A Mystic Solves A Murder

A mystic solves a murder

By Charles Shiver

Do you believe God may bless certain people with special abilities that others do not have?

Folks who accept the old traditions of South Georgia say, “Yes.”

Case in point – Molly Reddick Hall and her younger sister Stella Wright.

According to the Ray City History Blog, Ms. Hall was a famous psychic who lived in Ray City in the early 1900s. She raised Stella after their mother passed away.

“In early 1920, Molly Hall gained attention for her role in solving the murder of Mrs. Susan Hinson Moon near Adel,” the blog states. “She gave a reading which broke the case and led to a confession.

“When Susan Moon disappeared from her LaConte, Ga. home [a community in Cook County] in the first few days of January 1920, her nephew Jim Johnson sought the help of the Ray City seeress in locating her whereabouts. After consulting the cards, Molly Hall told Johnson where to look for Susan Moon. According to the Jan. 15, 1920, issue of the Bainbridge Post-Searchlight, Mollie Hall, “an aged … fortuneteller … shuffled the cards and told him where the body would be found.” The police made Johnson another suspect after he brought them the news.

The authorities arrested Jim Johnson, his cousin Lacy Spires, Sam T. Cooper, and Melton Moon [Hinson], the son of Susan Moon, for the murder.

According to the Jan. 6, 1920, issue of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise, the corpse was found hidden in a swamp near Sparks. Mrs. Moon had been “stabbed above the heart.”

A few days later, “Melt Moon,” described by the newspapers of the time as a mentally unstable young man, confessed to getting into a quarrel with his mother over $10 that he wanted so he could go to town, striking her in the pit of the stomach, and knocking her unconscious. Thinking that he had killed her, he began dragging her towards the nearby woods to hide her. She began to regain consciousness, and he then hit her several times on the head with a lightwood knot. After reaching the woods, he stabbed her several times in the heart with his knife.

Moon’s confession to be the lone killer resulted in poor Jim Johnson, who had just been trying to help, and the other suspects being released from the Valdosta Jail.

The murder case was heard in Cook County Superior Court before Judge Dickerson on March 12, 1921. Moon tried an insanity defense, but the judge overruled the defense’s motion. The jury convicted him of murder and recommended a life sentence in prison. His motion for a new trial also was overruled. Moon appealed the case to the Georgia Supreme Court, but the Justices affirmed the guilty verdict.

Moon was finally sent to the Georgia State Prison in Baldwin County, where he was held until being released circa 1940. He then moved to Florida.

I recall that Dillard Ensley, one of Cook County’s greatest historians, was urging me to write about the Moon case. (Mr. Ensley has since passed away.) I would like to learn more specifics about the interaction between Jim Johnson and Ms. Molly over the cards, her process of tapping into the hidden energies of the cosmos, but I realize certain secrets are best kept buried deep forever, especially the ancient mysteries.

The Ray City History Blog also relates that Stella Wright, Ms. Molly’s sister, was known around the area in the 1930s as a seeress and a healer. She lived in a place on Cat Creek called “Rock Bottom.”

The Ray City History Blog relates that a family one Sunday afternoon in the late 1930s visited Ms. Wright in hopes of getting help for a sick woman.

Ms. Wright’s neighbors, the Guthries, showed the family in need where to find Ms. Wright.

According to the blog, “at the far end of the dirt road, they took a little trail down to Cat’s Creek to a cabin where Stella was found.

“They all entered the cabin, which was devoid of furniture except for a single chair in the center of the room. Stella sat the sick woman in the chair and began massaging her shoulders and back. Shortly, the woman emitted a series of enormously loud belches and that was how Stella ‘healed’ her.”

One of the best rules of healing is that there is always more room on the outside than on the inside. …

Ricky Gandy remarked about his daddy going to Ms. Wright for help in finding a wallet that he had lost in a field. Gandy’s father also remembered the Sue Moon incident. She was killed on some land that the Gandy family used to own. Her body was found around near where the Micro Flo (BASF) plant is located now, under a pile of leaves.

I enjoy researching the lore of South Georgia. Some years ago, I talked to an older African-American gentleman about “rootwork,” or “hoodoo.” He told me some interesting tales.

For example, there was supposedly an evil old wizard who lived near Ray City years ago. (In contrast to the positive Ray City seeresses.) The ancient warlock was so bad that after he passed on, horns grew out of his head while he was lying on his deathbed.

Another story was about a lynching. The Klan members were struggling to see who would have the guts to light the gasoline-soaked, hogtied victim on fire. One of them was shaking so bad that he dropped the matches. Another bent over to pick up the matches and was cursed to walk hunched over and crippled the rest of his days.