The SHORT UNHAPPY LIFE OF TOM DOOLEY — Bill Brooks

The Short Unhappy Life of Tom Dooley is of a returned Civil War veteran, Tom, who becomes romantically and physically involved with a married woman, Ann Melton,one of three cousins in the small village of Happy Valley, N.C. in 1868. Tom is also attracted to and seduced by Ann's cousin Pauline Foster. Ultimately he meets and falls in love with yet the third of the girls, Laura Foster of whom he is ultimately accused and arrested for her murder. Though there is evidence to suggest Tom wasn't the killer and most likely the overly jealous Ann. Both were arrested and both tried, but only Tom was convicted and hanged for the crime.
The story is told in the various voices of the characters involved in the story. One of the major voices is that of Elizabeth Brouchard, a mute whose unrequited love of Tom has her visiting him in jail and listening to and recording his side of the story which she ultimately adds to her own feelings toward him and the others of Happy Valley, which proves not to be so Happy after all and one more legend is added to the deeply mysterious Appalachian Mountains.