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The True And Horrifying Story Of Corpsewood Manor - Georgia · Mystery Archives Episodes

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They called it Corpsewood Manor, a name born from dead trees and
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Gothic whimsy whispered through the Pines of Taylor Ridge like
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an unholy hymn. It wasn't just a house.
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It was a handmade fortress of eccentricity, nestled deep in
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the backwoods of North Georgia, where brick walls held no
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insulation and strange sigils glared from stained glass like
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watchful eyes. To the locals, it was the home
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of two devil worshippers, a castle of sin where wine flowed
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like blood and forbidden pleasures curled in the dark.
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To its owners, Doctor Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom, it was
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a refuge from judgment, a dream carved out of isolation in
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Earth, a sanctuary far from the reach of society's scorn.
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But dreams, when misread by the cruel or the ignorant, can
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become nightmares. On a bitter December night in
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1982, that dream was shattered by 4 gunshots, then five more.
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A harp, gold leafed and silent, watched as its master fell. 2
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loyal mastiffs died trying to protect him.
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When the killers fled into the shadows, they left behind not
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just a scene of unspeakable violence, but something else.
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Something colder than blood and quieter than death.
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What happened at Corpsewood was more than murder.
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It was an exorcism of the unwanted, cloaked in bigotry and
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greed. And in its aftermath, the land
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itself would not rest. The Manor burned.
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The bricks refused to stay quiet.
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Those who returned spoke of eyes in the forest, phantom howls and
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music with no source. This is the true story of
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Corpsewood Manor, a tale of sanctuary turned slaughterhouse,
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of men haunted for who they were, of murder that bred myth,
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and perhaps something beyond myth.
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The facts are real, the horror is undeniable.
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And the dead? Some say that they never left.
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In December 1982, a gruesome double murder in rural north
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Georgia shocked the nation. Doctor Charles Scudder, a
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retired university professor, and his partner Joseph Joey Odom
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were found brutally slain at their hand built home, an
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isolated brick mini castle that they called Corpsewood Manor.
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The murders and the bizarre circumstances surrounding the
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crime scene quickly became the stuff of local legend.
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To this day, the tale of Corpsewood Manor haunts
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Chattooga County. A blend of true crime horror and
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whispered paranormal folklore, it's a story of two eccentric
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men seeking peace made a violent end, a pair of Drifters driven
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by greed and hate, and a crime scene so lurid that it fed
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tabloid headlines about devil worship and sparked ghost
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stories that linger for decades. Doctor Charles Lee Scutter was
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an accomplished scientist and academic before he ever set foot
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in the Georgia woods. Born in 1926, Scudder earned a
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PhD in pharmacology and spent over a decade as an associate
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professor at Loyola University in Chicago.
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By the late 1970s, however, he had grown disillusioned with
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urban life and academia. He was weary of university
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politics, the chaos of the city, and what he perceived as the
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moral decay around him. Scudder had also undergone
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personal changes. He had been married, fathering
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four sons, and divorced, and by 1959 he had met Joseph Odom, a
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gentle soul 12 years his junior who originally worked as
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Scudder's housekeeper and cook. Overtime, Scudder and Odom
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became devoted companions and lovers seeking a simpler, more
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fulfilling life Together. The pair dreamed of leaving
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Chicago's turmoil behind and retreating somewhere quiet,
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remote and open minded enough to tolerate 2 openly gay men.
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Scudder's vision of an idyllic sanctuary was vividly described
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in a Mother Earth News article he wrote.
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He longed for some place in hilly country, with the glamour
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of Four Seasons, but without super cold winters and with a
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good supply of pure water and wood for heating, most
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importantly, with a measure of isolation.
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On his 50th birthday in October 1976, Doctor Scudder turned that
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dream into a reality. He resigned from his faculty
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position, auctioned off most of his posh belongings, and shed
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modern conveniences, even giving away all of his appliances in
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preparation for an off grid life.
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With a modest inheritance from his mother's recent passing,
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Scudder purchased a 40 acre wooded tract on Taylor's Ridge
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in Chattooga County, Georgia. That winter, he and Odom packed
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their two beloved English Mastiff dogs into a Jeep and
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drove S through a Blizzard to their new home site.
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The journey was arduous. They lost their way in the
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Appalachian foothills and even camped in a tent amid a
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snowstorm. But when the skies cleared, they
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beheld an otherworldly scene of bear bone wide trees on the
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Ridge. The abundance of leafless,
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lifeless trees looked like corpses, inspiring the macabre
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name Corpse Wood their homestead.
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Charles Scudder and Joey Odom set out to build their own
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little castle in the wilderness entirely by hand.
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They lived out of a cramped camper as they broke ground on
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the new house in early 1977. With determination and labor,
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the couple spent roughly 2 years laying 45,000 bricks, 1 by 1 to
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construct A2 story brick home with walls 3 layers thick,
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Scudder drew up unconventional plans inspired by medieval
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architecture. In fact, there are no square
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corners in the whole place, an investigator later remarked, of
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the oddly rounded turret like design.
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The 1st floor, finished by the end of summer of 1977, contained
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a kitchen, dining room and living area.
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By the next year, the 2nd floor, 2 cozy bedrooms reached by a
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circular staircase lit by stained glass windows, was
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topped with a roof. They dug a deep well and built a
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small brick pump house for it, installed a wood burning stove
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for heat, and erected a brick outhouse for a chemical toilet.
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All of this was achieved with no electricity and using only hand
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tools, truly living off the grid long before it was trendy.
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From the outset, Scudder's flair for the occult and dramatic was
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embedded in corpse woods design. He crowned the arch front
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entrance with a leering pink gargoyle statue made of
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concrete, a guardian demon watching over the door.
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Inside, he crafted stained glass windows depicting a human skull
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and the goat headed Baphomet, an emblem of the Church of Satan.
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Scudder was indeed an official member of Anton Lavey's Church
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of Satan, an atheist philosophy, rather than a literal devil
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worshipping 1, and his new home was filled with arcane and
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unsettling decor. He kept human skulls from his
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days in medical research. A black and gold statue of the
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demon Mephistophiles stood on display, and each of the manor's
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4 brick chimneys was adorned with an inverted pentagram
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symbol. Life at Corpswood Manor was
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deliberately primitive, which gave the place an even more
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gothic atmosphere. The Manor had no electricity, no
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phone and no plumbing. At night, the couple rallied on
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oil lamps and candles that cast dancing shadows across the
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walls, decorated with a cult artwork.
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A wood stove in the kitchen provided heat and a place to
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cook the vegetables that they grew in their garden.
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Odom tended a small Rose Garden out front in a patch of
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muscadine grape vines, Outback for making homemade wine.
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By day, the two men tended to a menagerie of animals and
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projects on their land. Besides their two mastiffs,
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aptly named Beelzebub and Arsenov, they kept chickens and
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even built a small lake, orchard and opiary over time.
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In a 1981 letter, Scudder described an idyllic daily
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routine at Corpse Wood. At 10:00 AM we had tea in the
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gazebo. Tonight I may practice my harp,
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or perhaps I'll sit in the courtyard and listen to the tree
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frogs and whipper wills while bats fly and clouds drift across
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the full moon. The world that's around me now
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is fresh, quiet, and very beautiful indeed.
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Scudder brought a lavish gold leaf harp to this wilderness and
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often played music under the stars, adding to the site's
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otherworldly aura. Beyond the main house, Scudder
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and Odom erected several outbuildings, including a three
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story brick chicken coop that would gain infamy and local
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lore. The first floor of this
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structure housed their poultry and stored food.
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The 2nd floor held supplies and reportedly part of the couple's
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extensive pornography collection.
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The top floor was painted entirely in a rosy hue and
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decked out as a den of pleasures, soon known as the
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Pink Room. Inside this loft space were
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mattresses draped in pink candles and lanterns for light,
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Assorted whips and chains hung on the walls and a log book for
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visitors to sign in. This was Scudder and Odom's
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private retreat for entertaining guests, a secluded loft where
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they offered guests homemade wine, marijuana and an escape
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from prying eyes. Locals whispered that sexual
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parties took place in the Pink room, and indeed, Scudder did
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not hide his free spirited sexuality.
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The pair were not monogamous, and Scudder was known to
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correspond with pen pals, including prison inmates, about
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erotic interests, even keeping notes on various lovers kinks.
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Rumors later claimed that the Pink Room's guest book contained
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names of up to 300 visitors, including supposedly some
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prominent local men, though the Ledger mysteriously vanished
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during the murder investigation. Whether or not local VIPs
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indulged in corpse woods offerings, such rumors only
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fueled the dark legend that grew around the place.
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Despite their quest for seclusion, Scudder and Odom did
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not entirely shun the outside world.
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They frequently drove their black Jeep into the tiny town of
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Tryon for groceries and supplies.
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Their vehicle turned heads. It was emblazoned with occult
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symbols, including a large pentacle on the side.
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In the conservative rural South of the early 1980s, this alone
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caused a stir. Townsfolk began to gossip about
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the two peculiar devil worshippers living up on the
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Ridge. Whispers spread of satanic
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rituals, orgies in a pleasure castle and other lured
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imaginings. Some locals used homophobic
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slurs, referring to Scudder and Odom as the queer devil
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worshippers on the mountain. Yet those who actually met the
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men often came away with a different impression.
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By all the counts, Scudder and Odom were friendly and
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accommodating to curious folk and wandering deer hunters.
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The couple did not brandish weapons or threaten trespassers.
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They welcomed neighbors and adventurers alike with flasks of
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their potent homemade wine and marijuana joints by the fire.
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One of those visitors was Kenneth Avery Brock, a local
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teenager who stumbled onto Corpse Wood Manor while hunting
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deer in the woods in 1982. Brock was 17 years old, a high
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school dropout doing odd jobs, and he had heard the fearful
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whispers about the gay devil worshippers on Taylor's Ridge.
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But curiosity got the better of him when he encountered Dr.
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Scudder on a hunting foray. The professor turned homesteader
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greeted him warmly. Scudder even gave Brock
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permission to hunt on the property and invited him to the
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Pink Room for a taste of homemade musketeen wine and
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conversation. By Brock's later account, these
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visits turned sexual. Then he returned several times
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for intimate encounters with the men.
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At the time, the age of consent in Georgia was just 14, but
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sodomy, even between consenting adults, was still illegal.
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Brock's secret liaisons with the two men would have been
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scandalous if revealed, and he reportedly kept them hidden from
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his friends. Nonetheless, his experiences at
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Corpse Wood planted a seed in his mind, one that would soon
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grow into a deadly plot. In the fall of 1982, Kenneth
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Avery Brock moved into a trailer home in the nearby Halls Valley
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with a new roommate, Samuel Tony W, age 30.
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W was considerably older than Brock and had a far more
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troubled past. Hailing from the same area, W
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had spent much of his life in and out of prisons in mental
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institutions. In fact, his criminal history
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was already littered with violence.
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Chillingly, West's career in crime had begun years earlier
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when he shot and killed his own 2 year old nephew in what was
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described as an execution style murder.
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He had also been implicated in other serious crimes over the
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years. By 1982, Tony W was an
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unemployed ex-con living in a rundown trailer, a volatile man
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described as wild and prone to bouts of cruelty by those who
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knew him. Brock, drifting and aimless,
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became West's roommate and an unlikely friend.
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It wasn't long before young Brock told West all about the
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oddball couple living up on Taylor's Ridge.
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In Brock's telling, Corpswood Manor must have sounded like a
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tempting target. He spun tales of rich Satanists
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who dwelt in a remote brick mansion filled with antiques,
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who drank fine wine, and most importantly, who Brock believed
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were hiding a fortune somewhere in the walls of their house.
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Brock had seen enough to tantalize him.
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Scudder's gold encrusted harp, valuable looking artwork and
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furniture, and perhaps even vials of LSD and drugs that
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might fetch a price. And indeed, Scudder kept a
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supply of LSD old lab samples on hand, though it turns out they
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were mostly inert. Neither Brock nor W had much
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money to their names, and the prospect of robbing the couple
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promised a windfall beyond their wildest dreams.
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So in the privacy of that trailer, the two men began to
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plan. As W later admitted to
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investigators, they planned the crime days in advance.
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They would gain entry under friendly pretenses, then subdue
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the victims, torture them if necessary, and force them to
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reveal where their money and treasures were hidden.
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Brock even attempted a reconnaissance mission in
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November of 1982. He visited Corpse Woods several
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times that month, ostensibly to socialize, but with an ulterior
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motive of learning the layout of the house and where valuables
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might be kept. However, Scudder and Odom never
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let the teenager inside the main house beyond the vestibule.
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All of Brock's interactions took place in outdoor areas or in the
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Pink Room loft. He remained largely unaware that
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the brick mansion had no safe full of cash.
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No electricity, which might have tipped him off that high value
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electronics or appliances were absent.
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And in fact, there was very little money on the side at all.
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The homesteaders lived simply on about $200 a month, with any
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savings kept in a local bank. Brock's imagination, fueled by
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town gossip and youthful greed, filled in the blanks with
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fantasies of hidden riches. Frustrated by his limited
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knowledge of the interior, Brock and West decided that they would
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simply have to storm Corpsewood Manor and find the loot.
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By force, they prepared weapons and tools for the deed.
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Brock borrowed a 22 caliber Remington rifle from his mother
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under the ruse of needing it. The hunt rabbits.
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West, meanwhile, mixed up a batch of home brew intoxicant
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called Toodaloo. A noxious cocktail of alcohol,
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paint thinner and glue huffed to produce a cheap high.
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On December 12th of 1982, the conspirators set their plan into
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motion. They invited two teenagers, Joey
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Wells, West's 18 year old nephew, and his girlfriend
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Teresa Hudgens, both of whom were unaware of the plot, to
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ride along with them. Under the pretense of a casual
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double date, Brock and West suggested they all drive up into
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the mountains to visit those folks at Corpse Wood or some
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homemade wine, a proposition which sounded harmless enough to
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the teens, though Teresa was uneasy about visiting devil
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worshippers. But she was eventually coaxed
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into it. The four loaded into West's car,
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bringing along the rifle, a jug of tutaloo, and a couple of
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empty wine flasks. They rumbled up the winding dirt
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road and formerly known as Dead Horse Road toward Corpsewood
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Manor as dusk fell. As they neared the property,
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Teresa later recalled seeing the rifle wedged between the front
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two seats, an ominous sign that something was amiss.
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Charles Scudder and Joey Odom were relaxing on that chilly
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Sunday evening, unaware of the danger that approached them.
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Earlier, Odom had prepared a chicken dinner and the couple
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likely spent the early night in routine, perhaps listening to
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music or reading by lamplight. They had no telephone and no
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electricity, so surprise visitors were not uncommon and
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usually welcomed. Sometime after dark, the sound
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of car tires crunching up the leaf strewn Dr. announced the
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arrival of guests. Doctor Scudder stepped outside
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to greet the unexpected guests, even bummed a cigarette from the
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young men to take inside to Joey Odom who was tidying up the
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kitchen after supper. The group explained that they
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were just out joyriding and thought that they'd stop by.
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Being the ever gracious host that he was, Scudder invited all
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four visitors to climb the 40 foot ladder up to the pink room
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or some plum wine and conversation.
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He had no reason to suspect anything sinister.
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Brock was a familiar face by now, and the presence of a young
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woman likely put the couple further at ease.
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Up in the drafty pink room, illuminated by a single kerosene
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Lantern and a propane heater, Scudder poured glasses of his
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homemade muscadine wine for everyone.
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Rock passed around a plastic bag of the Toodaloo cocktail, which
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Teresa and Joey Wells sniffed, though Doctor Scudder himself
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politely declined the huffing in favor of sipping wine.
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The gathering must have seemed surreal. 5 people huddled in the
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dimly lit attic loft, painted Pepto Bismol pink, surrounded by
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whips and eccentric bric a brac, with the winter wind howling
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outside. For a few minutes they engaged
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in small talk, and Scudder's 2 English mastiffs sparked
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occasionally down below, uneasy at the unfamiliar commotion.
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Perhaps to break the ice, Scudder played host in his
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quirky way by showing off some pornography and making jokes.
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Any semblance of normalcy, however, was short lived.
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After 15 or 20 minutes, Kenneth Brock excused himself, saying
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that he needed to go down to the car to get more party drink.
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He clamored down the ladder back into the cold night.
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In truth, this was the moment that he and West had been
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waiting for. Their ambush was about to begin.
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Rock retrieved the loaded 22 caliber rifle from the vehicle
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and returned to the base of the ladder when the young man
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emerged again through the trap door in the pink room, armed
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with the rifle, Doctor Scudder's eyes caught the glint of the gun
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barrel. Incredibly, Scudder laughed,
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perhaps thinking that it was a prank.
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The Gray haired professor calmly joked.
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Bang Bang. As if playing cops and robbers,
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his relaxed reaction may be born of intoxication or disbelief.
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Momentarily threw Brock off guard, but Tony W, eyes blazing,
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pulled out a knife. In a flash, Brock lunged at
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Scudder, yanking this slight 50 year old man by his long Gray
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hair while W pressed the knife blade hard against Scudder's
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throat. At this moment, any illusion of
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a harmless visit evaporated. Teresa Hudgens let out a scream
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and Joey Wells frozen terror. W barked orders, shoving
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Scudder's face down and binding his hands with a rope.
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The attackers demanded that Scudder tell them where the
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money was. Though startled and roughed up,
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Scudder remained eerily calm. He insisted that there was no
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fortune hidden here, The house held no cash and only a few
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valuables, that their modest funds were all kept in a bank
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account instead. Not believing him, Brock grew
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agitated. He decided to force Joey Odom to
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hand over money instead. Brock clamored back down the
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ladder, shouting for Odom to come out of the main house with
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the dogs. Frightened, Teresa and Joey
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Wells saw their chance and bolted down the ladder as well,
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hoping to run to the car. But Tony W chased after them,
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catching the teens before they could escape.
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But Tony W chased after them, catching the teens before they
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could escape. At gunpoint.
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He corralled them back, even attempting to start the getaway
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car himself at one point. But the car stalled, leaving
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them no choice but to drag the trembling teenagers back up into
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the loft as hostages. Meanwhile, at the foot of the
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ladder, Kenneth Brock was already kicking in the kitchen
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door of the Manor. Joey Odom heard the commotion
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and his lover's distant voice and had him latched the door to
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see what was happening. He was greeted by the muzzle of
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Brock's 22 rifle. Without hesitation, Brock opened
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fire. A crack of gunfire then echoed
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throughout the trees. Odom was struck multiple times
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and crumpled to the floor of the kitchen.
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Brock then turned the rifle on the two mastiffs, shooting both
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dogs at point blank range as they cowered by the wood stove.
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The loyal mastiffs that had been the Pride of Corpse Wood now lay
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dying alongside Odom in the pink room above West, and the teens
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heard the gunshots ring out in quick succession.
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Teresa later said that it was a barrage of bullets and then a
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terrible silence. W forced the bound Scudder and
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the two shocked teenagers down the ladder and then marched them
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at gunpoint toward the main house.
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It was a chaotic scene. The once cozy home now had a
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bullet riddled door, blood splattered on the walls, and the
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smell of gunpowder and death in the air.
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Joey Odom, though mortally wounded, was still clinging to
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life on the kitchen floor, and he had managed to drag himself a
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short distance, smearing blood across the stone tiles.
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Charles Scudder's eyes fell on the horrifying sight of his
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partner sprawled in blood. The professor's composure
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finally cracked. He lurched forward, muffling a
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cry through the gag that W had shoved over his mouth.
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W ripped the gag off and again demanded.
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Where's the damn money? He also snarled the Brock to
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fetch a soldering iron from the tools, apparently intending to
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torture Scudder for information. Scudder even now managed a dark
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quip. We don't have electricity out
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here, So what good would a soldering iron do?
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Enraged at the defiance, Wes threatened more violence.
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In that moment, Doctor Scudder looked around at the carnage.
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His lifelong partner dying, their beloved dogs slain, their
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dream home violated. And he spoke quietly.
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I asked for this, he said cryptically.
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Perhaps those words reflected regret for inviting these
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dangerous young men into his haven, or regret for moving to a
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place where such intolerance festered.
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Those would be his final words. Scudder made a desperate lunge
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toward Joey Odom's prone body, reaching out to comfort his
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partner even as W aimed the gun. A shot exploded from West's
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rifle, and Doctor Scudder fell, a bullet wound searing through
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his face. Incredibly, Scudder did not die
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instantly. Despite a severe wound, the 50
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year old man was still moving, stubbornly attempting to crawl
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toward Odom. Brock and West stood over him
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and coldly fired four more rounds into Scudder's head at
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close range. At last, Doctor Charles Scudder
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lay still, his blood pooling onto the floor near his
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cherished library of occult books and the fallen Christmas
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tree. The castle in the woods had
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truly become a corpse wood, its keepers now corpses within its
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walls. In a grim stroke of irony,
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hanging on the wall not far from Scudder's body was a
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self-portrait that he had painted of himself some months
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earlier. In the painting, Scudder
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depicted himself bound and gagged and with five bleeding
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bullet wounds in his head. It was as if the scene now
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playing out had been foretold on the canvas, an eerie premonition
33:46
realized in blood. Even the killers would later
33:50
remark on the spooky accuracy of that artwork.
33:55
It's paint now flecked the very gore it predicted.
34:01
Joey Odom was still gasping weakly, terribly wounded but not
34:07
yet dead. Rock approached the crawling man
34:12
and ended Odom's life. But the final point blank
34:16
gunshot executing him on the spot.
34:21
The brutal deed was done. In only a few explosive minutes.
34:27
The quiet of the Georgia woods had given way to gunfire and
34:31
screams, and two innocent men, along with their dogs, had been
34:37
slaughtered in their own sanctuary.
34:40
The terrified teen witnesses, Joey Wells and Teresa Hudgens,
34:45
huddled together in shock, weeping and begging for their
34:50
lives. Brock and West spared them, but
34:54
only because they might prove useful and could be intimidated
34:59
into silence. With Scudder and Odom dead, the
35:03
intruders ransacked Corpsewood Manor in a frenzy.
35:07
They tore through drawers, flipped mattresses, and pried at
35:12
floorboards, desperately searching for cash and
35:18
valuables. They found almost nothing of the
35:21
riches that they had imagined. In the end, the murderers
35:26
grabbed a handful of personal items, a few pieces of jewelry,
35:32
a gold plated ceremonial dagger, a couple of silver candlesticks,
35:39
a pistol, and a leather jacket. They also eyed Doctor Scudder's
35:44
big harp, perhaps the single most valuable item in the house,
35:50
and even lugged it out to the car, but it proved too large to
35:55
fit into the vehicle. Frustration and disappointment
35:59
set in as it dawned on them that there was no hidden fortune.
36:04
This whole massacre had been for a few meager trinkets.
36:10
Time was running out before someone might come along, so the
36:13
men decided to flee. They forced Teresa and Joey
36:18
Wells back into their own car and left the crime scene in
36:22
shambles. Crimson blood splashed across
36:26
the manor's brick walls and bookshelves.
36:31
Outside, W issued a chilling warning to the teens.
36:35
If they told anyone what had happened here, you would kill
36:40
them too. In fact, according to later
36:44
reports, Teresa was essentially held hostage by the extended
36:49
Wells family for the next several days.
36:53
They were terrified that if she went to the police, West might
36:57
return and harm them all. Brock and West then transferred
37:02
their stolen goods into Doctor Scudder's black Jeep.
37:06
The killers decided to use the victim's own vehicle for their
37:10
getaway, since West's car was not running reliably since it
37:15
had stalled earlier, they started the Jeep barreled off
37:20
down the mountain, leaving Corpsewood Manor littered with
37:24
bodies, bullet casings and spilled wine.
37:29
In their haste, they had abandoned some incriminating
37:33
evidence. Notably, West had left behind
37:37
his bloody knife and Brock his rifle, the stock of which had
37:43
broken during the assaults. But any concerns about covering
37:48
their tracks were secondary. To escape, Brock and West drove
37:53
through the night, heading westward out of Georgia.
37:57
Their fanciful plan was to flee to Mexico, far from the reach of
38:03
southern justice. Little did they know, their
38:07
nightmare was not over. They were about to add another
38:12
victim to their bloody tally. Zbrock and West speed away from
38:17
the darkened woods of Chattanooga County on the night
38:21
of December 12th, 1982. News of the murders had not yet
38:27
reached anyone. The remote location of corpse
38:31
wood meant that the bodies of Charles Scudder and Joey Odom
38:36
would lie undiscovered for days. Meanwhile, the two fugitives
38:42
drove Doctor Scudder's Jeep across state lines, chain
38:46
smoking and nervously planning their next moves.
38:51
They swapped out the Jeep's distinctive license plate to
38:54
avoid detection. By the next day, December 13th,
38:59
they had reached rural Mississippi.
39:02
Low on fuel and money, the pair decided to ditch the very
39:07
identifiable black Jeep for another vehicle that would not
39:12
attract attention. Later that day, the duo pulled
39:17
into a rest area near Vicksburg where a lone car sat with a man
39:22
sleeping inside. The man was Navy Lieutenant
39:27
Kirby Ken Phelps, age 26, is on his way home to Georgia for the
39:34
holidays. Brock and West crept up to
39:38
Phelps small Toyota and in a maneuver as cold blooded as the
39:43
corpse would attack, they woke the groggy Navy Lieutenant at
39:47
gunpoint and forced him to walk into the woods beside the rest
39:52
stop. As they prepared to tie him to a
39:56
tree, Lieutenant Phelps made a desperate attempt to flee.
40:01
Tony W did not hesitate. He shot the young officer dead,
40:07
firing multiple bullets into Phelps before he could escape.
40:13
Rockin W then stole Phelps wallet, netting only a bit of
40:17
cash in his car, abandoning Scudder's Jeep there at the rest
40:22
stop. The senseless murder of
40:24
Lieutenant Phelps, a stranger to them, demonstrated that Brock
40:28
and West were willing to kill anyone who got in their way,
40:33
even when it was completely unnecessary.
40:36
It was an act of pure, callous violence that would later
40:41
horrify the public even more than the initial murders.
40:46
After switching to Phelps's car, the fugitives continued W for a
40:51
time, possibly considering heading toward California or
40:55
Mexico. But tensions were rising between
40:59
the two accomplices. They've been on the run for
41:02
days. They were hungry, tired, and
41:06
growing increasingly distrustful of one another.
41:11
They argued in Austin, TX over their next steps and ended up
41:16
splitting up around December 17th or 18th.
41:22
Kenneth Brock, the younger of the two, was cracking under the
41:26
weight of guilt and fear. He ultimately decided to turn
41:30
back toward Georgia, perhaps hoping to surrender and blame
41:35
everything on West. Brock hitchhiked his way east,
41:40
reaching Georgia by December 20th of 1982.
41:45
Near Marietta, just outside of Atlanta, he called his mother
41:49
from a payphone. She informed him that the police
41:53
were looking for him and that the whole horrific story had
41:57
started to come out. Brock quickly hung up, resigned
42:02
to his fate. He walked into a nearby gas
42:05
station and calmly confessed to the attendant that he was
42:10
involved in the Corpsewood murders.
42:14
The clerk kept him talking until law enforcement, who by then had
42:20
an arrest warrant out for him, arrived within minutes.
42:24
They then took him into custody without incident.
42:29
Tony West's journey took a different turn.
42:32
After parting from Brock in Texas, W meandered through
42:37
Oklahoma and Missouri, apparently unsure of where to
42:41
go. On Christmas Eve, 1982, West was
42:47
in Chattanooga, TN, just a short drive from the Georgia State
42:52
line, when his stolen car ran out of gas.
42:57
Exhausted, broke, and desperate, W walked through cold rain into
43:04
a highway truck stop lounge on the outskirts of Chattanooga.
43:09
There, he actually approached a uniformed police officer and
43:13
said, go ahead and take me in. West essentially surrendered,
43:20
confessing on the spot that he was wanted for murders back in
43:24
Georgia. The officer, startled by this
43:28
unsolicited confession, checked for warrants but initially
43:32
couldn't find one for West in the system, likely due to some
43:37
administrative delay. Regardless, W refused to leave.
43:43
He was shivering and exhausted. He clearly wanted to give
43:47
himself up, so the Tennessee officer detained him and
43:52
contacted Georgia authorities. By the early hours of Christmas
43:57
morning, Tony W was handed over to the Chattooga County deputies
44:03
and formally arrested for the murders of Charles Scudder and
44:08
Joey Odom. Back on Taylor's Ridge, several
44:13
days had passed and nobody had seen or heard from Doctor
44:17
Scudder or Joey Odom. The first sign of trouble came
44:23
on December 16th when a couple of locals noticed something odd
44:27
at Corpse Wood. One neighbor spotted bullet
44:31
holes riddling the door of the Manor and got an uneasy feeling.
44:37
That same day, Teresa Hudgens could no longer contain her
44:41
trauma. Having been effectively kept
44:45
under watch by Joey Wells's family since the night of the
44:48
murders, Teresa finally managed to reach out to her own family
44:54
and then the police. Overwhelmed and shaking, the
45:00
young woman told sheriff's deputies about the horrific
45:03
events that she had witnessed. With this eyewitness
45:08
information, Chattooga County Sheriff Gary McConnell and his
45:13
deputies raced up to Corpsewood Manor on December 16th.
45:19
Meanwhile, a family friend of Scudder and Odom's, worried
45:24
after days of silence, also came by the property that day, only
45:29
to flee in terror after glimpsing the gruesome scene
45:33
inside and smelling decay in the air.
45:38
Authorities would describe it as a crime scene unlike any other.
45:43
The quiet brick home was now a tabloid of horror.
45:48
Investigators found blood stained walls, overturned
45:52
furniture and spent bullet casings strewn about.
45:56
In the kitchen lay the body of Joseph Odom, collapsed in a pool
46:01
of his own blood near the stove, with the carcasses of the two
46:05
large mastiffs at his side. Deeper in the house, Doctor
46:10
Charles Scudder's body was discovered on the floor, his
46:13
hands still bound. The violence of his end was
46:18
obvious. Scudder had been gagged and shot
46:21
multiple times in the head, and fragments of his shattered
46:25
eyeglasses and teeth were scattered nearby.
46:29
Hanging on the wall above him, detectives noted with a shiver,
46:34
was Scudder's own self-portrait depicting almost an identical
46:38
scene. Truly a chilling detail that
46:42
many would consider to be a premonition.
46:45
Beyond the bloodshed, the contents of the house fascinated
46:49
and shocked law enforcement. The remote castle was filled
46:53
with an odd collection of items. These ranged from satanic and
46:58
occult artwork to ritual daggers, whips and chains, a
47:04
tiara and a wig, stacks of pornography, and two human
47:10
skulls. Deputies even came across three
47:13
small vials labeled LSD 25, later determined to be old,
47:19
mostly inactive samples that Scudder had taken from his lab
47:22
in Chicago years prior. The pink room in the
47:27
outbuilding, with its mattresses and bondage gear, further
47:32
confirmed the rumors of the couple's libertine lifestyle.
47:37
The scene was a detective's nightmare, but a tabloid
47:40
reporter's dream. Sheriff McConnell wisely
47:44
summoned the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, and state
47:49
crime lab technicians to meticulously process the site.
47:55
Evidence was collected, including the rifle and knife
47:59
left behind by the killers, fingerprints and the guest log
48:04
book, though intriguingly, the infamous guest book of names was
48:09
reported missing, possibly pilfered as a scandalous
48:13
keepsake. Word of the double murder of two
48:17
eccentric recluses spread quickly in law enforcement
48:21
circles and then to the media. On December 18th of 1982, the
48:27
Atlanta Constitution ran a headline that captured the
48:31
sensational tone that would pervade the coverage.
48:35
Slain devil worshippers or ex college teacher and companion?
48:41
The article quoted Sheriff McConnell, who noted it is a
48:45
very bizarre murder. The gentleman that lived in the
48:48
house were devil worshippers. We're a very small town, and we
48:54
had known about that, but that's just freedom of religion.
48:59
To McConnell's credit, he appeared to recognize that
49:02
Scudder and Odom's unorthodox beliefs were their own business.
49:07
But once that detail was out, the press ran with it
49:11
sensationally. The next day's paper spoke
49:14
breathlessly of the bizarre killing of two reclusive devil
49:18
worshippers and their homosexual activity, alluding to the whips
49:24
and unusual sexual devices found at the scene.
49:29
The salacious details of the skulls, satanic symbols and
49:33
paraphernalia were splashed across headlines from Georgia to
49:37
California. As The Associated Press and
49:41
other outlets picked up the story, small town Chattanooga
49:45
County suddenly found itself at the center of a national media
49:49
frenzy that mixed genuine horror at the crime with a prurient
49:54
fascination for the victims lifestyles.
49:59
Sheriff McConnell, meanwhile, had a triple homicide to solve
50:03
Scudder Odom and the unknown third victim from the Jeep who
50:09
would soon be identified as Lieutenant Phelps.
50:13
Thanks to Teresa Hudgens statement and evidence of the
50:16
scene, warrants were swiftly issued for Kenneth Avery Brock
50:21
and Tony West on the charges of murder.
50:26
The abandoned Jeep recovered by police in Mississippi, further
50:30
tied into the case once its Georgia plates were traced back
50:33
to Corpsewood Manor. With Brock already in custody by
50:37
December 20th and West captured by the 25th, the manhunt was
50:43
relatively short lived, but intends Brock had confessed his
50:48
role almost immediately upon surrender, providing
50:52
investigators with a detailed timeline of events.
50:56
W, after initially trying to blame Brock alone, also gave a
51:01
full confession of the shootings, including the murder
51:05
of Lieutenant Phelps to AGBI Agent.
51:10
All I can say is they were devils and I killed them.
51:14
That's how I feel about it, West said coldly, Speaking of Scudder
51:20
and Odom, By Christmas 1982, the killers were behind bars, and a
51:27
community was left to grapple with the aftermath.
51:31
On December 26th, the Atlanta Constitution printed a
51:35
particularly dramatic summary. Scudder and Odom were described
51:40
by authorities as homosexual devil worshippers who lived in a
51:45
dank castle like home cluttered with skulls, pornographic
51:50
materials and an extensive occult library, along with
51:55
statues of Satan, serpents, lizards and frogs.
52:01
The tone of some coverage verged on vilifying the victims more
52:05
than the perpetrators, a fact that did not go unnoticed by
52:10
outside observers. The Church of Satan's founder,
52:14
Anton Lavey, for instance, expressed anger at the injustice
52:19
of what happened to them, noting that this case was proof that in
52:23
parts of America, people could still be persecuted and even
52:28
killed for being different. Among many locals in Chattanooga
52:32
County, however, there was a conflicted response.
52:37
Some viewed Brock and West with a degree of grim sympathy,
52:41
seeing their act as, in their eyes, a cleansing of perceived
52:46
evil in the community. This dark notion that the
52:50
murders were justifiable in the eyes of the public would later
52:54
be remarked upon, underscoring the prejudice that Scudder and
52:59
Odom had quietly lived among the legal aftermath of the Corpse
53:04
Wood Manor murders moved quickly.
53:07
By February of 1983, just two months after the killings, case
53:12
was on the Chattooga County docket.
53:15
Facing overwhelming evidence and his own confession, Kenneth
53:20
Avery Brock accepted a plea deal.
53:23
On February 15th of 1983, Brock pleaded guilty to his role in
53:29
the murders, specifically admitting to shooting Joey Odom.
53:34
In exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
53:37
He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in
53:40
prison, one for each murder, including Lieutenant Phelps.
53:46
At 17 years old, Brock would have no chance for parole for
53:50
decades, effectively spending the rest of his life behind
53:54
bars. Tony W, however, chose to stand
53:58
trial. In late February of 1983, W was
54:03
tried for the murder in a Georgia courtroom with Judge
54:06
Joseph Loggins presiding, a judge known for being tough on
54:11
criminals. The trial lasted about a week
54:14
and a half, and it was as sensational as expected.
54:19
West's defense team floated multiple, sometimes
54:22
contradictory explanations in a bid to avoid a capital
54:26
conviction. Initially, W claimed that the
54:30
slayings were an act of revenge on Scudder, her supposedly
54:34
corrupting Brock, essentially saying that Brock had been
54:38
embarrassed by the sexual encounters with Scudder and that
54:42
they sought payback. This was a dubious rationale for
54:46
a robbery murder, and it didn't gain much traction.
54:51
The defense then shifted tactics, asserting that Doctor
54:54
Scudder had drugged Brock in West with LSD laced wine,
54:59
causing them to hallucinate and go temporarily insane.
55:04
West even alleged that he saw Scudder's golden harp pulsing
55:09
with an evil glow and that the professor had bewitched him
55:14
somehow. However, forensic tests on the
55:17
leftover wine found no trace of LSD.
55:21
Investigators had already learned that while Scudder owned
55:24
old LSD samples, he hadn't actually dosed anyone that
55:29
night. The only drugs consumed were
55:31
voluntary alcohol, marijuana and huffed Sullivans.
55:38
The prosecution countered with evidence of premeditation
55:42
witnesses and Brock's own statements showed the duo
55:46
planned the robbery while stone cold sober days beforehand.
55:52
At one point, West's attorney even resorted to inflaming
55:57
anti-gay sentiments in the courtroom, making homophobic
56:01
insinuations about the victims in an attempt to justify the
56:06
violence. The courtroom drama was intense,
56:10
but in the end, the facts were clear and the jury remained
56:15
unswayed by the defenses. After just two hours of
56:20
deliberation, the jury found Tony W guilty on all accounts.
56:27
He was sentenced to death by electrocution for the murders of
56:31
Scudder and Odom, and effectively for Lieutenant
56:35
Phelps as well. For a brief time, it looked like
56:39
W might face George's electric chair.
56:42
However, an appeals court later found an issue with the
56:47
composition of the jury. Reportedly not enough women.
56:51
Jurors were included, among other concerns, and overturned
56:55
the death sentence on procedural grounds.
57:00
Rather than face a retrial and the possibility of a new death
57:03
sentence, W agreed in March of 1985 to a plea deal.
57:09
He accepted 2 consecutive life sentences plus additional years
57:14
in exchange for the state dropping the pursuit of
57:17
execution. Thus, by 1985, both Brock and
57:23
West were securely in Georgia's prison system for life.
57:28
In the decades since, neither man has ever been paroled.
57:33
As of the 40th anniversary of the crime in 2022, Brock, who's
57:39
57 years old, now remains incarcerated at a Georgia
57:44
Correctional Facility, and West, around age 70, is also still
57:49
behind bars, each having been denied parole multiple times.
57:56
The law had done its work, but the court of public opinion was
57:59
left deeply divided about the case for years.
58:03
Sheriff McConnell bluntly summed up what he believed were the
58:07
killer's dual motives. Robbery was probably about 50%
58:12
of the motive. The rest likely the devil
58:15
worshipping and homosexuality. In other words, prejudice and
58:21
hatred played as much of A role as greed.
58:25
Tony West's own unapologetic post conviction statement
58:29
underscored that ugly truth. They were devils and I killed
58:34
them. That's how I feel about it.
58:37
Such sentiments were made clear that Scudder and Odom were
58:40
victimized not only by the bullets that killed them, but
58:44
also by the bigotry that followed them even in death.
58:50
With the trials over, the focus turned to what would become of
58:53
Corpse Wood Manor and the property.
58:57
Neither Scudder nor Odom had surviving partners or spouses,
59:01
so their families squabbled over their modest estate.
59:06
Dr. Scudder had willed everything to Joey Odom, but
59:09
since Odom too was deceased, Scudder's four adult sons and
59:15
Odom's sister each laid claim to the land and what remained of
59:19
the possessions. A notable legal battle ensued
59:23
over artifacts like Scudder's harp and the bronze
59:27
Mephosophiles statue. In 1983, famed Georgia defense
59:33
attorney Bobby Lee Cook was hired by Scudder's sons and
59:38
ultimately secured the harp and statue on their behalf.
59:43
These pieces curiously ended up in display and Cook's law office
59:48
for some time. The 40 acre property itself was
59:52
sold off relatively soon after the murders, passing into
59:57
private hands. The new owner did not relish the
1:00:01
site's dark notoriety, and trespassers were discouraged.
1:00:08
However, Corpsewood Manor did not stand intact for long.
1:00:13
In January of 1983, barely a month after the murders, a fire
1:00:19
of mysterious origin gutted the three story chicken house,
1:00:24
destroying the infamous pink room in which the nightmare had
1:00:28
begun. Locals suspected that it was
1:00:31
arson, perhaps revenge by someone outraged at the devil
1:00:36
worship that had allegedly occurred there, or simply
1:00:41
vandalism by thrill seekers. Then, in late 1983, another
1:00:48
blaze, almost certainly arson as well, earned the main Manor
1:00:52
house to ruins, consuming the wooden roof, floors and
1:00:58
exterior. The brick walls, sturdy to the
1:01:02
end, did not entirely collapse, but the once cozy home was now a
1:01:08
blackened shell, open to the sky.
1:01:12
Over the years, weather and neglect took their toll.
1:01:17
Ivy and wild vines crept over the remaining brick arches and
1:01:22
walls, and the forest began to reclaim the site.
1:01:27
By the 1990s and 2000s, all that was left of Corpsewood Manor
1:01:33
were piles of bricks, partial walls and the skeletal brick
1:01:38
pillars of what had been the front gazebo, or Scudder and
1:01:43
Odom Want strength or morning tea.
1:01:46
A pair of Stonegate pillars that marked the entry to the property
1:01:50
still stand, and the foundation outline of the Manor is barely
1:01:55
visible beneath the vines and fallen leaves.
1:02:00
Locals say the ruins exude an eerie calm now, like a tomb
1:02:04
sealed off in the woods. The land remains privately owned
1:02:10
and is considered off limits to visitors, but that has not
1:02:16
stopped curious souls from making pilgrimages.
1:02:21
Hikers, paranormal investigators and true crime enthusiasts
1:02:26
frequently sneak down the overgrown logging Rd.
1:02:30
Dead Horse Rd. A Scudder had grimly named it to
1:02:34
glimpse the place where the infamous events occurred.
1:02:39
In the wake of the tragedy, the remains of the victims were
1:02:43
handled according to their family's wishes in a small
1:02:47
private ceremony at Corpse Wood. Friends scattered Joey Odom's
1:02:52
ashes in his beloved Rose Garden on the property, granting his
1:02:56
wish to forever be a part of the place he loved.
1:03:01
Doctor Scudder's body was claimed by his family and
1:03:05
returned to Milwaukee, WI, where he was buried in the Scudder
1:03:09
family plot by his sister in April 1983.
1:03:15
Thus, even in death, the couple were separated, One laid to rest
1:03:21
in the soil of Corpse Wood, the other returned to his Midwestern
1:03:26
roots. For Chattooga County, the Corpse
1:03:31
Wood Manor case became a cautionary tale told for
1:03:34
generations. It highlighted the extreme
1:03:38
culture clash between two free living northern transplants and
1:03:43
the insular religious rural community they settled.
1:03:47
In the words of 1 commentator, 2 innocent men were brutally
1:03:53
murdered, then victimized again for their sexual orientation and
1:03:59
religious beliefs. Over time, some measure of
1:04:04
reexamination occurred. People began to recognize that
1:04:08
Scudder and Odom hurt no one, and that the real evil that
1:04:12
visited Taylor's Ridge that night was not satanic at all,
1:04:17
but rather human greed and intolerance.
1:04:21
The site, however, would never escape the shadow of its dark
1:04:25
lore, evolving into a local legend of a haunted place.
1:04:32
Almost immediately after the murders, tales of paranormal
1:04:36
activity at Corpsewood Manor began to circulate.
1:04:40
Even the sheriff's deputies and GBI agents who processed the
1:04:44
crime scene felt an uncanny vibe.
1:04:48
Some officers later said that they felt as if they were being
1:04:52
watched in the empty woods or sensed a strange presence as
1:04:57
they worked the case. Given the occult trappings of
1:05:02
the house, it's perhaps not surprising that imaginations ran
1:05:06
wild. Locals, already primed with
1:05:10
rumors of devil worship and black magic, soon began spinning
1:05:15
ghost stories about Taylor's Ridge.
1:05:18
One persistent legend warns that anyone who takes a brick or
1:05:23
artifact from the runes will suffer horrible bad luck or a
1:05:28
curse. This lore may have been started
1:05:32
because several people who grabbed souvenirs from corpse
1:05:35
wood reported sudden misfortunes and became convinced the objects
1:05:42
were cursed. There is the story of a young
1:05:45
man who stole a decorative brick from the rubble, only to
1:05:49
experience a string of personal disasters until he returned it.
1:05:55
Whether by coincidence or psychological suggestion, the
1:06:00
cursed brick tale endures. Many refuse to disturb anything
1:06:04
at the site for fear of angering restless spirits.
1:06:10
Visitors to the ruins over the years frequently describe eerie
1:06:13
sights and sounds. There are reports of shadowy
1:06:17
figures fitting between the trees and apparitions believed
1:06:22
to resemble Charles Scudder or Joey Odom wandering the grounds.
1:06:29
Some have claimed to smell roses, perhaps Odom's garden, or
1:06:34
whiffs of pipe tobacco with no logical sores.
1:06:40
Auditory phenomena are especially common in these
1:06:43
tales. Many have reported hearing the
1:06:46
distant echo of gunshots in the woods, as if replaying the
1:06:51
violence of that night. Others swear they've heard the
1:06:56
fierce barking of dogs when no dogs are present, perhaps the
1:07:02
loyal mastiffs still guarding their masters even in death.
1:07:09
One chilling account even describes the tinkling sound of
1:07:13
a harp playing a melancholy tune from somewhere among the runes,
1:07:19
despite no instrument being there.
1:07:23
Campers who have snuck onto the property at night tell of an
1:07:27
oppressive silence falling, then the sudden shatter of unseen
1:07:32
glass or a guttural scream that sends them fleeing after
1:07:39
nightfall. Multiple witnesses have reported
1:07:42
seeing pairs of glowing red eyes in the forest darkness, eyes
1:07:48
that some believe belong to the spectral mastiff Beelzebub still
1:07:53
standing watch with preternatural ferocity.
1:07:58
Local folklore has also grafted older legends on to the corpse
1:08:02
woods story. Some say the aerial was haunted
1:08:05
even before Scudder and Odom arrived, tales of a Civil War,
1:08:10
soldiers ghost roaming the Ridge, or curses tied to the
1:08:14
Cherokee who once lived on that land.
1:08:18
These unrelated legends sometimes get mixed in with the
1:08:21
Corpse Wood narrative during retellings, creating a kind of
1:08:26
Legend Stew. However, the ghost stories
1:08:30
specific to the murders are the ones most often repeated around
1:08:33
campfires and teenage sleepovers in the region.
1:08:38
The site is so notorious that among local youth, it earned
1:08:42
nicknames like devil worshippers.
1:08:44
Mountain parents would warn their kids to stay away, and
1:08:49
indeed, some who ventured up Dead Horse Road recounted scary
1:08:54
encounters. In one case, a group of visitors
1:08:58
claimed they were chased off by unknown men brandishing machetes
1:09:04
and guns, leading to whispers that either violent squatters or
1:09:09
some secretive cult now guards the ruins.
1:09:14
Over the years, paranormal investigators and occult
1:09:18
enthusiasts have been drawn to corpse wood.
1:09:21
Some self-proclaimed witches have held midnight rituals among
1:09:25
the crumbling walls, attempting to communicate with the dead or
1:09:31
to conjure ghosts out of tragedy.
1:09:35
Ghost hunting groups who visit often come away convinced that
1:09:39
the site is a hotspot of supernatural energy, citing
1:09:43
their EVP recordings of disembodied voices or
1:09:48
inexplicable EMF spikes. 1 paranormal author even noted
1:09:53
that after researching the case thoroughly, the combination of
1:09:57
the gruesome murder scene and creepy isolated runes was so
1:10:03
chilling that it kept him from sleeping without the lights on
1:10:07
after he visited. And yet, for all the spooky
1:10:11
lore, there is a rational perspective that tempers the
1:10:15
legend. Skeptics point out that any cold
1:10:18
spots or odd noises that corpse would can easily be attributed
1:10:23
to the natural environment, the scurrying of animals or the echo
1:10:28
of distant hunters gunfire in these deep woods.
1:10:32
As one journalist wrote after visiting the overgrown site,
1:10:37
storytellers imbue corpse wood with a demonic energy, but the
1:10:41
only thing that remains here is an expired crime scene.
1:10:46
Indeed, walking among the graffiti marked bricks and
1:10:50
tangled brush, one may simply feel a profound sadness.
1:10:55
More than any malevolent force, it is as if the land itself
1:11:00
remembers the blood spilled and mourns the senseless loss of
1:11:06
life. One tantalizing paranormal
1:11:09
footnote often discussed is Doctor Scudder's own role and
1:11:15
what many see as him foretelling his own fate.
1:11:19
The fact that he painted a portrait of himself bound and
1:11:22
shot before it happened has led to much speculation.
1:11:27
Did Scudder have a genuine psychic premonition, or was it a
1:11:32
morbid artistic fantasy that coincidentally came true?
1:11:37
We may never know. It's said that in the weeks
1:11:41
leading up to his death, Scudder told a friend that he had
1:11:44
finally achieved peace on his mountain and that life was
1:11:49
perfect, almost tempting fate. He also famously said that out
1:11:56
in the country I asked for this after all, which he then eerily
1:12:01
repeated under duress during the attack.
1:12:06
Such details feed the idea that dark forces were circling.
1:12:11
However, a more grounded interpretation is that Scudder,
1:12:15
a devotee of the occult, perhaps accepted the possibility of
1:12:20
violence as karma or consequence for his choices.
1:12:25
Like moving to an intolerant area or fraternizing with
1:12:29
unstable people. It is an area where fact and
1:12:33
myth blur, leaving ample material for ghost stories and
1:12:39
what ifs. Local storytellers have been shy
1:12:43
about layering on embellishments in dorm rooms and campgrounds.
1:12:49
Corpswood tale was told in hushed tones how the two
1:12:52
Satanist gay lovers allegedly made a pact with the devil, or
1:12:57
how one of them supposedly uttered a curse with his dying
1:13:01
breath that haunts the mountain. These are folkloric editions.
1:13:07
There's no evidence of an actual curse, yet the string of
1:13:11
misfortunes that befell the perpetrators right after
1:13:15
crashing the car, fighting each other, and getting caught
1:13:21
sometimes gets spun as the curse of Corpse Wood ensured that they
1:13:26
didn't escape justice. In reality, those events were
1:13:31
the logical fallout of a botched crime spree, but the timing
1:13:36
certainly makes for a good ghost story.
1:13:40
In the end, Corpse Wood Manor has achieved a kind of infamous
1:13:45
immortality. It stands alongside other eerie
1:13:49
Southern legends, a place where true crime and the supernatural
1:13:54
intersect, and popular imagination.
1:13:58
For those inclined to believe the ghosts of Charles Scudder
1:14:03
and Joey Odom do roam the runes, perhaps playing phantom harp
1:14:08
music under the moonlight or staring out from the trees with
1:14:14
sorrowful eyes. For others, the power of the
1:14:18
site lies in its symbolism as a reminder of how prejudice and
1:14:23
fear of the other can lead to real evil acts.
1:14:29
One thing is certain, anyone who visits the remnants of
1:14:33
Corpsewood Manor today will find it hard to not feel a chill.
1:14:38
Whether that is the chill of the mountain air or the whispers of
1:14:42
restless spirits is for each person to decide.
1:14:48
Thank you guys so much for watching this newest episode.
1:14:51
I've been working on researching Corpse Wood Manor and the events
1:14:55
surrounding it for a few months now and I hope you enjoyed the
1:14:58
final product. Please subscribe, like the
1:15:01
video, comment below, and share this around.
1:15:05
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1:15:18
I also sell my three published books, The Stories from the
1:15:21
Archive series on my website along with other merchandise or
1:15:26
you can find it on Amazon. With all that being said, I
1:15:29
truly hope that you enjoyed this blend of true crime and
1:15:32
paranormal. And as always, this has been
1:15:35
Cody here at Mystery Archives. Please make sure to stay safe
1:15:40
out there and take care. I'll see you next time.