Greed, Gold and Deception in Cocke County TN: The 1909 Murder of A. J. Slagle
In 1909, a Johnson City businessman named A.J. Slagle was lured by promises of buried Spanish gold hidden in a Cocke County house. What began as a desperate bid to recover from business losses ended i...
22 Nov 202514min
The Death of Jack Allen: The Hillsville Aftermath
Four years after the Hillsville courthouse shootout shocked Virginia, another one of the Allen brothers met a violent end. Jack Allen, brother of Floyd Allen, and once a constable in that Carroll Coun...
15 Nov 202516min
The Confederate Exodus: The Story of Ezekiel Pyles And The Confederados
After the Civil War, thousands of defeated Confederates refused to live under the Union flag. Instead, they packed up their families and headed for new lives in South America in a Confederate exodus f...
8 Nov 202517min
The 1925 Asheville Sessions: The Spark Before the Bang
In August 1925, two years before the famed Bristol Sessions, Ralph Peer and Okeh Records set up a temporary studio on the rooftop of Asheville’s brand-new Vanderbilt Hotel.Over ten sweltering days, lo...
1 Nov 202520min
Tenth Anniversary Special: Two Tales from the Dark Side of Appalachia
This Halloween marks 10 years of stories from Rod and Steve; to mark the holiday and our tenth anniversary, we’re going to take you deep into the dark side of Appalachia with two chilling tales from s...
25 Okt 202520min
Two Men and a Plane: The Drug Smuggler Who Fell Out Of The Sky
We’ve told hundreds of stories about Appalachia, but few are as bizarre as the night a Kentucky drug smuggler named Andrew Thornton II fell to his death during a smuggling run over south Knoxville, Te...
18 Okt 202517min
The 1912 Ligonier Valley Train Crash
In July, 1912, a joyful Fourth of July outing on a mountain turned into a tragedy when a crowded passenger coach collided head-on with a massive coal train on the Wilpen Branch of the Ligonier Valley ...
11 Okt 202515min
The Bridge Burners of East Tennessee
In November 1861, a secret band of East Tennessee Unionists struck at the heart of Confederate supply lines by burning railroad bridges across the region. They believed the Union army would soon march...
4 Okt 202522min
