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(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(RAIN PATTERING)
DR. THOMAS BURTON: Some people call me a folklorist,
sometimes a filmmaker.
Some people call me a closet anthropologist.
I'm a retired professor,
but still a student of southern Appalachia, really.
(CLICKING)
DR. BURTON: The archives started back in the late '60s.
A colleague and I studied folklore
and talked folklore,
and we wanted to preserve it.
So that's how the Archives of Appalachia
was established.
I find that in collecting their life stories,
traditions, and beliefs,
it's, uh, really one way of understanding
our own history.
This is oral history and folklore.
Appalachian folklore.
♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
With people that I've researched and recorded,
it gives them a little bit of immortality.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(CRICKETS CHIRPING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
In one case, we made a documentary
about mountain people
and the tradition of handling serpents.
PREACHER: Now, we have, uh, three rattlesnakes,
our guests tonight.
I know that according to what the scripture said
in Saint Mark 16,
was that they shall take up serpents.
Not many places left where you can obey God
in the fullest and then without fear of reprisal.
DR. BURTON: While we were filming the service,
one of those church members was bitten.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
What happened in that church had a profound effect on me.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
PREACHER: In the name of Jesus!
(SOUND DISTORTING)
(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
PREACHER: Lord, in Jesus's name...
-The law is final. -(WOMAN CHEERS)
PREACHER: Yes, God.
(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
DR. BURTON: That night was my initiation
into serpent handling.
And of course, I didn't know that it would lead
to over 40 years of studying Pentecostal serpent handlers.
But out of all of my experiences,
there is one that stands out from all the rest.
This story is a story of the Serpent and the Spirit.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
♪ (TENSE VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DAVID KENNAMER: My name is David Kennamer,
born and raised here in Scottsboro.
I'm a paramedic.
And, uh, this is my partner, Bobby, who is an EMT.
He was my driver that night.
Well, working on the ambulance, you eat when you can.
We was here at the Piggly Wiggly when they gave us the call
and that's when we said,
"Well, we're not gonna get to eat anytime soon."
(LAUGHS)
-(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER) -(ENGINE STARTS)
DAVID: We got the call, uh, to head out to Barbee Lane
to a snake bite victim.
(SIREN WAILING)
(RADIO CHATTER)
DAVID: At the time, we didn't know any more about it
than a possible snake bite.
BOBBY CARSON: We have gotten calls like this before,
but when you get there, there's nothing to it.
(SIREN WAILING)
DAVID: And as we got closer, uh,
they told us to, uh, go in Code One,
which is with the lights and sirens off.
(SIREN STOPS)
They didn't know exactly why, but if the patient
or whoever's calling you tell you this,
you need to listen to them. There's a reason for this.
And it was dark. There's no streetlights.
BOBBY: Nope.
DAVID: So the only lights we had were what was on us.
BOBBY: I don't like snakes.
You don't come to me with a snake.
That'd be like pointing a gun at me.
(DAVID LAUGHS)
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DAVID: This lady was walking towards us.
(TIRES SCREECH)
(DOGS BARKING)
(OWL HOOTING)
♪ (EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
It's a critical situation.
(SIREN WAILING)
It was black. The skin was starting to die.
That's when I got real concerned
because that gets in your blood stream,
it can go to your heart.
We've gotta get this girl over there in a hurry.
(SIREN WAILING)
JEANETTE GREEN: There were lots of strange things,
lots of strange things.
You never know what's coming in.
This snake bite was different.
Uh, we didn't see a lot of snake bites
to the magnitude of, uh...
the one that occurred that night.
(SIREN WAILING)
DAVID: With us, we don't carry any antivenom.
And now, this is for the doctors to decide if they need it,
what kind they need.
JEANETTE: We treated her, but you know,
small county hospital,
uh, we didn't have antivenom.
DAVID: Then we load her back up and I tell Bobby,
"Get me to Birmingham."
(SIREN WAILING)
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I can only get a limited amount of information
in the back of the ambulance.
She described a very gruesome story
of her husband trying to kill her.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
♪ (SLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHIEF RALPH DAWE: Back then, I was working as a patrolman.
Been a police officer for...
in March, it'll be 30 years.
I was here two years,
when this all happened.
All I thought about was the pain
and what was going through her head mentally,
you know, whether she's gonna live or die
and make it to the hospital or not.
And the idea that somebody...
close to her...
made her get bit.
Allegedly.
OFFICER: Drop the gun!
(VOICES ECHOING)
OFFICER: Drop it!
CHIEF DAWE: Our officers practice on different scenarios
with making contact with bad people.
(GUNSHOTS)
(LAUGHS)
I've been in meth homes before
that they actually had pet rattlesnakes in the house.
I've heard this story since I was a kid.
My dad was an investigator at the sheriff's office
when, uh, Chief Dawe--
when this-- when this whole case went down.
It's not a story you hear every day,
anywhere else in the world.
Religion, relationships, and murder.
-Booze. -And booze.
Tie all four of those together, and you've got a story,
there's no question there.
(RATTLING)
REPORTER 1: Scottsboro police say this five-foot-long
poisonous rattlesnake was used as a weapon.
This snake and 15 others are owned by Glenn Summerford.
But earlier this week, police say,
Summerford used the snakes
to assault his wife, Darlene Summerford.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLARENCE BOLTE: Well, I was the lead investigator.
But as to whether that qualifies me or not,
I don't know.
I was just a police officer doing a job.
Well I received a report one morning about a...
woman being bit by a rattlesnake.
-♪ (DELICATE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(DOG BARKING)
We went out to her husband's house.
He gave us permission to search his property.
He carried us out there to where they kept the snakes.
He had them in a locked shed or something.
And he unlocked it, and we went in,
and in these cages...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...is where the snakes were.
That was the weapon that was used in the crime.
(CHATTER CONTINUES)
And this is collected as evidence.
The snake became the evidence.
MAN 1: Bring this new box out here.
MAN 2: All right. Let me get this top down.
MAN 1: (LAUGHING) Yeah, please, get the top down.
-(MAN 3 LAUGHS) -(SNAKE RATTLING)
MAN 1: Holy smoke.
CLARENCE: The biggest one, a big diamondback.
Big snake.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
CLARENCE: They put this noose around him
and took him out and yeah, he--
he put up a fight.
-(MAN 3 SHOUTS) -SNAKE HISSES
MAN 2: Get that sucker.
(LAUGHTER)
MAN 1: Holy-- Should get that on him, yeah.
Oh, mercy!
(LAUGHTER)
CLARENCE: We confiscated all of them.
MAN 2: Think that's going pretty good.
CLARENCE: Because all of them were potential weapons
that could be used.
It's the first time I've ever
had anything like that happen.
And nothing else since.
We got all the snakes,
and then we went inside the house
and we searched inside the house.
Just about every room
was disarranged.
You know, I mean there was chairs turned over,
covers strowed around.
I couldn't really determine
if there had been a fight or not,
because of everything just strowed around like it was.
We didn't find any weapons or anything of that nature.
There was a purse,
one of these bag-like purses hanging on the--
on the door.
And it started moving.
And I thought, "Now we're gonna find a snake in there."
-(RADIO CHATTER) -♪ (MUSIC SWELLS DRAMATICALLY) ♪
CLARENCE: A raccoon jumped out of the purse
and ran off up the wall.
Within a few days,
Glenn Summerford was arrested,
and they ended up charging him with attempted murder
and carried him into court.
(DOOR CREAKING)
CLARENCE: But your facts and your evidence
is what makes your case.
Your biggest thing you had was her statement against him.
"Well, he forced me with a gun to do this,
and I was bitten twice."
And then him saying she had gone out there
to commit suicide.
and they'd had an argument, and he got drunk, passed out,
and when he woke up, she'd got bit by the snake.
This hinged mainly on the victim.
So I was surprised that we got in there.
I didn't think the case was that strong.
THEO LOVE: Why did these people have snakes?
They handled them in their religious service.
There was some videos collected as evidence.
We turned them over to the district attorney.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
MAN 4: You need help?
DARLENE SUMMERFORD: ...before you go in.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
They ain't started nothing.
MAN 5: Now come on, what you asking for?
Everybody's in church.
-MAN 6: Yeah, Lord. -(SNAKE RATTLES)
(INDISTINCT PRAYING)
PREACHER: Praise you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
-Glory to God Jesus. -♪ (INDISTINCT SINGING) ♪
(SINGING) ♪ I believe The more you wander... ♪
(OVERLAPPING PREACHING AND SINGING)
(SINGING AND PREACHING CONTINUE)
(HISSING)
(PRAYING AND SINGING)
♪ (INDISTINCT SINGING) ♪
GLENN SUMMERFORD: Praise God, praise God, praise God. Glory.
(RADIO CHATTER)
CHIEF DAWE: I think people that live up on the mountain
tend to take care of their own problems.
They don't-- they don't need or want the policing
that you would find here in Scottsboro.
Back then, you know, people didn't realize
that that element had moved down here in the valley
in Scottsboro and was, you know, operating here.
I don't think any person in Scottsboro
would like that to be prevalent in their city.
I think they're ashamed of the whole idea
of snake handling.
You know, a lot of people were like,
"Well, we didn't know they were here," you know?
They didn't know.
Until something bad happens.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
In opening arguments here this afternoon,
the prosecution painted Glenn Summerford
as a brutal, jealous husband who tried to kill his wife
using rattlesnakes as the weapon.
REPORTER 2: To the defense,
Darlene was a troubled woman
trying to send her husband to prison
by fabricating a murder story
based on the reptiles with whom she was obsessed.
GARY LACKEY: The evidence will show that, uh,
this lady is a snake handler from way back,
and that if she handled any snakes and was bitten,
she did it voluntarily and no one forced her to.
CHIEF DAWE: He was trying to kill her.
He was going to try to get away with killing her
by saying she got bit by a snake accidentally.
Jesus lives, that's all I know to say.
REPORTER 3: Glenn Summerford was tried for attempted murder.
He tried to kill me. I know that was what he done.
He tried to kill me.
What do the people in the church think about this?
They believe I just told this whole story,
and just made this whole story up.
PARISHIONER: The man was put on trial
not for what he did but for what he stands for.
For serpent handling. The word of God.
And it is the word of God.
(SIGHS)
I really don't know that much about their religion.
What they did at their church, that's their business.
She testified before the jury.
On Friday, after she got bit,
he wouldn't let her go to the doctor.
The following morning, on Saturday,
he carried her several places.
Then after dark on Saturday, he forced her hand down
in that snake cage again, and she was bit one more time.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She says one thing and he says something else,
so did it occur?
I can't tell you yes or no.
Because it wasn't my decision to decide.
Go to the court if you want to know what happened.
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DOOR CREAKS OPEN)
TALITHA LOVIN: These are boxes going back at least 30 years
of all the cases in Jackson County.
Back before steno machines went digital,
they used to write to paper.
We're looking for January through June of 1992.
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I bet this is it.
State versus Glenn Summerford.
(DOOR CREAKING)
TALITHA: I'm the one that sits there
and writes everything down that's said in court.
It's typing in a different language.
Court reporters are certified at 225 words a minute,
so if you tried to type on a regular keyboard,
there is no way. I mean,
your fingers would be burning, smoking, everything,
so that wouldn't be possible.
So this is shorthand.
Instead of symbols, we use letters.
"He started screaming and hollering
and accusing me of running around.
And then he said that he was going to go...
make me get bit and die,
and say it was going to look like a suicide,
and he was going to tell everybody when I died,
he just woke up."
"Question: Did he carry you anywhere then?"
"He grabbed me
and held this gun to my head,
and he made me go out to the shed.
He said if I didn't reach over there
and pick up that snake,
he was going to stick my face in it.
He had me by the hair of the head
and the gun right here.
I was praying, and I reached in there
and got to get it.
I picked it up, but it bit me on the thumb."
(CLOCK TOLLING)
She was bitten two different times,
and he did not allow her to seek medical attention,
which is attempted murder.
REPORTER 4: The jury found Summerford guilty.
He had two prior felony convictions,
and under our habitual offender act,
the least sentence was 99 years,
uh, so I didn't have much choice.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DR. BURTON: When I first started researching this story,
it wasn't about reopening Glenn Summerford's case.
It was about understanding it.
These are the tapes that I made
relative to the Glenn Summerford trial
and the incident of his being put in prison.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(RATTLESNAKE HISSES)
DR. BURTON (ON TAPE): Interview with Glenn Summerford
at Limestone Correctional Facility.
(BIRDS SINGING)
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GLENN (ON TAPE):
(RAUCOUS LAUGHTER)
(APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS)
(COINS JANGLING)
GLENN:
♪ (DETERMINED MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(YOUNG GLENN GRUNTS)
(YOUNG GLENN GRUNTING)
(GLENN'S STEPFATHER GRUNTS)
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
DORIS SUMMERFORD: ♪ (SINGING INDISTINCTLY) ♪
♪ (CONTINUES SINGING) ♪
♪ It seemed the waves ♪
♪ Would not obey ♪
♪ The master's call For peace ♪
Y'all still filmin'? (LAUGHS)
My name is Doris Summerford.
I'm Glenn Summerford's wife.
Was. (CHUCKLES)
I've always liked to sing,
but, uh, see, according to my family
I can't carry a tune in a bucket,
so I just mostly sing to me.
(CHUCKLES) And the good Lord.
He don't complain.
-(BIRDS CALLING) -(INSECTS BUZZING)
DORIS: I met him when I was in the first grade.
He run up and hollered he was gonna marry me,
and I said, "No, you ain't." (LAUGHS)
September 14th of '63, we got married,
which tells you how dumb I was. (LAUGHS)
When I gave my heart away, I gave it all away.
-I loved him... -(YOUNG DORIS GIGGLES)
...and I tried to do about anything he said to do.
It was taken right after we got married.
He had been down there in the shed,
him and one of his buddies, boxing.
He loved to fight before we got married,
and he still fought after we got married. (LAUGHS)
If he was out drinkin',
you come up and said something to him,
got in his face, you might wind up sittin' on the floor.
(OWL HOOTING)
DR. BURTON: Glenn was a really rough, tough person
in the early part of his life,
before he was really converted.
That was the kind of person they knew Glenn to be,
especially when he was drinking.
Earlier in his life, he was convicted
of two... what were then considered felonies,
and he had a history of conflict with the law.
(MEN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
GLENN:
(PANTING)
So...
(INDISTINCT CHANTING)
(ALL CHEER)
GLENN:
DR. BURTON:
GLENN:
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(CRICKETS CHIRPING) -(WATER SPLASHING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(WATER SPLASHING)
GLENN:
(SARAH LAUGHS)
DORIS: He always said somebody caused the house fire.
But it, uh, never was provable.
(GLASS BREAKING)
Glenn Jr. was the one that woke us up
about 4:30, 5 o'clock in the morning.
DORIS: I was reaching for her when I caught on fire.
-GLENN: Come on! -(DORIS SCREAMS)
He said he saw my hair blaze up,
and he grabbed me,
and, well, was trying to put me out,
and I was fighting him, and he said
we both went out the window.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He tried to get back in the window and some of the...
neighbors had got there and...
they held him back.
I kept hollering, "My baby! My baby!"
Sarah was one year, eight months,
twenty-five days old when she died.
But in her short life,
she had a... a lot of love.
DORIS: He carried us to the hospital.
I was leaving my baby,
and I wasn't liking it.
But there wasn't nothing I could do about it.
(MUMBLES)
Glenn wasn't the same after that.
He would go down and sit at the cemetery.
Uh...
He wouldn't talk that much about her.
He-- I don't know whether he kind of blamed his self
'cause he couldn't get back in there to her.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(FAUCET RUNNING)
DORIS: We did pretty good most of the time,
but, uh...
you didn't argue with him.
I loved him,
but at times I was afraid of him.
Fear and love.
They went together.
I had to be very careful what I said and what I did.
To me, he was just abusive...
at times.
He could be good, he could be bad.
THEO: Do you think Glenn's capable of murder?
Possibly.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
The original story, I presume,
of the "serpent" in the Bible
begins in Genesis.
Satan appears in the form of a serpent
to tempt Eve with the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
As result of her eating the apple,
some people believe that women
are symbolic of temptation and sin.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Darlene, Glenn, and the good Lord
is all that knows what happened.
'Cause I have heard
both of 'em tell the truth,
and I've heard both of 'em tell lies.
I don't know exactly when him and her
started seeing each other,
but in '74, I think it was,
him and her got married.
They got married on my birthday.
(LAUGHS)
I always told him he didn't--
he wanted to make sure I didn't forget.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DARLENE:
(LAUGHS)
(LAUGHING)
(MARTY FUSSING)
(CRYING)
♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DOOR CREAKS OPEN)
MARTY SUMMERFORD: I ain't never really talked to nobody about it,
you know, uh...
not never been somethin'
that I cared much about talkin' about, but...
heck, I lived it though.
(CAR ENGINE STARTS)
I was probably the poorest kid that ever went
to Scottsboro School, you know?
Got picked on a lot. Fought a lot.
Daddy always told me, "Boy, don't you ever start a fight."
He said, "But if someone else starts it you better finish it,
or I'll finish it when you get home."
He was probably the toughest man I ever seen.
He cast a big shadow, you know?
Hard to hold up to that.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MARTY: I gotta be careful with what I say, but...
Daddy, when he was mad at somebody, he didn't--
he didn't really have a conscience
before he got church.
-(GLENN CURSING) -(CLATTERING)
MARTY: There was this one guy, tried to hit on my mom.
He was drunk, they was drinking,
and he kept trying to hit on my mom.
Daddy end up whooping him like that,
knocking his eyeball out.
And he did that with a pair of vice grips.
I mean he-- he didn't care.
He threw him off a waterfall for dead.
We just left him.
(FLIES BUZZING)
DR. BURTON: Glenn was the kind of person,
if he wanted her dead, she would be dead.
That was the kind of person they knew Glenn to be
up to this point that he became redeemed.
When he went through that redemption,
then he was a holy man who was intent on doing right.
And to him, this would explain his innocence.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(FIRE CRACKLING)
DR. BURTON: Holiness Pentecostals like Glenn
believe a man can be redeemed
from previous sins
and attain a new state of sanctification.
Glenn wanted to be a man of God.
(WATER DRIPPING)
GLENN:
(DISTANT CHANTING AND SINGING)
(CHUCKLES)
(RATTLING)
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DR. BURTON: Holiness Pentecostals
go out to a stream or to a lake
and baptize by immersion
for the remission of sin.
Born again by the water and the Spirit.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DR. BURTON:
♪ (MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(GASPS)
(PANTING)
DR. BURTON: Why does anyone have a conversion
from one life to another?
That's-- that's a psychological,
emotional experience
that would be different in every individual's life.
Why?
(CHUCKLES) A lot of people hit the bottom and die.
A lot of people hit the bottom and don't die.
Some of 'em hit the bottom and find Jesus.
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
A crime happens and you go-- and you go out
to your usual suspects, right?
And you go ask them about the crime and then,
you know, "Oh, no, no, I'm good,
I don't do that no more, I go to church and..."
But, you know...
it's just all a farce. (CHUCKLES)
MARTY: When he-- when he started going to church,
it was hard for people to understand
how somebody could change that quick, you know?
And I might be part of the reason he got in church.
He wanted to be a better daddy.
♪ (SINGING INDISTINCTLY) ♪
There's always something good that comes of it.
And so, everybody praise...
GLENN:
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MARTY: The night he got the Holy Ghost,
he prayed all night long. I remember it.
It was pretty wild.
He dranked all the time before that.
He quit that instant. He was done.
Tears rolled up in his eyes
and he said, "I'm not that man no more."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MARTY: 'Cause he didn't just change one thing,
he changed his whole life. I mean everything.
It was like someone else just stepped in his body
and it wasn't even him no more, you know?
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He was on his knees all night.
(VOICES WHISPERING)
His knees was on fire.
When he got up, the whole knees of his pants was gone.
It was like he was a whole new man.
Nothing could hurt him when he was in the Spirit.
DR. BURTON: In the Bible...
(GLENN SPEAKING IN TONGUES)
Glory to God.
(SPEAKING IN TONGUES)
A lot of serpent handlers believe
that they should be anointed with the Holy Spirit
in order to handle serpents or do these other signs,
and that confirms that they have God's power.
The principle verse in...
Those are the so-called five signs
that will follow them that believe.
(RATTLING)
DR. BURTON:
MARTY: Daddy always said he was just a man, you know?
He wasn't nothin' without God.
He couldn't do nothin' without God.
I've seen him pray for people in wheelchairs,
and they'd get up and walk.
Like 80-year-old people that hadn't walked in 20 years.
They'd get up and run all over the church.
It had to be God 'cause nothin' else
could do nothin' like that.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(FEMALE VOICE 1)
(BONES CRACKING)
(KNIFE CHOPPING)
(FEMALE VOICE 2)
(FLESH CUTS)
(FLY BUZZING)
♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪
(MALE VOICE)
(DOG PANTS, WHINES)
(LOW RUMBLING)
-(INDISTINCT CLAMOR) -(BUZZING)
Praise God tonight. We've got power tonight.
(CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)
MARTY: I saw demons cast out. I saw my daddy do it.
I wasn't but about eight, maybe nine.
I saw him cast one out of a guy one night at church,
and it literally came out and run across the floor.
I mean, it was-- it was crazy looking.
But there was somethin' come out of him
just run right across the floor.
And it was runnin' around everywhere
trying to get back into somebody else.
And they just kept prayin'.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR, SHOUTING)
MARTY: It was almost like a fog-like.
I don't know what it was-- it was-- you can't explain it.
(ROARS)
(DORIS LAUGHS)
DORIS: There's more evil today than there ever has been.
(CHUCKLES)
So if you get scared enough, you gonna pray.
But it's supposed to be scary.
Fear the Lord.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DISTANT GROWLING)
(DISHES CLATTERING)
GLENN:
(RACCOON CHITTERING)
-(RACCOON SCREECHES) -(DARLENE YELPS)
(SOBS)
GLENN:
MARTY: I don't think nobody's ever really told
the truth about it.
And I know right there where she said she got bit,
a 'coon bit her about a week before that.
And that's the only bite marks I've seen on her.
I don't know if she got bit or not.
Yeah, she handled snakes all the time.
They wouldn't bite her neither.
I mean, you know,
she could've got bit. I ain't saying she didn't.
But I've always kinda questioned it to myself,
you know? I've never really asked her that.
Never really talked to her about it.
She's not a person that you can really talk to like that,
you know? Uh...
It was always hard for me and her to get close.
She had lost a kid before.
DR. BURTON: Before she was married to Glenn,
she had a child, Bobby Joe,
and it was taken away from her
because of her misconduct.
And I think that had a profound effect on her
doing anything that would prevent her
keeping Marty.
(CAR APPROACHING)
(CAR DOOR OPENS)
(ENGINE STARTS)
GLENN:
(DOOR CREAKING)
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
(SNAKES RATTLING, HISSING)
(RATTLING)
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DR. BURTON:
GLENN:
(PILLS RATTLING)
(DOOR SLAMS)
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MARTY PANTING)
♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
(DARLENE STRUGGLING)
(DARLENE GASPS)
(RETCHING)
(COUGHING)
GLENN:
DR. BURTON:
GLENN:
DR. BURTON:
(RATTLING)
DR. BURTON: One way of looking at this whole thing
is like in a witch trial in New England.
If Darlene was bitten, that would prove that, uh,
that she was guilty.
If she handled the serpents and wasn't bitten,
then it very likely would prove that she wasn't guilty.
He would be using the serpent as divine verification.
GLENN:
DR. BURTON: The next morning, they get up
and they go to return videos
at the video shop.
GLENN:
(STORE BELL RINGING)
(CAR ENGINE REVVING)
DR. BURTON:
GLENN:
(SNORING)
CLARENCE: There was a note that was found.
A suicide note.
Seemed like it was written to the boy.
(PENCIL SCRATCHING)
TALITHA: "Marty, I love you. I love.
Do what Daddy says. Daddy was asleep.
I tried to fix everything, but it didn't work out.
Don't blame Daddy
because he loves me and trying to help me.
But I wouldn't listen.
Daddy's asleep and he don't know what I'm doing.
Marty, always remember, I love you for the good,
not the bad, but love you.
Try to get right. Your mama.
I went out and got snake bit.
Glenn is asleep and don't know.
You and Daddy live right, okay?
I love you."
"Question:
Is it the note you wrote on that occasion?"
"Answer: Yes."
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
THEO: Do you-- Do you remember the note that you left?
DARLENE: Oh, yeah, that-- He made me write that note.
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(COUGHS)
(SNORING)
(DOOR CREAKS)
DARLENE:
(DEMON GROWLING)
(YELPS)
(DEMON SCREECHES)
Yep.
(GLENN GRUNTS)
DARLENE:
(DARLENE YELLS)
And...
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
DR. BURTON: Nobody knows what really happened.
We have what Glenn says happened,
and we have what Darlene says that happened.
There were no other witnesses
that know what happened that night.
Except maybe Marty.
MARTY: Daddy tried hard to live for God.
He tried real hard.
And I always heard
the harder you try to live for God,
the harder the devil will fight to keep you.
I remember it. I was a kid.
-I didn't want 'em fightin', you know? -(DARLENE GRUNTS)
-MARTY: I didn't know what was really going on. -(GLASS SHATTERS)
They'd been fighting and chasing one another around the yard.
And I just walked up, and you know,
it was the first thought that went through my head,
I had a bow and arrow in my hand.
I just whiz one by him.
-(GUN COCKS) -(DOG BARKING)
(ARROW WHOOSHES)
(DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE)
MARTY: I was tryin' to protect my mama, I thought.
It's a scary thought
thinking you could've killed your daddy, though.
Uh, some things are best forgotten.
So they called my brother-in-law and sister to come and get me.
(RATTLING)
(HISSES)
DARLENE:
DR. BURTON: The next morning, they get up,
and they go to return the videos
at the Lakeside Grocery and Video Shop.
Darlene goes in to return the videos.
(DARLENE BREATHING HEAVILY)
DR. BURTON: And she says her hand is swollen
at that point, somewhat.
DARLENE:
-(LAUGHS) -(DARLENE GASPS)
SALLY JESSY RAPHAEL:
CHARLOTTE COLÓN:
Right.
(COUGHING)
CLARENCE: Everybody says this is a cruel world.
This isn't a cruel world.
It's a lovely world, it's a good world.
But the people that are in it,
is what's making it cruel.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
There was a point, uh, in the interviews
that he was saying that he did not drink.
He would say things like, "If I had been drunk,
then there would have been a problem.
I could have lost it, or gone off,
and done some real serious damage or something."
But I talked to several other people
and they said he was obviously inebriated.
(ON TAPE)
(GUN COCKS)
DWIGHT DUKE: It was supposed to be addressed to her son.
It states about three different times
that, "Daddy doesn't know about this."
"Daddy loves us."
Um, "Daddy's asleep
and doesn't know that I'm doing this."
"You and Daddy live right."
And it just keeps not referring to her,
but kept giving Glenn an alibi.
(LAUGHS)
(GUN COCKS)
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
GLENN: Come on!
SALLY:
He grabbed me by the hair...
(DARLENE GRUNTS)
(SCREAMS)
(RATTLING)
-(GUN COCKS) -(HISSES)
(GRUNTS, CRIES)
(SOBBING)
(SOBBING) Let go of me.
(RATTLING)
DARLENE: (SOBBING) No! No!
(IMITATES STING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(LAUGHS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(GLENN SNORES)
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DARLENE PANTING)
-(DISTANT BARKING) -(VEHICLE APPROACHING)
DARLENE:
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DOOR SLAMS)
(DARLENE CHUCKLES)
(SIREN WAILING)
DR. BURTON: The trial lasted only two and a half days
and ended with Glenn being found guilty
of attempted murder.
He was a former two-time offender,
and the judge had no recourse but to give him 99 years.
REPORTER 5: The career of Glenn Summerford,
Pentecostal minister, snake handler,
and now convicted felon, is over.
(SIGHS) I say, thank you, Lord. (CHUCKLES)
I mean, that's all I can think of, you know, just...
I know that he got it, you know, what he deserved.
REPORTER 5: With their minister headed from the pulpit to prison,
many followers say the future of the Church of Jesus
is in jeopardy.
Others remain convinced Glenn Summerford isn't guilty.
SALLY: All right, let me ask our psychologist.
How does she deal with going back to her community,
where the people believe the minister?
There will be some who believe the minister
and some who don't.
I-- I think with great difficulty,
because it's almost like a double abuse,
you know, you're abused by the person
and then when you go out in public
and you're not believed, you're abused again.
-I think it will take a lot of support. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
DARLENE:
(BIRDS SINGING)
MARTY: I lost both my parents.
I didn't get to live with neither one of 'em.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MARTY: It affected me a lot 'cause I really didn't know
how to raise the kids, you know? Uh...
I didn't have no experience.
I got good kids, though.
My kids are great.
I really love 'em.
I'd do anything for 'em.
I tried not to be as tough as my dad.
I wanna be a good father.
Yeah, this is my daughter, Hayley, here's the, um...
My little mini-me.
Yeah, I made sure they always had a mom and daddy, you know.
I grew up on deer and dove and rabbit and squirrel
and all that stuff, so...
MARTY: Country as cornbread, I guess.
I guess we was kinda made for one another.
HEATHER SUMMERFORD: We fought hard to have what we have now.
MARTY: Yeah.
HEATHER: And last week we was married 20.
MARTY: I don't know why she's crazy about me,
but she is.
I always been kinda crazy about her, I reckon.
I look back at it now and it's like,
if I'd stayed there,
then ain't no tellin' where I'd be right now.
I never really been a real religious man,
but I got family.
That's all I need.
THEO: Do you think we believe what we want to believe?
It might be the other way around.
We believe things whether we want to or not.
In one of those services that I had gone to earlier,
the preacher came back in a service
and anointed me with oil.
And I kind of wanted to feel, at that point,
the infusion of the Spirit, you know?
Have a real...
real spiritual experience, you know.
But nothing happened. (CHUCKLES)
We may want to believe,
and it would be nice to have an experience
like Glenn, but I never got that.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DARLENE:
THEO:
DARLENE:
-♪ (EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(INDISTINCT WHISPERING)
♪ (SOMBER PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DR. BURTON: Glenn believes in the providence of God.
If God wants him to be left in prison,
then he'll be left in there.
If He wants him out, then that will be provided.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
The last time I saw him
was before the escape.
-(DOGS BARKING) -(MEN SHOUTING DISTANTLY)
DR. BURTON: The whole story of Glenn Summerford
has become Appalachian folklore
just like some of the scriptures.
The name "Pentecostal" comes from a verse in Acts
in the second chapter, the day of Pentecost.
The scripture says, "There was a loud noise
like a great thunder.
And then cloven tongues, like as of fire,
descended and sat on them.
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit."
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(WATER LAPPING)
GLENN: Mm-hmm.
(FIRE CRACKLING)
♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
(VOICES WHISPERING)
(WHISPERING CONTINUES)
(DOGS BARKING)
(SIREN WAILS)
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪