The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-05-12
A QTADRTPLE MURDER.
The Terrible ButChery of a Family
in Missouri.
A sBvEN-YEAR-oLD GIRL ESCAPED.

The Father, Mother and Two other ChlI-
dren. However, We're Brutslly Slain to
Prevent Evidence in = Criminal Case,
While the Survivor Was Left for Dead.
MILAN Mo-, May IA most Rtrocious
crime was committed Thursday night
near Browning. Gus Meeks, his wife and
two children were murdered outright and
another Of the Meeks' children, a girl z
years old, was so badly injured that sho
may not recover. The circumstances lead
ing up to the crime are about as follows:
There are a number of criminal cases
pending in Lynn and Sullivan county
against William P. Taylor and George
Taylor brothers, the former being a
banker of Browning and the latter a
farmer. The charges against them are
forgery, arson and larceny. William p.
Taylor, Gus Meeks and others are jointly
indicted, and Meeks pleaded guilty at the
last term and was sent to the peniten-
tiary. About month ago he was par
doned by Governor Stone in order to use
him as a witness against the Taylors, who
were in consequence anxious to be rid of
him.
1t is said the Taylors had arranged with
Meeks to give the latter a wagon and
team to get out of the county, so that he
| might not be present when the case
| against the Taylors was called for trial
| From Meeks' mother il is learned that on
Thursday her son received a letter from
| the Taylors at Browning telling him to
be ready at 10 o'clock Thursday night to
go away; that Gus Meeks and children
waited for Taylor until midnight, when
: two men whom Meeks said were George
and Bill Taylor, came to their home in a
wagon. Meeks and his family got into
the wagon and started for Browning. The
details Of the crime, as near as can be OBJ
tanned, were told by the little 7-year-old
| girl, who was suffering greatly as she re
cited the story.
1t appears that when the Meeks family
! and the persons accompanying them
reached point near the school house, in
| Lynn county, a short distance east OF
Browning, they were met by two other
men who were lying in wait. Gus Meeks
was first shot, and Mrs. Meeks was also
killed. The murderers then took stones
and beat the brains out Of the two Of the
children, and left the other for dead. The
murderers then, it is supposed, loaded the
whole family into the wagon and hauled
them nearly two miles to the Taylor farm
where they were buried under a straw.
stack.
Yesterday morning the eldest child came
to her senses and made her way to the
residence Of Mr.. Carter near by. The
Carter family then sent boy to the Tay
lor farm, where he found the murdered
family as stated by the Meeks girl. The
Carter boy then saw George Taylor anC
innocently told him Of the murder, as de
scribed by the almost dying child. George
Taylor Immediately started for Browning
on horseback, got his brother William
and both departed on horseback. Thei
} departure from Browning was before tn
knowledge of the murder had reached
| there.
The little girl recovered sufficiently t
describe some of the parties, and upon he
evidence one Sharon Mccullough, o
Gould, and George Hewlett, of Linn
county, have been arrested As participant
in the crime. A party Of citizens from
Milan and Browning found at the plac
of the murder the revolver and a ston
with which the murderers had shot AM
killed the father and mother and beat on
the brains of the two children and left tn
other for dead