[Granville-Hough] 27 Sep 2009 - Victor Sullivan Tragedy

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

VICTOR J. SULLIVAN TRAGEDY

(This is a story often heard by Maxine (Richardson) Watts, as Victor J. 
Sullivan was her uncle. This is how she remembers it.)

“My grandfather, Joseph Sullivan, Jr, was a music master in the later 
1800’s and early 1900’s. He taught singing schools, by using the shaped 
note method, throughout Smith County and South Mississippi. His 
daughter, Kate, went with him serving as organist. They traveled in a 
horse and buggy. All of Joseph Sullivan’s family were musically 
talented. In fact, a post office was established in the parlor of the 
home of Joseph Sullivan, Jr, named “Music, Mississippi,” and Joseph 
served as the postmaster from 1896 until 1906.
Joseph Sullivan, Jr, and Margaret, his wife, had several children. One 
was a son named Victor, nicknamed “Bud.” He was a church-going Christian 
boy, very intelligent. His father, Joseph, sent him to school at 
Poplarville, Mississippi, which at that time was the nearest boarding 
school, where he was studying agriculture, among other studies. Victor 
was home from school, getting ready to go back. He went to see his 
fianceé and took her to church. After church, he took her home and then 
met up with his cousins to visit with them. Victor did not return home 
to his parents and was never seen alive again by his family and friends. 
The date was 1 Sep 1899.
Victor was 29 years of age. The next day Victor’s horse came home 
without him. His family and friends went out to search for him. Two days 
later, before the family could find him, a man by the name of Brown Lee 
found him, then went to Joseph’s home and told the family he had found 
Victor.
Victor’s father, Joseph, hired Pinkerton Detective Agency of Chicago, 
Illinois, to come down to Smith County to investigate and find the 
persons who had murdered his son. The detective came down; but the other 
side, the persons responsible for the murder, paid the detective off, 
and threatened his life if he did not leave the area. He promply forgot 
about the investigation and went back to Chicago without accomplishing 
his mission for which he had been hired by Joseph Sullivan.
Brown Lee told Joseph that when he found Victor, near Victor’s right 
hand was something written in the dirt. When he looked more closely, he 
saw that the letters “B” and “A” had been written with a small stick 
that was near Victor’s hand. This, of course, was to say that Abb 
Sullivan and Bee Sullivan were the persons responsible for his death. 
Victor had told his family that Abb and Bee did not want him to keep 
company with the girl who was his (Victor's’ fianceé. Also, Victor had 
been summoned to court to testify that Abb and Bee were making illegal 
moonshine.
Since Victor had already been dead for two days when he was found, and 
there was no embalming of a body at that time, a person had to be buried 
immediately. A relative in Victor’s family had been ill for some time 
and was not expected to live. In that day and time when a person became 
ill and was not expected to live, the family went into the woods, cut 
down trees, had lumber sawed and had a coffin made so it would be ready 
when the person died. John Ben Sullivan, son of James Sullivan, and 
grandson of Thomas Sullivan, Sr, was the carpenter who made coffins for 
anyone who needed one. Joseph went to the relative who gave him the 
coffin for Victor's burial. Joseph immediately went out and cut down 
some trees on his farm and had another coffin constructed to replace the 
one he had gotten from the relative.
After Victor’s death, his sister Joann had been summoned to a grand jury 
hearing where Abb and Bee were also summoned in the case of Victor’s 
death. Joann testified at the grand jury hearing that Victor had told 
her that Abb and Bee had told him that if he reported them for making 
illegal moonshine, they would harm him in some way. While she was at the 
hearing she looked at Bee who was wearing a watch fob on his watch. It 
looked very familiar to Joann. She remembered that when her brother 
Victor was found, his watch fob was missing. She had given Victor a 
watch fob a month earlier exactly like the one Bee was wearing. She 
walked up to Bee and asked him where he got the watch fob, and he said 
he did not remember. A picture of Victor wearing the watch fob on his 
watch was made when his sister Joann gave it to him, and the picture is 
still in the family.
A few weeks after the death of Victor, his only two brothers, Fred and 
Zack, with their shotguns, went to a place and hid by the side of the 
road on which Bee and Abb often traveled. While they were there Bee and 
Abb passed by. They did not have their guns ready at that time, so they 
hid behind bushes and waited for Bee and Abb to pass back by. They had 
their guns ready and plans made. Fred would kill Bee and Zack would kill 
Abb. Bee and Abb were riding in a buggy and Fred and Zack heard them 
coming down the hill. They got in position, aimed their guns, getting 
ready to avenge their brother’s death. As the horse and buggy came in 
sight they looked up and sitting besides Bee and Abb were their wives, 
Ida and Minnie. As the horse and buggy, with its passengers, passed, 
Fred and Zack lowered their loaded shotguns, got on their horses, and 
went home; saying that they realized that someone up above had 
intervened to prevent them from becoming murderers like their cousins, 
and there must be other plans for them. In the future, Zack was ordained 
as a Baptist minister and for almost 50 years he pastored churches in 
Smith County, Covington County, and Jackson County in Mississippi, and 
other churches in Louisiana. Fred became a deacon in the New Sardis 
Baptist Church near his home and served in that capacity, as well as 
Church clerk for 47 years, until his death in 1962. Indeed, God had 
other plans for Fred and Zack!
Joseph Sullivan (Victor’s father), being a singing school teacher, 
subscribed to a musical magazine by the name of "Musical Million”, 
published in Dayton, VA. The original edition, published in December 
1899, which is still in the family, has several articles written about 
Victor, one by his sister, Kate Sullivan, one from a friend, one from 
his father, Joseph Sullivan, and one from the editor.
In later years, Bee Sullivan left the Hollow and went to St Louis, 
Missouri. While there, he wrote his daughter, Cecil, inviting her to 
come visit him. This she did and he showered her with clothes and shoes, 
including a fur coat, the likes of which she had never had. Soon he 
began to invite men in to see Cecil. Cecil wrote her brother, Newt, 
telling him what was going on. Newt went up to St Louis, went in the 
hotel where his sister was, hid behind the door; and when his father, 
Bee, came in the door, Newt, with the pistol he had taken with him, shot 
his father dead. Newt was released and was not arrested for the act.
Bee Sullivan had a brother named Joe. His address was a rural route at 
Mize, Mississippi. Victor’s father Joseph Sullivan, lived on a rural 
route out of Mt. Olive, Mississippi. On February 15 1933, Mr. Currie, 
the mail carrier out of Mt. Olive stopped at the Joseph Sullivan house 
and said he had a telegram for a Joe Sullivan. Victor’s mother, 
Margaret, said, “My husband’s name is Joseph Sullivan, not Joe.” But Mr. 
Currie said: “Well, this is from St. Louis, Missouri, and for Joe 
Sullivan on Mt. Olive route. Maybe we should look at it and see which 
Joe Sullivan it should go to.” The message read: “Sorry to inform you 
that your brother, Bee Sullivan, was killed today by his son, Newt 
Sullivan.” Margaret, Victor’s mother, said, “Vengeance is mine, saith 
the Lord.” Her son’s murder had been avenged. (GWH, 34 years later. God 
does not work on our time.)

(GWH. Victor J. Sullivan had made plans for the future with his fianceé. 
His land patent application for 160.22 acres in S29, T10N, R16W, was 
approved, but it went to his heirs in 1906. He had also applied for land 
in Sections 20 and 28.) Also, please note that the wearer of the watch 
fob which had belonged to Victor was Bee Sullivan, not Abb. The mistake 
was yesterday in the "Mill Pond Killing."