FULL TEXT: On the 9th day of February, 1874, L. R. Lane, a
citizen of this county, living at Woodruff station, on the L., P. & S. W.
Railroad, left his home and went to Paducah with a considerable sum of money
about his clothes. He was seen in a house of ill-fame in that city about 11
o’clock at night, and was never seen again. This item was published in the
Times of February 25, and fears were then expressed by us that he had met a
tragic end. Now comes the information that clears up the mystery concerning his
sudden disappearance and untimely tragic death. From the Paducah News we learn
that Minnie Taylor, a notorious courtesan of that place, better known to our
people as Pinkey Plummer, was recently tried and convicted before the Circuit
Court at Humboldt, Tenn., for killing her paramour, and sentenced to the
Tennessee Penitentiary for life. After her incarceration in Jail, finding her
case a hopeless one, she confessed to the killing of three men, one of them
being Lane. He visited her house as before stated, and they went out riding.
She says she killed him and threw him in a river. Lane was a man of family. He
married into a respectable family of the country. He came from Missouri to this
State.
[“A Female Fiend. – A Courtesan Confesses to Three Murders.”
Republican Banner (Nashville, Tn.), May 4, 1875, p. 2]
***
Four years earlier, in 1871:
FULL TEXT: A desperate woman – is Minnie Taylor alias Pinkey
Plummer, well-known both here and in Clarksville, near which latter place, at
Dunbar’s Cave, a favorite summer resort, was a large pic-cic on Wednesday week
last, and just as the party had ended the pleasure of the day preparatory to
returning to the city, Minnie Taylor made her appearance. Some of the gentlemen
told her to go away, as one of her character would not be allowed in the
presence of respectable persons. At this she be came highly incensed, and,
drawing a pistol, fired several times at one of the gentlemen, a bullet grazing
his neck, but inflicting no serious wound. The gentlemen then pounced upon her
and whipped her very badly, after which, not content with her preliminary
revenge, she left for home, but halting at a doggery in the suburbs of the
city, she halted a gentleman, who, refusing to “come in and drink,” was also
fired at, but fortunately missed. She was forthwith arrested, and being held in
$500 in each case, was kept from jail by a gentleman, who went on her bond.
Considerable excitement was created, and the citizens demand that the city be
freed from such desperate and infamous characters; and well may they ask the
suppression of such crime, which so has preyed upon the vital and moral
interests of society. If the law is not sufficient, then other means must be
resorted to. Even murder is connected with those of this unfortunate class in
Clarksville.
About eight or nine weeks ago, a gentleman with several
hundred dollars on his person stopped in Clarksville on his way to Missouri. He
deposited his valise in a saloon and then went out to one of the dens of
infamy, since which time nothing has been seen or heard of him. On the porch of
the house several bills were discovered early in the morning by a policeman,
whose suspicions, as to foul play, had been aroused, several of the women and
the proprietor, whose name is Wm. Rhen, of the house the missing man lodged at,
left on the first train and have not returned. Diligent, yet futile search has
been made for the missing man by the police officers, who say that he has been
robbed and murdered. The Attorney-General has used every effort to get some
clue to the mystery but has not succeeded.
[“Desperate Woman At Large. – Assault Upon Peaceable
Citizens.” Nashville Union And American (Tn.), Sep. 3, 1871, p. 4]
***
[778-12/27/20]
***
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