'Alabama Snake': Release date, plot, trailer and all you need to know about HBO's chilling documentary
One of the strangest crime stories to come out of Alabama happened all the way back in 1991 when a Pentecostal preacher was arrested for allegedly using snakes to kill his wife. The wife told the husband that the preacher had used the snakes he employed in his church services.
On October 4, 1991, Darlene Summerford, was bitten twice on the hand by a rattlesnake or snakes, after her husband, Glenn Summerford forced her to stick her hand inside a cage of snakes. He accused her, falsely, she said, of running around on him with another preacher. “He took a pipe and hit the cages real hard so the snakes got real mad and then grabbed my by the hair and said he would push my face in there if I didn’t stick my hand in there,” she told jurors, according to the Associated Press. “He said I had to die because he wanted to marry another woman.”
Summerford was convicted on an attempted murder charge and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He is also serving an additional 30-year sentence for second-degree escape after he slipped away from a work detail in February 2003. Summerford and his attempted murder of his wife is the subject of one of HBO's documentaries coming to the network in December. Read on to know more details.
Release date
'Alabama Snake' will premiere on HBO on Wednesday, December 9, at 9/8c. The documentary will be available to stream on HBO Max the following day.
Plot
'Alabama Snake' explores the story of October 4, 1991, when a violent crime was reported in the sleepy town of Scottsboro, Alabama. Glenn Summerford, a Pentecostal minister, was accused of attempting to murder his wife with a rattlesnake. The details of the investigation and the trial that followed has haunted Southern Appalachia for decades.
The documentary features local historian and folklorist, Dr Thomas Burton, who has spent his life studying the culture, beliefs and folklore of Pentecostal snake handlers. Burton who is a professor emeritus of English at East Tennessee State University has written a book titled 'The Serpent and the Spirit: Glenn Summerford’s Story'.
'Alabama Snake' paints a Southern Gothic portrait of Glenn Summerford and his tale of demon possession.
Director
Theo Love
'Alabama Snake' is written, produced and directed by Theo Love. Love is a producer and editor known for 'The Legend of Cocaine Island', 'Little Hope Was Arson', and 'McMillions'.
Trailer
One of Alabama’s strangest crime stories was set in motion 29 years ago in Scottsboro, where a Pentecostal preacher’s wife told police her husband tried to kill her, using the snakes he employed in his church services.
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