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Letters of the Law

Posted by: Journal News on Jan 1, 2023

Journal Issue Date: Jan/Feb 2023

Journal Name: Vol. 59 No. 1

In praise of Russell Fowler’s article “Luke Wright: The Lawyer Who Saved Memphis,” Tennessee Bar Journal, November/December 2022:

Mr. Fowler —

Another great article. I hope you will collect your articles in a book.

— Judge Robert Lanier, ret. (Memphis)

Mr. Fowler —

I read all your Tennessee Bar Journal columns and enjoy every one.

— Jim Emison, Emison & Emison PC (Alamo), TBA President, 1987-1988

Mr. Fowler —

I was just reading your article on this gentlemen Luke Wright and I have to say he’s the most intriguing fellow I think I’ve read about in years. This thing could be made into a movie! I just want to congratulate you on it; it was a great article. I’d like to know more about this guy.

— Hal Hardin, Hardin Law Firm (Nashville)

Mr. Fowler —

I really enjoyed your article on Luke Wright. It was excellent. Thank you for writing and researching the historical articles you share with us. It’s a real service to the profession.

— Barry Ward (Munford)

An Update on Patsy Troxdale:

My feature article, “The Cumberland Mountain Axe Murders: ‘Can Scarcely Be Paralleled in the Annals of Time’” Tennessee Bar Journal, Vol. 58, No. 1 (January/February 2022), ended with a great mystery: What happened to Patsy Troxdale?

Now we know. I received a call from Dale Welch, the Putnam County historian. Mr. Welch learned that “Pats,” as she was called, was jailed for a time and her household labor rented out by authorities. Furthermore, Mr. Welch interviewed a man who was in his 90s in the 1990s. This man was at Patsy Troxdale’s death bed. Patsy rolled back and forth saying, “I have to tell. I have to tell.” She said she murdered her parents and five siblings with the help of “the boys”: William Upton and Nicolas Stephens, her paramours.

She also confessed to another murder. She said she once happened upon a small boy in the woods with a bag of valuable ginseng he had dug. She killed the boy, took his ginseng and fed his body to the hogs.

Mr. Welch also informed me that Nicolas Stephens was killed fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

—Russell Fowler |||