Wickedness Prevails in Parker’s New Book

Wicked Western Kentucky

by STEPHANIE WATSON

Historian Richard Parker Dives Deep into the Dark Pieces of Our Region’s Past

T IS TEMPTING TO VIEW THE PAST WITH a sense of nostalgia. Hollywood often depicts the ‘good old days’ with uniform simplicity, particularly when portraying rural areas like our own. And with the speed and stresses of modern life, it’s no wonder that people like to think fondly of the past as a time when life was easier, when the world moved at a I slower pace, neighbors knew and helped one another, and, at worst, a few kids got into some mischief, or a clumsy police officer fell asleep at his post. In his new book, Wicked Western Kentucky, historian

Richard Parker throws off these Hollywood-inspired, rosecolored glasses and dives deep into the dark past of our western Kentucky home. The book, which hit shelves in

January 2022, shares “fifteen of Western Kentucky’s most nefarious people, places, and events.” With unflinching detail, Parker chronicles both shocking and entertaining moments that span 300 years of our region’s history. From a pair of serial killers who started their murderous spree in the late 1700s all the way to the late 1990s when a vampire cult emerged in Murray, Parker shares a deep understanding of the places and people of our past while connecting these events to their broader national context. Parker’s inspiration for the book comes from his passion for truthful portrayals of the past. “I wanted to write a different kind of history,” he explains. “I hear a lot of people romanticize the past, and I think to myself, you would be horrified to read some of the stories about some of the things that took place right down the road from

your house 100 years ago. I tell people I swear western Kentucky was the most dangerous place in America during the 1890s to 1900s from the number of murders and robberies I see in old newspapers.”

Wicked Western Kentucky is an entertaining read at times and a harrowing journey into our past at others. A chapter on Western Kentucky moonshine, for example, tells the story of a moonshine-selling grandma who, reportedly, can’t remember her age and claims she “‘simply had to sell a little liquor now and then to take care of four grandchildren.’” During prohibition, Between the Rivers distillers are allowed to report to the revenue agent’s office at their convenience and frequently tell on one another to undermine their competition.

More sobering accounts include the terrors inflicted on African American and female sharecroppers by the group Night Riders who posed as vigilantes in the Black Patch Tobacco Wars. Another particularly gruesome story explores a morning in 1928 when seven prisoners were led in a “death march” that ended in the electric chair, nicknamed “Old Spark,” at the penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky. Reporters faint during executions, ghosts haunt the premises, and readers are left with the grisly look inside one of Western Kentucky’s most wicked places.

Throughout the book, Parker shines a light on largely unknown stories as well as those who could have been considered unseen people. “I try to write history that evokes larger themes,” he explains. “Wicked Western Kentucky contains many stories of the injustices against unrepresented people: African Americans, women pushed into prostitution by poverty, family members at the mercy of their fugitive relations. The injustice done to these people is a theme that runs throughout the book.”

Parker’s interest in our region’s past is a personal one. He was born in western Kentucky and spent most of his life in Paris, TN. He grew up exploring local Civil War battlefields and historic buildings in the area. “As the regional hub for our area,” Parker explains, “history has and will always be made in Paducah. My mother’s family is from Paducah—even a great grandfather who was arrested by the Paducah police in the 1900s for stealing a chicken—so I grew up with an interest in and connection to the area.” In conjunction with the book’s publication, Parker and his wife, Emily, will offer a “Wicked Western Kentucky: Paducah” historic walking tour in downtown Paducah this summer. Last year, the couple started their historic walking tour business, Atomic City Tours. As we reported in August, their “Forgotten Spirits” tour, which details Paducah’s rich connections to the bourbon industry, was met with huge success. This summer’s Atomic City Tours will also include a trolly tour of Coca-Cola’s history in our city and the historic Coke Plant.

Whether in book form, tour form, or in the form of the numerous historical presentations he’s done, Parker consistently brings to life the places and people who have called western Kentucky home. Wicked Western Kentucky can be purchased at most major online book retailers, and autographed copies can be purchased at www.atomiccitytoursky.com. His first book, The Wild World of the Jackson Purchase, can be found on Amazon.