William Morrison
Also known as
Morrison, William
William Morrison was born on a farm near Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of 18, he left his parents' farm and went to the city. In Cincinnati, according to the highly fictionalized account of his life that was published as his "confessions," he joined a gang of counterfeiters and used forged documents to buy a fine house for his wife. When she learned of where his money came from, he killed her. He fled to New Orleans, where he worked on a farm and married the farmer's daughter. He took to counterfeiting again, and when he was found out, he fled with his wife and children to the Rocky Mountains. There he joined a gang of highway robbers and often killed his victims. His gang was pursued by the law and scattered, so he took his family and joined an Indian tribe. There he fell in love with another woman, and when he learned that she was engaged to someone else, he killed that man. He fled the tribe, leaving his second wife behind, and headed back to Illinois, where he married a third time, then killed his grandparents. He was arrested, tried for murder, and executed in Illinois.
