Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-05-17
FouRFoLD MURDER.

Hired Assasslns Lie In Walt and Cruelty.
Dispatch Husband. Wife and Two
Children-A Third Child, Beaten Into
Insensibility, Survives and Tells the Story
| Of the Crime-Pursuit of the Supposed
Murderers.
MILAN. Mo-. May 12.-Gus Meeks,
his wife and two children were MUIR
dered in cold blood Thursday night
near Browning. Another of the chill
dren of the murdered couple was SO
badly injured that it is not expected
| she will recover. She was years old.
| The excitement is so intense in the
neighborhood that the murderers will
fully identified, by the enraged citi-
zens. The circumstances surrounding
the horrible fourfold murder are as.
follows:
In Lynn and Sullivan counties Of
this state there were q number of cases
pending in the criminal courts against
VIM. F. and George Taylor, brothers.
William is banker in Browning and
his brother is a farmer. They are
charged with forgery, larceny and ar
son. William Taylor, Gus Meeks and
others were jointly indicted. Meeks-
pleaded guilty, and was sentenced at
the last term of court to the peniten-
tiary.
Gov. Stone pardoned him about q,
month ago for the purpose of having
him used as witness against the
Taylor brothers. They naturally had
motive for getting him out of the
way.
1t is reported that the Taylors had,
arranged with the murdered husband
and father to give him a team
of horses and wagon, SO that
he could leave the county and
not be present at the time OF the
trial of the brothers. The mother OF
Meeks says that Thursday her SON re-
ceived letter from the Taylors at
Browning, telling him to be in readi-
ness to go away at 10 o'clock that.
night; and that Meeks and the chill
dren waited for Taylor until mid
night when two men whom Meeks-
said were George and Bill Taylor, came
to their home in a wagon. The muir
dered man and his family got into the
wagon and started for Browning.
The only statement regarding the
crime obtainable was from the 7-year-
old girl, who was suffering greatly at
the time she told her story. 1t seems
that when the Meeks family and the
persons accompanying them reached
point on the road near the school,
house in Lyon county, a small
distance from Browning, they were
attacked by two men who were
lying in wait on the roadside. The;
first victim of the murderers' guns was,
Meeks. His wife jumped from the
wagon in terror at the sound of the
fatal shot, and then she was murdered
in the same way. The fiends then
seized large stones and beat the life.
out of the two children, leaving the
third one for dead. The brains of the.
little ones were beaten out in a sicken-
ing Kramer. 1t is supposed the muir
derers hauled the bodies of their VIC
Tins nearly two miles in the wagon to,
the Taylor farm, burying them under
hay stack.
At 4:s0 o'clock in the morning the.
living child regained her senses and
went to the residence of Mrs. Carter
near by. She told her terrible story,
and a boy who was sent to the Taylor
farm to investigate, verified the hor-,
ror by finding the bodies of the rest of:
the family as stated.
The Carter boy, happening to meet.
George Taylor, unwittingly told him of
the murders. Taylor lost no time in,
starting for Browning on horseback.
There he met his brother, and both,
left hurriedly on horseback. They
got away before the news of the
fiendish crime reached Browning. A
guard of citizens was placed at the,
haystack.
Soon it was discovered that a blood
stained quilt wrapped around the bod
les had been on fire, the purpose being
to destroy the evidence of the crimes.
A party of citizens also found the re-
voiver and q stone with which the
murderers had committed the deeds at.
the scene of the murders.
On the strength of descriptions fur
nished by the living girl the sheriff
has arrested Sharon Mccullough, of
Gould, and George Hewlett, of Lynn,
county, as accomplices in the crime.
The surviving child says the murder
ers beat her into insensibility and
thought she was dead.
The Taylor brothers have not been
caught vet. but it is not believed they
can escape the vigilance of the law.
reinforced by the citizens of several.
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