Trial

Arraignment                 
   After their capture in Arkansas,  the brothers were held in the Buchanan County jail in St. Joseph until the arraignment. At St. Joseph, the Taylors were model prisoners, attended religious services in the jail, and submitted to newspaper interviews. But Bill did all the talking and when questions were directed to George, Bill interrupted to give the answer.  They hired lawyers, with the aid of their father, who came to St. Joseph and planned their defense.  Bill boastfully declared that they would stand trial in Linneus when their case came up the first Monday in December.  They had little fear of their old associates in Linn County, Bill declared, and they would be willing to go to trial without guard.  (There had been many threats on their lives.)
On December 14, 1894, the Taylor brothers left St. Joseph for Linneus with an armed guard consisting of the Linn County sheriff and six deputies.  A special car took them to Laclede and then the branch line transported them to Linneus where sixteen more deputies lined up at the station to keep back the throng.  After a noon meal in the court house, the Taylors' attorney, D.M. Wilson of Milan, entered a plea of not guilty for the defendants.  He then immediately asked for a change of venue.  Judge William W. Rucker sent the case to Carroll County, south and west of Linn county.  Since this was in his circuit, he would be the presiding judge.  After the arraignment, they were confined in the Carroll County jail.

First Trial
   The trial began March 18, 1895, in Carrollton, Mo.  Carloads of people came in on the railroads from Sullivan County and surrounding areas.  The Taylor brothers arrived, neat and well-groomed, and apparently not nervous.  They maintained they were innocent and seemed confident they would be cleared.  
   The jury consisted of  twelve men from the Carrollton area, all farmers except one merchant:  Davie Jamison, Barnett Hudson, W.R. Brammer, Benjamin Glover, George Fleming, Adolph Auer, Frank Yehle, Elijah Baker, J.T. Noland, James Creek, J.A. Ross, and Granville Jenkins.
   The prosecuting attorney was T.M. Breshnehen, and the defense attorney was Colonel John Hale.   The defense waived the right to make an opening statement.  The prosecution's opening statement centered on the fact that George and William were seen fleeing the Browning area, two hours before the report of the discovery of the bodies had made its way to Browning.  He also pointed out that blood had been found in a wagon belonging to their father, James Taylor, and that Taylor and a hired hand had attempted to burn out the blood marks.  Also, William had been heard to say that they were going to have to get rid of Gus Meeks before he could testify against them in a trial regarding cattle rustling.
 Several witnesses from around Jenkins Hill testified to having seen the bodies.  They testified to the gory condition of the bodies and about the track around the straw stack.  Mrs. Kitty Edens came to the stand an testified to having heard five shots just after midnight, the morning of May 11, 1894. She lived within 600 yards of Jenkins Cemetery.  Harry Wilson testified to examining the ground near the Jenkins Cemetery; L.C. Lantz testified to seeing sign of a disturbance at Jenkins Hill and that he found a revolver, which was later given to one Isaac Gwinn.
   The mother of Gus Meeks, Mrs. Martha Meeks, 64, lived in the same house with her son.  She told about how the Taylor brothers often visited her son, and how they asked to see him after the returned from the penitentiary, and how she overheard the conversation in which the Taylor brothers agreed to give Gus $1,000 to leave the area.   On the Tuesday before May 10, her son Gus had gone to Cora and reported that he had made an arrangement with George and William Taylor who would give him eight hundred dollars and a trunk to leave the country and not testify against the Taylors at a trial to be held in Sullivan county.
   Mrs. Meeks said she was always afraid the Taylor brothers would kill her son.  She testified Gus received a letter May 10, which had the heading of the People's Exchange Bank of Milan.  It read, "Be ready at 10:00.  Everything is right."  It had three stars for a signature.  She tried to persuade her son not to go, but that night George Taylor came in and helped Gus carry out the household goods.  Gus told his mother that William was outside, but Mrs. Meeks said she did not see him.
   Several people testified to having seen the Taylor brothers out in the wagon about 10 o'clock the night of the murder.  A man named Dillinger testified that Bill Taylor had told him he would kill Gus Meeks.
   Mrs. John Carter told about how Nellie had appeared on her doorstep and relayed everything Nellie had told her.  Jimmy Carter told of his experiences when he talked to Nellie and found the bodies.  Several witnesses testified to seeing blood stains in the Taylors' wagon, and several said they saw George Taylor riding home at a fast rate early in the morning of May 11.
   Jerry South, member of the Arkansas legislature and captor of the Taylor brothers, took the stand for the state.  He had received $1,500 from Linn County for capturing the pair, and if they were convicted, he would receive $500 from the state.  The defense insinuated that this was the reason South was testifying   for the state.
   Most of the witnesses for the defense were relatives of the defendants.   Some cousins and the mother of George and Bill testified they had seen no blood in the wagon, only old, dried, red paint.  Mrs. George Taylor testified that her husband had slept in her bed all night May 10.  Mrs. William Taylor testified her husband had returned home at 10 p.m.  May 10 and had slept until 5 a.m.  On cross examination she was asked if she had told Rev. P.M. Best that her husband was gone all night the night of the murder.  She denied saying any such thing.
   Then Bill Taylor himself took the stand.  He gave some general information about himself and his education.  Then he told what he did the night of the murder.  He said George went home with him at 4 p.m. on the 10th. They ate supper together, and then George went home and Bill went back to the bank, where he worked until 10 p.m.  He said he went home then, and slept until 5 o'clock the morning of the 11th.  He said George came to the bank just after 8 a.m. and told him that Gus Meeks was dead and the body was on his place.
   George wanted to get an officer and take him down to investigate, but Bill said he thought they were being framed because it was general knowledge that Meeks was going to testify against them.  So Bill recommended they simply wait and see what developed.  George Taylor took the stand.  He more or less matched Bill's testimony.
   The case was given to the jury April 9, 1895, but they failed to reach a verdict.  There was talk on the streets of Carrollton of jury bribery.  One man, who was on the panel, but not on the jury, declared that he had been offered $750 if he got on the jury and declared that another man, who was on the jury, had a similar offer.  The evidence against the Taylors seemed overwhelming.  The trial ended and the jury retired.  They stayed in retirement for two days.  Rumors flew around that they stood 11 to 1 for conviction.  In Missouri, juries in criminal cases must reach a unanimous agreement.  Finally, ,the jury reported to the judge that they could not agree.  They stood 7 to 5 for conviction of their final ballot.   Outraged, the judge dismissed the jury, declared the case to be a mistrial, and returned the prisoners to jail to await a new trial.

Second Trial
  The second trial of the Taylor brothers was begun in July, 1895.  The state's attorneys seemingly believed that a first-degree murder charge could be made to stick only in the case of the killing of Gus Meeks, since a first-degree murder is one that requires premeditation.  The evidence that thee was premeditation in the murder of Mrs. Meeks and the two babies might have been a bit shaky.  The state wanted to convict the Taylors of a crime for which they could be hanged.  There were filed in Linn County three other indictments covering the murder of the mother and two children and one other charge of assault, but the case against the Taylors for the killing of Gus was the one which the state's attorneys considered the best to try for a first-degree conviction.
   More care was taken in the selection of the second jury.  G.W. Craig, a cousin of Defense Attorney Ralph Lozier was the foreman of the jury, but the state's attorneys did not contest this.  The following made up the second jury:   E.J. Calloway; F.B. Creason; T.N. Houghton; John M. Edge; B.C. Dulaney; J.S. Helm; G.F. Morris; R.G. Evans; G.W. Shank; George Freeman; W.H. Vaughn; and G.W. Craig.
   At the first trial the defendants had made no statement as to what their case would be.  But this time, Colonel Hale gave his attention to explaining why the defendants fled--he would produce testimony for the defense to show, he said, that they fled because their lives were endangered by mob violence (the bodies had been found on their property).  He characterized Gus Meeks as belonging to the criminal class, and Colonel Hale tried to picture the Taylors as protecting themselves against a conspiracy, a dangerous feuding group.
   For the prosecution, Walter Gooch testified to seeing George Taylor leave his home south of Jenkins Hill and tended to implicate Albert Taylor in the crime.   He told of overhearing a conversation in which George told Albert (a brother) on the afternoon before the murder to be sure to do what he told him to.  This, however, was as near as anyone came to making Albert an accessory to the crime.  There was no follow-up.
   Additionally, Mrs. Meeks testified that she begged Gus not to go that evening her testimony was: "He stooped down and kissed me; I told him it was a trap; he says, 'Mother if you don't hear from me by Thursday'"--she was stopped by an objection registered by the defense.  Mrs. Meeks' testimony was extremely important because if not contravened it would destroy any alibi which the Taylors' lawyers might attempt to establish.  Mrs. Meeks' testimony evidently did stand and was a major point which brought about the conviction of the Taylors.
   The state next turned its attention to threats which Bill Taylor had made.  M.S. Burdett, blacksmith, whose place of business adjoined the People's Exchange Bank of Leonard and Taylor on the east, testified: "I asked him what about Gus Meeks coming back, and he said he knew what the damned...came back for, and he would get what he came for."
   L.B. Phillips, a farmer living four miles west of Browning, stated that he had had a conference with Mr. Taylor in reference to Gus Meeks and his testifying against him, ,"I think this was on Monday before the murder, about May 6, 1894; that evening William P. Taylor went out with me pretty near to my house; I said to him, 'Bill, what are you going to do with Meeks; he has come back.' He kinder smiled and said, 'We will have to get him out of the way.' I asked him how he was going to get him out of the way; he said he did not know how he would get him out of the way, but he would get him out of the way if he had to kill him to get him out of the way."  Phillips said that he had reported this conversation to his friend George Novel the evening before the murder committed.
   Other testimony revealed that George had been out harrowing his newly planted corn field (early that morning) around the haystack, ostensibly to cover up the wagon tracks that had been made when the wagon carrying the bodies had been driven across the field.  (Other testimony showed that due to the heavy rains two days before, no one would have logically been harrowing.)
   Jerry South, who was responsible for the arrest of the Taylors in Arkansas, also testified.  A legislator, South had seen the Taylors during a dinner at Hays Inn in Buffalo City.  They were introduced as William Price and George Edwards, who claimed to be timber prospectors.  Later, he suspected that they might be the Taylors, sought out photos of them, and then a couple of days later, on passing through Buffalo City again, he talked to the mysterious strangers who told him they AHD been making a boat in order to continue their explorations.  South went to the store of E.L. Hays and asked for a double-barreled shotgun.  He did not get one, but he did get one from a local resident, Mr. Tonstil.  He then yelled to the Taylors, about 75 yards away, calling, "Halt. You are under arrest." They turned around and Bill Taylor reached for a front pocket.  But South warned him not to pull a weapon. They first started to come to South, who told them to stop.  He asked them if they had weapons.  Bill said he had a pistol; George said he had none.  South called Captain Albert Cravens, pilot of the small river steamer on White River.  Cravens took Bill's pistol.  Two other pistols were found at the home that the men had been occupying.
   South took the men to a small building where he guarded them overnight and with them started for Little Rock the next day.  The Taylors first threatened South with a suit for false arrest, ,but after he showed them the pictures he had, they admitted their identity and stated that they were tired of hiding and were waiting to be taken back.  After his meetings in Little Rock, South delivered them St. Louis and into the hands of Sheriff Barton of Linn County.  On the train, Bill  told Mr. South that he and George had taken the Meeks family as far as Stone's Corner, near Browning, that they had given Gus a thousand dollars and dropped off the wagon.  At this distance in time, it looks as if the Taylor's defense might have been better if they had stuck to this story instead of denying that they had ever left home.  
   Mrs. Dave Gibson, mother of George Taylor's wife, had testified that she had spent the night at the George Taylor home, helping tend to their baby.  She testified that George came home early in the evening, went to bed, and that she saw him there several times during the evening and early night.  During later testimony, Garnett Atkins said he had know Mrs. Gibson for more than twenty years and that he had had a conversation with her in which she said that she did not know whether George was implicated in the murder or not, that she had "set up" until ten o'clock waiting for him, and that she had then gone to bed; ;she said that she was awake before he came in and it was after four o'clock, but not yet five; she told Atkins that she let George in.   This conversation was held at the George Taylor home May 21, 1894.
Atkins, who was in a livery business, stated that Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and Orville Shelby were present when Mrs. Gibson made the statements to him.  Several United States marshals had gone with Atkins to the Taylor home t trying to learn where the Taylors had gone, but only Mr. Shelby heard Mrs. Gibson's statement.  Mrs. George Taylor was recalled and denied that her mother, Mrs. Gibson, had ever made the statement concerning the time of George's return on the night of May 10-11.  She felt sure that Mrs. Gibson had made no statement to Atkins at all.

George Taylor's Testimony
   George stated that he had gone home about nine o'clock, his father's team hitched to his father's wagon.  He told of rising early on the morning of the eleventh, his going to the cornfield and being engaged in harrowing the cornfield and being engaged in harrowing the corn--when the small boy (Carter boy) came to him with the story of the little girl who said that her sisters were in the straw stack.  He went to the straw, so he declared, and dug around in it till he uncovered the face of Gus Meeks.  He then decided to ride to Browning for help, which he did.  He thought he ought to get an officer.  But on consultation with his brother, they decided it would be better to go away.  They were afraid of mob violence feeling that they would be accused of the murder when people saw how they were benefited by Meeks' being out of the way.  (The Carter boy testified that after he told George the news about the bodies, he unhitched a team horse from a wagon and went directly to Browning, not to the haystack.)  

William P. Taylor Testimony
   William testified to his everyday activities on the day of the crime.  He also told of his meeting Gus Meeks at Cora.  His story was the Gus was leaving to avoid being taken to Ohio for a crime that he had committed there, that he had $500 coming to him on an insurance policy which he wanted Taylor to collect for him.   He had agreed, he said, to give Meeks $50.  Taylor admitted that he had written the note to Gus Meeks at Milan on May 10, which read:  "Be ready at 10 o'clock; everything is right. XXX"  Taylor did not explain, nor was he asked to, that if neither he nor George went to Milan, what meaning the note had.  Bill told of George's coming in on the morning of the eleventh and of their decision to get out of sight.  

  The court adjourned at two o'clock on July 31 with the conclusion of evidence.  Within an hour and a half, they returned a guilty verdict. The courtroom broke into pandemonium.  It was two hours before the prisoners could be transported to the jail. The defense made a list of reasons why they would like a new trial and submitted those to the judge at 10 p.m that evening.  He rejected those, and told them they would have to appeal to a higher court.  The judge sentenced the Taylors to hang.  There was an appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri, and on March 3, 1896, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict and set April 30, 1896, as the execution date. Judge Sherwood wrote 30 points to support the guilty verdict, #1 of which was that they had made threats to commit the crime; they had motive and the Meeks were last seen alive in the presence of the Taylors.  As Judge Sherwood summed it up:   "More cogent evidence of guilt is rarely presented in a criminal cause.".
   April 11, 1896, George and Bill Taylor broke jail.  Bill was recaptured, but his brother was never found.  George Taylor was reportedly seen from time to time, but he was never captured.  Several men on the deathbeds confessed to being George Taylor.
  

Attempted Escape

   After the Supreme Court verdict, the Taylors were brought before Judge Rucker at Carrollton and heard the sentence which commanded Sheriff George E. Stanley of Carroll County to hang them on Thursday, April 30, 1896.  Although confined to prison walls in the Carroll County jail, the Taylors were evidently able to communicate with friends and relatives and former members of their "gang."   There were confined with a third man who had also been charged with murder, one Lee Cunningham.  The three of them planned to escape.  They had considerable freedom around the jail at times and they noted the things which they thought might make escape possible.
   The jail had a roof of sheet tin, which would be easy to penetrate if they could get to it.  Then they would have to find some means of descent from the roof to the ground./  From the roof, there would be a drop of approximately 40 feet which must somehow be negotiated.  They noted that the sheriff had a 50-foot length of hose which he used about the jail in keeping it and the jail yard clean.    The Taylors and Cunningham were allowed the freedom of the jail under strict surveillance.  
   About 8:30 on the evening of Saturday,  April 11, 1896, the jailer ordered the prisoners in and locked the door after all had gone inside.  He locked the Taylors and Cunningham in a cell.  But the Taylors had substituted a bar which they had fashioned of soap for the iron bar which locked them in.  It was removed quickly and the three men climbed atop the cells, thus being within a few feet of the roof.  They cut a hole in the attic and then through the tin sheeting in just a few minutes.  They took with them the 50-foot hose which they tied to a small pipe and then threw it over the side.
   Lou Shelton, Jail guard, who was just outside the jail heard a commotion, saw Cunningham, and ordered him to put his hands up.  Bill Taylor was halfway down the hose.  He stopped and yelled to George, who was still on the roof, "Come on down, George. We're caught."  But George had an alternate plan.   On the opposite side of the jail was a smokestack beside the roof and George ran over to this, swung out over the roof's edge, and climbed down the stack.  He reached the ground and ran rapidly to the street. Waiting for him there was a two-seated rig.   Two men were in the front seat, and when George climbed into the back seat, they drove off rapidly.  (Some accounts have him escaping entirely on foot.)
   The sheriff had to take his two prisoners in and lock them up before he could look for George.  He had to climb to the roof before he knew that George was gone.  He then gave the alarm, but George was by that time miles away.  He had perhaps a fifteen-minute start.

Execution
   April 30, 1896, William Taylor was hanged in Carrollton.  Before his death he left this written statement:

  "To the public:  I have only this additional statement to make.  I ought not to suffer as I am compelled to do.   Prejudice and perjury convicted me.  By this conviction, my wife is left a lonely widow, my babies are made orphans in a cruel world, my brothers mourn and friends weep.  You hasten my gray-haired mother and father to the grave.  The mobs and that element have haunted me to the grave.  I had hoped to live at least till the good people realize the injustice done me, but it cannot be so.  I feel prepared to meet my God and now wing my way to the great unknown, ,where I believe everyone is properly judged.  I hope my friends will meet me all in heaven.  I believe I am going there.  Goodbye all."  W.P. Taylor