The Murder of Fannie McCue
A Hauntingly Good Dramatic Presentation — Charlottesville, 1904
Something terrible happened inside that house. We know that much for certain. Almost everything else has been argued over for more than a hundred and twenty years.
On September 4th, 1904, J. Samuel McCue — three-term Mayor of Charlottesville, respected lawyer, husband, father of four — came home to a quiet house. By the next morning, his wife Fannie was dead in the bathtub in the family home, bludgeoned, strangled, and shot, and the water was still running over her body. By November, Sam McCue stood trial. His own sixteen-year-old son took the stand and described years of terror in that house. The jury didn't deliberate long. Sam was hanged in 1905.
He should have been just another closed case in an old newspaper. He isn't. Because the night before he died, Sam McCue asked his jailer for paper and pen, and wrote a confession that almost no one who has read it in the century since has been able to fully explain — a sentence carefully worded not to admit his own guilt outright, but to clear someone else's name instead. Someone who, without that confession, might have been suspected too.
This live dramatic presentation puts you inside that house, that trial, and that final unanswered sentence — told the way the best true stories should be: slowly, honestly, and without pretending to know more than the record actually supports.
Details
DATE COST LOCATION TIME REFRESHMENTS
Coming Soon!
$30 per adult
$15 Youth Under 18
Charlottesville, VA
8:00-9:30 pm
Soft Drinks
Light Refreshments
Spiced Cider
Why This One Stays With People
Most ghost stories ask you to be afraid. This one asks you to be certain — and then quietly takes that certainty away from you, the same way it was taken from an entire town in 1904 and has never fully been given back.
You'll meet a man the public admired and a household that, according to the people who lived in it, was nothing like what the public saw. You'll hear the actual testimony that convicted him — and then sit with the confession that, depending on how you read it, either confirms his guilt or quietly reopens the whole case. You'll learn what became of the house afterward: seventy-six years as a home for the elderly, residents living out their final years never knowing what the basement below them once held — and what visitors to that basement have reported feeling ever since, long after the tub itself was finally removed.
This is where our brand's guiding line means the most: history doesn't haunt places. Unfinished history does. Few Charlottesville stories are as unfinished as this one. A guilty verdict was delivered. A man was hanged for it. And still, the question was never actually closed — not by the confession, not by the century of research since, and maybe not by you, either, once you've heard the whole thing.
What You'll Carry Away
This isn't a story we hand you neatly resolved, and that's the point. You'll leave with something more valuable than a tidy ending: real practice sitting with doubt instead of rushing past it. A sharper eye for the difference between what a jury decides and what actually happened. And a genuine, unsettled question you'll find yourself turning over on the drive home — which is exactly what a case like this deserves, a hundred and twenty years later.
Reserve Your Seat
A woman died violently in that house. A man was hanged for it, cleared by his own son's testimony on the stand and, in the end, not quite cleared by his own last words either. Something was left unsettled — and by most accounts, something stayed.
Who, or what that is, is yours to decide. Come hear the whole story and judge for yourself.
The Murder of Fannie McCue is a Relics of the Past dramatic presentation. Reserve your seat here!
Is this a haunted house, with jump scares?
No. This is an atmospheric, narrative-driven presentation — lantern light and true stories, not actors leaping out of the dark. The intensity is emotional, not startling.
Is it appropriate for children?
Given the emotionally intense subject matter — including execution and persecution — this presentation is best suited for older children (8-12), teens and adults. If you're considering it for a younger guest, please reach out first so we can help you decide.
How historical is it, really?
We fact-check every story we tell and are always honest about what is documented versus legend. History is subjective at times. Although we strive to be as accurate as possible... some things are viewed through different lenses. This is history first — the atmosphere serves the truth, not the other way around.
What if the weather turns?
The presentation is held in the Barn at the Inn at Willowgrove. If you have specific weather concerns ahead of the date, contact us directly and we'll let you know what to expect.
