In July of 1890, Tuscumbia Mayor John Steele, was shot through the eye and killed by John Goodwin over a dispute that the Mayor’s son had badmouthed his sister. The bullet went through Mayor Steele’s eye, penetrating his brain and causing almost instant death.
Steele’s son was rumored to have used very bitter, denunciatory and abusive language toward the woman (John Goodwin’s sister) and “applied vile epithets not suitable for publication”.
Two years later (on Friday the 13th), Thomas W. Steele, (a brother of Tuscumbia Mayor John Steele) got revenge by shooting to death John Goodwin with a double-barreled shotgun, walking up to his body in the street and shooting him twice more with a revolver.
