John Murrell

The legend of the Mystic Clan did more damage than the man. In 1835 Virgil Stewart's pamphlet claimed Murrell's gang would set off a slave uprising on Christmas Day, and historians dispute its truth. Even so, about twenty enslaved people and ten white men were hanged after confessions drawn out by torture and coercion, and at Vicksburg on July 6 a mob lynched five gamblers. Murrell himself, convicted in Madison County of slave stealing, served in the Nashville penitentiary from 1834 to 1844 and died months after his release.

What the plaque says

John Murrell 8 mi. S. lived the notorious bandit and outlaw, born 1804 in Williamson Co. Leader of the "Mystic Clan", he fomented slave insurrections and terrorized the lower Mississippi valley for years. He died at Pikeville in 1844 after serving a prison term for slave stealing. His unsavory career has been considerably embellished through legend and fiction.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 16 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 18 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Home of Casey Jones — 5.5 mi
• Union University — 5.8 mi
• Lambuth College — 6.0 mi
• Monroe Dunaway Anderson / Anderson, Clayton & Company — 6.4 mi