Mules for Sale near Maryville, MO

About Maryville, MO

In 1931, a notorious lynching occurred in Maryville when a mob burned alive African American Raymond Gunn, who had confessed to the attempted rape and killing of a 20-year-old white school teacher. The lynching attracted national attention and was frequently invoked in the unsuccessful campaign to pass the Costigan-Wagner Bill, which would have made it a federal crime for law enforcement officials to refuse to try to prevent a lynching. A controversial case arose in 2012 when Matthew Barnett, 17 at the time, was arrested for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. A significant controversy arose in 2013 when the prosecution dropped felony charges against Barnett, grandson of the former state representative Rex Barnett. Outrage in online communities soon followed when the story surrounding this case was revisited in October 2013.