The Thompson Mass Murders

"And now, Randy, I want to tell you about another tragedy that occurred on the Tombigbee River. Just down close to Pickensville, in fact it occurred on the Tombigbee at Pickensville, but the people that had a part in it lived at Brooksville, just beyond the Pickensville ferry about twelve miles, over in Mississippi. Richard Thompson was the son of a successful planter, Thornton Thompson, who lived just south of Brooksville. He had been educated at Harvard, studied in Germany, and was among the first to take up arms for the Confederacy when the War began. And with his brother Marshall he went off to war.

Then one day in battle Richard saw his brother Marshall killed, and it seemed to change his life completely. He deserted the Confederate army, and took a boat to Brazil. And there the information becomes sketchy, but as we read between the lines, we find that he became in love with the emperor's daughter. He became a good friend of Emperor Don Pedro, and wanted to marry his daughter. But he was supposed to give the emperor a gift before he asked for her hand in marriage. Knowing that he did not have any money, and knowing that he was married to Sally Monroe, who was at home with his father in Brooksville, Mississippi, he thought up a plan and came home.

The elder Thompson had made a large cotton crop that year. At first everybody scorned him because he had deserted the army, but it wasn't long before he had won back the affection of his wife. And she begged his father to forgive him, and so he did. They did not know at the time that he had brought three boats from Brazil to Mobile, and brought them up the Tombigbee River, and had them anchored just below Pickensville. The father, having made a big cotton crop that year, and the price being low, the son soon talked him into letting him take the cotton back to Brazil, and sell it. They loaded the cotton on the wagons, and was carrying it down to Pickensville to load it on the boats, when Sally, who was at home fixing her husband's clothes so he could make the trip, found a letter, a perfumed letter, with Brazil postmark, in one of his pockets. She read the letter and found out what, uh, his plan was, that he planned to take the cotton to Brazil and sell it, give it as a gift, a dowry we would call it in this country, so that he could marry the emperor's daughter. She immediately sent a slave down to the landing in Pickensville to carry that letter to Richard's father.

When Richard's father read the letter, he became so angry that he said harsh words to his son, and threatened to kill him. Richard knew that he had been caught in his scheme, so he fled by a small boat and made it to one of the ships. And later, under the cover of darkness, sneaked from the vessel, mounted a horse, and rode up to his father's house again.

Arriving early in the morning and the family was just up beginning the day. He went into the living room and saw his wife huddled on the sofa with someone else. He fired and killed them both, and found that the bullet had hit his favorite sister Margaret as well as his wife Sally. In the back of the hall his fourteen-year-old brother Clay was starting down the steps to see what the shooting was all about. So Richard fired at him, and the body collapsed on the landing.

Upstairs Richard saw the other members of the family. He shot his mother-in-law in one bedroom, leaving bloodstains there that remained for years on the walls and floor. And then he spotted his sisters Emily and Jemima in another room. He shot at them, and believing that Emily might not be dead he pushed at her body with his foot and was convinced that she had been killed. Running outside, he mounted his horse and went looking for his father, Thornton Thompson, who was riding in a buggy. He was planning to kill the father, too. But the father was in a buggy in a culvert between the house and the river, and as he passed and Richard fired, and the shot ripped into the arm of his father, who threw up his hand in defense.

Richard took refuge on the boat, but soon was aroused by a posse that was said to have reached at least two thousand men by the time he was captured. Taking him to a pile of crossties near the railroad, the posse poured coal oil all over the wood, and set it afire. And as the flames reached higher and higher, Richard realized what was fixing to happen to him, and he pled for mercy. AFor thition's sake, I didn't torture them. This will be a reproach to Noxubee through the years to come. Out of memory for the years I fought for the Southern cause, please do not burn me, just let me be hanged. Some shouted ALet him hang, and the father declared, AHe's no son of mine, but he was once the pride of my heart. I can't stand to see my boy burned. So someone went for a rope and twas strung around the limb of a huge oak tree, and fastened to Richard's neck. And there he sat on his saddle, astride his horse. When a whip sounded the horse ran, and Richard was pulled from the saddle, saddle and left dangling up in the air. He was buried in a hole underneath the tree, but later his skeleton was removed and given to Dr. Borders of Brooksville, it is said, to use in the doctor's office.

Meanwhile, back at the house, arrangements were made for the care of the wounded father, and of Emily, who had not been killed, who would later lost her mind as a result of this incident. And then they planned for the funeral of the five who had been murdered. In the Old Sharon Cemetery behind the Perton Frerse Baptist Church, near Brooksville, are four graves in a row, said to be the four who were killed. No longer can a person read the markers. Some have been broken and many of the pieces are missing. But from the past residents say all carried the names and same death date, December the fourth, eighteen sixty-five.

Today that house is still standing over near Brooksville. It is being restored, and no longer visible are the stains that had been left on the floors and walls of the three rooms, and of the stairway landing."