Unfortunately, the Mountain State has seen her fair share of nefarious killers. Thomas D. Carr is perhaps less well known than many of the murderers associated with West Virginia, but his story is just as terrible.

Thomas David Carr was born in Sugar Hill, West Virginia in 1846. He died by public hanging in St. Clairsville, Ohio in 1870 at the age of 24 after confessing to 15 murders (he was only convicted of one of them).
Alan Levine/Flickr
Carr was the fourth of eight children, and multiple reports verify that his father was abusive. During his childhood, the family moved from Marshall County to Woods Run, then Fulton, then Wheeling, then finally out of West Virginia to Ohio.
Thomas D. Carr spent time in prison as early as age 8. By age 16, he was serving in the Ohio Infantry as a Civil War soldier. He still made plenty of trouble as an infantryman, and was twice sentenced to being shot.
Library of Congress/Wikipedia
At least one of those times, President Abraham Lincoln stepped in to pardon him.

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Although none could be confirmed, Carr later confessed to killing 13 people in Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland during his time in the army. Some were rebel soldiers, others were associates; most he shot, but at least one he strangled.
Library of Congress/Wikipedia
Pictured here are a Captain and two Lieutenants from the 18th Ohio Infantry Regiment that Carr served in for three years.
Then, after his release from duty, he moved back to West Virginia and joined forces with Joseph Eisele (alias John Shaffer). The two allegedly killed Aloys Ulrich with a hatchet in the Hempfield Railroad Tunnel near Wheeling.
Kim L/Tripadvisor
Finally, Carr slit the throat of his 13-year-old fiancé, Louisa (Louiza) Fox of Sewellsville, Ohio after her parents refused permission for their marriage. The girl's younger brother witnessed the crime.
Scott Metz/Google Maps
The next day, Carr survived a suicide attempt and was then apprehended, arrested, tried, convicted, and hanged. He was buried in St. Clairsville, Ohio. His execution was the first legal execution ever carried out in Belmont County, Ohio.

The Hempfield Tunnel is rumored to still be haunted by the ghost of Aloys Ulrich to this day, and sightings of the ghosts of Louiza Fox and Thomas Carr have also been reported near Fox’s grave in Salem Cemetery at Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Ohio.

Have you heard Thomas D. Carr’s story before, or the stories of any of his victims? Did you know he was raised in West Virginia?

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Wheeling Heritage Trail, Wheeling, WV 26003, USA