Corpsewood Manor

Author: Jewls Krueger

Corpsewood Manor was a brick castle that Dr. Charles Scudder and his partner Joseph "Joey" Odom built by hand in the mountains of northwest Georgia in the mid-1970s. The couple filled it with occult imagery and hosted parties known for open drug use, which fed rumors among their rural neighbors that the two men were wealthy devil worshippers. On December 12, 1982, two locals arrived believing the house held a hidden fortune. Within about two hours, both Scudder and Odom were dead, and the case became one of the most sensational crimes in Georgia history.

The reality was far less lurid than the headlines that followed. Scudder and Odom had spent nearly everything they had building their home and were living on a small monthly income. The killings were a robbery that went wrong, though the trial and the press coverage were shaped by the Satanic Panic then sweeping the country.

Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom

Charles Lee Scudder was born in 1926 and worked for years as a pharmacologist and university researcher in Chicago, where his studies included government-funded work with psychoactive drugs such as LSD. In the mid-1970s he left academia, and he and Odom moved south to build a secluded life away from the city. They bought wooded land near Summerville, in Chattooga County, and constructed a three-story brick house largely by hand, naming it Corpsewood.

Scudder was a member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. Despite the name, LaVeyan Satanism is an atheistic philosophy that celebrates earthly pleasure rather than worshipping a literal devil, and Scudder decorated the house to match, adding a stained-glass Baphomet and other occult touches. He and Odom were openly gay at a time when that drew scrutiny in rural Georgia, but by most accounts the couple were hospitable and well regarded by the people who actually knew them. They shared the home with their two dogs.

Kenneth Avery Brock and Samuel Tony West

Kenneth Avery Brock was a 17-year-old hunter from nearby Walker County who had already lived a hard life. He first came onto the Corpsewood property while hunting, and Scudder gave him permission to use the land. Over several visits, Brock befriended the two men and spent time in the house.

Brock later moved into the trailer of Samuel Tony West, a 30-year-old with a long record of violence and time in institutions. Brock told West about the couple on the ridge, describing them as rich devil worshippers who were hiding a fortune. In the weeks that followed, the two planned to rob them.

The Murders

On the night of December 12, 1982, Brock and West drove toward Corpsewood, bringing along two teenagers, Joey Wells and Teresa Hudgins, who later testified they did not know what was planned. On the way, the group picked up a .22 rifle, which Brock told his mother they would use for hunting.

At the house, Scudder welcomed the visitors, and they drank his homemade wine. At some point, Brock went to the car, returned with the rifle, and shot and killed Odom and the two dogs. The men then bound Scudder and demanded to know where his money was hidden. When it became clear there was no fortune, Scudder was shot in the head and killed. Court records from a later trial state that West fired the shots that killed him. The pair took what little they could find, including jewelry and small valuables, and fled in Scudder's Jeep.

The Manhunt and Arrests

Brock and West drove west. At a rest stop in Mississippi, they killed a Navy lieutenant named Kirby Phelps and took his car, wanting a less recognizable vehicle. Meanwhile, the two teenagers who had come along told police what they had seen, and a neighbor who noticed bullet holes at Corpsewood alerted the sheriff. A nationwide search followed.

The manhunt ended around Christmas. Brock returned to Georgia and turned himself in on December 20, 1982, and West surrendered days later in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Wells and Hudgins cooperated with investigators and were not charged.

The Trials

Brock pleaded guilty in the Georgia case and was sentenced to multiple life terms. West went to trial and was sentenced to death. He was also prosecuted in Mississippi for the killing of Kirby Phelps, a capital case that likewise ended in a death sentence. West's death sentence was later overturned on appeal, and he was ultimately resentenced to life in prison.

Throughout the proceedings, prosecutors and the press leaned into the occult angle, portraying Scudder as a dangerous devil worshipper during the height of the Satanic Panic. Former assistant district attorney Amy Petulla, who worked in the area at the time, later wrote a detailed account of the case in her book "The Corpsewood Manor Murders in North Georgia."

Recent Developments

Kenneth Avery Brock has remained incarcerated in the Georgia prison system and has been denied parole multiple times over the decades. Reports on West's current status differ, with some accounts stating he has since died and others listing him as still incarcerated. Both men spent the remainder of their lives behind bars.

Corpsewood Manor Today

Very little of Corpsewood Manor is left. The main house is gone, reduced over the years to scattered brick and a few small structures, with some accounts attributing its final destruction to a fire in the 1980s. The site sits on Taylor's Ridge in the wooded hills near Summerville, in northwest Georgia, and the surrounding forest has largely reclaimed the ruins.

The remains have become a well-known stop for people interested in the case, and access has generally been tolerated, but this is rugged, remote land with no facilities of any kind. If you visit, go in daylight, wear sturdy footwear, take out everything you bring in, and do not deface or remove anything. Two men were killed here, and the place deserves to be treated with respect.