Tom Dooley

Originally Aired: March 30, 1953

In Suspense #506, "Tom Dooley," Confederate veteran Tom Dooley returns home to the North Carolina Smokies after four years of war, only to discover that Laura Foster, the woman he loves and fought to return to, has fallen for someone else. That someone is Paul Cabot, a Yankee doctor who has come to the defeated South. In a rage, Tom assaults Cabot and confronts Laura, reminding her of the tearful goodbye they shared when he rode off to war and the blood he shed believing he had her love waiting for him. Laura insists her feelings have changed and that she now loves the gentle Northern doctor.

Despite his fury, Tom appears to accept the situation and even offers friendship to Cabot, volunteering to play his fiddle at Laura and Paul's betrothal party. But as Tom plays for the celebrating couple, dark currents run beneath his calm exterior. His cousin Noah and the other mountain men watch with suspicion, knowing Tom Dooley's nature and wondering what schemes lie hidden in his "black, black heart." When Tom hands off his fiddle and slips away to find Laura alone in the darkness, the true test of his acceptance begins.