Murder & Mayhem in East Tennessee

by Dewaine A. Speaks

Overview

East Tennessee is gorgeous country, but the hills and hollers have a dark side. James Earl Ray, who had already assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., created mayhem at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary when he led six other men in a short-lived escape. Several thousand Cherokee Indians from East Tennessee were forced on what would later be called the "Trail of Tears." In the "Hankins Murder" case and in the triple killings in Oliver Springs, chaos and confusion resulted from the wrongful arrest and public accusations of innocent people. Jake and C.H. Butcher brought about bedlam with their banking scandal that at the time was unsurpassed in scope in the nation's history. Author Dewaine A. Speaks details these stories and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439671412
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/05/2020
Series:	Murder & Mayhem
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Dewaine Speaks graduated from the University of Tennessee with a major in economics. He retired in 2002 following a career in the marketing of industrial controls, both domestically and internationally. While at Knoxville Central High School, he was named All-East Tennessee in football and All-County in baseball. He went on to play outfield for the University of Tennessee Volunteers. While a member of the Tennessee Air National Guard in 1961, Speaks was sent to eastern France when President John Kennedy called several thousand guardsmen and reservists to active duty. For this deployment, he was awarded the "Berlin Crisis" medal. He was a member of the East Tennessee Veteran's Honor Guard for seventeen years and during this time received the "Presidential Volunteer Service Award."

Table of Contents

Foreword Thomas Drinnen Joseph Van Hook 7

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction 13

1 James Earl Ray Goes to "The End of the Line" 15

2 The Botched Investigation into the Murder of Mary Hankins 27

3 The Ambush of a University Dean 37

4 The Mystery Surrounding the Redhead Murders 42

5 The Mystery That Swirled Around Triple Homicides in Oliver Springs 45

6 Mayhem in the Great Smoky Mountains 51

7 The Tragic Wartime Experience of Captain Thomas Drinnen 65

8 The Trail of Tears Begins in East Tennessee 73

9 The White Caps and the Blue Bills 87

10 A Troubled Young Man Is Given More Than a Second Chance 96

11 "Thunder Was His Engine and White Lightnin' Was His Load" 102

12 A World's Fair and a Crumbling Banking Empire 114

13 "I Never Intended to Become a Killer" 128

Epilogue 139

Bibliography 141

About the Author 143