Alabama Snake

Some people call me a folklorist,

sometimes a filmmaker.

Some people call me a closet anthropologist.

I'm a retired professor,

but still a student of southern Appalachia, really.

The archives started back in the late '60s.

A colleague and I studied folklore

and talked folklore,

and we wanted to preserve it.

So that's how the Archives of Appalachia

was established.

I find that in collecting their life stories,

traditions, and beliefs,

it's, uh, really one way of understanding

our own history.

This is oral history and folklore.

Appalachian folklore.

With people that I've researched and recorded,

it gives them a little bit of immortality.

-(CRICKETS CHIRPING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

In one case, we made a documentary

about mountain people

and the tradition of handling serpents.

Now, we have, uh, three rattlesnakes,

our guests tonight.

I know that according to what the scripture said

in Saint Mark 16,

was that they shall take up serpents.

Not many places left where you can obey God

in the fullest and then without fear of reprisal.

While we were filming the service,

one of those church members was bitten.

What happened in that church had a profound effect on me.

In the name of Jesus!

Lord, in Jesus's name...

-The law is final. -(WOMAN CHEERS)

Yes, God.

That night was my initiation

into serpent handling.

And of course, I didn't know that it would lead

to over 40 years of studying Pentecostal serpent handlers.

But out of all of my experiences,

there is one that stands out from all the rest.

This story is a story of the Serpent and the Spirit.

My name is David Kennamer,

born and raised here in Scottsboro.

I'm a paramedic.

And, uh, this is my partner, Bobby, who is an EMT.

He was my driver that night.

Well, working on the ambulance, you eat when you can.

We was here at the Piggly Wiggly when they gave us the call

and that's when we said,

"Well, we're not gonna get to eat anytime soon."

-(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER) -(ENGINE STARTS)

We got the call, uh, to head out to Barbee Lane

to a snake bite victim.

At the time, we didn't know any more about it

than a possible snake bite.

We have gotten calls like this before,

but when you get there, there's nothing to it.

And as we got closer, uh,

they told us to, uh, go in Code One,

which is with the lights and sirens off.

They didn't know exactly why, but if the patient

or whoever's calling you tell you this,

you need to listen to them. There's a reason for this.

And it was dark. There's no streetlights.

Nope.

So the only lights we had were what was on us.

I don't like snakes.

You don't come to me with a snake.

That'd be like pointing a gun at me.

This lady was walking towards us.

It's a critical situation.

It was black. The skin was starting to die.

That's when I got real concerned

because that gets in your blood stream,

it can go to your heart.

We've gotta get this girl over there in a hurry.

There were lots of strange things,

lots of strange things.

You never know what's coming in.

This snake bite was different.

Uh, we didn't see a lot of snake bites

to the magnitude of, uh...

the one that occurred that night.

With us, we don't carry any antivenom.

And now, this is for the doctors to decide if they need it,

what kind they need.

We treated her, but you know,

small county hospital,

uh, we didn't have antivenom.

Then we load her back up and I tell Bobby,

"Get me to Birmingham."

I can only get a limited amount of information

in the back of the ambulance.

She described a very gruesome story

of her husband trying to kill her.

Back then, I was working as a patrolman.

Been a police officer for...

in March, it'll be 30 years.

I was here two years,

when this all happened.

All I thought about was the pain

and what was going through her head mentally,

you know, whether she's gonna live or die

and make it to the hospital or not.

And the idea that somebody...

close to her...

made her get bit.

Allegedly.

Drop the gun!

Drop it!

Our officers practice on different scenarios

with making contact with bad people.

I've been in meth homes before

that they actually had pet rattlesnakes in the house.

I've heard this story since I was a kid.

My dad was an investigator at the sheriff's office

when, uh, Chief Dawe--

when this-- when this whole case went down.

It's not a story you hear every day,

anywhere else in the world.

Religion, relationships, and murder.

-Booze. -And booze.

Tie all four of those together, and you've got a story,

there's no question there.

Scottsboro police say this five-foot-long

poisonous rattlesnake was used as a weapon.

This snake and 15 others are owned by Glenn Summerford.

But earlier this week, police say,

Summerford used the snakes

to assault his wife, Darlene Summerford.

Well, I was the lead investigator.

But as to whether that qualifies me or not,

I don't know.

I was just a police officer doing a job.

Well I received a report one morning about a...

woman being bit by a rattlesnake.

We went out to her husband's house.

He gave us permission to search his property.

He carried us out there to where they kept the snakes.

He had them in a locked shed or something.

And he unlocked it, and we went in,

and in these cages...

...is where the snakes were.

That was the weapon that was used in the crime.

And this is collected as evidence.

The snake became the evidence.

Bring this new box out here.

All right. Let me get this top down.

(LAUGHING) Yeah, please, get the top down.

-(MAN 3 LAUGHS) -(SNAKE RATTLING)

Holy smoke.

The biggest one, a big diamondback.

Big snake.

They put this noose around him

and took him out and yeah, he--

he put up a fight.

-(MAN 3 SHOUTS) -SNAKE HISSES

Get that sucker.

Holy-- Should get that on him, yeah.

Oh, mercy!

We confiscated all of them.

Think that's going pretty good.

Because all of them were potential weapons

that could be used.

It's the first time I've ever

had anything like that happen.

And nothing else since.

We got all the snakes,