In July 1935, Viola was brutally raped and murdered by a drifter named Tom Cullin, who had worked briefly at the nearby copper refinery. Cullin proceeded to stay in Viola’s house and savage her corpse for an additional seventeen days before he was caught and captured. A posse of enraged locals stormed the county jail, took Cullin, and lynched him from the old bridge over the Toccoa River.

This photo was taken by Garrett Killian, a witness to the lynching, and caused quite a stir when it was published a few days later in The Atlanta Constitution. To most, it suggested that Viola’s spirit achieved some measure of peace by attending her killer’s execution, but some twisted minds saw in her forlorn countenance a longing to get one last look at her one and only lover.