'Alabama Snake' Preview: Who is Darlene Summerford, the woman whose husband tried to murder her with snakes?
30 years ago, Darlene Summerford was bitten twice on the hand by a snake, and told the jury that her husband,Glenn an Appalachian Preacher, forced her to stick her hand inside a cage of snakes. A film titled 'Alabama Snake' tells this grim story of the preacher, who was sent to prison and convicted of trying to murder his wife nearly 30 years ago.
The story goes like this: On October 4, 1991, a 911 call summoned an ambulance to the Summerford's residence, where paramedics found Darlene almost dying as she had been bitten on the hand by a snake. She was first taken to a local hospital, that didn't have any anti-venom. She had to be taken to a Birmingham medical establishment that did. When she managed to recuperate, she decided to put her husband behind bars for good.
Darlene recovered, and later testified against him in trial. "He took a pipe and hit the cages real hard so the snakes got real mad and then grabbed me by the hair and said he would push my face in if I didn’t stick my hand in there,″ she said, adding, ″He said I had to die because he wanted to marry another woman." Summerford, who is now imprisoned at Bullock County Correctional Facility, once pastored the snake-handling Church of Jesus With Signs Following in Scottsboro. Glenn kept various snakes in a shed on their property.
Glenn conducted passionate sermons about God and the devil that involved speaking in tongues and handling snakes. Darlene said that Glenn had accused her of having an affair with another man, and, as punishment, had forced her, at gunpoint, to stick her hand in one of his snake boxes and get bitten, twice, both on that Friday night, and then again — after she finished running errands. He didn't let her have medical treatment at first.
Summerford had accused her of cheating on him with another preacher. However, Darlene said that this wasn't true. Summerford was sentenced to 99 years prison, and was denied parole in June. He could be released as early as February, as Department of Corrections records show. He tried escaping in 2004 after briefly slipping away from a work crew.
'Alabama Snake', directed by Thomas G Burton, will release on HBO, December 9, at 9 pm.
