Appalachian Murder, Mystery And Legend · Larry Bentley

Snake Handlin’ Ain’t Squat

·27 min·1 clip

Police find Reverend John Mills on his mother’s chest with logging chain around her neck.

1. Appalachian Murder, Mystery, and Legend tells the story of Reverend John Mills and the 1933 Tomahawk, Kentucky revival that ended in a murder case. 2. Larry Bentley introduces the episode as an Appalachian narrator, saying he was born and raised in the mountains and knows the region’s religious traditions. 3. The episode asks how a Holiness revival, a week-long fast, and claims of divine messages could lead to the killing of Lucinda Mills. 4. Bentley says Holiness churches spread through poor communities in the early 20th century with week-long revivals, tents, shouting, dancing, tongues, and faith healing. 5. He says Appalachian worship also carried strong superstition, and traveling holy rollers drew packed tents in eastern Kentucky. 6. Bentley says he personally saw deaf people and lame people recover at those meetings, and he uses that to frame his belief in the Holy Spirit. 7. The story shifts to Reverend John Mills, who came from a devout Appalachian family and served in World War I. 8. Bentley says Mills began preaching after what the mountains call a “calling,” then ran house meetings because many communities lacked church buildings. 9. The episode says Mills attended a revival near Stockton Figure in 1932 and later claimed a divine message after meeting a tall, gaunt woman. 10. Bentley describes a February 1933 revival at his sister Talitha’s home that began with a week-long fast and continuous prayer. 11. Neighbors heard what Bentley calls a “guttural, unearthly chant” coming from the cabin during the fasting and prayer. 12. On Groundhog Day in 1933, the cabin doors opened and the congregation followed Mills up a mountain with eyes closed. 13. When one man fell, Bentley says Mills struck him with a stick and a Bible while shouting that he was “not worthy.” 14. Police later entered the cabin and found Mills kneeling on Lucinda Mills’s chest with logging chain around her neck. 15. Bentley says deputies fought Mills off Lucinda’s body while another man tried to stab them and the room stayed full of shouting and tongues. 16. The episode says officers believed the group was preparing a resurrection service for Lucinda that would have included burning her body. 17. Bentley says John Mills, his brother Fred Mills, his grandson Ballard Mills, and several other relatives were arrested and taken to jail in Inez. 18. The family later claimed Mills had misunderstood a divine command and believed God had ordered the sacrifice. 19. The episode describes the Inez courthouse trial, with crowds, mule traders, whiskey sales, and Judge Bailey refusing photographs in the courtroom. 20. Bentley ends by saying John Mills received a life sentence, Blaine McGinnis and Ballard Mills were convicted as accessories, and the family later received pardons or parole dates.

As heard by us

A grim Appalachian murder story where faith, fear, and violence collide at the Mills place.

Snake Handlin' Ain't Squat tells an Appalachian murder story centered on Reverend John, the Mills family, and Cinda Mills' death, with the mountains and local hardship hanging over every turn.

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Why you'd press play

You want a rough Appalachian tale where death and religion stay tangled.

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