The Boyington Oak Tree | Encore Episode

The Boyington Oak Tree | Encore Episode

From Southern Gothic by Southern Gothic Media

April 20, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

The episode explores the legend of the Boyington Oak Tree and the story of Charles Boyington's wrongful execution.

In Mobile, Alabama, just outside the historic Church Street Graveyard, a sprawling live oak known as the Boyington Oak has stood for nearly two centuries—its massive limbs stretching wide, its roots twisting deep beneath the soil. According to local legend, the tree marks the burial place of Charles Boyington, a young printer executed in 1835 for the murder of his friend Nathaniel Frost. On the day of his hanging, Boyington made one final claim before the crowd, declaring his innocence and swearing that proof would rise from his grave in the form of an oak tree with a hundred roots. Over time, the story has become one of Mobile’s most enduring pieces of Southern folklore, blending true crime history, wrongful execution, and ghost story into a single, haunting tale. Visitors to the Boyington Oak have long claimed to hear whispers carried on the wind—some say the voice of a man still pleading his innocence—while others point to the tree itself as silent evidence that something about the story was never quite settled. Nearly two hundred years later, the question remains rooted in that corner of the cemetery: was Charles Boyington guilty… or did the truth grow up from the ground…

People in this episode

Host: Southern Gothic Media

Topics covered

  • Southern folklore
  • true crime
  • wrongful execution
  • ghost stories
  • historical legends

Keywords

  • Boyington Oak
  • Charles Boyington
  • Nathaniel Frost
  • Mobile Alabama
  • ghost stories
  • true crime
  • Southern folklore

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Mobile, Alabama, Church Street Graveyard

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