The gruesome King killings

Warning: If you are easily disturbed, do not read this local history article. History is not always pretty, and sometimes it is brutal.

Sunday, Oct. 2, is the 66th anniversary of one of the most horrific crimes to ever occur in Sampson County.

In a fit of rage, Rufus Allen King murdered his six children and then killed himself. This story was picked up by national news wire agencies and distributed to newspapers all across the nation. Including photos of the Posse gathered at the King home, and a photo of his dead body.

News coverage included graphic descriptions the murdered children and a photo of the uncovered corpse of their killer. It was a different era back then and newspapers held nothing back. This article will include the graphic reporting from 1956 and that’s why you were warned not to read this if you are easily upset.

Most newspapers included similar basic descriptions of the murders and added additional information not found elsewhere. Here is a variation of a basic description from The Wilson Daily Times, published on the same day of the murders — Oct. 2, 1956:

Father Murders His Six Children With Gun And Ax; Commits Suicide

CLINTON, NC (AP) — Officers early today discovered six children slain by gun and ax in their humble tenant farm home, and several hours later their hunted father’s body was found in woods I nearby, a gun beside him.

Sampson County Coroner Coleman Carter announced the finding of the body of the father. 34-year-old Rufus A. King.

Sheriff’s deputies who went to the King home to serve a warrant charging assault on his wife found the children’s bodies strewn about the blood-splattered home. One was in bed. Five were sprawled on the floor of the six-room frame dwelling.

Coroner Carter said a superficial examination showed that most of the children had been beaten with the butt of a rifle or with an ax. The youngest, 2-year-old Susan, had been shot. All the others suffered compound fractures of the head.

“It was the most horrible sight I have ever seen,” the coroner, declared. It’s the terriblest (sic) thing that ever happened in this community,” said Allen McCullen. He operates a store at Keener, three, miles from the King home and about 60 miles southeast of Raleigh in Eastern North Carolina. Statehighway patrolmen earlier had joined local officers with bloodhounds in a search for King.

Mrs. King spent the night with relatives in Johnsontown, about seven miles from her home. Early today she signed a warrant charging her husband with assault. Dep. Sheriff Ira Hatch said he and oth-

The St. Petersburg Times included more details. They added:

“POSSESSED OF DEVIL”

Sharecropper Kills Six Children, Self

A church-going sharecropper who was “sometimes possessed of the devil” … attacked his six children and killed them all in a fit of jealousy and rage…

…Mrs. Christine King, 27, was being treated for shock at her own mother’s home. She said her husband had always been good to the children but was extremely jealous of her.

ONLY DEVIL LEFT

” I think all the good went out of his mind, and there was nothing but the devil left,” said the family’s pastor, the Reverend Rodger Jackson of Mary’s Chapel Baptist Church.

The Ocala Star-Banner had this to say:

Rufus a king, thirty-five, had a temper and had several fusses with his wife that neighbors knew about, but he was a sober church-goer without a police record.

Yesterday morning… apparently his mind snapped.

Within a matter of minutes he had shot each of the six through the head with a .22 rifle and then beat their heads horribly with an axe and the rifle.”

Clinton Sampson County Local History group members have made these public comments [edited/condensed] over the past few years whenever the murders were discussed. Their personal knowledge adds more to the history of this tragedy.

Judy Barber Parker’s dad was Clinton A.B.C. Officer Garland Barber.

She said: “…my daddy was there and when he got home I was lying on a pallet on the floor. Mama said he grabbed me and held me in his arms and told her to never let me take a nap on the floor again. I was just a baby and he had seen those children before going out in the woods to find the father…he probably never got those images out of his mind.”

Sue Smith’s dad was Chief Deputy at the sheriff’s dept. She said: “My daddy Ira Hatch and Garland Barber were the first ones [to arrive] there. I remember them talking about it.

Denise Gore Edge: “My family lived just down the road. My daddy spoke of it from time to time. The house was moved after this happened.”

Karen Pridgen Faircloth: “It was moved. One of my classmates and her family lived in the house. The first time I spent the night with her, she told me after we had gone to bed. I was scared to death! [The house] was at Kitty Fork. It was the house beside the convenience store that the Raynors owned. I was friends with Beverly. It’s gone now.”

Christine Jacobs Brewington: “Robert Raynor moved the house to the Kitty Fork area. I assume he moved it from where the tragedy took place. It was beside of the gas station he owned that faced 421. My grandfather bought it from him and moved it about 2 miles away on what is now Bell Lane for my family to live in. My parents raised 3 children in that house. We heard of the history of the house, but didn’t know the full story until finding this post. I lived there until I got married in 1994. The house is still there today.” [2020]

The house was torn down in May 2021, according to Matt L Jacobs.

Retired librarian Candace Atwood: “People would come in to the History Room of the library every so often to inquire about Sampson County murders. I kept clippings and information in files for reference. I assume they are still there.”

Local historian Earl Butler: “The caskets were in the chapel of Crumpler-Honeycutt Funeral Home. Father’s casket was in the middle and three children’s caskets on each side to form a semi-circle. Donations were made to help pay for the funerals and clothes were donated for the children to be buried in.”

Mary Bass Beasley said: “This happened a few miles from where I live. I was a child but can still remember when the sheriff came and ask my granddaddy to go with the other men in Basstown to help [track down Rufus King.] . All the women and children went to Henry Westbrook’s store [for their safety] until they had found him. It was so horrible and sad to hear my granddaddy tell what he saw when he came back home. I still think about it.”

Michael Kyle McLamb said: “… Thank you so much for posting this story. Not everyone seems to appreciate it, but I think [they] forget that they have the benefit of having lived longer than [some of us.] Not only was I not around when this happened, but neither of my parents had even been born yet. It’s easy for people who actually know the details of the tragedy to dismiss [this story], but this type of awareness is important to us younger members who weren’t around to know about it in the first place.”

This story is very unpleasant, but it’s an important part of our local history. Many folks either didn’t know about this, or had forgotten it. These innocent children should always be remembered, and never forgotten.