Although John Spears, in 1888, wrote an account of the Hatfield and McCoy feud that was “wildly inaccurate,” Spears was not a “feud liar.”
John R. Spears was a gifted writer, and a serious historian. His “History of the United States Navy” proves his worth. He was a dedicated researcher, who tried to find the best sources for his writings.
When his paper, The New York Sun, assigned Spears the task of chronicling the events in Tug Valley, Spears made the arduous trip from New York to Pikeville, Kentucky. Spears intended to get his information “Straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Spears names his sources. He said he talked to many of the leading citizens of Pikeville, and names specifically Randolph and Sally McCoy and their eldest son, Jim. Spears spent more than a day touring the area of the feud events in the company of Jim McCoy. He also cites “A lawyer familiar with the affair,” who was certainly Perry Cline. Therein lies the rub.
Spears had unwittingly gone to the worst possible sources for a factual accounting of the events. Both Ran’l and Jim McCoy were charged in West Virginia for the murders of Jim Vance and Bill Dempsey. The eldest son of Perry Cline, John S. Cline, was also under indictment for those murders. Is it any wonder that two men facing the noose, a woman whose husband and three sons were in the same jeopardy, and the father of a son likewise exposed would give Spears a story that exonerated the Kentucky feud protagonists and condemned the West Virginians?
Spears does not begin his feud with the 1865 death of Ran’l’s brother, Asa Harmon McCoy. That embellishment would not come until the middle of the twentieth century. Spears’ story begins with the infamous “Hog trial.” The story, which is advanced in all the feud books save mine, is essentially as set out on the sign placed by the Kentucky tourism folks.
I have several posts on my blog and Facebook page which prove conclusively that every single “fact” on that sign which is amenable to documentary proof is absolutely FALSE! Every writer who has read either my books or my internet postings who then has the pig trial yarn in his/her “history” is either too lazy to do research, or is a feud liar.
I am sure that Spears related what he was told when he wrote what Sally said about Jim Vance during the New Year’s, 1888 raid on her home: “He (Vance) struck me in the side with (his gun) and knocked me down.” (p.29)
Without citing Spears, West Virginia Historian Laureate, Otis Rice, wrote: “Vance bounded toward her and struck her with the butt of the rifle.” (p.62) Rice not only knew that Vance was the culprit, he even knew that he “bounded toward her!”
Citing Spears and several other writers who had also cited Spears, Dean King wrote: “Crazy Jim swung the gun butt at her, breaking two of her ribs and knocking her flat.” (p.191) The Richmond novelist knew, even in those pre-X-ray days, exactly how many ribs were broken by “Crazy Jim.”
We are fortunate to have evidence from four persons who were present at the time Sally McCoy was struck. In the newspaper report of his ‘confession’, Charles Gillespie said he thought Ellison Mounts struck Sally. In the ‘confession’ written for him by the Pike prosecutor, Ellison Mounts said he thought Johnse Hatfield struck Sally.
In the trial of Ellison Mounts, Sally McCoy swore under oath that “SOMEONE struck me.” As she was talking to a man she thought might have been Jim Vance at the time, Jim Vance is the ONLY person in the universe who could not possibly have been the one who struck Sally!
The only eyewitness to the attack who testified under oath was Melvin McCoy, grandson of Sally. In the 1899 trial of Johnse Hatfield, Melvin McCoy swore: “Johnse Hatfield struck her with a Winchester.”
These two examples of proven feud lies are sufficient for my purposes here. Both the hog trial and “Crazy Jim Vance” are vital to the feud yarn, and all versions have them. With the proofs that I have published, readers can know right away if they are reading a feud yarn or history.
If the story has either a hog trial as set out on that sign as real history, or a “Crazy Jim Vance” striking Sally McCoy, the writer is either too lazy to do rudimentary research, or he/she is a FEUD LIAR!
The only possible exceptions would be writers who got their story directly from Ran’l and Sally McCoy, and John Spears is the only writer who qualifies under that exception.