VENDETTA IN TENNESSEE | From the Tipton (Tennessee) Record we learn the particulars of the following story of vengeance and murder:
In the year 1852 Dr. Walton, a citizen of Tipton County, living about four and a half miles from the county town, was killed by a man named Yarbro. Shortly afterward Captain Smith, who was one of the Sheriff’s posse, killed Yarbro in attempting to arrest him.
In 1865 Smith was killed at Randolph by Dr. Martin who had not long since returned from the Confederate army, having lost an arm in Atlanta, we believe. In the fall of 1866 Dr. Martin was killed by a Captain Irwin, and last year Irwin was killed by a man named Burnett, who acted in self-defense and was acquitted before a magistrate, and no attempt was ever made to bring the matter before the grand jury.
Irwin’s father and brother, who reside in Middle Tennessee, near Pulaski, we understand swore vengeance against Burnett, and although it was known to all that he acted purely in self-defense determined upon his death. Burnett, too, seemed to have a superstitious dread of being killed, as he was familiar with the strange fatality which seemed to direct the several homicides, and soon after the killing of Irwin left the State, telling every one that he was going to his wife, who was at Marietta, Georgia; but instead went first to Mississippi, where he was followed by the father and brother of Captain Irwin. He left Mississippi and went to or near Osceola, Arkansas, to live: but here, too, the avengers of Irwin came, and a few days ago the father and brother killed Burnett.
(Vendetta in Tennessee | Newark Advocate, (Newark, OH) Friday, February 5, 1869)