| 4. | Russell M. Allison  (1.Joseph1) was born on 13 Dec 1856 in Tennessee; died on 29 Nov 1875 in Putnam Co, Tennessee; was buried in Rhea Cem, Putnam Co, Tennessee. Notes:
Died:
THE BRASSELL HANGINGS
By Donald E. Spurlock
Siftings from Putnam County, Tennessee
By Mary Hopson
Pg. 65 ? 68
http://www.ajlambert.com
One of the most intriguing occurrences in the history of Putnam County involved the arrest, trials, and public execution of Joseph and George Brassell, on March
27, 1878. It intrigues primarily because of the coincidences involved. Second, the mysteries of this violent conspiracy have never fully been answered. And finally, the attitudes of this community toward crime and morality are perhaps the
most vivid aspect of the entire affair.
The public hanging of Joseph (Joe) and George (Teek) Brassell was the consequence of a conspiracy gone bad between Joe and George, and at least three other men which occurred during the evening of 29 November, 1875.
During the process of carrying out their scheme of crime and violence two other innocent men who were brothers were also murdered. The first, Russell Allison was shot during an attempted robbery of the inn where he resided. He died
about thirtysix hours later. The second, John Allison brother to the younger Russell, had been deputized as a posse member to capture and arrest the Brassell brothers. While attempting to subdue Teek, John was also shot and
died of his wounds early the following morning.
On 27 March, 1878, after having exhausted every appeal Joe and Teek Brassell were publicly hanged together on the same scaffold within one mile of the courthouse as the death warrant demanded. At 1:30 p.m. the rope which supported a trapdoor upon which the brothers stood, was cut with a hatchet.
After eleven minutes Joseph and George Brassell paid their debts to society the State of Tennessee, and the good people of Putnam County, for the crime of murder in the first degree.
http://www.ajlambert.com/allison/stryhang.pdf
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Tennessee cases with notes and annotations: Being reports of cases argued ... By Tennessee. Supreme Court, Robert
Issued, J., delivered the opinion of the court: The prisoners have appealed in error from a judgment of death pronounced against them by the circuit court of Putnam county, for the murder of Russell Allison. The homicide was committed in Putnam county, about midnight on the night of the 29th of November, 1875. The deceased was a youth, and was asleep at his own home, when the prisoners, with two other men, entered the yard, and advancing to the house, demanded admittance in a rude and boisterous manner, under the pretext of wanting their supper. The deceased was sleeping upstairs, and his stepmother and another lady were in the bed below. All were awakened, and the women were frightened by the extraordinary noise without. The deceased, who had been a school-fellow of these two prisoners, recognized their voices, and evidently suspecting no evil design, spoke to the frightened women below, telling them not to be alarmed, that it was the Braswell boys. He then came down stairs, lighted a candle, and opened the door. The prisoners entered with pistols drawn and presented, with their faces blackened, and their persons otherwise disguised. The two confederates remained outside. One of them, a man named Bates, was jointly indicted with these defendants, and his case, after a severance, is still pending in the circuit court, while the other, named Johnson, became a witness for the state in the prosecution of the prisoners.
The two prisoners at the bar were fully recognized and identified by the deceased, who lingered some thirty-six hours after the mortal wound, and by other inmates of the house. There can be no shadow of doubt upon the proof that the prisoners committed the homicide, and there can be as little doubt thai the jury, in their verdict, have ascertained the the proper grade of their guilt.
It appears that soon after the prisoners entered the house, one of them took hold of the deceased, and a scuffle ensued between him and the deceased, in which the deceased, calling one of the prisonois by the familiar nickname by which he was known in the neighborhood, said deprecatingly to him, "Don't do that, Teek," to which the prisoner replied, "Let go my pistol." The other prisoner thereupon exclaimed with an oath, "I can make him turn it loose," and a pistol was instantly fired. After mortally wounding the deceased, one of the prisoners fired at the women in the bed, and then left the house.
It is shown that several shots were fired by the prisoners while in the house, and one or more in the yard outside.
It appears that the tax collector of the county at that time was a son of the proprietor of the house where the homicide was committed, and that he frequently called at his father's to spend the night
The theory of the prosecution is, that the purpose of the prisoners was to rob the tax collector, who, it seems, was expected at the house that night.
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA596&lpg=PA596&dq=russell+allison,+putnam+county,+tennessee&sig=k88nqa5g0VpvLoFGQdd8ayz4m7k&ei=ryYtUbGqLrDo2gXyhYGABw&id=oNYMAQAAMAAJ&ots=yYmqj8OP9W&output=text
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1812 - 1873 (61 years)