Infamous Young Brothers house destroyed with fire by owners

Local structure was site where six police officers were murdered by outlaw brothers in 1932
A house that was considered by some to be a piece of Missouri history was intentionally burned down on Monday, Dec. 9 by its owners. The Young family farmhouse, where six Springfield police officers were killed in a shootout in 1932, was razed by a demolition company who said they were hired by the property owners to remove the house.
“Monday afternoon at approximately 2 p.m., the fire department received a reported house fire at … W Farm Road 148,” said Duane Compton, chief of the Republic Fire Department. “The Police Department arrived on the scene first and found a house that was 95 percent fully involved in fire and collapsing. The only thing left was one exterior wall on the south. It collapsed shortly after we arrived. An excavation company was on site; the homeowners were not. They had been hired to demolish the house and a barn. The barn was pushed down and burning in a small pile of rubble. It appears instead of pushing the house down they decided to set it on fire to destroy it.”
Compton said that the old house and barn were destroyed to make room for new construction.
“I was told by the excavation company that the new owners intended to build a new house on site, he said.
Additionally, Compton said that several people had complained about the destruction of the house on social media, and that DNR was looking into the matter.
“The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has opened an investigation into the burning of the home,” he said. “I do not know the status of that investigation.”
In response to a media inquiry, Tina White, chief of the Air and Land section of DNR, said on Monday, Dec. 16 that the Department’s staff investigated the fire the day after the house was burned, and the results of their investigation were forthcoming.
“The report will be finalized this week and an open records request could be filed later this week or next week,” she said.

The Young Brothers were known as petty criminals, until they murdered a law enforcement officer
The house carried a gruesome place in history. Six police officers were killed there in a shootout with brothers Harry and Jennings Young.
According to a book about the massacre, written by John R. Woodside in 1932, the brothers were known as petty criminals but considered non-violent until Harry killed Mark Noe, the Republic city marshal, when Noe stopped Harry for drunk driving on June 2, 1929. Harry disappeared with Jennings and another brother, Paul. They went down to Texas, where they formed a car theft ring. Cars would be stolen in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas and driven down to Oklahoma or Texas for disposal.

Attempt to capture Young brothers led to shootout
Near the end of 1931, Harry and Jennings returned to their home in the Republic, and on Jan. 2, 1932, Greene County Sheriff Marcell Hendrix set out to capture them. He was accompanied by Deputy Wiley Mashburn, Special Deputy Ollie Crosswhite, Chief of Detectives Tony Oliver, Detectives Sid Meadows, Ben Bilyeu and Virgil Johnson and Patrol Driver Charlie Houser. Detectives Frank Pike and Owen Brown, as well as a civilian, R. G. Wegman.
When the 11 men arrived at the house, they engaged in considerable discussion about what to do. Finally, Hendrix ordered a tear gas canister to be fired through a window in the upper story of the house, mistakenly believing there was nobody on the ground floor. He and Mashburn then forced open the back door of the house, where they were immediately gunned down (Mashburn died of his wounds four hours later).
The other officers then began exchanging fire with Harry and Jennings. Oliver, Meadows and Houser were killed during the gun battle. Meanwhile, Crosswhite crouched behind a storm cellar at the back of the house. The brothers became aware of his presence, and one of them pinned him down with rifle fire while the other snuck out the back kitchen door, crept up on Crosswhite and shot him point blank from two feet away. The other four officers and Wegman fled.

Harry and Jennings committed suicide to avoid being taken
Harry and Jennings looted the bodies of the officers, taking their money and weapons before fleeing. They became the subject of a federal manhunt and were tracked down to their hideout, a rented room located in Dallas, Texas. Surrounded by Dallas police officers, the brothers shot each other to evade capture. When the police entered their hideout, they found Jennings dead and Harry bleeding profusely. He was rushed to a hospital but died a few hours later.
The massacre of the six police officers remained the largest single killing of law enforcement in U.S. history until the bombings of Sept. 11, 2001.