Asa Harmon McCoy – Lies, Damned Lies and Feud Tales

Jim Vance is “a raccoon with rabies, a psychopath, a misogynist, and throw in a pinch of Bruce Dern. That’s the recipe.”—Tom Berenger

Otis Rice, a full professor and the West Virginia Historian Laureate, wrote of Jim Vance: “The tall, heavy-set, dark-bearded Vance, himself a later casualty in the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, had a reputation, even among his rough associates, for ruthlessness and vindictiveness.” The “historian Laureate” gives NO supporting documentation for his wildly inaccurate description of Jim Vance, and he had good reasons not to. How could Rice present Vance as a ruthless and vindictive criminal when the court records show him holding the offices of constable and justice of the peace in West Virginia and deputy sheriff in Kentucky, with not a single criminal charge–not even a misdemeanor–against him in his entire long life?

This essay, in its entirety, can be read in my book, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Feud Tales.” https://www.amazon.com/dp/1977716814/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511238586&sr=1-1&keywords=Lies%2C+Damned+Lies%2C+and+Feud+Tales

We don’t have as big a megaphone as does the “feud industry,” but we a ARE making progress! Dean King has this photo of my great uncle, Constable Floyd Hatfield on page 53 of his book, The Feud. King captions the photo “Hog Floyd Hatfield.”

The West Virginia Culture website had the photo, properly captioned, on it website. After King’s book came out, someone at the Culture and History Department obviously read it and changed the caption to “Hog Floyd” Hatfield, just as it is in King’s book.

Jack Hatfield, grandson of my great-great-Uncle, Constable Floyd Hatfield, got in touch and gave them the facts. That photo is now again correctly captioned http://www.wvculture.org/history/hatfield/hfindex.html

Will King persist in calling Constable Floyd Hatfield “Hog Floyd” when his paperback is issued? Will the paperback continue to use the bogus photos of “Randall McCoy” (p. 22), Asa Harmon McCoy (p. 37), and the three unknown corpses as the sons of Ran’l McCoy (p. 120)?

Many serious feud scholars are wondering how much of the spurious “data” will be excised for the paperback. I don’t expect many changes, because to “clean it up” would require a complete re-write, which would not even resemble the first edition.

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