In 1888, as news of the attacks by the Hatfields on the home of Ran'l McCoy on New Year's Eve spread, John Spears, a New York City newspaperman, came to the Tug Valley to report on the violent incidents. He found himself in the home of Ran'l McCoy, and the version of events told to him came by way of Perry Cline, Pike County prosecutor Lee Ferguson, and Ran'l McCoy himself. The writings of John Spears, for better or worse, became the basis of all Hatfield McCoy feud writing to follow. If you want to understand how the feud story came to be, this is the place to start. This version has been carefully annotated to show how it supports and deviates from the factual record.