Sweet Tea Crime

08/13/2024

Please read and think about!

I've seen too many friends share a missing person post, thinking it’s local, not realizing it’s a real story. Let me tell you about Brian:

Brian vanished in April on his way to work in Pennsylvania. A few days later, he was found in his truck in the Monongahela River. Now, his family faces unimaginable heartbreak seeing his image in a hoax post circulating online. They lost him in April and can’t escape the constant reminders of their loss, unknowingly shared by strangers.

Think about it—what if it were your dad, mom, child, or sibling? Imagine the pain of seeing your loved one’s real information used in a cruel hoax, shared by people who don’t know the impact of their actions.

Please, I urge you to be thoughtful and cautious. Before you click "share," take a moment to ensure what you’re spreading is real. It may seem like a small action, but it can add to the grief of a family already suffering. Your share leads to others sharing, and soon, it’s everywhere.

Let's be kind and considerate. Our actions should help, not hurt. If you can’t verify the post through a quick search, don’t share it. If there’s no contact number or reliable source, don’t share it. It's heartbreaking how a hoax can spread nationwide while real missing persons struggle to get attention. Let's make sure we are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

08/10/2024

Y'all woke up early this morning to work on the script for the first episode for the relaunch of Sweet Tea Crime! Hope she doesn't kill me, but Jordana Elizabeth Swanson has agreed to join me in this relaunch.

Y'all the first episode will air Sept. 20th on Sweet Tea Crime's YouTube Channel. We will talk about the murder of a former police chief of Dalton, Georgia.

Live near Dalton? Do you want to be a guest on an upcoming episode? Let us know!

08/01/2024

Sept. 20, 2024 will be the 125th anniversary of former Police Chief Marshall William M. Hannah’s murder at the hands of Will Jones.

He was a very well loved and respected man in our community. I will be taking his story soon.

He was said to be brave as a lion and honest as the day is long.

08/01/2024

Looking for anyone who has more information of the murder of Benjamin Cleveland Keith in 1907. I have started researching for a few episodes of Sweet Tea Crime.

04/15/2024

I just found the most amazing podcast if you like ghost stories! The title Run Fool.

Here is the link for apple podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-fool/id1711450527

He just started this in October 2023 and I know y'all can catch up. When I asked for a random podcast this is what I got and I listened to the most recent episode, La Llorona and now I am HOOKED!

Rodney Barnes is an amazing story teller.

‎True Crime · 2024

06/19/2023

In honor of Juneteenth, a little history about a Georgia man who faced certain death and through his actions change slowly began to take place. Gus Chapman's story.
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Murder Farm in Georgia

Sometime prior to 1920, Gus Chapman had been arrested in Atlanta, Georgia. I am honestly unsure of the charge. Hulon Williams, son of John S. Williams a plantation owner in Jasper County, Georgia came to bail out Gus with the promise of work on a farm where he would find a home. It sounded great to Gus and so he agreed to go work for the Williams family and pay off his debt, as well as make a little extra money.

When he arrived at the Williams 2,000+ acres family farm what he was promised was not reality. Even though peonage had been outlawed everyone looked the other way. Even though there were rumors in Jasper County, about the horrible inhuman conditions of the Williams Farm everyone looked the other way.

Gus found that the Williams farm was simply 1920's slavery. He attempted to run away once, but was caught stripped and beaten severally. Gus was warned that if he tried again they would kill him. He knew they would because he had witnessed the murder of other peons.

Peon- a person held in compulsory servitude to a master for the working out of an indebtedness. (Merriam-Webster)

The thing is on the Williams farm not a single person ever worked off their debt. At night they would be forced into shacks that would have doors and windows nailed shut. At a moment's notice any of the many workers on the farms of Williams family could find themselves beat. One beaten so bad he asked for death. He was shot and killed by the Williams family.

Gus feared running away again, he knew if caught he would be killed in a brutal and painful way to set an example for the others. But he had to try.

In November 1920, Gus Chapman risked it all and ran. When he got away he could have done anything, gone anywhere. Where he went was to the Atlanta Offices of the Bureau of Investigation. It would later become the FBI.

Gus meet with 2 federal agents. Those 2 agents went to the William's farm and that led to an investigation into the Williams Family Farm. John S. Williams became so frightened to be caught he decided to do away with the evidence. Which in his crazy mind meant killing the men who had worked for him.

There is so much more to the story but in April 1921 John S. Williams and his farmhand Clyde Manning went on trial and were charged with murder. They both died in jail. Clyde had come to work on the Williams farm when he was 13.

I encourage you to research the murder farm in Jasper County, Georgia. The one person not given as much honor in changing the future of Georgia is

Gus Chapman. He could have kept going North and never looking back. But he tried to save his friends and as tragic as the events that unfolded after he went to the Atlanta Bureau without his risking his life who knows how long the practice would have continued because prior to that law enforcement was not interested in upholding the peonage laws.

06/05/2023

https://sweetteacrime.buzzsprout.com/2048216/12960812

Imagine they find a dead body in your basement.

In Reidsville, North Carolina a decomposing body is found buried in a basement. The man, Smith Petty had been missing for at least 9 months. No one seemed to notice, until his wife passed away and he didn't come to her funeral. When his body is f...

06/05/2023

Sweet Tea Crime's next episode airs June 8, 2023. This crime takes us to a murder farm in Jasper County, Georgia! Where a man murders more than 11 people, but there is so much more to the story. He not only murdered 11 men, but he also forced others to commit murder.

The escape of one man sets a chain of events in motion that truly helps to spark a change in the south. Change in a part of the Southern past that we often try to never look to closely at. Let's get uncomfortable and look at the horrific actions of one Georgia family.

This will not be an easy case, but it is one that truly started a change in Georgia's future. Join me as we go visit the murder farm.

06/02/2023

Body found in Basement in Reidsville, North Carolina
Daughter arrested for killing her father with an axe when his body was found in the basement. Did she do it? Listen to Season 2 Episode 6 (Body in the Basement) and let's start trying to solve this unsolved murder mystery! Host:

06/01/2023

Body in the Basement is up!
https://sweetteacrime.buzzsprout.com/2048216/12960812

05/27/2023

Trying my hand at a little video fun for Thursday's episode, Body in the Basement. A story out of Reidsville, North Carolina where a body is found in the basement of a home. The man killed buy the blow to the head with an axe.

Was it his daughter?
Was it his dead wife?
or could there be another theory that needs to be looked at?

05/25/2023

It will always be tea for me, Sweet Tea!

05/24/2023

Excited about Thursday's episode!

05/22/2023

Still getting used to forcing myself to stop researching every rock I can find!

A late-night arrival of a sedan carrying four individuals leads to a shocking chain of events: the untimely death of Floyd Frazier, the shooting of Ray Catron, and a trail of unanswered questions. How did Ray find himself at the center of this deadly plot? Was he a victim, a willing participant.

This episode is super late, but I am already starting on my next episode! I enjoyed my virtual tour of Scott County, Virginia! Planning a real one soon.

If you are from Scott County you have to tell me where to stay, eat and what to do?

Scott County Virginia Genealogy The Scott County Historical Society Scott County Virginia Fair Gate City, Virginia Natural Tunnel, Virginia Glenita, Virginia

https://sweetteacrime.buzzsprout.com/2048216/12898294

05/01/2023

Crime from Scotland County, NC! Girl found burned in the woods at Old Hundred, North Carolina. In honor of the years I spent growing up in Laurinburg, North Carolina and Laurel Hill, North Carolina.

Guest my mom LaMona Cobb Brownen.

Coming up next a Crime from Gate City, Virginia and then Camden, South Carolina

The newspapers painted Mollie is a trouble making 17 year old girl having or**es in the woods. But was that really the case? They only ever had one suspect, but did they try hard enough to make sure they go it right? Did gossip and racism play a ...

04/27/2023

Today is recording day! Getting ready to tell y'all a story from Scotland County, NC about a young girl murdered in the woods near Old Hundred. I spent some of the best years of my life running around Laurel Hill, North Carolina and Laurinburg, North Carolina.

Listen to us where ever you listen to your favorite podcast.