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Death of John Murrell... famous "land pirate"...
Death of John Murrell... famous "land pirate"...
Item # 562136
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November 29, 1844
DAILY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, Washington D.C., November 29, 1844
* John Murrell death
* Mississippi River outlaw
A page 3 report about the "Death Of Murrell" says: "The Chattanooga Gazette of the 16th announces the death, at Pikeville, Tennessee, of the notorious John A. Morrell, whose name as 'land pirate' figured so frequently in the press...and who was recently discharged from the penitentiary. He died of consumption, and denied to the last moment...that he was guilty of the...charges against him."
Other news of the day with many ads. 4 pages in nice condition.
wikipedia notes: John Murrell (also spelled as Murel and Murrel)(1806?-1845?), a near-legendary bandit operating in the United States along the Mississippi River in the mid-nineteenth century.
Accepted facts about his life include these:
* He stole horses, and at least once was caught with a freed slave living on his property. He was sentenced to ten years in a Tennessee prison for horse-stealing.
* Murrell was one of three brothers who were known to be petty thieves. Their father was a Methodist circuit preacher.
* A young man named Virgil Stewart, in 1835, wrote a thought to be fictitious account of the history of John Murrell called "A History of the Detection, Conviction, Life And Designs of John A. Murel, The Great Western Land Pirate; Together With his System of Villany and Plan of Exciting a Negro Rebellion, and a Catalogue of the Names of Four Hundred and Forty Five of His Mystic Clan Fellows and Followers and Their Efforts for the Destruction of Mr. Virgil A. Stewart, The Young Man Who Detected Him, To Which is Added Biographical Sketch of Mr. Virgil A. Stewart."
* Stewart wrote this so-called "confession of John Murrell" under the pseudonym of "Augustus Q. Walton, Esq.," for whom he invented a fictitious background and profession.
* Some historians assert that Stewart's pamphlet was largely fictional, and that Murrell (and his brothers) were at best inept thieves, having bankrupted their father over the years for bail money.
* After Murrell died nine months after leaving prison, parts of him were dug up and stolen. His skull is still missing, but one of his thumbs is in the possession of the Tennessee State Museum.
Category: Pre-Civil War
No Longer Available
