In February 1893, Atlanta endured a week of financial scandal, suicide and shocking violence that newspapers would later remember as Black Week. The darkest chapter unfolded inside the home of one of the city’s most respected families, where two sisters were murdered and a third calmly confessed. Through contemporary accounts and Julia Force’s own writings, this episode explores one of Georgia’s most haunting nineteenth-century murder cases and the mystery that still surrounds it.
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Episode Sources
- Langley, Lee. Inside Scenes of Atlanta’s Black Week: A Series of Social Sensations and a Carnival of Crimes. Atlanta: Franklin Printing and Publishing Company, 1893.
- “A Carnival of Crime.” The True Citizen (Waynesboro, Georgia), March 4, 1893.
- “The Trial of Julia Force.” The True Citizen (Waynesboro, Georgia), July 1, 1893.
- “Miss Julia Force Indicted.” The Weekly Banner (Athens, Georgia), March 14, 1893.
- “Julia Force Declared Insane.” The Hartwell Sun (Hartwell, Georgia), July 7, 1893.
- “Julia Force Sent to the State Sanitarium.” The Union Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia), July 11, 1893.
- “Thomas Cobb Jackson’s Suicide.” The Montgomery Monitor (Mount Vernon, Georgia), March 2, 1893.
- “Force, Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Boots and Shoes.” The Daily Intelligencer (Atlanta, Georgia), Dec. 22, 1865.
- “Bankruptcy Notice of Benjamin W. Force.” The Daily Opinion (Atlanta, Georgia), Oct. 24, 1867.
- The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia), coverage of the Lewis Redwine scandal and Atlanta’s Black Week, 1893-1894.
- The Atlanta Journal (Atlanta, Georgia), coverage of the Force murders and trial, 1893.
- Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu
- New Georgia Encyclopedia. “Fulton County.” https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
- New Georgia Encyclopedia. “Henry W. Grady.” https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
- Your Peachy Past. https://peachypast.blogspot.com
- Find a Grave. “Julia H. Force.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/144555327/julia-h-force
- Friends of Memory Hill Cemetery. https://friendsofcems.org
Episode Music
Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.