In the middle of Rose Hill Cemetery, with a view of the winding train tracks and the silver glint of the local river that cuts through town flashing in the sun, you’ll find a neat row of brick slabs and new-ish gravestones. And there lies an entire family that was murdered. The first mass murder on record for Georgia in fact.

It happened on August 6th, 1887 and the murderer was none other than the first born son of the father – Tom.

Five years before Lizzie Borden and her axe became famous, nine members of the Woolfolk family were killed with an axe at their home near Macon in Georgia’s first mass murder.

Richard Woolfolk, his wife Mattie, their six children, and a visiting relative, were all slaughtered as they slept. Suspicion immediately fell on Tom Woolfolk, Richard’s 27-year-old son from a previous marriage. Tom was the only family member not killed. He claimed a gang broke in and murdered his family. He had heard the killings, and managed to escape.

Police found no evidence of forced entry. Tom’s body bore blood stains. He seemed agitated and nervous. His bloodstained shirt was found down a well.

As an angry crowd gathered, the sheriff jailed Tom to save him from a lynching.

The murders shocked Georgia, and made front–page headlines across the nation. After two trials, and two appeals, Tom Woolfolk was convicted and hanged in 1890.

Many questions remain about Georgia’s first mass murder, and exactly what happened on that bloody morning. – source

It seems as if Tom Woolfolk was a bit of an asshole from the get go. He was described by many as cranky, cunning, quarrelsome and unscrupulous. His young wife divorced him after just a few years of marriage and said he was just plain mean. Also, Tom didn’t hide dislike of his Stepmother and younger siblings from that marriage. He was worried about his inheritance and was quite vocal about. So, as you can imagine, all of these things were used as evidence of his guilt.

However right up until the last minute Tom proclaimed that he was an innocent man.

He was one of the last people to be hung before they did away with public hangings. “The Shadow Chasers” by Carolyn DeLoach, (Woolfolk revisited), is a book about this case. The author uncovered much undiscovered evidence and was able to conclude that the actual murderer was Simon Cooper, a hired hand of the family. After Cooper’s death, a diary was found that he had written, notating the Woolfolk murders just as Tom had stated. Cooper had also written a statement that states, “Tom Woolfolk was mighty slick, but I fixed him. I would have killed him with the rest of the damn family, but he was not at home.” – source

The murdered family have names and I have to acknowledge them here. Richard, fifty-four; Tom’s stepmother Mattie, forty-one; their six children, Richard Jr., twenty; Pearl, seventeen; Annie, ten; Rosebud, seven; Charlie, five; and baby Mattie, eighteen months; and Mrs. Temperance West, eighty-four, an aunt of Mrs. Woolfolk.

Tom was buried elsewhere and his gravesite is semi-frequently vandalized.

Believe it or not, the family gravesite at Rose Hill Cemetery also fell victim to vandals less than a year ago. They did quite a bit of damage but as of October of 2024 everything had been restored. When I was there just a few weeks ago everything was still in good shape and the stones that were placed in 2006 didn’t show any wear and tear.

Sidenote: I work in an old Victorian home (what was once a funeral home & mortuary) on Prince Avenue in Athens, Georgia. There are lots and lots of old homes on this main street, although sadly not as many as there once was because progress(?), and my commute is pretty full of stuff to look at. For years I’ve zoomed by the biggest Ginko EVER (see here but just note this isn’t an affiliate link or anything!) and a number of other beautiful trees and buildings. Kinda taken for granted what they were or what had been there before. But recently I discovered that the land where the bland medical building down the way sits was once the site of the home Tom Woolfork resided in before he moved to Macon with his Father and Stepmother…