Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-01-21
BY 4 KANSAS MOB.
TWO BROTHERS WHO HAD BEEN
FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER,
Taken From the County Jail at Fort
Scott, and Strung Up to Trees
Both Died Came Cursing Their
Executioners With Their Last
Breath-Both C~ontended That the
Younger Brother was Innocent.

FORT SCOTT. Kans., January &c.
George Sil5ee and Ed. Meeks, half
brothers, who were convicted@o of MUIR
der here early in the week, were lynch
ed by q mob in the county jail yard
here tonight. At a late hour their
bodies were dangling from two trees in
the yard. the authorities having been
SO completely surprised that no effort
had been made to remove the CHASTITY
evidences Uf the m5b's work.
The two men, who hailed from Kan
sas City, had been convicted CT murder
in the first degree, their victim being
a young German farmer named Leo
pold Edlinger, whose murder occurred
near this city in October last. The
murderers disposed of Edlinger's pair
OF mules, one horse and a wagon in
Bates county. Amos Phillips, an ac-
complice of the two brothers, was con-
Eicted yesterday of murder in the first
degree. The evidence showed that the
three men belonged to a gang OF thieves
who had been regularly disposing of
their plumber in Bates county.
The lynching was the work of a mob
that began gathering in the vicinity of
the county jail soon after dark, but the
purpose OF the assembling crowds seems
mot to have been suspected until the
Jail was attacked. A barb wire trocha
that had been previously built around
the jail was borne down, the heavy
doors leading to the prison were bat
tered in and when the mob came howl
ing out of the jail with its intended vic
TINS the interior of the place looked as
II 1t had been wrecked by dynamite.
George Silbee, the older OF the two
brothers, defied his captors until the
last. He placed the moose around his
own neck and died cursing the crowd.
Just as he was jerked into eternity, he
turned to his brother with an oath
and commanded him to Idle game"
The brother obeyed, maintaining an
outward calm until he was jerked into
the air.
Before this Silbee had shouted to
the mob in defiant tones that he him
self had shot Edlinger, and that Amos
Phillips truck him on the head with
an axe. He insisted that his brother
Ed did not participate in the crime.
BE sure and get Phillips" the
domed man urged. Then shouting to
his tormentors, he babe them with a
curse to string him up. The
manifested toward the accomplice,
Phillips, was probably due to the fact
that Phillips, soon after his arrest.
LmadeA full confession of the crime,
Itho1/ Vhen he was put on trial, he
this earlier confession.
was equally fearless in
f the mob, but he did not
ffest thf spirit of bravado shown
by bis brother. His last words were:
"hang me If you will, but I did not
help kill Edlinger. George shot him
and Phillips struck him with an X
I did"
The doomed man got nc further in
his statement, for four or five men had
him by the feet. others drew the
oos arund his neck. throwing the
loose end over a limb and in a mo-
ment he was strangling to death.
When finally satisfied with their VEN
geance upon the two brothers. the
leaders of the mob went back to the
Jail in search Of old man Phillips. In
the meantime the Jail keepers had Sc
GREETED him in a room in the rear of
the structure, and when the lynchers
came back they were told that Phil
lips had been hurried away. After a
brief search the lynchers eemed salts
fed with this explanation. and left
the scene, thus sparing the life of the
third murderer. Phillips will be prob
ably taken out of the city. There is
some question as to the old mans san
ity.
The direct cause of the lynehing was
a vicious attack by Silbee and Meeks
upon Deputy Sheriff Behmer when the
latter went to their cell tonight to
inspect the cage. Behmer then dis
covered that the convicts had sawed
the hinges of the cell door all but off.
He entered the cage to remove the
prisoners into another cell, and as he
Gid so, was felled by Silbee with an
iron bar, which the prisoners had Sc
creted. Other deputies came to Ben
mer's recue, and in the scrimmage
fired several shots at the convicts.
One bullet took effect in Silbee's leg.
This hooting attracted a crowd, wild
stories of the assault were soon in cir
rulation among the crowd which gath
cred around the jail, and it only re-
CURED the few leaders who came later
to incite the gathering to violence.
After the assault upon Deputy Beh-
mer, Silbee and Meeks were shackled,
and the irons were still on them as
they were swung to their death.