Security Matters Blogspot

Each month we dig deep into Pulaski County's past to learn more about violent crimes that impacted our society. We select a murder or a mystery and tell the story in our Hometown Murders & Mysteries blogposts below. We also blog about products that interest us and happenings in our local community.

Click on any of the blog posts or categories below to learn more!

The Great Yarb Doctor from Tennessee

They called him the Yarb Doctor. A man of strange brews and stranger talents. Part Choctaw, part rumor, all shadow. He arrived in Pulaski County under pressure—pushed from Tennessee by court orders and quiet threats—and built something no one expected: a sanitorium. Unity Hill rose out of the hillside like a defiant breath. One hundred beds. A piano in the parlor. Typewriters tapping beneath the sound of labored coughs. And somewhere beneath it all, a tunnel—dug not for comfo

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20251 min read

The Ferguson Medicine Man

Less of a Mystery and More of a Curiosity Photos Courtesy of Rod Zimmerman, Somerset, KY In the early 20th century, just outside Somerset, Kentucky, a quiet legend took root in the town of Ferguson. His name was Pylap Medekle—Seminole herbalist, healer, and the last of a dying tradition. Long before the clinics, long before white coats and insurance forms, there was Doc Medekle, mixing wild cherry bark and golden seal in a weathered bottle, curing what others couldn’t—or woul

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20251 min read

Swear No Lie: An Oath Signed in Blood

In 1922, honor carried a loaded gun. Image of James Franklin Todd and the 1st National Bank On a cold February morning, the quiet rhythm of courthouse square in Somerset, Kentucky, was shattered by four sharp cracks echoing from the second floor of the First National Bank building. Inside, a man lay dying. Outside, life carried on—until word spread that James Franklin Todd had kept his word. The warning was simple: “If you get on that stand and swear a lie, I’ll kill you.” Th

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20252 min read

Whispers in the Valley: The Legend of Soules Chapel

Some places don't fade. They wait. Photo by MR Grigsby Just four miles outside Somerset, Kentucky, nestled in a quiet hollow where the mist clings tight to the trees and the roads remember old names, the remnants of Soules Chapel lie buried in ash and story. Once a thriving house of worship, the chapel stood tall against the ridge for over a century—until time, fire, and something darker consumed it. They say a preacher came through in the early 1900s—his words sweet as hone

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20251 min read

No Time for Mercy: Greasy Creek Justice

A Hometown Murder. A Vanished Child. And a Justice Carried Out in the Shadows. It was a quiet December afternoon in 1908 when ten-year-old Nannie Womack left her one-room schoolhouse in Russell County, Kentucky, and set out for home—just a mile down a dirt road she’d walked a hundred times before. She never made it. Photograph of Nannie Womack, circa early 1900 (n.d.). Public domain image retrieved from Find a Grave. ( Nannie Pearl Womack (1898-1908) - Find a Grave Memorial).

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20252 min read

Deadfall Hollow: The Wraiths in the Well

A forgotten well. A whispered warning. And a secret not buried deep enough to stay hidden. Pulaski County, Kentucky—summer, 1880. The days were hot, the air thick, and the past wasn’t quite as buried as the townspeople believed. Image: Downtown Somerset, Kentucky, 1896. Public domain. Courtesy of Pulaski County Public Library Historical Society, via Flickr (uploaded December 2023). https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/53396396527 When a group of children tossed stones in

Murder and Mystery

LCTI

Apr 12, 20252 min read