1866. Dula first visited the same doctor for treatment around the beginning of April in that year (Fletcher, p.26; it sounds as if the doctor did not keep proper case records to have an exact date); Ann Melton also visited him later (at least according to Pauline, who said that Ann told her that she and James both had "the Pock" the day before Laura's murder, so presumably May 24; Fletcher, p. 27. According to Pauline, Ann also blamed Laura Foster for giving the disease to Tom, and hence to Ann and James).
A big question hanging over the story is who started the chain of disease transmission that ended with Tom, Ann, and James Melton. Was it Pauline Foster, who gave it to Tom, who gave it to Laura and to Ann, who gave it to James Melton? Or was it Laura Foster, who then gave it to Tom, and so forth? Dula blamed Laura Foster -- and, on at least one occasion, claimed he would kill her for giving it to him (West-Ballad, p. 80). From the standpoint of who did what, it hardly matters whether he was right or not; he acted on his hypothesis. But it would be nice to know.
West-Lift, p. 17, and West-Ballad, p. 77, suggest that Pauline arrived soon enough that Dula could have caught the disease from her. But it was only about three weeks from the time she showed up until Dula sought treatment. Given that it usually takes several weeks for the first symptoms to appear, that implies that the two of them shacked up *very* quickly after Pauline arrived in the area. What's more, the chances of transmission of syphilis based on a single sexual encounter is not more than 10%. What are the odds that Dula managed to get into her fast enough to get the disease in time to need treatment a mere three weeks after Pauline came to the area? They appear very low.
What's more, Wilson Foster testified that Laura had "the pock" at the time of her death; he had seen the boils on her shoulder (West-Lift, p. 74). I can't prove that Dula got the disease from Laura Foster, but I doubt he got it from Pauline. And the same schedule that makes it hard for Dula to have gotten it from Pauline makes it almost impossible for him, if he got it from Pauline, to have given it to Laura. Indeed, Fletcher, p. 26, points out that it would have been impossible for Dula to have gotten the disease from Pauline and given it to Laura if he slept with Laura only in early March and not thereafter. It is of course possible that Dula didn't get it from either Laura or Pauline, but acquired it earlier (perhaps in the army, which might explain his hospitalizations and might also help explain his misbehavior in the army) and that he was the one who gave the disease to both Laura and Ann. Fletcher, pp. 92-93, argues that, chronologically and logically, it makes more sense to assume that Dula was right and that it was Laura who was the source. Of course, that raises the question of where Laura got it, but we have no data on that.
(Oh to have been able to do modern genetic testing on the disease....)
-- The Murder --
Earlier versions of the Index gave the date of Laura Foster's murder as January 25, 1866. I'm not sure where I found that information, but the ultimate source is clear: one of the court records of Dula's trial gives that date, as does one of the early histories (West-Lift, p. 68; West-Ballad, p. 58).
That date is demonstrably wrong, but the exact date Laura died cannot be guaranteed. Many of the people involved in the case were illiterate, and even if they could read, they likely didn't have calendars (West-Lift, p. 69; according to Peña/Hayes, p. 59, the per-pupil school funding formula in the area at this time was about twenty cents per year, teachers received as little as $8 per month, and schools were far apart and hard to reach). So the locals would not have recorded the exact date. They knew days of the week, because of Sunday church, but that was it.
We do have some dating information, though. There is universal testimony that Foster disappeared during the planting season -- so some time between April and June. Every source cited by West-Lift says that Foster disappeared during the day on a Friday. Of the half-dozen dates or so dates mentioned in the extant records, only Friday, May 25, 1866 is a Friday in the planting season of 1866 (West-Lift, p. 69; West-Ballad, p. 60), so West is convinced this was the date. He is likely right, but it shows how unreliable all the evidence in the case is! It could have been a week or two earlier, although it was surely on a Friday.
No one ever admitted seeing the murder. Most of what is known about her last day was discovered over the following days by her father Wilson Foster.
She stole away from home on the night of May 24/25, 1866 (probably not long before daybreak), taking her father's badly-shoed horse to a meeting with Dula, and was never seen again except by a neighbor who talked to her as she was on her way (West-Lift, p. 20; this neighbor was the one who said that Laura was planning to run away with Dula). Laura's attempt to leave home should perhaps not surprise us; her relations with her father do not seem to have been good, if it is true, as one of her neighbors testified, that her father said he would kill her if he found her after she ran away with his horse (West-Lift, p. 22. Wilson Foster expressly denied saying this at the trial; West-Lift, p. 74. He did, however, say that it was his most valuable possession, according to Fletcher, p. 37, which both shows how poor Laura Foster and family were and explains why Wilson Foster was so angry that Laura had taken his horse).
There are several hours on the morning of May 25 when Dula's whereabouts cannot be traced -- although the same probably could be said of most of the young men in the area. Based on the timing pegs on pp. 32-33 Fletcher, he'd have had to move pretty quickly to get from places where he was seen to the Bates Place and back.
Dula showed up at the Melton home on May 26, where James Melton worked on his shoes and Dula and Ann talked. Both of them, according to Pauline Foster, made suspicious remarks, Dula saying that he had no use for Laura and Ann later saying that she had murdered Laura. All of this said in Pauline's hearing. Believe *that* if you can.
According to Pauline Foster, the night Laura Foster supposedly died, Ann Melton had been out, and showed up late and all wet (West-Lift, p. ix). When Wilson Foster came to look for his missing horse, Ann had nothing to tell him. Melton slept for a long time after that; Fletcher, p. 37, suggests she was sleeping off a hangover but has no evidence for this.
Dula, like Ann, spent much of the day after Laura Foster disappeared in bed. Nor, when the time came, was he willing to help in the search for Laura Foster. So it appears both Tom and Ann were out overnight on the night Laura vanished, both came home tired and slept a lot the next day, and neither seems to have done much to establish an alibi (West-Lift, pp. 20-22; for Pauline Foster's testimony on this point, see West-Lift, p. 80). Dula was said to have been present at his home by no later than noon, but the one testifying to this was his mother (Fletcher, p. 33), so the evidential value of the claim is obviously limited.
Wilson Foster went out searching for Laura on the morning of May 25 -- he wanted his horse back! -- and was able to trace her path for some distance because of the horse's odd footprint (West-Ballad, p. 115). Eventually he lost the trail in "an old field" (West-Lift, p. 21). He later found the horse at his home, trailing a broken rope (West-Lift, p. 74). Foster described later finding the other end of the rope near the site of Laura's grave (leaving the rope on the horse was a stupid mistake by the killer, as it turned out, since it was a hint as to the site of the murder); the other end of the rope was found about four weeks later, on June 24, the day Laura's grave was found (West-Ballad, p. 195). Wilson Foster could recognize it because he had made it himself, plus the the ends that had snapped matched (West-Ballad, p. 115).
A curiosity is that the horse seems to have been moved some time after it reached the Bates Place, because it appeared the horse had "dunged twice" at a place somewhat removed from where the rope was tied (Fletcher, p. 10; the suggestion is that the horse was first tied in one place, nearer the grave -- perhaps by Laura when she arrived -- and then moved later on, after which it broke free from the second spot.)
West-Ballad, pp. 186-202, tries to reconstruct what actually happened -- but note that times must have been very imprecise; very few of these people had watches to check!
Ann Melton was out of her house on the Thursday night before the murder, arriving home about an hour before daybreak on Friday (West-Ballad, p. 188); her dress and shoes were wet. Pauline Foster observed this, then went out to work the fields, and found Tom Dula there talking to Ann.
At about the same time Ann Melton arrived home, Laura Foster got up. West-Ballad thinks she talked with Tom at this time (and suggests on p. 193 that he liquored her up; it is known that he had recently been given a lot of whisky -- though of course he might have used that to make sure that he had the guts to commit murder). Dula then set out without her (and by a different route). Laura gathered her clothes, took her father's horse, and started for the Bates Place. She met Betsy Scott about a mile from her home, and explained where the was going (West-Ballad, p. 189). Tom was seen twice on the way to the Bates Place -- around 6:45 and 8:00 a.m. Dula was back at his mother's home by about noon (West-Ballad, p. 190). Wilson Foster spent the day looking for his daughter and the horse, but did not find them (West-Ballad, p. 191).
The horse returned the next day (i.e. presumably May 26; West-Ballad, p. 192).
In its court case, the state suggested that Dula (and Melton?) dug the grave on the night of May 24/25 (which would explain why the body didn't fit; Dula didn't have it available to measure), and that the murder was committed on Friday, May 25, possibly in the evening (West-Ballad, pp. 192-193, though West-Ballad, p. 194, lists three times: a Friday morning murder by Dula alone, an afternoon murder by Dula, or an evening murder by Dula and Ann Melton). The murder took place some distance from the grave, presumably where Laura tied her horse, so Tom (and Ann?) carried the body to the grave, which was half a mile or so away (West-Ballad, pp. 193-194). The former seems reasonable, but I personally doubt Laura would have waited for Tom all day, given that she had seen him head off that way on the morning of May 25. I strongly suspect the murder -- whoever committed it -- took place early on May 25. And why carry Laura all that way? Why not talk her into walking at least part way from the horse to the grave? Or have her ride the horse? This line of argument seems weak to me. But, obviously, we know that Laura turned up dead.
-- The Hunt for Laura -- and for Tom --
It's not entirely clear when other people first began wondering about Laura; the 1868 New York Herald report says it took several days (West-Lift, p. 118; Gardner, p. 24). The horse she had taken from her father made its way home on May 26 (West-Lift, p. 24), but that doesn't seem to have caused her father to do anything except feel relief. Searches perhaps began a few days later, but it appears the first comprehensive hunt began on June 23, or about four weeks after the disappearance (West-Lift, pp. 25-26). By then, word had begun to spread that Dula was the murderer (West-Lift, p. 26).
Not long after, enough attention had been aimed at Dula that he concluded that he had to leave the area; according, once again, to Pauline Foster, he came to Ann and told her he was leaving (West-Lift, p. 27). According to Pauline Foster's later testimony, their farewell was very emotional, and he promised to come back for her (West-Ballad, p. 154. Fletcher, p. 41, and West-Ballad, p. 196, report him saying he would take his mother away also, but I suspect he meant he would visit his mother). He then headed for Tennessee -- about fifteen miles away, according to Fletcher, p. 43.
What comes next is the strangest part of the story. Pauline Foster and Ann Melton apparently had a shouting match about the crime. Foster was overheard by a deputy making comments that sounded as if she had had a part in the murder (Casstevens, p. 23. West-Lift, p. 31, says that a deputy heard Pauline say, "Yes, I and Dula killed her, and I ran away to Tennessee." This is confirmed by the New York Herald account on p. 119 of West-Lift. Celia (Mrs. James) Scott said at the trial that Pauline once proposed killing the deputy to cover up the crime; West-Lift, p. 85.)
A formal arrest warrant was issued for Tom Dula and Ann Melton, plus Ann Pauline Dula and Granville Dula, on June 28 (text on p. 28 of West-Lift and p. 197 of West-Ballad), based on the sworn complaint of Laura's father Wilson Foster (Fletcher, p. 41) -- although apparently the justice of the peace who issued the warrant stopped the hunt for all of them but Tom on the next day (at least, this is what West-Lift, p. 28, seems to say).
Fletcher, p. 42, and West-Lift, p. 29, disagree on who "Ann Pauline Dula" was; West-Lift says she was another first cousin once removed of Tom Dula; Fletcher thinks the warrant was for Pauline Foster and that the warrant was confused because her grandfather was a Dula whose son, Levi Foster, was illegitimate and whose family was sometimes known as "Dula" after their natural father.
Granville Dula was Tom's cousin (West-Lift, p. 29, says second cousin but gives an ancestry that makes them first cousins once removed); he played no further part in the case either as suspect or witness. The reason Granville Dula was named is not known, but Fletcher reminds us that none of these people were literate and could not read what the warrant said to correct it! He played no further part in the case anyway -- unlike Pauline Foster.
Ann Melton, Pauline Foster, and Granville Dula were taken into custody, were found to have alibis for when Laura was thought to have disappeared, and were released (Fletcher, p. 42). The attention was now firmly on Tom Dula -- even though no body had yet been found. Fletcher thinks that it was at this time that the search really got serious. It certainly seems to have scared Pauline Foster, who proceeded to turn state's evidence (Gardner, p. 21; Casstevens, p. 29).
Upon being questioned, Pauline spilled a most improbable tale -- unless syphilis was affecting Ann Melton's mind by this time. If we are to believe Pauline, Ann asked if Pauline was a friend of Tom Dula, then showed Pauline (who had gone away to Tennessee for a time then come back) roughly where the body was buried (West-Ballad, pp. 198-199); apparently Melton wanted Pauline to make sure the grave didn't wash away or otherwise reveal Laura's body (West-Lift, p. 31; Fletcher, p. 48). Ann also supposedly told Pauline that Laura Foster had given "the pock" to Tom, who had given it to Ann, who had given it to James, and that Ann would kill Pauline if she talked (Fletcher, p. 27). Pauline explained that Ann eventually tried to explain it all away as a dream (West-Ballad, p. 155).
In other words, if Pauline Foster's testimony is right, Ann revealed to Pauline the grave site, and a motive for murder, even though Pauline had no reason whatsoever to keep things quiet. If Pauline's testimony is true, it shows that, first, that Ann was at least an accessory to the murder, and second, that she was almost as dim a bulb as Pauline. Or, alternately, that Pauline had taken part in the murder, which was the obvious import of her comment. But if Pauline had taken part in the murder, why didn't she know exactly where the grave was? Frankly, Pauline's reported testimony makes no sense.
Whether her testimony made sense or not, on September 1, 1862, Pauline led searchers to the general area of the grave (West-Ballad, p. 130, has her account of this at the trial), and a large search party eventually found the exact burial site ; it took some hunting, but James Isbell reported that they found the grave around 75 yards from the spot Pauline indicated (West-Ballad, p. 131; Fletcher, p. 55, reports that the grave was found around September 1 or 2, 1866. It should perhaps be mentioned that no qualified investigator was involved in the search; just a bunch of people searching for disturbed ground and then digging up the body. Dr. Carter did examine the body at the site, according to Fletcher, p.55, but that was not a forensic examination of the grave). This meant that, for the first time, there was proof that murder had been committed, although the body was decayed enough that the doctor could give only limited information about how it was done (West-Lift, pp. 33-34). Several people who knew her nonetheless testified that it was Laura's body (West-Lift, p. 34) -- although one of those who testified was Pauline Foster, whose testimony surely counts as tainted! But some of her clothes could be recognized, and apparently Laura had unusual teeth that were also recognizable.
This finally meant that there was a real basis for a murder charge; until that time, Tom Dula had been held without bail merely on suspicion (West-Lift, p. 34), presumably because there was no one to file a writ of habeas corpus. Note, however, that the only person who could directly be connected to the murder was Pauline Foster, not Tom Dula, and that Foster's testimony led most directly to Ann Melton, not Dula!
Laura had been stabbed in the breast, close to the heart, although the body was decayed enough that the doctor couldn't actually say whether the heart had been hit or not (West-Lift, pp. 33-34; West-Ballad, pp. 120-121). One report claimed that her apron had been folded over her face in a neat way that implied a woman had done it (Casstevens, p. 23).
When Laura's body was found, it was in a grave that wasn't even big enough for it; she had had to be curled up to fit (West-Lift, p. ix; Casstevens, p. 23, says that her legs were broken). There was no direct evidence of Dula's involvement; the state would later rely heavily on the testimony of Pauline Foster to convict him (West-Lift, p. 15). The state's official version, according to West-Lift, p. 22, was that Dula murdered Foster late on May 25, rather than early in the day, which makes him wonder why Foster waited around so long for Dula to show up. But this was just the state's hypothesis -- there was no valid forensic evidence on when Laura was murdered; all we have is the time she was last seen and the fact that the body was substantially decomposed when it was discovered. Although she was probably murdered on the day she disappeared, she could theoretically have been alive for several days longer, though what she might have done in that time we have no clue.
And, given that Ann Melton had told Pauline about the site of the grave, Melton not unnaturally joined Tom in prison, while Pauline was set free (Fletcher, p. 58, absurd as that seems given that she had said once said she committed the murder).
Tom, who had already crossed the Tennessee line, started calling himself Hall (West-Lift, p. 28; according to Fletcher, p. 44, Dula later explained this as "a joke"). According to Gardner, p. 10, his flight was seen as a sign of guilt by the people at home, but as we have seen, feelings in North Carolina were already against him. Arriving in eastern Tennessee around July 2, 1866 (West-Ballad, p. 198), Tom briefly went to work for James W. M. Grayson (1833-1900). Grayson, like many in the east Tennessee mountains, was a Unionist; he had been an officer in the Federal 4th Tennessee and 13th Tennessee regiments (West-Lift, p. 29), resigning due to ill health in 1864 (West-Ballad, p. 84) and had gone on to serve in the Tennessee legislature in 1867-1868 (West-Ballad, p. 83).
When Wilkes County deputies Jack Adkins and Ben Ferguson came for Dula, Grayson agreed on July 11, 1866 to help them arrest him (Fletcher, p. 44; West-Lift, p. 30; West-Ballad, p. 85;West-Ballad, p. 86, says that the Grayson family still has the gun Grayson used during the arrest). Dula was taken back to Wilkes County on a horse of Grayson's (West-Lift, p. x) with his feet tied beneath his horse, and made at least one attempt to escape (Fletcher, p. 46).
We might add that, as far as we know, Grayson never saw Dula again after he was taken back to North Carolina. He was summoned to the trial -- that was how researchers managed to identify him -- but did not attend because he was serving in the Tennessee legislature (Fletcher, p. 46).
On October 1, the Grand Jury formally brought murder charges against Dula and Melton; he was charged with murder and she with inciting him to do it and with aiding him afterward (West-Lift, pp. x-xi, 36).The indictment, as printed by West-Lift and West-Ballad, pp. 107-108, looks almost medieval -- e.g. the Devil is said to have induced Dula's action (it says that Dula "not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil," killed Laura; West-Ballad, p. 107. The charge against Ann Melton, on the next page, is similar.) Fletcher, p. 63, points out that it contains statements that could not possibly have been known, such as the hand in which the murderer held the knife, and that many of the claims were not relevant to the charge of murder. My guess, though, is that someone just took down the words as some illiterate on the Grand Jury maundered on. This would also explain why it gives the date of Foster's murder as June 18 (Fletcher, p. 97), which is more than three weeks after Foster's disappearance. Oddly, no one seems to have made an issue of that.
The charge that Melton aided Dula after the fact was dropped by the prosecutor, leaving only the count of incitement agaist her (West-Lift, p. 37; Fletcher, p. 63, suggests that this was because she had an alibi at the time the murder was thought to have been committed -- although of course we do not know the time of the murder).
-- The Trial --
Strange twist #300 or so: Zebulon Vance, who had governed the state during the Civil War, decided to defend Dula pro bono (West-Lift, p. 37. Fletcher, p. 67, mentioned suggestions that Vance was paid, but the consensus seems to be that Vance did at least some of his work without pay). This even though the war had ruined Vance and he was only starting to rebuild his reputation and fortune (West-Lift, p. 38). He didn't do this for personal reasons; he didn't know Dula (some folk accounts claim otherwise; stories of links between them are listed on pp. 122-123 of Fletcher. Some claimed, e.g., that Dula served under Vance in the war -- but he didn't; they were in different regiments. It is interesting that James Melton had served in the regiment that Vance commanded early in the war (Fletcher, p. 61. Fletcher, p. 125, suggests that perhaps Vance had originally decided to defend the wife of his comrade Melton and ended up, in effect, getting stuck with Dula too, which makes sense to me).
The former governor managed to win a change of venue, causing the case to be moved from Wilkes County to the county seat of the next county to the southeast, Statesville in Iridell County (West-Lift, p. 39; West-Ballad, p. 110, has the text of the request; Fletcher, p. 64, says that the judge might have decided to do this on his own, since as a circuit rider he was due to move to Iridell County anyway, but that it might have helped Vance, who was popular there). Vance also managed to separate the trials of Dula and Melton (West-Lift, p. 42; West-Ballad, p. 111, prints the request to the judge, in which, fascinatingly, Dula argued that "there are important confessions of his co-defendent Ann Melton which will be given in evidence in this case if there is a joint trial and which confessing will greatly prejudice the minds of the jury.).
The presiding judge who agreed to the change of venue was Ralph P. Buxton; he also presided over the trial after it was transferred (West-Lift, p. 41). Buxton was a Republican appointed by Republicans in unreconstructed North Carolina (Fletcher, pp. 59-60); I can't help but think that he likely obtained his post for political reasons rather than reasons of competence, and he might well have been prejudiced against a Confederate soldier. Gardner, p. 10, claims that the jury was "evidently composed mostly of renegade carpet baggers," but West-Lift, who otherwise tries to discredit the trial, makes no mention of this that I can find.
Ann Melton and Dula were both moved to prisons in Iridell; Melton was allowed to stay in the county jail, but Dula was deemed such a flight risk that he was kept in the prison in shackles with an extra guard contingent! (Fletcher, p. 66.) Melton was present at Dula's trial but did not testify. According to West-Lift, p. 43, she was not *allowed* to testify, even though witnesses were permitted to report things she had said; Fletcher, p. 66, seems to think that she was instead claiming her fifth amendment right.
The legal maneuvers were the limit of what Vance could accomplish. Eighty-three witnesses were called in the trial, although there is no report of what sixty-three of them said (West-Lift, p. 43). (It is intriguing to note that among the witnesses at the original trial were Thomas C. Land and Calvin L. Triplett, both of whom wrote poems about the case; Land is thought to be responsible for "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36]; what is perhaps his original text is recorded on pp. 12-16 of Gardner. But no testimony was recorded in the transcript from either Land or Triplett; Fletcher, p. 108.)
Even the witnesses who testified had little to say except that they saw Dula carrying a mattock around the time of the murder near the grave site (e.g. West-Lift, p. 75, gives this as the entire content of the testimony of Carl Carlton, Hezekiah Kindall, and Celia (Mrs. James) Scott, and has similar testimony from Martha Gilbert and Ann Melton's brother Thomas Foster on p. 77) -- suspicious behavior, obviously, but Dula's explanation that he wanted to improve the trail is at least possible. There is dispute about just how much work he did on the trail (Fletcher, p. 27), but there was testimony from several sources that Dula did at least some work on it.
Wherever Tom actually got syphilis, R. D. Hall reported that Dula in mid-May had said that he would kill the woman who gave him his disease (West-Lift, p. 78).
The stunning part of all this is that Laura Foster apparently still expected to marry Dula (at least, she apparently said that to Betsy Scott; West-Ballad, p.189. Nothing I've read indicates that Scott tried to talk Laura out of it). And so, apparently, was prepared to leave home to meet him in 1866 so they could elope (one local legend has it that they were preparing to leave the area when Ann Melton showed up and stabbed Laura; Casstevens, p. 29). This makes no real sense -- since both Laura and Tom were over 21 at the time, they had the right to marry and had no need to elope (Fletcher, p. 31). But it would seem Tom talked her into running away anyway.
Betsy Scott's testimony was simply that she had seen and talked to Laura, on a bare-backed horse, as she ran away from home and that Laura said she was meeting Dula at the "Bates Place" (West-Lift, pp. 74-75; West-Ballad, p. 116; summarized in Fletcher, pp. 29-31). Scott was also the only person to place Dula anywhere near the murder site at the time Laura disappeared (Fletcher, p. 32).
The primary testimony was Pauline Foster's, and a very substantial part of it consisted of her denying the truth of a large number of things she had previously said. For instance, she declared that she had been joking when she said that she would swear a lie any time for Tom Dula (a statement recorded in the testimony of J. W. Winkler; West-Lift, p. 87, West-Ballad, pp. 78, 133, and made to George Washington Anderson; it was overheard by deputy Jack Adkins; Fletcher p. 42. Pauline's denial at trial is on p. 127 of West-Ballad), and of course she claimed she was joking when she said she had murdered Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 83; West-Ballad, p. 127). Foster also testified "It is true that I sat in Dula's lap for a blind, one day when a woman came to James Melton's... I also slept with Dula for a blind at Ann Melton's insistence." (West-Ballad; p. 127. This implicitly contradicts the testimony of Anderson, who says that Pauline voluntarily spent a night in the woods with Dula; West-Lift, p. 85; Fletcher, p. 24, seems to think Pauline slept with both Dula and Anderson that night. In any case, what was sleeping with Dula a blind *for*? The unidentified transcript of Pauline's testimony seems to say that Dula pretended to be interested in Pauline as an excuse to visit Ann Melton -- West-Ballad, p. 151 -- but while that might explain Dula hanging around Pauline, why would Dula sleep with someone known to have syphilis simply as "a blind"? J. W. Winkler also testified to Pauline sitting in Dula's lap; West-Ballad, p. 133)
It is not clear from the record, but my guess is that Pauline was a stupid young woman carefully coached by the prosecution to tell their version of the story, and if ever questioned about her past remarks, to either deny the claim or call it a joke. Possibly they had a signal to tell her which tactic to use. And the jury perhaps accepted her testimony because they thought her too addled to lie. I personally find it hard to believe anything she said. As Fletcher says on p. 93, "Pauline may have been a loose-lipped simpleton, but she was not a complete fool"; she would do whatever was required to shift blame.
We do not know the prosecutor's actual lines of argument, but Fletcher argues it as follows:
* That, although the time of the murder is not known, it must have happened on the day Laura Foster disappeared, or someone would have seen her.
* That Dula and Melton could not have done it together; although both were unaccounted for at one time or another on the day Foster died, there was no time when both were missing simultaneously for long enough to do the deed (Fletcher, p. 112)
* That Dula had a motive, in that he had contracted syphilis.
* That Dula had said that he would kill the person who gave it to him, and had also stated that he had it from Foster (Fletcher, pp. 113-114)
* That Ann Melton was jealous of Foster, and would have encouraged Dula to be rid of her (Fletcher, p. 114)
* That Dula had a knife similar to the murder weapon (Fletcher, p. 113, states "Thomas Dula was known to possess what may have been the murder weapon." Of course, the number of people in rural North Carolina who possessed six inch knives was, what, all of them?)
* That Laura Foster was reported to have stated, the last time she was seen, that she was going to meet (run away with?) Dula (Fletcher, p. 114).
* (On the other hand, there was no evidence to prove that Dula actually met Foster after her disappearance, and there were no witnesses to the murder; no witness ever placed Dula at the murder scene; Fletcher, pp. 114-115).
* Dula had borrowed a mattock at the time the grave was dug, and supposedly there were mattock marks near the grave (Fletcher, p. 116) -- although I note that a mattock cannot dig a grave, it can merely break up the soil. Something is needed to dig out the dirt once broken up. No one is recorded as seeing Dula with a shovel.
* That Ann Melton knew where the grave was, and told Pauline Foster roughly where it was (Fletcher, p. 115). Foster did not know the exact location -- or, at least, said she did not, although of course she we cannot prove that she did not know. The obvious presumption is that, if Melton told Foster, then Melton either did the deed or had been told by the one who did the deed. (Fletcher, p. 51, suggests that Dula dug Laura Foster's grave before the murder, possibly with Melton present, which would explain why she knew where the grave was even though she had an alibi for the presumed time of the murder.)
This, it seems to me, leaves us with four possibilities:
1. That Ann Melton committed the murder and told Pauline about it. Note that, because Melton's trial had been separated from Dula's, the jury did not have to decide on this possibility, except to allow it as a possible alternative to Dula's guilt.
2. That Dula committed the murder as charged, with Melton an accessory after the fact (since she didn't report the crime) who tried to cover up for Tom.
3. That Pauline Foster did it, and concocted the story about Ann and Tom, to cover up her own guilt. This might be because she had loved Dula and been rejected (admittedly she was engaged, but that certainly didn't stop her from fooling around!), or because she resented Ann, who was her employer but (by all accounts) not a particularly nice person (although it's not obvious why Pauline would kill Laura Foster in that case rather than knocking off Ann or Tom).
4. (A very faint possibility, but a possibility:) That someone other than Melton, Dula, or Pauline Foster did it, and Pauline reasoned out where the grave must be based on where Laura was last seen, and concocted the story as in scenario 3. If this is the case, then Wilson Foster is perhaps the leading candidate -- after all, his daughter had round heels and he had threatened her. And the entire story about the broken rope and the badly-shoed horse comes from him; his was one of the few other pieces of testimony that actually added something to what Pauline said.
(There are, to be sure, other stories that floated about who murdered Laura Foster. One version, printed in 2001 and repeated on p. 121 of Fletcher, is that Ann Melton and Pauline Foster, not Dula, conspired to do the deed, with Melton actually wielding the knife. But this was an old woman's retelling of something she heard from someone she had heard as a young girl from someone who was very young at the time -- probably too young to genuinely remember. All such stories are possible, but all are so unlikely that they need not detain us. The jury had only the four possibilities above.)
If I had been the defense, I would have gone all-out against Pauline -- demonstrating her promiscuity, her conflicting evidence in past situations, her complete worthlessness. Without her testimony, the case against Dula would surely have collapsed. (Indeed, I don't think it stands on its own even *with* Pauline's testimony.) But it appears that the defense made no such attempt. Perhaps this is a token of Vance's indifferent legal abilities; DAB (Vol. X, p. 158) reports that "He was never a close student of the law," being more interested in politics -- the law of course being a good way to practice his speaking and get his name in the news.
With all that non-evidence to sort through, the trial took two full days, October 19-20 (West-Lift, p. 44). The jury deliberated overnight; the next morning, Sunday, October 21, 1866, Dula was convicted of murder. The defense made a series of motions, including one to delay sentencing (West-Ballad, pp. 136-137, has some of the text), but these were denied (West-Lift, pp. 44-45). Judge Buxton sentenced Dula to be hanged on November 9, 1866 (West-Ballad, pp. 137-138, give the text of the order)
In the 1860s, appeals were not the automatic result they are now, but Dula's lawyers filed one -- and, because Dula was indigent, he was allowed to appeal without giving security (West-Lift, p. 45).
Interestingly, because there was no trial record, the judge and court clerk wrote a summary of the result to take to the appeals court. This included testimony from only twenty witnesses (less than a quarter of the total; West-Ballad, pp. 156-161, lists the total costs of the court cases -- not quite $2000 -- and this includes a list of payments to witnesses. These do not appear to correlate very well with their importance or, presumably, time on the stand). What testimony there is in the record is not verbatim (West-Lift, p. 45; even what we have was not clearly written and hard to read; West-Lift, p. 72. There is a second, seemingly unofficial, record of Pauline Foster's testimony, printed by West-Lift, pp. 100-103 and West-Ballad, pp. 151-155. It does not supply much information not in the official transcript, but at least it supports the accuracy of the official record as far as it goes).
To make things worse, of the twenty witnesses whose testimony is summarized, only five were witnesses for the defense (Fletcher, p. 67). This surely biases the trial record, although it's hard to know exactly how.
The lack of a proper transcript of the trial meant that the information seen in the appeal was both incomplete and biased by the opinions of the judge and clerk. But the appeal did go forward; the Supreme Court noted four procedural errors by the local court, including the use of hearsay evidence, and ordered a new trial (Fletcher, p. 68; West-Ballad, pp. 163-172 gives some of the Supreme Court filings, large parts of which I frankly could not understand). What is striking is a statement on pp. 165-166 that the testimony of Mrs. Scott, about what Laura Foster said on her way to the Bates Place, was not considered to be proper evidence. This is striking because this is the only evidence linking Tom Dula to Laura Foster on her last day!
Because the courts met so rarely, the granting of the retrial meant the case was not taken up again until April 1867 (West-Lift, p. 45) -- and then had to be held over until the fall term because some of Dula's witnesses who had not appeared at the first trial were unavailable (Fletcher, p. 68). This resulted in a postponement, with Dula and Melton in jail the whole time, and this time, it was the prosecution that had trouble getting its witnesses (including James Grayson who had helped take Dula into custody; West-Lift, p. 46, Fletcher, p. 69. Grayson was busy with his duties as a Tennessee legislator, but because no relevant records exist, we don't really know why either side asked for the witnesses it did). Eventually a new trial started in January, 1868 (West-Lift, p. 47, says January 21; Fletcher, p. 70, says January 3; they agree that William M. Shipp was the judge). As before, the defense moved to separate the trials of Dula and Melton, and once again the motion was granted.
The retrial did not change the result (West-Lift, p. 48); Dula was convicted again. There was another appeal to the state Supreme Court, which delayed the execution but did not result in any relief for Dula (West-Lift, p. 48; Fletcher, p. 70 says that no new material was submitted to the Supreme Court, so naturally they didn't interfere). Once the appeal failed, the judge set the date for Dula's hanging as May 1, 1868 (18 days after the sentencing; Fletcher, p. 70).
Despite all the problems in procedure, and the poor evidence, Fletcher, p. 157, reminds us that both presiding judges seem to have been convinced of Dula's guilt, which may be better evidence than the surviving court records.
-- After the Trial --
Dula's behavior at this time was interesting. He refused to see a clergyman -- or even his relatives (West-Lift, p. 49).
He apparently had been trying to escape by abrading his shackles with a piece of glass. He didn't finish in time (West-Lift, p. 49; West-Ballad, p. 178, has the newspaper report of this).
On April 30, 1868, the day before his execution, Dula wrote several papers. It's not clear whether he wrote them himself; we're not certain that he was literate (census records show that in 1860 he was fifteen and in school; Gardner, p. 41; but after the Civil War he had signed his release paper with an X; Fletcher, p. 65. West-Ballad, p. 110, shows him marking his X on the change of venue request for his trial. Fletcher, p. 71, seems to think he learned to write in prison; this seems improbable),
The most important of the papers that he left was a note in which he said that only he had a role in the murder of Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 49; the New York Herald version of the note is on p. 121; also West-Ballad, p. 178 and Gardner, p. 27). He did finally accept baptism that night, and apparently engaged in a long string of incoherent prayers (West-Lift, p. 50) -- but reportedly refused to admit any part in the murder of Foster even to the minister (Fletcher, p. 71).
Dula was hung at Statesville on May 1 after giving a long speech about the wages of sin in which he accused some of the witnesses against him of lying (West-Lift, p. 124). The gallows was incompetently built; the drop did not break his neck, and it took some ten minutes for him to die by strangulation (West-Lift, p. 51; Fletcher, pp. 72-73).
Ann Melton had never been called to testify. Dula apparently never mentioned her prior to that last note. After Dula's death, Melton was taken back to Wilkes County to be tried (Fletcher, pp. 75-76). The case was tried in the fall term of 1868 (Fletcher, p. 76). The trial was brief and Melton was allowed to go free, mostly on the strength of Dula's note admitting guilt (West-Lift, p. 52). She was released, having spent about two years in prison. This even though the locals apparently regarded her as guilty (Fletcher, p. 76). In fact, according to Fletcher, p. 158, "The popular view in much of Wilkes County [today] is to deny that Tom Dula actually committed the act of murder and that Ann Melton did the actual killing." But things were different at the time; Fletcher, p. 159, quotes one man who saw her who said (much later) that "Ann Melton was the purtiest woman I ever looked in the face of. She'd a-been hung too, but her neck was jist too purty to stretch hemp. She was guilty, I knowed it... Ef they'd a-been ary womern [any women] on the jury, she'd a-got first degree. Men couldn't look at the woman and keep their heads."
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there do not appear to be photographs of any of the principals to verify this. None of the books has a photo of Ann Melton, Laura Foster, or Pauline Foster. (There is one photo of Dula in Confederate uniform.)
Thomas Land's poem "The Murder of Laura Foster" does not mention Ann Melton by name -- but then, it doesn't mention Tom Dula either! However, the fourth stanza (as printed by Gardner, p. 12 and We-Ballad, p. 47) says that "She [Laura] met her groom and his vile Guest" -- which would have to be Dula and either Melton or Pauline Foster.
Interestingly, West-Lift, pp. 54-55, does not mention Brown's story that Melton went blind later in life -- but he does mention some reports that hint that she went insane in the years before her death some time between 1871 and 1874. Another account reports that there were "black cats running up and down the walls" in the place where she died (Casstevens, p. 29), which sounds like a variation on the same thing. Insanity, like blindness, can be a side effect of severe syphilis, which kills about one person in six who contracts it. But Fletcher points out (p. 76) that she managed to bear another healthy child, Ida Melton, in 1871, so presumably the syphilis wasn't affecting her too severely at that stage. Indeed, Fletcher, p. 77, says there is no proof that either Melton ever had syphilis; the only evidence we have is that of Pauline Foster (plus, of course, the fact that Melton slept with Dula).
At least one report claimed that she died as a result of injuries in an overturned horse-drawn vehicle (Fletcher, pp. 76-77). Which makes you wonder a little if James Melton got tired of his wife. One also wonders if the Melton children were in fact James Melton's (Fletcher, p. 86, says that the older daughter, from her photograph, clearly resembles James Melton -- but doesn't print the photos to prove it). James outlived Ann by many years, and went on to marry another wife (West-Lift, p. 55).
Foster, p. 162, says that there was not sufficient time for Melton to have committed the murder by herself. Probably true, although all this is based on the witnesses' accounts of events that happened some time before as recalled still later by the judge and clerk -- if we accept that evidence, then the murderer was either Tom Dula or an unknown party. But this is, in practice, weak hearsay evidence.
There are two obvious questions arising out of the case: Did Dula kill Laura Foster, and did he deserve his punishment? The answer to the former is, frankly, that we do not know with certainty. Dula knew; Ann Melton may have known; but neither really told us much. I think it morally certain that Pauline Foster lied about something, hinting that she too knew more than she said, but I have no idea how much more. Dula is certainly the best candidate for the murderer, with Melton being the only other likely alternative (Fletcher, p.117, is convinced that they are the only possible alternatives; but as the information above shows, this is not correct). Still, there appears to be no real evidence against Dula except his obvious disdain for Foster. And there was that comment by Wilson Foster that he would kill his daughter for stealing his horse, and all the garbage that Pauline Foster spouted....
The court case is what is truly disturbing. Recall that a warrant was sworn out for Dula before Laura Foster's body was found -- in other words, before it was even known that she was dead! And Dula was extradited from Tennessee before the body was found, without legal process; the deputies from North Carolina simply showed up in Tennessee, and Grayson helped them take Dula. Even once he was in custody, it is by no means clear that the case against him was strong enough to keep him in prison. As for the trial itself, we cannot be sure, because we have no proper trial record -- just the summary prepared by the judge and court clerk. Given that guilt must be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, the evidence as it now appears does not seem sufficient to convict. Especially since so much depended on Pauline Foster, who seems to have changed her story at least once *and* to have been a ninnyhammer anyway. Either that, or she was out to get Dula -- she did sleep with him, after all; is it possible that she wanted more and he didn't? No way to tell, now -- but it would explain why Ann Melton tried to recruit Pauline's help, if that particular tale of Pauline's is true.
Despite the weakness of the evidence, the New York Herald reporter claimed that "such was the evidence that no other verdict than guilty could be rendered." Possibly the best evidence is that most of the locals seemed convinced he was guilty, again according to the reporter (West-Ballad, p. 176)
And Dula in his last speech -- when he had nothing to lose -- said that some of the witnesses had lied about him, and Fletcher agrees: he states that James Isbell (who actually helped pay for the prosecution) had given biased testimony (Fletcher, p. 162), and he adds on p. 163 that some of Pauline Foster's testimony "is certainly questionable, if not an outright lie."
West-Lift, pp. 128-133 and West-Ballad, pp. 203-210, consulted a relative who was a lawyer, seeking his opinion of whether the outcome met the rules of proper justice. West-Ballad, p. 204: "I [the lawyer] was somewhat surprised... that at least according to the legal standards of today, Tom Dula's conviction and ultimate execution leaves a great deal of room for doubt."
The lawyer objected to the process on four points. Two struck me as quite cogent. Dula's "arrest in Tennessee and removal to Wilkes County was, to say the least, most informal, compared to the legal standards required to extradite a person from another state's jurisdiction under today's circumstances" (West-Lift, p. 128). (Fletcher's answer, pp. 45-46, was that the deputies who took Dula were in "hot pursuit," which they perhaps thought was true, but remember, the body still hadn't been found! He also says that North Carolina, which was unreconstructed after the Civil War, was under martial law. True but irrelevant -- Tennessee, which had a large Union population, *had* been reconstructed and was once again a full member of the Union). Crucial is the fact that, at the time Dula was arrested, Laura Foster's body had not even been found. *Dula was arrested for a crime that could not be shown to have been committed!* (A quibble, in one sense, since the body turned up -- but Dula might have escaped had he not been illegally arrested.) And he was apparently held without a preliminary hearing or a bail hearing (West-Ballad, pp. 204-205).
Second, the lawyer pointed out (West-Lift, p. 131) that the evidence against Dula was all circumstantial. He implied that that was bad; we now know that circumstantial evidence is better than personal testimony when the evidence is truly relevant. But none of the circumstantial evidence was strong. To repeat, Dula was clearly the best candidate for the murderer. But there are at least three others: Ann Melton, Pauline Foster, and Wilson Foster -- who may have been getting tired of maintaining his unmarried and hard-to-marry daughter (remember, whatever else we know about Laura Foster, she was not a virgin, had syphillis, was almost old enough by local standards to be an old maid, and had no inheritance or noteworthy skills). With three other possible murderers, did the evidence add up to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?
The lawyer also doubted the hearsay testimony, but I think that should count, even if it wouldn't be admitted in court.
The lawyer West talked to concludes, "I do not think it takes a lawyer to conclude, after reviewing this record, that the evidence presented against Tom Dula does not meet at least one of these standards [for conviction].... The evidence is not, however, subject only to the interpretation of the guilt of Tom Dula and therefore does not exclude every reasonable hypothesis. [In other words, there are other reasonable scenarios which are also consistent with the evidence.] It shows only a motive and the opportunity which is generally held insufficient to support a conviction."
Based on the evidence available to me, I have to agree. Although I genuinely think he was guilty, Dula probably deserves a "Scots verdict" of "Not proven."
On the other hand, given his other activities, I think it could be argued that the world was better off without him.
-- Information Contained in the Song --
West and others are quick to condemn this song as inaccurate. Certainly the folklore about Dula is often wrong. But the neighbors also remembered incorrectly -- e.g. the Rev. R. L. Isbell (the son of James Isbell, who had been one of the searchers for Laura Foster and one who testified against Dula), who was a child in the area at the time, claimed that the murder happened in 1865, not 1866, and says that the proper name of Laura's father Will Foster was not "Wilson Foster" but "William Foster" (Gardner, p. 20) and that Dula was captured in Virginia, not Tennessee (Gardner, p. 22) and he wrongly believed that Foster's horse was found still tied up near the murder scene. To be fair, Isbell said that the events he described had happened "eighty-six years ago" -- Gardner, p. 23 -- so he must have been about ninety at the time he was reminiscing.
Compared to that, the ballad often has the details right:
"Stabbed her with my knife": Whoever killed Foster did it with a knife (probably about six inches long), according to Dr. George Carter, who did the autopsy (West-Lift, p. 78).
"Hadn't been for Grayson, I'd have been in Tennessee." Dula was in Tennessee when James Grayson assisted in his arrest, so this statement is almost certainly true. The folklore in Doc Watson's family, that Grayson was a rival for the love of Laura Foster, is obviously false; Grayson never met Foster in his life (Fletcher, p. 13) -- but the ballad itself never claims Grayson had anything to do with Foster. Given that no one even knew who Grayson was until West started his research, this is a case where the ballad proved more accurate than what people thought they knew about the Dula case prior to the 1960s.
"Take down my old violin, play it on my knee." Dula was a fiddler, and apparently a fairly good one (West-Lift, p. 24); Pauline Foster at least once during the trial mentioned him carrying his fiddle (West-Ballad, p. 124), and we have a report of him playing the instrument at the Meltons' after the murder (Fletcher, p. 38). Other versions of the song have him play the banjo instead; indeed, according to Fletcher, p. 122, folklore claimed that it was his banjo playing that first brought him to the attention of his defense lawyer Vance. But that legend is based on him serving in Vance's 26th North Carolina regiment, and he didn't serve in that regiment! West-Lift, p. 71, West-Ballad, p. 64, and Fletcher, p. 122, all agree that there is no evidence that he ever played banjo (a Black instrument, recall. There were white Southerners who played banjo in the 1860s -- Jeb Stuart is said to have had a banjo player on staff -- but Winans, p. 432, concludes on the basis of the scanty evidence available that the tradition of mountain banjo playing was established 1865-1880. Dula probably died too early to be a banjo player). Presumably the mention of Tom playing fiddle is older, since he actually played fiddle.
"Met her on the mountain, As everybody knows... and there you hid her clothes." Dr. George Carter told the court that a bundle of clothes was buried with her (West-Lift, p. 78). Betsy Scott had testified that, when Laura had left her home for the last time, she was carrying extra clothing (Fletcher, p. 29).
"Down in some lonesome valley, Hanging from a white oak tree." Dula was hanged, but not in a lonesome valley or from a tree; it was from a public scaffold in Statesville with a very large crowd watching (Fletcher, p. 72). On the other hand, there apparently were rumors of lynchings as he was taken from Tennessee to North Carolina.
Although people usually spell the names "Laura Foster" and "Tom Dula," the pronunciations in the song are correct: the Dulas were called "Dooley/Doolie," and Laura Foster was called "Laurie" (West-Lift, p. xviii). The spelling "Dooley" is used on both Dula's parole as a POW and his oath of allegiance to the re-united United States (shown on pp. 21-22 of Fletcher), although Dula did not sign the former and (I suspect) did not sign the latter. At least once in the court papers, he is called "Dooley" (Fletcher, p. 65), although Fletcher reports that he corrected that to "Dula." Gardner, before p. 1, shows a Union list of Confederate parolees; the reproduction (which appears to be a bad photocopy) is almost illegible, but the Union recorder seems to have given Dula's name as "Dooly." On p. 41 Gardner says that Dula signed the parolee list as "Dooley" to match his name in the list, then wrote "Dula" above it.
-- Photographic Evidence --
Polenberg, p. 67, offers a photo of Dula in Confederate uniform (the only photo of Dula I've ever seen) on p. 67; given that the uniform is in good shape and Dula does not appear underfed, I'd guess it was taken around the time of his enlistment. Page 69 has a very poor photo of Grayson; page 70 has a photo of Governor Vance. Page 268 has a list of recent Dula memorials.
West-Ballad also has an image of Grayson on p. 11 and one of Vance (later in life) on p. 12. Pp. 6-10 are Colonel Isbell's primitive map and cover letter of the area where Dula lived that was used in the trial (or, rather, what looks like a blueprint copy of them).
West-Lift, pp. 60-61, has the Isbell map redone as a positive rather than a blueprint negative; on p. 59 it has a modern map of the major sites in the area. P. 61 has photos of Ann Melton's and Laura Foster's graves. P. 63 has a photo of Grayson's pistol. P. 65 has a photo of Governor Vance, plus of Judge Buxton (who presided over Dula's first trial) and Judge Shipp (who presided over the second). P. 66. Shows Tom's and Laura's gravestones
Peña/Hayes, p. 73, has a photo of Dula's gravestone; p. 74 has a photo of Vance.
Gardner's front matter has an effectively-illegible copy of Dula's signature on an oath of allegiance to the U. S. government after the Civil War, and p. 42 has a photo of Dula's grave. It also has drawings of most of the main characters, but these have no authority; they are modern.
The cover of Fletcher reproduces Gardner's irrelevant pictures of Laura Foster and Ann Melton; it also has the one photo of Dula, and a picture of Dula's grave. The back cover shows Laura's grave. The book has many photos, many of them not really relevant (e.g. of area landmarks, or of the Kingston Trio, or of Anne Warner recording Frank Profitt (that one mislabeled "Ann Warner" and "Frank Triplett"!), but p. 18 shows Col. Isbell late in life, and p. 100 shows part of his map. P. 21 shows Dula's certificate of having taken the oath to the government, with the oath itself on p. 22. Page 26 shows Dr. Carter, who examined Laura's decomposed body and treated everybody's syphilis. P. 34 shows Mary Dula, Tom's mother, looking as if she was the one about to be hung. Page 36 shows part of Col. Isbell's map. P. shows the same photo of Grayson as in West-Ballad, plus Grayson's gravestone. P. 47 shows what is said to have been Tom's jail cell in Wilkesboro, with Ann Melton's cell on p. 58. Pp. 56-57 show Laura's grave site. P. 60 shows Governor Vance as a younger man (probably about the way he looked in the Civil War era). Pp. 74-75 show Dula's various gravestones; pp. 77-78 shows Ann Melton's grave. P. 79 shows James Melton as an old man. P. 82 shows a woman who may be Melton's mother "Lotty" Foster.
-- The Pop Song and Its Influence --
The Kingston Trio version is said to have eventually sold three million copies (Polenberg, p. 66). Not surprisingly, this produced copyright lawsuits, with G. B. Grayson (who first recorded it) apparently not even being considered as a copyright-holder and Frank Proffitt (the direct source of the version the Kingston Trio recorded) getting only a half-share, with Frank Warner also getting a half share and the Lomaxes, who had collected a version, getting the rest (Polenberg, p. 74). That story was almost as ugly as the murder itself, and surely an even bigger travesty of justice.
It turns out that there was a movie, "The Legend of Tom Dooley," sort of inspired by this song (Casstevans, p. 18). Looking over the cast, it cannot have been based on anything real; it starred Michael Landon as Tom and Jo Morrow as Laura Foster -- but the cast does not include parts for Ann Melton or Pauline Foster. And it does include one for "Charlie Grayson," who of course did not exist (and who surely did not have a big enough role to be the #3 person in the cast list!).
A North Carolina resident, H. M. "Hub" Yount, wrote to a paper to say that the movie had it all wrong (Gardner, p. 34). He had the story from his father and aunt. Ironically, Yount made errors of his own -- he said the murder took place in 1867 and the hanging in 1869. This account also claims that the Tom Dooley song was already known at the time, and cites the chorus. I suspect, however, that Yount was confusing "Tom Dooley" with "The Murder of Laura Foster."
"Tom Dula's Grave" can be found in Google Maps, and the associated photos show both a gravestone (which looks more recent than 1868) and a damaged monument. It is along "Tom Dula Road" near the Yadkin River in Ferguson, North Carolina (a few miles west of Wilkesboro). There is a "Melton Family Cemetery" not too far away, but it just looks like a field in the Google Street View and aerial photos. You can also find "Laura Foster's Grave" on Google Maps somewhat west of there. The historical marker ("Laura Foster Memorial," on a dirt turnaround on the far side of Highway 268 from the grave itself) looks like it is derived from one of those contemporary news stories, e.g. it calls Laura "beautiful but frail." - RBW
Bibliography- Beitzell: Edwin W Beitzell, Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates, self-published (the spine lists the publisher as "Beitzell," and the book is typewritten rather than typeset), 1972
- Casstevens: Frances H. Casstevens, Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown, History Press, 2006
- DAB: Dumas Malone, editor, Dictionary of American Biography, originally published in 20 volumes plus later supplementary volumes; I use the 1961 Charles Scribner's Sons edition with minor corrections which combined the original 20 volumes into 10
- Fletcher: John Edward Fletcher, PhD (with a foreword by Edith Marie Ferguson Carter), The True Story of Tom Dooley: From Western North Carolina Mystery to Folk Legend, History Press, 2013
- Furgurson: Ernest B. Furgurson, Not War But Murder: Cold Harbor 1864, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000
- Gardner: Rufus L. Gardner, Tom Dooley, The Eternal Triangle, Gardner Enterprises/Reliable Printing Company (Mount Airy, NC), 1960
- Gragg: Rod Gragg, Confederate Goliath, 1991 (I use the 1992 HarperPerennial paperback)
- Hess: Earl J. Hess, Lee's Tar Heels: The Pettigrew/Kirkland/MacRae Brigade, University of North Carolina Press
- Hughes: Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., Bentonville, University of North Carolina Press, p. 1996
- NCRegiments: Walter Clark, Editor, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865, volume II, (State of North Carolina)/Nash Brothers, N.D. but includes material dated 1901)
- NorthCarolinaTroops: Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., compiler, Louis H. Manarin, unit histories, North Carolina Troops 1861-1865: A Roster, Volume X, Infantry, 38th-39th An 42nd-44th Regiments, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, 1985 (I use the 2004 second printing)
- Peña/Hayes: Jennifer L. Peña and Laurie B. Hayes, Wilkes County: A Brief History, The History Press, 2008
- Polenberg: Richard Polenberg: Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs, Cornell University Press, 2015
- Rhea: Gordon C. Rhea, Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864. Louisiana State University Press, 2002
- Rigdon: John C. Rigdon, Historical Sketch and Roster Of The North Carolina 42nd Infantry Regiment, Eastern Digital Resources, 2004 (but continuously updated; mine is from the 2020 15th printing and appears to have been substantially updated in 2013)
- Sokolosky/Smith: Walter Sokolosky and Mark A. Smith, The Battle of Wise's Forks, March 1865, Savas Beatie LLC, 2015
- Wallis: Michael Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride Norton, 2007
- West-Ballad: John Foster West, The Ballad of Tom Dula, Moore Publishing Company, (second printing) 1977
- West-Lift: John Foster West, Lift Up Your Head, Tom Dooley, Down Home Press, 1993, 1996
- Winans: Robert B. Winans, "The Folk, the Stage, and the Five-String Banjo in the Nineteenth Century," article in the Journal of American Folklore (JAF), Volume 89, No. 354 (October-December, 1976)
- Winkler: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, J. S. Winkler, "Whence the Name Dula? One Plausibilty," Vol. XX, No. 2 (May 1971), pp. 84-86
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