The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-05-12
A QUADRUPLE MURDER.
The Terrible Butchery of a Family
in Missouri.
A sBVEN-YEAR-oLD GIRL ESCAPED.

The Father, Mother and Two Other Chill
dron. However. We're Brutaliy Slain to
Prevent Evidence in o Criminal Case,
While the Survivor Was Left for Dead.
MILAN, Mo-, May IA most atrocious
crime was committed Thursday night
near Browning. Gus Meeks his wife and
twb children were murdered outright and
another Of the Meeks' children, girl Z
years old, was SO badly injured that she
may not recover. The circumstances lead
ing up to the crime are about as follows;
There are number of criminal cases
pending in Lynn and Sullivan county
against William p, Taylor aud George
Taylor, brothers, the former 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 are jointly
indicted, and Meeks pleaded guilty at the
last term and was sent to the peniten-
tiary. About a month ago he was par
doned by Governor Stone in order to use
him as 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 wagon and
team to get out of the county, so that he
might not be present when the case
against tho Taylors was called for trial.
From Meells' mother 1t is learned that on
Thursday her son received 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
L.,
wagon. Meeks and his family got into
the wagon and started for Browning. Tho
details Of the crime, as near rs can be OBJ
tained We're told by the little 7-year-old
girl, who was suffering greatly us she re-
cited the story.
Ii appears that when the Mecks 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 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, 1t is supposed, loaded the
whole family into the wagon and hauled
them nearly two miles to bhe 1ay lor farm,
where they were buried under straw
stack,
Yesterday morning the eldest child came
to her senses and mnde her way to the
residence of a MIR. Carter near by. The
Carter family then sent a 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 and
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 Their
departure from Browning A$sNs before the
knowledge of tho murder had reached
there.
The little girl recovered sufficiently to
describe some of the parties, and upon her
evidence one Sharon Mccullough, of
Gould, and George Hewlett, of Lime
county, 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 a 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.