Meet Michael DeWitt Jr.

(He writes better than he looks...)

(Photo by Laurie McCall)

Who is Michael DeWitt Jr.? Well, here is what I wrote in the preface of one of my recent books, Wicked Hampton County:

“Please allow me to introduce myself. I live on a small family farm in southern Hampton County. Chickens and Guinea fowl peck the grounds, and herds of livestock roam nearby. It is nothing fancy, yet it sits on land gifted to my ancestors in a grant from an English king, or so the family story goes.

(No, this is not me. This is Peppa the Pig. This pig was not stolen, but we do have a history of hog rustling in the family.)

   “My family has called this place home for more than 300 years. Sadly, one side of my ancestral tree owned vast plantation lands and many slaves; the other side included notorious poachers, hog rustlers, and shady characters who distilled high-proof “swamp juice” under the light of the moon. Our people have been preachers and teachers, farmers and factory workers, pirates and poachers. Through my arteries ebbs the spirits of the saintliest of Southerners, muddled with the blood of generations of lawless scoundrels. Through my veins flows the essence of small town, Southern America: a mixture of oppressor and oppressed. I am all that’s right with Hampton County, and all that’s wrong with this place.

   “I know much about greatness, and much about wickedness and scandal, and I have an appreciation for both. Perhaps that is why I became a storyteller for my community.”

(The author and his faithful truck, ‘The Red Baron,’ in Historic Downtown Hampton. The author has more mileage than the truck, and some days more leaks and emissions.)

In my day job, I am a journalist and the editor of a 144-year-old small town, Southern newspaper, but my dream has always been to write and share tales of humor, rural Southern life, adventure in the great outdoors, historical true crime, Southern Gothic fiction — pretty much anything other than boring news stories. Since I was a child, lugging around a Piggly Wiggly grocery sack full of books to read between farm chores and hunting/fishing adventures, I dreamed of becoming the next Patrick F. McManus, the Lewis Grizzard of the S.C. Lowcountry, a Southern Stephen King - well, you get the idea.

(The author, at right, teaching a young friend how to noodle catfish and crawfish at night - hopefully without losing a finger.)

I am a reader, a storyteller, a historian, a rookie true crime fan, an amateur outdoorsman/professional fishing liar, a lazy and unwilling farmer, and a wannabe food writer and poet, so you can expect a wide variety of story and art from me. I want to make you laugh, I want to make you think and learn, and every now and then I want to make you hug your loved ones tight.

Some days I may take you fishing with me, some days I make take you back into the bloody days of history and crimes long forgotten; on other days I’ll give you a unique new view of family life, society, politics or culture; and occasionally we may even tread into some fictional, make-believe worlds that haven’t even been invented yet.

I hope you are up for the journey.

Through DeWitt’s End, I hope to share stories old and new, classic and fresh, and experiment with a variety of multi-media storytelling, from the written word to audio and video, and a combination of all.

I’d like to drag you along for the ride. Will you join me?

More About the Author

Hampton County native Michael M. DeWitt Jr. is a multiple-award-winning journalist, longtime editor of the 143-year-old The Hampton County Guardian, and author of Wicked Hampton County and Fall of the House of Murdaugh, and co-host of the Wicked South Podcast.

DeWitt’s boots-on-the-ground coverage of the Murdaugh crime saga has been published in print and online around Gannett’s nationwide USA TODAY Network, and he has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, CBS’s 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, and Netflix documentaries to discuss the case.

 As a humorist, DeWitt’s award-winning Southern humor newspaper column, “Southern Voices, Southern Stories,” was published in newspapers from Cape Cod to northern California, and he has been a regular contributor for South Carolina Wildlife magazine, Sporting Classics magazine, and its online counterpart, Sporting Classics Daily.

For four years, DeWitt served as volunteer historian, storyteller, and playwright for the five-county “Salkehatchie Stew” oral history and community theater project sponsored by the University of South Carolina. In 2014, he was named the Hampton County Chamber of Commerce’s Person of the Year for his service to the community.

DeWitt is also the author of Saying Grace Over Edible Underwear, an Indie humor collection, and Images of America – Hampton County (Arcadia Publishing/The History Press, May 2015), a photo history of the place his family has called home for close to three hundred years.