An Appalachian Murder: Creating the Legend of Tom Dula & Laura Foster at BRAHM

In May 1868, Tom Dula was hanged in Statesville, North Carolina, for the murder of his sweetheart, Laura Foster. The prior trial, his second, made national news and reveals much about regional and national understandings of “mountain folk” in the post-Civil War period.

In her talk, Fredette explores the way this real murder became a folk story, both in Western North Carolina and the broader nation. She analyzes press coverage of Tom, Laura, and the alleged accomplice, Anne Melton, and how depictions of them shifted from the postwar period into the early twentieth century, laying the groundwork for the explosive popularity of the song, “Tom Dooley,” from the Kingston Trio, as well as growth of the tourism industry around the man himself.

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