Verified incident record · 2019-02-26

Bessie Jill Peterson: fatal dog attack in Pall Mall, TN (2019)

Six German Shepherds mauled Peterson; she died at the hospital.

FatalGerman ShepherdPall Mall, TN

Date2019-02-26

LocationPall Mall area; historical source does not support an exact BiteDB map pin

Victim(s)Bessie Jill Peterson (reported age: 88)

Dogs involvedSee cited historical table; exact count retained in source when available

Injury severityFatal

Breed attributionGerman ShepherdBreed/type is reproduced from the cited historical incident table, which explicitly assigns dog type from its underlying sources. BiteDB has not independently verified the breed and does not infer breed from appearance.

What the record currently shows

Incident summary

Six German Shepherds mauled Peterson; she died at the hospital.

Legal-status note

Legal or animal-control outcome is not generalized from the compiled index unless stated in the incident summary; consult the cited underlying references for case-specific follow-up.

Media & source coverage

Video, reporting and source material

BiteDB embeds media only when a source-hosted player is suitable for embedding. News photographs and footage remain with their publishers unless reuse rights are clear.

↗Original source reportFatal dog attacks in the United States — cited historical incident tablePublisher-hosted reporting; media remains with the source.

Source provenance

Primary record used by BiteDB

Fatal dog attacks in the United States — cited historical incident tableSecondary historical index with per-incident citations to reliable news, official records, and/or scholarly sources · Published 2026-08-28 · Accessed 2026-08-28

The cited historical incident table records a fatal dog attack on 2019-02-26 involving Bessie Jill Peterson in Pall Mall, TN, with dog type listed as German Shepherd.

Open original source ↗

Data-quality notes

What BiteDB does not infer

Breed is recorded only at the provenance level shown above. Missing injury details, dog history, ownership facts or circumstances remain unknown unless a reliable source establishes them. This record may be updated as police, animal-control, medical, court or follow-up reporting becomes available.