Monday, November 24, 2014

Newsletter

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is the seldom told story of the 1837 murder of Willis Williams by Jacob Gaskill. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news112114.htm.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:03 AM

    Oh my goodness. Any student of law knows murder is a charge leveled in a criminal prosecution. A homicide is an unsolved death----when another person/suspect causes the death of another person, Murder, manslaughter, are degrees, of charges-- everyone is innocent until proven guilty. For someone willing to serve as a justice of the PEACE or to serve as a police officer and finds them selves in that place to shoot someone dead mitigating circumstances, motivation, defenses come into play in a court of law. However, today with social media and television the court of public sensationalism dictates the .need during sweeps month to make mountains out of molehills and fan the flames of discontent........During this week of Thanksgiving, we still pick up the paper and read about the deaths of "tragic" figures, if only their cries for help did not fall on deaf ears years before they put themselves in such a place to meet such an end. May they rest in peace.

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  2. Anonymous9:35 AM

    Thanks for that amazing story. Hanging was the death penalty then, but when did that change?
    I'm also curious to know, did OI Become a dry town around that time.

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    1. Prohibition was repealed in1933. On May 4, 1937, the Hyde County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to prohibit the sale of beer on Ocracoke Island.

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