Ep. 32 - The Will Harris 1906 Massacre

Asheville is a smaller city in North Carolina where I had the pleasure of experiencing one of my favorite ghost tours. While on that tour, I heard about a mass shooting involving a man named Will Harris. This happened many years ago and the violence and the residue of that event seems to have left an energy that still traverses the same area where the crimes took place to this day. Join me as we explore the crimes of Will Harris and the ghostly aftermath.

Asheville is known as an artsy and bohemian city, nestled in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain Range. Thoughts of murderous rampages are incongruous with the community that dwells here, but 112 years ago, a man named Will Harris broke the calm during a night of mass murder. Will Harris was a bad guy. He had a long rap sheet having been busted for stealing and assault many times in Charlotte, North Carolina. He had spent time in jail in Charlotte and was assigned to a chain gang of black felons from which he escaped. Charlotte had hired its first black detective named Van Griffin to hunt down Harris. He got his man and put him in the county jail. He escaped again, but Griffin managed to catch up to him and this time, Harris was sent to the state prison in Raleigh. He was not yet 30 at this time and he was not about to sit behind bars. He escaped yet again by hiding in a wagonload of bricks.

Harris had a girlfriend named Mollie Maxwell in Asheville and he decided to head there, so he could hideout with her. This young lady was not interested in him anymore and had told her sister that if Harris ever came looking for her, that she was not to tell him where she was. Harris stepped off a train in Asheville on November 12, 1906. He immediately headed to a place where he thought he could find Mollie. He had no luck and found a place to stay overnight. On the 13th, he wandered into the local pawn shop and started spending money like crazy. He bought a Savage .303 rifle, some tan shoes, a shirt, trousers and a set of overalls. He also grabbed a $3 jug of bourbon. He changed into his new clothes and decided to visit Mollie's sister Pearl to find out where Mollie was staying. She was living 20 miles away in Hendersonville, N.C., so Harris thought he would hang out with Pearl. He started to get drunk on his whiskey and demanded she make him a meal. She did so to appease the man, but she started to fear for her safety. She told Harris that her boyfriend Toney Johnson would be home at 11 p.m.

Johnson arrived at the home he shared with Pearl at the corner of Valley and Eagle Streets in a bad part of Asheville everyone called "Hell's Half-Acre" and found Harris drunk. He was being belligerent to Pearl and turned on Johnson, ready to fight. And Johnson probably would have fought Harris, except that Harris had that rifle and he turned it on Johnson who fled. He arrived at the police shortly before midnight and told Police Captain John Page and Patrolman Charles R. Blackstock that Harris was drunk, armed and ready to kill somebody. He told Capt. Page that Harris was in the basement with his girlfriend. The two policemen arrived at the house and found the basement pitch black. They decided to head to the rear of the house and try the door. Patrolman Blackstock swung the door open and threw his flashlight into the room, upon which there was a flash and the sound of a rifle blast. Blackstock was hit and fell dead. Capt. Page drew his revolver as Harris advanced outside and took a blast to the fleshy part of his right arm. The arm went numb, but Page held onto his gun. He fled as Harris continued moving forward and firing the rifle.

Harris was now on Eagle Street, which hits home for me as I grew up on a road called Eagle Court. He was still holding the nearly empty whiskey jug as he stumbled up the road. He began shouting, "I come from hell, from Charlotte, from state prison and from the chain gang. And I'm surely going back to hell, sooner rather than later." Meanwhile. Capt. Page had made it to Pack Square where he found a patrolman named J.W. Bailey. He showed Bailey his wound and said that Harris was heading that way towards town. He told Bailey to gather a posse and let everyone know that Patrolman Blackstock had been killed. Bailey headed towards Patton Avenue and Capt. Page took up a spot on South Main to wait for Harris and hopefully ambush the man.

Harris had continued to fire his rifle as he made his way to town and he killed another black man named Jacko Corpening. Ben Addison, a black shopkeeper, was the next to take a bullet and he fell dead. The rifle blasts echoed through the night, terrifying the people of Hell's Half-Acre. Another black man named Tom Neal was standing on his porch when Harris came upon him and he was shot through the groin. He staggered towards a doctor's office on Eagle Street, but he would succumb to his injury. The tally of dead now made Eagle Street in Asheville a more deadly scene then the shoot-out at the OK Corral. Harris had arrived at South Main and he made his way up that street, shooting at George Jackson who had luck on his side. The bullet went through his clothes, but did not break the skin.

Capt. Page heard Harris coming and he started making his way in that direction. He couldn't use his wounded right arm, which was his strong arm. He had only a revolver with which to face down a rifle, but he was a brave man and he stepped out after Harris. He fired every bullet he had in his revolver and missed Harris every time. Harris was unfazed and kept heading up Main towards Pack Square, while Capt. Page ran for more ammo and to gather more men. At Pack Square, Harris met up with Patrolman Bailey. Bailey was waiting for him behind a telephone pole and a gunfight ensued. A bullet from the rifle made it through the pole and hit Bailey in the heart and he fell to the street, dead. Harris broke into a run after this and fired at anyone he saw in the street. In front of the British-American club on South Main Street, Harris came upon G. Spears Reynolds and two other gentlemen who had come out of the building to see what was happening. A bullet barely missed Reynolds in the head and the men ran back into the building.

Harris continued down South Main toward Biltmore, stopping long enough to fire through the plate glass window at Pelham’s pharmacy. Further on and almost in front of the Southern Express company’s office a man named Kelsey Bell, stuck his head out the window and nearly took a bullet. Bell was the last witness to see Harris that evening. Capt. Page had formed his posse and they found Patrolman Bailey dead. At around that same time, Chief of Police Bernard was notified over the telephone of the fight and he hastened to the city and took charge. He sounded the riot alarm with the fire bell. Men from across the city came and the local hardware store was opened up to make sure everyone had a gun and ammo. 

Chief Bernard made sure that the railroad knew not to allow Harris to board any train and the dispatcher forwarded the message to every station on the Asheville division requesting that all trains be searched. The railroad men went through the trains, freight boxes and passenger coaches, on the lookout for the murderer. The dispatcher also called for a special train from Spartanburg to bring bloodhounds to Asheville. The special pulled into the Biltmore yard at 6 o’clock in the morning and the bloodhounds were soon set to work. The posses that had formed were headed by police officers and they took off by foot and horse to hunt down Harris. There were about 200 men in total. No one had witnessed this kind of carnage and the townspeople were not only fearful, but they were angry. Five of their own were murdered.

Those who stayed in town, made their way to the undertakers to pay their respects to the fallen officers. A bloodhound named Biscuit Eater had gotten a scent off of Harris' empty whisky bottle and he led a group into the woods, first north along the Swannanoa and French Broad rivers, then back south. The bloodhound was close because near the confluence of the rivers, Harris had been sleeping in a Biltmore barn. He had moved on to Fletcher, 8 miles from Asheville, where he hid in another barn. Someone had seen him and reported a stranger spotted near Fletcher. A small posse headed by railroad agent Frank Jordan, caught Harris and chased him into a laurel thicket. A shotgun blast hit the outlaw, but he managed to empty his rifle at his pursuers. The group retreated until more men could get there. Nearly 100 men stood pointing firearms at the thicket by the time Jordan shouted, "Fire!" A deafening volley went up - some 500 rounds fired into the bush. Jordan held up a hand, crept forward and peeked into the thicket. "No cheering, men," he said. "He's dead." There were around 100 bullet wounds in his body.

Another story that I heard while on the ghost tour was that Harris' body was brought back to town with just a few bullet holes and that angry townspeople unloaded their guns into him, resulting in a bullet-riddled body. I saw the picture of Harris after this fact at the Mystery Museum Joshua P. Warren has set up in Asheville and he was definitely full of holes. His body was sent off to the undertaker's and to this day, no one knows what happened to the body. The Gazette-New reported, "It is said that the doctors have it." Harris' body may not have been seen again, but his spirit is quite a different matter. He seems to be haunting the path that he took that deadly night.

Eagle Street is said to be haunted by the victims of the massacre. Their full-bodied apparitions are seen wandering the street. A man in a police uniform has been seen running down Eagle Street and Biltmore Ave. The disembodied sounds of bloodhounds are heard in the alleys. Barley's Taproom that is along the route reports paranormal activity, including apparitions, voices, and an elevator that operates by itself. This is probably because one of the victims was killed on this spot. The dark shadow of what appeared to be a man has been seen striding down Biltmore Avenue and it disappears into Barley's. An owner of Barley's claimed that he saw a shadow figure walk past his office window. Since the office was on the second story, it's safe to assume that this wasn't a real living person.

 A bullet hole might still be in the Vance Monument in downtown Asheville that is a permanent reminder of the murderous rampage. Patrolman James Bailey is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville. Patrolman Charles Blackstock is buried in Blackstock Cemetery in Jupiter, NC.  Ben Addison is buried in the African-American section of Riverside Cemetery, but the location of the other two victims is unknown.  There are rumors that Will Harris's body is buried in an unmarked grave in Riverside Cemetery. In 1907, Asheville was the first town in North Carolina to outlaw the sale of alcohol. It was done as a direct result of the Will Harris massacre. Does Harris and do his victims haunt the streets of the former Hell's Half-Acre? That is for you to decide!