The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-01
IN A CHARMED HOUSE.
THE TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES OF
A DOCTOR IN TENNESSEE.

Murders at the Wayside Inn-Unsus-
pecting Travellers Killed by
MurderOus Family and Their Bod
les Buried Beneath the House in
which They Had Sought Refuge.
A Tale of Horror Ends in a Double
LynchinE.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Chattanooga, Tenn. Feb. 19-It has
been asserted that in the annals Of mod
ern crime nothing more atrocious or more
diabolical is known than the wholesale
murders now being attributed TO Holmes.
the monumental insurance swindler, but
that there is nothing new under the sun
in crime is shown by the authentic story
Of a charnel house in the East Tennessee
mountains, where for years and years
men and women were murdered and their
bodies either burned or buried, while
their murderers walked not only unsus-
pected but respected through the land
Thrilling, indeed, are the tales of early
life in East Tennessee, but this perhaps
is the most thrilling Of all. heard It
around a camp fire one summer night,
about three years ago. while hunting in
the Cumberland mountains, while the fire
fiickered out and the moonlight came to
play fantastic tricks among the shadows
of the foliage and to throw a ghostly
veil over the landscape far below in the
valley.
But the morning dawned a pearl of
beauty bathed in a sea OF that peculiar
pink and purple to be seen nowhere else
combined in such a perfect picture of
color as among the Tennessee mountains.
/ went with eagerness at the invitation
of our guide TO see this charnel house.
where human lives had been ruthlessly
sacrificed to appease an avaricious greed
for gold, and TO view the spot where the
bodies of the victims had been buried
and lost to their friends forever.
With its windowless walls the howell was
dreary and uninVlting enough In itself, but
situated as It was on a bleak, abandoned
farm, now the property of the Cumber-
land Land Company, OF which j. il. Lore
ly is manager, IL was TO me positively re-
pelant and ! could not but pause with a
shudder at the threshold over which many
a foot had stepped, never TO return, and
where the waves of dampened doors from
the interior were suggestive of nothing so
much as the grueSomeneSs OF the grave.
The house was a low, one-storled struc-
ture originally erected as a smoke house
for the curing Of country hams. but subse-
quently converted into a chamber of death
and an abode of horror. At the time of
the murders there was situated In front
of II, but about fifty yards distant, COM
modious frame house, built in the old
southern style of architecture, which Sc
cured roominess at the cost of cosiness,
but that dwelling had been destroyed by
fire during the war and only the blackened,
tottering chimneys remained to mark the
ante-bellum home of the man who was
probably guilty of more diabolical murders
than any man that ever stepped on Ten
neSSee soil.
James Allen was this mans name. He
settled in the neighborhood about 1910, and
a few years after that began TO run
road house, for the accommodation or
men travelling through the sparsely settled
country 1t so happened that the house
was located at spot which made 1t very
convenient to travellers passing either
north or south, east or west, by the two
big roads that crossed each other near
that point. Aliens family consisted OF his
wife and two grown daughters VINO were
considered in those days OF primitive edu-
cation to be very accomplished girls, and
were certainly attractive in face and form.
In 1919 and 1850 considerable excitement
was created in the ne!ghbOrhood by the
discovery of oil Prospectors and specu-
lators began to pour into the section from
the vicinity of Knoxville and Nashville
and from Kentucky, hoping to find gush-
er. and 1t may be added, incidentally, that
many of the wells then discovered but I'M
developed for lack of convenient trans
portation facilities, have within the last
year, owing to the rapid advance in the
price of crude OIL been opened again, and
number are now being worked with pro-
fit to the owners.
Among those VINO STRUCK a paying Well
at the time Of this story was one DR..
Hickman, from Nashville. The product
of his we'll, hauled by wagons forty miles
to the Tennessee river, over the rough
mountain roads, and then slowly trans
ported to Nashville, began to make him
rich. Every six months he made a trip
to the capital of the state to receive pay
ments for his shipments, the amount
sometimes approaching $4,000. On each
of these trips Hickman found 1t convenient
to stop going and coming at the Allen
house, and as early as the returning sec
ond visit ne had fallen in love with one
of the landlords fair daughters, and in a
spirit of affectionate confidence he told
the family what a rich thing he had in
his oil well and how he expected to come
back from Nashville on the next trip
loaded down with gold.
When the too confding gentleman stop
ped at the house about six months after
wards on his third trip TO Nashville he was
literally received with open arms. The
young ladies were most attentive and al
most affectionate, while the landlord and
his buxum wife were too polite and con-
siderate for anything. The visitor was fiat
tered beyond measure and when he drove
away he promised with pleasure to accept
their pressing invitations and stop with
the family several days on his return.
But the settlement of his business af-
fairs in Nashville detained him longer
than he had planned and the Aliens were
not expecting him when he arrived at the
road house late one night. Everyone had
retired, and, after partaking of a cold
lunch he was informed by his host that
the house was crowded and that IL was
then too late to make place for him ex-
cept in the stone house, which had been
specially fitted uD for just such emergen-
cies Seeing no alternative Hickman DO
liteIy consented to sleep there and the
host led the way with a lantern. The door
was fastened by a paddock and clasp,
which Allen unlocked. and, telling hi;
companion that he would find a comforta-
bic bed within. threw open the door and
directed him to enter.
As soon as Hickman stepped inside the
landlord pulled the door shut with bang
and quickly locked It,
Seized with an awful fear Of something,
he knew not what, Hickman sprang to the
door and yelled loudly to the landlord
But the thick walls of the apartment
merely echoed his cries In mocking con-
fusion Of sounds, and all was dead silence