What one Joplin (MO) newspaper called "an amazing morals case" began on February 15, 1952, when the mother of a juvenile boy called authorities to register a complaint against Joplin physician Guy I. Meredith. After a brief investigation, Dr. Meredith was arrested at his office later that same day and taken to jail to await arraignment on charges of abusing and molesting as many as 31 Joplin High School boys between the ages of 15 and 17.
Twelve of the boys were questioned, and all told similar stories. They said they had visited Meredith in his office, taken night trips with him in his car, and been offered money by him to engage in "immoral conduct." Nearly all the boys described being taken to "The Spot," a secluded roadside parking place near some abandoned mines north of Chitwood. Several of the boys said that they resisted Meredith's advances but that they had been attracted to him because he was liberal in buying them food and other items. They said Meredith's abuse had been going on since the start of the school term the previous fall.
As more students were questioned the next day, a pattern of "shocking" immorality among Joplin High School students was uncovered, and school administrators, in conjunction with local law enforcement, launched a thorough investigation. The probe also expanded to Carthage.
Under intense questioning, Dr. Meredith admitted that he knew the boys who'd accused him of immoral conduct and that he had indeed met with many of them and even taken several of them to his "spot" at the northwest edge of town. He denied, however, that he had engaged in immoral behavior. Instead, he had merely listened to the boys and counseled them concerning their own immoral behavior. He said all the boys were members of what was known as the "dirty club" at the high school and that his association with the boys stemmed from the fact that he had once been a member of the same fraternity that many of the boys now belonged to.
Meredith, who had been a physician in Joplin for 25 years, was released on $16,000 bond on February 16, and on the afternoon of February 18, he shot himself in the head at his office in the Frisco Building in downtown Joplin. He died a few hours later at a local hospital.
The next day, February 19, eleven students, nine boys and two girls, were suspended from Joplin High School for unspecified immoral conduct. Ten other students who had not been attending lately were barred from coming back to school. Meanwhile, the investigation continued.
On February 22, the Joplin Southwestern ran an editorial on what it called the "sex perversion ring" at the high school. The newspaper said that, while 31 students were directly involved in the "sex cult," at least 300 others knew of its existence. Supposedly, members of the cult wore green on certain days to signify their membership in the group. At least one girl was selling contraceptives at the high school, and at least one boy was selling whiskey. Rumor had it that information about the so-called sex cult was known a year earlier but it was hushed up because several of students involved came from prominent families.
The Carthage side of the investigation led to the arrest on February 22 of H. Tiffin Teters, the town's mayor, and he was charged with five counts of molesting minors. Also arrested on similar charges were Max Potter, who was well known in Joplin in amateur theatrical circles; and Morris Shaffer, a Carthage beauty salon operator. At least one other Carthage man was charged in the case but could not be immediately located. Teters, who was released on bond, claimed he was completely innocent of the charges against him, but he asked for a leave of absence from his job as mayor. A hearing to determine whether Shaffer was a "homosexual psychopath" was ordered.
A mass meeting was held on February 27 at Joplin's Memorial Hall to organize the Citizens' Moral League of Jasper County. Over the next week or so, however, most of the suspended students were reinstated on probation after they and their parents met with board members and administrators, the morals investigation began to wind down, and the sex scandal of 1952 gradually faded into memory.
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