In 1902, six members of a farming family were discovered murdered in and near their home in southwest Louisiana.

The Earl family had moved to the area a decade earlier,

leaving behind neighbors in Iowa who had felt wronged by their patriarch, Limule Earl.

When they arrived in Louisiana, the earls took up farming again,

but remained isolated from their community, which is why it took almost two weeks for their bodies to be discovered.

And that gruesome discovery sent the entire community into panic mode,

wondering who could carry out a crime as horrific

as these murders.

The community and local authorities zeroed in

on a suspect, an itinerant farmhand who seemed to have no motive for the murders,

but he would pay the ultimate price for the crime.

Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring history and mysteries of the American South. I'm your host, Shannon Ballard, and this is the mystery of the Earl Family Murders in Welsh Louisiana.

Lemiele and Mary Earl were Native New Yorkers.

The couple had met and married in 1872 and moved to Iowa, where Lemiele worked as a merchant and farmer. Five of their six children would be born in Iowa.

Fred, Ward, Maude, Fay, and John, their youngest son, Lemuel Jr., was born in Louisiana,

after the earls relocated to the southwest part of the state in 1890.

The earl's move was one of necessity.

Drought had plagued Midwestern farmers that year and taken a toll on the Earl's rice farm.

And there were rumors that Lemuel Earl had to leave Iowa because of the trouble he stirred up with neighbors.

After a while, the Earls gave up their farm and moved to Welsh Louisiana for a fresh start.

Welsh had originally been established in the 1880s

as a homestead owned by Henry Welsh,

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