Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-10-08
BABY K|DNAPERs TO
Be BROUGHT To TRIAL
ABDUCTORS OF SPRINGFIELD, MO-.
CHILD SOON TO BE ARRAIGNED
IN GOURT-MYSTERY NOT YET
SOLVED.

MARSHF1ELD, Mo-, Oct. (o-The
abduction of Lloyd Keet, the fourteen
month-old son of ]. Holland Keet, a
banker of Springfield, Mo-, eliminated
in the babys death. 1t involved anoth-
er kidnapping conspiracy, said to have
been part of German plot and the
attempting iynching of one of the So
called conspirators in an effort to
force him to confess that he was impll-
Gated in the Keet baby's disappearance
and death.
While the childs parents were at
tending a ball at Springfield country
club on the night of May 80, 1917, the
baby was stolen from his crib in the
family home. Ten days later the body
was found, wrapped in an old black
underskirt, at the bottom of well at
the Crenshaw mansion, which had
been uninhabited for many years.
Meanwhile, friends detectives, and the
baby's father had secured the Ozark
hills and had even visited previously
the old farm house in the search for
the missing boy.
No threats had been made to the
Keet family, previous to the abduction,
but on the following morning, Mr..
MIR. Keet received a note threatening
mutilation to the infant if ransom of
So 600 was not paid the following
night. Mr. Keet endeavored to com
ply but failed to met the kidnappers.
Various rewards we're offered, but
these were followed by letter to the
father that the ransom fee would be
increased from $4,000 to $4,000.
Six days after the disappearance of
the boy, Taylor Adams, his wife, Allie
Adams, and his two sons, Make and
CIetus, respectively IS and 20 years
cid, and Claud Piersol were arrested.
All yehemently denied any connection
with the Keet case but alleged state
ments of the prisoners told of a plan
to abduct G. A Clements, a Spring
field jeweler, and a baby other than
Keet's child.
The German plot angle entered the
case, according to the alleged state
ment by Pierson, that a man had en-
ployed him to assist in kidnapping
Clements. The man was said to have
received orders from German agent
in st. Louis and to have promised
Piersol he might be called upon to
kidnap persons in Canada and Mexico
as well as the United States.
All efforts to shake the statements
of the persons arrested were unsuc-
cesful They maintained they had
nothing to do with the Keet case.
On June 8, however, party Of citi-
zens made a second and more thor
ough search of the Crenshaw farm and
found the body. A coroner's inquest
decided that the child had died from
exposure and lack of proper nourish-
ment
The excitement in Springfield be-
came so great that mob stormed
the county Jail demanding that the
prisoners who were being held there,
be turned ever to them that they
might avenge the babys death.
Sheriff Webb attempted to spirit his
prisoners away in an automobile. The
mob pursued and finally caught them
at Stockton. Mo, 2S miles. north of
Springfield where they took Piersol
from the sheriff and went through all
the movements of a lynching party,
even to stringing the prisoner from a
tree limb. Piersol held to his original
story, and denied that he was respon-
sible for the Keet infants death. The
mob surrendered him to the sheriff
and the prisoners was were landed in
the Stockton jail.
Federal agents of the department of
justice followed up some pro-German
angle of the case and arrested Dick
Carter, of Springfield, who is being
held on charge of being implicated
| in the Clement plot.
Taylor Adams. Claude Piersol, and
Cletus Adam are charged with abduc-
ton. Charges of murder against them
were dismissed. Allie Adams and
Make Adams are charged with impli-