This message is a paid partnership with Apple Pay. When you've got a gift list to finish, the last thing you want to do is take out your wallet a million times. Instead, pay the Apple Way. With Apple Pay, you can pay with the phone you're already holding. Just double-click,
smile at face ID, tap, and you're done. The people in line behind you will thank you. Apple Pay is a service provided by Apple Payment Services LLC, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. Any card used in Apple Pay is offered by the card issuer. Support for Criminal comes from Framed. John Grisham teams up with Innocence Advocate Jim McCluskey in their New York Times bestseller, Framed. Ten true stories of innocent people framed
for murder. In Framed, you'll read about the incompetence corruption and racism that contribute to wrongful convictions, and you'll be able to hear real people's stories as they fought for freedom against the odds. Read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCluskey in stores now, also available as an audiobook. Vulture Festival is where the pop culture you love comes to life right before your eyes, a full weekend of panels, performances, and cast reunions with your favorite stars. This
year, we're back in LA with an already iconic lineup. Kristen Wigg, Bill Hader, Pad Malakshmi, Quinta Brunson, and the cast and creators of You're the Worst and the Sex Lives of College Girls, just to name a few. It's all happening November 16th and 17th, and tickets are moving fast. To get yours, visit vulturefestival.com and enter code VoxPodNet 15 for 15% off. That's vulturefestival.com with code VoxPodNet 15 for 15% off.
How long have you lived on this land? I've been on this land all my life. I am 64, I be 65 in August. I've been here all my life. And how long has your family lived on this land? 100, 200 years. We've been here all our life. That's all we know. This is Mamie Reels Ellison. Her mother's family, the Reels family, has owned land on the coast of North Carolina since 1911, when Mamie's great grandfather purchased 65 acres.
What was it like growing in the summer here, being a kid here? Well, for me, being that little girl always wanted to go to Disney World. So the water was just this magical thing to me, because I just always had that imagination about mermaids, but growing up here on this road, you were free. I was a little girl, but I could kick off my blouse and run like the boys, you know? And you could run free. You had the fields to play ball in. You could ride
your bikes. And you could basically ride in the road because it was a dirt road. And I remember as a little girl, there was an ice cream truck that came down. So this was a quiet area. It was so quiet, you could hear the crickets and the frogs that night. But the ice cream truck was coming. You could hear the ice cream truck coming, playing the music and you run out and get your ice cream if you had the money. And growing up
in the summertime, you wanted that beach bowl and that float. And you could go to the water, you could go swimming. And then my mother would go to work and say, don't go to that water. I had enough time to go to that water, go fishing, go swimming and go to that water hose and shy off, get the sand off me before she got home from work. And the only thing that stopped me from doing that was I went fishing one day with her swimming pole and she told
me not to. And I caught her eel. I had never seen a eel. But I thought it was a snake. I let go fishing pole and all. So I paid the consequences when she got home from work. But that was the beauty of growing up here on Silver Dollar Road. You could just run free. Mimi Reels still lives on her family's land, surrounded by dozens of family members living on Silver Dollar Road, the road that runs along the Reels property.
When you come on Silver Dollar Road, you might see 20 homes on Silver Dollar Road. But if you go down a dirt road or a lane, there are probably five or six or more homes back there. Coming up here as a little girl, it was like that place to be because you didn't see a lot of law enforcement. You didn't see a lot of strangers. And you really, the amazing thing is you really knew who was who by the sound of their vehicle. You knew who vehicle
it was. We lived off the land. My grandfather had holes and my uncle's did so a bang. But we lived off the land. So we had enough to keep us busy. I remember my mom doing the pickle, the pickles in the jar, the beaks in the jar, and stained the green beans and preserve them for the winter and shuck in the corn and them cutting the corn off the cob and preparing it for the winter. And so it sounded like hard living, but it was good living.
Mimi is the youngest of nine siblings. She was closest and aged to her brother like Curtis. Her mother had ten siblings. Many of them lived on Silver Dollar Road. There was a lot of good memory because if my mother were at work, it was that village looking out for you. If she was at work, my uncle and different ones would come and say, okay, I'm making sure your kids is all right over here. But Mimi wears like Curtis, like Curtis wears, Mimi. So we all looked out for one another.
Mimi says at the heart of her family was her grandfather, Mitchell Reels. My grandfather, he was a deacon for Reels Shuffle for 50 years. And he had this love for people. We would sit out under his tree, peak entry and his yard. And then we'd point water for the hoax and his animal. Our reward was to go to the store and pick out what we want and eat it. But he would sit under the tree and he would talk to us. And he was that kind
of person that it wasn't monetary for him. My he knew a lot of white people with businesses that money and they respected him. And when you said, Mitchell Reels name, it had a lot of power to it because he own land. He was a business person. But my grandfather was that nurtured kind of person. He was that loving kind of person. If he loaned you money, you didn't sign a paper saying you owed him. Your word was your bond. And he was the type
that once you got out of school, got married, wanted you own place. You could tell him, what part of the land you wanted to be on. And that's where you would be. And if he didn't want you there, then he would tell you, no, you can't have this spot, but you can have that spot. And then when Mamie was about 10 years old, her grandfather got sick. Her
mother, Gertrude, took him to see level hospital. He had cancer. Now I remember the night my mother went to see level hospital to carry him and him telling my mother, he had waited to late, waited too long. Mitchell Reels was dying and he didn't have a will. And so I
think he realized then that, you know, I didn't do what I really should have done. But I raised my children and they know to try to hold on to the land because he knew he had that feeling when he got sick that the family would run into some issues with this land. He realized by not making a wheel that that was going to become a problem. What were his wishes for the land? What did he tell your mother? The night that my mother
took Mitchell to see level hospital. He told my mother, whatever you do, don't let the white man have my land. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. Mamie Reels grandfather, Mitchell, died in October 1970. He was buried in a cemetery on the Reels family land right next to Reels Chapel. Mamie says people have been buried there since the 1800s. The 65 acres on the North Carolina coast had originally belonged to Mamie's
great grandfather, Elijah Reels. He was born in 1866 and his family had been enslaved. He was able to purchase the land in 1911 when he was 45. He lost it when he couldn't keep up with the taxes, but his son Mitchell bought it back from the county in the 1940s. Mitchell never wanted the family to lose it again. His wish was to hold on to the land for the family to keep working the land, making them live in an outfit, and he knew jobs were
hard for a family because a lot of them went up north. But if they kept the water and fished the water, they could always make a living. But because Mitchell Reels didn't have a will, the land became something known as Ares property. Ares property, I can sum it up, is a hot mess. Ares property dates back to reconstruction and Jim Crow. It's something that was especially common among black families who weren't always able to access the legal system to make
legally bind in wills, or who didn't want to. Mamie says her grandfather didn't trust the courts. With Ares property, when someone dies without a will, any land they own goes to their descendants, who then jointly own the land. But the property isn't cut up and given in chunks to each descendant. Instead, each of them gets a percentage in all of it,
like owning shares and a business. And the property title often remains in the original owner's name, making it hard for descendants to leverage it, it's hard to apply for alone. And when there is a dispute, it's hard to hold on to it. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls Ares property the leading cause of black and voluntary land loss. In the 20th century, black farmers all over the country lost over
90% of their land. Today, more than a third of black owned land in the south is Ares property, including the Reels family land. We'll be right back. All results, still you, but with fewer lines. Botox cosmetic, out of botulinum toxin A, is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better in adults. Effects of Botox cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms.
Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Don't receive Botox cosmetic if you have a skin infection. Side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow and eyelid drooping and eyelid swelling. Allergic reactions can include rash,
welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Tell your doctor about medical history. Muscle or nerve conditions including ALS or Lugeric disease, myastinia gravis, or Lambert Eden syndrome and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. For full safety information, visit Botox Cosmetic.com or call 877-3510-300. See for yourself at Botox Cosmetic.com. During the holidays, it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of shopping,
hosting and traveling. And let's be honest, prioritizing your health can sometimes fall off your to-do list. Well, this is your reminder, from nature's sunshine that you deserve to stay healthy all winter long. For more than 50 years, nature's sunshine has intentionally crafted supplements and natural products to support your gut health, immune system, metabolism, and so much more. Like their convenient chlorophyll stick packs that make it easier
than ever to enjoy the daily detox found in chlorophyll. And by the way, this chlorophyll actually tastes good. Lime flavor, yum. Or their probiotic 11, a unique combination of 11 beneficial gut bacteria. Or their colostrum supplement, rich in broad-based immune enhancers. All made with sustainably sourced ingredients and created in 100% solar-powered facilities. This holiday season, don't miss out on the best deals of the year at naturescenshine.com. That's naturescenshine.com to get the best
deals of the year. naturescenshine.com After Mitchell Reels died in 1970, his daughter, Gertrude Reels, Mamie's mother, was able to get a judge to put it in writing. The surviving 11 children, or descendants of children of Mitchell Reels, are the owners of the land's exclusive of any other claim of anyone. Mamie Reels was 11 when her grandfather died. By the time she graduated from high school, some of her older siblings had already moved into their own homes on Silver Dollar Road.
Mamie's brother, like Curtis, lived in a trailer next door, and her brother Melvin built a house right by the water. Melvin bought a boat and made his money fishing and tripping. Around this time, Mamie remembers her grandfather's brother, Shedrick Reels. Started coming to town. Mamie didn't really know him. He lived in New Jersey. I remember talking to him. And talking to him, I realized he was a, he was total opposite
from my grandfather. My grandfather had that given love and heart. He had this business money hungry attitude about him. In the legal document, Mamie's mother had secured from the court. The land was only for Mitchell's children and grandchildren, not his siblings. But Shedrick didn't agree with that. In 1978, he claimed he owned a chunk of land on Silver Dollar Road, around 13 acres, right by the water, the most valuable part of the land, and the part of the land
where Mamie's brothers, like Curtis and Melvin, lived. Shedrick claimed that he'd had the deed to the 13 acres since 1950, which Gertrude and her children didn't believe. Mitchell, Mamie's grandfather, had the deed for the full 65 acres, including the waterfront. Mitchell bought it at the Courthouse store. So if he bought it at the Courthouse store, Shed would not own it one way or another because he's not Mitchell Reels child.
Mamie was in her late teens by this time, and remembers helping her mother and father figure out what to do. And I remember when my mother and I first started with this land situation, I would go with them to the lawyers offices and I would help keep up with paperwork. And so I started being like that, my own little detective, keeping the papers, reading their papers, because
they were old, they didn't understand a lot of things. And so I felt like I was the educated one to okay, to help them understand it. There is a court hearing about Shedrick's claims. Shedrick was using something called the Torrens Act, where all you need to do is prove to a lawyer that you own the land, and the lawyer then reports it to the court. The family's lawyer, Claude Wheatley III, later described the hearing as chaotic.
But Mamie says after the hearing, they still felt sure that the land, the 13 waterfront acres, were like Curtis and Melvin lived, was still theirs. But then, about three years later, in 1982, they received a trespassing notice. The family was told that they didn't own that land anymore. Shedrick did. During the hearing that had been described as chaotic, Shedrick's lawyer looked at the
rights of the surviving 11 children of Mitchell Reels. And he concluded that Shedrick was the owner of the waterfront property. According to the family's former lawyer, Claude Wheatley III, one of Mitchell's sons, Calvin, had given verbal authorization for Claude to sign over the 13 acres to Shedrick, and Calvin died shortly after. Mamie says she doesn't think her uncle, Calvin, would have done that. Claude Wheatley III said that Mitchell's heirs received notice of the decision.
But Mamie's family said they weren't notified and didn't find out until years later. By then, it was too late to appeal the decision. I was always told that Shedrick said when his brother passed away, this is my opportunity to take the waterfront. This is Kim DuHon, Mamie's niece. She didn't grow up on Silver Dollar Road, but visited often as a kid. When did you first become aware about what was going on with this land?
So when I was younger and I would say more so in my early teenage years, when we would come down for different holidays or whatever, I would always hear my grandmother speaking early in the morning about a possible situation with the land. It was always there's something going on with the land again, but it was always kept very hush hush.
Yolder I got, it was still kind of talked about in secrecy, but at one point, I knew that it was some major issues going on because it was a lot of activity, not just conversation, but it was activity regarding legal stuff and documents coming in. So I would say in my early 20s is when I realized, okay, something's not quite right. And you would come here in the summers when you were growing up.
I came here, I came here every summer as a child, my father was in the Coast Guard, so we traveled a lot, but this was our personal safe haven. She says a lot of black families in eastern North Carolina that it only on the water had lost it. I think we're one of only few families in this, actually probably on this, on the southern East Coast that still has some ownership to black waterfront. And so friends would come to the Reels land to visit.
I mean, we walked freely on the property, we swam, we ran, we had barbecues, we, this was our personal country club, so I would have never thought there were any issues. We thought that this was our property. Now they were being told they didn't have access to it anymore. And then, Shedrick sold the 13 acres of the family land to a developer. Melvin and Lycurtus lived on the, on the part of the land that was going to be sold off. What were they supposed to do? Those are the questions we asked.
What do they supposed to do? Melvin makes this living on the water. My Curtis was a brick mason. Okay. This is our property so you cannot get alone to do anything. Okay. You live in Carter County, we're not called Jim Crow County. Okay. It ain't like you're going to go walking a bank and they're going to loan you money to buy property to go somewhere else. But what were we to do? What was they supposed to do? Where were they going? Had been here all their life, no their own little onion.
And then you're going to just take them and throw them out of the house. Not far from his house, Melvin had built a small club, which he called Fantasy Island. I really built that to keep the family coming to the water. Here is Melvin. And where we can enjoy our self on the water. Where all the guys got the boats, we'd be bringing in the stuff. Shrimps, crabs, fish. That's what we used to do. When did you start fishing? I'm seven and seven. I started fishing and swamping when I was six.
I got my commercial license and I went to fishing, then making good money and making good money. I don't know that water. And I got that boat. That's what I've been on to work. What do you love about being on the water? It's so peaceful. And then I'm catching shrimps and fish and stuff. That's what I enjoy doing. And I love to feed people that enjoy seafood. And then put the word out, y'all get you some pans and come down and go on the boat and get all the shrimp you want.
And then it'd be a pot. We'd have some time, three thousand pound of shrimp. For a while, Melvin kept fishing like normal and kept inviting friends and family over to his club. He didn't want to leave. And it didn't seem like the developers were going to start any construction. Here's his brother, Lye Curtis. People coming from everywhere, little city. They were coming down for the, you know, and then join the salesman, black or white, it didn't matter. He just bought it. That was it.
Every weekend? Yeah. Every weekend. All of them three a night. And you go all the way to Sunday night. We visited Melvin like Curtis, Mamie and their family at their mother Gertrude's home on Silver Dollar Road. When we got there, Melvin showed us around the land. I'm turning around. So the rest of the property, it's all, the rest of the 65 acres, is it all in here? Yeah. It's from that water, back down there to that curve. Everybody on the Silver Dollar Road is just about family.
You know everyone. Yeah, I know everyone. We grew it up together. Come on, let's say y'all, come on in. She's saying, get a cat, come on in. Come on. Who's house is this? This is my mother. Yeah, we built this. Yeah, we built this house. We built this house. We towed the old one down and built it and designed it just about like she had there. What year did you build this house? What year is this house will build mother? What year is this house will build after Hurricane Floyd? It's your Floyd.
Floyd was the one that destroyed our old house. Okay, Floyd. Hurricane Floyd hit the North Carolina coast in 1999. More than 10 years after Melvin and Lycurtis' land was sold, they were still living on it. After the hurricane, Melvin and Lycurtis and their brothers built their mother a new house on her land. That's where we spoke with everyone. Five years after Floyd in 2004, Melvin and Lycurtis learned that there was a court order. They had to vacate the land.
They also had to tear down their houses themselves so the land would be ready for the developers. The developer Shedra could sold it to, had hired Claude Wheatley III to finally enforce the eviction. The same lawyer who'd originally represented the Reels family as they tried to protect the family land. We contacted Claude Wheatley III for this story and he declined to comment. How did it feel when you were told that you were trespassing on your own land? Well, I knew it was a lot.
At first, Lycurtis thought maybe he could try to move his house to move it back further into his family's land. But his mother Gertrude told him not to. She said, that's yours. They pretty much said they weren't going down without a fight. Kim Doohan, Melvin and Lycurtis' niece. They were not going to give this property up knowing that they lived on this property all their lives.
They knew that the property belonged to them and if it meant them being incarcerated, that was what they were going to do. We'll be right back. Are you looking to eat healthier but you still find yourself occasionally rebounding with junk food and empty calories? You don't need to wait for the new year to start fresh. New year new me? How about same year new me? You just need a different approach. According to Noom, losing weight has less to do with discipline and more to do with psychology.
Noom is the Weight Loss Management program that focuses on the science behind food cravings and building sustainable eating habits. Noom wants to help you stay focused on what's important to you with their psychology and biology based approach. Noom takes into account your unique biological factors which also affect weight loss success.
The program can also help you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have those specific cravings and it can help you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. And since everyone's journey is different, so are your daily lessons that are personalized to help you reach your goal. Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. Support for this show is brought to you by Nissan Kix.
It's never too late to try new things and it's never too late to reinvent yourself. The all new, re-imagined Nissan Kix is the city-sized crossover vehicle that's been completely revamped for urban adventure. From the design and styling to the performance, all the way to features like the Bose Personal Plus sound system, you can get closer to everything you've done. We love about city life in the all new, re-imagined Nissan Kix. Learn more at www.nisanusa.com slash 2025 dashkix.
Available feature, Bose is a registered trademark of the Bose Corporation. The Reels family tried again to get the courts to reverse the decision that gave the land to Shedrick, but nothing worked. Even Doohan told the reporter that land was never his to sell. We're angry at the courts. We feel like we own the land. Melvin and Lycurtus stayed put, ignoring the court order. And then one morning an explosion woke Melvin up. He said he never heard anything like it.
His shrimping boat, named Nancy J, was sinking. He reported it to the sheriff, but they never never find out what had happened. The whole thing made Melvin even more nervous. He said it wake up in the middle of the night, feeling anxious about someone being outside his house. Sometimes he'd take a flashlight outside and shine it around. It was hard to eat. He says he lost a lot of weight. Maybe remembers Lycurtus was anxious too, even if he didn't talk about it.
Sometimes she would see him awake early in the morning, walking up and down Silver Dollar Road. At early 2011, a hearing was scheduled. Years made me. The attorney we had at that time hit four more of us before court. He said this judge don't want to hear nothing. He just want to lock him up. He said you're thumbing your nose at the court. There attorney warned them that Melvin and Lycurtus could be put in jail for civil contempt for not obeying the court.
Some 200 members Melvin came to visit with her before the hearing. He was my hero growing up because he was the one that kind of took care of the entire family. So it was like he was that person. If you wanted some extra money, you could always do little odd jobs and he'd give you extra money. So of course to me, he was the person that you went to if you wanted anything extra. Now Kim had a chance to help her uncle.
Melvin literally came to my home in Jacksonville, North Carolina and said, Kim, I'm going to jail and I need your help. And I knew I was going to jail. When he bought that vixen instead of just laying, I knew I wasn't going to sell to land. So you got to lock me up. He asked me to promise him that I would get involved and help secure the property at any cost. The hearing took place in Beaufort, North Carolina in March of 2011. By this time Melvin was 64.
My Curtis was 53. Kim says they thought they'd get an opportunity to present their case in front of the judge. But instead the judge said he was sending them to jail. Kim says it felt like a punch in the gut. She remembers they didn't even really get a chance to say goodbye before Melvin and my Curtis were let away. Melvin made eye contact with her and malved. Remember what I told you. The bailiff only had one pair of handcuffs. They didn't usually need them in civil court.
So one side of the handcuffs went around Melvin's wrist and the other went around my curtices. And we was in jail and less than 15 minutes. What did you think when they said you're going to jail? Were you surprised? I was. Why didn't they do it? A judge can hold someone in contempt for their actions in the courtroom after an outburst, for example, or for actions outside of court like refusing to obey court orders.
In North Carolina, the most common situation is someone has refused to pay child support. Sometimes journalists have been held in contempt for refusing to reveal their sources. Sometimes the person held in contempt just has to pay a fine. Sometimes they spend a short amount of time in jail. It isn't like being charged with a crime. A judge can just announce that they're holding someone in contempt and the punishment can happen immediately. It can happen without a trial.
So they were put in jail because at the hearing they were trying to say, no, we're not leaving this, this, this is where we live. We're not even land. And because Melvin and Lycurtis refused to say we're going to be, we're going to leave, they were held in contempt of court and put in jail. That is absolutely correct. They expected to be in jail for 90 days. They were there for eight years. The rest of the reals family story. Criminal is created by Lauren Spor and me.
Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sijiko, Lily Clark, Lena Silicin and Megan Canain. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Seminetti. Special thanks to Ruth Robertson. Julie Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at this is criminal.com. For more on the reals family story, you can read Lizzie Presser's article.
Their family bought land one generation after slavery. The reals brothers spent eight years in jail for refusing to leave it. We'll have a link in the show notes. You can sign up for a newsletter at this is criminal.com slash newsletter. We hope you'll join our new membership program Criminal Plus. Once you sign up, you can listen to criminal episodes without any ads. And you'll get bonus episodes with me and criminal co-creator Lauren Spor too.
You'll also get to come to special virtual live events with our team. Our next one is coming up on October 30th. We're playing Criminal trivia. To learn more and sign up, go to this is criminal.com slash plus. We're on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show, an Instagram and TikTok at Criminal underscore podcast. We're also on YouTube at youtube.com slash criminal podcast. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows at podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm Phoebe Judge.
This is criminal. Tis the season for Jolly holidays. And also the season for long travel days, chilly weather and a revolving door of cold and flu bugs. Nature's sunshine can help you and your immune system stay present for the holidays. For more than 50 years, nature's sunshine has intentionally crafted supplements and natural products to support your gut health, immune system, metabolism and so much more.
Like their innovative chlorophyll stick packs, their probiotic 11 or their colostrum supplement, all rich and broad-based immune enhancers. This holiday season, don't miss out on the best deals of the year at naturessundscien.com. Do you feel like your leads never lead anywhere? And you're making content that no one sees. And it takes forever to build a campaign? Well, that's why we build HubSpot. It's an AI-powered customer platform that builds campaigns for you.
Tells you which leads are worth knowing and makes writing blogs, creating videos and posting on social abrees. So now, it's easier than ever to be a marketer. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers.