Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-05-12
DECOYED TO DEATH
Nearly an Entire Family Muir.
dered in Missouri.
DONE TO CONCEAL OTHER GRIMES

In which Highly Respectable scoundrels
HsA Esgsgcd with Ono oe the victims-
Even Tho Mother and Children Not
SPARED, the Little Ones Having the Life
beaten Out with Stones. Except Ono
Who Lives to Tell Of the Atrocity.
MILAN. Mo-, May IA most atrocious
crime was committed near Browning.
Gus Meeks his wife and two children were
murdered outright, and another of the
Meeks children, girl years old, was SO
badly injured that she may not recover.
The circumstances leading up to the crime
arc about as follows: There are a mum.
Der of criminal cases pending in Lynn and
sullivan counties against William p. Tay.
lor and George Taylor, brothers, the form
er being a banker Of Browning and the
latter farmer. The charges against
them are forgery, arson and larceny.
William p Taylor, Gus Meeks and others
were jointly indicted, and Meeks pleaded
l'guilty at the last term of court and was
sent up to the penitentiary. About a
month ago he was pardoned by Governor
Stone in order to use him as witness
against the Taylors, who were in conse-
quence anxious to be rid of him.
DccoyeSi to Their Dreadful Doom.
1t is said the Taylors had arranged with
Meeks to give the latter wagon and team
to get out of the country so that he might
not he present when the case against the
Tay lors was called for trial. From
Meeks' mother i; is learned that her son
received letter from the Taylors at
Browning telling him to be ready at 10
O'Clock Thursday night to so away; that
Gus Meeks and his children waited for
Taylor until midnight, when two men
whom Meeks said were George and Bill
Taylor came to their home in a wagon.
Mecks and his family got into the wagon
and started for Browning The details of
| the crime, as near as can be obta ined were
| told by the little 7-year-old girl. who was
suffering greatly as she recited the story.
The Crime and Its Discovery.
II appears that when the Meeks family
! and the persons accompanying them
reached a point near the school house in
Lynn county, short distance east of
Browning, they were met by two other
men who were laying in wait. Gus Meeks
| was first shot and Mrs. Neeks jumped.
She also was killed. The murderers then
| took stones and beat the brains out of 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 Tay-
| Tor farm, where they were buried under n
| straw stack. At half past 4 o'clock next
| morning the eldest child came to her senses
and made her way to the residence of a
Mr.. Carter, nearby. The Carter family
then sent a boy to the Taylor farm. where
| he found the murdered family, as stated
| by the Meeks girl.
The Taylors Fly From Justice.
The Carter boy than saw George Taylor
and ;nnocently told him of the murder as
| described by the almost dying child,
| George Taylor Immediately started for
Browning on hors eback. got his brother
William and both departed on horseback.
Their departure from Browning was be-
fore the knowledge of the murder had
reached there. The people of the neighbor-
hood placed guards around the strawstack
where the dead bodies were found Upon
investigation it was discovered that a
bloody quilt around the bodies was on
fire, the evident purpose being to cremate
the bodies.
Two Participants Taken In.
\ The little girl recovered sufficiently to
g., uesSA ioS Sohie "a VIC pafeies, duu upon ner
evidence two, Sharon Mccullough, of
Gould, and George Hewlett, of Lime coun-
ty, have been arrested as participants in
the crime. A party of citizens from Milan
and Browning found at the place of the
murder the revolver and stone with
which the murderers had shot and killed
the father and mother and beat out the
brains of the two children and left the
other for dead.
LynchinE L. Almost Certain.
The child says that they struck. beat and
kicked her into insensibility and thought
her dead. At this writing the Taylors
have not been arrested, but it is not
thought possible they can escape. Great
excitement prevails and if the mu-derers
are fully identified the law will have to be
very strong to prevent summary punish
/ meut.