The photo seen here is purported to be of Randolph McCoy. In the biggest feud book of all, the 430-page monster by Dean King, there is not one line saying that Ol Ran’l ever killed anyone. There is not a word about him ever physically assaulting anyone–not even a slap in the face with his open hand. Yet the writer of that big book says that Ol Ran’l probably had a genetic disease that causes its victims to want to go out and kill someone.
King says: “…the family (the McCoys) suffers from a rare hereditary condition now known as von Hippel-Lindau disease (or VHL). Those afflicted with it often have tumors on their adrenal glands that cause the excessive production of adrenaline and catecholamines, substances that trigger warrior, or fight-or-flight, reactions. Friends and adversaries alike are subjected to a hair-trigger temper…Other symptons include a racing heart, splitting headaches, and hand tremors.”[i]
According to King, we ALL have it, because he says “the family suffers from (it).” None of my Grandfather McCoy’s sixty-five grandchildren nor their scores of descendants have ever been so diagnosed, but that doesn’t stop Mr. King.
King gives a footnote which says that Randall McCoy might have had the disease,[ii] and continues: “This perhaps partly accounts for Randall’s coldheartedness to Roseanna, his inability to forget a slight, and his grating habit of harping on any perceived wrong.”
The next paragraph says: “Randall, who turned sixty in the fall of 1885, had plenty of real grief and concerns to keep him crotchety.”
This a prime example of a technique used frequently by feud writers. The plant an idea in the minds of readers, but they include words like “perhaps” or “partly” to give them an out if called. A look at the customer reviews on King’s book at Amazon shows that he got the point across. Multiple reviewers are convinced that all sixty-five of my Grandpa McCoy’s grandchildren have a congenital disorder which makes them want to kill people; in fact, none of them has ever been so diagnosed.
In recent days, the Associated Press article from nearly a decade ago has been resurrected in several places around the internet as an “explanation” for the Hatfield and McCoy feud.
Readers interested in real science, as opposed to feud lies, should consult the National Institutes of Health or the VHL Alliance for real scientific information. They are much better sources than the Associated Press, which, after all, is in the business of selling newspapers.
Those who take the time to consult these real sources will see that there is not one word about the disease causing victims to stab or shoot their neighbors—or anyone else. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/von-hippel-lindau-syndrome
In the real world, VHL is not a condition that causes people to be crotchety, mistreat their daughters or stab people on Election Day. It is a horrible disease, which, on average, kills victims before age fifty. With the state of medical science during the feud era, I am sure that victims of the terrible malady would have normally died much earlier than age fifty. The most common tumor is in the brain (47%) with kidney cancer second. Pheochromocytomas—the ones King is talking about which affect the adrenals—appear in less than fifteen percent of the patients.
The national Institutes of Health says of pheochromocytomas: “Pheochromocytomas are usually noncancerous. They may cause no symptoms, but in some cases they are associated with headaches, panic attacks, excess sweating, or dangerously high blood pressure that may not respond to medication. Pheochromocytomas are particularly dangerous if they develop during pregnancy.”[iii] That is ALL they say about the adrenal growths. Does anyone doubt that if this condition was likely to cause someone to kill a neighbor next Election Day, the government would have warned us about it?
The VHL Alliance has, on the front page of its website: “VHL or von Hippel-Lindau is a genetic form of cancer. VHL patients battle a series of tumors throughout their lives. The VHL gene is involved in many other forms of cancer. Finding a cure for VHL will play a vital role in curing cancer!” http://www.vhl.org/
In King’s description, the symptoms enumerated by the National Institutes of Health, are just afterthoughts, which he mentions only after telling us that it causes sufferers to stab folks at elections.
If Ran’l had the rare disease, he was indeed a lucky man. Whereas the average victim dies before age fifty, Ol’ Ran’l lived to eighty-nine, and might have made a hundred had he not caught his shirt-tail on fire while cooking over an open fire.
How low will the feud liars stoop? Well, their deliberate falsification of the nature of this horrible form of cancer is one indicator. I, personally, believe that there is no limit to their mendacity.
Postscript: It is unfortunate that the Vanderbilt Magazine picked up the story, in its fall, 2007 issue, thereby giving it the gravitas of the Vanderbilt name. The story first appeared in the Associated Press several months earlier: MARILYNN MARCHIONE, Associated Press | April 6, 2007 http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Hatfield-McCoy-feud-fueled-by-genetic-disorder-1838496.php
[i] King, 140
[ii] King, 374, n2.
[iii] http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/von-hippel-lindau-syndrome