How did the Hatfield McCoy feud start, and what were the results?

                          

 In the late 1800s, a massive feud between two families, the Hatfields and the McCoys, made national news as the families literally battled, killed, and kidnapped each other.

    The Hatfields were headed by William Anderson (“Devil Anse”) Hatfield, while the McCoys were led by Randolph (“Rand’l”) McCoy, of which, both had 13 children. The families lived on opposite sides of a West Virginia-Kentucky border stream, the Tug Fork—the McCoys in Pike County Kentucky, and the Hatfields in Mingo county, West Virginia. Their differences started during the Civil War, when the McCoys were Unionists and the Hatfields were Confederates, but thats not what started the feud. There is still debate over what exactly started it, but it was either a land dispute, or Rand’l McCoy’s believing that a Hatfield stole one of his hogs in 1878. The actual feud did not occur until 1882, when Ellison Hatfield was mortally shot in a brawl with McCoys.

    The Hatfields, in revenge, kidnapped and executed three McCoy brothers—Tolbert, Phamer, and Randolph, Jr. After this happened, both families were arrested in their home county, but were released because of their local influence. In 1888, on New Year’s Day a group of Hatfields led by Jim Vance attacked the home of patriarch Rand’l McCoy, killing a son and a daughter and burning the families houses. So, of course, the McCoys had to retaliate. A band of McCoys and neighbors, headed by a Pike County Deputy Sheriff, made multiple raids across the border into West Virginia, killing at least four of the Hatfields, battling with a West Virginia posse, and eventually arresting nine of the Hatfield clan for indictment and trial in Kentucky.

    Because of the across border raids, West Virginia filed suit in federal court, charging kidnapping and lawlessness; Kentucky, of course, defended the abductions. In May 1888, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Plyant Mahon v. Abner Justice, jailer of Pike County, Ky.) that Kentucky had the legal right to detain the accused for trial. So, later in the year, the trials of the Hatfields took place. The ruling resulted in one sentence of death by hanging and eight sentences of imprisonment. Feuding gradually abated and had ended by the second decade of the 20th century.

    When the feud began to make national news in 1887, the Hatfields were often portrayed as violent backwoods hillbillies roaming the mountains stirring up violence, while the McCoys were portrayed as the victims. The people of the area were seen as uneducated, uncivilized and unsophisticated.

    The feud was the primary inspiration for the popular game show “Family Feud,” which premiered in 1976. In 1979 members of both families appeared on the show during a special Hatfields and McCoys theme week. Included in the prize package was a pig, symbolizing the origins of the feud. The Hatfields won the contest

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hatfields-and-McCoys

www.hatfieldshideout.com/hatfield-mccoy-feud-history.htm