Murder & Mayhem in Nashville

Author Brian Allison illustrates the darker shades of Nashville's colorful past.

Nashville is known for its bold, progressive flair, but few are aware of the city's malevolent past. A rowdy red-light district called "Smoky Row" spawned several fatal episodes. A murderous temptress with a penchant for poison once strolled the city streets. Legends range from Andrew Jackson's bar fight with Senator Thomas Hart Benton to the macabre 1938 Marrowbone Creek cabin murders. In 1938, a state penitentiary fugitive escape triggered a tragic gunfight.