The Old Salisbury Road Shootings are one of the worst tragedies in North Carolina’s history. On a dimly lit section of road in Forsyth County, North Carolina, on July 17, 1988 (some sources say the 18th), a man with a rifle started firing on passing vehicles. It seemed like a bad nightmare when the gunman,…
The 1993 Luigi’s Italian Restaurant Shooting Revisited
On August 6, 1993, an armed Fort Bragg soldier, Sgt. Kenneth Junior French, aged 22, walked into Luigi’s restaurant, 528 McPherson Church Road, around 10 p.m. in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with two shotguns and a rifle. French began to yell about politics, Bill Clinton, and homosexuality when he opened fire during the drunken killing spree….
2003 Standoff in Abbeville, South Carolina
On December 8, 2003, a daylong standoff in Abbeville, South Carolina, ended with the arrests of Arthur, Rita, and Steven Bixby, which resulted in the deaths of two law enforcement officers. During the ordeal, the Bixbys, Arthur and Steven, stationed themselves at the house’s windows and shot at anyone who approached the residence. Tensions began…
The Unsolved Homicide of Bruce Gaines Marett in Oconee County
On June 28, 2002, Bruce Gaines Maret was brutally beaten and bludgeoned to death inside his mobile home at 271 N Retreat Road in Westminster, South Carolina. Marett was 50 years old at the time of death. Some have even considered the homicide as one of Oconee County’s most brutal murders. According to Oconee Law,…
The Giggling Granny
Nannie Doss may have seemed like a sweet, loving grandmother, but investigators soon found something more sinister lurked behind her charming smile after every member of her family mysteriously died. Doss was born Nancy Hazel on November 4, 1905, in Alabama. An abusive father heavily impacted her childhood, and she described it as “an unhappy…
The 1991 WestGate Mall Cinema Slayings
On January 7, 1991, David Rocheville and Richard Longworth, both 23 at the time, decided to rob the WestGate Mall Cinema in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where they had worked in the past. No one was prepared for what was about to happen. The pair armed themselves and went to watch a movie. When they headed…
Serial Killer Joe Metheny
Joe Metheny was a huge man who had a serious drug habit. The only difference between Metheny, who owned a roadside barbecue stand in the 1990s, and others we have written about in the past was the fact that he had alleged that some of his victims ended up on the menu, because he claimed…
The 1974 Abduction of Kathleen Ruth Smiley
Kathleen Ruth Smiley was known to her family and friends as “Kathy.” Smiley was just 16 years old when she was abducted off I-85 in Georgia in 1974. Kathy was born in Florida in 1957, and after several years living in Hong Kong, due to her father’s job, the family relocated to the Atlanta area…
The National Forest Serial Killer
Gary Michael Hilton was born on November 22, 1946, in Atlanta, Georgia. Hilton was a drifter who was characterized by his unsavory looks of pure evil. He was known to terrorize mountain trails along the eastern United States in Georgia and North Carolina. On October 21, 2007, an elderly couple in Horse Shoe, North Carolina,…
The “Toy-Box” Killer
David Parker Ray was born on November 6, 1939, in Belen, New Mexico. Ray would later become a gifted mechanic, but his early days were not kind to him, as he was often a victim of bullying for his shyness around girls, which resulted in Ray abusing alcohol and other drugs. During his teenage years,…