Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-06-21
HEALS hole.


outlaws has been broken up in Mont
gOmery county, Tenn, the county of
which Clarksville IL the capital. The
band consisted of Mr. Ransom Nor
row, his two sons, VIM. Morrow and
Charles Morrow, VIM. Outlaw and
David Horn The parties lived near
lakewood Their crimes extend over
a period OF more than twenty years,
and during all that time they have
committed many crimes, including a
number of murders, and the people
who could have exposed them have
been afraid to do so. Near the Nor
row home is a cave in which the
plumber Of the band was concealed,
and within the cave is a supposed
bottomless pit, called as above aHell's
Hole" In this hole the dead bodies
of the murdered were thrown. Over
a dozen dead bodies have been thrown
into it.--We& Tennessee Wing.
The above is what reputable news
paper, not at all inclined to sensation,
has gathered from some of the dis
patches sent from this city to the daily
press concerning the Morrow case.
Just such an exaggerated impress
ion has been made on the public
generally, and the news has been
spread over the entire Union. How
detrimental such publications are to
the interest of the county can be
readily surmised, and the trouble is
that it is impossible to correct them
when they have once been sent
abroad. The public love for sensation
is such that it eagerly catches on to
such canards but gives dull ear to
the corrections that follow.
There is not the shadow of evidence
pointing to the conclusion that more
than one corpse was ever thrown into
Bellamy's cave. The statement that
-the plumber. of the band" was conceal
ed in the cave is pure product of the
imagination. The Morrows are not
accused of robbery, and the two per-
sons whom they. are indicted for
numbering, (only one of whom they
put in the cave) were poor negroes
and the Morrows are well-to-do white
men. That "their crimes extend over
period of more than twenty years" is
another emination from an excited
fancy. There is no proof of anything
of the kind, aad no reason to believe
it a.r -g5.si1i .-i..5f l..--.s..
The greatest exageration of all is in
the concluding sentence, wherein it is
stated that over a dozen dead bodies
have been thrown into bottomless
pit in the cave called "Hell's Hole"
There is no pit in the cave that has
ever been discovered. A small creek
or branch runs through it, the banks
of which are about twelve feet deep.
That a single corpse of murdered
man was ever thrown into this branch
there is no ground whatever to be-
lieve. The skeleton identified as that
of Dick Overton was found with its
feet on the edge of the branch, and
there is really no reason to suppose
that any other corpse was ever carried
into the cave. .'
The evil deeds OF which the Nor
rows are accused have indeed been
terrible revelation to the law abiding
people of Montgomery county, but
the facts SO far developed have given
no ground for such sensational stories
as the above. We hope to see the law
executed and the good name of the
county upheld in this and all other
criminal cases, but we deem it our
duty to correct these exaggerated re-
ports so far as it lies in our power to
do so. ..-' ...sE .a "-r @