Tag Archives: crime
A few years ago I wrote about an Elizabeth Prior who became a victim of a bigamist and serial killer.
https://2014/10/elizabeth-prior-death-at-the-hands-of-a-serial-killer-1919/
I recently came across a photo of her in a New York newspaper. The account in the the Daily News on April 30, 1919 is that Huirt was the accused killer; he had married 7 women in 10 months and 5 of them were missing. Is this the same case?– the man in San Quentin was named Watson or Lewis or something else! The account in the Daily News reported he married women also under the names of Harvey and Hilton. Perhaps his prison record sheet was too small to add all of his alias.
The story gets even wilder in other newspapers. The Akron Evening Times had more room to print the story (slow news day?), reporting Huirt married 25 women and also used the surname Gordon.
I haven’t matched Miss Pryor to her family.
In 1893, before death certificates in Tennessee, the suicide or murder of a “Pryor” about age 35 was recorded in the Shelby County death register. Date of death was March 23, 1893. No first name was recorded. No place of birth. Cause of death was “Throat Cut”. He was buried in Potter’s Field. His last known residence was “Foot of South Br (Bridge).”
I found that the death of Mr. Pryor made it into The Tennesseean on March 25, 1893
I did a search for Anderson Pryor on Ancestry.com and found that he may be the man listed in a Memphis city directory in 1893: Pryor Anderson c, driver, res rear 10 Exchange.” I think the small italic “c” denotes racially he was identified as “colored.”
I’m not coming up with a likely identification for this person. Perhaps it will help someone complete a blank in their family tree.
A man named Hill was arrested and sent to jail lately, in Columbia, Tenn., for stealing mules in Davidson county, where he was tried for murdering a man named Pryor some years ago. A few days after he went to jail he was found dead, suspended by the neck in his cell, thus ending a life of vice and crime.
Poughkeepsie Journal, NY 6 July 1844.
https://tennesseepryors.com/about-tn-lines/1833-report-of-william-pryor-murdered-in-nashville/
This earlier post on the Pryor murder mentioned that the suspect was Thomas Hill. So as late at 1844 Hill was still alive and involved in crimes in TN. Hmmm, I wonder how much time (if any) he did for the murder of William Pryor.
Nothing about the Liddell-Jones feud ended well (see post). After Charles Jones killed St. John R Liddell on the river boat Welcome, mob justice was unleashed on Jones– the mob killed Charles Jones, his son William Jones, and possibly his son Cuthbert Jones. The Ouachita Telegraph describes this a “tragedy”, however I suspect in our time we’d call this a lynching.
Who was the Richard Pryor involved in the feud? What was his fate? I think the Richard who became involved in the Catahoula Parish feud was the son of William Bland Pryor (born 1793 in VA). This is the Richard Pryor who brashly demanded the head of Abraham Lincoln at the start of the Civil War (see post). The feud was fought near Trinity, LA (#1 on the map below). In 1850 Richard was living with his parents in Madison Parish, LA (#2) and was counted in 1860 in nearby Vicksburg, MS (#3).