The tragic tale of Dr. Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom began in Chicago in the 1960s. Dr. Scudder was a pharmacologist at Loyola University. Charles and Joseph met shortly after Charles' arrival in Chicago around 1960. When they met, he was living in a mansion on Chicago's West Side with his wife. Joseph became his housekeeper. Not long after his kids were grown, Charles and his wife divorced. Joseph and Charles became romantically involved and Charles became increasingly disillusioned by the urban and intellectual decay he saw at college and in his neighborhood. Charles decided to live his dream life with his partner. He resigned from the university on his 50th birthday in 1976 and purchased 40 acres on Taylor's Ridge, in Chattooga County, Georgia.
In 1981, Dr. Scudder wrote the following about why he decided to live in isolation in the April/May edition of Mother Earth News,
"After some soul-searching conversations with Joe, I decided that we really needed to find some place (sic) in hilly country, with the glamour of four seasons but without super-cold winters, with a good supply of pure water and wood for heating and cooking, and–most important–with a measure of isolation. (After years of enduring the sensory overload of city life, I desperately wanted to be situated where I could neither see nor hear my neighbors.)"
And true to his ambitions, he accomplished just that. In two years, he and Joe had erected 45,000 bricks to build their manor in the woods. They also built a brick gazebo, a three-story chicken coop, a chemical outhouse, a brick house for the 160-foot deep well, a lake, an orchard, and a garden. They decided to live off the grid before it became fashionable.
______
Charles had non-mainstream views about religion, sexuality, and life in general. A lot of this was expressed in his architecture and design plans as well as in his lifestyle choices.
Above the brick gazebo, he placed a giant pink gargoyle. (The gargoyle had once spit water at his former property) There was a connecting drawbridge that spanned the gulf between the house and the gazebo. They would frequently have tea there while taking pictures of their surroundings.
He owned books on the occult, a black and gold statue of Mephistopheles (the demon from German folklore popularized by Faust), a couple of human skulls, and stained glass works of Baphomet and Medusa. Each of the four chimneys of the manor was decorated with a pentacle (a downward-pointing pentagram in a circle). It should be noted that Charles was a member of the Church of Satan, but that the CoS aren't devil worshipers. Atheists? Yes. Satanists? No.
His personal art reflected a dark side too. Flanking each side of the entrance to the second floor were two paintings. One of a baby coming out of the womb and the other of a skeleton baby. Perhaps his most disturbing piece of art was a portrait of himself bound, bleeding, and with a series of bullet wounds to the head. (see portrait above)
On the third floor of the chicken coop was the Pink Room. The first and second floors were for chickens and storage. The Pink Room was decorated with a mattress, pink walls, whips, chains, and more. It was also known as the pleasure room where Charles would "entertain guests" and share homemade wines from their grapevines and smoke pot, before engaging in sexual escapades.
NOTE: The chicken coop building was built late in the life of Corpsewood. Charles mentioned his plans for building it in his March/April '81 article in Mother Earth News - A Castle in the Woods. "...and I designed a new chicken house that I plan to start building soon."
Of course, this means that whatever escapades happened there, happened in the last year and a half of Scudder's life.
Dr. Scudder had other affiliations that were viewed suspiciously by locals. Once a month he and Joey would travel to town for supplies. Soon they would begin inviting men to come over for "parties". They weren't a monogamous couple. Scudder would frequently write letters to men in prison and elsewhere about his sexual desires. He even kept detailed notes about what kink each "partner" was into.
_______
Unfortunately, one day they invited the wrong person over. Kenneth Brock was 17 when he met Joey and Charles. He had been hunting in the forest near Corpsewood when they met. He had heard stories about the gay devil worshippers living in the mountains, but wasn't afraid of them. Intrigued, upon invitation, he visited the manor and the Pink Room. The strong homemade muscadine wine removed Avery's inhibitions when Charles decided to perform sexual acts on him. At the time, the age of consent in Georgia was 14. However, sodomy was still illegal, even among married couples. Regardless, Avery visited the Pink Room for entertainment on more than one occasion.
In late 1982, Avery was living in a trailer with a roommate named Samuel Tony West. Samuel was a 30-year-old felon whose career in crime had started when he executed his two-year-old nephew by shooting him in the head. Over the next several decades he committed other serious crimes and by the time he met Avery, he was unemployed and needed a roommate to help him afford to survive.
Shortly after meeting each other, Brock told West of the gay devil worshippers living on Taylor's Ridge and they decided to visit Corpsewood together. During their visit, Scudder had sex with Avery while West was present. Afterward, Scudder propositioned West, but West got offended and left the property.
From that moment on, the machinations of how to rob Dr. Scudder and his partner began. The gay couple must be rich. After all, they had a mansion in the middle of nowhere, lots of land, a golden harp, tons of antique furniture, etc. The more they thought about it, the better the idea seemed. The gay men were isolated, and no one could hear them scream. However, the men at Corpsewood owned two large English Mastiffs, so they would need to bring a weapon.
Avery went on a scouting mission to Corpsewood. However, he was surprised when he was denied entry to the manor. Without going inside, there would be no way to know where any valuables were kept. He also wasn't aware that the manor had no electricity. Avery knew the Pink Room was lit by candles, but he hadn't thought to look for power poles or lines entering the property. He thought for sure the men had money - and he was right, it just wasn't a lot. The Corpsewood couple lived off of $200 a month. The rest of their money was kept at the bank. They weren't ones to carry cash.
_______
On December 12, 1982, Avery and West, along with his nephew Joey Wells and friend Teresa Hudgins, piled into a car and headed for Corpsewood. On the way, they all began huffing Toot-a-Loo (alcohol, paint thinner and glue mixed together) to get high. After arriving, the four visitors and Charles climbed the ladder up to the Pink Room. Brock and West shared a flask of wine while Hudgins and Wells shared a different flask.
Brock descended the ladder and retrieved a .22 rifle he had borrowed from his mom. When he climbed to the Pink Room again, Scudder wasn't afraid. "Bang, bang.", Scudder jokingly responded.
After about twenty minutes, Brock grew impatient and decided to grab Scudder by the hair. However, he wasn't scared and acknowledged that he'd play along with Brock's game. Next, West tied up Scudder and demanded to know where the money was. Scudder told the truth. All of his money was in the bank. At this point, Wells and Hudgins went down the ladder trying to escape. West went after them and threatened them both. In the meantime, Wells was able to coax West into the car to leave. However, it wouldn't start and West forced the group back up the ladder.
Frustrated with not getting anywhere, Brock went down to the manor and demanded that Joey come out with the dogs. Joey Wells implored his uncle to not go through with it. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. At that moment, a barrage of bullets was heard below. Joseph Odom opened the manor door and Brock gunned him down along with both dogs.
______
The two roommates forced Scudder and the others out of the Chicken House and into the manor. Upon seeing his dead lover, Scudder, who was gagged by this point, issued a muffled cry through his restraint. West removed Scudder's gag and demanded to know where the money was and asked for a soldering iron to torture him with. Scudder replied that since they didn't have electricity, there was no point in having a soldering iron.
Scudder tried making his way to check on Odom against the demands of the robbers. Cryptically he muttered, "I asked for this." After refusing to stop, West shot him in the face. Dr. Scudder relentlessly reached for his lover before four more rifle rounds hit him in the head. Dr. Scudder and the world he had built came to an end. Joseph and the dogs were no more. Corpsewood Manor, for the first time, actually had corpses in it.
_____
Wells and Brock quickly ransacked the manor, looking for any valuables they could take with them. Apart from a little jewelry and a few coins, they found a gold-plated dagger, some silver candelabras, a pistol, and a leather jacket. Since their car wouldn't start, they decide to steal Scudder's jeep. The men then tried stealing Dr. Scudder's golden harp, but it wouldn't fit in the jeep. Looking through some final places, Brock was astonished to hear gurgling noises from Scudder. Brock shot Scudder between the eyes with the pistol. Joseph Odom began moving. Brock repeated another callous execution.
The men finally got their own vehicle started and they fled the property. They weren't happy with Hudgins' desire to tell the authorities, so the Wells' family kept a close eye on her. They didn't want their uncle to go to jail. After four days of being held against her will, Teresa was able to contact her uncle and tell him what happened.
By December 13th, Brock and West were traveling through Mississippi and running out of gas and money. They stopped at a rest area to use the restroom and look for another vehicle to switch out. Much to their surprise, they noticed a man sleeping in the Toyota next to them. They awoke him at gunpoint and walked him into the woods where there West shot him repeatedly in the head, stole his money, and drove away in his vehicle. Easy money.
Within three days of the murder, Sheriff Gary McConnell had received a report of strange ongoings at Corpsewood Manor. Bullet holes were found in the kitchen door. The dead bodies of the men and the two dogs had left behind an awful smell. The lack of lighting and creepy decor added to the feeling of dread. At the time, the police hadn't yet known what transpired.
______
Shortly after, Brock and Avery began fighting about their escape plans. At first, they had thought they would go to Europe. Then as reality set in, they set their sights on Mexico. The men were extremely stressed and no longer getting along. By December 18th, 1982, Brock ditched West in Texas and began hitchhiking back to Georgia. He eventually made it to Marietta, Georgia before calling his mom for a ride. The police apprehended him within hours of making the call.
After separating from Brock, West changed his escape destination from Mexico to Oklahoma. Then he changed it again and traveled from Missouri to Tennessee. Finally, on December 24th, he made it as far as Chattanooga and walked up to a police officer with his hands facing palm-side up. He said, "Go ahead and take me in." Unfortunately, the police officer wasn't able to find any warrants in the national system. Regardless, West needed a ride across state lines and the cop wasn't going to let such an easy catch go.
The officer transported West to the police station in Rossville, Georgia. Around that time, another officer called Chattooga County and discovered that West was wanted for the murder of Scudder and Odom. Out of concern for the legality of the transport, the officer drove West back to Tennessee. Georgia authorities from Chattooga traveled to West and booked him in the early hours of Christmas morning.
_____
Within a month of the murders, the justice system of Chattooga County was in full gear. Avery accepted a guilty plea on February 15, 1983 and was sentenced to life in prison (instead of receiving the death penalty.)
Samuel West refused to accept a plea and went to trial in late February 1983. The trial wasn't a long one. Judge Joseph Loggins had a reputation for being tough on criminals. After about a week and a half of trial, the jury decided West's fate within two hours. He was sentenced to death by electrocution.
However, there was a problem with the composition of the jury. The defendant's attorney argued on appeal that there wasn't proper representation by the jury. The earlier court ruling was overturned.
West was to be retried. Instead of going through another costly trial and risking another death sentence, West accepted a plea deal of serving consecutive life sentences on March 19, 1985.
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________After the estate trial of Scudder, Bobby Lee Cook came into possession of Scudder's golden harp, his statue of Mephistopheles and his self-portrait.
Bobby Lee Cook passed away a few years ago and the pieces fell into the hands of a private collector in North Georgia.
As for the Corpsewood Manor property, I recently (February 2023) traveled there with friends and family to inspect the ruins, landscape, and atmosphere.
If I had to describe an ambient impression left at Corpsewood, it is one of sadness. I sensed no evil or darkness. It is a sobering place, a place for reflection, for pause. The victims in this crime weren't homosexual, malignant devil worshippers. They were hedonistic and eccentric at worst. Regardless, even if they had been dark occultists, hell bent on worshipping Satan, they didn't deserve what happened to them. They had families, friends, and lovers. Dr. Scudder had children, and he and Odom were someone else's children too. They had interests, desires, and dreams like the rest of us. Tragically, all those things were cut short by real evil in this case. Brock and West, were callous and cold-blooded opportunists with little regard for anything other than how they could get high and ahead at the expense of someone else's life. Beyond that, anyone who kills dogs deserves to be in the lowest circle of Hell, far, far away from Charles and Joseph.
Sources: The Corpsewood Manor Murders in North Georgia - Amy Petulla (2016)
Mother Earth News - A Castle In the Woods by Charles Scudder - April/May (1981)
Various newspaper articles from 1982-1983