December 2021 – The Night Marauder Project

The World Goes On

If there was tension in Knoxville after the Night Marauder attacks in May 1921, you couldn’t tell so from the Knoxville Sentinel. As in all good urban papers, every issue included a mix of international, national, and local news alongside advice and pop culture gossip. There was a good amount of farm-related news, acknowledging thatContinue reading “The World Goes On”

Changing the Pattern or Inspiring Copycats?

In preparation for a case in Blount County in 1924, a private investigator attempted to create the definitive list of every Night Marauder attack since 1919. We have alluded to him before, especially when the original reports of an incident did not line up with what witnesses later told the P.I. In some of theseContinue reading “Changing the Pattern or Inspiring Copycats?”

The Lull Between Storms

The situation in Knoxville was getting too hot for the Night Marauder. If the city truly had become, as the papers reported, an “armed camp”, it would explain why three months passed before another attack was attempted. In September, KPD had begun their dragnet of the streets each night and special detachments of night PatrolmenContinue reading “The Lull Between Storms”

Southern Honor Culture: The Backdrop of the Night Marauder Mystery

This post was written by contributor Eleanor Forester (MC’21). The post was edited by N. Locklin. In her study on the culture of violence and homicide in the US South, Pauline Grosjean of the University of New South Wales reported that there is a correlation in regions with a large percentage of Scots Irish ancestryContinue reading “Southern Honor Culture: The Backdrop of the Night Marauder Mystery”

Police Desperate After Triple Event

Exactly six weeks after the intruder accosted Maude Maples and then killed Lula Robinson while assaulting her sister-in-law, the killer struck again. Many elements were the same—it was the early hours of a Tuesday in Knoxville when an intruder entered a home and attempted to assault a sleeping young woman. On September 21, 1920, atContinue reading “Police Desperate After Triple Event”