Chancellor Andrew Allison of Tennessee’s sixth chancery division, comprising Davidson and Williamson counties, was a leading member of the Tennessee bar.² He served as the third president of the Tennessee Bar Association (1883-1884) and vice president of the American Bar Association (ABA).³ In 1884, he presented a celebrated scholarly paper, lamenting the rise of government regulations, to the ABA annual convention at Saratoga, New York, titled: “The Rise and Probable Decline of Private Corporations in America.”⁴

Born in Williamson County in 1843 to a farming family, Allison was a “dedicated student” of the law at Cumberland University. The Civil War began as he graduated, and he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army. At war’s end, he went to Harvard Law School, earning a second law degree.⁵

The erudite Allison commenced a distinguished practice in Nashville, first with the prestigious law firm of Baxter, Smith and Allison, later Smith and Allison.⁶ He was elected chancellor as a conservative Democrat in 1886 and reelected in 1894, both hotly contested races.⁷ Tall and “dignified,” with “silvery hair” and a “pleasing” “courtly manner,” the chancellor, in his early 50s, was “a man who would attract attention almost everywhere.”⁸ His judicial career looked bright.

The Clerk and Master

On Nov. 2, 1888, with the public endorsement of many city leaders, Chancellor Allison announced the appointment of 38-year-old George Keeling Whitworth to a six year term as clerk and master of the Davidson County Chancery Court. Whitworth would succeed T. W. Wrenne, whose term would expire on Nov. 15. Allison revealed his choice from the bench when opening court. He said he believed “the appointment would meet with the approval of the community” and he was “bestowing the place in accord with the fitness of the appointee.”⁹ Allison ended by complimenting the other candidates.¹⁰

Whitworth was from one of Nashville’s leading families.¹¹ His father, Judge James M. Whitworth, was a revered lawyer, bank president and former presiding judge of the county court.¹² Young George, an active Democrat, was appointed county trustee in 1880 by the county court and elected by the voters to two subsequent terms but was defeated when seeking a third.¹³

The month before his chancery appointment, he became part owner and a director of The Nashville American newspaper.¹⁴

George Whitworth’s selection as clerk and master was no surprise. It was well-known the chancellor and Whitworth were close. Whitworth managed Allison’s first campaign for chancery court two years earlier and, while clerk and master, would do the same for Allison’s reelection. He was an experienced political pro with a “magnetic personality,”¹⁵ “a rollicking, jolly fellow.”¹⁶ And, despite not being “possessed of any great wealth,” as clerk and master, he became notorious for spending “freely”¹⁷ and living “like a prince,”18 yet was one who “never forgets a friend.”¹⁹

Still Whitworth’s friendship with Allison soured soon after the chancellor’s reelection in August 1894 as the end of Whitworth’s term approached in November. With the expectation of reappointment, Whitworth claimed he expended large sums on Allison’s campaign and made personal loans to the chancellor, all totaling possibly as much as $15,000 ($554,765 in today’s money).²⁰

When rumors surfaced that he would not be reappointed, Whitworth asked for repayment but was refused. Mutual friends actively mediated the financial dispute until Chancellor Allison said he  would only secure a portion of the debt and halted talks saying it was between himself and Whitworth. He also divulged he would be appointing a different young attorney clerk and master: his own 27-year-old son, Granville Allison.²¹ Late one night, an inebriated Whitworth offered a Nashville American reporter a wager that Granville would never be clerk and master.²²

Murder in Chancery

At about 12:50 in the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 14, 1894, Whitworth’s last day as clerk and master, Chancellor Allison adjourned court, left the third-floor courtroom and entered a corridor leading to a stairwell. Joseph Acklen, a lawyer who had just argued a case, was a few steps behind the chancellor. Acklen heard someone say “Oh, Judge!” Acklen looked up and saw George Whitworth standing in the doorway of the chancery minute room and raising a double-barreled shotgun. When the chancellor turned, Whitworth fired both barrels directly into Allison’s face and chest at nine paces. Allison moaned and fell to the floor.²³

As Acklen shouted for help, Whitworth dropped the shotgun, pulled a revolver from his pocket and fired into his own chest. A deputy clerk ran into the hallway and tried to take the pistol.

During the struggle, Whitworth fired into his chest a second time. Others reached the corridor and found Acklen kneeling and holding the dead chancellor’s bloody head.²⁴ Weeping, he said, “George Whitworth has shot the Chancellor.”²⁵

As a crowd gathered, Allison’s corpse was carried to the privacy of the empty chancery courtroom and placed on a large desk. Bleeding profusely from his wounds and mouth, Whitworth was helped to walk to the minute room and laid on a table. Inquiring about his injuries, he asked, “Oh boy, did I shoot high enough?” He was told he had. He replied, “Alright, but how about the other fellow?” When informed that Chancellor Allison was dead, Whitworth seemed pleased. ²⁶ Then he pleaded for his pistol to “finish himself.”²⁷

Revelations

While being carried home, Nashville’s police chief asked Whitworth why he killed Allison. He answered, “because no man can ruin me and live.”²⁸ The following day, he managed to dictate a statement to his father. He said the chancellor told him that “he did not run for that office for salary alone, and that he would not appoint me unless I would divide the fees in that office.”²⁹ A chancellor’s salary was only $2,500 ($90,794 today), but due to the compensation structure of the day, a clerk and master in a large city earned many times that from a percentage of collected court costs.³⁰

In addition to splitting fees, the dying Whitworth said he loaned the chancellor personal and court funds amounting to $26,261 ($953,738 today), and “Allison bled me from the first and I could bear it no longer.”³¹ Whitworth stated he could never make good the shortfall once no longer clerk and master. He further explained: “I did not kill Allison because he did not appoint me clerk and master, but because he was willing to let me be behind . . . and to humiliate me when I believed I had elected him both times to office was more than I could bear.”³² After much suffering, Whitworth died on Nov. 22.³³

The courthouse murder and subsequent disclosures made sensational headlines across America. Chancellor Allison died before signing his son’s appointment as clerk and master.³⁴ Granville Allison left the practice of law, became an Episcopal minister and served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Memphis. He died of natural causes in 1908.³⁵

Acting decisively to restore confidence in the court, on Nov. 20, 1894, Gov. Peter Turney, a former Tennessee chief justice, appointed the highly respected lawyer, law professor and Vanderbilt Law School dean, Thomas H. Malone, to serve as chancellor until the election in two years. Chancellor Malone named the trustworthy Thomas S. Weaver clerk and master. Henry H. Cook of Franklin was elected chancellor in 1896.³⁶

Auditors discovered embezzled court funds were far greater than Whitworth indicated.

Hence, years of litigation ensued in chancery, with multiple appeals to the Tennessee Supreme Court, regarding liability of the sureties on Whitworth’s three bonds of office. The financially devastated sureties, including Whitworth’s father, were ultimately held liable to the extent of $85,000 ($3,160,502 today) but this failed to make the claimants whole.³⁷ Moreover, the delinquent tax docket was a significant part of chancery’s business and taxes paid into court were also missing.³⁸

Despite the shocking revelations, a question remains. We know George Whitworth was dishonest, vindictive and not even forthcoming as to the extent of his thievery on his deathbed. He was capable of much calculated wrongdoing in addition to murder. We also know Chancellor Allison borrowed money from Whitworth and planned to name his son clerk and master, both unwise acts. However, could Whitworth have lied about Allison’s corruption, namely soliciting and receiving kickbacks for the sale of the clerk and master’s office, to not only murder the man but also his reputation? It is only fair to the slain chancellor to admit the possibility. |||

RUSSELL FOWLER is director of litigation and advocacy at Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET), and since 1999 he has been adjunct professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He served as the law clerk to Chancellor C. Neal Small in Memphis and earned his law degree at the University of Memphis in 1987. Fowler has written many publications on law and legal history, and is a regular columnist for the Journal. He received the TBA’s Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing for 2023.

NOTES
1. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
2. William Waller, Nashville in the 1890s 75-76 (1970).
3. Daily Chronical (Knoxville) 5 Sept. 1883 p. 1.
4. The Tennessean 25 Aug. 1884 p. 5.
5. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
6. Id.
7. Waller at 76.
8. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
9. The Tennessean 3 Nov. 1888 p. 5
10. Id.
11. Waller at 76.
12. The Tennessean 11 July 1899 p. 5.
13. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5; The Tennessean 24 Jan. 1880 p. 4; The Tennessean 9 July 1884 p. 4; The Tennessean 3 Nov. 1888 p. 5.
14. The Tennessean 20 Oct. 1888 p. 2.
15. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
16. Chattanooga Daily Times 16 Nov. 1894 p. 2.
17. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
18. Public Ledger (Memphis) 15 Nov. 1894 p. 3.
19. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
20. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5; Nashville Banner 14 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
21. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5; Nashville Banner 14 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
22. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
23. Nashville Banner 14 Nov. 1894 p. 1; Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
24. Nashville Banner 14 Nov. 1894 p. 1, 5; Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
25. Nashville Banner 14 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
26. Id.
27. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
28. Journal and Tribune (Knoxville) 17 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
29. Id.
30. See Waller at 76.
31. Journal and Tribune 17 Nov. 1894 p. 1.
32. Id.
33. Grave marker at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville.
34. Nashville American 15 Nov. 1894 p. 5.
35. Commercial Appeal (Memphis) 5 April 1808 p. 7.
36. Waller at 77; see Nashville Banner 12 Feb. 1895 p. 7; Nashville Banner 2 Mar. 1895 p. 1; e.g., Armistead v. Armistead 61 S.W. 1070 (Tenn. 1901).
37. Waller at 77.38.
38. Commercial Appeal 12 Feb. 1895 p. 2.