Most Americans are convinced that Devil Anse Hatfield is world famous simply because he was a prolific killer of men. In fact, Devil Anse became famous because there were other men who killed large numbers of men—far more than Anse Hatfield was ever accused of killing—in Kentucky at the same time Devil Anse was active in Tug Valley.
Devil John Wright (photo at left) was said by the biographers of John C. C. Mayo to have killed twenty-eight men and fathered twenty-seven children.[i] Wright’s son, in a biography he wrote of his father, said that Wright only killed sixteen men, but that he fathered thirty-five children.[ii]
Devil John Wright was a nephew of Martin Van Buren “Baby” Bates. Baby, from Letcher County, Ky., was 7’2″ tall and weighed over 400 pounds. He was a Captain in the Confederate Army, and was said to have been “fierce in battle.” He was captured once, but escaped. I’ve always wondered how he got out of a POW camp without being seen. Baby was eventually discharged early because he Confederate Army tired of replacing the horses he “broke down” with his great weight. After the war, Baby joined the circus, where he met a demure Swedish lass three inches taller than he was. They married and lived heavily ever after. They are still listed in Guinness as the tallest married couple ever.
[i] Turner, Carolyn and Traum, Carolyn, John C. C. Mayo, Cumberland Capitalist, 44.
[ii] Wright, William T., Devil John Wright of the Cumberlands, 275.
[iii] Wright’s nephew, Lieurenant Martin van Buren “Baby” Bates, was in the same circus at the same time, as a seven-foot-two inch giant. “Baby” married a Canadian lass who joined the circus as a giantess, and the couple is still in Guinness as the tallest married couple in history. Anna was seven feet five inches tall. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-10000/tallest-married-couple/
[iv] King, Dean, The Feud, 120.