Meet the author Taj Magruder | FOX43 Book Club

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Author Taj Magruder lived in the Philadelphia area for most of his life, but it was a murder committed 100 miles and 90 years away that caught his attention and became the subject of his first novel.

May’s FOX43 Book Club pick combines research and imagination to bring to life the story of Susan Mummey, known as the Witch of Ringtown Valley.

“I always loved writing, I always loved reading,” Magruder said. “And I think the dream of becoming an author was always kind of in the back of my head, but there wasn’t, you know, a big story. It was really like, ‘oh yeah, I really want to write that ‘, until I discovered this story.

Magruder says it’s the most famous murder you’ve never heard of. Mummey was shot to death in her home in 1934. Neighbors claimed she was a witch, but Magruder tells the story of a woman with a tragic past in her book “In the Day of Trouble.”

He first learned of Mummey’s story during a trip to his local CVS. Nestled on a nearby rack, “Witches of Pennsylvania” by Thomas White caught his eye.

“In the book, he talked about the powwow, the Pennsylvania Dutch form of folk magic, and these various murders that actually happened in Pennsylvania,” Magruder explained. “And one of them was the murder of Susan Mummey in 1934. And it was a case that immediately caught my attention and that I wanted to learn more about and possibly write about.

Magruder’s interest in genealogy and ancestry dovetails well with the research necessary to write the novel. He had been piecing together his own family history for about a decade before taking up the torch of Mummey’s story.

Little did Magruder know that his research for the book would lead to an addition to his own family tree. While tracing the characters’ heritage, the author discovered that he was distantly related to one of the main actors in the book. Her third cousin’s husband, who was also Magruder’s third grade teacher, is the great-great-great-grandson of Selina’s grandmother, the murderer’s girlfriend.

“And it was a connection that I didn’t know about until I really started digging into this character’s past and ancestry, and it felt like a kind of ‘huh’ moment, like it was unusual ” Magruder said.

This is just one of the strange coincidences he experienced while writing the novel.

“There were some weird moments in the writing – not in a bad way – there were times where I thought, ‘huh, I think I was really almost destined to write this book’,” he remembers.

Magruder made a second interesting discovery while delving into the family histories of the people who would become his main characters. He discovered that his grandfather shared the same name with the son of the prosecutor who prosecuted the case: Robert Rhodes (Enterline). He also discovered that the lawyer’s wife was from the same area as Magruder’s father’s family: Carroll County, Maryland.

“So there were a lot of coincidences that happened, maybe it was meant to happen,” Magruder said.

He also said that sometimes he felt like his characters were speaking through him.

“Not to get too creepy – the book has some elements of the supernatural and mystery – but I felt at times, you know, like I was channeling these characters and their dialogue and thoughts flowed very easily – and almost strangely –. about me,” Magruder said.

And that’s just as well, because one of his main goals in writing this book was to give voice to long-dead characters instead of just being data points in a historical document.

“To me, it was such a fascinating story that I feel like it’s been largely forgotten,” Magruder said. “Obviously there are a number of people in the Schuylkill County area who remember this story, but for many of them even they don’t really remember the woman in this story, Susan Mummey , as a witch. And for me, I wanted to make sure that people remembered Susan Mummey as more than just a witch or a victim of a crime, and that they actually remembered her as. of a person, of a human being, who led a truly fascinating and eventful life for a while as a woman of her time so I felt like if this wasn’t written now, it would end. be lost in history.

Indeed, most of the characters involved in the story and even some of their children have died. During his research, Magruder was able to contact the last living person involved in the case: the murderer’s last lawyer, Jeffrey Matzkin, whom he hired in the 1970s. Matzkin’s granddaughter told Magruder that she asked her grandfather what the strangest case he had ever worked on was, and he named the Mummey murder.

“It was a little surreal to speak with someone who knew a central character in this book,” Magruder mused.

Chatting with these people helped Magruder form personalities for the main players in the tale.

“As it is a true story, it has a significant element of true crime,” he said. “The story was essentially already written, and I just had to put it all together and add some humanity to it.”

The author’s main goal was to write the story in a way that emphasized the human nature of each person involved in the crime.

“I think one of the downsides of (genealogy) can sometimes be that it just becomes sort of a dry collection of names and dates, names and dates, and so with this book I really wanted to ensuring that doesn’t happen. That happens with writing,” Magruder said. “And so I really wanted to tell the human side of this story, to bring these real characters to life, so that they weren’t just names and dates on a page. So I just wanted to know their thoughts and their feelings and that who motivated them to do what they did.

To this end, the writer used his research as the basis for each character, then weaved his own imagination to complement their personalities.

“I used that information, the different newspaper articles about their lives, to figure out, ‘Okay, this gives a little more information about who this person was,'” he said.

Magruder also drew inspiration from people he knows in real life to flesh out his characters, such as modeling an elderly woman in the book after his own grandmother.

“I think with the information I had, I was able to inspire myself to think, ‘Okay, what could have been the motivation behind this?’ How would I feel right now if it were me and I found myself in this situation,” Magruder said.

He points out that “In the Day of Trouble” still tells the true, factual story of an event in Pennsylvania history, with just a little added personality.

“Again, finding ways to not change history, but to humanize it. And add that humanizing element to the story,” Magruder said.

In total, the author claims it took him about a year to gather all the facts and figures surrounding Mummey’s death. After that, it took him about three months to compile everything into a story.

“It took me a while to research everything, but once I started writing, it all flowed,” Magruder said.

He worked around a full-time job to pursue his dream of writing, often typing while sitting on the train during his commute.

“It was definitely a night and weekend job,” the author laughed.

He has no plans to repeat this feat any time soon. Magruder says he has “seeds” of ideas for future books, but for now he’s focusing on “In the Day of Trouble.”

Those interested in following the author can follow Magruder on his website, where he also offers more information about the murder of Susan Mummey and the difference between fact and fiction in “In the Day of Trouble.” Magruder talks more about his book, his writing process, and his life in the full interview below:

Those interested can watch FOX43 digital content producer Kayleigh Johnson and meteorologist Bradon Long discuss “In the Day of Trouble” on Facebook Live, hosted on the FOX43 Book Club group, at 10 a.m. May 28.

Next month the book club will read “Ask the Passengers” by AS King.

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