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There's nothing like a backwoods blood feud to excite television viewers on Memorial Day. The first part of the History network's miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys" was seen by 13.9 million viewers on Monday night, more than 17 million when the immediate repeat was added in, the Nielsen company said. The numbers held up for part two on Tuesday, which was watched by 13.1 million, Nielsen said. Those are huge numbers in the cable television world. No scripted series on the broadcast networks last week came close. By contrast, Fox's series finale of "House" last week reached 8.7 million people. "Hatfields...

The most spectacular success of the summer season on television may have come before summer has even started: the miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys” on the History Channel attracted a monster audience Monday night, 13.9 million viewers, the second largest for a cable program that did not involve sports. By comparison, the finale this month of NBC’s singing competition hit, “The Voice,” attracted 10.5 million viewers. Most hit shows on cable are in the range of two million to four million viewers, though “The Walking Dead” on AMC reached what seemed then to be an impressive nine million for its finale...

The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts. Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other "fight or flight" stress hormones.No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan's notorious behavior."This condition can certainly make anybody short-tempered, and if they are prone because of their personality, it can add fuel...

4 neighbors arrested in cigarette fight 1 hour, 12 minutes ago DECATUR, Ala. - A cigarette butt casually tossed to the ground sparked a daylong argument between four neighbors that escalated into a fight that sent at least three of them to the hospital and got them all arrested. "It's sad that people were injured over a cigarette butt," Lt. Chris Mathews, spokesman for the Decatur Police Department, said Thursday. Police said a guest visiting Bobby Joe Ray, 42, tossed a cigarette butt toward the edge of Ray's yard on Aug. 4. The butt landed near a fence belonging to...

Flying Meatballs: Feuding Families Have Food Fight At Olive Garden Families Had Been Feuding For Some Time, Police Say UPDATED: 8:37 am PDT September 9, 2005 Talk about your tossed salad and flying meatballs. A night out at a Colorado Olive Garden Restaurant landed six people in jail after two families who've had a long-standing beef with one another brawled inside the restaurant. Valerie Baca, Lawerence Bettale Jr., Rene Bettale, Lawrence Bettale Sr. and two teens were arrested after an off-duty police officer used a stun gun to control the fight. Westminster, Colo., police said two families who have been...

A pen and ink sealed the end of Appalachia's most infamous bloody feud instead of a shotgun and bullets. Descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy families gathered Saturday in Pikeville to sign the truce, making a largely symbolic and official end to a feud that had claimed at least a dozen lives from the two mountain families. "We ask by God's grace and love that we be forever remembered as those that bound together the hearts of two families to form a family of freedom in America," says the truce, signed by more than 60 descendants. Reo Hatfield of Waynesboro,...

Hatfield and McCoys appear before judge in land feud Associated Press PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — More than a century after the last shots were fired in America¹s most storied feud, the Hatfields and McCoys went before a judge Wednesday to try to resolve a dispute over access to a graveyard. Relatives have an unquestionable right to visit the graves,¹¹ said Della Justice, an attorney representing McCoy descendants who sued Hatfield descendants for the right to visit the small cemetery on an Appalachian hillside in eastern Kentucky. The graveyard holds the remains of six McCoys, including three who were tied to...

Hatfields, McCoys take feud to court Family -- and tourist development officials -- seek access to cemetery 12/28/2002 Associated Press PIKEVILLE, Ky. - Descendants of the nation's most famous feuding families will face off in court next month in a trial to settle a dispute over access to an eastern Kentucky cemetery. "I really hate that we have to go to the court system to settle this," said Bo McCoy of Waycross, Ga., one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against a Hatfield descendant and his wife who have blocked access to the family cemetery. "We wanted to be...