Wicked Winston-Salem

by Alice E. Sink

Overview

The famed Piedmont Triad city of Winston-Salem has a history filled with depraved people committing untoward acts. From Libby Holman, the singer with a sultry, smoky voice accused of murdering her millionaire husband to the man caught with hundreds of gallons of beer, liquor, and a tin lizard" whiskey still, residents of Winston-Salem were no strangers to depravity. And leave it to a band of organized tobacco thieves to break into dozens of warehouses and steal the livelihood of law-abiding citizens, or a group of drunkards threatening to spread smallpox when they were confined to quarantine to wreak havoc throughout the city. Join prolific local author Alice Sink as she recounts tales of the dastardly denizens and rakish residents of this North Carolina town."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609494582
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	09/27/2011
Series:	Wicked
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Alice E. Sink is the published author of books and numerous short stories, articles and essays in anthologies and in trade and literary magazines. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. For twenty-nine years, she has taught writing courses at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, where she received the Meredith Clark Slane Distinguished Teaching/Service Award in 2002. The North Carolina Arts Council and the partnering arts councils of the Central Piedmont Regional Artists Hub Program awarded Sink a 2007 grant to promote her writing.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Acknowledgements and Contributors 11

Part I Public Concerns and Policies

Tobacco Warehouse Thieves 13

Slot Machine and Punch Boards 14

Whiskey Raids 14

A Major Nuisance Stuck in "Committee" 16

Wicked Smallpox and die Pesthouse 17

A Bad Impression 18

No, No and More No's 19

Epidemic of Spanish Flu 19

No Black Police Officers 19

Difficulties and Dangers for Salem 20

The "Lot" Determined Who Should Marry Whom 21

Part II Crimes and Punishments

Guilty of First-Degree "Muddy Creek" Murder 25

The Ball Went Through His Heart 28

They Poisoned Their Daughters 28

Beaten into Unconsciousness and Critically Injured 29

The Frank Snipes Gang Successors 31

Libby Holman, Torch Singer, Accused of Murdering Millionaire Husband 32

Rape, Posse, Gunfire 36

The Drop Fell at 12:55-Broke His Neck 38

State Prison Escapee Recaptured after Twenty Years 40

Mob Storms Jail 41

Part III Now You Know

He Claimed He Gould Heal Anything-For a Price 45

Not in My Neighborhood 47

Lust for Fashionable Apparel 47

The Dreaded Invaders Arrived 49

Alderman "Blasted" Mayor 50

"Other Such Business" 51

Racially Tense Winston-Salem 53

At the Zinzendorf Hotel 54

Moravians in Salem "Going against Tradition" 56

Anything Wicked "Goes" for a News Snippet 60

He Said, She Said 64

"I Don't Want a Sterilize Operation" 69

Part IV Believe It or Not

Board of Censors of Public Amusements 71

Salem Tavern-The Place to Drink, Argue, Duel 74

Obey Our Rules… Or Else 76

$10,000 in Currency Burned 78

Wickedly Heavy and Dirty Mill Work 78

Repeated Protests 80

No Unions! 82

Winston Officers Raid Distilleries 82

"They Take All the Pie" 83

Big Hudson Six Turns Over Three Times 84

Somebody Could Get Killed! 85

Part V Straight from the Horse's Mouth

A Deplorable State of Affairs 87

Hand Over Your Money, or Else! 88

Sex in the Twin City 89

Joshua Coin-Blessing or Curse? 91

Suffering in Forsyth County-No Food, No Crops, No Money 92

The Greatest Catastrophe 95

"All We Ask Is to Be Let Alone"-Jefferson Davis 96

Fire Bugs 98

Racist Slogans and Ugly Epithets 99

Dispute Over Who Should Tax Tobacco 99

Infamous, Cowardly and Dastardly Attack 100

Cursing and Swearing on the Streets 101

Part VI On the Lighter Side

First Court Case of Its Kind-The Butler Did It! 103

He Squealed on Daddy's Whiskey Stash 104

Ban the Wicked Circus? 105

Cigars and Tobacco Okay, but No Cigarettes on the Sabbath! 106

Circus Wagons Do Damage 107

Not on Sunday 107

Who Stole the $450? 108

It Was Just a Baseball Game! 108

How Dare You? 110

Five-Dollar Fines for Not Using "Soft Paper" 111

Relatives Need Not Apply 111

Wicked Arithmetic 111

Ordinances: Fire, Censorship and Whistling 112

Obey This Ordinance or Pay the Fine 113

No Weeds, Spitting, Loitering or Garbage in the Street 113

Winston Court Has Difficult Case 113

Thin, Puny and Lethargic 114

He Stole a Suitcase and Wore the Clothes 115

Strong Opposition to Sunday Movies 116

Halloween Celebration Canceled, but Dog Races Ok 116

Appendix. Recipes Probably Served in Old Winston and Old Salem 117

Bibliography 123

About the Author 127