Early note: The following account was widely believed at the time of its writing (around 1888). Modern historians (and some not so modern) have taken issue with this account. The standard refutation may be found here. To our eyes the question is an open one. While it is true that Murrell was not prosecuted for murder on a large scale, the early accounts of his widespread influence could, possibly account for that.
The Murrell Clan was a secret society that existed solely to benefit from criminal activities. At its peak in the mid-1800s it is said to have counted among its numbers many prominent citizens both in the midsouth and beyond. The following account is from J. M. Keating's History of Memphis, Tennessee:
“Murrell’s clan" counted their numbers by hundreds, and ranged from the Walnut Hills at the mouth of the Yazoo to the mouth of the Big Hatchie. They held their "grand council" in the deep, dark woods of the Mississippi Bottom, in Arkansas, twelve or more miles below Randolph, and some six miles from the river, near Shawnee village. "The writer yet retains a lively recollection of the many scenes and incidents of that thrilling and eventful period. Robbery, theft and murder occupied and filled the minds and engaged the attention of the people from Vicksburg to New Madrid. It was the theme in the quiet family circle, as well as the public talk, and the subject of municipal ordinances and regulations. Every town along the river had its vigilance committee and night patrol for the protection of life and property, and every stranger that entered either town or neighborhood was 'spotted,' until his business and personnel became satisfactorily known to the guardians of the town.
The clansmen's most usual place for crossing the Mississippi was a short distance below the Benton place, in the Big Creek country. In tracking their way to and from the grand council tree, a notable sycamore, standing in the thickest of the deep forest, towering above all other trees, discernible for miles around, a beacon to guide the footsteps of the clan in gathering. They seldom traveled over the same trail more than once, that they might elude the vigil of all who were not of their order. The size of the council tree, at its base, equaled the notable Indian sycamore at the mouth of the Big Pigeon, which is said to measure, at its base, seventy-five feet around, and is capable of stabling, in its capacious hollow, twenty-four horses at a time. It was at this tree and in its great hollow that John A. Murrell and his clansmen met in grand council and formed their dark plots, and concocted their hellish plans.
Most of their depredations were committed along the river and in the night time. Seldom a night passed without the capture of suspicious persons. It was during those bloody days that an occurrence happened, some twelve miles below Randolph that shocked the whole country. A most atrocious, diabolical and wholesale murder and robbery had been committed on the Arkansas side. The crew of a flat-boat had been murdered in cold blood, disemboweled and thrown into the river, and the boat-stores appropriated by the perpetrators of the foul deed. The Murrell clan were charged with the inhuman and devilish act. Public meetings were called in different parts of the country, to devise means to rid the country and clear the woods of the clan, and to bring to immediate punishment the murderers of the flat- boatmen.
In Covington a company was formed to that end, under the command of Major Hockley and Granville De Searcy, and one at Randolph, under the command of Colonel Orvil Shelby. They met at Randolph and were organized into one company, under the command of Colonel Shelby. A flat-boat, suited to the purpose, was procured, and the expedition, consisting of some eighty or a hundred men, well armed with several days' rations, floated out from Randolph and down to the landing where the wholesale murder had been committed. Their place of destination was Shawnee Village, Ark., where the sheriff of the county resided. They were first to require of the sheriff to put the offenders under arrest and turn them over to be dealt with according to law. To Shawnee Village the expedition moved in single file, along a tortuous trail through the thick cane and jungle, until within a short distance of the village, when the whole line was startled by a shrill whistle near the head of the column, answered by the sharp click, click, click of the cocking of rifles in the hands of the clansmen in ambush to the right flank of the moving file, and within less than a dozen yards. The chief of the clan stepped out in plain sight of the troops, and in a stentorian voice commanded the expedition to halt, saying, “We have man for man; move forward another step and a rifle bullet will be sent through every man in your command.” A parley was had, when more than man for man of the clansmen rose from their hiding places in the thick cane, with their guns at a present. The expedition had fallen into a trap; the clansmen had learned of the movement against them.
Doubtless many of them had been in attendance at the meetings held for the purpose of their destruction. The movement had been a rash one, and nothing was left to be done but to act according to the axiom that “prudence is the better part of valor.” The leaders of the expedition were permitted to communicate with the sheriff; who promised to do what he could in having the offenders brought to justice, but alas, for Arkansas and justice. The sheriff himself was thought to be in sympathy with the clan, and the law was subordinate to the wish of the clansmen.
The expedition retraced its steps. Had it not been so formidable and well known by the clansmen every member of it would have found his grave in the Arkansas swamp." Sometimes these robbers and murderers were summarily dealt with by the "Regulators" after the fashion of Judge Lynch. There were hordes and gangs of gamblers, who were the allies of the counterfeiters, the highwaymen, the pirates of the Mississippi, and the murderers who made every venture in trade a special risk of life and limb as well as fortune. In Vicksburg, Natchez under the Hill, and other places they became so bad as to compel extreme measures, and many of them were hanged and the rest sent down the river, tied hand and foot and fastened on rude rafts.
In Memphis they had never reached so gross and offensive a degree of defiance and order, because they could, living at the hotel at Foy's Point, do as they pleased without fear of Squire James, who found them the best customers of his grocery. but they continually menaced the public peace, indeed openly threatened to burn the town, and were finally, in 1835, warned away on pain of death. "A list of all the known gamblers was made out, and they were personally notified to leave, and did leave". It was not long after this, that through the heroism of Virgil A. Stewart, John A. Murrell fell into a trap, and was arrested, condemned, and punished. This resulted in the clan being scattered, and their organization broken up. From the confession that Murrell made to Stewart, a copy of which, with the names of his confederates as he gave them, is in possession of the writer, it is plain that he was one of the most bloodthirsty fiends of whom there is any record in the annals of crime.
Virgil Stewart entitled the little book he published "A History of the Detection, Conviction, Life and Designs of John A. Murrell, the Great Western Land Pirate; together with his System of Villainy and Plan of Exciting a Negro Rebellion." A comprehensive title so far as it goes, it does not quite cover the case. It is tame by comparison with the recital of the dreadful deeds that follows.
Stewart was a young man, a friend of Parson Henning, of Madison County, where Murrell made his residence. From this parson the Great Western Land Pirate had stolen two negroes. He was not in the habit of thus operating in the vicinity of his home, but he perpetrated this crime out of revenge, because the parson and his son had appeared in court as witnesses on the occasion of his successful prosecution for stealing three negroes from a Mr. Long, of Madison county, but the penalty for which he finally escaped through technicalities of the law. The parson, much encouraged by the success in the Long case in the lower court, determined to watch Murrell's movements, and follow him, believing that by so doing he could recover his Negroes. For this purpose he set a watch upon him, and learning that "the Pirate" was going to Randolph, he invited Stewart to accompany him, offering to pay him.' Stewart declined the pay, but promised to do all he could to help him recover his property.
On the day appointed he went to the rendezvous appointed, but neither the parson nor his son made their appearance. Falling in with Murrell, however, Stewart entered upon the task alone, and being unknown to Murrell on account of his absence from the State for the previous nine months, was able to ingratiate himself and ultimately win the bandit's confidence. After several hours travel Murrell confessed that he knew two young men who were "on the road " and that the elder of the two was the head of a noted clan with purses superior to the law, that he believed this “elder brother" had stolen Long's negroes, and also Parson Henning's out of revenge, and would be able to dispose of them. Stewart sympathized with this "elder brother," and conceded the correctness of his choice of a profession, as it was money and not respectability that secured men the respect and esteem of the world. This was an introduction to a long colloquy; in the course of which Stewart continued to win the confidence of the highwayman, whose name, long after was terror in West Tennessee and the adjacent country.
Murrell gave particulars of many crimes that he and his brother had committed they were detected in a few instances, and how they invariably escape through loopholes of the law or by the connivance of officials who belonged to the clan. In this confession, the cold-blooded narration of which would furnish later novelists, he always spoke of himself as the "elder brother," gifted beyond all the men of his time, in knowledge of law, of human nature, and in skill in dealing with the world, officials particularly. He boasted of his widespread connections throughout the South, and asserted his power to be equal to the destruction of any man, socially or otherwise, in who might interfere with him, or to have him killed or strip property by arson and robbery.
At the end of the second day’s journey Stewart had so won on Murrell that the robber invited him to join and proposed to initiate him by giving him the signs and pass,." two degrees of Murrell's Mystic Clan. On the third day Murrell confessed himself to be the "elder brother," of whom Stewart, traveling by the name by this time professed himself to be enamored. Murrell said: "Sir, I am the leader of a noble band of valiant and lordly bandits. I will give you friendship and strength hereafter, and I will introduce you among my fellow you all their names and residences before we part; but we must n longer than you can arrange your business; and I will make you fellow, and put you on the high road to fortune. You shall be at the grand councils of our clan; for I consider you a young man of abilities. Sir, these are my feelings and sentiments towards you: On the fourth day Murrell became more communicative, and explained that the clan had a great enterprise on foot, which was nothing less than fomenting of a general uprising of the negroes in all the slave States, with wholesale murder and destruction of property, during the excitement occasioned by which they were to steal all they could and make the said haul. That would obviate the necessity of petty thefts of horses and the murder of so many to cover up their tracks.