Newspaper Articles
Submitted by Glenn Teffeteller

MURDER OF MRS. GRAY

      The murder of Mrs. Gray, living near Loudon, by a colored man named John Gillispie, was a brutal transaction. He committed the deed on last Wednesday while Mr. Gray was absent attending a funeral in the neighborhood. Gillispie was found ten miles from the home of Mr. Gray. He confessed the murder. Then he was taken to Loudon, and after an examination by Mr. Sams, the father of Mrs. Gray, several other parties being present, he was taken by the indignant people of the county and hung to the limb of an oak tree. The real cause of the murder is supposed to be a brutal attempt to outrage the person of Mrs. Gray. Yet, when arrested, he said Mrs. Gray had told a falsehood about him. The lady murdered was a most estimable woman. There was no division in the sentiment of the people, white and colored, as to the justness of the punishment meeted out to Gillispie.

     Bob Taylor, one of the notorious "Taylor Brothers," whose murder of Sheriff Cate and his deputy, Conway, startled the whole country, was killed near Lebanon, Missouri on the 13th inst., by Sheriff Goodall of Laclede County, MO. Through correspondence with Sheriff Joe D. Foute of Loudon County, Sheriff Goodall was made acquainted with the facts of the murders committed by the Taylors, and as Bob used to be in that section (his brother's wife lives in Camden County), the Sheriff soon spotted his man and undertook to arrest him on the train, after it left Lebanon. Goodall presented his pistol and told Taylor ro surrender. Bob tried to draw his pistol, but the Sheriff struck him on the head with his revolver, and as the blow did not seem to effect him, Goodall then shot Taylor, the ball ranging near the heart. John O. Estes, a deputy sheriff, knocked a pistol out of Taylor's hand, and struck him on the head with a club after he was shot, breaking the skull. Taylor lived about a minute after being shot.
     Sheriff Goodall arrived in Chattanooga Monday night with the body of Taylor, the same having been fully identified. The corpse was exposed to view until noon Tuesday, when it was brought to Loudon.
     Some persons think that it is not Bob Taylor's body. The whereabouts of the other Taylors is still unknown.

For some time, a bitter feud has existed between James C. Sizemore and E.C. Johnson, on account of two dissolute women living near the homes of the two men, whichis three-quarters of a mile south-west ofConcord.

The feud has been embittered by gossips carrying tales from one to the other of the men and several times they have met and quarreled. It is said that several times Sizemore threatened to kill Johnson. A fight between them had been prevented by interference of friends of both parties.

Sunday week Sizemore went to Johnson'splace of residence and the two soon became involved in a row. But bystanders again interfered, and it was supposed by their friends that the hatchet was buried between them, for the men shook hands and were apparently in the best of terms, agreeing that the matter in dispute would not be referred to by either again.

It seems that Sizemore, at last forgo this part of the compact, for on Wednesday the sixth he sent a challenge by his seven-year old son to Johnson to meet him on the half way ground, there to forever settle their old  dispute.

Johnson was employed as fireman at McConnell's Saw Mill and Sizemore worked at the Republic Marble Quarry perhaps a mile apart.

The little boy reached the mill shortly before five o'clock with the challenge.

Johnson opened the slip of paper and read from his enemy this challenge: "Bring no one with you, as I have no one with myself, and we will fight this damned thing out any way you want to".

Calling someone to take his place, Johnson placed the note in his pocket, and followed by the little son of the man who was soon to slay him, strode to the meeting point, where Sizemore awaited his arrival.

The little boy was the sole witness of the tragedy that followed. His statement is that Johnson told his father to throw down his arms and fight fair, at the same time commencing to pull off his coat.

At that moment Sizemore pulled out his pistol and commenced rapidly firing on the defenseless man. Five shots were fired and then Sizemore left the prostrate man and went to the McConnell Mill afte rhaving first emptied the chambers of his gun.

Arriving at the mill Sizemore told the hands that he had killed Johnson and that they could go and get his body. The men hastened to the spot and removed the body, from which life was nearly extinct,to the neighboring house of M.L. Smith, where the wounded man died fifteen minutes later.

Sizemore followed the men into the house, looked at the man whom he had killed, andwith an oath, swore that he had killed one man and would kill more. A sworn statement of a witness at the inquest.

Mr. H. M. Harvey, a justice of the peace living a mile from the place, was notified Thursday morning and empannelled the following jury of inquest: H.M. Holder, A.R.Dyer, T.A. Hook, J.S. Brown, N.L. Smith, TipFrench and Sherman Holder..

Examination of the body revealed the fact that five shots had entered the body, one under the left nipple, another in the left side and three in the back. The verdict rendered was in accordance with the above statements.

During the night following the shooting Sizemore fled, but a posse is now after him.

Johnson was 21 years of age and without family. He was well known and liked.

Sizemore is a man of family. He is about 35 years of age and a desperate character. It is said that his father killed nineteen men in upper East Tennessee shortly after the war.  ----Knoxille Journal.