The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-04-04
NOTED MURDER CASE.
1riai or the Taylor Brothers Charged witf Murdering the Meeks Family in Linr County, MO.-The State Rests.


 County, MO.-The State Rests.
 CARRoLLToN, Mo-, March 2s.-The trial of William P. and George Taylor charged with the murder of the Meeks family in Linn county on the night of May 10, 1894, commenced in this city yesterday before Judge Fucker. The murder of the family with the excep. tion of the little daughter who miracu- lously escaped, her story after escaping charging the defendants with the crime, the flight of the Taylor broth. CTS, their subsequent capture, and the prominence of the accused are facts all ready familiar to the general reader The trial comes here on change of venue from Linn county. When the accused were brought into court yester. day morning they were neatly dressed, having the appearance of well to dc business men. The jury was easily SC. cured. T. M. Bresnehen, prosecutor of Linn county, read the indictment and made brief statement of the states case, in which he said that it would be proved beyond doubt the Taylors murdered the Meeks family. He re. ferred to the murders as the most atrocious that had ever been commit. ted in Missouri. The attorneys for the defense announced their readiness for trial. Several persons who were present when the bodies of the mur- dered family were found in the hay stack were introduced as preliminary witnesses. Mrs. Martha Meeks, mother of the murdered man, took the stand and told in straightforward manner what she knew of her son and family going away with the Taylors and the subsequent finding of the bodies Both the state and defense are represented by the lawyers.
 THE STATE RESTS.
 CARRoLLToN, Mo-, March 29.-Inter. est in the trial of the Taylor brothers, charged with the murder of the Meeks family, has grown to fever heat. Where one person sat in the court room Wednesday two stood yesterday. Fully one-third of the spectators were women, and they stood the heat and crush patiently.
 W. II. Jones, of Browning, testified that at o'clock on the evening of May 10 he saw Bill Taylor put some quilts in Georges wagon and then George drove away. The next morning at o'clock Jones, who lives next door to Bill Taylor, saw him washing his face and hands in tub of water and brush ing something from his clothes.
 James McClintock, who lives miles from Browning, on the road from Browning to Milan, met George Tay- lor's team in the road at 10 o'clock on the night of the murder. Bill Taylor was on the seat with George and they were driving toward Milan, where Gus Meeks lived.
 John Hope, a 15-year-old boy, was with McClintock, and he corroborated his testimony. Hope knew Bill Tay- Tor well and knew 1t was he, he said.
 Mrs. John Carter, to whose home Nellie Meeks first went when she crawled out of the straw stack, was put on the stand. She is 53 years old and lives with her son Frank, whose house is 175 yards from the straw stack where the dead bodies of the Meeks family were found.
 Mrs. Carter sent her 9-year-old boy, Jimmie, to see if there were any bodies in the straw, and she stood at the door and watched him. She saw George Taylor narrowing near the stack, and Jimmie went to him and Taylor stopped the harrow a moment. Then he drove the horses at trot to his barn and took the boy with him. In a few moments Jimmie went back and Mrs. Carter sent him and Nellie over to the straw stack, and she went to the line fence and watched them. She saw them dig in the straw, and then , little Nellie threw up her clasped hands and cried: "Oh, mamma and papa; oh, mamma and papa!'
 Jimmy Carter was the next witness and his testimony agreed with that ot , Mrs. Carter. He said that when he |, started for the straw stack, he found |. George Taylor narrowing and told him little girl had found some dead peo pie in the straw stack. He asked , Taylor to go and help him find them but George took him to the barn anG made him hold the team while he rar , in the house. He came out quickly . saddled horse and drove off, but be ! fore going, asked Jimmy: Ibid th' little girl say anything about her ps , and map" Jimmie told him she die , and Taylor rode off toward Browning At the afternoon session J. l.. Harris was called. He was working for George |, Taylor at the time of the Meeks mur der. He spent the night of May Il at the house of Dave Gibson, and re turned to George Taylor's house a sunrise the morning the Meeks' bodies were found. He found George Fay Tor washing mud from the horses legs After breakfast Harris hitched tn, team to the wagon at the barn doo and George Taylor scraped the mud from the wheels. Then Harris drov, the team and wagon to the timber, l miles distant, where he was to do som, ) work. When he removed the wagon , body from the wagon he, fount 7 blood on the wagon bed and an attemp had been made to wash it off with coa oil There were big clots of blood or the connlinu nOle of the waOOn too