Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1900-01-25
A KANSAS LYNCHINC.
The Two Meeks Boys Hanged by a
Mob at Fort Scott.
PRISONERS ATTACK JAIL OFFICERS.
A Battle with the Prisoners Who Had
Sawed Their Way Out of Their Cells
into a COrridor-Amos Phillips
Saved from the Mob.

Fort Scott, Kan, Jan. 22.-George
and Ed Meelzs, convicted murderers of
Leopold Edlinger, of Bates county,
Mo-, were taken from the Jail in this
city Saturday and lynched by a mob
of 500 men. Amos Phillips, a convict
ed accomplice, was barely saved by
faction of the mob and the officers,
because there is some doubt of his
guilt The lynching was conducted
in quiet manner.
The Indignation that resulted in the
1ynching was provoked by desper-
ate attempt on the part of the Nfeeks
men to murder deputy sheriff and
break jail on last Saturday evening.
They felled the officer to the floor of
the jail. and the death blow was
warded off by another officer, who ar
rived at the scene just in the nick of
time. A battle of from 20 to 80 shots
followed, during which George Meeks,
one of the murderers, was shot in the
leg. The nerve displayed by the two
victims of the mob was only equaled
by their utter Indifference to the trial
and the court which convicted them.
George Meeks, the older of the two,
was carried to the tree, from which
smoking a cigarette, and was evident
1y as unconcerned in the matter as
the least interested man in the crowd.
His brother, Ed Meeks, attempted to
make statement, but the mob would
not listen.
Since the arrest of the Meel<s men,
who were known to be desperate char
acters, the jail has been heavily guard
ed. About six o'clock, p. m. Saturday
one of the guards heard q suspicious
noise in the Jail and reported to Sher-
if Brooks, who, upon investigation,
found that the Meezs had sawed steel
rods upon which the cell doors We're
hung and thus made their way into
the corridor. The entire sheriff's
force and a number of police were
called. The corridor could be entered
by but one man at a time, and as the
prisoners were on the inside they had
great advantage.
For half hour the officers attempt
ed to pursuade them to come out, but
they refused, and finally eX-Sheriff T.
j. Allen volunteered to go in. He had
no sooner stepped into the cage than
George Meeks sprang from behind a
cell and dealt him blow on the head
with a steel bar. He fell into Police
man Dillon's arms, and the officers
club caught the next blow, that
would have killed. The officers rushed
into the corridor, firing at the pris-
oners, who had taken refuge in
steel cage. The lights had been tam
percd with, and in the darkness the
firing was Ineffective. The officers
could not approach because of the adj
vantage of the steel bars as weapons
over pistols. At intervals one of the
three men would spring out and strike
at the officers, who owing to the dark
ness, could not see them in time to
shoot. The situation remained I'M
changed until finally a shot struck
George Meells in the leg, and then
they surrendered.
The atrocity of the crime of which
the men had been convicted, and their
sullenness and Indifference to the
sullen appreciate Indifference to the
court had Infatuated the citizens
four weeks ago, almost to the extent
of lynching, and extra precautions
were taken to prevent it. Officer Al
len, who was SO brutally assaulted,
was a popular man, and the crowd
that gathered around the jail during
the battle never left until the lifeless
bodies of the Meeks were hanging
to trees 25 feet from the Jail door.