September 06, 2006

Family Tree - Moore Side > Jack Neely on the Clarence Bunch Gang

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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Comments

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.

Posted by: Carl Wayne Gentry at January 14, 2008

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.

Posted by: jeri (McCoig) cullinan at March 13, 2008
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