The Hatfield–McCoy feud involved two American families of the West Virginia–Kentucky area along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River from August 30, 1863, to May 7, 1891. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield Sr., while the McCoys of Kentucky were led by Randolph "Randall" or "Ole Randall" McCoy. The feud gained national attention through tabloid coverage and has entered American culture as a metonym for any bitterly feuding rival parties.
The McCoy family lived primarily on the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork; the Hatfields lived mostly on the West Virginia side. The majority of the Hatfields, although living in Mingo County (then part of Logan County), fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War; most McCoys also fought for the Confederates, except for Asa Harmon McCoy, who fought for the Union. The first real violence in the feud was the death of Asa as he returned from the war, murdered by a group of Confederate Home Guards called the Logan Wildcats. Devil Anse Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been sick at home with tuberculosis at the time of the murder. It was widely believed that his uncle, Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder.
The Hatfields were more affluent and had many more political connections than the McCoys. Devil Anse's timbering operation was a source of wealth for his family, while the McCoys were more of a lower-middle-class family. Ole Randall owned a 300-acre (120 ha) farm.
Feud
Civil War
One of the earliest known incidents occurred on August 30, 1863, when Devil Anse Hatfield got into an argument with Randall McCoy due to issues occurring in the month after the Battle of Gettysburg. Asa Harmon McCoy joined the 45th Kentucky Infantry on October 20. According to his Compiled Service Records, he was "captured by Rebels" on December 5, 1863, and was released four months later to a Union hospital in Maryland. At the time of his capture, he was recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest. During the early months of the Civil War, Asa joined a company of the Pike County Home Guards, under the command of Uriah Runyon, and it is thought he sustained the wound while serving in this unit. William Francis also led a company of Pike County Guards during 1862, a group of which attacked and shot Mose Christian Cline, a friend of Devil Anse Hatfield. Although Cline survived his wounds, Anse vowed to retaliate against the responsible parties. Sometime in 1863, a group of Confederate Home Guards ambushed and killed Francis as he was leaving his house, and Anse took credit for the deed. Runyon later joined the 39th Kentucky Infantry and was killed on May 7, 1864, in Pike County, Kentucky. His compiled service records say "Killed by Rebels".
On muster rolls beginning on May 6, 1864, Asa is reported in a Lexington hospital, suffering from a leg fracture. Beginning in December 1864, the 45th Kentucky Infantry began mustering its companies out of service. Asa's Company E was mustered out on December 24, 1864, in Ashland. He was killed near his home on January 7, 1865, just thirteen days after leaving the Union Army. A group of Confederate guerrillas took credit for the killing, and his wife's pension application states that he was "killed by Rebels". There are no existing records about his death, and no warrants were issued in connection with the murder. McCoy family tradition points to James "Jim" Vance, an uncle of Devil Anse and a member of a West Virginia militia group, as the culprit.
Escalation
The second recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred thirteen years later, in 1878, after a dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield, a cousin of Devil Anse, owned the hog, but Randall McCoy claimed it was his, saying that the notches on the pig's ears were McCoy, not Hatfield, marks. The matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield, who ruled in favor of the Hatfields by the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. In June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.
The feud escalated after Ole Randall's daughter Roseanna entered a relationship with Devil Anse's son Johnson, known as "Johnse" (spelled "Jonce" in some sources), leaving her family to live with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Roseanna eventually returned to the McCoys, but when the couple tried to resume their relationship, Johnse was arrested by the McCoys on outstanding Kentucky bootlegging warrants. He was freed from McCoy custody only when Roseanna made a desperate midnight ride to alert Anse, who organized a rescue party. The Hatfield party surrounded the McCoys and took Johnse back to West Virginia before he could be transported the next day to the county seat in Pikeville, Kentucky. Despite what was seen as her betrayal of her own family on his behalf, Johnse thereafter abandoned the pregnant Roseanna for her cousin, Nancy McCoy, whom he wed in 1881.
The feud continued in 1882 when Ellison Hatfield, brother of Devil Anse, was killed by three of Roseanna's younger brothers: Tolbert, Phamer (Pharmer), and Randolph Jr. known as "Bud". On an election day in Kentucky, the three McCoy brothers fought a drunken Ellison and another Hatfield brother; Ellison was stabbed 26 times and finished off with a gunshot. The McCoy brothers were initially arrested by the Hatfields' constables and were taken to Pikeville for trial. Secretly, Devil Anse organized a large group of vigilantes and intercepted the constables and their McCoy prisoners before they reached Pikeville. The brothers were taken by force to West Virginia. When Ellison died from his injuries, all three McCoy brothers were killed by the Hatfields in turn: they were tied to pawpaw bushes, and each was shot numerous times, with a total of fifty shots fired. Their bodies were described as "bullet-riddled". Soon, another McCoy, the second son of the murdered Asa, named Larkin "Lark" McCoy, was ambushed by an alleged West Virginia posse led by the Hatfields.
Even though the Hatfields and most inhabitants of the area believed their revenge was warranted, up to about twenty men, including Devil Anse, were indicted. All of the Hatfields eluded arrest; this angered the McCoy family, who took their cause up with Perry Cline, the deputy sheriff. Upon hearing of the meeting, Devil Anse resolved to stop Randall and sent gunmen to ambush Randall and his son Calvin, but the gunmen killed Randall's nephews John and Henderson Scott instead after mistaking them for their targets. Cline, who was Martha McCoy's brother, is believed to have used his political connections to reinstate the charges and announced rewards for the Hatfields' arrests as an act of revenge. A few years prior, Cline had lost a lawsuit against Anse over the deed to thousands of acres of land, subsequently increasing the hatred between the two families.
Days after the killing of the Scotts, acting constable William Anderson "Cap" Hatfield II and family friend Tom Wallace broke into the house of Bill Daniels and flogged his wife Mary, sister of Jeff McCoy, whom they suspected of warning her brother's family of danger. Jeff McCoy heard of the whipping in 1886 while on the run for the murder of mail carrier Fred Wolford. Infuriated, he and his friend Josiah Hurley set out to capture Tom Wallace and take him to jail in Pikeville, but he escaped them. As Jeff tried to flee, he was shot dead by Cap and Wallace on the banks of the Tug Fork. Two other McCoys, Jake and Larkin, once again attempted to arrest Wallace for the assault on Mary Daniels in August 1887, but he managed to escape from jail; he was found murdered the following year, likely by the McCoys. Larkin was the second son of the murdered Asa McCoy. He too was ambushed and murdered by an alleged West Virginia posse led by the Hatfields.
New Year's Massacre
The feud reached its peak during the 1888 New Year's Night Massacre. Cap and Vance led several members of the Hatfield clan to surround the McCoy cabin and opened fire on the sleeping family. Awakened by the shooting, the McCoys managed to grab their weapons and fired back. The cabin was then set on fire in an effort to drive the McCoys into the open.
Panicking, the McCoys rushed to every exit they could find. Randolph managed to escape and hide inside the pig pen. Most of his children managed to escape into the woods. Two of his children, Calvin and Alifair, were shot and killed near the family well as they exited their home. His wife, Sarah, was caught, beaten, and almost killed by Vance and Johnse. With his house burning, Randall and his remaining family members were able to escape farther into the wilderness; his children, unprepared for the elements, suffered frostbite. The remaining McCoys moved to Pikeville to escape the West Virginia raiding parties.
Battle of the Grapevine Creek
Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families. On one occasion, the governors of West Virginia and Kentucky even threatened to have their militias invade each other's states. In response, Kentucky Governor S. B. Buckner sent his Adjutant General Sam Hill to Pike County to investigate the situation.
A few days after the New Year's Massacre, a posse led by Pike County Deputy Sheriff Frank "Bad Frank" Phillips rode out to track down Anse's group across the state line into West Virginia. Two McCoys were members of Phillips' posse, Bud and one of Randolph's sons, James "Jim" McCoy. The posse's first victim was Vance, who was killed in the woods after he refused to be arrested. Phillips then made other successive raids on Hatfield homes and supporters, capturing many and killing another three Hatfield supporters, before cornering the rest in Grapevine Creek on January 19. Anse and other Hatfields were waiting for them with an armed group of their own. A battle ensued between the two parties, and the Hatfields were eventually apprehended. A deputy, Bill Dempsey, was wounded and executed by Frank Phillips after they surrendered. On August 24, 1888, eight of the Hatfields and their friends were indicted for the murder of Randolph's young daughter Alifair McCoy (sometimes spelled Allaphare), who was killed during the New Year's Massacre. They included Cap, Johnse, Robert and Elliot Hatfield, Ellison "Cotton Top" Mounts, French Ellis, Charles Gillespie, and Thomas Chambers.
Trial
Because of issues of due process and illegal extradition, the United States Supreme Court became involved (Mahon v. Justice, 127 U.S. 700 (1888)). The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in favor of Kentucky, holding that, even if a fugitive is returned from the asylum state illegally instead of through lawful extradition procedure, no federal law prevents him from being tried. Eventually, the men were tried in Kentucky, and all were found guilty. Seven received life imprisonment, while the eighth, Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts, was executed by hanging and buried in an unmarked grave within sight of the gallows.
Ellison had tried to retract his confession, stating that he was innocent and that he had only confessed because he expected leniency, but his retraction was denied. Thousands attended his hanging in Pikeville, but though the scaffold was in the open, its base was fenced in to comply with laws that had been passed which prohibited public executions. The hanging site is the current location of a classroom building of the present-day University of Pikeville. With his last words, Ellison claimed that: "The Hatfields made me do it." No one had been sent to the gallows in Pike County for forty years, and after Ellison, no one ever was again.
Of those sent to prison:
- Valentine "Wall" or "Uncle Wall" Hatfield, elder brother of Devil Anse, was overshadowed by Devil Anse's ambitions but was one of the eight convicted, dying in prison of unknown causes on February 13, 1890, at the age of 55. He had petitioned his brothers to assist in his emancipation from jail, but none came for fear of being captured and brought to trial. He was buried in the prison cemetery, which has since been paved over.
- Doc D. Mahon, son-in-law of Valentine and brother of Plyant, one of the eight Hatfields convicted, served 14 years in prison before returning home to live with his son, Melvin.
- Plyant Mahon, son-in-law of Valentine, served fourteen years in prison before returning home to rejoin his ex-wife, who had remarried but left her second husband to live with Plyant again.
Fighting between the families eased following the hanging of Mounts. The fighting was declared to be over on May 7, 1891. Trials continued for years until the 1901 trial of Johnse, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the New Year's Massacre in the last of the feud trials.