Copy as follows provided by Goldene Burgner, Greeneville, TN
received 12 JAN 1990:

(Reproduced in Extra:  The Greene County Story, page 67,
published 1979 by the Greeneville [TN] Sun - John M. Jones,
Publisher.) [Punctuation added]

East Tnn. News  March 2, 1893

                      The Johnson Murder
        A full & true statement of the terrable affair

Editor News:  Sending report in your paper of the Johnson
murders on Paint Creek in this County, and knowing that you
had been misinformed, I will give you the true facts in the
case, as I was sent there to look up the matter and have
made a thorough examination.

     Thomas Johnson, aged 56 years, and wife, aged 45, and
six children aged as follows:  Jeff Davis, 20, Sarah, 18,
Joseph, 10, Charles, 14, Almedo, 13, Thomas Clevelang, 7,
lived 1/2 mile North of the Tennessee/North Carolina line
in the 18th Civil district of Greene County on Paint Creek.

     There has been for some time trouble brewing between
the Johnson family and Alex Griffey.  While Mrs. Johnson was
over the line in North Carolina, Griffey had her arrested and
put in the Marshall Jail in default of paying some costs.
While there, she informed the revenue officers that there
were several illicit stills just over the state line near
Allens Stand, in North Carolina and that her husband Thomas
Johnson would give them all the information they wanted.
Mrs. Johnson returned home the 25th of January, and on the
6th of February James Hixon, Alex Griffey, Willie Cole,
Ragan Cole, Bird Follett, William Follett, & Thomas Hixon
came over the line and stayed all night at a house near the
Johnsons.  The next morning, Johnson went to the tobacco barn
about 1/2 mile away to work for Dan Chaney.  James Hixon,
with his gang, less William Follett and Thomas Hixon, who
were detailed to keep watch on the Johnson house, followed
Johnson and arrested him, Hixon claiming to have a States
Warrant for him issued in North Carolina.  Johnson agreed to
go with them but asked to go by home first.  This request
having been granted, the crowd started for Johnson's home;
and when within a short distance of his house, Johnson said
they had no right to take him over the state line and
demanded to see the warrant.  Hixon claimed to have forgotten
it, and drew a revolver, swearing at the same time that he
would take him (Johnson) anyway.  Mrs. Johnson ran in between
them, when [whereupon] Hixon hit her several times with his
pistol, breaking her nose and inflicting several wounds on
her head.  Griffey and the two Cole boys grabbed Johnson and
the shooting began.

     After Hixon had beaten Mrs. Johnson out of shape, he
pushed her out of the house into the yard.  She fell on her
face with a bullet in the back of her neck.  Proof shows that
Hixon shot her.

     The four then clenched Johnson and put him out the door.
He fell on top of Hixon and had a grip on his throat when the
two Coles and Griffey ran up and shot Johnson twice in the
back, killing him instantly.  Follett then came up and
released Johnson's hold on Hixon.

     There, in five feet of each other, lay Johnson and his
wife, dead; and the murderers stood around and forbid anyone
to move them.

     They were killed about 9 o'clock A.M. on the 7th day of
February, and the bodies laid there until 10 o'clock A.M.
the next day and were not touched.  Willis Cole cooly walked
up to Mrs. Johnson's body and, taking her by the hair of the
head, raised her head, her mutilated and dead face, said,
"Dear old Mrs. Johnson, I have nothing against you now."

     Griffey cursed the dead body of Johnson and said, "Let's
go boys, we have done what we came to do."  The cowardly,
murderous crowd returned to North Carolina, and are running
at large.

     Fires were kept up all night by the terrified citizens
to keep hogs from destroying the dead bodies until the Jury
of inquest came; and, upon examination by the jury, the
bodies were found to be frozen to the ground.

     They were buried in Lamb's grave yard in one grave.


     Altogather, it was the most cowardly, premeditated,
and brutal murder ever committed in this county, and there
should be a desperate effort made to capture and bring to
Justice the brutes in human form who committed the crime.

                              W.