As it turns out, one historical error in Hatfields and Mccoys, the killing and scalping of Tom ‘Skunkhair’ Wallace by Bad Frank Phillips, led me on quite the adventure here in Wyoming County – far away from the original events of the Hatfield and McCoy feud.To my surprise, a family member reached out to me via email shortly after they saw the movie. They explained that Tom Wallace did not die during the feud. In fact, he lived to be 84 years old! With a little digging, I found an old photo of Tom Wallace and an excerpt from G.T. Swain’s The History of Logan County written in 1927: Blood flows thicker

than water.

In those days, to offer an insult to a person, was to strike every one of his relatives. They were bound together by bonds of blood relationship that would stand the test of fire. However, the feud subsided to some extent, with an occasional flare-up between some of the younger men of the factions. In 1886 an incident occurred to fan the smoldering flames again.

One Jeff McCoy was accused of murdering Fred Walford

One Jeff McCoy was accused of murdering Fred Walford, in Kentucky, and McCoy fled and sought refuge in the home of Johnse Hatfield on the West Virginia side [of the Tug River]. Johnse had recently married Nancy McCoy, a sister of Jeff McCoy. Hatfield had long since refused to take any part in trouble between the factions. Near Johnse Hatfield lived [his brother] Cap Hatfield who employed Tom “Skunk-Hair” Wallace. The Hatfield faction felt that there was a spy in their community, due to certain reports, that kept reaching the McCoy clan. They desired peace, but these reports kept fanning the old flames and the McCoys were sending back [death] threats.

Through that strange and mysterious medium by which news travels in the mountainous regions—known as the “grapevine” method—reports flew thick and fast. Some of the friends of the Hatfields finally accused a Daniels woman [Mary Daniels] of being the spy [along with her sister, Nancy McCoy Hatfield], and a mob [which included Tom Wallace and Cap Hatfield] visited her house one night and gave her a thrashing [whipping the two women with a thick bull’s tale]. Mrs. Daniels was also the sister of Jeff McCoy.