Comments on: The Lyons and the Landrums: A Tale of Kinship and Murder http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/ histories of unconventional southerners Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:22:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: renegadesouth http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2129 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:51:50 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2129 That would be great, Karen. The Lyons are an interesting Mississippi family, and make a few appearances in my new book.

Vikki

]]> By: Karen Cox http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2125 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:03:12 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2125 My best friend lives in MS and her maiden name is Lyons. She’s from Kiln, MS. I’m going to pass this along to her.

]]> By: renegadesouth http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2120 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:15:23 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2120 No problem about the spelling of the name, Ms T A!

The inspiration for my stories comes from my voluminous research files–truth really can be stranger than fiction.

I’ll send you my email address privately.

Vikki

]]> By: Ms T A http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2117 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:46:25 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2117 Vikki, I apologize for spelling your name incorrectly. It was an honest mistake, truly. Just curious as to how you get inspiration for your stories? Also, is there anyway to send you a message outside of the blog? I just have a couple of comments that I would not like to mention publicly.

]]> By: renegadesouth http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2115 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:45:48 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2115 Thanks for your great comments, Jon and Ms T A–you both provide vivid imagery of a “family-oriented” South!

Court cases such as this murder trial are pretty rare, precisely because, as you both show, family feuds were commonly settled privately, or at least before murder occurred!

When a feud ended up in court, what would have been an interesting family story became documented history. What’s interesting about Charles Landrum, is that I found nothing about his murder in the Landrum family histories that I accessed, making me wonder if his story survived among family memories.

Cindy Devall will find this interesting: E.M. Devall (Jones County sheriff during the war) was the census enumerator who labeled Thomas and Morgan Lynes as guilty of “murder” on the 1860 federal manuscript census for Jones County. I’m more inclined than ever to believe the courts overturned their conviction.

Vikki

]]> By: Ms T A http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2113 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:28:42 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2113 What an intriguing story. Kudos, Vicki! I have to say that I am not at all surprised. In fact, I wonder about Charlie’s background (was he originally from the North, for instance). Even today, disloyalty to family is one of the worst crimes you can commit in the South. I was born and raised in the South –so, I cannot say if this phenomenon is true elsewhere. Charlie really should have known: first, not to testify against his wife’s family. Second, after testifying, he should have known to move away and never return. My dear granny even conveyed to me tales of well poisoning, and poisoning of animals. Apparently, this was a common way of sending a message to people–that they would be next– during certain periods in Southern history. We have a controversy in our family that our family moved to Alabama from Georgia after a “mule” or well was poisoned–I can’t remember exactly. I do agree with the comments above that “feuding” is very common in the South (even today). That is why I state that Charlie was rather naive. I also wonder what his relation with his father-in-law was before this happened. At the risk of sounding harsh–it was rather heartless to kill him so close to Christmas.

]]> By: Jon Odell http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/the-lyons-and-the-landrums-a-tale-of-kinship-and-murder/#comment-2110 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:31:50 +0000 http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/?p=1899#comment-2110 Fascinating story, Vikki.

I’ve got several suspiciously “widowed”great Aunts in Jones and Jasper counties who could attest to the same kind of neighborly reciprocation. None, that I am aware of, made it to court, so the stories are hearsay. But what great stories!

One of my great uncles was shot for stealing a catfish so big all the rightful fisherman had to do was to follow the trail made by the fish’s tail, as my uncle dragged him home over his shoulder.

Another was knifed over a pig. All cases were “settled” out of court in family feud fashion.

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