Booger Hole, West Virginia might have a bizarre name, but the long history of unexplained, unsolved murders that happened in this small, unincorporated community are certainly even weirder.
Booger Hole was the site of quite a few mysterious murders during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which you figure had to be like, what, half the population of the town at the time? And despite the best efforts of a well-intentioned town mob, none of these murders were ever solved, and no one was really ever brought to true justice.
In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from January 29, 1917, a few of the murders are described in their grisly detail, including:
“…that of John Newman, a peddler, who disappeared while going from one farm house to another one evening. Joseph Clark was another victim. He was sleeping in a school house. He was traced by a streak of blood to a creek nearby, but nothing further was ever learned about him. Mrs. Lacy Ann Boggs was another victim, her murder having occurred soon after she had made a remark that she knew where Henry Hargis was buried. Hargis was another of the victims whose death has long been shrouded in mystery.”
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In addition to the aforementioned murders, in 1917, a farmer named Preston Tanner died in a fire that burned down his shack. An empty can of lamp oil was found under his bed and the evidence indicated that he was also hit in the head.
Two men – 21-year-old Howard Sampson and his 57-year-old father Andrew Sampson – were arrested on murder charges. During the trial, Jennie Sampson, Andrew’s daughter and Howard’s sister, testified against the men, explaining that her father told her of a dream in which Preston Tanner drew a gun on him, which is, believe it or not, not a valid reason to murder someone.
However, “Bunk” Truman also testified that Howard Sampson had a thing for Tanner’s wife and had vowed to kill Tanner if he had to in order to have her. Mrs. Preston Tanner backed that up, saying Sampson had made advances towards her in the past and that she’d regret turning him away.
Howard would eventually be found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison.
This wasn’t enough for the residents of Booger Hole, though, as they systematically removed anyone remotely connected to the various murders, starting with notices posted around town:
…and finishing by kicking out of town the families of those accused or at least suspected of any of the murders. They were mostly Braxton County’s problem now.
Speaking of Sampson, he would actually be pardoned and released in 1925, going on to… kill his wife in Canton, Ohio in 1953 before killing himself in Grantsville, West Virginia.
The Mysterious Legacy of the Booger Hole Murders Lives On
Since the early 20th century, Booger Hole has become a much quieter – and far less deadly – community, but the legends about these mysterious murders lives on, and there’s no shortage of people who believe this small pocket in Clay County is haunted.
A weird name and a weird history full of weird murders: Booger Hole has it all.
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