A Folk Tale of South Carolina retold

 The story I am telling began in Germany about 1840, which was before the time of the Civil War in the United States.  There was a boy named Rudy who lived in a small town in Germany with his very poor parents.  Rudy's mother died when he was about nine years old.  His father was told he could go with some settlers to America.  He took Rudy with him because the trip was free.  After they got over to America, they settled in the mountains near Caesar's Head in South Carolina.  It was a nice place for Rudy to play because, you see, Rudy was nearly six feet tall when he came to the U. S. at age 15.
 The Civil War was raging near the place where they lived.  Everybody knew that there was going to be a big battle at the foot of the mountain where Rudy lived.  A Confederate gun emplacement was on the mountain opposite the one where Rudy lived.  When the Union Army came into that valley, Rudy decided he was for the Union.  As big as Rudy was at that time, he went over to the Confederate gun emplacement, on the cliff, and killed all the men there.  While he was there, an avalanche came, and it buried all the Confederates who were left.
 Everything was fine until after the Civil War was over.  At this time the boy was almost eight feet tall, and still growing.  One night a man who was one of the settlers heard a terrible noise.  He ran out with his shotgun from his house to see what it was.  He saw it and fired twice, hitting it both times.  When he went over to see what it was, it was gone.  The question was raised, how could something with two shotgun shells inside it crawl away?
 The next night the man's family found him dead with vampire marks on his neck.  They found that it was Rudy who killed him.  The people did the only thing they knew to do, they drove a gold spike through Rudy's heart and cut off his head.
 When they woke up the next morning, they found that Rudy was gone.  There was no sign of his being dragged off.  He just walked off.  The army was called in to track him down.  They found him at a cave resting without a head.  The cannons moved in and fired into the cave.  Then a fire was set and smoke drove Rudy out of the cave.  The army did not know how to stop him.  They had one more chance to get him.  Rudy was cornered!  On one side was a cliff with a 100 foot drop and on the other side was the army.  Rudy decided to jump.  He has never been heard of since, except at night when the moon is full, he will go looking for his head.