The Meeks Family Murders

I love hearing about very old crimes that took place in the late 1800's or early 1900's. The problem however is that the research is a bit more difficult. In most cases it is harder to find legitimate sources or newspaper articles due to the age of the crime. Even when they can be found they can sometimes be questionable. While we may say what we will about journalism today, it was much worse back then. It was less about the facts than it was about the sensationalism of the crimes and the criminals. This leads to the bigger problem of allowing false information to be repeated and going down as legend. It can be difficult to weed through the information and determine what exactly is true.

Browning Missouri is located in Linn County and is in the north/central portion of the state. In 1894 a horrible crime took place. As you will soon see, the motive for this crime is one we still see today. Two brothers, George and William Taylor were very wealthy and until the early 1890's fairly respected. William was a lawyer and a banker and George was described as a “prosperous farmer.” Some things indicated that both brothers in recent years had been charges with many crimes including forgery, larceny, arson and cattle rustling. Other things indicate that it may have only been William who had these legal issues, but I cannot confirm that.

A man by the name of Gus Meeks was what was/is called a “tenant farmer.” Basically this is where someone owns land and either “rents” it out to someone else or hires someone to work the land. In this case Gus Meeks worked land owned by at least William Taylor, if not both of the brothers. There seemed to be an investigation and Gus Meeks and William Taylor were arrested and indicted for cattle rustling. From my understanding the plan had been to lure another farmers cattle onto other land and then in the dark of night get the cattle to Chicago where they were sold. It is unclear just how often this had been done or the details behind it. Gus Meeks apparently, fairly quickly pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to serve time at the prison. William Taylor, if not both Taylors, had been able to delay their own trials. I cannot tell you what Gus Meeks' sentence was or how long he spent behind bars before the Governor of Missouri pardoned Meeks on the condition that he testify against Taylor. This occurred around April of 1894.

The Taylors did not want Gus Meeks to testify against them and it was said that they offered him $1,000 if he would leave the area (some reports say country) and not testify. On May 10, 1894 the brothers showed up at the home where Gus lived with his mother, his pregnant wife, Delora and their three daughters, six year old Nellie, four year old Hattie and eighteen month old Mary. It was later said that Gus went outside with the Taylor brothers for a bit and went back into the home and told his wife that the brothers were going to help him “get away.” It was also said that Delora feared for her husband and told him that if he was going, she and the children were going too. Much of my research stated that she believed that Gus would be safer if the family were all together as she did not think the Taylors would hurt the entire family. But, I must say that I am unsure how anyone could know that for certain. So, Gus, Delora and their three daughters loaded up in their wagon, apparently leaving Gus' mother at the home.

What happened next would only be told by six year old Nellie Meeks the following day. According to Nellie at some point on of the men (later identified as being one of the Taylor brothers) got out of the wagon and while walking beside it shot Gus Meeks. Gus jumped from the wagon and began to run. Delora began to scream and started to jump when both she and her four year old daughter, Hattie were also shot. Nellie was then hit in the head with what was later determined to be a rock and as she told the doctor who later examined her, and the “grand jury,” she “went to sleep.” When she came to she decided to “play dead.” The men had placed her, along with the bodies of her family members in a shallow hole and covered the hole with hay bales. One of the men proceeded to kick her in the back and made a comment about how he was certain everyone was dead. Nellie heard the men talking about setting the hay on fire and they apparently attempted to do so but could not get the hay to catch fire and eventually left the area.

Sometime the following morning Nellie made her way out of the shallow grave and to a neighboring home belonging to a Mrs. John Carter. Little Nellie was battered and bruised; her clothes were torn and she had a large cut on her forehead. She relayed her story to the woman, telling her that her family had been murdered. It was said that Mrs. Carter did not have a husband around so she sent her nine year old son with Nellie to check the situation. Nellie took the boy to where the bodies of her family laid and reported back to his mother. In turn it seems his mother asked him to inform the neighbors. It was said that soon after the boy ran into George Taylor and told him about the murders. No one seemed to know at the time that Taylor would have been the prime suspect. Taylor told the boy to wait for him while he went and got his wagon indicating that he wanted the boy to show him the crime scene. It was later said that the boy claimed that Taylor never returned. In reality it seems that George made his way back to where the bodies were, which happened to be land owned by the Taylors. It was reported that he was later seen leaving the scene, went to his brothers place and the two men left the area.

On June 25, 1894, a little over a month after the murders the Taylor brothers were arrested in Batesville Arkansas. The two men would face trial in March of 1895 in Carrollton Missouri. Authorities were taking them there by train but had to divert because there was a large lynch mob waiting on them. The citizens of Missouri were outraged and apparently planned to take care of the Taylor brothers themselves. At their trial they were charged with all four murders and the assault against Nellie. Several people testified, including Gus' mother, about hearing threats made against Gus by the brothers. There were also people who testified seeing both the Meeks' wagon on the night of the murders as well as the Taylor brothers near the scene and there were even some who testified to hearing the gunshots. Nellie, who apparently until the trial was over was in the guardianship of the prosecutor and his wife, did not testify. The jury got the case and after two days of deliberations they could not come to a decision. A mistrial was declared. The jury had been 7-5 to convict. It was later said that one of the jurors and one of the alternates came forward to report that they had been offered $750 to acquit the men. It is unclear whether they were attempting to comply with this.

A second trial began in July of 1895 but it was much different than the first. This time the brothers were only charged with the first degree murder of Gus Meeks. The idea was that it was much easier to prove the brothers had planned his murder than to believe or prove they had also planned to murder his wife and children also. They only needed one conviction to get the death penalty. The jury received the case on August 2, 1895 and after deliberating for only an hour and a half they returned with guilty verdicts for both brothers. After appeals were filed and the convictions were upheld a date was set for their hanging.... April 30, 1896.

The brothers were being held in the Carrollton jail and on April 11, 1896 they, along with another inmate escaped from the jail. William Taylor and the other inmate were captured fairly quickly. William was taken to the jail in Kansas City, where apparently it was more secure to await his hanging. It was said that George Taylor was never captured but I will get into that in just a bit. On April 30^th, just before eleven in the morning William Taylor was publicly hanged for the murder of Gus Meeks while thousands of spectators looked on. Apparently he did not make a last statement but he left a letter behind proclaiming his innocence.

I found what appeared to be an old article or at least a translation of one that stated in February of 1897 George Taylor had been found in California and arrested. It claimed that one of the witnesses who had testified at his trial had officially ID'd him. I found nothing more to go with this however and most everything else states he was never found.

Then there comes to the issue of confusion surrounding the sole survivor, Nellie Meeks. From all indications it appears that for whatever reason during the investigation and the trials she was under the guardianship of the prosecutor and his wife but it was stated that later she was raised by her maternal grandmother. Most things, including the website findagrave.com state that Nellie went on to marry a man named Albert Spray in 1904. The first thing I found about this stated that she died in 1910 due to complications of childbirth. However, when I made my way to findagrave.com to clarify things I became a bit more confused. First, there is a Nellie Meeks Spray listed with a picture of a tombstone that only has the Spray name so I cannot say with complete certainty this is the correct “Nellie.” But, the confusion does not end there. Also on the site there are allegedly snippets of articles. First there is one from 1904 speaking of her marriage to Albert Spray. Then there is one from March of 1905 announcing Nellie's death, pointing out she was the surviving member of the attack on her family. This and her tombstone places her death as March 4, 1905 at the age of seventeen. The site also shows the birth date of her daughter, Harriet, as being February 24, 1905. One would think this would be the end of things. But, there is yet another snippet from 1908 claiming that Nellie (and again mentioning the murders) married a man named Rufus Richardson from Oklahoma. Did the real Nellie die in 1905? Was someone impersonating her for notoriety? I believe it is most likely that she did die in 1905 although I wish the name “Meeks” had been on the tombstone to give me a little more “leverage” in this opinion. I also do not believe anyone was impersonating her, although it is not unheard of during the times, and it was just bad journalism, or a flat out lie for nothing more than sensationalism.

Another indication that these crimes are more difficult to research and distinguish the truth comes from a Wikipedia article. The Meeks Family Murders are listed in their list of “axe murders.” Everything else indicates that three of the victims had been shot and that the other two, including the survivor, had been beaten with some sort of rock. I wonder if the “legend” of the axe came about because of the large gash that Nellie had on her forehead and the scar she endured for the rest of her life. The idea that a child was brutally attacked with an axe and survived while the rest of her family died would have brought the sensationalism that the journalist craved.