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Jail Where Tom Dooley Was Held There are those who still maintain that Tom Dula didn't do it, that he gallantly went to the gallows to protect his onetime lover, Ann Foster Melton. Tom and Ann grew up together along Reedy Branch in Happy Valley near the Wilkes-Caldwell county line and were lovers by the time Ann was fourteen. Tom went away to fight in the Civil War, and in his absence, Ann, a beautiful young woman, married James Melton. But Tom, a handsome lad, did return, and he and Ann picked up their relationship where they had left off, although Ann remained with her husband. Meanwhile, Tom also started a relationship with Laura Foster, Ann's first cousin. Several months after his return from the war, Laura disappeared and was found dead in a shallow grave on a ridge, stabbed through the heart. Tom fled to Tennessee after Laura's disappearance but was arrested and returned to the Wilkes County jail, where he was held until her body was found. At his trial, Tom was defended by the flamboyant lawyer Zeb Vance, a popular former governor, and the trial was given front-page coverage by the New York Herald. Tom was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence and hanged before a crown of 3,000 on May 1, 1868. John Foster West, a mountain writer who thoroughly researched the story for a book, The Ballad of Tom Dula, found it to be more a sordid tale than a romantic one. Tom, he says, was a mean, low-life sort, feared by many who knew him. He was suspected of killing a man in Wilmington during the war who discovered him having an affair with his wife. West believes the motive for Laura's murder was syphilis. Tom, Laura, Ann, James and Pauline Foster, who lived with Ann and played a role in the case, all were infected with the deadly disease for which there was then no cure. West believes Laura was killed because she gave the disease to Tom, who then spread it to the others. But the romantic version of the story prevails, largely because more than half a dozen ballads were written about the case. One of them, "The Legend of Tom Dooley," became an international hit for the Kingston Trio in 1959. The Old Wilkes Jail, built in 1858, where Tom was held, is now a free museum at 203 North Bridge Street.
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