Hudgins Teresa - Corpsewood : the eyewitness account

Corpsewood:

The Eyewitness Account

Shannon West

Susan E Scott

Teresa Hudgins

Corpsewood: The Eyewitness Account

Copyright (c) 2015 Shannon West, Susan E Scott,

Teresa Hudgins

About the Book You Have Purchased

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Corpsewood: The Eyewitness Account

Copyright (c) 2015 Shannon West, Susan E Scott, Teresa Hudgins

ISBN 10: 1944054146

ISBN 13: 978-1-944054-14-4

Authors: Shannon West, Susan E Scott, Teresa Hudgins

Editor: Ashley Kain

Original Publication Date: November 2015

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

For more information, contact:

Dark Hollows Press, PO Box 343, Silver Creek, Georgia, 30173

Prologue

Whatever happened in that secluded home was the devils work. But who were the real devils ?

Dead Horse Road on the way to Corpsewood

The truth of a crime is not always easy to unravel, especially after many years have passed. Such is the case with the killings of Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom, two openly gay men living on an isolated property near Summerville, Georgia, in December of 1982. Obscured by layers of speculation, innuendo and lies, what actually happened on December 12, 1982 is elusive. Only one thing is certainthe murders at Corpsewood were vicious and completely devoid of human compassion.

The ruins of the estate called Corpsewood are the only thing left, hidden deep in the Georgia woodlands. The grounds, appropriately and ironically named, are there for the morbidly curious and those seeking signs of the paranormal. The buildings that once stood are only brick remnants, covered in ivy and slowly being absorbed back into the woods, and many strange tales have been told about the place by those brave enough to wander down the rutted dirt road and venture deep into the woods to explore the grounds. Stories of hauntings persist, and even now, some thirty-three years after what happened there, nearly everyone in the area calls it the devil worshippers house.

Part of the ruins at Corpsewood still standing with

Charles Scudder and Joey Odoms original brickwork

According to topographical maps, Taylors Ridge, where Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom bought the land to build their home, is the most northwestern ridge in the state of Georgia and is approximately forty miles in length. To the west the ridge is bordered by the Cumberland Plateau region and to the north Taylors Ridge becomes White Oak Mountain at Ringgold Gap. The ridge lies halfway between Rome and Summerville, Georgia, is a well-traveled area, and populated by around 23,000 residents, spread out over its length and breadth. Scudder and Odom purchased forty acres on Taylors Ridge in June of 1975, hauled a travel trailer from their old home in Chicago, and began building their home on the property.

Bound on three sides by the Chattahoochee National Forest, the home was secluded and private. Following the on-line directions to the spot, its easy to get lost unless you use the map coordinates. From Georgia Highway 27 North you turn onto Mountain View Road, just outside of Trion. The road soon turns to dirt and its necessary to travel almost to the top of the mountain before making an extremely sharp turn to the right, where the road splits. This road goes to the entrance of Corpsewood, which is marked only by boulder with the scrawled inscription CW. The narrow logging type road that leads back to the site is an easy enough walk, about a quarter of a mile long. Trees are down across the road in some places and the road was barred by large puddles of water in deep ruts on the day we went there. Still, its a peaceful, beautiful area.

According to various websites, including The Okie Legacy, Cherokees in Chattooga , by NW Okie and Sadie, Richard Taylor was a mixed-race Cherokee, born on Feb. 10, 1788 in a Cherokee settlement in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee. Both his British and his Cherokee relatives were of some prominence. And Taylor himself, at his home in Taylors Gap, grew prosperous and gained influence among the Cherokee. In addition to large log inn at the gap, Taylor operated a grist mill and a saw mill, and kept a farm. The inn, an impressive log structure, sat on a rise overlooking Chickamauga Creek for many years. Taylor lost his home and land during the Cherokee Indian Removals, and in 1838, was a participant of the trail of tears.

The land where Scudder and Odom built their home is not too close to the gap where Taylor had his outpost, but its just as isolated and hard to locatewhich is how the men wanted it to be. They came to the area seeking privacy and a respite from the rat race of the big city. They enjoyed their seclusion and didnt have any electricity or running water and certainly no telephone. Back in 1982, in the days before cell phones and computers, they were truly cut off from the outside world. Their friend, Raymond Williams, who lived nearby, decided to pay the men a visit in the early afternoon of a cold Sunday on December 12, 1982, to inform the men that another of their friends lay on his death bed in a local hospital. He stayed to talk with them for about a half an hour and then left, promising to return and let them know if the friend passed away. It was to be the last time he ever saw his friends alive.

The following Tuesday, December 14, Roy Hood, the mutual friend of Raymond Williams and the men, died in a Rome hospital. The next morning, Raymond made the journey to Corpsewood to tell Scudder and Odom of the death.

He turned off onto the small road that led to Corpsewood called Dead Horse Road because Charles Scudder had found a dead horse stretched across it when he first came to the property years earlier. Williams drove slowly down the narrow, rutted driveway, some quarter of a mile back into the dense woods. As he arrived in the clearing where the house stood, he saw that Scudders black Jeep was gone, but he thought Joey might be inside, so he got out of his truck and went to the green kitchen door of the home. As he got closer, he saw that it was standing open on that cold morning and most alarming of all, he saw several bullet holes in the window pane. The heavy steel door that closed over the kitchen door was also standing wide open.

Alarmed, he stepped slowly backward and almost ran toward his car, never even setting foot inside the house. He took off down the narrow road as fast as he could and traveled to the bottom of the Ridge to the Mountain View community, where he called the sheriffs office to report what he had seen.

The sheriffs office in Chattooga County was all too familiar with the forty-acre estate in the woods. Officers had patrolled the area often in the past, due to several complaints to the sheriff about the men living there on the Ridge. A popular sheriff, Gary McConnell had taken over the department after his father died in office in 1967. The sheriff had tried to bring charges against the two men in the past, but was told by prosecutors to back off. They came here six years ago, he would tell reporters later, speaking of Scudder and Odom, and they made it clear they wanted to be left alone. Over the years they made some friends. It was pretty well-known they were devil worshippers.