トム・デュラ（西部開拓時代のローラ・フォスター殺人事件の有罪）
In 1868, a man named Tom Doula, pronounced Douly, was hanged in Statesville, NC after being convicted of murdering his lover, Laura Foster, in 1866. The execution wasn’t the end of Tom Doula’s story. It was just the beginning. While there is no credible evidence that Tom Doula was ever buried, over the years, several people have claimed to have witnessed his ghost. Some say they’ve seen him dragging himself closer to the surface or walking right out of the ground. And one even claims he came back from the dead to seek revenge on the man who shot him. All of this coming up now on this channel. It’s me. Number four, the murder of Laura Foster. On October 24th, 1866, a young woman named Laura Foster left her home in Ayardell County, North Carolina. She was only 17 years old and going to visit a friend when she disappeared without a trace. Her body would be found the next day lying face down in a creek near a bridge. There was a rope knotted tightly around her neck and her ankles were bound together with a handkerchief. It was clear that Laura had been strangled and then dumped into the creek, but the police didn’t know who was responsible for her death. They would soon find out it was Tom Doula. Tom had been an ordinary farmer until the Civil War, but after his service in the Confederate Army, he couldn’t readjust to civilian life. He was given a medical discharge in 1863 due to mental illness. At first, he worked for his father, but when that didn’t work out, he lived off the land and hunted for food. He also became involved with Laura Foster, who was engaged to be married to someone else. They began having an affair and Laura became pregnant with Tom’s child. When her family found out about the pregnancy, they arranged for her to marry another man. But on the morning of her wedding, Laura escaped with Tom Doula and the two lovers went on the run. 2 days later, Laura was dead and Tom Doula was the prime suspect in her murder. Number three, the capture and trial of Tom Doula. The police didn’t take long to arrest Tom Doula, but as soon as they read him his rights, he confessed to killing Laura. He told the police where he’d hidden her body and explained why he’d done it. According to Tom, while he and Laura were traveling through the woods, she wanted to break camp and look for somewhere else to stay. He said he told her not to go because he was sure their pursuers were close behind them, but she refused to listen. So, he attacked her. He put a handkerchief in her mouth to keep her from screaming, tied her hands behind her back, and dragged her into the creek. Then he used a nearby rope to strangle her. While Tom admitted to the crime, he claimed that he hadn’t meant to kill Laura. He said he’d only intended to scare her so she wouldn’t run away. The jury didn’t buy this story and found him guilty of first-degree murder. In those days, the punishment for murder was always the death penalty. And since the judge didn’t have the authority to commute Tom’s sentence, he had only one option left. On January 1st, 1868, Tom Doula was hanged in Statesville, NC. He’d been given the choice of where he wanted to be buried, but since his relatives weren’t willing to accept his body, he was thrown into a shallow grave in an unmarked location. He was only 29 years old. Number two, the first ghost sighting. You would think that after being hanged and buried, Tom Doula would have stayed in the ground, but that wasn’t the case. Less than a year after his burial, locals began reporting sightings of his ghost. The first sighting was reported by a Mr. Robert Johnson, who claimed he’d seen the ghost of Tom Doula dragging himself out of his grave. That may not sound like much, but Mr. Johnson’s story is the earliest we have of Tom Doula’s ghost, and he wasn’t the last person to see it. Over the decades, dozens of ghost hunters, most of them self-proclaimed, claim to have seen Tom Doula rising out of his grave. None of these reports are any more credible than the last, but they do form an interesting pattern. All of these ghost sightings occurred during the daytime, often in the middle of summer. Tom Doula never seemed to bother anyone at night. He saved all his ghost busting for daylight hours. Why this is the case isn’t known, but some believe Tom is only visible during the day because the sun causes him to sweat, making his ghostly body visible. Others say he appears during the day because he wants to be seen. For whatever reason, that’s when most people have claimed to witness him. One, the return of the ghost. While none of these sightings are verifiable, there are two stories that have become local legends. The first comes from 1897 when a young man named Charles Doula was hunting rabbits in the area where his great uncle Tom had been hanged. As he walked through the woods, he saw the ghost of Tom rising out of his grave. Charles knew what he had seen, too, because Tom appeared to be wearing the same clothes that he’d been buried in, and he could still see the rope marks around his neck. But this story doesn’t end here. According to legend, Charles ran into the woods as fast as he could, tripping over tree roots and rocks in his haste to get away. But the ghost kept coming toward him. And soon it was close enough for Charles to hear what he was saying. Tom Doula wanted revenge on the man who’d shot him, and he planned to start by killing Charles. Charles tripped and fell, and when he looked up, he saw Tom Doula standing over him with a noose made out of vines in his hand. The ghost wrapped the noose around Charles’s throat and started to tighten it. Charles struggled against his attacker, but Tom Doula was too strong, and soon the young man’s vision started to blur. As the world faded around him, he felt the ghost drag him into the creek where Laura’s body had been found. and then everything went black. Charles never told anyone what happened to him that day, but he did live to be 101 years old. So clearly Tom Doula didn’t finish the job. A second story involves a pair of lovers named Belle and Joe. One night, they decided to visit the grave of Tom Doula. Belle wanted to tell her lover all the juicy gossip she’d heard about Tom’s supposed return from the dead. and Joe thought it might be fun to see the ghost for himself. They approached the grave and started talking to it when suddenly the ghost of Tom Doula rose up out of the ground. To make matters worse, he wasn’t alone. Behind him, rising slowly out of the ground, was Laura Foster. Tom and Laura were both skeletal, their bodies covered with long flowing white hair, and their eyes glowed an eerie red in the darkness. When Belle and Joe realized that they were facing actual ghosts, they ran as fast as they could from the cemetery. But the ghostly couple kept pace with them. And soon Belle could hear their voices calling her name. She could also feel Tom’s icy fingers grazing her neck, just like he’d done to Laura all those years ago. Belle didn’t dare turn around to see what was happening to Joe, but she could hear him screaming for help. Then just as suddenly as they’d started following them, the ghosts stopped. Belle didn’t stop running until she was far away from the cemetery. Whether these stories are true or not, they’ve helped to keep the legend of Tom Doula alive for almost 150 years. Thanks for watching. Do you believe in ghosts? Let me know in the comments below. And if you’d like to learn more about famous criminals, check out the series which you can find in the description. See you next time.
Former Confederate soldier Thomas C. Dula (June 23, 1844 – May 1, 1868) was convicted of Laura Foster’s murder. Dula’s story became a folk legend because of extensive coverage from publications like The New York Times.
