The Toe River valley, North Carolina. December, 1831. Three days before Christmas, a fire burns for days inside a small mountain cabin. Nineteen-year-old Charlie Silver has gone missing, and his young wife, Frankie, says he never came home.
But the truth was hidden in the ashes.
A note before we begin: this episode includes descriptions of domestic violence, murder, and the disposal of human remains.
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Case at a glance
Who: Frances "Frankie" Silver and her husband, Charlie Silver
Where: The Toe River valley, then part of Burke County, North Carolina
When: December 1831; Frankie was hanged in Morganton in 1833
Outcome: Convicted of murder after a jury that reportedly first leaned toward acquittal
Still debated: Cold-blooded killer, or a terrified young mother protecting her child?
A cabin in the snow
Frankie and Charlie Silver were barely more than teenagers, living in a one-room cabin in the remote mountains with their baby daughter. In the days before Christmas 1831, Charlie disappeared. Frankie told family he had gone out and never come back.
Neighbors and kin began to search. What they eventually found, in the cabin itself and in the ashes of a fire that had burned for days, turned a missing person into a murder case.
Sixty years before Lizzie Borden
Long before Lizzie Borden made headlines in Massachusetts, the North Carolina mountains had an axe case of their own. Frankie was arrested and taken to Morganton for trial.
In the episode, we follow her into that courtroom, where a jury that reportedly leaned nine to three for acquittal ended up returning a guilty verdict. We look at what the jury heard, and what it may never have been told.
The secrets she may have carried
Over the generations, people in the mountains have argued about what really happened inside that cabin. Some believe Frankie acted in a moment of terror, after years of abuse, to protect herself and her baby. Others believe she was a cold, calculating killer. And some believe her family knew far more than they ever said.
No mercy
Petitions for mercy reached the governor, but he would not grant a pardon. Before her execution, Frankie escaped from jail with help from family, but she was recaptured and brought back.
She was hanged in Morganton in July 1833. Legend says that as she stood on the gallows, her father called out from the crowd: "Die with it in you, Frankie." Nearly two hundred years later, people still argue about what "it" was.
If you visit
Frankie Silver is buried near Morganton, and Charlie's graves, yes, more than one, are in Mitchell County. Both sites are a quiet reminder that this story happened to real people.
Sources
NCpedia, "Silver, Frances [Frankie]"
Blue Ridge Country, "Tragic Ends: Frankie and Charlie Silver"
Asheville History Center, Quaker Meadows and Frankie Silver grave tour notes
Morganton News Herald, "'Justice for Frankie' still heard in Burke County"
Perry Deane Young, The Untold Story of Frankie Silver (1998)
Sharyn McCrumb, The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998)
Pull up a chair, Holler Dwellers
Did your family grow up with their own version of the Frankie Silver story? We'd love to hear which side they took. Send it our way, and it might just end up on the show.
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Hosted, researched, and produced by KT.
