Title: Donald F. Paine Papers

Date/Date Range :   1907-1908, 1929-1964, 1987-2006

Extent: 2.5 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection contains Donald F. Paine's research papers documenting four early 20th century Tennessee murder trials, including the supposed death of Tom Buntin in 1931, a possible murder committed by Dr. J. Herman Feist in 1906, the conviction and pardon of Claude Nichols in 1955 and the 1970s, and the numerous trials and eventual acquittal of Bertie Wrather in the 1940s.

Call number: MS-2915

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

Collection donated to the UTK Special Collections Library by Donald Paine in 2007.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Donald F. Paine Papers, MS-2915. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of two boxes in four series:

1. Series I: Thomas Buntin, 1929, 1948-1964, 1987-1992, 2006
2. Series II: Dr. J. Herman Feist, 1907-1908, 1948, 2003-2004
3. Series III: Claude Nichols, 1953-1956, 1994-1995, 2001, 2006
4. Series IV: Bertie Wrather, 1939-1943, 1964, 2003 February-March

Donald F. Paine graduated from The University of Tennessee in 1963 (B.A., M.A., LL.B.). Thereafter he served three years in the Army. He was the original author of Tennessee Law of Evidence, and he writes a monthly column for the Tennessee Bar Journal. Paine lectures for the Tennessee Law Institute, BAR/BRI Bar Review, The Tennessee Judicial Conference, and The University of Tennessee College of Law. He is Reporter to the Supreme Court Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure. In 1983 he was President of the Knoxville Bar Association and in 1986-1987 President of the Tennessee Bar Association. Paine was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Thomas Buntin disappeared from Nashville, Tennessee, in 1931, leaving behind a wife and three sons. He had been insured for $50,000, which was to be placed in a trust for his family. After seven years and declared legally dead, Mrs. Buntin and her trust company sued the insurance company for the money and won. However, rumors ran rampant that Mr. Buntin had in fact run away with his secretary, Bettie McCuddy, who disappeared several months after Tom. The insurance company received a tip the couple were living in south Texas, and they were found in 1953 living as Tom and Bettie Palmer with six children in Beaumont, Texas.

Dr. J. Herman Feist was a graduate of the University of Tennessee medical school and practicing in downtown Knoxville at the turn of the 20th century. On December 14, 1905, his patient and lover Mrs. Rosa Mangrum disappeared with over $1400 and jewelry. A month later her body was discovered near Cairo, Illinois, and the next year Dr. Feist was tried for murder and sentenced to hang. However, without clear evidence where the crime took place, the case was overturned and upon a new trial Dr. Feist was acquitted.

In 1954, Claude Nichols was tried for the murder of Sailer Anderson, from whom he was attempting to buy commercial property. He was found guilty and sentenced to prison for 99 years. In the 1970s, Nichols' sentence was commuted by Governor Winfield Dunn, whose successor Ray Blanton gave him a full pardon. (As an aside, members of Blanton's staff were convicted of selling pardons, though Blanton was never charged.)

On September 16, 1939, twenty-three year old Enoch B. Wrather, Jr., died in his parents home, and nearly a month later the police arrested his mother Bertie L. Wrather for his, her brother-in-law's, and her father-in-law's murders by arsenic poisoning. Prosecutors believed her motive was financial - she stood to inherit the farm and to receive insurance money. After two mistrials, a jury convicted Wrather for the death of her son in October 1941. However, the judge had allowed mention of the two other possible murders, which had not been clearly established with Bertie at fault, and the conviction was reversed in April 1943. Two months later, Mrs. Wrather was finally acquitted of the murder of her son Enoch.

This collection contains the research papers of Donald F. Paine on four early 20th century Tennessee murder trials. The dates correspond to the original dates, though most of the pre-1987 material is photocopies made by Paine. Each series pertains to the defendant under investigation: I: Thomas Buntin, 1929, 1948-1964, 1987-1992, 2006; II: Dr. J. Herman Feist, 1907-1908, 1948, 2003-2004; III: Claude Nichols, 1953-1956, 1994-1995, 2001, 2006; and IV: Bertie Wrather, 1939-1943, 1964, 2003 February-March.

For similar trial collections from Donald F. Paine, see MS-2640, MS-2708, MS-2732, MS-2778, MS-2807, and MS-3056.

• Paine, Donald F.
• Trials (Murder) -- Tennessee.
• Nashville (Tenn.) -- History.
• Law -- Tennessee.