Deputy Sheriff Earl M. Taylor

Earl M. Taylor

Deputy Taylor was shot and killed while delivering a death notice to a home on Ballplay Road. The occupant of the home was mentally disturbed and believed that the deputy was there to take him to the hospital. The suspect opened fire on Deputy Taylor, killing him.

The 27-year-old suspect was sent to Central Mental Hospital in Nashville. On February 22, 1967, he and two other mental patients escaped, stole a car in the hospital parking lot, and fled. He was captured in Tellico Plains a month later.