I am looking for more information about the bushwhacker murders in Morgan County on July 20, 1864. Peter Hays, Peter Thixton, and John Farmer were supposedly murdered in retaliation for their testimony against Paddy Mullins who was executed in April 1864. Paddy grew up on a farm between the farms of Peter Hays and Peter Thixton and in the same neighborhood as John Farmer. Peter Hays was my great-great grandfather. My family's story was that he was killed because he had testified against a neighbor who was stealing cattle - that he was taken from his home while eating supper, bound and marched to the adjoining fence line of one of the other men and shot. I recently compared notes with a cousin. Her family thought Peter was taken while eating supper but shot in front of his family then his body dragged somewhere. Her family also handed down the story that the gang members who murdered Peter, Peter, and John were killed by indignant citizens and their bodies dragged through the streets of Tipton and dumped in a hog lot. I had not heard that story before and wonder if there is any verifying evidence that this did happen. Any help will be appreciated.

In a strange twist, while researching this incident, I learned that Peter Hays' older brother, Fountain, married Paddy Mullins' mother, Samyra Mullins in 1865.