The Dark History of Whitmore Plantation: A Murderous Family Secret Unveiled After 175 Years

In the early autumn of 1847, Richard Whitmore, the respected plantation owner from Charleston County, South Carolina, seemed to vanish into thin air.

His wife and children were left behind, desperately searching for answers that led nowhere. For weeks, police scoured the area, searching the forests and riverbanks, but no sign of Richard appeared.

His disappearance remained one of South Carolina’s most baffling mysteries—until a retired janitor, Arthur Coleman, made a discovery that would unlock a horrifying truth.

The story of Richard Whitmore’s disappearance is not just about an absentee master—it is about a man whose life and crimes had been hidden for nearly half a century.

And, more disturbingly, it’s about the relationship between father and son that led to a chilling conclusion that would haunt generations. What truly happened inside the walls of Whitmore Plantation during those final months of 1847?

How did Richard Whitmore become a murderer, and how did his own son, Thomas, become the one to put an end to the killing?

Arthur Coleman, a lifelong janitor at the now-renamed Durham Magnet High, found himself caught in a mystery that had been buried since his youth.

A sealed room in the old basement wing, once labeled Room 113b, was about to become the key to unlocking a history no one wanted remembered.

The investigation into the disappearance of the Vance 12—the twelve promising students who vanished without a trace—would reveal a family’s darkest secrets.

The Whitmore Family: A Mask of Perfection

Richard Whitmore had everything the world believed was necessary for success—a thriving plantation, a perfect family, and a respectable position in the community.

But underneath the polished exterior of his life, a horrifying secret simmered. Richard had been living a lie for decades.

He had tried desperately to suppress his true nature—an attraction to young men—and instead, created a façade of the perfect family man, a devoted husband, and a model father.

But Richard’s desires couldn’t be buried forever, and when they resurfaced, they would lead to devastating consequences.

The family dynamic was set on a pedestal, with Richard’s wife, Katherine, coming from one of Charleston’s most revered families.

Their marriage was publicly lauded, and their four children, including Thomas, were the pride of the Whitmore legacy. But within this seemingly perfect setup, Thomas was living a life filled with contradictions.

His father’s rigid, controlling behavior masked a darkness that Thomas never fully understood.

The Secret Life of Richard Whitmore

Richard’s struggle with his own desires began years before 1847. The moment he realized he was attracted to another young man at the Charleston slave market in 1819 was the first crack in his perfect life.

Though Richard tried to suppress these feelings through self-loathing, prayer, and even self-inflicted punishment, they only grew stronger.

But it wasn’t until he married Katherine at 21, under pressure from his family and society, that his true internal conflict began to manifest in tragic ways.

His marriage was never about love, but about hiding who he really was. His interactions with Katherine were forced, and every moment he spent with her only deepened his shame and guilt.

But when Richard began to show interest in Joseph, one of his youngest field hands, things escalated into a violent obsession that no one in the Whitmore family could have predicted.

A Pattern of Violence

The first signs of Richard’s monstrous transformation appeared when he began spending more time with Joseph, a young enslaved man.

Despite Richard’s attempts to justify his actions as innocent curiosity about his workers, it quickly became apparent to Joseph that the plantation owner’s intentions were far darker.

Richard’s obsession with Joseph led him to make advances, which were rejected, leading to Richard murdering Joseph in cold blood.

But Joseph’s death was just the beginning. Over the following months, Richard bought and murdered 11 more young men, all with similar characteristics—youth, strength, and intelligence.

His need to maintain control over them, to bury his desires in their deaths, grew more methodical. The bodies were buried in shallow graves beneath the basement floor, where they would lie hidden for decades.

Thomas Whitmore: The Reluctant Witness to Horror

Thomas Whitmore, Richard’s eldest son, had always lived in his father’s shadow.

But in 1847, Thomas began to notice something disturbing. The same man who had been cold and distant in the past had suddenly become fixated on one of the plantation’s workers, Gabriel.

Thomas had never suspected his father’s motivations until he witnessed their interactions firsthand.

The young man’s rejection of his father’s advances led Richard to plan another death, this time with Gabriel as his next victim.

But the twist in the Whitmore family’s tragic tale came when Thomas realized that he, too, was in love with Gabriel.

Thomas’s world came crashing down as he was forced to make a choice between his loyalty to his father and protecting the one man he had ever truly loved.

The Discovery That Changed Everything

Arthur Coleman, who had been a student at Lincoln High in 1978 when the Vance 12 disappeared, was the one to unravel the long-buried secret of Richard Whitmore’s crimes.

As he explored the abandoned basement wing of the old school building, he uncovered a sealed room, 113b, a room that had been erased from the school’s blueprints.

Inside that room, Arthur discovered the true story of the Whitmore family—a dark history of violence, deception, and murder.

Richard Whitmore had murdered 12 young men in cold blood, using the power of his wealth and position to hide his crimes.

His son, Thomas, had been the only one who had the courage to stop him. In an act of pure self-preservation and love, Thomas had killed his father, not for vengeance, but to protect Gabriel and the rest of the plantation’s workers from becoming the next victims.

The truth behind Richard Whitmore’s disappearance was a murder that would never be forgotten.

The Aftermath: A Legacy of Lies

After his father’s death, Thomas continued to live a lie, maintaining his role as head of the Whitmore plantation.

He never told anyone the truth about his father’s crimes. He married, had children, and became a respected figure in Charleston society.

But the weight of his actions, the murders that had haunted him for years, was never far from his mind. The ghosts of Richard Whitmore’s victims, the lives destroyed by his obsession, never truly left Thomas.

In 1852, Thomas sold the plantation, hoping to escape the past. But when new owners began renovations, they discovered the remains of 12 young men, buried in shallow graves beneath the basement floor.

The authorities never connected the bodies to Thomas or his father. The official story remained a lie—a lie that had been carefully constructed to protect the Whitmore family legacy.

The Enduring Mystery

Richard Whitmore’s legacy may have been erased, but his son’s journal, discovered years later, reveals the shocking truth. The final entry of Thomas’s journal reflects the pain and regret he lived with for the rest of his life: “I killed my father to save the man I loved. And I would do it again.”

The tragic tale of the Whitmore family is a chilling reminder of the power of secrets and the lengths people will go to protect them. But in the end, it is the innocent lives lost and the broken souls left behind that tell the true cost of maintaining a lie.

What do you think happened to Gabriel? Did he survive and escape to freedom? Or did he meet a tragic end at the hands of the Whitmore family?