THE TERRIBLE TALE OF NANNIE WOMACK - At Womack Cemetery in Russell County, Kentucky.

hey gang we are in kentucky right now we're going to be doing this a little different today i am parked on a farm in russell county kentucky we're basically going to have to do this i'll probably have to do this as a narrated type of version and not live while we're walking the wind is about 40 to 50 miles per hour we're gonna try it but some amazing history right here i'm on the farm where a little girl lived who was 10 years old who was murdered and her name was nanny pearl womack now north we would pronounce that womack but down here they pronounce it womack and i want to thank the owner damon mckay who let me come in here he owns the land where the cemetery is this is all private property so if you want to see and come to the cemetery get permission don't just walk in here he's had people come in here uh paranormal stories um some bad stories he had to throw people out so anyway we're gonna take a walk here and i'm gonna tell you the story of what happened to little nanny so let's just go for the walk and see how it goes [Music] so as we walk along here this is a story that's really gonna give you a feel of how the law was handled back then in the small towns and remote areas in the countryside's lynch mob justice so as we walk here we're walking to where the homestead was on the top of this post you see these three bricks these were said damon had said these were the original bricks from the fireplace of the little the little homestead little farmhouse back in the woods there to the right but we're going to look to the left here first and if you this is going to give you a real feel for the situation if you look way up over that hill that is where the mount olive school was and little nanny and her schoolmates were walking home from there down a trail coming this way and it was there where she was dragged in the woods literally like if you look through there between the barns back in the woods maybe 100 200 yards away so it happened right here in fact it had said that her mother could hear her calling out while this was all happening from straight ahead here which is where the homestead was back in the day and if you see you see these the gate to the right which is where the spring is and as we look to the left here these blowing little fir trees down here at the base you can see some of the artifacts some of the large very large flat rocks which compose the foundation for the front of the farmhouse of course the farmhouse is long gone and we're going to bend down here under this tree where the stump is and it's kind of hard to see but underneath there's very large flat rock there supporting the front probably the front porch or the front wall of the house [Music] so we're gonna walk back here let's take a look at where the the spring still is and try not to trip over any of these obstacles which fortunately i did it was very muddy at this point right here mucking along but we made it and we looked down here and there is the spring damon said this spring just never stops flowing beautiful clear water let's walk back and take a look through the gate but i'm not going any further than this over the gate and there at the base of that large tree forming that v is where the spring actually has emanated and emanates and look at the beautiful clovers in the water just a gorgeous little scene there and that was the scene just how it looked imagine back in the day when they lived here just beautiful this spring running out to the west so let's walk back and let's walk up to the cemetery and i will i'll tell you the story so the cemetery is located up this hill and as i walk by this beautiful horse is giving me the stare down and then he looks away but the cemetery is located right up this hill and again don't just come here if you want to see it check in with damon i'm sure i'll let you in but yeah it was it was it was lynch mob justice in those days and it was it was december 8th 1908 here in russell county and this nine-year-old little girl nanny pearl womack found in the woods there it was a terrible scene and like i said she had just separated from her schoolmate just walking along there's a little split in the the road and dragged into the woods now there was a character one guy everybody you know there's always one person they start thinking about and this person hmm he did it his name was elmer hill now elmer was around 25 or 27 years old by varying accounts he was described as being light complected weighing about 150 pounds and he had a speech impediment well elmer was kind of slow and they say he may have been and the local people here sadly would take advantage of him they'd give him dirty jobs jobs that no one else would do go down in the bottom of the outhouse or they would trick him and play with him so anyway they brought little nanny's body as they would normally do many times to the home have her looked over have her be prepared for burial the sheriff coming but like many others elmer had gone in there everyone would go into these these times and look at the body but it it was said that he was more visibly shaken than most others well not sure if that's abnormal for anyone but it was when one of the relatives said out loud the murderer is going to be burned at the stake as soon as they find him and once those bloodhounds get here they're coming up and it is said that elmer who was not even it wasn't heavily suspected formally he just conspicuously ducked out of the house kind of looking around and they're watching him and then he just like ran off in the woods and of course everyone took notice and then the word really went out elmer must have done it well they say he was a man of bad reputation and again from the newspaper articles you can't you just don't know but they had said it was quote i did the research on a lot of the paper clippings that years before he was arrested on the charge of assaulting a schoolgirl and that he broke out of jail and eluded a rest for a couple of years and then he returned because the matter quote unquote had the matter had died out and he was not tried well not so sure about that but in any respect in a day or two they had indeed brought the bloodhounds down they came from a town called hustonville and they were on the trail of the culprit and again the newspapers were really piping in now a word was going out and one of the dramatic quotes the mother of the murder child with streaming eyes prayed aloud to god to bless the man for the heroic work to catch him well he was trailed from the scene of the crime to a number of points in russell county here and then over to adair county and he seemed to be going in a circle must have been elmer he was on the run now and it didn't take them long some say well back then they said they you know when you read about it they ended up finding him in an outhouse asleep but then again you know we talked to damon here and the actual story handed down is that he was actually hiding under a house well the newspaper said well dramatizing many think that the mob spirit will rule but others think that the law will be allowed to take its course oh the jailer here they had him detained and he was warned that there was a danger of a lynch mob forming that evening and there was indeed a lynch mob forming and the murmurs were going around that they were going to burn him at the stake alive and the plan was for the child's mother to apply the match well actually this was true the plan was set into motion and the plan was to bring him back where manny was killed here and interestingly according to the story that was handed down to damon that he told me this was right over here remember we looked at those barns in that area there was a mill there it was called the heading and stave mill and it was where they made barrels and they had it all planned out they had already gone there and then they had erected a very large post they drove it a massive stake they've driven into the ground and they put a huge chain on top which they would assumably tie around the victim and they had already brought in the scraps from the mill to make a huge wood pyre that they'd light up and burn him alive at the stake so it was it was uh the game was on so elmer was taken out to a jail in jamestown south of here they had to get him out of here and get him in a real jail and soon after the mob just followed him right down there now it's interesting because damon's great aunt rose grider she told him many many years ago that when she was little when this all happened she was hiding behind her homestead's front picket fence and she was laying down on the ground in the grass the high grass looking between the fence posts and she saw the lynch mob ride by i mean they were literally 10 feet away as she looked up in a dust all of these horses and she said i know that horse and then another horse i know that i mean she recognized the horses she knew the men just by their horses they were all wearing hoods masks ku klux klan like but she knew who they were now they went to the jail and you know they couldn't find them and failing to find him they started searching the homes sheriff was already ahead of them he was heading to monticello which was located to the southeast east on the other side of what if if you look at a map lake cumberland is there it wasn't there back in the day that's a man-made reservoir and back in monticello still there today the sheriff and his men they rode all night through the hills and woods they had gotten them there but word again you know word leaked out and now the mob was on its way to monticello well at this point the sheriff said they're staying put and we're we're not afraid of any mob and he probably should have been because on december 15th it was 2 a.m and things started to really really heat up the lynch party was formed up they had really grown men had come from other counties it was a monstrous crowd although for the time being they the leader the actual leader wasn't there not sure where he was but they were lacking the initiative they couldn't flip the switch but he was expected to arrive soon and then elmer hill would be strung up well he did eventually arrive apparently because sometime in the middle of the night it was december 17th and it is said that the climax came after the jail had been surrounded and an armed group of 26 men finally made their attack on the jail they surprised the jailer they had drawn winchesters down on him and the jailer handed over the keys he's like here you go and they went and they marched down and to the cell opened the door and there was elmer back to the corner on the floor please please i'm innocent and he was begging that no harm be done to him well not surprisingly they didn't listen now they wanted to put their plan in action they couldn't wait to get him up back where nanny was killed tie him to that stake let's go [Music] i got near there but daylight was fast approaching there in jamestown and the sun was coming up oh time was running out we've got to get this done i started thinking boy oh boy if we just if we start if we burn him alive there's going to be a i mean they made a huge pile of wood from the mill this this was going to be a big fire and no doubt the smoke would rise and people would be coming from all over the country and of course they would be recognized so it is said they they had him at this place called greasy creek which runs up north south of here but again according to the story handed down to damon not true now david saw the hanging tree when he was young back in the 1970s or 80s and it actually had a plaque right nailed right on it and it is located at what was the old boat dock and the boat dock hill below jamestown anyway it was interesting the mob had them and they were actually very orderly elmer hill continued to deny his guilt until he was told by one of the leaders hey you've only got 10 minutes to live buddy so you may as well confessed and according to the newspapers of the time he then confessed they say he broke down and said death was my just desserts and then his final words were it is no use hell is my doom well yeah again you have to ask yourself the newspapers at the time inflating things fictionalizing making up stories yeah i'll leave it to you well they put elmer on top of the back of a mule they had tied his hands they tied his legs he had him side saddle on the bare back of a mule and he had the noose around his neck his last words were basically he just begged them not to shoot his body well with that the mule was led away and he slowly strangled to death as they all watched [Music] it is said that no shots were fired into his body nor did anyone try or take him to the stake nobody burned his body they didn't molest his body and when it was all said and done they said that the mob just quietly rode away just the direction they had come elmer hill's body was cut down the next morning and buried now the question you have to really ask the question i ask is who really did it did elmer really do it a big part of me thinks he didn't wasn't one of those mob guys where there was a lot of there was just a lot of lawlessness and bullies and strange people i mean we probably will never know but i really wonder if an innocent man was hung well we'll never know well we're here at the grave for a little nanny and of course i placed the yellow rose there as i normally do i got the flashlight out can take a look here we can see april 1898 when she was born i think that's april 7th december 8th 1908 that faithful day and the stone is in really really good condition here we see her name you can see that n-a-n-n-i-e her middle name or her middle initial i believe and then womack so this is her stone [Music] and i like it i like that it's not washed down pearly white i like the natural look of that it's like the patina on brass just i like i like they look they look natural well we have to say goodbye now we're going to leave the cemetery and little nanny and all the others buried here we hope you're in a better place and may your your mortal bodies rest in peace here [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Faces of the Forgotten

Views: 305,424

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Id: OJq3JcxPnb8

Length: 19min 4sec (1144 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022