When VISTA volunteer Nancy Morgan arrived to Madison County,
North Carolina in 1970 she believed that she could make a difference in the
lives of the working poor who lived there. And, to some extent she did. By most
accounts she was a friendly and outgoing young woman who was determined to do
what she could to help in the War on Poverty. Her future plans after her stint
with VISTA involved obtaining her nursing degree and returning to Madison
County to provide health care to the people who lived there. It just didn't
work out that way.
One night in June, as Nancy was headed home to her cabin
next door to the grocer’s, she was apparently abducted, raped and killed. Her body
was left; bound; in the backseat of her government issued Plymouth, where it was
found several days later by a passing motorist answering the call of nature.
What followed was one of the most botched investigations
imaginable, with local law enforcement competing with the FBI for clues to
solve the killing. The body was left on Federal land, and should have been a
Federal crime scene from the beginning of the investigation until the last.
Even local politics played a part in not solving the case of Ms. Morgan’s
murder. The case is still unsolved as of this writing.
Social attitudes were also a sticking point in the
investigation, with the more conservative local folks believing, in some
measure, that Ms. Morgan was too sexually active. Books were found in her
belongings concerning S and M. It was reported that she had several lovers in
the area. It was even rumored that she was killed by a local woman, jealous of
Nancy’s easygoing ways. None of these things were ever proven to have had a
bearing on her murder. As a matter of fact, none of those things was ever proven
at all.
The title of the book comes from the ballad “Tom Dooley”,
which was actually written about a murder in Statesville, North Carolina. The
author traces the roots of mountain violence back to the original settlers from
Scotland and their clan wars. The violence was almost endemic there, and some
of that culture did spill over into the Appalachian Mountain communities. The
suspicion of outsiders also played a part in this true life mystery.
The most striking thing about this book is that the crime
remains unsolved. The author, a VISTA volunteer, who although he never actually worked with
Ms. Morgan, thinks he knows who killed her. Carefully culling everything known about the people with whom she dealt in Madison
County, he pieces together a picture of good gone bad, and justice denied. This is a compelling book.
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