You may have heard of Mayhayley Lancaster. Then again, maybe you haven’t. I’ll be introducing you to her today, and rest assured, her’s is a name you’ll not soon forget. When you grow up in Georgia, folklore, legends, and tall-tales are kind of a way of life. Southerners have a unique way of weaving and telling tales, and from as early as I can remember, I’ve been exposed to some excellent stories.
My Pawpaw in particular was an incredible and prolific story teller. Yep, he told some incredible (and unbelievable) stories. Like about the pet kangaroo he had when he was in the Navy and stationed in Australia. Or about all the girlfriends he would write to from overseas…there had to be at least ten of ‘em. All according to him. I guess it was from him that I first heard the name Mayhayley Lancaster.
A name like Mayhayley sticks with you, especially when it’s tied to words like “witch,” “fortune-teller,” and “murder.” I probably learned the most about her in my eighth grade history class with Coach Powell. Like my Pawpaw, Coach Powell was a born storyteller. I can still see him, standing tall in the front of the classroom, pacing back and forth with the excitement of the story he recounted. His booming voice would keep even the most jaded pre-teen awake during his classes. And his enthusiasm for his subject was infectious! He told the story of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan in such a way that it stuck with me for years and years, but I’ll share more about that in a minute.
Mayhayley Lancaster was born in 1875 and lived her life in Heard County, Georgia, the county directly next to my own. She was known for being quite the character, and it usually doesn’t take much poking around in the area to find someone with a Mayhayley story to tell. Just like my PawPaw, who shared his own unbelievably believable Mayhayley tales. Most folks knew her for her psychic abilities, and it was these talents in particular that linked her to two famous Georgia murder trials.
The first was the one I mentioned above about Leo Frank and Mary Phagan. Mary Phagan was a young Georgia girl on the cusp of womanhood. She worked for a whopping 12 cents an hour in a pencil factory in Marietta, Georgia that was supervised by a Jewish man named Leo Frank. On a Saturday in late April 1913, Mary went to the mill to pick up her meager pay check so that she could go enjoy the festivities of Confederate Memorial Day, but she would never get to spend that hard-earned money. Early the next morning, her body was found, brutally beaten and thrown aside into the dark, dank basement of the pencil factory.
The days following the murder were filled with confusion and turmoil. Accusations were flung, and suspicions were cast onto innocent people. The desire for the resolution of such a brutal murder eventually led to the arrest and trial of Leo Frank, but many people, including Mayhayley, believed that Frank was innocent and was wrongfully accused based on a foundation of anti-Semitism. Frank was eventually hanged for the murder of young Mary, but some believe that the case remains unsolved and that the real killer never came to justice. On their own, even without the tie to Mayhayley, the murder of Mary Phagan and trial of Leo Frank are both very compelling and heart-breaking tales.
The second trial with ties to Mayhayley was against John Wallace, a rich landowner who was accused of murdering one of his sharecropping tenants. Mayhayley famously testified against Wallace and, from all accounts, also seemed to help with his capture and conviction by giving law enforcement clues based on her intuitions. Wallace was terrified of Mayhayley and her “sight.” During the trial, he made this fact abundantly clear, calling for his lawyer to have Mayhayley removed from the courtroom. His request was ignored, and he was eventually found guilty of his crime, in part due to Mayhayley’s testimony.
Both the story of John Wallace and the story of Mary Phagan have been made into movies: The Murder of Mary Phagan and A Murder in Coweta County (starring Johnny Cash, Andy Griffith, and June Carter Cash as Mayhayley). Around here, both movies are well-known, and Mayhayley, of course, is something of a celebrity.
While she was living, Mayhayley’s local fame came primarily from her fortune-telling; using her talents, she would give advice to both gamblers and young lovers, and she helped to locate many a lost item for its owner. She dressed strikingly, with jewels all over and fancy hats to set her apart from others. She wore gold-rimmed glasses over one good eye and one empty eye socket that would sometimes contain a glass marble. I can imagine that her piercing stare would see through to a person’s heart and soul. Mystery and intrigue surround her, and for the longest time, when my grandfather would speak of her, I believed that she was nothing but a legend, a tall tale brought to life by vivid imaginations.
Since her death in 1955, her grave has been desecrated again and again. Students from the University of West Georgia, which is not far from Mayhayley’s resting place, have been known to take pieces from her tombstone based on dares, and in fact, they stole so much from her tombstone that the marker finally had to be replaced. Legend has it that the people who desecrate or steal from Mayhayley’s grave are cursed with horrible bad luck until they return the item they stole, and one local tale tells of a young man who defiled her grave and soon after was killed in a car accident.
I dare not visit Mayhayley’s grave myself. The tales around her life (and afterlife) are enough to keep me away. She was obviously a very powerful woman with a very powerful gift; she called herself an “Oracle for the Ages,” and I believe she told the truth. With clarity and eccentricity, she saw the future and charged into it with guns blazing.
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Creepy! I love history like this! Currently I have an opening for next Friday. Do you have a spooky tale to tell? E-mail me! eeegadserin (at) gmail (dot) com.
Ciao bellas!
~E
