Escape Route: The Story of the Young Brothers

Route 66 was in its infancy, but it was already used to transport stolen cars from one state to another. Likely the most successful at it were the Young Brothers, who along with other family members, became experts. As a result, they were wanted men. When the police came to arrest them, the shootout would change law enforcement forever.  

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Team & Contributors

Executive Producer- Clare O'Donohue 
https://clareodonohue.com

Executive Producer - Margaret Smith

Editor – Jessica Kozdra 
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSuperverse/videos

Social Media Manager & Design - Mikayla Bogus
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IT Manager - Conor Sweeney

The History of Murder Logo - Bernadette Carr
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Theme Song “My Carnal Life I Will Lay Down” - Rob Brereton
https://robertbrereton.com
 
Voice of Harry Young - Jon Crowley

Voice of Frank Pike - Joe Janes

Thanks to The History Museum on the Square and Sean Fitzgibbons
https://historymuseumonthesquare.org/

This was truly a team effort, and we’re grateful to everyone who played a part.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Brookline, Missouri, 1932. Police surrounded the family home of the Young Brothers and called for them to come out. But the brothers did not surrender. The men who made their living stealing cars and driving them from state to state on the recently created Route 66 knew they would go to prison if caught. What happened next was the largest killing of law enforcement officers in one event. Until 9-11. It's the history of murder. And I'm your host, Claire O'Donohue. On January 2nd, 1932, Sheriff Marcel Hendricks of the Green County, Missouri Sheriff's Office got information that Harry and Jennings Young were at the family farm about nine miles from Springfield, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks. Ten men went to the farm to arrest them, and they brought a civilian named R. G. Wegman with them. He wanted to do a ride-along and see some car thieves get arrested. The officers only had handguns and almost no extra ammunition to reload. According to Sean Fitzgibbons, executive director of the History Museum on the Square in Springfield, Missouri, the officers were not concerned about the young brothers.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Never really known as a violent group of guys. Police knew them, neighbors knew them, nobody really enjoyed their company. A lot of petty theft.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Before we continue, please remember to leave a comment, like the video, and subscribe to our channel. It will help us continue to make new content. Now, back to the story.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

They had gone out to the Young's farmhouse out in Brupline, and they had surrounded it.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Three officers, Sid Meadows, Virgil Johnson, and Ben Bilieu, stepped onto the porch and knocked on the door. They knew the house was empty except for the boys, so one of them called in.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Hello, Jennings. Hello, Harry.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

There was no answer. Officers Ollie Crosswhite and Charlie Hauser went to the kitchen door. They knocked and called out the brothers. Again, no answer.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

They hadn't heard anything from inside the house, right? Nothing was going on. One of the officers then said that they heard somebody walking around. That is when Sheriff Hendricks and Officer Mashburn went to the back door, kicked in the door, and immediately gunfire erupted from inside the house.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

32-year-old officer Frank Pike remembered the moment.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

We went against the door. It flew open. Sheriff Hendricks stepped right up. A shotgun blasted point blank at him, and he fell head first through the door. They shot out the window and caught Mashburn right in his face and shot most of it on my overcoat.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Sheriff Hendricks was hit square in the chest. He was dead almost immediately. Wiley Mashburn was seriously wounded but alive. Pike hid behind a tree. The men in the house were using high-powered rifles. The officers only had handguns.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Then everybody, all of the officers started firing into the house. Up until this point, nothing like this had ever happened, really, in Green County. These officers were not prepared for any of this. Usually gun fights like this don't erupt like that. The young brothers had a um 2520 and a shotgun, and the officers just had their issued revolvers and no extra ammunition.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

The young brothers were known as expert marksmen. They were banned from local turkey shoots because they kept winning all of the shooting competitions. Virgil Johnson, who had been at the front door, was shot in the ankle and ran on his injured leg to find cover.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

So within the next, I think it was uh maybe 20 to 30 minutes, just from the house, they were the police officers were just being picked off. One officer was pinned down by the storm cellar of the of the house, where um one of the brothers with the hunting rifle was shooting at him, pinning him down, and the other one crept around back and um shot him in the back of the head.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

From inside the house, one of the young brothers called out, Throw those weapons down. Come in here and we'll shoot.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

I have heard reports that they threw tear gas in at this time.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Others say that there was no tear gas at It's alleged that Officer Ollie Crosswite might have thrown tear gas. If he did, it had no effect. Out of ammunition, he crawled toward cover as shots were fired at him from inside the house. Almost to safety, a bullet went through his Stetson into his skull, killing him instantly. Pike ran from behind a tree and joined several other officers and civilian R. G. Wegman. A wounded Virgil Johnson was ordered to go back into town to get backup and additional ammunition. He brought the civilian with him. 50-year-old Tony Oliver, chief of detectives, was now in charge of the scene. He ordered the surviving officers into the barn to wait for help. While his men got to safety, Oliver returned fire with the only bullets he had left. Before he could retreat, he was killed. Frank Pike and the other officers hiding in the barn knew they were helpless. Pike said they made a decision.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

We talked it over and decided we had just one chance. A dash across the open. We had been under fire three-quarters of an hour and it was getting dark.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

The plan was to get from the family property to the main road about 250 yards where they would wait for reinforcements. Pike remembered it was not easy.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

You ever watch a jackrabbit run from a hound? That's the way I ran. A couple of steps ahead, then a sharp step to the right or left. My brake must have taken them by surprise because I'd covered the first few yards before they opened up. Then it was murderous.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Pike was shot, but he still made it to safety. The other officer who had left returned with backup, and someone took Pike to the hospital. More officers arrived. So did the National Guard. Governor Henry Caulfield granted permission for the guard to bomb the young house from the air. Before that could happen, the officers went to retrieve their dead. There were five men dead Tony Oliver, Charles Lee Houser, Sid Meadows, Marcel Hendricks, and Ollie Crosswite. Detective Wiley Mashburn, shot in the face, lived a few more hours before succumbing to his injuries.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Six officers were killed in this uh shootout, which was, I think it was up until 9-11, was the largest loss of life for police officers in one uh one violent act.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

The police and National Guard searched the property, but they couldn't find the young brothers. Who were these men that had so callously killed police officers, then disappeared?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

The young brothers, um just a bunch of guys who uh up to no good mostly.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

There were 11 children in the young family, and many of them grew up to be petty criminals.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

I had somebody come up uh during one of the opening receptions and just kind of mentioned the young brothers and said, Yeah, my my grandmother grew up with them, never had anything good to say about them, uh even before the fact.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Though they grew up on a farm, many of the boys, including Jennings, Harry, and brother Paul, did not care for the hard work. They found an easier way to make money. By the 1920s, the boys were breaking into local businesses and stealing goods they would later sell. Each of the brothers had spent time in Missouri prison for burglary and other nonviolent crimes. But that would change on June 2nd, 1929.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

One of them was pulled over for drunk driving and ended up shooting and killing the police officer and just leaving him uh leaving him there. Harry was the one allegedly who did the killing.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Mark No, the city marshal of Republic, Missouri, was left to die by the side of the road. Harry knew he couldn't stay in Brookline, only three miles from the site of the shooting.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

He and his brother Jenning went to live in Texas under fake names for about two and a half years. And they were dealing or like dabbling in car theft, and then they were very experienced in it by the time um they moved to Texas.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

In the two and a half years they lived in Texas, they became quite successful.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

They had a car theft ring where they would steal cars in Texas and sell them in Missouri and steal cars in Missouri and sell them in Texas. And the FBI actually said it was one of the largest car theft rings that they had investigated. So um I guess they had graduated from petty crime to you know grand theft car uh sales and illegal car dealings.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

They often drove on Route 66, established in 1926. Coincidentally, just nine miles from Brookline in Springfield, Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Springfield was was was a hopping place. It's a through line right through right uh right to Oklahoma and Texas. And uh so yeah, I mean it was uh a lot of crossroads uh came met in uh in Springfield, so a lot of opportunity to get across state lines real quick.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Route 66 was one of the original highways, starting in Chicago and going southwest until Los Angeles, over 2,400 miles. The specific route was chosen to make it south of major winter snowfalls and north of summer heat waves, making the route accessible and drivable all year. It wasn't envisioned as a tourist highway, though automobiles were growing in popularity. It was a way to connect the towns and cities from the Midwest all the way to the Pacific Ocean, easier to transport goods and boost economic growth. The plan was to call the road Route 60 or 62, but was changed in April of 1926 when John T. Woodruff, a businessman from Springfield, and Cyrus Avery, the Oklahoma Highway Chairman, met with federal planners at the Colonial Hotel in Springfield. They didn't like 60 or 62 and felt 66 was catchier. So they sent a telegram to Washington, DC.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

Regarding Chicago, Los Angeles Road, if California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Illinois will accept 66 instead of 60, we are inclined to agree to this change. We prefer 66 to 62.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

And obviously the federal government agreed. The route, which would get nicknames like the Mother Road and America's Main Street, was designated Route 66 in 1926. And that was right on time for the young brothers, who had another advantage when taking stolen cars across state lines.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

And this was a time where state uh police didn't talk, FBI was so worried about other things that it these inner agencies really didn't communicate. Nobody in Texas would be reporting it to Missouri, Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

By January of 1932, the murder of Mark No was far enough in the past that the brothers must have thought it was safe to go home. And there was another reason. Stealing cars had become a family business.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Within that two and a half years, it had turned out that Harry and Jennings were had recruited their sisters to start uh helping them sell cars. Uh so local authorities had seen Texas cars being uh popping up around town and uh that were being sold here, and they actually arrested uh the uh two of their sisters.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

The two sisters, Vanita and Lorena, were arrested on January 2nd when they were driving a stolen car.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

And to save themselves, they told the police, and this was like roughly uh 3:30 in the afternoon when they were booked. Um they said Harry and Jennings are back at the family farm, and by four o'clock, a posse had been gathered and the uh officers were headed out to the uh Brookline farm. It took no time for them to uh to turn their brothers in, and uh yeah, I mean it was it was the break that the uh Green County officers were looking for.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

It was a break that led to the deaths of six officers, but did not result in the capture of Harry and Jennings. After the shootings, when the survivors had gone for help or escaped to the road, the young brothers were left in the house with the six dead or dying officers just outside.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Allegedly, the one one of the brothers went out to all of the other ones, uh all of the police officers, stole her money and guns and ammo and what they had, and snuck out.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

The search started immediately. Rumors began that the brothers had taken a bus out of town. A man came forward and said that he had given them a ride and one of them had a neck injury. One of the most persistent rumors was that two people could not have killed six officers. Their brother Paul, who had also spent time in prison, was tailed, detained, and questioned, but police determined he was not involved, nor did he know where his brothers were. Eventually it came out that the brothers stole a Ford Coop from a local dealer in Springfield and made their way to Houston, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

So two days later, there was a guy in Houston, uh his name was uh Carpenter Tomlinson. He rented his house out to uh travelers and and so forth. In the evening news that that day, and on the third, he saw two pictures, the pictures of uh the young brothers and realized that he was renting a room to the young brothers. So that evening he took his family out and moved them elsewhere. And in the morning, he reported to the Houston police that he had the young brothers in his house.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Obviously, what had happened in Brookline, Missouri was national news.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

That morning, at I think that was at 10 o'clock, and at 1010, uh Houston police were at his house. They had surrounded the house. Um there they didn't know, but there was one person still in the house, one of the tenants was still in the house. Again, tear gas into the house, and they uh then the police went in, they found the other tenant, got him out um without issue.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

This time the police were prepared for a gunfight. They had machine guns. And as it turned out, it was a flip from the Brookline shoot. The brothers only had pistols, the ones they had taken from the dead police officers just days before.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It was kind of silent, and the police officers started firing into the bedroom door where the young brothers were staying, but then they saw uh from the bathroom one of the young brothers peeked out and closed the door, and uh a shotgun blast came out from the from the bathroom, so they just emptied uh their guns into the bathroom door.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

There were shots in the bathroom, but not out the door. Then the police heard somebody from inside call out Come on in.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

We're dead. Ten minutes of silence, and then the uh police went in.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Jennings was dead, and Harry survived just long enough to make it to the hospital where he died. It appears the brothers shot each other to avoid getting arrested. Missouri had six officers to bury, but their deaths were just the beginning of the story. The shootouts led to massive changes in how police departments handled what might have been considered easy arrests.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

When they came back in Houston, they had rifles, they had shotguns, they had backup ammunition. And so from that, they learned that they they never wanted to be outgunned ever again. So training, more training went in. It it really had all um police uh departments really re-evaluating how they train, how they approach situations that could go bad. Um, because yeah, they just didn't want to ever be in that situation again.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

The decade of the 1930s would make this change especially important.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

I mean, this was the public enemy era, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

The young family moved out of the farm. In 2024, the Brookline house was intentionally burned down by the property's owners to make way for a new home. Some people in the community complained that they had wiped out history.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

So uh it was um sort of controversial in that uh some people wanted to keep it. Other people were saying yes, it's significant, but not in a good way. So, I mean, it um it's not like it would be a great tourist attraction or anything. So uh yeah, it just ended up uh being demolished.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Route 66 became a way for families in the Depression to go west in the hopes of a better life. It became increasingly important in the next decade as a military corridor connecting factories, training bases, and airfields in World War II. But by the 1950s, the highway system had begun to swallow up or bypass the road. Route 66 was decommissioned from the U.S. highway system in 1985. Nearly 85% of the road is still drivable and remains a popular route for drivers looking to recreate the past, though presumably not in stolen cars. What do you think about this case? Please comment below. And if you liked this story, please subscribe to the channel, hit the like and notification buttons, and let us know if there are any cases you'd like us to cover.