The Cousin Collector

The most atrocious crime that ever occurred in Andrew County was the murder of the McLaughlin children, two little girls, aged, respectively, seven and nine years, which was perpetrated on a Sunday afternoon in September, 1884, near Flag Springs. The children had gone to spend part of the day at Thomas Bateman’s house, which was a mile and a quarter distant, and at half past 2 o’clock they started home. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon they passed the house of Eli Knappenberger, and as they passed were seen and spoken to. That was the last seen of them until 9 o’clock next day, their dead bodies being found, after a night’s search by the entire community, in a cornfield. The two bodies were 175 yards apart, one shot through the head, with the body cut open, and the other with her throat cut and shockingly bruised. The sight of . . . [Yes! There’s more!]