Month: September 2024

We all know that violence can strike anywhere and at any time. But there are some places where you expect to be relatively safe. One of those might logically be a courthouse, as they tend to have a surfeit of law enforcement milling around. However, that was not the case in Kingston, Tennessee, on August 9, 2005, when Jennifer Hyatte opened fire, killing a Department of Corrections officer.

Jennifer Hyatte Attacks

Jennifer Hyatte was the wife of George Hyatte, a convicted felon with a lengthy criminal history. She had been a practical nurse at the prison where George was serving time. However, she lost her job when prison authorities discovered she had been sneaking food to George.

On August 9, 2001, George Hyatte was in the Roane County, Tennessee, Courthouse in Kingston, pleading guilty to a robbery charge.

At about 10:00 a.m., Department of Corrections officer Wayne “Cotton” Morgan began loading prisoners into a transport van after a court hearing. Jennifer Hyatte drove up and opened fire. Three bullets struck Morgan in the abdomen, fatally wounding him. Officer Morgan’s partner, Larry Harris, returned fire, hitting Jennifer in the leg, but she and George sped away. They changed cars shortly after.

The next day, August 10, police found the Chevrolet Venture they used in the parking lot of an Econo-Lodge motel in Erlanger, Kentucky. Neither Hyatte was at the motel. That same night, Tennessee authorities charged both Jennifer and George with first-degree murder.

Jennifer Hyatte Arrested and Convicted

Jennifer Hyatte and her husband, George, did not evade capture for long. At approximately 10:00 p.m. on August 10, police arrested the couple at an America’s Best Value Inn in Columbus, Ohio. A cab driver fingered them after driving them from Erlanger to Columbus.

On September 17, 2007, Jennifer Hyatte pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a sentence of life without parole. Part of her plea bargain, which avoided the death penalty, required her to testify against George Hyatte. However, this was unnecessary because, on March 9, 2009, he pleaded guilty to all charges, including the murder of Officer Wayne Morgan. He also received life without parole.

Epilogue

Today, Jennifer Hyatte resides at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, George Hyatte lives at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, also in Nashville.

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If you were a fan of the Grand Ole Opry or the television show Hee Haw in the 1970s, you knew David Akeman. However, you might not know him by that name. That’s because Akeman performed under the stage name “Stringbean.”

David “Stringbean” Akeman

David Akeman was born on June 17, 1915, in Annville, Kentucky, a tiny town about 80 miles southeast of Lexington. His father, James, played banjo at local dances. David acquired his first banjo at age 12 by trading two prize bantam chickens for the instrument. After he became a proficient picker, he developed a local reputation as a musician and played at local dances like his father did.

Akeman won a talent contest judged by old-timey musician Asa Martin, and Martin invited David to join his band. At one early appearance, Martin forgot Akeman’s name and introduced him as “String Bean,” a nod to his tall and slim build. David used the name for the rest of his career.

At first, Akeman was only a banjo picker. One night, though, when a performer failed to show up, he did double duty as a singer and comic. From then on, comedy became part of his act.

The Murder of David Akeman

Like many people of his generation, the Great Depression scarred David Akeman. He and his wife, Estelle, lived simply in a small cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Depression-era bank failures made him suspicious of banks, and Nashville gossip was that he kept large amounts of cash.

On Saturday, November 10, 1973, cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both 23, broke into the Akeman cabin, ransacked it, and lay in wait. When David and Estelle returned from his performance at the Opry that night, he spotted the intruders. David offered some resistance, and one of the cousins shot and killed him. They then chased Estelle and killed her, too.

The burglary and murders netted the Browns only some guns, a chainsaw, and the Akemans’ Cadillac.

Fellow Hee Haw star Louis “Grandpa” Jones, who was also a friend and neighbor, discovered the Akemans’ bodies the following morning.

Epilogue

John and Marvin Brown went on trial on March 18, 1974. After being convicted of the two murders, both cousins were sentenced to life in prison.

Marvin Brown died of natural causes at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, in 2003. John Brown received parole in 2014 after serving 41 years.

You can read more about David “Stringbean” Akeman and the murder of him and his wife in Taylor Hagood’s Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Legend.

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