A KANSAS LYNCHING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 65, 17 March 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

A KANSAS LYNCHING.

Ed. and George Meeks, half brothers, notorious criminals of Kansas city, convicted of the murder of a man namea Leopold Edlinger, without having raised their voices in defence, except to plead not guilty, were,taken from gaol in that city one night recently, after a half hour's battle with the officers, and hanged to two trees 80 feet apart in the Court House yard, states a despatch from Fort Scott to the New York "Herald," under date of January 20.

Amos Phillips,; an unsophisticated old farmer, of Bates County, Mo., who was convicted as an accomplice, but who was possibly innocent, was saved from the frenzied throng- by'a desperate effort on the part of the Sheriff and his deputies, and the conservative element of the mob.

■George Meeks went to his tree scaffold smoking a cigarette, and his last sentence was: "By. God, it takes nerve to live in this world."

His brother made a partial confession, but the mob would not hear him through. It was about 6 p.m. when the guard ax the gaol heard the clanging- of the steel door within and called, the Sheriff. Investigation revealed that the murderers had—no doubt by aid from without—sawed the bars upon which swung the doors of five cells in.the cage. This let them out into the corridor, .where they had the advantage of any officer, who entered.

Eight officers were soon in the gaol, but the prisoners had extinguished the fights, so that the . cage was almost in darkness. The ' officers resorted to every inducement to get the murderers to come out and surrender, but they would not.

Finally ex-Sheriff Allen volunteered to take the lead in a rush after them. Ha had not gotten-into the cage when a blow from a heavy steel rod in the hands of George Meeks struck him on the head and felled him. ■ He dropped into the arms of the next officer, whose club warded off a second blow.

At this instant the third officer fired and the three prisoners, who had rushed into the corridor to fight them, dodgea into the cell.

They were all armed with steel tors, aiul the officers stood for 30 minutea taking occasional shots at them as they darted out into the dark corridor and attempted to use their weapons. Finally George Meeks was shot in the teg-, and then the. murderer- gave up. The crowd that Tiad gathered around the gaol during this battle was so enraged that it never left until the' men were hanged, though it waited several hours for a leader. The mob organised at 9.30 O'clock on the second floor of the Court House. - Twenty leaders of the lynching were among the prominent and: wealthy men °f the city, andL *It was done in an orderly manner. ■ • "■-;".■-