What really happened?
I have not only suggested that maybe Laura Foster wasn't killed at all, but also that if she was, it was not by any of the "usual uspects" like Tom Dooley, Ann Melton or Pauline Foster. But then if she WAS killed, then WHO do I think killed her? That is what I will look into in this article. As I mostly have disregarded the usual suscpects on grounds of missing opportunity and partly on grounds of missing motive, the ones I suggest must have had both, if not the killing was actually an accident. In this case opportunity alone is sufficient.
I'm quite certain though, that the actual killer was someone, that was not actually suspected at the time, or if he, she or they were, was not looked closer into as the focus soon turned to Tom, Ann and Pauline, leaving anybody else out of the equation. If we suppose that everybody at the time had a knife or at least had access to one, we do not need to examine means. Neither do we have to examine opportunity, as the whereabouts of these people were never investigated at the time. So all we can do is to look at a possible motive. I will take a closer look at three named people that I suspect could have had something to do with the the murder, but first I will look at the "The killer was a stranger" or "The killer is an uknown" theories.
Was Laura Foster killed by a stranger?
Of the 5 million crimes involving violence committed in 2006 47.7 percent was committed by strangers to the victim. If we only count crimes against women, only 35 % were comitted by strangers and including the victims age, women between 20 and 24 years of age were only exposed to violence from strangers in 33 percent of all cases. And I believe that in 1866 even less crimes were committed by strangers, at least in small rural towns like Elkville, as a stranger would very soon be spotted. If we cut it down from violence to just murders, only 14 % of all murders was comitted by a stranger. Of all the murders, committed on women in 2002, 43 % were comitted by family members. 80 % of all females that were killed by a family member was killed by a male offender.
Where am I going with this? Well I only try to point out that there is little reason to believe, that Laura Foster was killed by a complete stranger, someone she never saw before, and that just met her and killed her. But of course she could have been killed by someone that she knew but that was not mentioned at the trial, thereby being a "stranger" to us today. Pauline Foster and others thought it likely, that Laura had ran way from home with someone from her own neighborhood rather that with Tom Dooley, and even Wilson Foster accepted this at first. If this was actually the case, then what happened to this guy? Did an unknown man of Lauras acquaintance kill her? Of course a lot of men could have had the opportunity, as we don't know anything of unknown men's whereabouts on the Friday morning of May 25th, 1866. They would probably also have had the means to do, so what about motive?
Laura was known to be "a girl with round heels", meaning that she had a lot of male companions, that did more than just take her to a dance once in awhile. One of these may have been jealous about her relationship with one or another man and have killed her because of that. Of course he could have killed the other lover in stead, but maybe that would not have helped. An old anecdote illustrates this: "A man is charged with murdering his wife. In court he admits and tells the judge, that he killed her because she was being unfaithful to him. When the judge asks why he did not kill the lover in stead, he just replies: 'Because then I would have had to kill a new lover each day'." I do not say that Laura had a new lover every day, but she did have more than a few lovers, like Tom Dooley.
So just to conclude I think that though it is a remote possiblility, Laura was not killed by a complete stranger, someone she didn't know and had never seen before. She may have been killed b y a man from her own neighborhood, that was never suspected, questioned or even remotely involved with case. If this is the case, we will most likely never get any closer to the actual killer, than we are today.
Was Laura Foster killed by a known man or woman, that was not suspected at the time?
This is definately another possibility. Sharyn McCrumb indicates (The Ballad of Tom Dooley) that Laura was seeing a former slave of the Anderson family, John Anderson and that it was him that she was running away with, not Tom Dooley, but that she lied about it, because she was worried what people would do to Anderson if they knew he was a white girl's lover. McCrumb does not indicate that John Anderson killed her, but supposes that the two of them were deeply in love and running away together. McCrumb rightfully claims, that if Laura and Tom actually intended to marry, they had no reason at all to run away. Both were unmarried and they were both adults that didn't have to get anybodys acceptance. If she was running away with a black man, actually a mulatto, she had every reason to run away as relationship between blacks and whites was definately not popular in the south in 1866.
Karen Wheeling Reynolds (Tom Dooley - The Story behind the ballad) suggests that Laura was afraid that her father might prevent the marriage between her and Tom, and that was why they were planning on running away to Tennessse to get married. They would return to the area again to live as man and wife, but once again, if Laura wanted to marry Tom why not just marry him? If her father minded the marriage it would probably not change much that they ran away and returned married a few days later.
The John Anderson mentioned by Sharyn McCrumb is well known. He was mentioned during trial although he did not testifiy himself. When George Washington Anderson's sister Eliza Anderson was questioned during the final trial in January 1868, Zebulon Vance tried to discredit her, by asking if she "had a relation with John Anderson - a man of color". This question was actually ruled out by judge Shipp, but it was later stated by Supreme Court, that it should have been allowed. McCrumb have found him in the 1870 census for Caldwell County. In 1880 there was only one John Anderson in Caldwell County that was a mulatto. This John Anderson, 37 (23 in 1866) was married and had six children, the oldest being born in 1867, so if this is the same John Anderson and McCrumb is right about his affair with Laura he didn't mourn for long. Another John Anderson, 35 year old mulatto (21 in 1866), lived in Wilkes County in the town of Wilkesboro in 1880. Also he was married and had six children, the oldest being born in 1868 so here is a little more room for mourning.
But is there any reason to believe that this John Anderson killed Laura Foster. No there is not. But he might have, or someone else might have killed Laura if he (or she) discovered that she was having an affair with John. This could be one of Laura's lovers that was not only jealous, but also enraged because she has taken a colored lover. Or it could be another (maybe colored) lover of John Anderson, that was jealous or afraid of him leaving her for a white girl, maybe even his later wife.
Wheeling Reynolds maintains in her novel that one of Laura's lovers was Jack Keaton, the man that doesn't exist! At least not in any available records from the time. Another should be the equally non existent Bob Cummins.
We do not know today if any of them ever existed, but they may have come to Elkville during or just after the war and left again before the 1870 census, leaving no paper traces of their life in Wilkes, Caldwell or Watauga counties. Jack Keaton, if he existed must have been dead by 1880 as no Jack Keaton is found in the surviving 1880 census records anywhere in USA, exept from a 26 year old farmer from Alabama that was only 12 in 1866. Also a John Keeton lived in Alabama in 1880. He was born in 1847, being 19 in 1866, and might have lived in Wilkes in the sixties. He was black though and none of the legends tells that about Jack Keaton. John Keaton, merchant from New Orleans and born in Louisiana was 22 in 1866, but he probably was nowhere near Wilkes in his life.
The photo on the left, shows Laura Foster's grave on a field, that once belonged to J. W. Winkler.
It's not much better if you look for Bob Cummins as there was nobody by that name in either North Carolina or Tennessee in 1880. But there is a Robert Cummins living in Missouri with his brother. This Robert was unmarried in 1880 and was 22 in 1866. The plus thing about him is that both he and his brother was born somewhere in North Carolina and so were their parents. But that is the only one. Rumors has though, that Cummins was a yankee and he could have moved away again. In that case there are a few more to pick from. Like Robert Cummins born in 1845, being 21 in 1866. He was born in New York and in 1880 he was living in California with his 10 year younger wife and three small children. He sounds a little young to have been a schoolteacher during the war though. Better suited for that, when it comes to age is another Robert Cummins living in the Dakota Territory in 1880. He was born in New Hampshire in 1839 and was thus 27 in 1866. He lived with his 18 year younger wife and three yuoung children. His wife was was born in Iowa and he may have met her on his way west.
So there may have been a Bob Cummins as well as a Jack Keaton, but I really don't think so. I think that these two persons are just the creation of legends. But of course that doesn't mean that Laura didn't had other lovers, that were mentioned during trial but not as suspects. There were a lot of young men in the area, that might have been her lovers. From the trial could be mentioned Jesse Gilbert, George Washington Anderson, John Adkins, Ben Ferguson. John W. Winkler on who's land Laura was buried may have been a little old as he was 36 in 1866 (Wheeling makes him Laura's uncle) but even so and even if he was already married and had three children in 1866, he could still be Laura's lover. Especially in this area where marriage vows didn't mean a lot. Celia Scott is one of the witnesses, also referred to as Mrs. James Scott, but her husband is never mentioned in other connections. Her was 33 in 1866 and might be a lover as well. By the way the Scott family left the area some time after the murder and moved north to Ashe County.
But of course others could be suspected aa well like Lotty Foster. She knew that her daughter was n love with Tom even though she was married to someone else. If she found out Tom was seeing Laura Foster on a more permanent basis than his other conquests, she could have put her mind to getting rid of her daughterts competition. But then whgy didn't she come forward when it looked like Ann was going to loose Tom anyway? She may have been to scared of her own life to take that step though. Another possibility is Thomas Foster, Ann's younger brother. We know from the trial that he had had a fight with Tom, but not what the fighted about. It could of course have been Tom seeing Thomas Foster's married older sister, but maybve Thomas Foster had something going on with Laura Foster, and Tom got in the way, making Thomas jealous. If that was the case he would have had no reason to come forward and save Tom, giving up his own life in the process. Both Lotty and Thomas Foster could easily have had the opportunity as nobody questioned there whereabouts on Thursday and Friday. Thomas even testified that after he saw Tom Friday night going in the direction of Bates place, he took a horse and rode to his sisters home, and didn't find Tom there. But maybe he never sae Tom ands visited the Bates place himself before going to the Meltons.
So as you can see a lot of people could be suspected in the case. Two (or rather three, but I'll get back to that later) could be suspected more than others and let me tafe a closer look at them.
Did James Melton kill Laura Foster
My homicide investigator friend, mentioned in What Really Happened II, told me, that when investigating a murder there are some people that are more often suspected than others. The first to be susppected are relatives of the victim and more often among those are spouses. In this case Laura wasn't married, but Ann Melton was. And James may have had good reason to be angry not only with his wife, but with her lovers and their lovers as well. So let me dwell a little on James.
James Melton was born in 1838 and was thus 20 or 21 when he married the 14 or 15 year old Ann Foster in 1859, and he was 27 or 28 at the time of the murder. So when the legends call him an "older man" it is correct in that way that he was older than Ann, but after todays standards, we would not call a 21 year old man, "an older man". At the trial it was mentioned several times, that he worked as a cobbler, making and repairing shoes for his neighbors. In the 1870 census he was registered as a wagon maker and in the 1880 census he was registered as a farmer and carpenter. Apparently James Melton was a man that could use his hands for several different tasks.
If Ann was in love with Tom Dooley, why then did she marry James? According to "Tom Dooley, The story behind the ballad", her mother arranged her marriage to James and talked Ann into it, because James was wealthy and could to some degree help supporting the Foster family, and not least Lotty Foster herself. The only problem here is that Melton was not that wealthy. He did make enough money to pay Jonathan Gilbert to help in the fields from time to time, and he could afford paying Pauline Foster 21 dollars for a summers work, but on the other hand he apparently neither owned a horse nor oxes as he had to use the milking cows for ploughing. In the 1870 census record no value is given for his real estate, som maybe he didn't actually own his own land. His personal estate had a value of less that 20 dollars. Neither he nor Ann knew how to read or write, so he was not an educated man either. So I don't think money was the reason for the marriage.
So maybe Ann did actually love James Melton, at least at the time of the marriage, or she may have married him just go get away from her mother's place and all her younger siblings. We don't know whether Tom and Ann were together before her marriage to James, but normally it is supposed that they were, as Lotty Foster testified that she found them in bed together two years before the war (1859) but after Ann was married. Ann and James married on June 22nd 1859 (two days after Tom Dooley's 15th birthday). As the war broke out in April 1861 it must haved been sometime in the autumn, that Lotty Foster found Ann and Tom together. Ann and Tom may very well have been friends and lovers even before that. Apparently the described event took place in Lotty Fosters home, so maybe Ann hadn't moved in with James at that time. Maybe James did not built his cabin until after the marriage?
On June 12th 1861 James Melton enlisted in army. He was at a later time mustered in the 26th North Carolina Infantry, Company C, probably when the regiment first was organized in August 1861. He fought with this company at among other places New Bern, The Seven Day Battle, Rawl's Mills and Goldboro, until he was wounded in his shoulder and leg during The Battle of Gettysburg on the first day of the battle where he was colorbearer for his company (13 of the regiments colorbearers were killed or wounded that day). The regiment had 80 % casualties at Gettysburg. In the battle the regiment was part of Pettigrew's Brigade in Heth's Division, Hill's Corps. They fought at McPherson's Ridge primarily against The Iron Brigade of the West. James Melton wounds must have been rathger serious as he didn't return to the regiment for more than a year. In the fall of 1864 he returned to his rtegiment and in March 1865 he was wounded in the leg once more at the battle of Hatcher's Run. He was sent to a hospital in Richmond, and when the city fell in April he was taken prisoner and sent to Camp Hammond at Point Lookout, Maryland, the same POW camp where also Tom Dooley was incarcerated at that time. Melton was released on June 26th, whereas Tom had been released two weeks earlier on June 11th. Unfortunately there is no history of the two of them meeting in the POW camp where more than 20.000 men were imprisoned at the end of the war, but they may have met of course.
The 26th Regiment was commanded by Zebulon Vance until late 1861, when he was elected Governor of North Carolina so opposed to the legends, James Melton, not Tom Dooley served under Zebulon Vance. Vance and Melton probably didn't know each other at all or at least not personally, Vance being colonel and commanding officer and James Melton being one of more than 800 privates. Vance was followed by a very young Henry K. Burgwyn, only 20 when he got the promotion to colonel and commanding officer of the 26th. He was a graduate from Virginia Military Institute and recommended by no less than Thomas "Stonewall" Jacksonm his teacher at the academy. Burgwyn was killed at Gettysburg. But I digress.
As Tom didn't join the 42nd North Carolina Regiment until March 1862 he had almost a year with James away, where he could continue his affair with Ann rather undisturbed.
James was apparently not a jealous man. According to several testimonies he "accepted" that Ann and Tom slept together in one bed, while he slept alone (or with Pauline Foster) in another. Pauline Foster testified that James Melton never slept with his wife, but they must have at some time, because in the first half of 1861, before James enlisted, they had a daughter, Jane Martha or Martha Jane (in the 1870 census she was called Jane M. but in 1880 she was registered as Martha Jane). Rumors had that James was not the father, but that Tom Dooley was, and Karen Wheeling Reynolds uses this story in her novel, but nobody actually knows. The child was not mentioned once as present at her parents home in the period when Pauline was staying there, so she could have lived elsewhere, probably with her grandmother who had children enough of her own to take care of. Though in 1870, two years after Ann's acquittal, she, James and the daughter was living together in Elkville, so even if James Melton had been blind and never noticed that Ann was unfaithful to him, he had chosen to stay with her after the trial, where it must have become clear, even to a "blind man" that his wife was having an affair with Tom Dooley and that Dooley had infected her with syphilis. The daughter left home sometime in the 1870'es, maybe when her father married a new wife after Ann Meltons death. In 1878, being seventeen years of age, she had a daughter of her own, so she was probably married and had left home some time before that. In all Martha Jane had 8 children. She lived to old age and died at the age of 83 in 1944. In 1871 Ann and James had another daughter, Ida V. Melton and there is no rumors that she should not have been a legitimate child, so at least at that time James and Ann must have been sleeping together.
Ann died in the beginning of the 1870'es, maybe 1873 or 1874. In 1876 James had met, married and had a child with Louisa Gilbert. She was a niece of Rufus Dula Hall, the man that Tom had told he would kill the one, that infected him with syphilis. In 1870 Louisa was living with her uncle as a "domestic servant". With her was also a 9 year old daugther, Ellen, who we may suppose had been born out of wedlock as her last name was Gilbert like her mother's. In 1880 Louisa had married James Melton and they had moved to Buffalo Creek in Caldwell County. They lived with two children, Margareth and James, Louisa's mother and sister and Ida, James' second daughter from his first marriage. Louisa's daughter, was still living with her mother's uncle and now she was the domestic servant. In his book "The Ballad of Tom Dooley" John Foster West quotes Wade Gilbert who was the grandchild of Louisa Gilbert and he must have been a son of her daughter Ellen, from before she married James Melton.
This was a lot of background material about James Melton, but did he kill Laura Foster? I have already stated, that I believe that all men at the time had access to a knife, so he had the means. He also had the opportunity. Pauline Foster testified that James Melton had gone to the field on the Friday morning before she did, so he may have had time to go to Bate's place and killed Laura Foster, then returned to his field before Pauline was getting there. And if Pauline covered for him, he may not have been back until even later. But what about his motive? Pauline Foster testified, that he was afraid of asking his wife anything and we know that he accepted her affair, or accepted at least that there was nothing he could do about it or maybe he pretended not to know about it ("what you don't see, don't exist). This doesn't mean that he could not be jealous though. He could easily have been extremely jealous, and decided to do something about it. But why kill Laura Foster then? Why not kill Ann or Tom? They were the ones making him a cuckold, not Laura. In one of the tales I have heard, James Melton was one of Laura's suitors as well. If this was the case, he could have been double jealous, when he discovered that Tom Dooley not only had an affair with his wife, but with his mistress as well. Only this just doubles the reason to kill Tom, not Laura. Unless of course James was a very cunning man. If so he could have speculated in killing Laura, thereby getting rid of her, and putting the blame on Tom and Ann, also getting rid of them. In this case he may have worked together with Pauline Foster or offered her something to get her to cooperate. When Ann was not convicted she moved back home and maybe he was still mad at her and decided to do something about it. Rumor has that Ann was killed by being crushed under a wagon that turned over. James was a wagonmaker. Had he rigged the waggon?
Actually I don't think James killed Laura Foster or anyone else, but at least he a better opportunity that the three other suspects, Ann, Pauline and Tom - and he may also have had a motive.
Did Wilson Foster kill his daughter
Wilson Foster was as far as we know never suspected at the time, but we know that he tried to become the key witness for the State, but was beaten to it by Pauline Foster. Why do I suspect Laura's own father? Well back to the above mentioned statistics. 43 % of all females murderes in 2002 weas killed by a family member. Most by their spouses and a few by their fathers, mothers or children. Also my policeman friend told me to look at family.
Laura had no mother as she was dead some years before Laura herself was killed. Martha Bowman and Wilson Foster was married in 1842 and Laura was born in 1843. The youngest child was from 1858 so Martha must have passed away sometime between then and 1866.
Laura lived with her father and seven siblings. Her siblings was in the age from 8 to 21 when she was killed. Laura was the eldest and her brother James (Thomas) was two years younger than her. I suppose it was this brother that was mentioned during trial but I'm not sure as she had two brothers by the name of James. James (Elwood) was 16 at the time of Laura's killing. James Thomas was married in 1867 (after the killing but before Tom was tried and hanged) to Jane Callie Adkins, probably a relative of the other Adkins like John (Jack) Adkins, one of the deputies that arrested Tom Dooley. James and Jane had one son, William or Willie. In 1880 James was married to a Mary C. Foster, and Willie lived with them. So did three younger children and his father Wilson Foster. The family still lived in King's Creek in Caldwell County, so maybe they even lived in Wilson's old cabin.
In her novel "The Ballad of Tom Dooley", Sharyn McCrumb suggests that Laura wanted to get away from her home because she was tired of taking care of the younger children, and she may very well be correct in this. If Laura was born in 1843 she was 23 or at least almost 23 when she was killed and that was late for girls in the area to be married and leave home, so she may have felt that it was her right to leave. And maybe her father didn't agree (like in the novel) and wanted her to stay at home? Or maybe he actually didn't care but just wanted his horse back, as suggested by Pauline Foster during Tom's trial.
Wilson Foster was born in 1815 so he was around 50 when Laura was killed. We don't know much about him. He was a farm laborer, meaning that he problably lived as a tennant farmer on grounds owned by one of the rich plantation owners near King's Creek. Welborne German that had given his name to German's Hill where Wilson lived has been suggested, but also James Isbell has been mentioned. Probably Wilson worked on the plantation as rent for his own farm. And maybe Laura and James worked there as well. It has also been suggested that Laura worked as a seamstress, as she wore a home sewn dress, when she disappeared. But even if Wilson was just a tennant farmer he owned a horse, something quite rare for the poor people in the area.
Anyway, when Laura disappeared she "stole" or "borrowed" her fathers horse. When Wilson discovered that she and the horse had gone, he started tracking her which was quite easy, because of a sharp point on one of the hoofs, due to him trimming the hoofs of the horse without completing it. Wilson followed the horse's tracks to Bates places, where he lost it in a field. From there he went to James and Celia Scott and had breakfast. This must be before Tom got there, as Celia Scott testified that Tom had arrived after breakfast. At that time Wilson had continued to the Meltons. Her arrived around 8 AM, Ann Melton still being in bed. He stayed here about 15 minutes. Once again he left before Tom arrived. At this time he started walking around to several houses asking for Laura and his horse but with no luck. According to his own testimony he spent the night at Francis Melton's place. Francis was the older brother of James Melton and he was neighbor to Ann and James. But before that Wilson joined the "party" at James and Ann's home, where Ann's younger brother Thomas, according to Pauline's testimony burned his whiskers.
Francis Melton lived with his wife and three children (off which one was newborn) in a cabin between James and Ann and the Bates Place. For some reason Francis Melton was never called to give testimony at the trial even if Wilson Foster visited him on the day his daughter disappeared and James Isbell testified that the search party for some unknown reason planned dragged a mudhole on his property. This was problably to find the murderweapon, but why they thought it should have been dumped here and not in the river is not clear to me - or the killer might just have cleaned it and kept it. The forensic science at time would not have disclosed traces of blood on a clean knife as we can today.
Now let me take a closer look into why I think Wilson Foster could be the murderer. First of all he had motive. Laura had ran away, stealing a horse that was very valuable to him, a horse that he wanted back. Pauline Foster claimed at trial that he didn't care about Laura but only wanted the horse but Wilson denied having said this. He also denied having said that he would kill Laura if he found her. He's not accused of that in any of the surviving testimonies, so this accusation must have been put forward in one of the testimonies, that has been lost. Anyway, I don't think Wilson Foster went out that morning to kill his daughter, but at least he had a motive to do it, and of all the people in question he had the best opportunity and he acted rather suspicious.
He admitted having been at Bates place though nobody saw him there. When he didn't find Laura there, he didn't go to the nearest neighbor first as that would have been Francis Melton, the Andersons, The Griffins or Lotty Foster and even Ann Melton lived closer to Bates place than James Scott. So why not visit one of them to ask for his daughter? In stead he went to the Scotts and had breakfast there, moved on to Ann and James' place and stayed there for 15 minutes before he began looking for Laura for real. And why didn't he ask someone to help him look? He only did that days later and I would expect that he at least would have included his older children in the search but he did not. When the talk of Laura being murdered in stead of just running away started to grow in the neighborhood he suddenly decided to contact the authorities, in this case Justice of Peace Pickins Carter. Here he accused Tom Dula, Ann Pauline Foster, Ann Pauline Dula and Granville Dula for being involved in the disappearance. This didn't happen until late June, more than a month after Laura disappeared. At that time his horse had been home for a month and it was a couple of days since the rope was found.
Maybe Wilson Foster didn't loose the track but actually found Laura that morning and they had an argument about her taking the horse and running away. I don't think Wilson Foster killed his daughter on purpose, but maybe he took his knife out to cut loose the horse in order to bring it home. Maybe he and Laura got into a fight, and he accidently stabbed her in the chest. I don't think that one single stab wound suggest premeditation, rather an accident. The same goes for the grave. It was too short and not very deep. This suggests to me, that the grave was dug in a hurry, not prepared days ahead. So maybe Wilson hid the body in the vicinity of the place where he killed her and moved the horse to the place, where the rope was later found. He then walked around asking for Laura but without really looking. We know he spend about three hours of the evening at the Melton place before he left, but we do not know when he got to Francis Melton, so maybe he had time to go to the Bates place and move the body to the place where the grave was found? Maybe he didn't bury her that night. As nobody has been interested in his whereabouts in the days to come he could have buried her any time after the murder. And maybe he himself turned the horse loose, knowing it would return to his own home if left to it's own.
This could also explain why he was so willing to accept that Laura had ran away with someone. Even when Pauline suggested it was a black man he didn't get angry, but just accepted the possibility, where it would have been normal for a father in those days to get very angry and reject the possibility of his (white) daughter running away with a black man. When the heat got to much he decided to go to the authorities, casting suspicion on someone else, and who was better suited than Tom Dooley, who Laura had had an affair with and Ann Melton who had had an affair with the same man. Why he accused Tom's relatives as well is hard to say, unless I'm right in my suspicion that Ann Pauline Dula and Ann Pauline Foster was one and the same and Granville Dula her brother.
This was my first explanation for the killing of Laura Foster and it definately still is a possibility that I think highly likely. It doesn't explain though the things that Ann are said to have said at her death bed (if she said them at all). So I continued my investigations and came up with one more possible suspect, and maybe the most surprising suspect at all. This suspect may be so controversial that he deserves an article of his own.