Tennessee gangster John A. Murrell (1794-1844), one…

Tennessee gangster John A. Murrell (1794-1844), one of three brothers who are known to be petty thieves, engages in stealing horses and slaves in the western portions of several southern states.

Murrell was at least once was caught with a freed slave living on his property, and had been sentenced to ten years in a Tennessee prison for horse-stealing.

A young man named Virgil Stewart, in 1835, writes a though-to-be fictitious account of the history of John Murrell called A History of the Detection, Conviction, Life And Designs of John A. Murel, The Great Western Land Pirate; Together With his System of Villany and Plan of Exciting a Negro Rebellion, and a Catalogue of the Names of Four Hundred and Forty Five of His Mystic Clan Fellows and Followers and Their Efforts for the Destruction of Mr. Virgil A. Stewart, The Young Man Who Detected Him, To Which is Added Biographical Sketch of Mr. Virgil A. Stewart.

Stewart has written this so-called "confession of John Murrell" under the pseudonym of "Augustus Q. Walton, Esq.," for whom he has invented a fictitious background and profession.

Some historians assert that Stewart's pamphlet was largely fictional, and that Murrell (and his brothers) were at best inept thieves, having bankrupted their father, a Methodist preacher, for bail money over the years.