All language subtitles for Alabama.Snake.2020.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Some people
call me a folklorist,

sometimes a filmmaker.

Some people call me
a closet anthropologist.

I'm a retired professor,

but still a student
of southern Appalachia, really.

The archives started
back in the late '60s.

A colleague and I
studied folklore

and talked folklore,

and we wanted to preserve it.

So that's how
the Archives of Appalachia

was established.

I find that in collecting
their life stories,

traditions, and beliefs,

it's, uh, really one way
of understanding

our own history.

This is oral history
and folklore.

Appalachian folklore.

With people that I've researched
and recorded,

it gives them a little bit
of immortality.

In one case,
we made a documentary

about mountain people

and the tradition
of handling serpents.

Now, we have, uh,
three rattlesnakes,

our guests tonight.

I know that according
to what the scripture said

in Saint Mark 16,

was that they shall
take up serpents.

Not many places left
where you can obey God

in the fullest and then
without fear of reprisal.

While we were
filming the service,

one of those church members
was bitten.

What happened in that church
had a profound effect on me.

In the name of Jesus!

Lord, in Jesus's name...

-The law is final.

Yes, God.

That night was my initiation

into serpent handling.

And of course, I didn't know
that it would lead

to over 40 years of studying
Pentecostal serpent handlers.

But out of all
of my experiences,

there is one that stands out
from all the rest.

This story is a story
of the Serpent and the Spirit.

My name is David Kennamer,

born and raised
here in Scottsboro.

I'm a paramedic.

And, uh, this is my partner,
Bobby, who is an EMT.

He was my driver that night.

Well, working on the ambulance,
you eat when you can.

We was here at the Piggly Wiggly
when they gave us the call

and that's when we said,

"Well, we're not gonna
get to eat anytime soon."

We got the call,
uh, to head out to Barbee Lane

to a snake bite victim.

At the time,
we didn't know any more about it

than a possible snake bite.

We have gotten
calls like this before,

but when you get there,
there's nothing to it.

And as we got closer, uh,

they told us to, uh,
go in Code One,

which is with the lights
and sirens off.

They didn't know exactly why,
but if the patient

or whoever's calling you
tell you this,

you need to listen to them.
There's a reason for this.

And it was dark.
There's no streetlights.

Nope.

So the only lights we had
were what was on us.

I don't like snakes.

You don't come to me
with a snake.

That'd be like
pointing a gun at me.

This lady was walking
towards us.

It's a critical situation.

It was black.
The skin was starting to die.

That's when I got
real concerned

because that gets
in your blood stream,

it can go to your heart.

We've gotta get this girl
over there in a hurry.

There were
lots of strange things,

lots of strange things.

You never know
what's coming in.

This snake bite was different.

Uh, we didn't see
a lot of snake bites

to the magnitude of, uh...

the one that occurred
that night.

With us, we don't carry
any antivenom.

And now, this is for the doctors
to decide if they need it,

what kind they need.

We treated her, but you know,

small county hospital,

uh, we didn't have antivenom.

Then we load her back up
and I tell Bobby,

"Get me to Birmingham."

I can only get a limited
amount of information

in the back of the ambulance.

She described
a very gruesome story

of her husband
trying to kill her.

Back then,
I was working as a patrolman.

Been a police officer for...

in March, it'll be 30 years.

I was here two years,

when this all happened.

All I thought about was the pain

and what was going
through her head mentally,

you know,
whether she's gonna live or die

and make it to the hospital
or not.

And the idea that somebody...

close to her...

made her get bit.

Allegedly.

Drop the gun!

Drop it!

Our officers
practice on different scenarios

with making contact
with bad people.

I've been in meth homes before

that they actually had
pet rattlesnakes in the house.

I've heard this story
since I was a kid.

My dad was an investigator
at the sheriff's office

when, uh, Chief Dawe--

when this--
when this whole case went down.

It's not a story
you hear every day,

anywhere else in the world.

Religion, relationships,
and murder.

-Booze.
-And booze.

Tie all four of those together,
and you've got a story,

there's no question there.

Scottsboro police
say this five-foot-long

poisonous rattlesnake
was used as a weapon.

This snake and 15 others
are owned by Glenn Summerford.

But earlier this week,
police say,

Summerford used the snakes

to assault his wife,
Darlene Summerford.

Well,
I was the lead investigator.

But as to whether that
qualifies me or not,

I don't know.

I was just a police officer
doing a job.

Well I received a report
one morning about a...

woman being bit
by a rattlesnake.

We went out
to her husband's house.

He gave us permission
to search his property.

He carried us out there
to where they kept the snakes.

He had them in a locked shed
or something.

And he unlocked it,
and we went in,

and in these cages...

...is where the snakes were.

That was the weapon
that was used in the crime.

And this is collected
as evidence.

The snake became the evidence.

Bring this new box out here.

All right.
Let me get this top down.

Yeah, please, get the top down.

Holy smoke.

The biggest one,
a big diamondback.

Big snake.

They put this noose around him

and took him out and yeah, he--

he put up a fight.

-SNAKE HISSES

Get that sucker.

Holy-- Should get that
on him, yeah.

Oh, mercy!

We confiscated all of them.

Think that's going pretty good.

Because all of them
were potential weapons

that could be used.

It's the first time I've ever

had anything like that happen.

And nothing else since.

We got all the snakes,

and then we went
inside the house

and we searched
inside the house.

Just about every room

was disarranged.

You know, I mean
there was chairs turned over,

covers strowed around.

I couldn't really determine

if there had been
a fight or not,

because of everything
just strowed around like it was.

We didn't find any weapons
or anything of that nature.

There was a purse,

one of these bag-like purses
hanging on the--

on the door.

And it started moving.

And I thought, "Now we're gonna
find a snake in there."

A raccoon
jumped out of the purse

and ran off up the wall.

Within a few days,

Glenn Summerford was arrested,

and they ended up charging him
with attempted murder

and carried him into court.

But your facts
and your evidence

is what makes your case.

Your biggest thing you had
was her statement against him.

"Well, he forced me with a gun
to do this,

and I was bitten twice."

And then him saying
she had gone out there

to commit suicide.

and they'd had an argument,
and he got drunk, passed out,

and when he woke up,
she'd got bit by the snake.

This hinged mainly
on the victim.

So I was surprised
that we got in there.

I didn't think the case
was that strong.

Why did these people
have snakes?

They handled them
in their religious service.

There was some videos
collected as evidence.

We turned them over
to the district attorney.

You need help?

...before you go in.

They ain't started nothing.

Now come on,
what you asking for?

Everybody's in church.

Yeah, Lord.

Praise you, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.

Praise God,
praise God, praise God. Glory.

I think people
that live up on the mountain

tend to take care
of their own problems.

They don't-- they don't need
or want the policing

that you would find
here in Scottsboro.

Back then, you know,
people didn't realize

that that element had moved
down here in the valley

in Scottsboro and was,
you know, operating here.

I don't think any person
in Scottsboro

would like that to be
prevalent in their city.

I think they're ashamed
of the whole idea

of snake handling.

You know,
a lot of people were like,

"Well, we didn't know
they were here," you know?

They didn't know.

Until something bad happens.

In opening arguments here
this afternoon,

the prosecution painted
Glenn Summerford

as a brutal, jealous husband
who tried to kill his wife

using rattlesnakes
as the weapon.

To the defense,

Darlene was a troubled woman

trying to send her husband
to prison

by fabricating a murder story

based on the reptiles
with whom she was obsessed.

The evidence
will show that, uh,

this lady is a snake handler
from way back,

and that if she handled
any snakes and was bitten,

she did it voluntarily
and no one forced her to.

He was trying to kill her.

He was going to try to get away
with killing her

by saying she got bit
by a snake accidentally.

Jesus lives,
that's all I know to say.

Glenn Summerford
was tried for attempted murder.

He tried to kill me.
I know that was what he done.

He tried to kill me.

What do the people
in the church think about this?

They believe I just told
this whole story,

and just made
this whole story up.

The man was put on trial

not for what he did
but for what he stands for.

For serpent handling.
The word of God.

And it is the word of God.

I really don't know that much
about their religion.

What they did at their church,
that's their business.

She testified before the jury.

On Friday, after she got bit,

he wouldn't let her go
to the doctor.

The following morning,
on Saturday,

he carried her several places.

Then after dark on Saturday,
he forced her hand down

in that snake cage again,
and she was bit one more time.

She says one thing
and he says something else,

so did it occur?

I can't tell you yes or no.

Because it wasn't my decision
to decide.

Go to the court if you want
to know what happened.

These are boxes
going back at least 30 years

of all the cases
in Jackson County.

Back before steno machines
went digital,

they used to write to paper.

We're looking for January
through June of 1992.

I bet this is it.

State versus Glenn Summerford.

I'm the one that sits there

and writes everything down
that's said in court.

It's typing
in a different language.

Court reporters are certified
at 225 words a minute,

so if you tried to type
on a regular keyboard,

there is no way. I mean,

your fingers would be burning,
smoking, everything,

so that wouldn't be possible.

So this is shorthand.

Instead of symbols,
we use letters.

"He started screaming
and hollering

and accusing me
of running around.

And then he said
that he was going to go...

make me get bit and die,

and say it was going
to look like a suicide,

and he was going
to tell everybody when I died,

he just woke up."

"Question: Did he carry you
anywhere then?"

"He grabbed me

and held this gun to my head,

and he made me
go out to the shed.

He said if I didn't
reach over there

and pick up that snake,

he was going to stick
my face in it.

He had me by the hair
of the head

and the gun right here.

I was praying,
and I reached in there

and got to get it.

I picked it up,
but it bit me on the thumb."

She was bitten
two different times,

and he did not allow her
to seek medical attention,

which is attempted murder.

The jury
found Summerford guilty.

He had two prior felony
convictions,

and under
our habitual offender act,

the least sentence
was 99 years,

uh, so I didn't have
much choice.

When I first started
researching this story,

it wasn't about reopening
Glenn Summerford's case.

It was about understanding it.

These are the tapes
that I made

relative to
the Glenn Summerford trial

and the incident of his
being put in prison.

Interview with Glenn Summerford

at Limestone
Correctional Facility.

Y'all still filmin'?

My name is Doris Summerford.

I'm Glenn Summerford's wife.

Was.

I've always liked to sing,

but, uh, see,
according to my family

I can't carry a tune
in a bucket,

so I just mostly sing to me.

And the good Lord.

He don't complain.

I met him
when I was in the first grade.

He run up and hollered
he was gonna marry me,

and I said, "No, you ain't."

September 14th of '63,
we got married,

which tells you how dumb I was.

When I gave my heart away,
I gave it all away.

-I loved him...

...and I tried to do
about anything he said to do.

It was taken
right after we got married.

He had been down there
in the shed,

him and one
of his buddies, boxing.

He loved to fight
before we got married,

and he still fought
after we got married.

If he was out drinkin',

you come up
and said something to him,

got in his face, you might
wind up sittin' on the floor.

Glenn was
a really rough, tough person

in the early part of his life,

before he was really converted.

That was the kind of person
they knew Glenn to be,

especially when he was drinking.

Earlier in his life,
he was convicted

of two... what were then
considered felonies,

and he had a history
of conflict with the law.

So...

He always said somebody
caused the house fire.

But it, uh, never was provable.

Glenn Jr. was the one
that woke us up

about 4:30, 5 o'clock
in the morning.

I was reaching for her
when I caught on fire.

Come on!

He said he saw my hair blaze up,

and he grabbed me,

and, well, was trying
to put me out,

and I was fighting him,
and he said

we both went out the window.

He tried to get back
in the window and some of the...

neighbors had got there and...

they held him back.

I kept hollering,
"My baby! My baby!"

Sarah was one year,
eight months,

twenty-five days old
when she died.

But in her short life,

she had a... a lot of love.

He carried us
to the hospital.

I was leaving my baby,

and I wasn't liking it.

But there wasn't nothing
I could do about it.

Glenn wasn't the same
after that.

He would go down
and sit at the cemetery.

Uh...

He wouldn't talk
that much about her.

He-- I don't know whether
he kind of blamed his self

'cause he couldn't get
back in there to her.

We did pretty good
most of the time,

but, uh...

you didn't argue with him.

I loved him,

but at times
I was afraid of him.

Fear and love.

They went together.

I had to be very careful
what I said and what I did.

To me, he was just abusive...

at times.

He could be good,
he could be bad.

Do you think
Glenn's capable of murder?

Possibly.

The original story, I presume,

of the "serpent" in the Bible

begins in Genesis.

Satan appears
in the form of a serpent

to tempt Eve with the fruit
of knowledge of good and evil.

As result of her eating
the apple,

some people believe
that women

are symbolic of temptation
and sin.

Darlene, Glenn,
and the good Lord

is all that knows what happened.

'Cause I have heard

both of 'em tell the truth,

and I've heard
both of 'em tell lies.

I don't know exactly
when him and her

started seeing each other,

but in '74, I think it was,

him and her got married.

They got married on my birthday.

I always told him he didn't--

he wanted to make sure
I didn't forget.

I ain't never really talked
to nobody about it,

you know, uh...

not never been somethin'

that I cared much about talkin'
about, but...

heck, I lived it though.

I was probably the poorest kid
that ever went

to Scottsboro School,
you know?

Got picked on a lot.
Fought a lot.

Daddy always told me, "Boy,
don't you ever start a fight."

He said, "But if someone else
starts it you better finish it,

or I'll finish it
when you get home."

He was probably
the toughest man I ever seen.

He cast a big shadow,
you know?

Hard to hold up to that.

I gotta be careful
with what I say, but...

Daddy, when he was mad
at somebody, he didn't--

he didn't really
have a conscience

before he got church.

There was this one guy,
tried to hit on my mom.

He was drunk,
they was drinking,

and he kept trying to
hit on my mom.

Daddy end up whooping him
like that,

knocking his eyeball out.

And he did that
with a pair of vice grips.

I mean he-- he didn't care.

He threw him off
a waterfall for dead.

We just left him.

Glenn was the kind of person,

if he wanted her dead,
she would be dead.

That was the kind of person
they knew Glenn to be

up to this point
that he became redeemed.

When he went through
that redemption,

then he was a holy man
who was intent on doing right.

And to him, this would
explain his innocence.

Holiness Pentecostals like Glenn

believe a man can be redeemed

from previous sins

and attain a new state
of sanctification.

Glenn wanted to be
a man of God.

Holiness Pentecostals

go out to a stream or to a lake

and baptize by immersion

for the remission of sin.

Born again
by the water and the Spirit.

Why does anyone
have a conversion

from one life to another?

That's-- that's a psychological,

emotional experience

that would be different
in every individual's life.

Why?

A lot of people
hit the bottom and die.

A lot of people
hit the bottom and don't die.

Some of 'em hit the bottom
and find Jesus.

A crime happens and you go--
and you go out

to your usual suspects, right?

And you go ask them
about the crime and then,

you know, "Oh, no, no, I'm good,

I don't do that no more,
I go to church and..."

But, you know...

it's just all a farce.

When he--
when he started going to church,

it was hard for people
to understand

how somebody could change
that quick, you know?

And I might be part of
the reason he got in church.

He wanted to be a better daddy.

There's always something good
that comes of it.

And so, everybody praise...

The night
he got the Holy Ghost,

he prayed all night long.
I remember it.

It was pretty wild.

He dranked all the time
before that.

He quit that instant.
He was done.

Tears rolled up in his eyes

and he said,
"I'm not that man no more."

'Cause he didn't just
change one thing,

he changed his whole life.
I mean everything.

It was like someone else
just stepped in his body

and it wasn't even him no more,
you know?

He was on his knees all night.

His knees was on fire.

When he got up, the whole
knees of his pants was gone.

It was like
he was a whole new man.

Nothing could hurt him
when he was in the Spirit.

In the Bible...

Glory to God.

A lot of serpent handlers
believe

that they should be anointed
with the Holy Spirit

in order to handle serpents
or do these other signs,

and that confirms
that they have God's power.

The principle verse in...

Those are the so-called
five signs

that will follow
them that believe.

Daddy always said
he was just a man, you know?

He wasn't nothin' without God.

He couldn't do nothin'
without God.

I've seen him pray
for people in wheelchairs,

and they'd get up and walk.

Like 80-year-old people
that hadn't walked in 20 years.

They'd get up and run
all over the church.

It had to be God
'cause nothin' else

could do nothin' like that.

Praise God tonight.
We've got power tonight.

I saw demons cast out.
I saw my daddy do it.

I wasn't but about eight,
maybe nine.

I saw him cast one out
of a guy one night at church,

and it literally came out
and run across the floor.

I mean, it was--
it was crazy looking.

But there was somethin'
come out of him

just run right across the floor.

And it was
runnin' around everywhere

trying to get back into
somebody else.

And they just kept prayin'.

It was almost like a fog-like.

I don't know what it was--
it was-- you can't explain it.

There's more evil today
than there ever has been.

So if you get scared enough,
you gonna pray.

But it's supposed to be scary.

Fear the Lord.

I don't think
nobody's ever really told

the truth about it.

And I know right there
where she said she got bit,

a 'coon bit her
about a week before that.

And that's the only
bite marks I've seen on her.

I don't know if she got bit
or not.

Yeah, she handled snakes
all the time.

They wouldn't bite her neither.

I mean, you know,

she could've got bit.
I ain't saying she didn't.

But I've always kinda
questioned it to myself,

you know? I've never
really asked her that.

Never really talked to her
about it.

She's not a person that you
can really talk to like that,

you know? Uh...

It was always hard for me
and her to get close.

She had lost a kid before.

Before
she was married to Glenn,

she had a child, Bobby Joe,

and it was taken away
from her

because of her misconduct.

And I think that had
a profound effect on her

doing anything
that would prevent her

keeping Marty.

One way of looking
at this whole thing

is like in a witch trial
in New England.

If Darlene was bitten,
that would prove that, uh,

that she was guilty.

If she handled the serpents
and wasn't bitten,

then it very likely would prove
that she wasn't guilty.

He would be using the serpent
as divine verification.

The next morning, they get up

and they go to return videos

at the video shop.

There was a note that was found.

A suicide note.

Seemed like it was written
to the boy.

"Marty, I love you. I love.

Do what Daddy says.
Daddy was asleep.

I tried to fix everything,
but it didn't work out.

Don't blame Daddy

because he loves me
and trying to help me.

But I wouldn't listen.

Daddy's asleep and he don't know
what I'm doing.

Marty, always remember,
I love you for the good,

not the bad, but love you.

Try to get right. Your mama.

I went out and got snake bit.

Glenn is asleep and don't know.

You and Daddy live right, okay?

I love you."

"Question:

Is it the note you wrote
on that occasion?"

"Answer: Yes."

Do you--
Do you remember
the note that you left?

Oh, yeah, that--
He made me write that note.

Yep.

And...

Nobody knows
what really happened.

We have what Glenn
says happened,

and we have what Darlene
says that happened.

There were no other witnesses

that know what happened
that night.

Except maybe Marty.

Daddy tried hard
to live for God.

He tried real hard.

And I always heard

the harder you try
to live for God,

the harder the devil
will fight to keep you.

I remember it. I was a kid.

-I didn't want 'em fightin',
you know?

I didn't know
what was really going on.

They'd been fighting and chasing
one another around the yard.

And I just walked up,
and you know,

it was the first thought
that went through my head,

I had a bow and arrow
in my hand.

I just whiz one by him.

I was tryin' to protect
my mama, I thought.

It's a scary thought

thinking you could've killed
your daddy, though.

Uh, some things
are best forgotten.

So they called my brother-in-law
and sister to come and get me.

The next morning, they get up,

and they go to return the videos

at the Lakeside Grocery
and Video Shop.

Darlene goes in
to return the videos.

And she says
her hand is swollen

at that point, somewhat.

Right.

Everybody says
this is a cruel world.

This isn't a cruel world.

It's a lovely world,
it's a good world.

But the people that are in it,

is what's making it cruel.

There was a point, uh,
in the interviews

that he was saying
that he did not drink.

He would say things like,
"If I had been drunk,

then there would have been
a problem.

I could have lost it,
or gone off,

and done some real serious
damage or something."

But I talked
to several other people

and they said
he was obviously inebriated.

It was supposed
to be addressed to her son.

It states about
three different times

that, "Daddy doesn't know
about this."

"Daddy loves us."

Um, "Daddy's asleep

and doesn't know
that I'm doing this."

"You and Daddy live right."

And it just keeps
not referring to her,

but kept giving Glenn an alibi.

Come on!

He grabbed me by the hair...

Let go of me.

No! No!

The trial lasted
only two and a half days

and ended with Glenn
being found guilty

of attempted murder.

He was a former
two-time offender,

and the judge had no recourse
but to give him 99 years.

The career of Glenn Summerford,

Pentecostal minister,
snake handler,

and now convicted felon,
is over.

I say, thank you, Lord.

I mean, that's all I can
think of, you know, just...

I know that he got it,
you know, what he deserved.

With their minister headed
from the pulpit to prison,

many followers say the future
of the Church of Jesus

is in jeopardy.

Others remain convinced
Glenn Summerford isn't guilty.

All right,
let me ask our psychologist.

How does she deal with
going back to her community,

where the people
believe the minister?

There will be some
who believe the minister

and some who don't.

I-- I think
with great difficulty,

because it's almost like
a double abuse,

you know,
you're abused by the person

and then when you go out
in public

and you're not believed,
you're abused again.

-I think it will take
a lot of support.

I lost both my parents.

I didn't get to live
with neither one of 'em.

It affected me a lot
'cause I really didn't know

how to raise the kids, you know?
Uh...

I didn't have no experience.

I got good kids, though.

My kids are great.

I really love 'em.

I'd do anything for 'em.

I tried not to be
as tough as my dad.

I wanna be a good father.

Yeah, this is my daughter,
Hayley, here's the, um...

My little mini-me.

Yeah, I made sure they always
had a mom and daddy, you know.

I grew up on deer and dove
and rabbit and squirrel

and all that stuff, so...

Country as cornbread, I guess.

I guess we was kinda
made for one another.

We fought hard
to have what we have now.

Yeah.

And last week
we was married 20.

I don't know
why she's crazy about me,

but she is.

I always been kinda crazy
about her, I reckon.

I look back at it now
and it's like,

if I'd stayed there,

then ain't no tellin'
where I'd be right now.

I never really been
a real religious man,

but I got family.

That's all I need.

Do you think we believe
what we want to believe?

It might be
the other way around.

We believe things
whether we want to or not.

In one of those services
that I had gone to earlier,

the preacher came back
in a service

and anointed me with oil.

And I kind of wanted
to feel, at that point,

the infusion of the Spirit,
you know?

Have a real...

real spiritual experience,
you know.

But nothing happened.

We may want to believe,

and it would be nice
to have an experience

like Glenn,
but I never got that.

Glenn believes
in the providence of God.

If God wants him
to be left in prison,

then he'll be left in there.

If He wants him out,
then that will be provided.

The last time I saw him

was before the escape.

The whole story
of Glenn Summerford

has become Appalachian folklore

just like some
of the scriptures.

The name "Pentecostal"
comes from a verse in Acts

in the second chapter,
the day of Pentecost.

The scripture says,
"There was a loud noise

like a great thunder.

And then cloven tongues,
like as of fire,

descended and sat on them.

And they were filled
with the Holy Spirit."

Mm-hmm.