Sheriff John Burnett

John Burnett

Sheriff John Burnett was shot and killed in a gunfight on the Knoxville and Ohio passenger train.

The train had reached a point just east of Newcomb when the conductor alerted the sheriff and his deputy that four desperadoes were robbing passengers in an adjoining car. Gunfire erupted as he and his deputy intervened. When the smoke cleared Sheriff Burnett lay dead on the floor, his deputy was seriously wounded, one suspect was mortally wounded, and another was slightly wounded and captured. The other two suspects jumped from the train and escaped.

The captured suspect was placed in the Campbell County Jail in Jacksboro. That night a mob seized him fron the jailor and hanged him from an old-fashioned gate-beam a short distance east of the town limits.