1932 Murder Still Haunts Appalachia
By Michael Knost
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Logan, WV (HNN) – Is it true that Southern West Virginia’s most popular specter continues to haunt this region and seek justice for an unspeakable act of violence? Due to a mysterious crime, the Holden #22 region of Logan County has been described as a hotbed of paranormal activity for well over seven decades.
It is typically in October and early November — the official Halloween season — that our thoughts turn toward eerie ghost tales, peculiar folklore, and unexplainable phenomena.
According to Troy Taylor, president of the American Ghost Society, Appalachia has more than its share of demented accounts of the macabre. It also has enough documented stories of ghostly manifestations and unsightly monsters to fill a large library. One such account that refuses to die, so to speak, is that of the homicide of Mamie Thurman—another entry into the chronicles of the bizarre.
The book, a revision of an earlier literary hit (originally published in 2001), "The Secret Life and Brutal Death of Mamie Thurman," by F. Keith Davis, of Chapmanville, continues to take the region by storm since its recent release. The violent story, as absolutely true as it is, has allegedly conjured up strange, unexplainable sightings of an apparition along Corridor G, Rt. 119.
“We hear of ghost sightings in the Holden area every year, especially near Holden #22 mountain,” Davis said. “Most have a commonality in that these individuals all describe a translucent vision of a sad-faced woman, draped in a 1930s-era polkadot dress or discolored slip.”
The ghost manifestations most often take place along a stretch of desolate highway near the Holden #22 exit—the road leading up to the site of the discovery of Thurman’s body. Amateur ghost hunters, as well as many curious teenagers in the region, make the “Mamie Thurman pilgrimage,” especially during the peak Halloween season throughout October-November and in June, the month of her murder. Startling results have been reported during such activities.
Mamie Thurman, 32, was an attractive socialite in 1932, during Prohibition, and although married to a local police officer, she had been carrying on clandestine affairs with several prominent citizens—all members of a secretive “Amour Club.” This local speakeasy, which required a special membership key for entrance, was described as a “den of iniquity” that focused on free-flowing booze, illegal gambling, wife-swapping and other forms of tomfoolery.
One morning Thurman’s discarded body—with broken neck, slashed throat, and disfigured face—was found dumped over Trace Mountain at Holden, by a horrified young boy out berry-picking. Not long afterwards phantom sightings began and, apparently, continue to this day.
This new book traces the bloody crime, its investigation and the succeeding ghost stories in even greater detail, and offers newly discovered information and evidence about the case, along with photos, including one which may actually be of the ghost of Mamie Thurman.
“This account includes a number of white-collar suspects (noted businessmen, politicians and coal mine operators of the time,) an intense community scandal and a shocking gangland-style execution that still baffles law enforcement,” said Bill Clements, owner of WV Book Company. “Since it oddly parallels another nationally known murder case, the Thurman story has also been tagged as the ‘Appalachian Black Dahlia’”
Just in time for the Halloween season, the completely revised edition of "The Secret Life and Brutal Death of Mamie Thurman" ($15.95) is available locally at the Open Book, in Williamson, or at woodlandpress.com.
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