Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-05-14
MuRRELL TIE MURDERER.


 Se Slew Steamboat Crews and Burned and
 Sank the Crafts.
 The name of John A. Murrell stands to-day among the blackest on the crim- inal record of the south, and to visit one of his haunts either in Tennessee or Arkansas is not a pleasant thing. When gazing into yawning cave where once this red-handed assassin dwelt a thou sand ghostly visions seem to leap into the air, and as many echoes ring out for revenge.
 Murrell was bold in his operations. He possessed promptitude of decision that was wonderful and tendency of purpose that &vas equally noted. In his earlier days in Arkansas he was known for his brutality. There can yet be seen in Lee county little mound on Crowley's ridge which bears the name of Murren. It was one of his favorite resorts. The mound is about forty feet above the top of the ridge, and will measure probably fifty feet at the base. The center was dug out by Murrell, and the hole will measure in circumference about ten feet, while it is fully twenty feet in depth.
 It was in this place that the noted outlaw perpetrated some of his most tiendish crimes. The little mound is situated in the eastern part of Lee coun- ty, and the St. Francis river struggles along at the base of the ridge upon which it stands. It was here that Mur- rell would sit in solitude and gaze upon the little stream below, watching anxiously for some boat to appear, that he might murder the crew and capture the cargo, and how we'll and how often he succeeded in this need not be retold. But probably the most striking illus tration of the mans brutality and fear lessness can be found in the adjoining county, Phillips, only few miles be- low the mound. Just north of Helena, about eight miles, can be seen a very large lake, spreading over several hun- dred acres of ground and reaching from 1 towering chain of hills on the west to the great Mississippi river on the east Just before the body of water joins the river it narrows into a channel of only few yards in width. Murren and his 1! assistants, for he certainly had confed- l crates, although but few of their ! names have been learned, would force steamboats through this neck and into ! the lake. After compelling the crew l l laws would murder and throw them I into the water. The boats would be { finally destroyed and would sink into | the water.
 To-day a visitor te that portion ot Arkansas can see the upper parts of the 1 boats captured and wrecked by Mur- ! rell and his associate robbers. And it is an ugly scene. At morning when the | T. ! kl. Al 4 1 skirt the eastern bank of the broad Mis- sissippi, pours a warm light upon the lake, the dilapidation, and wreck, and ruin are mournfully apparent. The jackstaffs, half rotten and rusty chim- ney stacks, decayed pilot-houses, and l splintered bows, all go to form a spec tacle that is forbidding to the eye, and 1 yet there is about the scene something strongly fascinating to the spectator.
 From this ugly scene the mind is taken to another, where in later years the wild vines have wound around a little pine bush which is mirrored in a crystal-lilSe spring on the west side of Crowley's ridge, but few miles south of Mariana. Not far from this pine tree, half covered by tangled mass of weeds and grass and vines, can be seen grin | 1 years, and has been bleached in the blazing sun. It could tell its own story if it were given tongue. Nothing has ever been known of it, except that it is the skull of one of the assassin's victims. l Where this white symbol of horror
 around which loathsome vipers wriggle
 and squirm, now lies, once could be
 seen Murrell, ferocious and thirsty fol
 blood, bathing his hot lips in the little
 spring that bubbled from the mount
 aims side. The cave he occupied dur
 ing the day can yet be seen at this place l and the pine tree is as green as in the years agone.
 1 It was in 1878 that box of money was I found in this cave. Some time during
 the same year box similar to the one 1 found in this cave was dug out of the
 mound near St. Francis river. Each ot I the boxes contained but small amount
 of money. The finding of the money
 but strengthened the belief that the outlaw had buried all of the money he
 obtained in Arkansas in some of his
 secret haunts. There are many yawn
 ing caverns in the hillsides in which
 perhaps, there are skeletons to tell theil
 own stories of midnight murder, eact leaving a new horror to swing above
 the sepulcher of the man whose flesf has long since furnished food for the grave. .worms.-Memphis Commercial. \