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[Jack Tatum's Family Tree PURE.FTW] JOHN A. MURRELL, "The Great Western Land Pirate", often passed this way during the years between 1820 and 1834 Murrell came from a respectable Middle Tennessee family, but was a professional robber by the time he was twenty-one years of age., At Frist he operated singly: then he gathered around him a few confederates, then he became the chief of what he called a "noble band of valiant and lordly bandits, and finally, he emerged from the penitentiary an imbecile. The organization of this clan was almost perfect, and the crimes they committed are without parallel in the criminal history of the Southwest. The Clan , was governed by what was called the "Grand Council of the Mystic Clan", which held its meetings under a large cottonwood tree in Arkansas. The Council directed the operations of the individual members of the band, called the "Strikers". These were small thieves and robbers, who, under the direction of Murrell and his immediate associates, caused a Reign of terror throughout the entire Southwest. Lacking the intelligence and the energy which Murrell unquestionably possessed, these "strujers" would under the direction of this mastermind, perform the most fiendish of crimes. While they did not hesitate to rob from the person, and then carry out their motto, "Dead men tell no tales". their operations were confined principally to horse stealing and Negro running. The completeness whit which stolen horses and runaway slaves disappeared convinced the sufferers that there was an organization of this kind: but the mane of Murrell was not connected to i in the beginning, and of its very existence they were not certain. A suggestion that such and organization existed was laughed at by the "strikers" in every neighborhoods, and by prominent men who had much at stake and feared to incur the enmity of an organization, the individual members of which they did not know. The Completeness An secrecy of this band's work created a condition in which the law-abiding Citizen knew not whom to trust. Murrell, being inordinately vain, Virgil A. Sterwart so successfully worked upon his vanity that Murrell told of his past life, of his Clan, and of his future plans. Stewart betrayed him, and Murrell was sent to the penitentiary, in 1834, Murrell then lived in Madison County. Murrell has been described as a man of pleasant address, possessed of much intelligence--as a man who could adapt himself to his surroundings, whether he stood in the midst of his Mystic Clan around the Arkansas Cottonwood tree, or in the pulpit preaching to a God-fearing congregation. He could pose as a eminent lawyer or cut a throat. he could quote scripture and pass counterfeit money with equal ease. As a moan he is said to have been a cool, possessed of good judgement, fearless, just in his dealings with his "strikers"' to whom he always gave a portion of what they stole for him. As a husband, he was kind: as a friend he was faithful. Some of those attributes he may have possessed, but the following extract from his confession shows the fiendishness which predominated in his nature_ a fiendishness which, had it been eliminated, might have left a man of such parts that he would have been an upright man and good citizen. Murrell, in his confession, said: "While I was seated on a log, looking down the road the way I had come, a man came in sight riding a good-looking horse. The very moment I saw him I determined to have his horse, if he was in the garb of a traveler. I arose from my seat and drew an elegant rifle-pistol on him and ordered him to dismount. He did so, and I took his horse by the bridle and pointed down the creek and told him to walk before me. We went a few hundred yards and stopped. I hitched his horse, and then made him undress himself, all to his shirt and drawers, and ordered him to turn his back to me. He said, "If you are going to kill me let me have time to pray before I die'" I told him I had no time to hear him pray. He turned around and dropped to his knees, and I shot him in the back of the head. I ripped open his belly and took out his entrails and sunk him in the creek. I then searched his pockets and found $401.37 and a number of papers that I did not take time to examine. I sunk the pocketbook and papers and his hat in the creek, His boots were brand new and fitted me genteelly, and I put them on and sunk my old shoes in the creek to atone for them. I rolled up his clothes and put them into his portmanteau, as they were quite new cloth of the best quality. I mounted as fine a horse as I ever straddled, and directed my course to Natchez in much better style than I had been for the last five days." This story, in Murrell's own words, of the deliberate murder of a defenseless traveler is one of the many stories of the bandit, Murrell, which over shadow all of the good traits of character of which tradition says he was possessed. Tradition says the Murrell had friends along this route, and that a pretended friend- Peter Clifford, of Big Spring Creek--upon one occasion betrayed him. Clifford learned from Murrell that he had stolen a horse in Humphreys County, and was then on his way to Williamson County to sell it. Clifford followed him and had him arrested by Williamson County Authorities. Murrell was punished by thirty- nine lashes upon his bare back. While confined in the Franklin stocks, he, it is said, wrote upon them a transfer of his interest in them to a citizen of Hickman County, giving as his reason the the citizen named should have that which was justly due him. These stories of Murrell and his clan are not intended as a reflection upon the law-abiding citizens of the Fifth District or upon their no less law abiding ancestors. Bad men pass through all communities, bad men line in all communities. Copied from the History of Hickman County Tennessee, by Spence this is the brother of Parthenia, Murrell Tatum George Washington Tatum s, Wife.
Robert \\\\
Crowe
