'Alabama Snake' on HBO: Who is Glenn Summerford? Appalachian preacher tried to kill wife using poisonous snakes
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 that her husband, 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.”
But what happened on that day and why did a preacher have a collection of poisonous snakes in his home? Glenn Summerford was a snake-handling preacher with a church in the Appalachian region. This religious ritual goes back to the early 20th century, though the exact origins of the practice are unclear. As such, Summerford's religion played a huge role in what was to come after.
On the day the incident occurred, an ambulance was called to the remote residence the Summerfords stayed in, where paramedics discovered that a snake bit Darlene on her hand and that she was in severe distress. The first local hospital they raced her to did not have any anti-venom, and so they had to take her 90 miles away to a medical establishment in Birmingham. Darlene survived and once she was better, she spilled all the sordid details of her near-fatal ordeal.
Darlene said Glenn kept various snakes on their property as his sermons at the small church he practiced in would involve fiery speeches about God and the devil and also, curiously, involved handling snakes. According to those who practice snake-handling, the handlers are possessed with the divine spirit's power. If one was bitten, they lack the true spirit. However, the congregation prays over them -- if they die, then God intended it to happen. Glenn Summerford pastored the Church of Jesus With Signs Following in Scottsboro. Darlene recounted that Glenn had accused her of cheating on him, and as punishment, forced her at gunpoint to stick her hand in one of the snake cages and suffer a bite on two separate occasions.
On Darlene's accusations, Glenn was arrested and charged with attempted murder. He already had two prior felony convictions on record and so, he faced a mandatory 99-year sentence, if found guilty. Because of the aforementioned beliefs, Glenn's congregation did not think he should be convicted, however, he was found guilty after a trial that lasted just two-and-a-half days.
In 2003, Glenn Summerford escaped prison, but it was only a brief reprise for him. He slipped away quietly for about 45 minutes while he was on work detail -- this came after he had spent about 11 years in prison. He was then moved from the work center at Childersburg to the state prison in St. Clair County. Summerford is currently serving his time in prison.
'Alabama Snake' premieres on HBO on Wednesday, December 9, at 9/8c. The documentary will be available for viewing on HBO Max.