In our second episode Jeri takes us back to the late 1800s.

Who…or what…was the Fool Killer? Depending on who you ask, he was a 19th-century satirical invention, a supernatural enforcer born from Melungeon folklore, or a wandering vigilante who struck down the corrupt and the cruel.

In this episode, we dive into the tangled origins of the Fool Killer: from gripping newspaper columns to the whispered Melungeon tales of a devil’s son turned protector. Was he a symbol of rage against oppression, an imagined guardian of isolated mountain communities, or simply a metaphor that took on a life of its own deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains?

We’ll explore how Appalachian spirituality, a fusion of Christianity, folk magic, and Indigenous belief, shaped this figure into something greater than satire. Just as some cultures breathe life into authoritarian gods and others protective tricksters, the Fool Killer emerges as Appalachia’s own divine judge: punishing outsiders, defending the marginalized, and even policing morality within his own people.

Part folklore, part social critique, and part true-crime adjacent myth, the Fool Killer forces us to ask: was he a monster, a metaphor, or a cultural god born of survival on the margins?