We all need an escape every now and then. Sometimes, that escape means packing up, building your own home in the woods, and enjoying the company of good neighbours who live and let live. But some neighbours are definitely kinder than others.
Dr. Charles Scudder, Charlie to his friends, was born on Ocrober 6th, 1926. He was a very intelligent boy, with a vast array of interests. When he went off to university, he ended up earning degrees in zoology, languages, and chemistry, before settling into a pharmacology doctorate program at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. Upon graduation, Charlie stayed on as a professor in the department.
Charlie married twice. During his second marriage, Charlie’s wife gave birth to four sons, Saul, Gideon, Fenris, and Ahab. Overall, he was a proud father, though he was a little bit distant from his children. They found their father eccentric – choosing to live in an aging mansion on Chicago’s West Side which was dated, and required a tremendous amount of upkeep.
Charlie had an extensive collection of antiques, artwork, his own paintings, and a harp, which he practiced playing every chance he got. His vast collection included various occult-like items, gargoyles, and all manner of things that Charlie’s children were not very fond of.
In 1959, Charlie got the help he needed around the house. He met Joseph Odom, Joey to his friends, who moved in as a live-in housekeeper and cook. Joey was 12 years younger than Charlie, but that didn’t seem to matter, as their relationship immediately blossomed.
By all accounts, no one seemed to know that they were a couple. While they weren’t out of the closet, they weren’t very subtle around friends and family. Despite this, most people referred to Joey as Charlie’s employee, or companion.
Over time, Charlie’s collection grew, and began to include items that reflected his new interest – the Church of Satan. The Church itself is very adamant that they do not worship Satan. Rather, they adhere to a more hedonistic philosophy of, in rather broad terms, as long as you’re not hurting yourself or others, enjoy yourself however you so please. This greatly appealed to Charlie, and it drew him into the Church. He even kept up a correspondence with the founder, Anton LeVey.
By 1976, Charlie’s children had moved out of the sprawling Chicago mansion, and Charlie was growing weary of the upkeep, and of city life itself. Charlie became more and more weary of modern life, and was heartbroken over the death of his youngest son, Ahab.
Following the passing of his parents, and the distance at which his children held him, Charlie decided to talk to Joey about his ideas. After long discussions, the couple decided it was time to leave Chicago, leave the city life, and pursue a simpler way of life.
Charlie didn’t want to experience any more harsh winters, and he wanted to be as isolated as possible. After some research, he settled on a plot of land in the south. With the money he’d inherited from his mother’s estate, Charlie bought 40 acres of undeveloped land in the town of Trion, Chatooga County, Georgia.
In January of 1977, in the middle of an ice storm, Charlie and Joey packed up their two Bull Mastiff dogs, and whatever belongings, collectibles, antiques, and paintings they could fit into a small camper trailer, and Charlie’s Jeep. Of course, they didn’t forget the harp.
One of the first things they encountered when they attempted to reach their hilltop was a dead horse in the middle of the trail. Charlie immediately named the trail Dead Horse Road.
They camped out – in tents, in the camper, and in the Jeep – until the snow had melted enough to allow their building project to begin. Then, the couple went into town and bought construction supplies. They were going to build their new home by hand.
Within two years, Charlie and Joey had built up a small, elegant mini-castle. They named their home Corpsewood Manor. Charlie and Joey continued to build around their home, planting a garden, and even planting a small vineyard, which Charlie used to make very potent homemade wine.
Over the years, their garden grew, and Charlie and Joey were fairly sufficient in living off the land. Joey loved to cook on a wood burning stove in the Manor’s kitchen. They also made friends with some of the Trion locals, their neighbours, who would bring them fruit that Charlie would use in his wines. At one point, the couple even hosted a small wedding in their rose garden. Charlie played the harp from the sundeck above the gazebo as accompaniment.
The couple’s lovingly hand-crafted home was fashioned with all of Charlie’s collectibles, antiques, and paintings. The walls were also adorned with Charlie’s own paintings. He’d also crafted a stained-glass window in the image of Baphomet, one of the most important figures in the Church of Satan.
Though Charlie felt that he connected deeply with the philosophy of the Church, he never pushed it on anyone. Rather, he would answer questions, and clarify what the religion meant to him. To Charlie, the Church was a place of acceptance, where he could celebrate his enjoyment of worldly pleasures that Christian traditions often demonized.
Despite the grandeur of their Manor, very few people had access to the home itself. Charlie and Joey kept their home private; it was only for themselves, and their dogs, named Beelzebub and Arsinath.
When they had visitors, they usually brought them to the three-story “chicken house”. The chicken house’s first floor housed food storage, and the couple’s chickens. The second floor held accumulated canned goods, and an extensive pornography collection. On the third floor, the “Pink Room”, named for the fact that it had been painted bright pink, as gratitude for a paint donation from a neighbour, was where Charlie and Joey entertained their guests. But the Pink Room had another name – the pleasure chamber.
The Pink Room was where Charlie and Joey allowed themselves, and their guests, complete freedom. Guests were free to participate in whatever activity they desired. Or not. So long as anyone who was participating in anything was safe, sane, and consenting, anything went. Though a little liquid courage from Charlie’s wine stash never hurt.
If asked, Charlie could also provide another form of “party favour”. While at Loyola, Charlie’s work had predominantly been around government-funded experiments with LSD. The very brand of LSD that was known to be part of the CIA project MKUltra. When he left Loyola, Charlie left with about 12,000 doses of LSD-25, which had been imported specifically by the CIA for the project.
In the Pink Room, Charlie and Joey would often remain sober, and oversee their guests as they took part in whatever pleasures they so desired – with full, sober, sane, safe consent beforehand.
By all accounts, most of Charlie and Joey’s neighbours found them to be “genuinely hospitable”. They were eccentric, and quirky, but they were kind, generous, discrete, and they kept to themselves. Even while their Trion neighbours gossiped and whispered, the community generally left the couple do as they liked – they weren’t hurting anyone, and they never pushed anyone past their boundaries. They simply wanted a home where they could be themselves, and be free.
However, there were a few who took advantage of Charlie and Joey’s hospitality and generosity. Quite often, a few young people (mostly teenagers) with no money and nothing but time on their hands would go cruising up to Corpsewood Manor, where Charlie would greet them with a smile, and offer them some homemade wine.
17-year-old Kenneth Avery Brock, and his 30-year-old roommate Samuel Tony West were two such individuals who took advantage of the kind-hearted Charlie and Joey. Brock and West would enjoy free booze, free drugs, and a good time. Brock also indulged in offered sexual activities, while West strongly objected. At some point, Brock told West that Charlie had take advantage of him. Or maybe West convinced Brock. Either way, West believed that Charlie should pay for what he’d done. He also believed that Charlie and Joey were rich – and that the best revenge would be to rob the two men blind.
On December 12th, 1982, Brock and West were hanging out with Joey Wells, and his date Teresa Hudgins. It was their first date. They hopped in a car, and drove up to Corpsewood Manor. They made sure to bring guns for the trip.
As they came into view of Manor, they decided to act as though they were just there to hang out, and enjoy the Pink Room. Charlie offered them wine, and a huff of a potent mixture of various chemicals. While indulging in the intoxicants, Broke went back downstairs, and retrieved a rifle from the car. Then, Brock entered the Manor, surprising Joey in the kitchen, and shot him four times. He also shot both dogs, who were sleeping by the fire.
Upstairs in the Pink Room, Charlie was bound and gagged, all the while being shouted at to tell them where the money was. Truthfully, he kept saying there was no money. Charlie and Joey lived off their land, and off of a small monthly allowance of what was left from his parents’ estates.
Charlie was led downstairs, where he found Joey bleeding out. Supposedly, his last words, as he fell to his knees beside his partner, were: “I asked for this”. West then shot him in the head five times.
As the couple lay dead and dying on the floor, Brock, West, and Wells began looting the Manor. They were angry that there were no riches to be found. Teresa stayed out of the way, fearful that she would encounter the same fate if she spoke out of turn.
The three men seemed not to know, or notice, the value of the antiques and collectibles. Those were mostly left alone, while they left with little to no cash. For their trouble, they stole Charlie’s Jeep.
Wells and Teresa were taken back to Wells’s sister’s trailer. Teresa wanted to call the police, but Joey wouldn’t let her. Though he hadn’t participated in the murders, he’d still looted the house. He was scared he’d get caught. As he figured out what to do, he had his mother drive Teresa home.
On the drive, Teresa broke down. She told her date’s mother everything that had happened. Wells’s mother immediately turned around, and brought Teresa back to the trailer, where she was kept against her will for four days. On December 16th, 1982, Teresa managed to call her uncle for help.
That was when the police began piecing things together.
A couple of days after the murders, an acquaintance from Rose, Georgia found the bodies and contacted the authorities. When they heard Teresa’s story, their manhunt for Kenneth Brock and Sam West began.
Brock and West had managed to flee to Mississippi. On December 15th, in a robbery gone wrong, they shot and killed Kirby Phelps as he was sleeping in his car on the side of the road. This caused a rift between the two, and they went their separate ways.
Brock, perhaps feeling remorseful, returned to Georgia on December 20th, and turned himself in. West turned himself in on December 25th, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
For their part, Wells and Teresa turned themselves in. They cooperated, and testified against Brock and West at trial. Neither was ever charged with any involvement in the murders.
Kenneth Brock pleaded guilty to the murders, including the murder of Kirby Phelps. He received three consecutive life sentences. Sam West was found guilty of the murders. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned on appeal, where he was sentenced, instead, to life.
Neighbourly hospitality was what Charlie and Joey enjoyed most out of their isolated little castle on the hill. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that it was their hospitality that cost them their lives.
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Sources:
The Corspewood Manor Murders: A Story of Satanism, Sex Parties, and Slaughter – Gina Dimuro – All That’s Interesting
The Curse of Corpsewood, and the Corpsewood Murders – CrimeCapsule
The gruesome history of Georgia’s Corpsewood Manor – Kelly Kazek – kellykazek.com
The murders of ‘devil worshippers’ at Corpsewood manor – Kelly Kazek – kellykazek.com
The Tragic Case of Dr. Charles Lee Scudder, Satanist – Peggy Nadramia – Church of Satan
House of Horror: The Brutal Murders at Georgia’s Corpsewood Manor – Orrin Grey – The Line Up
Corpsewood Manor: Unveil the dark, dangerous, and deadly murders – Nikki Hudson – Film Daily
Southern Fried True Crime podcast – Episode 32 – The Corpsewood Manor Murders