Two families of the U.S. Appalachian Mountains who engaged in a backwoods feud in the late 19th century.
The families, each with at least 13 children and numerous other relatives, lived on opposite sides of a border stream, the Hatfields in West Virginia and the McCoys in Kentucky. The feud may have originated in opposing allegiances in the American Civil War. In 1882 the first murder of a Hatfield was followed by the murder of three McCoys. Retaliatory raids and murders continued with little interference from local police. In 1888 a posse of McCoys led by a deputy sheriff captured nine Hatfields in West Virginia and took them to Kentucky to stand trial for murder. West Virginia officials charged Kentucky officials with kidnapping. Newspapers nationwide carried the story. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of Kentucky. The trials resulted in one sentence of death and eight of imprisonment. Flare-ups gradually abated by the 1920s.