This was copied from The Southern Standard of August 17, 1983.

This was 50 years

after the bank robbery and death of Dr. Clark. Also some statements made by som
e of the people who remember "That Day".
50 YEARS AGO: GUNFIRE ROCKS MORRISON
____________________________________
The day dawned bright and clear in Morrison, Tenn., on Tuesday, July 25, 1933, j
ust a little over 50 years ago, but there was much tension among the people of t
he business community, and possibly a sizeable segment of the citizenry, that ev
en a stranger passing through the town could have sensed. There had been rumors
that a Warren County bank would be robbed the previous Thursday, and officials o
f the five banks had purchased a quantity of guns and distributed them in strate
gic locations. No robbery had yet been attempted, but owners of certain business
es in Morrison were still keeping handy the guns they had received from Citizens
State Bank. Others had probably brought personal weapons from home, and had the
m loaded and ready for use. Tension increased later in the morning when known de
speradoes J. Rains, Clifton Cotton and Taft Fuller were seen cruising around the
streets in a small sedan. Then, just after noon, the fears that had plagued the
citizens of Morrison for nearly a week came into full realization and the town
's only doctor lay mortally wounded. The edition of the SOUTHERN STANDARD that w
ent to press two days later, on Thursday, carried these dual headlines.
"MORRISON PHYSICIAN MORTALLY WOUNDED IN DAYLIGHT ROBBERY", "Dr. J.A.CLARK, 62, S
HOT DOWN TUESDAY AS HE ATTEMPTED TO THWART ROBBERY OF CITIZENS STATE BANK AT MOR
RISON.
Clifton Cotton and Taft Fuller Arrested Near Woodbury; J. Rains Gives self Up; O
thers Held For Further Questioning."
Beecher Bowen, retired Cannon County Educator, was an eye witness to their captu
re. In an article he prepared for publication in later years, he gave this accou
nt of the capture.
"The chase had passed me a few minutes before in a cloud of dust and a shower of
gravels. But by the time I came upon the scene the robbers had been nabbed with
out a fight. Cotton was scooting out from under the steering wheel of the bullet
ridden car with his hands in the air. Fuller was lying in the back seat, covere
d with blood, screaming for a drink of water. Bowen said this was on the Hollow
Springs Road eight miles south of Woodbury. Cotton had been a school teacher pri
or to having become involved in crime, and Bowen further related in the article;
Clifton Cotton was originally from the northern part of Warren County. Having g
one to high school one year at Geedville in 1926, he was my eighth grade teacher
." Bowen also noted that Fuller was a native of Cannon County and attended sc
hool at Geedville while Cotton was teaching there. He dropped out of school whil
e in the fourth or fifth grade. Concerning Rains, he said: "J.Rains lived somew
here in the Jacksboro Community and attended grammar school there. However, he n
ever finished the eighth grade. I didn't know Rains as a boy, but I have always
heard that he was a problem in both the school and the community." All three ha
d "been in trouble with the law" over a period of years, and at least two were u
nder heavy bonds at the time of the robbery. Incidents ranged from the torture s
laying of a Braswell man in DeKalb County to a bank robbery at Gassaway and car
thefts. Research that continued over a period of weeks resulted in contact bein
g made with only one person who had actually witnessed the robbery and the slayi
ng of DR. Clark, although numerous others still living had seen the get away car
in flight. Mary Ramsey Hoke witnessed the entire downtown Morrison incident fr
om the doorway of the cafe she was operating in Morrison at the time. She recall
s that Dr. Clark was wearing a white shirt and when the shotgun blast struck him
the shirt suddenly turned red.
Bowen, a recognized historian as well as an author and educator, gave this accou
nt of the demise of the trio that robbed the bank. "J. Rains was never released
 from prison. After remaining behind bars for over 30 years, and two or three un
successful attempts to escape, he died in prison.

After spending about 35 years in prison, Taft Fuller was let out on parole. Not
long after his release he died in a mobile home fire somewhere in Chattanooga.
It was said that after his death nobody would claim his body. Mr. Jim Cummings
of Woodbury, who many years before had been his defense attorney, had his body b
rought to Woodbury and buried in the Cummings Family Cemetery on a hill east of
town, just off Highway 70.
As for Clifton Cotton, he received a parole not long after Fuller was released.
He earned a law degree while in prison, so he got a job doing research for a law
firm in Chattanooga. Not long after his release he died and left a will request
ing that his body be given to a medical school. Not too many of Morrison's pres
ent day residents can recall the bank robbery of 1933, but a sizeable number eve
n in their thirties can remember, when there was nothing better to do, having st
opped by the bank and examined the bullet holes left in the masonry from the exc
hange of gunfire.