Back in the days of the Norcross Ghost Tour I would tell the legend of a place that many people did not believe was real. A tale of a murder that was horrific, and lives that were mysterious. Up in the mountains of North Georiga surrounded by the Chattahoochee National Forest is the former site of a mansion, now lying in ruin. Hand built in 1977 by Dr. Charles L. Scudder, a retired professor at Loyola University, and his partner Joseph “Joey” Odom, the mansion served as the couple’s dream home until their deaths, In December of 1982. The pair were gruesomely murdered, along with their two bull mastiffs, as a result of an attempted robbery by two acquaintances, Avery Brock and Tony West. During the ensuing investigation and trial, fueled partially by a local media circus, a legend evolved in which the victims were vilified as “evil Satan worshippers,” drawing from Dr. Scudder’s interest in the occult and the pair’s open homosexuality. Despite having been very well liked in the community by those who knew them, the horrendous false reputation continues to this day.
This story and legend is one that captured me many years ago when I first heard it. The following video is one that I despise but tells a lot of the story with few embellishments. Sadly it is filmed as a conversion propaganda tool for early christian TV around 1982/83. It has many people though who were first hand witnesses to the couple and foolish murders. Although the reporter tries to push the stories to her angle, many of the people she is interviewing are not bending and telling what they know. Watch and learn about a story that I am trying to dig in to some more again. Again this video is full of hypocrisy and straight out lies based on religion. Still many of the interviews are straight forward full of trough and bad pronunciation thanks to early 80’s country accents…
The following is a video that has recorded an event that I experienced at the location in one of my visits there!
This place is very cool and one that I say you should experience if you are a paranormal investigator and want to touch some of the rabbit hole of mystery. There is a lot of metaphysical aspects to this event that many people want to learn about, but it needs to investigated with less bias in regard to both religion and homophobia. See of we can get past the legend and in to more truth. Granted I am sure some of the legend is the truth too… Anyway here is a taste of what is to come more in the future… Now back to Hales Bar dam…. ALSO! DOn’t forget to listen to ÅTL Radio X LIVE!!!
