High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John A. Murrell (also spelled as Murel and Murrel) (c. 1806-1844), was a notorious bandit who operated along the Mississippi River in the United States in first half of the nineteenth century. Captured and convicted in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Tennessee, he was imprisoned in the Tennessee State Penitentiary, modeled on the Auburn penal system, from 1834 to 1844.