Tazewell Republican, Tazewell, VA

October 7, 1909

CHARGED WITH SEXTUPLE MURDER

Howard Little Now Behind Bars of Lebanon Jail Charged With The Killing of Geo. Meadows and Family in Buchanan County Recently.

Howard Little, a desperate character living on Bull Creek, in MacDowell county, West Virginia, has been arrested by Detectives Lee Felts and Alex Huffard, on the charge of having murdered Geo. Meadows, his wife and three children and Mrs. Elizabeth Justis, mother of Meadows' wife at Hurley, Buchanan County, Va., some two weeks ago. The detectives spent several days at the scene of the awful tragedy gathering evidence before attempting to fasten the crime on any one, and the facts thus gained pointed so strongly to Little as the guilty man that he was placed under arrest, and now languishes behind the bars of the jail at Lebanon, Va.

Since the arrest of Little his wife has made a confession in which she practically fastens the responsibility of the awful tragedy on her husband. In her confession Mrs. Little stated that her husband returned home from somewhere early in the morning following the night of the murder, with his clothing torn and covered with lood. He told her he would kill her if she ever mentioned the facts of his condition. She herself washed the bloody clothing, and her statements were substantiated in every detail by Mary Lee, a woman who lives in the Little family. Little had with him on his return a lantern which has since been identified as belonging to Mrs. Justis, whose money led to the murder of herself and the Meadows family. This lantern was also bloodstained, and now shows the teeth of a file where the blood marks were erased. Mrs. Little in her statement says that her husband in a short time after his return went to the barn, and she saw him. folding something over his knee which she says appeared to be money. She has designated a spot where she thinks the money may be found.

Notwithstanding this statement of his wife and other criminatimg circumstances, Little stoutly maintains his innocence and declares he will be able to prove that he had no connection with the crime. The detectives, however, are confident they have the right man, and are bending every energy to procure all the evidence obtainable to bring about his conviction.