The Tomahawk "Tongue People" and the Murder of Lucinda Mills

Lucinda Mills was a loving mother to 14 children and too many grandchildren (and great grandchildren!) to count. She loved them all and they loved her. Why, then, did so many stand by on that cold February day in 1933 while her son put her on a makeshift altar and used her in a religious ritual to show that he could bring someone back to life? That did, after all, require murdering her first. Listen in as we talk about what makes family cults unique and unravel some interesting historical crime from 1933!

Many thanks to Christian N. for lending us your voice for some culty chanting, court testimony, and radio ads! 

Transcript

0:01

What do chains, tongues, and ventriloquists have in common? Stay tuned to find out on this episode of Forgotten Felonies. Welcome back to the fourth episode of Forgotten Felonies. I'm Monica. And I'm Olivia. And we just love to take you back in time to pick apart the felonies that time forgot. All the best vintage villainy we can find, and today we have quite a treat for you. It's a treat for me, anyway. In our last episode, while I was researching... the cause of that crime, I was crossing my fingers and hoping with all my might that the man had been part of a cult. That was a dead end. But then my research genius co-host Olivia dropped today's case in my lap and, well, ask and ye shall receive. Yes, we have a call. Now, cults are near and dear to my heart because I have taught a whole class about cults. I was even invited to give a two-hour presentation about cults to the Academy of Lifelong Learners not too long ago, and that was a whole lot of fun. But this cult is a super special cult, keeping it all in the family. So, please tell me, what is so special about a family cold? Well, okay, yeah, let's get into that first. So first, let's rewind a bit. First, we need to define what makes a cult a cult. So a lot of people... People look at like obscure or new religious groups automatically as cults. Like, if it's not a regular or recognized religion, they would automatically just say, 'Oh, it's a cult.' But that's not necessarily true. So, if you want to be correct, a new religion should just be called a new religious movement. Like, that's the politically correct term for it. Because all religions were new at some point, right? And we have a lot of religions that you can't label as cults. I mean, a lot of people say that all religions are cults. I completely get where they're coming from. Like, I see you. I get it. But technically, they're not when you really get down to the actual definition of things. So when you look at groups such as the Manson family or like the People's Temple group that was led by Jim Jones into that mass murder suicide in Jonestown. Groups like that are technically called destructive cults because the word cult has different meanings. So you've probably heard phrases like, you know, the cult of the... Virgin Mary or like the cult of Saint so-and-so. And when you hear it in that context, it just means like the following of, but it doesn't necessarily mean people are going to wind up going around murdering anybody or, you know, being harmed in any way. So, if we're talking about those really harmful groups where people are abandoning their families, or their being isolated from their loved ones, or like their personalities completely change and they're selling all of their worldly possessions and running off and living on a compound and all of that. Those groups that you're thinking of would be destructive cults. Now, usually... cult leaders are making a lot of money and they typically require their cult members to like give all of their money to the group or to like the leader. And then the leader will like provide for the group members, you know, everything that they need. So cult members are made to sell off what they own and give the money to the leader. Or the members are told to take out loans and give the money to the leader. I know of a cult, actually, where they were told to take out life insurance policies and name each other as beneficiaries because the leader had predicted their deaths. And he told them, like, you know, you're going to be reborn. So don't worry about it. And then he had them commit suicide or he would murder them. And then. the group would live off the life insurance payouts and spoiler, they were not reborn. They didn't come back. Um, but yeah, so like the leaders come up with ways to make money off of the members. So the typical cult leader is going to want to find more and more members. So there's usually a campaign to recruit more members. Like for Heaven's Gate, for example, they called it their harvest. Until... The media became very critical of them and the cult went into hiding and they closed their harvest. But this is where family... It was out of season. So this is where family cults are different. So the leader of a family cult, they don't really need to find new members because their new members are born into the cult. Like they're breeding new members. Yeah, it's crazy. So now those who wind up being born into the cult, they don't know anything different. They don't know that the teachings are just super absurd or that the lifestyle isn't normal. So that's perfect for the leader of a family cult. Totally perfect. Now also, the leader of a family cult, it tends to be a father figure, though there have been cases where it's been the mother. The case we're talking about today, it's actually one of the brothers in the family. But of course, no, he had children. Potentially. As it went on, it could have been. Where it was just all of his children, but we'll talk about that. When it's all in the family like this, there are very close family bonds and family ties that also demand loyalty. So it makes it a lot harder to break away from. From the cult. So it's very, very fascinating. So instead of just like, 'Okay, I joined the cult,' I really have a lot of, you know, respect and everything for this man who is the leader. Like when it's a family thing, like, 'Oh, this is also my father.' Like that makes it. A lot harder. To leave or go against the cult leader because you have that extra like dynamic—Mm-hmm. Blood loyalty. Yes, there's also that. Now, when it's a normal cult, the biggest threat to the cult, like that, could tear it apart, would be the family members who are on the outside of the cult. So the people on the outside who are worried about, you know, the members on the inside, they're worried about their loved ones who suddenly. you know, joined the group and they completely changed or They've disappeared and they're just not themselves anymore. So that's why cults will isolate their members from non-members because the non-members are such a threat to the group and could potentially destroy the group. But when you have a family cult, that threat is minimized drastically because a lot of the people who would normally be on the outside are on the inside. So those people who you would expect to worry, they're not going to worry because they're part of it. Like they're in it. So those who would typically be concerned and would be checking on them and be saying, 'Hey, I'm worried about you, you should get out of it.' You know, they're not going to be because they're in it as well. So, Yeah, it's different. So it's very dangerous, especially for children who are born into the group because Kids who are born into it, sometimes they're completely unnoticed. If the members are having babies and they're not going to a hospital or something. People on the outside don't even know these babies exist. We don't even know that we need to be. Checking on these children, checking their welfare, you know, like. Saving them. Like, we don't even know that they're there. So it's, it's terrible. So, anyway, with all of that out of the way, we need to set the mood for today's story. Thank you. Welcome to Martin County, Kentucky. Located on the easternmost side of the Appalachian Mountains. We're traveling back in time to the early 1930s, specifically to a little unincorporated community known as Tomahawk. Tomahawk is located on Rock House Fork of Rock Castle Creek, just six miles west of Inez, which is the county seat there in Martin County, Kentucky. Tomahawk has been there since 1889. Today it has about 1, 000 people, but back in 1933 there were only about 400. This area is known for its mountainous terrain, and back in the early 1900s, people lived in rudimentary cabins, crudely built here and there on the mountain. Neighbors were far apart and secrets were closely guarded. We're going to tell you a story about a crime that took place in 1933, but really we need to start about 20 years earlier than that. It was around 1910 when the Tongue People first sprang up along the border of Kentucky and West Virginia. The Tongue People is what they were called because they said their religious prayers in the unknown tongue. This unknown tongue was thought to be the highest religious expression, and it was brought to the area by none other than William Seymour. Dawn. I was so excited when I found that little factoid. If you listened to our last episode about the Dufty family axe murders, then you should recall that William Seymour had made his way to Los Angeles in 1906 and won over most of Henry Dufty's church friends at the Pineal Hall by giving them all The Gift of Tongues. They broke away from the Pineal Hall and started their own group after holding what was known as the Azusa Street Revival. And that was the start of the Pentecostal movement over there in LA. Well, now we know that four years later in 1910, William Seymour was over on the border of Kentucky and West Virginia giving the gift of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues to the people of the Appalachian Mountains. And they did something different with it. Now, according to Dr. J. R. Fairchild, who recounted the events a couple decades later, dozens of small congregations were formed in about 12... different counties along the border there. Members of the congregations would typically dance, then sit down, their jaws would go rigid, they would stare straight ahead, their shoulders would twitch and jerk up and down, and then they would mutter unintelligibly in the unknown tongue. Now, the Tung people were eventually divided into two main branches, he said. One believed that you were first regenerated, then baptized with the Holy Ghost, and then after that you get the gift of tongues. The other branch believes that you are regenerated, but that you get the gift of tongues at the same time you are baptized with the Holy Ghost. Now, both branches believe that they have the same power that the apostles had. Now, by 1933, there were countless little congregations in those 12 counties along that border. And according to Dr. Fairchild, this was because every... Every now and then, a member would become so emotionally aroused that he would break away and form his own following. Sometimes they'd have their own church buildings, or sometimes they'd hold their meetings in their homes, but sometimes they would get permission to hold meetings in courthouses or other large buildings if they had enough people. But in Martin County specifically. There weren't more than 30 tongue people, according to Dr. Fairchild. But let's fast forward to November of 1932. And along came a 24-year-old evangelical preacher woman named Mary Skaggs, known as Little Mary. Now, she found her way to Martin County and started holding sermons all over the place, in tents, in people's homes, in churches, in schoolhouses. And by the time she moved on, about 200 people had been converted. Mary Skaggs actually had come down with a severe sickness at the time. But she managed to convert about 24 people at the very end of 1932 before she quit evangelizing altogether. And she wound up dying in 1933 at the age of 25. Now, those last people that she converted, those 24 while she was sick, Well, among them, were the Mills family. Now, the Mills family was a very large, very prominent family in Martin County. I mean, there were a lot of Millses. There were so many. It is insane. They have their own family cemetery, and I don't even know how many people are buried there, but I imagine there's a lot of graves. Yeah. It's crazy looking at that genealogy. But anyway, Olivia. This story really centers around Lucinda Mills and her family. So please tell us about Lucinda Mills and her family. Yes. So, Lucinda Mills was born to Sarah Jane Skeens and Stephen Ward in December of 1866. Now, when you're looking, you can't actually find her actual birth date because she first pops up as a four-year-old in one of the censuses. But... So she was born December of 1866 in the town of Inez, located in none other than Martin County, Kentucky. When Lucinda was 15 years old, she married a 19-year-old fellow named Laban Thomas Mills. They got married on December 3rd of 1881 in Martin County, Kentucky. So right away, they started having kids. Their firstborn was in 1882, and their 14th was born in 1906. In order, their children were William, James, Molly, Leander. Laban, Columbus, Leonard, Hansford, Talitha. Martha. John, Lucinda, Aura, and Fred. Wow. That is a lot of kids. So if my math is correct, when baby Fred was born in 1906, the oldest child was 24 years old. Mm-hmm. So... When Lucinda's 14th child was born, she was 40 years old, and her husband Laban was 44. So unfortunately, Laban passed away just six years later in 1914 when he was 50, and the youngest of the Mills children was just six. Oh, wow. So the Mills family lost their patriarch back in 1914. Yes, and get this, he had been a sheriff's deputy. Oh, wow. So it sounds like he had been like a voice of reason for the family, maybe. And then he died. So, okay, with Mary Skaggs gone... there was no one to lead the new believers in their religious ceremonies. Like she had converted those last 24 people. And then, you know, many of them were the Mills family members. But now, you know, they had this religion that she'd come through, you know, she converted them, but now she couldn't lead them anymore. There was no one to lead them. So they needed a leader. And as tends to happen in these situations, many little congregations form, and it was no different in the tiny village community of Tomahawk. There in Martin County, Kentucky. So Lucinda's son, John H. Mills, he decided that he would lead his own sect. Now John and some of his siblings... their spouses decided to baptize each other one evening. And then they went to the home of one of John's brothers, Fred Mills. So Olivia, tell us a bit more about John H. Mills and the siblings that joined his religious sect. Yes. So John Hampton Mills was actually the 10th child born to listen to Mills. He was born in 1899. So by the time he became the leader of this group at the end of 1932, he was 33. John was married to a woman named Alma Ida Halls at this time, and she was baptized into the religion by John, her husband. Molly Mills McGinnis was the third child born to Lucinda Mills, and she was 46 years old at this time. Molly was married to a man named Blaine McGinnis, and they both joined John's group. Then there was Talitha Mills Boyd, and she was the ninth child born to listen to Mills, and she was 35. Talitha was married to Thomas Boyd, who also joined. And then we have Ora Mills Moore, who was the 13th child born to Lucinda Mills, and she was 30 years old. She had joined her brother's religion, but there is no mention of her husband Garfield having joined. Then... The last sibling was Fred Roy Mills, and he was the 14th and last child born to Lucinda Mills. He was born in 1906. In 1932, he would have been 26 years old. His wife was named Trixie, and she was also baptized. There is a mention of one of Lucinda's grandsons, Ballard Mills, having joined as well. Ballard Mills was the son of Lucinda's fifth child, Laban T. Mills. Not her husband. And Lucinda joined. We can't forget her. The 67-year-old matriarch of the family, she joined the group as well. Okay, so if I'm following, that sounds like 11 adults counting Lucinda, and that's not including the children of the couples who... were obviously dragged into it because they had no choice. So yeah, the following morning after everyone was baptized, John made his first prophetic proclamation. He ordered that no food could be cooked anymore. He said that the Lord would provide food from that point on. So I guess, you know, raw food only. So eating food the way the good Lord prepared it was good enough. Good grief. Apples. Just go pick an apple. Eat an egg fresh out. It's so gross. That's how the Lord made it. Yep. All right. He also said that anytime anyone came to the door, the Bible should be waved over their heads before they would be allowed entry. And that was to keep out anyone who was afflicted with any devils. Bye. Bye. Then, the morning after that, John took his sect outside, and he told them that the Lord had commanded him to preach a sermon on the mount. And they had to walk a straight line to the mountain without swerving. So they had to walk a straight line through an ice-cold creek. And up over a fence all the way to the top of a ridge so he could preach a sermon, and this included his elderly, 67-year-old mother. So keep in mind... Mary Skaggs had come through in November. It probably takes some time, you know, to, I mean, she got sick at some point when she first got there in November. She gets sick. At some point, you know, she had to convert these people. This is like December. This is like maybe January of 1933. This is a very ice-cold creek they had to walk through. To get up to this mountain. And over a fence. They had to walk over a fence. Um, up to this, this bridge. So he can preach a sermon. It said, 'In January, the daily max would be six degrees. And the minimum would be eight degrees. Wow. Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, the Lord did command, so... You do what you got to do. Yeah, so over the next couple months, everything got weirder and weirder, and those siblings and their spouses and their nieces and their nephews. and John's mother, they just ate it all up. I mean, they believed fully that John was now a prophet of the Lord and he claimed to be Moses. And he said that his... Bible was a sword and he would smite them with it. I mean, he would literally smite them with his sword. He would smite them by hitting them in the necks with his Bible. And this was to cast out their sin. This was one of their regular religious rituals. They had to be regularly smoked. I would love to know if it was a hard back. Or... Like, one of the floppier ones. That would be... That would be good to know. Yes, so the Mills family had been holding regular meetings in their personal homes and even in school buildings around Martin County, of course, inviting others to join in hopes of growing the congregation. However, their meetings were apparently done in such a strange way. That a large number of people commented about it later, and they said that their strange, unknown tongue that they used during their religious fervor seemed to be mostly based from the words sika laka. Sweet. Too long. Yes. So yeah. Yeah. So on Friday. February 3, 1933, sister Molly Mills McGinnis and her husband Blaine McGinnis invited their 19-year-old nephew, Ballard, over as well as John Mills, the cult leader, as well as Molly and John's baby brother, Fred. See, Molly and Blaine's 15-year-old son, Roy, was afflicted with rheumatism. And they were now certain that he had the devil in him. So they wanted John, who now was obviously a prophet of the Lord, to use his gift of the unknown tongue to cast this devil out of young Roy. Well, luckily, 15-year-old Roy was able to escape from the home and run to the home of one of his older brothers. So then the attention turned to another one of Molly and Blaine's sons, Edward, who was an invalid. Because they wanted to convert him and get him to join the cult. I don't know if they succeeded or not. I don't know, but that was the plan. Just they're going to force more family members to join. Just why not? You know, keep it all in the family. Now, what I do know is that some planning happened on that Friday, and the cult decided they needed to have a really big three-day event. It was going to kick off on Sunday, and it was going to be huge. It was going to be epic. Sunday at midnight, like the beginning of Sunday.

So we're talking like 12: 23:03

01 a. m. Sunday morning. So February 5th, there was going to be this Hilltop meeting. And it happened. And that's when the three-day gathering officially began, where John Mills would perform various miracles. So for starters, he was going to, quote, bake the bread of life from flour furnished by some destitute member provided by the Red Cross. Now, I had to get a little help to interpret what that meant. I literally had to text my mom. and go to Google. I was like, what is this? And basically what I came up with was that the first miracle they were going to perform was to find a very poor person to convert to their religion. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, what is this? I'm like, mom, help me. Like this was 1933 and I don't understand. So anyway, we figured it out. Next, they were going to make a live snake from a grapevine, and they were also going to turn water into wine. So these were miracles they were going to perform, you know. So for this whole period, which actually began the previous Friday, so not even starting on that Sunday, but the previous Friday, lasting through to the next Tuesday. All they lived on was water and unleavened bread. And so basically they were fasting for five whole days. And that included... The children. They were making the children fast as well. And there were like four or five young nieces with them. And even the children of some of the Mills siblings who weren't even part of the cult. So, yeah, it was— it was crazy. They had like gone and been like, oh, come and stay with us for the weekend. And then not telling their siblings like, oh, we're going to do this crazy thing this weekend because they were trying to force other siblings to be part of their cult. You know, just crazy. Saving their souls, if you will. Oh, yes, yes. So Monday, February 6th. Bill Allen. And I'm not, I know it said that he was related. But I'm not exactly sure how. Maybe he was a cousin because he has a different last name. But Bill Allen. called Sheriff Horn to get help releasing his two kids. And then one of William Mills' Kids, William Mills was the oldest brother, and he was not part of the cult. So both of them wanted to get their children released from... this whole religious ceremony that was going on. So Bill Allen's two-year-old daughter, Irene, was with them and his nine-year-old daughter, Hattie. And he wanted to get them back, but they weren't letting him have his kids. Um, so he said they were being held against their will. They were being starved, and he feared that they were going to be used as a burnt offering. So they kind of had an idea of what the cult was doing. Yes. So, maybe they didn't say, like, 'Come hang out for the weekend.' Maybe they took them. Yeah, perhaps. And there had clearly been whispers, because I know that Lucinda was not with them the entire time. We'll get to that in a second. Now, on Tuesday, February 7th, some officers gathered at the home of William Mills. So again, he was the oldest sibling and was not part of the cult. They gathered at his house around two o'clock that afternoon on Tuesday, February 7th. One of William's kids was up at the home of Talitha and Tommy Boyd, which is where the whole cult had gathered earlier that day on Tuesday. Now, again, they were fasting, and now they were yelling in the unknown tongue. They could hear them because they lived not too far from William. Speak a lot. Speak a lot. So William, he knew his child was up there, and he and Bill Allen, again, they wanted their kids out of there. So they were discussing with the police. Whether or not they should just head up to the Boyd home to put a stop to the religious ceremony, and then along comes Mrs. Rhoda Mills Hatfield. Now Rhoda was an elderly woman and she was the cousin of Lucinda Mills. So Rhoda hears what's going on, and she hears that there are children up at the Boyd home. Now, again, Talitha Boyd was one of Lucinda Mills' daughters. And she was in the Colts and she's married to Tommy Boyd. So Rhoda hears, okay, up at the Boyd home, there are children who are probably hungry. Now Rhoda Hatfield, you know, she's. And old grandma, you know how grandmas are. They're like, 'Have you had enough to eat?' Oh, sit down. Let me make you another sandwich. You know how they are. So Rhoda was like, 'Well, I'm just going to go ride on up there and get those kids and I'm going to feed them.' And so she decides she's going to head up to the Boyd home. But before I tell you that story... I need to tell you. This story. Hey listeners, sorry to interrupt this amazing forgotten felony, but as I was going through the newspaper, I found one of the most amazing, hilarious old ads, and I just knew I had to bring it to life for you. This one's from 1933, and wait till you get a load of this. complexion curse. She thought she was just unlucky when he called on her once, avoided her thereafter. But no one admires pimply blemished skin. More and more women are realizing that pimples and blotches are often danger signals of clogged bowels, poisonous waste ravaging the system. Let nature's remedy afford complete, thorough elimination and promptly ease away beauty-ruining, poisonous matter. Fine for sick. Headache, bilious conditions, dizziness. Try this safe, dependable, all-vegetable corrective. At all druggists, only 25 cents. Tums, quick relief for acid, indigestion, heartburn. If you want more of these old vintage ads included in our episodes, please use the link that says 'send us a text' that is included wherever you're streaming our episode. And let us know that you enjoyed it and would like more. And I will continue to put them in. Thanks for listening, and now back to our regularly scheduled forgotten felony. I'm ready. All right. So. Earlier in the day on that fateful Tuesday, February 7th, 1933. The cult had arrived at Talitha and Tommy Boyd's house. When they arrived, it was the whole group except for Granny Lucinda, and they had sticks in their hands. They called the sticks Moses' rods, and they were shouting, 'We have won the victory!' And then John Mills, leader of the cult, said, 'And we will have to lay our children on the altar.' John then improvised an altar on the bed, and one after the other he put the children on the bed, and he smote their necks with the Bible. Now, in this cult, this meant he would rub the Bible on their necks. He would, quote, 'cut them down with the Bible.' Once a person was cut down or smoked with the Bible, they were then, quote, died of their sin. So it was like a purification ritual. According to Talitha Boyd, after he smote each of the children on the altar, the cult members continued to shout and dance and do other religious rites for quite some time. And a little bit later, Lucinda Mills, the 67-year-old matriarch of the family, arrived. Now, there was another brother of this family that we haven't really talked about, and that was Brother Leonard. Brother Leonard Mills was the seventh-born child of Lucinda. He had become a holy man. Roller, several years earlier, picking up the unknown tongue back when the first wave cropped up from William Seymour's influence. Brother Leonard had also picked up some mental illness, and by February of 1933, he had been in an insane asylum for about five months. Hmm. Sounds familiar. Yeah. Now, on that day, February 7th, when Lucinda arrived at the Boyd home, John the Prophet and some of the other cult members kept telling Lucinda that they were going to drive the devils out of Leonard. Now, at first, Lucinda didn't seem concerned by what they were saying, but they kept saying it and they were shouting prayers at her. And she would say, 'I don't understand.' John, and then he accused her of losing her faith. So then he had to, quote, cut her down and smite her on the neck with the sword, which was the Bible. While others waved their swords over her, which were their Bibles. Now, Blaine McGinnis, who was married to Lucinda's daughter Molly, said that at one point— earlier that day— John Mills had come into the room with a Bible in one hand and a broomstick in the other and said that he represented Moses and the staff. And he said that he was going to demonstrate, quote, the death of sin for them. He said that John explained to the group that when he smote them with the staff of Moses, if a person would fall over as if they were dead, then they would not be bothered beyond that. And it would be proof that they were true believers. So here's Blaine's story in his own words. John then smote Tommy Boyd, and Granny objected, saying, 'Don't do that again, John. You will hurt him.' Tommy then fell off on the floor like he was dead, and John did not bother him. John said the Lord had shown him he would have to smack his mother, and she got up and went into the other room and lay down on the bed. Then John smote some of the rest of them there and Granny came back into the room. John asked her if she would lay down her life as a sacrifice to the Lord, and Granny said she would gladly give her life for Leonard. She sat down on the bed, and John, who had the testament in his hand, smote her with it. And she resisted, and he smote her again. Then he got up and started to choke her. He had explained earlier that if he smote them with Moses' staff and they just fell to the floor like they were dead, it proved that they were true believers. But because Lucinda had said, 'Hey, don't do that again,' John took that as resistance and a sign from God that she was not a true believer. And to him, this was a sign that he needed to really, really smite her. Now, Talitha Boyd, whose house this was and who was pregnant at the time, saw John choking 67-year-old Lucinda, whom she loved very much. This was her mom. And she got scared and tried to stop him. But her sisters, Molly and Ora, both knocked Talitha away. Talitha's husband, Tommy, was outside, and she wanted to run out to find him, but she knew that he would want to run in and help, and that would just make the cult members turn on him. So she decided to run down to find some neighbors to help instead. Meanwhile... Remember Lucinda's cousin Rhoda Hatfield? Well, bless her heart, she had made her way up to the Boyd home, and she could hear all sorts of sika-laka going on inside the house. Oh, Rhoda. The doors were locked, and the windows were shut, but she wasn't one to mind her own business. She walked around the house and peered in the windows and she saw Alma Mills, wife of the cult leader, dancing fanatically and chanting in the unknown tongue. Now Rhoda walked to another window for a different room and this time she saw her cousin, Lucinda, lying on a bed. Rhoda saw her nephew, John Mills, kneeling on top of Lucinda's lifeless body, holding chains in one hand and a Bible in the other. The chains were wrapped around Lucinda's neck, her arm, and her ankles. Lucinda's grandson, Ballard, was standing over Lucinda's head, waving a Bible. Lucinda's son-in-law, Blaine McGinnis, was standing beside Lucinda, waving a Bible as well. Lucinda's daughters, Ora and Molly, were standing nearby, waving their arms in the air, babbling in the Seiko-Laka nonsensical, unknown tongue. Ballard spotted Rhoda at the window and rushed over toward her. He kicked out the glass, and it sprayed all over her face. The elderly woman turned and ran from the home back to the safety and the sanity at the home of William Mills, where she could alert the police who were luckily already gathered there. Now, Talitha Boyd had run to grab neighbors and Rhoda Hatfield had run to alert the police. And. Those police actually had to run down into town and call the sheriff, and the sheriff got a huge posse. So everyone who went back to the Boyd home seemed to... arrive at the same time. And it was actually a youthful neighbor by the name of Boss Wells, who was one of the men who broke through the door and entered the Boyd home first. But that large posse led by Sheriff Horn from Inez, Kentucky was right there behind him. So they break into the room where Lucinda was still lying on the altar. And there's John Mills still sitting on top of her body. Boss Wells tried to pull him off of his mother, but he held on tightly to her dress. So, Boss tried again to pull him off of Lucinda, and John held onto those chains too. And he pulled her body down onto the floor with him. Oh gosh. Yeah. And she was completely, utterly dead. Her neck had even been broken during the smiting that he had been doing. So, John had told his followers that she would come back to life within three days. He was covering his booty. Yeah, this was Tuesday. He said she was going to be back alive, you know, by Friday. And he had been reading passages from the Bible and doing his Sika Laka, everything to, you know. Bring her back or whatever by Friday. So the paper says that the officials, the officers, you know, when they broke in there, they were met with righteous defiance at the Boyd home. To subdue them with blows from revolvers and fists, and then they had to tie their hands and their feet before the cult members would submit to arrest. Oh, wow. Yeah. So they basically had to pistol whip him. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They had to... Beat him down. I wonder if it was just the adults they did that to. Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. They found the nieces and stuff in a locked room, and apparently they had locked them just to keep them out of the way while all of this was going on. But at first they were concerned that the nieces were going to be used as sacrifices as well because they considered this a human sacrifice. And if you look at the papers, it's all like human sacrifice, cult sacrifice, you know, all this stuff. Um, Yeah, and so they thought at first that the nieces were supposed to be next, but then later they say it was found that they were not actually going to be. Well, that's what they say. Yeah, who knows? Because interestingly, after that, they searched the area and they found Fred, the youngest, and his wife, Trixie. In an outbuilding, securing more chains. Who did they need those chains for? Exactly. That is the question. That is the question. So, Olivia, please tell us, enlighten us, who was charged with murder? Okay. Initially, everybody was arrested and charged. Because why not? John, the leader, of course, and his wife, Alma. Ballard, the grandson. Ora Moore, Lucinda's daughter, Tommy Boyd, but not Talitha because she had run for help. Fred and Trixie Mills, Molly and Blaine McGinnis. So after a couple days, the charges against Alma Mills and Trixie Mills were dropped because they both had really young children that were dependent on them. So that left seven more on trial for murder. Now, at first, when they all went to jail on Tuesday, the cult members were very supportive of John Mills, their cult leader. They still supported him and they believed in him. But by the following Thursday, they had all turned against him. And said that he had brought the devils into their lives. So suddenly they were more than willing to tell the story and explain how none of them had been in support of hurting. Aunt Lucinda, or Granny, or Ma, as they lovingly called her. John Mills, however, was still crazy as a loon, so he was babbling in the unknown tongue. John was initially put in the same cell with the rest of his followers. But soon he attacked his youngest brother, Fred, and had to be placed in his own cell. His hands were tied, but then he chewed through the ropes. Thank you. And, quote, rushed through the jail, jabbering madly and waving his hands in an insane manner. So they had to bring in a huge correctional officer who had previously been a heavyweight boxer. His name was Big Bill. So Big Bill came in and subdued John Mills and moved him to a new cell. And then John set his bedding on fire. God! Like, how? I don't know, but this... has happened in other old historical crime stories that I am familiar with. So... Is it because they were smokers and they were like, 'Here's a match or a lighter?' Maybe? I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, that's something to look into. Contraband. Yeah. So now here's what they had to do, Olivia and everyone else listening. Are you ready for this? They actually went and got the chains that he had used to chain up his mother and they chained him to the bars of his cell to contain him. I wonder if they did that deliberately. I mean, they needed chains, and... They had some. They were over in the evidence locker, so. Mm. Yeah. They got the idea from John, so... They didn't take Fred's chains. True. Yeah, I don't know. Now, in his religious delusion, he was certain that the Lord was going to make the walls of the jail crumble so he could walk free. And wouldn't you know? That almost happened. No. That was really close. I'm so sorry if I blew out anyone's ears. The courtroom was crowded with people who came from all over the countryside, even from outside Martin County. People came on foot, on horses, on mules, even by automobile. Um and it was, it was too wet, you know, in April of 1933, to plow the fields. So there were several hundred farmers in attendance at the courthouse when all this was going on. So just as the trial opened and the first witness was put on the stand, a deputy comes running into the courtroom and says, 'The walls were literally caving in downstairs.' There were far too many people in this tiny room. I mean, it was like standing room only and not even standing room. Like there was no room. Like it was packed in there. People start to panic, right? Like, 'Oh my gosh, freaking out.' So the judge actually shouts, 'The first person to run out the door was going to be put in jail.' And that's luckily what circumvented what likely would have been a deadly stampede. Because, I mean, it would have been bad. So the spectators had to leave the room calmly in groups of five until the only people that remained were those who could fit in the actual seats. Like, that is how crowded the room had been. So later when they inspected and they checked downstairs, they found that the beams had been forcing the walls apart. And like the plaster on the walls had been falling down. And there was a huge crack that ran the full length of the building. Wow. Yeah, it was crazy. So anyway, when the trial resumed, John Mills started chanting in tongues. Did they fix the wall? Um, I assume eventually, I don't know if they did right away. I don't know. Hmm. But, yeah. So, yeah. Trial resumes. He starts chanting in tongues. Apparently, everyone who was there watching would just all just silently stare at him. At him every time he had an outburst and started like chanting in tongues. And he started calling on the spirit to raise up his dead mother and bring her back to life because he was certain she was coming back, you know, to life by Friday. Um, so anyway, just the Sika Laka, Sika Laka, you know, and they'd all just stare. I mean, this was like total, just a freak show. Right. So anyway. It was reality TV before TV. Oh, yeah. Everybody from all around wanted to come and just watch this. It was, it was so crazy. I mean, it made it not only national news, but international news. Like this was a crazy story. So one by one, now not everybody, they didn't even call a ton of witnesses. So not everyone who had been part of the cult even testified, but those who did. You know, one by one, they took the stand and testified about the crazy things that John had told them to do. And the crazy things that he had done. And whenever court would like recess for the day or whatever, there was a break, you know, lunch or whatever, the spectators would go outside to the courtyard. And... In one corner of the courtyard, a ventriloquist had set up his show and was there performing and telling his jokes. And there was also an... optometrist who had set up a makeshift office across the street. And there was a man named Bill Little who was a horse and mule trader in March. He showed up, you know, to the event. So he was trading livestock while everyone was there. Someone asked him, you know, so what are you doing here, Bill? And he said, 'Oh, a little swapping.' Nobody's got much cash these days. And so, yeah, this trial attracted a lot of people from all over the place. And, you know, the locals just decided to take advantage. So what I really love is how there's a big Bill and a Bill Little. I wonder if they were friends. They probably were. Maybe. It probably hung out. The Bills. Yeah. Yeah. So Olivia, what was the sentence? Ultimately, on April 12th, the sentence was handed down in Inez, Kentucky. John H. Mills was given a life sentence. Ballard Mills and Blaine McGinnis, who both stood by while John was killing Lucinda, both got 21 years in prison for manslaughter. Yep. Now everyone else was acquitted. So just those three were convicted. However, Blaine McGinnis was given a pardon by Governor Ruby Laffoon on November 2nd of 1933. So just a few months later, he was pardoned. Like free and clear, and that pardon was requested by both the prosecutor and Lucinda's oldest son, William. And this left just John H. Mills, the leader, and Ballard Mills, her grandson, in prison. So. Actually, it does look like... John H. Mills did eventually get let out of prison. I'm not sure when. But in my research, I did find that he got... remarried to someone four years before his death in 1968. So that means that he and Alma eventually divorced at some point. So did you find anything about Ballard Mills, like when he got out of prison or anything? I didn't exactly find when he got out of prison, but I do know that he eventually married a woman named Lexi Mills Williams, and they had six children together, and Ballard eventually passed away. In 1981 in South Williamson Pike, Kentucky. Wow, interesting. I wonder if she... knew that he had like killed his grandma and went to prison yeah I do see that his military draft registration was 16th October 1940 in West Virginia. Interesting. Okay, so then he didn't... stay in prison very long then. Mm-mm. Wow. Wow. Because he went to prison in 1933. And so then if he was in the military by 1940. Or just a draft. card. Yeah, but you can't be drafted out of prison, can you? I mean, is that around a world war? I don't know. I don't know. That's something to look into. Interesting. So it really sounds like this cult was pretty short-lived. It got started when Mary Skaggs came through. In November of 1932. And then Lucinda Mills was murdered February 7th of 1933. So it was really just like whiplash back and forth. So fast. Yes, it flared up pretty quickly and then died out just as fast. If Lucinda hadn't been murdered that day, though, it had the potential to go on and on for a very long time. So we know that Talitha Boyd had been ushered out of the room where they were doing the smiting that day because she was pregnant. That baby would have been born into the cult. And that baby wound up being Phyllis Jean Boyd, born about two and a half months after Lucinda died. So Phyllis would have known nothing but the cult. And John, the cult leader, and his wife Alma, they had just had a baby boy in 1933 before Lucinda was murdered. We don't know the exact date of Baby Buford's birth, but we know it was in 1933 before the murder on February 7th. So they also had a three-year-old, a five-year-old, a six-year-old, and an eight-year-old. And you better believe... All five of those kids would have been reared in the cult, and I would bet one or more would have picked up the mantle, you know, after John would have either stepped down or died, or they would have just formed their own sects before that, you know. Yeah. And this could have potentially gotten really out of hand. Now we have to talk about something that I find absolutely fascinating. Pray tell. So William Seymour, the son of two freed slaves and evangelist from Akron, Ohio. He had one message, right? Mm-hmm. And he traveled all over the country to share his message and his gift of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues with people all over. And it was the same message in Los Angeles in 1906 that kicked off that Azusa street revival. And it was the same message along the Kentucky-West Virginia border in 1910 that caused all of those little congregations of tongue people to crop up. So over in Los Angeles, California, William Seymour's message led to that Pentecostal church, which is not a cult. But over in the Appalachian Mountains, it led to a lot of really bizarre, strange... like really strange, really, really odd little groups that the locals referred to as tongue people, right? Now, you might be wondering what the difference was when they were receiving the same message from the same man. And what it boils down to is the demographic of the folks who were receiving the message. You know, because in 1906, the population of Los Angeles, like the city of L. A., was about 319, 000 people. Yeah, even back in 1906, it was huge. And the people were like, more educated and well-off. And, I mean, they're living in a city. I guess the gold rush. Kind of big. part in that. Yeah, I mean it was just it was very different, but then look at Martin County. The whole county, okay. And I mean, it had about like 8, 000 people, right? And the Mills family lived there in this, you know, in Tomahawk, right? That had like this, the unincorporated village. It was referred to as a village that had about... 400 people scattered across this mountainside, right? When William Seymour came through in 1910, it would have been even smaller than that. And there's an article I found, I remember I sent that to you, where a man referred to them as illiterate mountain people. You know, so you can see how like these kinds of religious messages would land differently. In these two very different populations. So you can see, I mean. You know, it just led to different, like the same message, but it just led to just very different outcomes in these two different areas. Yeah. Find it. So interesting. Like... Well, I just want to know, when John got out, was he still like... Secret locker. Because he got remarried. Four years before he died. Yeah, I don't know. Was he reformed? And then he had his brother who was in an insane asylum. Maybe. I don't know. I wonder if there was more mental illness going on. But I also feel bad for the sheriff, who probably knew their dad. Yeah. And he's like... Hmm, what happened? Yeah. I know. And then, yeah. And you got to wonder. What role did their dad's death play in all of that? Because, I mean. The youngest was six years old, you know. And. Probably had Fred as more of a father figure. Well, Fred had John as more of a father figure. Well, John was the 10th, right? Fred was the 14th. Yeah. John was like early teens, I'm pretty sure, when his dad died. Mm-hmm. So. So he would have been more of a father figure in his life, though. Yeah. I mean, But still, I mean, a big brother, but yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Um, yeah, just, yeah, just, it's a crazy, crazy, crazy story. You can't get your mom back. What's really sad to me is that She's buried in an unmarked grave in the family cemetery. I did find that if you go past hers, like farther up the hill is where John's is. Is his unmarked as well? Do you know? I don't think so. If you go on there, find a grave. Someone has written down, like, how to get to the graves. Which is interesting. Yeah. Intriguing. All right. On Ancestry, I did find someone who is related to them who was like, 'There's so many inaccuracies.' But. They did not message me back. It's too bad. Sadly. Shout out to FamilySearch, Ancestry. com, Newspapers. com. Find a grave. Um, the evangelist website I found about Mary Skaggs. And big shout out to... my brother for doing some quotes, Christian. Yes, he's awesome. And your two small children. Yes, yes, yes. My two children for their... Chanting. Follow our socials, Forgotten Felonies on Facebook and Forgotten underscore Felonies on Instagram. Yes, and anywhere you are listening to us, there is a link that says 'send us a text,' and you can click that link, and you can send us a message, and we will be able to see it. We cannot respond to it, but we can say things in our next episode. And leave a review. For us. Yeah, like that and we'll um, there's some pictures of these family members that we could post. Yes, we have a picture. And a ventriloquist. Is there a picture of that? Yes. Oh, nice. Yes. We have a picture of John chained up. In the jail. In his mother's chains. And we have a picture of Alma, his wife, arguing with a cop who was holding the chains in his hands. So, pretty good picture. So, Christian, we need you to do some chanting, please. I can do some chanting. Heck yeah. I just kind of woke up. My voice is lower. It's perfect. It is. We definitely need the man voice. Yes, what will I be chanting? Well, so the tongue people spoke in the unknown tongue and it was all based on Sika Laka. And so we need some Sika Laka chanting. From you, please. Sounds good. Are you wanting like... Are you wanting, um... I mean, I can just riff it. Yes, please. Okay, sounds good. Do you want me to just start going? Yes. It's recording right now. Okay. Um, how many, like, how many, how many do you need? Um. Just kind of, okay. Just some, yeah. I'll go. Seekalaka, seekalaka, seekalaka, seekalaka. Yes, and then also some variation. If you could do, like, can you do like a southern accent? They were from the Appalachian Mountains. So throw some of that in there too. Like I did somewhere it was like 'seek a seek a lock up' like yes yes yes no. I mean I actually whenever I'm like making fun of someone I do it in a southern accent 'seek a lock a seek a lock a seek a lock a seek a lock Yes. Can you do it as low as you can? Oh, man. Say goodnight and say goodnight and say goodnight and say goodnight and say goodnight. And okay now, do one where it's like, instead of just seeking a lock of like, Mix it where it's like, 'siga, siga, siga, loka.' Okay, exactly. I don't know. I just said it was all based on— Thank you.