10/9/1890 - Not as well known as many of the outlaws of the Wild West, the criminal resume of Reuben Houston "Rube" Burrow, a bandit that with his brother Jim and various associates had terrorized Alabama, the Indian Territory, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas for four years, comes to it's unsurprisingly conclusion on October 9, 1890 when the bandit, having escaped from the posse that had placed him in custody the day before, instead of immediately fleeing the region, goes after Linden, Alabama merchant and part time law officer Jeff "Dixie" Carter to recover a rifle and money he was carrying before being arrested. A bad idea, in the shootout that takes place at the entrance to Carter's store, Burrow dies from a shot to the chest at the age of thirty-four.
Rube Burrow
Settling in Lamar County in 1825, Tennessee native Allen H. Burrow moves to Alabama and marries local county girl Martha Caroline Terry in August of 1849. The union of the two will produce ten children in all, five boys and five girls, two of the brothers will eventually become bandits, while oldest brother, John, confines his law breaking to harboring his brothers while they are on the run from the law, and youngest family member, Ann Eliza, will serve as a secret conduit for communications between the brothers, their family, and various local associates. Reuben, the chief lawbreaker in the family, is born on Monday, December 11, 1854, while his partner in crime, his youngest brother, James Buchanan "Jim" Burrow, is born four years later in 1858. Nothing out of the ordinary in either of the boy's childhoods, Rube has no loftier goals in life than to marry, raise a family, and support his kin through the sweat of his brow as a farmer. As a youth of eighteen, Rube leaves Alabama and goes to work on his uncle's ranch in Stephenville, Texas, saving money to someday buy his own place. In 1876, he marries Virginia Catherine Alverson (the union will produce two children that will be raised by Reuben's parents), but she dies in 1881 of yellow fever. Dreams of normalcy not quite dissuaded as Burrow becomes the county's crack cowboy, capable of herding cattle through the Texas wilderness, converting broncos into ranch horses, and hitting anything he aims at with his rifle or revolver, he marries again in 1884 to Miss Adeline Hoover of Erath County, Texas, but disaster strikes when he loses an entire season of the crops he has planted on his farm and separates from his wife. Thirty years old and his only crimes putting his brand on a handful of unmarked steers, something snaps inside the Texan and he decides it will be easier to steal the money he needs, rather than work for it against the vagaries of fate. Putting together a small band of outlaws, on December 1, 1886, Rube leads his brother Jim, Nep Thornton, and Henderson Bromley in morning robbery of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway train stopping at the town of Bellevue in the Indian Territory. Attacking as the train stops at a water tank a few hundred yards from the train station, everyone wearing masks, Thornton keeps his weapon on the engineer and fireman, while the two Burrows and Bromley go through the train robbing it's passengers of roughly three hundred dollars in cash, over a dozen watches, and a brace of Colt revolvers belonging to a small squad of buffalo soldiers escorting a handful of miscreants to prison (Burrow offers to free the men, but they would all rather remain in custody than have more serious charges added to their sentences). Believing the express car is filled with armed guards, the outlaws avoid the car and miss out on greatly increasing the amount of their loot. Mounted, the men ride off and aren't seen again until they resurface on January 23, 1887 at the train depot in Gordon, Texas.
Before Going Rotten
The News
Improving on their robbery techniques, at about 11:30 in the morning the gang covers the engineer, fireman, and conductor with their weapons and move the train a few hundred yards out of the city. On the group's second robbery, the Texas and Pacific Railway is plundered of $2,275 from the Pacific Express Company (after a ten minute battle with the express agent that has the gang fire over fifty rounds into the car before the man surrenders) and over $2,000 in assets robbed from the train's registered mail. Then retreating into a nearby forest where they have hidden their mounts, the gang rides off to the north to throw pursuit off, before circling south and turning back on a path to their homes, where to not raise attention, the men go back to their ranching activities. Ill-gotten gains put to good use, the Burrow Brothers buy a small ranch with the money their robberies have produced, and hire a future gang member, William Brock. No repercussions from their robberies yet to find any of the men, in May of 1887, the outlaws are ready to strike again, but an uncooperative Mother Nature unleashes a storm on the region and the men are unable to cross the swollen Brazos River until the beginning of June. Picking the lonely whistle stop of Ben Brook, Texas (a small town about a hundred miles south of Fort Worth), on June 4, 1887, the men hide in a stand of trees until early evening, then descend on another train belonging to the Texas and Pacific Railway, moving it forward on to trestle where the robbers depredations can not be interfered with (Rube Burrow and Bromley blacken their faces with burnt cork, while Jim Burrow and Brock use pocket handkerchiefs as masks). On the gang's third robbery, they leave Ben Brook over $2,500 wealthier than when they arrive and again vanish into the vastness of Texas without any problems, easy larceny that makes Rube decide to visit the town again in September, and surprisingly, the robbery comes off without a hitch as the gang recreates its June activities against the same railroad employees as before, leaving with between $2,500 and $30,000 in railroad assets. Still unknown to authorities, in November Rube and Jim decide to return to Alabama for a visit with their folks in the company of Jim's wife and Rube's two children. A break from ranching and robbery, the brothers spend time with mom and dad, other relatives, say hello to numerous friends, and walk the streets of the county seat, Vernon, unmolested. Returning to Texas in December, the gang assaults a train belonging to the St. Louis, Arkansas, Texas Railroad at a small train station in the town of Genoa, Arkansas, north of the town of Texarkana. Jumping aboard and covering the engineer, the train is brought to a stop less than a mile outside of town where the rest of the bandits are waiting. The first train robbery to hit the Southern Express Company in seventeen years, the band of outlaws ride off with a gain of over $10,000 to $40,000 in plunder (unfortunately for the desperadoes, some of the money has been collected for the Illinois state lottery and is under the protection of the William Pinkerton Detective Agency), but the heist doesn't go as easily as expected ... another express agent refuses to open the door to his car and the train robbers spend thirty minutes converting the man's hiding place into a wooden block of Swiss cheese before then threatening to transform the car into ashes. And this time in their retreat back to their ranching duties (after the Burrows and Brock engage with a posse out of Texarkana before escaping), clues are left behind in the form of two rubber coats and a slouch hat (sold in the small town of Dublin) that are identified as belonging to the outlaws, but their the trail blanks out .... for a time.
Robbing Passengers - True West Illustration
Headlines
Rube (L) And Jim
Visiting the local villages and ranches in the region, the clues at first appear to be dead ends, no one knows what the cost mark of "K. W. P." inside the hat means or who the coats belong to. Eventually though, a detective arrives in Alexander, Texas and meets the salesman that sold the coats to a man he identifies as Brock, and a few days later Brock's home is near Dublin is located and he is traced to being in Texarkana, while at the same time, a different Pinkerton agent hones in on a Waco, Texas man who seems to have suddenly come into a great amount of money which he is lavishly spending, a man named Brock that hangs around with two Alabama brothers named Burrow, men that fit the description of the train robbers. Deciding they have enough hard evidence that would behoove the detectives to find more, Brock is arrested on the last day of 1887 and then "sweated" by the Pinkertons, with the 5'11" 180-pound 31-year-old illiterate being identified as one of the men involved in the robbery by the train's engineer and several witnesses stated they'd seen Brock around Genoa's train depot prior to the robbery. Cracking in less than a week, Brock soon admits to participating in the robbery, identifies his companions as being the Burrows, and gives details about the gang's other train jobs, while also giving out the Lamar County, Alabama location of his confederates (for his help with the case, Brock will be given a very light sentence). Lamar County now the hot spot of the hunt, as 1888 begins, three Pinkertons, Assistant Superintendent John McGinn, Carney, and Wing, meet up with County Sheriff Fillmore Pennington and come up with a sting operation out of Vernon in which they pose as capitalists from Galveston seeking to buy land in the area, with hopes that the bogus offers for Lamar County real estate will perk the curiosity of the brothers and lead to surprise arrests the next time the men are in town. Seeing through the ruse however, both Burrows stay out of Vernon (it is also raining heavily in the area) and keep track of the detectives and sheriff with the help of their families and friends. Coming up with a more aggressive plan to put the brothers into custody, on the evening of January 10, 1888, a posse consisting of Superintendent McGinn, Deputy Sheriff Jerry, Sheriff Pennington, and Pinkerton Detectives Williams, Carney, Wing, and Wilbosky ride for the home of suspect Jim Burrow ... there is a problem however, Deputy Sheriff Jerry, serving as the group's guide incorrectly identifies the wrong home as belonging to Burrow ... not once, not twice, but three times. Darkness over by the time the team finally heads for the right home, the advantage of surprise gone, the posse is within 150-yards of Jim Burrow's place when the outlaw spies the men's approach, Grabbing his Winchester rifle, Jim throws a few rounds the posse's way before bolting out of the back door and vanishing into a nearby forest.
Brock
For the next two weeks the bandits remain in the area, hidden by family and friends (typical of the Robin Hood tales told about Burrow during this period is that the outlaw disguises himself and actually joins one of the large posses chasing him, and that he pays $700 for a meal at a lonely widow's cabin so she will be able to make her mortgage payments to the bank and then robs his money back once the banker has shown up at the cabin to receive the woman's money). Finally deciding that it is safe enough to leave the area the authorities are searching, seeking to put some distance between themselves and the Pinkertons, the Burrows board a southbound passenger train belonging to the Louisville and Nashville Railway at Brock's Gap, Alabama. Immediately the heat is turned up once more on the manhunt for the train robbers when the engine's conductor thinks his new passengers look like the Burrows and he sends a telegram ahead asking for a Montgomery, Alabama police officer to meet the train when it pulls into the town's depot. Pulling into Montgomery in a downpour, the train is met by Captain John W. Martin of the Montgomery Police Department, who in turn is joined by the station's regular police presence, Officer McGee. Suspicious characters identified by the conductor, pretending they're railroad men, the pair offer to show the two Burrows a place to stay for the evening and secretly guide the pair towards the town's jail. Arriving at the entrance door to the facility, Martin announces to the men that they are under arrest, but those words instantly set off the outlaws and after a brief scuffle the pair flee down the street with Rube disappearing after exchanging gunfire with a local printer named Neil Bray, who tries to help the authorities and is almost killed by a bullet to his chest. Meanwhile, less swift and lucky than his older brother, Jim Burrow trips over a fire hydrant making his escape and is quickly swarmed into custody, eventually confessing to his name and crimes. Police and citizens swarming about the region, just before evening the next day, two officers locate Rube hiding in a cabin in the black section of town. Once again, fleetness of foot and marksmanship allow Rube to escape the authorities through a nearby swamp, but only after using up the last of his bullets and taking a wounding load of number eight birdshot to his face and neck that the outlaw will carry with him for the rest of his life. Out of the swamp, Burrow steals a pair of boots and a horse and riding hard through the night, loses any pursuit coming his way in the forested bottom lands of the Alabama River.
Escaping A Posse
Jim Burrow
Meanwhile, a belligerent Jim Burrow is placed in custody and then sent to Texarkana to stand trial for train robbery, and for the next few months, breaking him out of jail becomes Rube's number one priority. Making his former ranch hand, Lewis Waldrip (his real name is Leonard C. Brock, though he is not William Brock's brother, the same last name for two of the outlaws is a coincidence, and in a ruse to make the new Burrow Gang more feared, the cowboy calls himself Joe Jackson after one of the ferocious outlaw lieutenants of the Sam Bass Gang), his new partner in outlawry, Burrow returns to Lamar County where he hides out with Jackson while formulating a plan to free Jim (hiding in plain sight, part of the time the men work on a plantation picking cotton). Not to be, in October of 1888, Burrow receives word that his brother has died in jail from a mysterious disease which is now believed to have been tuberculous. Brother gone, Rube shifts back to being a train robber again, hitting a northbound Illinois Central train at Duck Hill, Mississippi on the evening of December 15, 1888. While the outlaws take over $2,000 from the express car, Conductor John Wilkenson, armed with a revolver, and a young passenger from Jackson, Tennessee, Chester Hughes, armed with a Winchester .38-caliber rifle belonging to a black passenger, attack the express car bandits ... a bad decision that costs Hughes his life, compliments of three slugs that hit the man's stomach within six inches of each other from the rifle of Rube Burrow (brought back to the coach he was riding in, Hughes dies in the arms of his sister a few minutes later). Leaving authorities clueless as to who the bandits are, Burrow and his partner vanish into the wilds of Alabama, highly amused that their crimes are being blamed on another desperado named Eugene Bunch. Hiding out again in Lamar County, protected by family and friends, Rube foolishly draws the wrath of law enforcement down on his supporters when he murders another man in July of 1889 in the town of Jewel, country storekeeper and the town's postmaster, 41-year-old Moses Jobe Graves.
Rube
Jackson
Seeking to effectively disguise himself while in hiding, in 1889, Rube orders a wig and moustache from a novelty company in Chicago. Paying five dollars for the items, Burrow requests that the order gets sent to Lamar County for pickup by a W. W. Cain. A problem with the order arises though when postmaster Graves receives Burrow's poorly secured package with some of it's contents protruding, and curiosity tickled, he opens the order and discovers the disguise. Taking on more authority than he is invested with, Graves refuses to release the order to Burrow's brother-in-law, Jim Cash, and when he gets the word about what has happened, an angered Rube goes to Graves' store to pick up his own mail. Entering the store as evening falls, Rube finds Graves sorting that day's mail with a female clerk, and once more, the request that the order be released is refused by the postmaster as Burrow's blood begins to boil. "I have such a package," Graves responds to Burrow's request, "but don't propose to give it to you," after Rube identifies himself as W. W. Cain. "Then take that," Burrow responds, pulling his pistol and shooting the postmaster in the chest. "I guess you'll not open any more of my mail!" Turning his gun on the clerk, he then tells the woman to give him his order, which she does with alacrity. Disguise received and made useless by the killing of Graves, Burrow flees into the night as once again the county floods with law enforcement agents, this time with a big difference though, with the killing, Burrow has lost the support of the community that had formerly sheltered the outlaw.
Pinkerton Flyer
Deciding that the best reason to leave Lamar County is to pull off another train robbery, in September of 1889, Burrow and Jackson, accompanied by a new associate, Burrow's cousin, 28-year-old Rueben Smith, and ride out of the state following the Tombigbee River, eventually reaching the town of Buckatunna, Mississippi, roughly seventy-three miles north of Mobile. The town a stop for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, scouting sixty miles of Mississippi wilderness, Burrow selects a railroad trestle on Buckatunna Creek as the site for his seventh train robbery. Launching their raid in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the 25th, the outlaws follow the outline of their other successful robberies (the entire job lasts a little less than thirty minutes), control is gained over key individuals of the train's personnel (Burrow begins the job by using the same words he has used at Genoa and Duck Hill, "Don't be uneasy. I intend to rob this train or kill every man on it."), the engine is moved on to a convenient trestle, and before vanishing into the night, the express car is plundered of $4,000 in cash and registered mail. Job completed (Before fleeing the scene, Burrow will quip to his captives, "Listen you, tell that boss of yours that I won't rob no more of his old cars unless he puts steps on them, it's too much trouble"), the men make their way back to Lamar County (incredibly, while one of the biggest manhunts in U.S. history takes place in Alabama, Burrow spends a whole day chatting about his life with a reporter for the Atlantic Constitution). Enjoying his looted wealth, Smith decides to enhance his plunder by joining up with an outlaw buddy named Jim McClung and taking down the disbursing officer of the Indian agency at the town of Kavanaugh, but the men change their minds when they note the amount of peace officers in the area and make their way back to Alabama, before they reach shelter though, both bandits are arrested in the waiting room of the train station at Amory, Mississippi by three members of the local police force (McClung goes peaceably, but Smith has to be beaten into his handcuffs and custody ... jail the next stop for both men, Smith will sentenced the following year to life behind bars for his role in the Buckatunna robbery).
Smith
Hidden in back rooms, barns, and hay lofts, only coming out at night, the pair of bandits still on the loose determine in October of 1899 to leave Lamar County and relocate to some safer spot in Florida (easier said than done, authorities will spend months chasing Burrow and Jackson across southern Alabama, and in two days of misery for everyone involved on both sides, Pinkerton agents will spend two days of outlaw hunting chasing Burrow over Blount County, Alabama's Raccoon Mountains before turning away from the desperado after having Pinkerton agents William Penn Woodard and Harry Annerton shot to death, three possemen severely wounded, and four tracking hounds exhausted into death). Crossing the Alabama River at the town of Gainsville, the men split up with plans to rendezvous with each other in a couple of months to plan another train robbery, but never meet up again as Jackson is located in Lamar County, secretly followed, and then arrested by over a dozen agents while riding a Georgia Pacific train at Columbus, Mississippi (put in irons, Jackson will be brought to Memphis, Tennessee, and confesses to his part in Burrow's robberies, but unable to face being hung or sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, commits suicide on November 10, 1890, by jumping headfirst from the top of the four story cellblock where he is being kept, a jump of sixty feet). No outlaw confederates remaining at liberty, the authorities believe Burrow will recruit a new gang from various associates, but the man now being called the "King of Train Robbers" decides his deadly criminal talents are adequate enough to not require partners and goes into action next by his lonesome, after spending weeks hiding out in the swamp lands of northwest Florida's Santa Rosa County (1,260 square miles of wilderness, occupied by only 7,500 people), sleeping out in the open every night and never venturing inside any roofed buildings. On the night of September 1, 1890, the outlaw hits the northbound express of the Louisville and Nashville Railway at Flomaton, Alabama (about 75 miles north of where Burrow has been hiding). Both revolvers pulled, Burrow takes control of the engine and the engineer, has the train moved forward to a bridge over the Escambia River (about a mile to the north of the depot), simulates there is a bigger gang of outlaws involved by emptying a pistol into the darkness on first the left side and then the right side of the train while calling to a host of invisible fiends, forces the engineer to break into the express car using a coal pick, has the Southern Express Company messenger put loot from his car in a sack, and then vanishes into the night with a meager reward for his dangerous exertions of only $256.19. The escapade will be Burrow's last train robbery.
Where The Postmaster Died
Escambia River Bridge
Wanted Poster
Fatally weary of Burrow's criminal transactions, the authorities flood the region with money and operatives to end the outlaw's career, and in 1890, their efforts finally bear fruit. Guided by a Judas named John Barnes, who had tried to join Burrow's gang the year before, a posse led by Southern Express Company detective Thomas Jackson, moves in on a cabin belonging to a Burrow associate named Welles, but leaves the area when Jackson receives a report that Burrow has returned to Alabama, but he hasn't. Unaware that Barnes has been helping the authorities, Burrow shows up on the man's front door asking for breakfast (Barnes believes he is about to be assassinated for working with the authorities, but Burrow never acknowledges recognizing the man, and after finishing his breakfast and purchasing some supplies, the bandit heads into the woods. Positive identification made, posses focus on nearby Alabama River crossings and close in on the outlaw, with his trail freshest for two trackers that Jackson sends forth to cover the eastern bank of the river ... local planter John McDuffie and local farmer and merchant, Jefferson Davis "Dixie" Carter (he is named after the former president of the Confederacy). Assets arrayed for Burrow's downfall, the two men soon receive word from two colored sharecroppers, Jesse Hildreth and Frank Marshal, that Burrow is at the abandoned cabin of another black man named George Ford, a cabin in an open field where anyone approaching can be seen from 200 yards away. Storming the locale out of the question, duplicity is decided upon and Hildreth and Marshall again act as if they want to help the outlaw in his flight.
The George Ford Cabin Where Burrow Is Captured
Jesse Hildreth (Seated) And Frank Marshall
- The Two Black Farmers That Assisted In The
Burrow Arrest
Duped, totally unsuspicious, Burrow is making ready to depart the cabin at about 1:00 in the afternoon when he hands Hildreth his prized Marlin rifle for wrapping in an oil cloth. Dropping the weapon upon completing its wrapping, Burrow is distracted for a split second and Hildreth and Marshall jump on the outlaw and a brutal fight starts in which Hildreth tries to maintain a grip on Burrow as his smaller partner, Marshall, jumps in to assist, getting paid for his efforts by the outlaw biting into Marshall's shoulder with his teeth and stomping on Hildreth's bare feet as the trio crashes about the cabin. No time given to signal McDuffie and Carter that they can approach, the men hear the commotion coming from Ford's cabin and rush forward just as Burrow is about to break free and leap out of the structure's front door. Weapons drawn and Burrow covered, the outlaw is disarmed and searched, being found to be in possession of his Marlin rifle, a .45-caliber revolver, a Bowie knife, a greasy cloth travel bag, and $175 in cash. The largest city in the area Demopolis, Alabama, about eighteen miles away, the decision is made to take the prisoner to the county seat of Linden, Alabama, a journey of only nine miles. Hands tied in front, arms pinned to his body by tight cords of rope, and feet tied under the animal he will be riding, Burrow is placed on McDuffie's horse, with McDuffie mounted behind the bandit, and accompanied by Carter, Hildreth, and Marshall, the five men uneventfully make it to Linden just as night is falling. The Linden sheriff and his keys absent as the man is out in the countryside trying to track down the now captive Burrow, the outlaw is placed in one of the rooms in the jail, still bound with iron shackles around his ankles with a chain securing them to the floor. There, Burrow spends the next several hours entertaining the many visitors he receives with comedic stories of his numerous criminal escapades. Hands untied when dinner is brought to the jail for the outlaw, the jail slowly empties out until only McDuffie, Hildreth, and Marshall remain guarding the prisoner (though there are over forty armed possemen about the town). Tired and not feeling well after his day of exertions, Carter goes across the street to his store for some rest, carrying Burrow's rifle and his money.
Carter (Top) & McDuffie (Bottom)
Infamous for his bold moves and doing the unexpected, Burrow unleashes one more role of the dice to regain his freedom. Still up, at 4:00 in the morning, the outlaw tells his jailors that he is hungry after his long day, and when told that nothing is available in town that late at night, the bandit overs a compromise, stating that his traveling bag, deposited on the courthouse steps by George Ford, contains an assortment of fruits and snacks that should keep the outlaw satisfied until his official jail breakfast can be served. Sack given to Burrow after passing through McDuffie's quick check for contraband, the outlaw returns to his story telling while sharing ginger snaps and candy with McDuffie, Hildreth, and Marshall. Captors in a state of compliancy after spending hours with the friendly desperado, no one responds quickly enough to stop Burrow once he reaches into the bottom of his sack and pulls out a revolver instead of another cookie. Not a comic anymore, Burrow covers the men with his weapon as he is released from his bindings while threatening to blow off the head of anyone who gives him trouble ... McDuffie is relieved of his gun and then put in Burrow's shackles, then Marshall is shackled to McDuffie. Wanting his rifle and money returned before exiting the town, taking the key to the jailyard, Burrow exits the jail demanding that Hildreth take him to wherever Carter has retired to for his rest. Being told the man he is seeking is across the street, the pair walk across the quiet street where Burrow, pretending to be a railroad detective, knocks on the door to the store until a clerk answers and the man is told that Carter is wanted immediately at the jail Hearing his presence is requested, Carter leaves the room he was resting in and walks to front of the building, where he is startled to find the armed bandit standing in the doorway. "Give me my money or I'll shoot your head off," Burrow commands from behind his revolvers, but it is an order which Carter refuses to obey though he tells the outlaw "All right." Not alright at all, instead of complying, Carter reaches into his pocket and brings out a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. Reacting to Carter drawing his weapon, Burrow fires on his opponent, but anticipating the outlaws reaction he throws his body violently to the right, and instead of being hit in the chest, Burrow's bullet goes through the businessman's left shoulder, just above his collarbone ... an injury that Carter responds to by emptying his pistol at Burrow.as he falls to his knees. Revolver emptied, though the men are separated by only a few feet, only Carter's fourth shot hits Burrow, but it is the only hit necessary Dead facing his enemy and with his boots on, hitting the outlaw in the upper abdomen, the inevitable round punches through Burrow's portal vein and he too drops to the floor, bleeding out into death in seconds. The outlaw is thirty-four years old.
Gunfight
Scene Of The Shootout - Downtown Linden
Celebrity status gained in death, a coroner's inquest is held that identifies the body as belonging to Burrow and how the killing took place before ruling the death as totally justified. Those tasks completed, Burrow is treated with preservatives and sent on to Demopolis, where hundreds of locals view the body. The outlaw then begins a train ride back to Lamar County on a locomotive traveling between Birmingham, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee, stopping at various towns along the route for the folks that have gathered to see the corpse of the infamous outlaw, with officials estimating the body will be seen by over 5,000 Alabamians before it arrives in the town of Sulligent. Almost home, in Sulligent the body is given over to Rube's father, Allen, by representatives of the Southern Express Company (along with being viewed by another huge crowd). Home with daddy, the next morning, on Friday, October 10th, Burrow is buried on Friday morning at the cemetery of the Fellowship Church, about four miles northeast of the county seat of Vernon.
While Burrow's journey stops outside the Fellowship Church, the bandit's pistols, belt, and Marlin rifle continue on to Memphis, where they are put on display at the office of the Southern Express Company and viewed by a host of newspaper boys, clerks, porters, merchants, bankers, shopkeepers, business men, lawyers, and regular citizens, the region's rich and poor, male and female, black and white ... so many folks that exhibition goes on for over a week, and Burrow's final possessions are placed in a glass case so they can't be molested by the public (too big for the case, the rifle is hung from a peg where it is out of reach). Relief across the region as word goes out that the bandit has finally been stopped (after one of the biggest manhunts in the history of the United States), the men personally responsible for providing the outcome wanted are acknowledged and rewarded. McDuffie, believing his error in not searching Burrow's sack better could have led to disaster, receives a pep talk from the Southern Express Company, along with the cash award the company was offering for the bandit. A cash award is also given to Hildreth and Marshall for their part in the arrest, with Hildreth also receiving glowing praise from the Alabama governor, Thomas Seay, for his heroic actions in a published letter that is sent from the Democratic politician to the Southern Express Company. And Burrow's killer is rewarded too, as Carter receives over $1,000 in cash, but his biggest reward though is surviving his encounter with the robber, instead of going down with a bullet in his heart. But the rest of his life does come at a cost, his nicely timed jump changes the impact site of Burrow's bullet, putting the round into Carter's brachial plexus of nerves, causing paralysis of the shopkeeper's left arm, which he keeps supported in the cradle of a large white bandage for the rest of his life.
A Burrow Smith And Wesson Revolver
10/9/1890 - Rube Burrow is killed in Alabama and the position of King of the Train Robbers opens up ... again.
Burrow
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