In Googling around last week for information about Babe Simpson and the Bunch Gang I discovered that Jack Neely devoted a column earlier this year to Clarence Bunch’s end at the hands of Knox Sheriff Wesley Brewer in 1934. In a dramatic end to the career of a Depression-era bank robber Bunch grabs Sheriff Roach’s pistol and Sheriff Brewer blasts him with a Tommy gun.
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My grandmother, Onnie Knight Corbett Williams,of White Pine, told me often about the Bunch Bang. Gus McCoig she would say was her cousin. While in White Pine she says they shot the gas pump. She described the agony of Gus’ mother saying on knowing of her sons electrocution, she (his mother), pulled out all of her own hair.
Gus McCoig was my father’s (Clyde McCoig) first cousin.
I don’t doubt that Gus’s Mother pulled most of her hair out. She worshiped the ground Gus walked on.
The family was dirt poor and Gus tried to get food for his family anyway he could.
Dad said Gus was a hard worker growing up and would take everything he made home to his mother and sisters and brothers. This is no excuse for what he did, of course. All the McCoigs loved music and most of them could play just about anything, Gus was no exception. Like I said , I’m not excusing anything he did, I’m just trying to enlighten people about another side to Gus’s personality. There is a story that just before Gus was electrocuted a group of gospil singers went to the prison and asked him if he had a favorite song he wanted them to sing before he went on that last walk. He said yes, if they didnt care, would they sing Clementine. So they did. I only report this story as it has been told to me , I would’nt swear to it.
My dad has told me the story of The Bunch Gang many times, I would love to find out more. My family (wife and kids) are planning a return to Tenn. to find any remains of Bunchtown. I would love any info.
Bunch Town is still right where it always was near ravens ridge. The last time I was there was about 15 years ago. The cemetary where Pee-Jem is buried is still there as a mater of fact my grandfather is buried there too. When I was there Clarence’s tombstone had fallen over forward. You know I keep hearing about how he grabed the gun but that would have been rather difficult since he was handcuffed. The bunch gang was just as likely to give money to someone who needed it as the were to rob someone who had it.
Seems the love and gift of music that the McCoig’s had then has passed on down the line, There are not many of us who are not musically inclined:)
I can remember my father, Virgil Brooks and my grandfather, Rob Brooks talking about how Clarence Bunch frequently ravaged through Granger County, Tennessee. My father was working at a local “filling station” in Bean Station, Tennessee when Clarence Bunch came in. My father had a hand gun (caliber unknown) under the counter and when Bunch spotted it, he said my father would not be needing the gun, so he took it.
Dang.