If Roy was telling the truth, and that was still a big if, then Shorty Hopkins was the last person to see Bertha Hood alive.…
Is that correct? Yes. Could you determine from the wound whether the shooting was intentional or accidental? Dr. Mullins paused. No, the wound itself doesn’t…
I was out hunting that evening, like I said, and I did see Bertha with Roy and Shorty. They were arguing, but when Roy left…

Cowboy Took a Girl Sold by Her Brother, Only to Realize She Was Carrying His Salvation … Elias dismounted stiffly, lifted her down, and guided…
Elias cut timber while Clara sorted stones, her movements measured, careful with the life growing inside her. They worked in silence, broken only by bird…
Roins, Hail said, his voice cold. You testified that you cared about Bertha Hood. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Would you say you were obsessed…
He spoke rarely of the Bertha Hood case except to insist to his children that he had been innocent, that he had simply been in…
And in that miraculous instant, the Oakidge plantation bore witness to something that in their brutal land and vicious error was much rarer than a…
Every Sunday morning, they would dress in their best clothes, which weren’t much, but they were clean and pressed, and walk together down the dirt…
Murders did happen in Appalachia, usually over moonshine, land disputes, or family feuds. But the killing of an innocent young girl was almost unheard of.…


