Devil Anse Hatfield Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Devil Anse Hatfield
OCCUPATION: Murderer
BIRTH DATE: September 09, 1839
DEATH DATE: January 06, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH: Logan County, West Virginia
PLACE OF DEATH: Logan County, West Virginia
Full Name: William Anderson Hatfield
Nickname: Devil Anse

Best Known For

Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield led his family in their notorious and bloody feud with the McCoys during the late 1800s along the Kentucky-West Virginia border.

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Anderson Hatfield

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His cousin, Ellison Mounts, was executed in 1890 for the murder of Alifair McCoy, Randall's daughter.

Devil Anse, however, was never tried for his role in the murder of the McCoy brothers or for his possible involvement in the New Year's Day attack. Shortly after that fateful day in 1888, Hatfield bought some land in a more remote location known as Island Creek, and there he took special measures to avoid capture.

Final Years

Hatfield went through a transformation in the later years of his life. He had once said, "I belong to no Church unless you say that I belong to the one great Church of the world. If you like, you can say it is the devil's Church that I belong to." But he changed his tune, choosing to be baptized in 1911. Hatfield lived peacefully on his farm in Island Creek, where he raised hogs. He remained a crack shot until the end, and he reportedly carried a rifle with him wherever he went.

On January 6, 1921, Hatfield died of pneumonia at his Island Creek home. His family had a life-sized marble statue of him made to honor their fallen leader. That statue still stands today, marking the grave of one of America's most famous feudists. The story of the Hatfield-McCoy feud also lives on as the subject of countless books, documentaries and movies. In 2012, the feud was featured in the television miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, with Kevin Costner playing Devil Anse and Bill Paxton as Randall McCoy.