Staffleback Shack

One chapter in my latest book, Murder and Mayhem in Southeast Kansas, is about the notorious Staffleback family of Galena, Kansas. I've written more than once on this blog about the Stafflebacks previously; so, I'm not going to say a lot more about them. To summarize their main claim to infamy, suffice it to say that almost the entire family was implicated in the July 1897 murder of Frank Galbreath, a young man who had called late at night at the Staffleback home, which was considered a house of ill repute.
A few years ago, a large two-story house on north Main Street in Galena opened for tours as the so-called "murder bordello," because it was supposedly the old Staffleback home. Although even some of the people associated with the enterprise admitted that the two-story house on Main Street might not have been the actual home of the Stafflebacks, it still developed that reputation in the minds of many people.
For the record, the actual Staffleback house was no more than a one-story shack, and it was located on the western outskirts of Galena, not on Main Street. Attached is a sketch of the shack, which appeared in a St. Louis newspaper near the time of the Stafflebacks' trial for the Galbreath murder. The house was burned down by angry townspeople about a week after Ed and George Staffleback were convicted of murder but while they were still awaiting transportation to the state prison in Lansing.