Tag Archives: Fool Killer

July 23, 2026 · 10:57 am

FOOL KILLER PART SEVENTY-ONE: MAY 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 71 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the May 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** President Woodrow Wilson, for his economic policies which Pearson and his Fool Killer blamed for bringing back the anti-working class (Grover) Cleveland Times.

*** The Government Printing Office which the Fool Killer deemed not worth the money spent on it because all they print is the Congressional Record and what amounts to tiresome government pronouncements.

      (How slow a news month must it be to bother going after the Government Printing Office? Too bad the National Egg Council wasn’t around yet.)

*** Bootleggers who were hurriedly transporting as much whiskey as they could from Virginia into North Carolina, where booze was now illegal. They did this because they could charge much more for liquor in a state where it was officially banned. 

*** Pompous High Society members who looked down their noses at farmers.

*** Readers who demanded Pearson work only with printers who belonged to a union, even though he lived in a part of North Carolina where none were available.  Continue reading →

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July 17, 2026 · 7:46 pm

FOOL KILLER PART SEVENTY: APRIL 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 70 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the April 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** Politicians who wanted to invade Mexico because of the continuing chaos there, stating it was being considered just to protect the property of American millionaires in Mexico.

*** Civilian Jingoists who talked tough about invading Mexico, claiming that if war actually did break out those same people would try to avoid military service.

*** The scamming Marriage Brokers of the time period.

*** People who opposed North Carolina’s law prohibiting alcohol. Despite Pearson’s usual pro-liberty stances, he and his Fool Killer supported bans on alcohol and tobacco. Continue reading →

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June 22, 2026 · 4:20 pm

FOOL KILLER PART SIXTY-NINE: MARCH 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE. 

PART 69 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the March 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** Mining companies that paid their employees in the infamous Company Scrip which wasn’t real money but could only be spent at the Company Store just to let the mine owners get back much of what they paid their miners as those employees had to buy groceries, clothing, etc. at Company Stores since no one else would accept the scrip as payment.

*** Democrat President Woodrow Wilson’s administration for supposedly making the economy so bad that more and more working-class people would be killing themselves with the new coffin-shaped mercury bichloride pills.

        NOTE: As I’ve mentioned in earlier Fool Killer installments, I find it fascinating how in the 19-teens and twenties socialists (and Pearson openly called himself one) hated Woodrow Wilson and denounced him as an ally of capitalist tycoons. Today, of course, socialists tend to like Wilson and it’s Republicans who hate him, blaming his policies for supposedly setting the U.S. on what they see as the disastrous route that we are still on today in their eyes. 

        As another reminder of how one cannot do one-to-one comparisons with political affiliations then and now, bear in mind that Wilson opposed voting rights for women, but Pearson and his Fool Killer supported them.   

*** Get-rich-quick authors who were selling books and courses about how to write photoplays (called screenplays today) so that the buyer could make money writing for the ever-growing movie industry. So basically, the Syd Fields of 1914.

*** The Charlotte Observer newspaper, where Pearson used to work, for supposedly having many employees who smoked tobacco and used drugs despite their editorial pages always condemning the “evils” of smoking and drug use. NOTE: Pearson counted alcohol and Coca-Cola as “drugs.”    Continue reading →

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June 9, 2026 · 6:43 pm

FOOL KILLER PART SIXTY-EIGHT: FEBRUARY 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 68 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the February 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** The Eugenicists of 1913 and 1914.

*** Kentucky’s Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper for its hypocritical editorials blasting air pollution from factory chimney stacks while simultaneously hyping the tobacco industry despite the “air pollution” caused by smoking.

*** Republican and Democrat newspapers for amping up their combined attacks on Catholics. (Pearson found Catholic priests as disgusting as politicians, but found the newspapers’ attacks hypocritical.)

*** Joe Knowles, artist and Forest Survival enthusiast, for failing at his stunt of going into the Maine forests naked and insisting he would not only survive but would emerge after several weeks having made himself clothing that would be fitting for High Society. Knowles did survive but looked like a wild man and his clothing was like something Fred Flintstone would wear.

*** Miss Bana Douglass of Stratton, Maine. She was inspired by Joe Knowles’ stunt and announced her plan to go naked into the Maine forests herself in the summer of 1914. She too claimed she would thrive and create all the clothing and comforts of home for herself. The Fool Killer jokingly predicted that the Maine woods would be loaded with men that summer, all of them hoping to meet up with Bana Douglass.

*** What Pearson and his Fool Killer called “the Four Percent” (today we call them “the One Percent”) for their callousness toward the suffering of the working class and the poor.  Continue reading →

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June 2, 2026 · 8:45 pm

FOOL KILLER PART SIXTY-SEVEN: JANUARY 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 67 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the January 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** Child Labor: The Fool Killer unconditionally condemned child labor, fueled by a report in the Christian Herald exposing the plight of a 3-year-old child being exploited.

NOTE: Since it has been quite a while since I’ve covered Pearson’s particular iteration of the Fool Killer I want to point out that it cannot be pigeon-holed into 21st Century ideas about political left and political right. Neither side should read too much into him citing the Christian Herald. James Larkin Pearson openly endorsed an unusual Socialist interpretation of Christianity.

           He bashed clergymen from all faiths and unleashed his Fool Killer on preachers who conducted themselves like what we would call “televangelists” who pushed for money above all else. He also bashed capitalism and plutocrats, whom he called Plutes. Unrelated, but he opposed abortion yet was an early proponent of women’s right to vote. Pearson had views which would offend both sides of the 2026 political spectrum.

Back to his January 1914 targets:

*** What was already being called the House of Morgan, as in J.P. Morgan, one of the Fool Killer’s frequent rich pig targets. Continue reading →

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April 1, 2026 · 11:21 am

FOR APRIL FOOL’S DAY: SIX MEMORABLE FOOL KILLER TALES FROM AMERICAN FOLKLORE

Balladeer’s Blog marks April Fool’s Day with this look at some classic Fool Killer folklore from the 1800s onward.

AN ORIGIN FOR THE FOOL KILLER – In the 1830s a Devil mated with assorted women of East Tennessee’s “Hill Portughee (Portuguese)” and one of them bore him a son. The son grew up to drive that Devil out of the Tennessee hills after tricking his infernal father into forging an iron staff that he used as a weapon against him.

               That son then became the Fool Killer, using his iron staff/ walking stick/ club to prey on outsiders “foolish” enough to come looking for the hidden gold of the Melungeons in the eldritch Tennessee woodlands. He also battled federal agents trying to stop the Melungeons from printing their own gold coins.

OPPOSING THE KU KLUX KLAN – In the Spring and Summer of 1870 the Fool Killer battled the KKK, whose violence in a few North Carolina counties had grown so extreme that the governor declared Martial Law. The folk figure opposed Klan influence in North Carolina politics as well as their brutal acts of maiming and killing people who opposed them.  Continue reading →

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December 28, 2025 · 1:15 pm

FOOL KILLER LETTER SET MOSTLY BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S DAY 1878-1879

Fool Killer RedBalladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore.

FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer picPART SEVEN: The seventh surviving Fool Killer Letter. (See Part One for an explanation.)

February 13th of 1879 was the publication date, but January 30th was the date of the letter itself. For the location the Fool Killer simply wrote “Mountain Cave” as in his secret cavern lair which was never glimpsed by human eyes.

Many of Jesse Holmes’ activities that he recounts to Editor Charles Evans (the real author of the letters) in this missive happened around Christmas 1878 through New Year’s. That being the case A Very Fool Killer Christmas might be a good title as he clashes with a Millerite Apocalyptic cult, recovers Christmas candy stolen from a black family’s children, stops a sleigh-ride assault on three women and ends the crime spree of a disgruntled gang of Civil War veterans.    Continue reading →

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April 1, 2025 · 11:46 am

FOOL KILLER FOR APRIL FOOL’S DAY: JUNE 28th, 1861

For April Fool’s Day here’s a look at one of the original Fool Killer Letters from Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’ newspaper the Milton Chronicle. This one expresses his disgust with the Civil War tearing the nation apart and his intention to hibernate until it’s over.

FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Matthew as the Fool Killer would be perfectPART THREE: The third surviving Fool Killer Letter. (See Part One for an explanation) 

As with ancient Greek comedies and so many old movies from the Silent Era, it is terrible that so few of the original Fool Killer Letters have survived. The author of those mock letters from the homicidal vigilante called the Fool Killer was Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans, editor of The Milton Chronicle.

In the two previous surviving letters, one from 1857 and one from 1859, we saw that the Fool Killer – like his creator Evans a member of the dying Whig Party – bitterly opposed secession. And like his fellow Southerner Sam Houston condemned the fools bringing on a destructive Civil War.

After this 1861 letter Evans retired the Fool Killer for a time by having the darkly satirical figure stating that he was washing his hands of this nation of fools who had unleashed such a catastrophe. By 1870 Evans brought back the vaguely supernatural figure, who claimed he had been hibernating in a cave since 1861 and had emerged to resume killing corrupt politicians and societal nuisances.

North Carolina and Virginia before the Civil WarJUNE 28th, 1861 – From “Down about Norfolk, VA.” (The Fool Killer wandered North Carolina and Virginia – which back then still included what is now West Virginia – and the dark-humored Fool Killer Letters were syndicated in several newspapers in addition to his North Carolina “birth place” the Milton Chronicle.) 

This letter started out with Jesse Holmes – the name the fictional murderer claimed was his real identity – railing to Editor Evans: 

“When the historian comes to record the cause of the downfall of this once proud and mighty Republic, tell him, for me, to put in these words, to wit: It fell by the hands of Fools!

“I tried my best to avert the dire calamity – I wielded my club (* With which he slew his victims) by day and by night – I bathed it in the blood of demagogues, designing politicians, fanatics, rapscallions and scoundrels” … “I called loudly for help to demolish the fools that seemed to be everywhere springing up like the green grass of this Mother Earth on which you and I tread but alas! alas! too few heard my warning and came to the rescue.”

Bowie Knife PatternsIn this letter the Fool Killer adds a collection of Bowie knives to his arsenal alongside his ever-present club/ walking stick/ cudgel. Future incarnations of the Fool Killer in folk tales, short stories, novels and plays will assign him various axes, guns and even a scythe. 

We rejoin the homicidal vigilante’s account of his recent activities and the victims who fell to his club and his knives, each blade inscribed with the words “Fool Killer.” Continue reading →

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October 8, 2024 · 3:31 pm

FOOL KILLER: 1980s SLASHER VERSION

As Halloween month continues, Balladeer’s Blog does a special look at the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

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The previous installments of Fool Killer lore have seen the neglected 1800s folk figure in a variety of roles: Political and cultural vigilante, slayer of lynch mobs, battler of war profiteers, foe of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction South, bastard son of a supernatural entity, guardian of Melungeon Gold, old west gunslinger, steam-punk policeman and so much more.

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In honor of the Halloween season this post will look at the Fool Killer as a 1980s slasher.

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And I don’t mean the Fool Killer/ Grim Reaper figure from the horror film A Day of Judgment (1981) as seen above right. I mean a true 1980s slasher in the mold of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and others.

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Fool Killer MountainTHE FOOL KILLER – As we all know, Anthony Perkins starred in the eerie 1965 movie The Fool Killer as an amnesiac Civil War veteran who came to believe he was really the legendary title figure. A 1980s slasher version of the Fool Killer could feature a deranged killer who has similarly come to regard himself as the “real” one.

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To avoid having to get into any political or “moral” motive behind this figure’s killing spree I would have made this deranged (and possibly supernatural) Fool Killer be an “outdoorsy” slayer like Jason Voorhees, Madman and many others. He would kill any who dare to trespass in his domain.

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It would be TOO derivative to have a summer camp be this Fool Killer’s territory, so I would instead set his activities along the Fool Killer mountain and hiking trail in New Hampshire. A 1980s slasher franchise set there would have added to the renown and tourist appeal of the place. Continue reading →

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June 26, 2024 · 4:50 am

THE FOOL KILLER: 1919 RETURN AFTER ANOTHER HIBERNATION

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE.

fool killer miniAUGUST 1919 RETURN – From January of 1910 to July of 1917, James Larkin Pearson’s monthly Fool-Killer had been published, with his revival of the violent folk figure doing his ages-old job of bashing political and societal fools. In April 1917 America entered World War One and by July Pearson felt that a unified front for wartime was appropriate.

Just as Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’ original Fool Killer had gone into hibernation early in the Civil War, so did James Larkin Pearson’s figuratively hibernate for a few years. In August of 1917 Pearson’s nationwide publication called The Fool-Killer changed its title and format from the hard-hitting satire of Fool Killing in order to show solidarity while the war raged. 

james larkin pearsonIn August of 1919, nine months after the end of the war, Pearson changed the name back to The Fool-Killer and resumed the hard-hitting political satire. That month’s targeted fools included: 

*** People still pushing President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that the World War (1914-1918) was fought to “Make the world safe for Democracy.” The Fool Killer would swing away at such people while pointing out the less-than-democratic nature of some of the Allied Powers governments from the recent conflict, for instance Italy and Japan.  

*** Cowardly or dishonest “journalists” who distort the facts and just produce propaganda for their bosses. (WOW! Pearson should see today’s lying reporters!)

*** People who thought the League of Nations would somehow end war. Continue reading →

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