Old John Brown selected a squad of six men to go on a secret expedition.

Of these, four were his own sons, and one was his son-in-law.

His son, Captain Brown, was unwilling that his father should go, and when the old man would not be persuaded, he cautioned him, "Father, don't do anything rash." "Old John Brown" took old man Doyle and two sons and two other men in the dead hour of night and put them to death.

The facts of this awful deed have never been made public--there has never been a judicial investigation.

It is said that Doyle and his sons were desperate characters, and were in the act of driving off Free State men; but nothing is certainly known.
And now it appeared that the whole country south of the Kaw River was full of armed Free State guerrilla bands.