During the Revolutionary War days, a bandit named Claudius Smith and his gang of cutthroats roamed the Schunemunk Mountain in New York robbing and killing people. Eventually, authorities captured Smith and his murderous gang. In 1779, authorities hanged Smith. His mother’s prediction had come true.

She once said he would die like a trooper’s horse. As a rope was placed around Smith’s throat, he kicked off his boots and said his final words: “My mother said I would die like a trooper’s horse, with my shoes on. I will make her out a liar.”

So whatever happened to those old boots? A few years after Smith’s death, a man named Brainard Pierson came to own Smith’s boots. Supposedly, some locals feared for Pierson and warned him not to wear Claudius Smith’s boots. Pierson ignored the warnings and continued wearing the boots.

Afterward, Pierson wore the boots to drive a herd of cattle. Somewhere along the Ramapo Pass, a man faced a herd of cattle. He noticed there wasn’t anyone driving the cattle along the trail. He came across a dead man wearing a nice pair of boots lying in the road.

He then jumped back after noticing a dead rattlesnake missing a fang lying near the man’s feet. As he approached the dead man, he noticed the man’s face was black and swollen. He had died of a rattlesnake bite. Before he died, he had killed the snake by smashing its head with a rock. The snake had bitten through the man’s boot and left a small puncture in his ankle.

The dead man was Brainard Pierson. His body was returned to Schunemunk. The first thought to go through everyone’s mind was Claudius Smith’s boots had killed Pierson. For many years no one in the family wore the boots. Everything seemed fine until a burglar stole the boots. No one found the thief after he had absconded with the boots.

Two days later, George Pierson, the late Brainard Pierson’s son, was hunting on Seven Spring Mountain. He had stopped by a spring for a drink and found a dead man lying near the spring. Young Pierson then noticed the stolen boots of Claudius Smith on the dead man’s feet. Pierson removed the boots and found a small purple puncture in the man’s right ankle. Like Brainard Pierson, the burglar had also died of a snakebite.

Again, the Pierson family set the boots aside. But one day, a visiting Pierson relative had arrived from Ringwood Valley. The relative knew about the two men who had died wearing the boots. He still wanted the boots. The relative also said there weren’t any rattlesnakes near his home. The Pierson family gave their relative the boots for free; he then gave the boots to his father-in-law as a gift.

One day the father-in-law went for a walk wearing the boots that once belonged to Claudius Smith. After a brief walk, he came stumbling home, but he died before a doctor could help him. His face and body was black and swollen. The dead man had a snakebite on his right ankle. This seemed unlikely since the area wasn’t known for having rattlesnakes.

Someone told the doctor about the cursed boots. He then took a knife and slashed open the right foot boot. The doctor’s keen eye noticed a small white object had fallen from the boot. He realized it was a rattlesnake fang and said it still had enough venom to kill another man. After the rattlesnake had bitten Brainard Pierson, its fang remained stuck in the boot’s leather.

The doctor thought the poisonous tooth was still deadly enough to kill someone. He reasoned it must have killed Brainard Pierson, the thief and now the Pierson relative’s father-in-law.

Today, I think it’s possible to believe an old rattlesnake tooth could kill three people because rattlesnake bites are deadly. A few years ago, a snake handling pastor named Jamie Coots died in Middlesboro, Kentucky after a Timberlake rattlesnake bit his right thumb. Before Coots, a woman named Linda Long, died of a snakebite she received in 2006 during a snake handling religious service. So were Claudius Smith’s boots haunted? Was it a curse or just dumb luck that three men died of a lodged snake fang?

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and avid reader. He can be contacted through his website at www.themarcabe.com, through Facebook: www.facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. And be sure to listen to his podcast at www.spreaker.com/show/the-marcabe.