The murder of Mary Young Ballew
The following is the story from the Marion, North Carolina newspaper, The Messenger, on a Friday in June 1898:

“Homicide in Yancey County”
“Thomas Ballew, son of Jason Ballew of Yancey County, shot and killed his wife last Friday night at their home on South Toe River. He fired two shots killing his wife instantly. He alleges his wife’s unfaithfulness as the motive for the crime. Ballew, who is about 35 years of age, was under the influence of liquor when he committed the murder. At the present writing he has not been apprehended.”

The following account is from the book Hanged by A Dream?: The Facts Behind the Legend by Perry Deane Young

Joshua Young and his wife, Naomey, had only one child who lived to maturity, a daughter named Mary who was born in 1870. According to Claudia Young Dellinger, daughter of Mary’s first cousin, Ed Young, Mary Young grew into an exceptionally beautiful young woman. She married Thomas H. Ballew, 8 years her senior, whose parents Jason and Emily McCanless Ballew had settled just up the valley from the Young family property.

According to Young family legend handed down to Claudia Dellinger, Tom Ballew was intensely jealous of his wife from the beginning. They had four children: Walter, born September 1890; John S., born February 1892; Cora E., born June 1893 and Horace, born May 1895. As Claudia told the story, Mary Young Ballew was sitting in the window, nursing the baby Horace. Her husband came at her in a jealous rage and shot her in the head at point-black range.

The Ballews, needless to say, tell a very different story. According to them, the beautiful Mary was “sexing around” with other men and Tom found out about it. There was one man in particular. One day when Tom was supposed to be off working, he came home early to find his wife in bed with this other man. He did nothing to the offending male intruder, but shot and killed his wife on the spot.

Tom ran away to Kentucky. He was brought back and stood trial. The judge acquitted him of the shooting. That was in the late 1800’s. The sheriff obviously felt the killing was a clear case of justifiable homicide. No charges were ever brought against Tom Ballew for the murder of his wife.

On December 15, 1900, Tom Ballew married a second time to widow, Bessie McDowell Gibbs, the daughter of James and Delilah McDowell. At the time of their marriage, she had an infant daughter called Annie. They became the parents of eight children: Nola, Virgie, Bonnie, Robert, Woodrow, Lee, Mamie and Edith Ballew.

Tom and Bessie Ballew