Many people are familiar with the so-called Young brothers massacre that occurred near Brookline in 1932, during which Harry and Jennings Young killed six law officers sent out from Springfield to arrest them. Suspecting little resistance, the officers carried only handguns while the Youngs were armed with high powered rifles. Both of the brothers were ex-cons, and at least one of them had vowed not to be taken alive. Still, the officers failed to realize the desperate nature of the men they were after, and they paid a dear price for the mistake. The incident still ranks as the deadliest shootout in history for U. S. law enforcement. After the killings, the Youngs escaped to Houston, Texas, where they themselves died in another shootout with police a couple of days later.
What many people, even some who are generally familiar with this incident, may not know is that the Young brothers were brought back to Missouri and buried at Joplin's Fairview Cemetery. Reportedly, the Young family wanted to bury them in Greene County, but outraged citizens met the hearse at the county line and refused to let it enter the county. The driver turned back and drove to Joplin, where the bodies were buried in an unmarked grave. A sister of the Young brothers later placed a stone on the grave.
The story of the Young brothers massacre forms a chapter in my book entitled Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents. By the way, I am having a book signing for the book this Saturday, March 13, from 1-3 p.m. at Always Buying Books in Joplin. Also, I'm scheduled to speak to the Webb City Genealogy Society at their regular monthly meeting on April 6 at 6:00 p.m. at the Webb City Library, and I'll probably talk mainly about the Gunfights book.
2 comments:
I am very interested in finding out if you know anything about a Josie Young Day. She was my children's grandmother and all I know about her is that she lived in Joplin and my father-in-law, (her son) told me that she was related to the Young brothers. I have been doing genealogy on Ancestry.com and have learned much about all but her. She is really a mystery. I have no idea where she was born or who her parents were. I have hit a brick wall. She was Josie Young and was married to Ed Day and lived in AVA. She left him and 4 of their children and took the two youngest ones and moved to Joplin. That would have been somewhere around 1906. I would love to know more about her and wondered if you could help. She lived in Joplin until she died in 1953. Thanks!
Molly Day
Molly, I don't think I can help. I did a little quick research of census records and so forth of my own and couldn't come up with anything. If Josie was related to the notorious Young brothers, she probably could not have been closer than cousins, if even that, because the Young brothers and their father lived in the Greene/Christian County area in the early 1900s and Josie was not listed in their household.
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