October 23, 2025
TRIPLE MURDER NOT
WORK OF ONE MAN.
TWO PRINCIPALS, SAYS COUNTY
ATTORNEY TAGGART.
Inquest Develops That Slain Women
Were Alive at 5:30 P. M. Tues-
day -- Prosecutor to Let Guilty
"Sweat" Two Weeks.
RELATIVES OF REIDY ROAD MURDER VICTIMS AND WITNESSES AT INQUEST.
Click to Enlarge.
The coroner's inquest into the deaths of Alonzo R. Van Royen, his wife, Margaret Van Royen, and Mrs. Van Royen's sister, Rose McMahon, who were murdered at the Van Royen farm, west of Kansas City, Kas., last Tuesday, was continued for two weeks yesterday after County Attorney Joseph Taggart of Wyandotte county had examined James and Patrick McMahon, brothers of the dead girl; Dr. W. F. Fairbanks, who made the autopsy; Sheriff Al Becker and James Down, an uncle of the McMahon boys.
"I want this investigation to rest two weeks," said Mr. Taggart. "I want the persons who are guilty of this murder to have time to sweat. I believe there are circumstances in the affair that have not as yet been surmised. There has been a brutal and well planned crime committed, and I want the assistance of everyone in Wyandotte and Jackson counties in getting at the true facts in this case.
TO LET THEM "SWEAT."
"I believe there were two persons actively concerned in this murder. The testimony of Dr. Fairbanks as to the powder burns on the breasts of both women leads me strongly to the belief that two guns were held close to those women, and that they were shot to death at the same time.. It is improbable that one man was holding the two weapons; it looks highly probable that two persons were each standing over the women and putting their lives out.
"There is not going to be any haste in this trial. It's a big case; a deep one, and a case, I believe, that will develop endless circumstances. The persons guilty of this crime are going to sweat, and they won't sweat in my office; they'll have to sweat at home."
BOTH ALIVE AT 5:30.
That James McMahon saw his two sisters, Rose and Margaret, as late as 5:30 o'clock last Tuesday afternoon, that there was friction between Mrs. Van Royen and her mother to the extent that neither called at the other's home; that Patrick McMahon spoke to his brother-in-law, Van Royen, when he met him, but that he had never called at the little home of the Van Royen's until after the murder, that Patrick opposed his sister and her husband in their desire to move out of the farm -- a wish resented by Patrick McMahon -- were some of the incidents of the family life brought out in the testimony yesterday of James and Patrick McMahon.
It has been the understanding of the officials all along that there had been no accounting for the three victims of the tragedy after 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. At about that time Van Royen was seen to drive over the Reidy road into the valley of the stream which runs through the farm. He was bound for the place while he had been cutting dry wood, and from where, according to all evidence given, he never returned alive. The county attorney argues that Van Royen must have been murdered before 3 p. m., for he could have secured his load of wood and returned to the house within an hour. If Van Royen was murdered early in the afternoon, says the county attorney, and Margaret Van Royen and Rose McMahon were seen as late as 5:30 o'clock that same day what was the murderer doing in the meantime, and how long after 5:30 were the women slain?
TRAMP THEORY EXPLODED.
The testimony of James McMahon that the women were alive at 5:30 explodes the theory that the much discussed wandering tramp committed the crime, for that person, according to a score of witnesses, was well beyond the Leavenworth city line at that hour.
The inquest will be resumed November 5.
The funeral of Van Royen, his wife and Rose McMahon will be held at 10 o'clock this morning, from the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Chelsea Place. Three priests will officiate. Burial will be in St. John's cemetery.
Labels: Armourdale, churches, County Attorney Taggart, Kansas City Kas, Leavenworth, murder, Reidy road, undertakers, Van Royen Murders
