THE COLD-BLOODED MURDER OF MOSES GRAVES, THE POSTMASTER OF
JEWELL, ALABAMA.
The reader may well ask what the detectives of the Southern Express
Company were doing while these men remained in Lamar County and the
adjacent country, from the time of the Duck Hill robbery until the
summer of 1889.
In the contiguous counties of Lamar, Fayette and Marion the kindred of
the Burrow family abounded on every hand. The homes of his kinsmen,
notably Cash, Terry, Barker, Smith and Hankins, not only furnished a
safe refuge for the robbers, but they were worshiped as heroes, and
each household vied with the other in its fealty and loyalty to the
robber chief. “Rube never robs a poor man,” they were often wont to
say, forgetting that one never gets blood out of a turnip. These people
were of a thriftless, restive spirit, and among them were many shrewd
and cunning natures, who became the paid scouts of the outlaws. A code
of signals was established, and the appearance of a detective or a
stranger of any kind in that section was at once ascertained, and the
information conveyed to the outlaws. The firing of a gun in a certain
locality, the cracking of a whip, the blowing of a horn, and the
deep-toned “ah-hoo,” as well as scores of other signals, all had their
meaning. They gave the fugitives warning of the approach of danger;
and so, when occasional raids were made, a house was surrounded, a
trail was covered, or some solitary scout from among Rube’s clansmen
was encountered, the stillness of the air would be broken by a signal
which plainly told the detectives that their presence was known and
the robbers were on the alert. It was even impossible to trail the
messengers who carried rations to the robbers while in camp, for these
were stored in the crevices of rocks and in the trunks of trees, from
which coverts, at propitious times, the food would be taken.
Detective Jackson once followed Jim Cash, with a supply of provisions,
to a ravine some distance from Cash’s house, and saw them hidden away
in the cavernous depths of a hollow log. He concealed himself within
one hundred yards of the spot, and, knowing Rube was in that locality,
felt sure he would be able to pick him off with his trusty Winchester
when he came for his rations. Jackson crouched behind the huge trunk
of a tree, in breathless expectation of Rube’s appearance, when a
shot fired from the vicinity of Cash’s house dashed his hopes. Half
an hour later Cash walked cautiously down the hill, took the food
away, and tied a flaming red cloth to the top of an adjacent bush,
thus exhibiting for Rube the red signal of danger. Cash had, on his
return, with the cunning of his class, discovered strange footsteps on
his trail, and rightly divined that his movements had been watched.
Although the detective took down the signal, Rube had doubtless seen
it. If not, acting on the signal previously given, Rube missed his
dinner that day.
Thus fed and harbored, the outlaws remained in Lamar County and the
adjacent country all the spring and summer of 1889, without any event
of note occurring until on the 7th of July, when Rube Burrow murdered,
in cold blood, the postmaster of Jewell, Ala.
Rube had concluded that a wig and false whiskers were necessary in his
line of business. His robberies were now of such frequent occurrence
that he sought to disguise himself more closely, and after writing for
a catalogue and selecting what he desired in that line, he wrote the
following letter to a Chicago house:
June 1, 1889.
_Mr. Sthrel_:
I just Received your catalogue of wigs and will order Wig and Bird.
Pleas ship one set of Bird, 4 or 5 inches and one Wig, Cullor of
goods light Red, slieghtley Grey, and croped hair. Ship goods to
Sulligent (express office, ship at once) Lamar county Ala, too
W. W. Cain.
P. S.--Please find Five Dollars inclosed. eye Hav no sample of Hair.
Rube had written for the catalogue and for the wig in the name of W. W.
Cain. The former letter was written from Jewell post-office, and as the
name “Sulligent” was not plainly written, the shipper sent the parcel
containing the wig and beard by mail to Jewell, Ala.
Meantime Jim Cash had made several inquiries for the catalogue to
Cain’s address before it arrived. On the arrival of the parcel
containing the wig and whiskers, the wrapper being torn the contents
were exposed. Naturally great curiosity was excited as to the ownership
of these queer looking articles. The rumor soon gained currency that
Jim Cash had been inquiring for mail for W. W. Cain. The postmaster
recalled having delivered him the catalogue, and this parcel was
supposed to be his property. Cash was told that the contents had been
examined, and that the postmaster declared he intended to arrest the
party who called for the parcel.
When this information was imparted to him by Cash, Rube became
greatly enraged. He swore he would go to the post-office in person,
get the mail, and kill Graves. Accordingly he left the home of his
brother-in-law, Cash, about daylight on the 7th of July for Jewell,
Ala., distant about six miles. Rube was known to Moses Graves, who kept
the post-office in connection with a country store, and who was a quiet
and inoffensive citizen.
Rube arrived at Jewell early, but the full-orbed day was not a fit
time for the execution of the dark deed upon which he was bent. He
lurked about the outskirts of the quiet little village until the shades
of night had begun to fall, and creeping, with the stealthy step of
the assassin, towards the post-office, he entered. Moses Graves, the
postmaster, and Rube, companions and playmates in their boyhood, stood
face to face, and exchanging a silent recognition, Rube said: “Have you
any mail for W. W. Cain?”
“Yes,” answered Graves, “but I can not deliver it to you.”
Instantly Rube drew his heavy revolver and fired, the ball entering the
stomach and piercing him through and through.
“I’ll teach you how to open my mail,” said Rube.
Graves staggered towards a chair, and falling into it, said: “Rube
Burrow, you have killed me.”
The murderer then turned, and leveling his pistol at the head of a
young girl who was an assistant in the post-office, said: “Get my mail
or I will blow your head off.”
The frightened creature, in her terror, could not find the parcel until
Graves, pointing to it with uplifted hand, bade her get it, and sinking
to the floor soon expired.
Graves’s wife, at the firing of the shot which killed her husband,
rushed in from an adjoining room. Despite Rube’s threat to kill her
if she entered she flew to the assistance of her dying husband. He
was conscious, however, long enough for his ante-mortem statement
to be carefully taken, in the presence of witnesses, certifying to
the fact that Rube Burrow was his murderer. Rube walked out of the
town unmolested, and at ten o’clock that night reached the house of
Jim Cash, his hands stained with the blood of one of Lamar County’s
most respected citizens--the perpetrator of a deed as wanton and as
cold-blooded as ever blackened the annals of crime.
Rube and Joe were not amiss in surmising that the officers of the law
would swoop down upon them. As soon as Rube returned to Jim Cash’s,
about ten o’clock that night, he informed Joe Jackson, his partner, of
the events of the evening. The latter had advised strongly against the
policy of taking Graves’s life, and warned Rube of the consequences;
but Rube’s spirit was full of revenge, and he determined upon the
murder.
All of northern Alabama was aroused with indignation at the cruel and
wanton murder, and ex-Sheriff Pennington, heading a posse of determined
citizens, went into the Burrow neighborhood a few days afterward and
made an earnest endeavor to capture the outlaws. Too much praise can
not be accorded this brave and gallant man, and had the laws of Alabama
admitted his re-election to a second term it is more than probable that
the career of these train robbers in Lamar County would have been less
bold and protracted.
The homes of Allen Burrow, John T. Burrow and Jim Cash were all raided,
and these men, who were openly aiding and abetting the outlaws, were
arrested and taken to the Vernon jail. Threats of releasing the
prisoners reached the officers, and the excitement grew with each
passing hour. A strong guard was put around the Vernon jail to prevent
this, and at the same time it was whispered that the prisoners were in
imminent danger of being lynched.
At this juncture the Governor of Alabama, in answer to a call made
upon him by the sheriff of Lamar County, sent a military company from
Birmingham to keep the peace. The troops remained at Vernon pending the
arraignment and trial of these men, who were released, however, under
bond, and being subsequently tried, were acquitted of the charge of
being accessory to the murder of the postmaster.