Individual Details

Death

Wilburn Furr, a fisherman living in a cabin situated under the high bluffs between where Iowa and Trainor avenues foot on the river, met death last night at the hands of highwaymen and in a peculiar manner. He was held up as he was going home, robbed of all the money he had and beaten in the stomach and breast until fatal injuries had been inflicted. After that he made his way home over a most perilous course and died in his humble cabin. The surroundings of the crime give the story a deep tinge of romance. According to the tale his wife tells, he was held up near the foot of lowa avenue, in a place dark and dismal and particularly inviting for such crimes. The story goes that Furr was on his way home. To reach his cabin he could go either by Trainor or Iowa avenues. Either way, the course in darkness is a perilous one, and only one who is thoroughly familiar with it would undertake it if the difficulties were known. Daylight and careful walking would be necessary to land the uninitiated safely. After he had been beaten almost to death and robbed, Furr made this perilous journey and staggered into his cabin a dying man. He came doubled up with pain and wailing about having been held up and beaten almost to death. In about half an hour he died, stretched on the floor of his dwelling place. The police were notified about an hour after the crime is supposed to have been committed. In less than fifteen minutes Sergeant Perry, Capt. Mason and Detectives Perkins, Chiles and Wolff were on the ground, ready for pursuit of the criminals. They never gleaned a trace of them. It would have required the skill of a Conan Doyle to even imagine such difficulties as beset them. In the first place expert guides were necessary to reach the cabin. Then it required a great deal of time to make the place. Again there was no light, except that afforded by a lantern taken from the patrol wagon. This afforded barely enough light for the officers to preserve life and limb with. A search of the surroundings was impossible. A murderer could hide in three minutes in that neighborhood and not be found in a week if darkness prevailed that long. The officers finally reached the cabin, after crawling on their knees and traversing the way in various attitudes. There they found Furr’s lifeless body. It was on the floor. His wife lay in bed nursing a bottle of whisky, from which she was extracting surcease from grief. She moaned occasionally and looked at the stark form of her husband lying en the floor. A boy 6 years old nestled close to her. It was her child and not his, but there was true sympathy in the child’s face. He felt his mother’s grief without realizing what had happened to his step-father. The officers got the story, what there was to be told, from the wife. She said Furr had staggered into the house some time between 8 and 9 o’clock, suffering terrible pain. She heard him groaning before he reached the house. As he came in he said to her: “Sis (that is what all the fishermen call her) I’ve been held up and robbed. They beat me nearly to death. They beat me and robbed me. One jumped out from behind and the other in front of me. They were negroes. One grabbed me by the throat and the other beat me in the stomach and then they robbed me.” That was about all he said. Some neighbors came in before he died, but he never spoke again. In the meantime some one had tried to get a doctor for him, but was unable to do so. From the statement made by him and given out by his wife he was returning home after having collected some money. He had bought a shirt and some matches. The shirt was made of cheap, coarse cloth with blue and white stripes in it. It was found where he was attacked. So were the matches. A negro’s hat was there also, an old slouch. It is but a slight clew (sic), but once before in the same section an old hat led to the detection of a murderer. There were few signs of a struggle. No one heard any cries for help. If Furr yelled for assistance he ought to have been heard at the top of the hill and also at his home. Besides, the people living near his cabin could have heard him. According to his wife it was about 8 o’clock when he came home. She was there alone with her boy. Furr was a fisherman, or more properly a peddler of fish. He did very little fishing himself, buying fish and selling them. In this way he eked out a scant living, if his home and surroundings indicate the measure of his success. He had gone up town to collect for some fish that he had sold and was returning home. His wife said that he had about $3 in silver on him. He told her when he came in that he had 20 cents left. It was not found on his person. The first story was that he had been robbed of $1.50. When a Commercial Appeal reporter arrived at the cabin Furr’s body was lying stretched on the floor. No signs of violence were visible. There was a very slight bruise just under the right nipple, such as would be made by a pinch. Not another mark was to be found on his body. He was turned over and his back was carefully examined and nothing was there to indicate a violent death. There was a dark streak around his neck, which might have been sunburn or natural tan from exposure such as fishermen are used to. Squire Garvin was notified and went down to the place to hold an inquest last night. It was the opinion of all those who had crawled to the cabin that he could not get there in the darkness and that the inquest would have to be postponed. The murder of Furr in the manner described is not clearly made out in the minds of the officers. Furr was about 38 years old. He was a delicate man. He came to Memphis from Mississippi and had lived here about fifteen years, his wife says. They had been married about five years, and were married in Memphis. Furr has a sister living here, Mrs. Lowe. She lived some time ago on Shelby street, just south of South, but has moved since, and Mrs. Furr does not know her present address. She says Furr has two brothers living near Batesville, Miss., who are farmers, and are in good circumstances. They never came near Furr, she said, and for that reason she did not know their names. She wanted the body of her husband held until she could hear from them, as they are amply able to give it a decent burial. Mrs. Furr says Furr begged the highwaymen to take his money, but to spare his life. A marvelous fact is that Furr made his way home after being injured in the way that he was. A sound man would have been lucky to go over that course in the darkness. At several places a slip of the foot meant a fall of about sixty feet down into deep gulches and to death. There are two approaches to the cabin, which occupies an eminence where the bluff just north of the Marine Hospital extends out toward the river. One is not so dangerous as the other, but both are very difficult. A man who had never traveled that way could hardly reach the cabin except by crawling on hands and knees. The officers have the negro’s hat as a clew (sic) to work on, and nothing more. It is a very slight clew (sic), and there is little likelihood of anything coming of it. Justice Garvin held an inquest last night, in spite of the difficulties in the way of reaching the cabin, and the verdict of the jury was in accordance with the story told by Furr’s wife, as related by him to her. Henry Griffith was the only other witness examined, and he told about the same story. The dead man was a brother of John C. Furr, who was for nearly twenty years a constable and deputy sheriff in this county. He was constable in the Thirteenth district, and after removing to Memphis became a deputy sheriff here. He died about a year ago.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee, August 21, 1898

Wilburn Furr was murdered by highwaymen. This fact was fully established yesterday afternoon by a postmortem examination conducted by Dr. Marcus Haase, secretary of the board of health. The police were not entirely satisfied with the first version of the killing of Furr. There were several incredible points in it. The more they thought over the matter the more their suspicions were aroused, until finally they communicated with Attorney-General Patterson. That official said if the police were inclined to believe that Furr died from other causes than those given out in the first story, an autopsy should be held, or at least a post-mortem examination. An autopsy would have been for the purpose of revealing poison, if there was any in the stomach, and it was the strong belief of the officers that if Furr did not die at the hands of highwaymen, he was poisoned. Dr. Haase, however, discovered unmistakable proof that Furr was injured internally by the two negroes who robbed him after inflicting these injuries. The left lung was found to be badly crushed and hemorrhage in the stomach had taken place. These injuries doubtless caused Furr’s death. The points on which the police were skeptical were calculated to cause them to consider before accepting the story of the robbery and murder by highwaymen. Then several contradictions in the statements made by different persons, which were, no doubt, due to the excitement of the occasion, necessarily discredited the first story, or rather strengthened the skepticism of the officers. It seemed almost impossible to the police that Furr could have reached his house after being assaulted. That he could have traveled over the winding path around the high bluff in his injured condition and through the darkness without an accident, the officers could hardly believe. They tried it with the aid of a lantern, and at times had to crawl on their hands and knees and cling to the tall weeds to keep from falling down an embankment, a distance ranging from thirty to sixty feet. It remains a fact, however, that Furr did go over this dangerous path to his cabin, which is fully a hundred yards from the point where he was assaulted. Furr’s mind was active all the while, and this doubtless accounts for the fact that he got over safely. If he had been staggering he would never have reached his home. As an evidence that he was not dazed by the fatal beating he had received, Furr got a hat belonging to one of the negroes and one of the highwaymen got his. He carried the hat home with him and told his wife that she had better keep it, as it might be useful. He picked it up to be used as a clew (sic) in catching the men who had assaulted him. The police have the hat now. That is all they have by which to trace the highwaymen and murderers. The principal cause for the suspicions of the police that Furr had died by some means different from those assigned at first was the fact that they could not discover a bruise of any size on his body. The only evidence of a blow having been struck was a small red place, not larger than a silver 10 cent piece, just under the right nipple. Over the left breast there was not the sign of a bruise, which is singular, in view of the fact that the left lung was badly crushed. Yesterday small blue lines in the left side showed that a blow had been delivered there, but these were so faint that one had to get close to the corpse to see them. Taking these circumstances into consideration, the police believe, or at least Capt. Mason does, that the highwaymen must have knocked Furr down and then put their knees on his breast and stomach, thus crushing the lung, as it was found, and causing the hemorrhage already mentioned. When the highwaymen left Furr they evidently thought he would be unable to move for some time, thus allowing them ample opportunity to escape before the alarm was given. This was am unnecessary precaution, as they picked a spot of admirable adaptation to such ventures. What is still a curious fact to the officers and all others is that Furr did not cry for help. He may have yelled, but no one heard him, and in that locality sound travels further than elsewhere, as it is caught in between the towering bluffs and descends to the river banks, where a number of shanty-boats are moored. Then along the banks, under these bluffs, there is a cabin about every one hundred yards from the bridge approach to Jackson Mound Park. But these facts do not matter, since the post-mortem has developed that Furr was attacked by two negro men and beaten so terribly that he died from the effects of the injuries. The police are making every effort to apprehend the murderers. Capt. Mason and Sergt. Perry have been particularly active in their efforts to develop some clew (sic) that will lead to the detection of the men. Sunday night Capt. O’Haver and Sergt. Cole arrested a negro on suspicion, but he was released after they had questioned him closely. No other arrests have been made. Furr’s brothers, who live at Courtland, Miss., telegraphed yesterday to have his body prepared for burial and shipped to that place and they did not place any limit on the expense of the preparation. His body was shipped last night. Furr’s wife is in a pitiful condition, being both sick and destitute.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee, August 22, 1898