Mystery & History in Georgia – Volume 1
Readers of mystery stories and those who enjoy captivating historic incidents and accounts of unusual events will revel in this potpourri of articles associated with the state of Georgia. The stories of this book have been drawn from historic news accounts, early American newspapers, folklore, academic papers, official Georgia state archives, early U.S. Census records, and much more by the author, and are all factually accurate as far as can possibly be determined.
Discover how a notorious gangster – Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd – born in 1904 in Adairsville, Georgia, died – far from his Georgia home – at the hands of famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis in 1934.
Read how the novel (A Circuit Rider’s Wife) of a best-selling author from northwest Georgia became the basis of a major motion picture (I’d Climb the Highest Mountain), starring Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, William Lundigan and others, filmed in northeast Georgia in 1950.
Hear how O.D. Anderson, a businessman from Adairsville, Georgia, and also an official with the Western & Atlantic Railroad in the state, became so important to the Confederacy, that when Gen. William T. Sherman began his infamous “March to the Sea” in the U.S. Civil War, Confederate Army officials loaded O.D.’s family and their possessions into a railroad boxcar and transported them by rail to the safety of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Meanwhile, O.D., separated from his family, continued his skillful manipulation of the Confederacy’s dwindling railroad rolling stock in the state in a desperate bid to keep it out of the hands of the advancing Federal troops.
See how famed Civil War spy James J. Andrews and his 20 men hijacked a Confederate locomotive literally from right under the noses of thousands of Confederate troops (only a few yards away) and made their way up the Western & Atlantic Railroad in an attempt to sabotage bridges and railroad stock. Find out how this daring group later became the subject of a major motion picture (The Great Locomotive Chase) filmed in northeast Georgia in 1955, starring Fess Parker, Slim Pickens, Jeffrey Hunter, and others.
Learn about a horrendous firestorm which swept through the amazing tourist town of Tallulah Falls, Georgia, in 1921, completely destroying this former scenic destination which was the genesis of the name of famous movie star Tallulah Bankhead.
Experience the captivation of how notorious Old West bandit George Anderson – alias “Bill Miner” – whose exploits have been documented in books, magazines, and several major motion pictures, robbed his last train in Hall County, Georgia, in 1911, where he was captured by local law enforcement, then tried, convicted, and sent to the state’s prison where he escaped not once, but twice, before succumbing to the ills of old age.
Imagine how a small number of gold coins minted in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1830, by Templeton Reid contained gold which was actually purer than the coinage from the U.S. Mint, yet were erroneously deemed unworthy of their face value by the citizens at that time, and how today, in 2024, are among the rarest gold coins in the world with an incalculable value.
Learn about Capt. Whit Anderson, a native of Lumpkin County, Georgia, who rose to fame as the deputy-marshal of Atlanta in 1859, became a wounded Confederate soldier in the U.S. Civil War in 1863, then, while still recovering from those wounds, was a participant in an Old West-style gunfight on Whitehall Street in the old downtown portion of Atlanta outside Muhlenbrink’s Saloon – a site which in the 1970s was rediscovered and found new life in the modern attraction “Underground Atlanta.”
Discover the fascinating account of “Chief Collard” who lived in what today is Polk County, Georgia, in the 1820s-1830s, and was dispossessed of his property by the state of Georgia in 1838, and forced to relocate to a reservation out West, and how his sons returned to Polk County following the unrest of the U.S. Civil War to revisit their old home one last time, leaving behind a mysterious photograph when they departed.
Find out about the mysterious petroglyphs in a mountain gap in what today is Union County, Georgia, which were unexplainable by the native Indians of that area in the early 1830s, and which continue to remain inexplicable today.
The stories above – and much more – will be difficult to “put down,” as the reader discovers these many unusual and little-known historic aspects of the state of Georgia.
