This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: CabinSue Surnames: Thompson, Hill, Evans, Murphy Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.kentucky.counties.garrard/3943/mb.ashx Message Board Post: >From the Memphis Daily Appeal - 5 Dec 1865 Bloody Tragedy in Mississippi. A Son Murders A Family. The Mother, Son and Three Sisters Dead. The Father and a Sister Wounded. James Thompson left his home eight or ten years ago. About a year since he returned to the house of his father, near Brooksville, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. James exhibited to his father what appeared to be authentic and official letters from Peru; showing that he was citizen of that country, and had been in the Peruvian army. When this man arrived at home the Federal army was approaching Brooksville, and young Thompson persuaded his father to deed his property to him, so that he could legally place it under the protection of the Peruvian flag. James has recently been organizing a colony for Brazil. He sold stock from the place, and his last act was to place one hundred bales of cotton on a flatboat on the Tombigbee river, which flows within a few miles of Brooksville. The father became alarmed, and, it appears, left home on Tuesday of last week, for Gainesville, to obtain legal advice as to the proper steps to take in restraining his son. It appears, however, that this move was made quietly, and that the relations of James, with the family, which consisted of his stepmother, three half sisters and a half brother, were entirely cordial. There is also a full brother named Joseph, who it is feared was accessory to James. On Sunday morning James approached the house and inquired of the negroes in the yard, if all were well. He then entered the house, and it appears, shot his sister Margaret with a shotgun as she was in the act of dressing herself. She had one stocking on and had another in her hand. The shot took effect in her right shoulder and side, nearly tearing the arm from the body, and mangling the side most horribly. The mother was heard by her daughter Jemima, who was upstairs, to beg her son most piteously not to shoot; but a! second report followed, and the mother was found dead, shot in the right shoulder and aide, on the floor back of the bed. The mother and this daughter must have died instantly. The murderer then entered the room of his brother, Clay, whom he shot in the forehead, killing him instantly. Clay was also heard by the girls above stairs begging his brother not to shoot him. The two girls upstairs closed and bolted their door, but the terrible man ascended the stairs and forced it open. Jemima slipped by him, rushed down, and was on the threshold of the door, when she was seized by the shoulder and flung back into the room and shot in the back of the head with a pistol. She must die. From the direction of the fatal shot she must have been on her knees, begging for her life. The murderer then again went upstairs and shot the last and youngest sister, named Emma, in the shoulder and breast. She got under the bed, where he fired two shots at her. She abandoned this positio! n and placed herself behind a wardrobe. Here she received two shots, one in the side and one in the left thigh. This young girl may recover. James now left the house and proceeded to the river, where his cotton boat was moored. He met his father and the Sheriff of the county. He aimed deliberately at his father, but the cap snapped. He fired the second barrel, but it was knocked up by a by-stander, and passed harmlessly over the father's head. He then his pistol and fired twice, one shot taking effect in the body of the father, who now clenched the desperado and after a fierce struggle he was bound. The hue and cry was raised, and citizens from Brooksville followed the ruffian to the river, who were with difficulty restrained from burning him. He is in jail at Macon. It is supposed that Joe Thompson was an accomplice, from the fact that he told his father and the sheriff, on their arrival at the river, that his brother James was drinking and would do mischief since which that time he has not been seen. James Thompson is described as a small man, with a pleasing but reckless face. He is thirty years of age. END OF ARTICLE. >From the Louisville Daily Journal - 14 Dec 1865 Horrible Murder. - A young man named James Thompson, of Noxubee, Miss., murdered his mother, brother, and two sisters, Saturday last. Thompson had some difficulty with his father about a little property. He killed his mother, two sisters, and one brother in revenge for his supposed grievances. Thompson was taken to Brooksville, Miss., and hanged by the citizens. END OF ARTICLE Roland Thompson, his brother, is listed on the Civil War monument to the dead standing in Macon, Miss. If James was gone for eight to ten years to S. America, when and where did he serve in the Civil War? At this stage of the war, southerners were doing many things to protect what cotton they had left, so the story rings true about a scheme to bring it under the protection of a Peruvian citizen. What doesn't make sense is the story of James being crazed by brother Roland's death and waiting 3 or 4 years to snap. I wonder what the house servants were doing when the rampage was going on? Did they run to get help? This story was taken from an eyewitness because of the detail. Emma did give an interview to the Meridian Clarion dated 10 Dec 1865 but did she also give an interview to this reporter which shows that the wounds she sustained was not life-threatening. Was this a planned event as James was armed to the teeth, shotgun and pistol, which meant a certain amount of reloading had to be done. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.