Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-06-26

intended engaging In bootlegging
In few days Gum left and has not
returned since. A search and seiz-
ure warrant was issued for liquor
which was supposed to belong to
him. 1t terminated in aught. Jess
then got his brother, Homer, to
come to Meade where they propos-
ed to strike terror to our citizens,
and ride roughshod over the officers
and the laws. The former they had
well nigh accomplished. The mat
ter came to a focus on the night OF
April 22, last, when it was to be
demonstrated whether the Lanams
or the people of this community were
to rule. The people triumphed.
The evidence brought out in the
case against Homer Lanam disclos-
the facts as follows: On the night
of April ~, Homer got ''full" and
proceeded to "paint the town red. "
He made the threat that he would
find the city marshal and 'trun him
into his hole" He found the mar
shal, made an assault upon him,
threatened his life, and had pulled
out his gun to do this, but luckily
Marshal Martin succeeded in oyer
powering him and getting the gun.
Three shots we're fired during the
scufle, one of which accidentally
struck Ed Kragh, which unfortunate
ly resulted in his death.
Next day the citizens decided that
it was time for action and that the
lawless career of the Lanams in this
city should end. On that evening
occurred the memorable arrest of
the Lanams by the citizens of this
city. Jess Lanam was living with
his brother, Homer, and wife and
child in a tent which was located at
the railroad bridge east of the city.
There they lived like nomads and
were in all respects menace to the
safety, peace and good government
of this community. After the ar
rests, large quantity of liquor was
found in this tent which was destroy
ed. an account of which appeared
IN this paper at that time. The
in connection with
the arrest of the Lanams has been
detailed in these colmns heretofore.
AS we stated above the citizens de-
cided to act and accordingly war
rants were issued for both Jess and
Homeland given to Sheriff Judd to
serve He went to the camp but
failed to bring Homer. Jess was in
the city and made no objection to
going along with the sheriff but re-
fused to give up his gun. He was
taken to the Co. Attorneys Office
where he still refused to take off his
gun. While there he pulled his gun
on R. w. Griggs and ordered him
out of the Office and informed the
sheriff, county attorney and justice
of the peace that he would protect
them. A few moments later while
Lanam was walking along the north
side of the square with the sheriff,
with his big gun strapped on, pre-
protecting the sheriff,
few of the citizens were gathering at
Casteen's hardware store and arm
ing themselves with Winchesters to
disarm Lanam. R. w. Griggs took
the advance and when within a few
rods of them Lanam fired at him,
Griggs returning the fire at Lanam
who deserted the sheriff and sought
a doorway for protection. After
few more shots had been exchanged
by Griggs and Lanam, Lanam fed
out the back door of Dorland &
Gorman's store and was captured in
the north part of the city by the cit
liens and landed in Jail. The clti-
zens then proceeded to the railroad
bridge and arrested Homer Lanam
and brought him up and placed him
in Jail also.
The cases were tried at the ad-
journed term of court. The jury
which tried Homer Lanam was out
about an hour when they returned a
verdict of guilty. The jury was
composed of the following gentle
men:
R. w. Small, Crooked Creek twp.
VIM. Merkle, Crooked Creek,
J. L. Layton, Fowler,
S. 0. Ball, West Plains,
Chas. Thompson, Sand Creek,
J. c. F. McCauley, Fowler,
Purn Edwards, Crooked Creek,
P. L. Craig, Crooked Greek,
Chas. Cooper, Cimarron,
Frank Sourbeer, Crooked Greek,
John Jobling, Crooked Creek,