Things That Go Bump in the Night

Falkner's arrival in Ripley was followed shortly by a vicious crime. The Adcock family, traveling by wagon, was brutally murdered not far outside of Ripley. The murderer, Andrew Jackson McCannon, was discovered not long after and brought back to Ripley by a large party of people that likely included Falkner. Falkner wrote a narrative of the murders from the perspective of McCannon, and the narrative was published in the Ripley Advertiser. This is an early example of Falkner’s writing.