Bill
Brooks is the author of many highly-acclaimed historical and western novels.
Booklist compared his work with classics like ‘The Virginian,’ ‘Shane’
and ‘Hombre’.
Bill tells me a favourite of his own novels is TOM DOOLEY, published by Five Star Publishing.
According to Wikipedia, TOM DOOLEY’s real name was THOMAS C. DULA. He was born to a poor Appalachian hill-country
family in Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1845. At school he "probably
played with the female FOSTERS" – ANNE and her cousins LAURA and PAULINE.
TOM DOOLEY
Dula and Anne Foster may have been intimate as teenagers, but in 1859
Anne married a local farmer and cobbler, becoming Anne Melton.
In 1862, Tom enlisted in the
Confederate Army as a private in Company K, 42nd North Carolina Infantry
Regiment.
On one surviving army muster roll he
is listed as a "musician" and a "drummer." Dula played the
fiddle (although not, as was reported, the banjo.) Dula was wounded
several times in battle. He was captured and sent to a northern prison camp. He
was released at the end of the war in April 1865 and returned home.
Dula – supposedly a "ladies man” and “libertine” - continued his
relationship with the married Anne.
ANNE FOSTER/MELTON
It was not long before he began an intimate relationship with Laura Foster
too. Folklore has it that Laura became pregnant, and she and Dula decided to
elope. On the morning she was to meet Dula, May 25, 1866, Laura
quietly left her home and rode off on her father's horse. She was never seen
alive again.
Suspicion that Dula had murdered Laura caused him to flee the area. Then
a grave was found containing Laura’s body, her legs drawn up to fit in the
shallow grave. She had been stabbed once in the chest.
No one really knows what happened to
Laura, but some stories implicate Anne. It’s claimed that Anne murdered Laura out
of jealousy because she was marrying Dula; that Dula suspected Anne was the
murderer, but he still loved Anne enough to take the blame himself. Pauline
Foster testified that Anne showed her Laura’s grave one night.
A posse went after Dula. He was
arrested and tried for Laura’s murder, convicted, given a new trial on appeal
and convicted again. Facing execution, Dula wrote a 15-page account of his
life, as well as a note that exonerated Anne. His literacy is highly unusual,
considering the harsh poverty of his upbringing.
As he stood on the gallows, Dula
reportedly said, "Gentlemen, I did not harm a single hair on that fair
lady's head.” He was executed on May 1, 1868, nearly two years after Laura's
murder.
How did an obscure incident in
backwoods Appalachia, which in reality may have contained some quite sordid
elements, turn into a folk legend? Well, the trial received national publicity
from newspapers such as ‘The New York
Times,’ dwelling on the eternal-triangle aspect and the mysteries
inherent in the story. And then a local
poet, THOMAS LAND, is believed to have written a song about the tragedy titled
‘Tom Dooley’ (which was how Dula's name was pronounced) shortly after Dula was
hanged. This cemented Dula's place in North Carolina legend.
Wilkes County, North Carolina
This aptly-named ‘murder ballad’
gives a prominent role in the tragedy to a man named Grayson. In reality, COLONEL
JAMES GRAYSON, of Trade, Tennessee was someone Dula worked for about a
week. Later Grayson helped the posse that caught Dula, but that was his only
part in the affair.
Another tale says that Anne confessed
to the murder on her deathbed, having killed Laura in a fit of jealousy,
afterwards begging Tom to help her conceal the body.
In 2001, the citizens of North
Wilkesboro presented a petition to the North Carolina Governor, asking that Dula
be posthumously pardoned. No action was taken.
A revival of Land’s murder ballad became a Number One hit single for THE
KINGSTON TRIO in 1958.
Here they are performing it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3zdE8bliGI
This spawned a film. MICHAEL LANDON,
midway between ‘I was A Teenage Werewolf’
and Bonanza,’ portrayed Dula in ‘The Legend of Tom Dooley’ (1959.) The
movie is a fictional treatment inspired by the lyrics of Land's folk song.
REVIEWERS on TOM DOOLEY by
Bill Brooks:
‘Brooks has a unique talent that extends far beyond the formulas of the
western genre. He’s an extraordinary historical novelist.’
‘He captures the everyday humanity behind the legends while
simultaneously adding to the myth of the great golden West.’
Find TOM DOOLEY here: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Dooley-American-Bill-Brooks/dp/1432832271
