Andy Mcbeth was the uncle by marraige, of his killer. He had taken Gayno Smith into his home where he had lived with the family for some time, helping with farm work.

Andy and wife Dora were in their home, when they were shot from blasts that came from outside.

About 8 p.m. Gayno Smith drove his McBeth cousins to a square dance in Brighton, Iowa, 25 miles away. At about 10 p.m. he told them he was going to take off for awhile and would be back to get them at midnight.

It would come out later that Gayno Smith, actually headed back to the house near Martinsburg to carry out his plan. He killed his aunt Dora and uncle Andy, drug their bodies out to the garage, attempted to clean up the house of the evidence, cut the phone lines, pulled the light fuses, and headed back to pick up the kids from the dance.

When they arrived home later that night during a thunderstorm and driving rain, they noticed that the house was dark, their parents car did not appear to be in the garage. Things didn't seem right. The girls jumped out and ran to the house to look for candles and flashlights to light their way. Amos was suspicious and went outside to take a look around. When he found the bodies of his parents in the garage, Amos did not yet realize as he rushed back to the house and told Smith what he had found, that Gayno Smith was the killer. That's when Gayno pulled out his guns and started hunting his cousins one by one.

As the children dashed through the darkened house in an attempt to hide, Gayno pursued them, with his guns and using a flashlight, he shot wildly at any shadow, and blindly around corners, spraying the house with gunfire. Anna was fatally shot in the back in the living room. Donna was shot in the chest and head, falling near the bed where her baby lay fast asleep. Amos was shot in the head and fell but was able to get up and run from the house, and was heard pleading for his life just before another shot rang out, leaving him lifeless in a ditch.

It was days later and after a massive manhunt involving 100 law officers, that Gayno Smith was captured hiding in a barn in Wapello county. Ironically he was being returned to town, the route taking him past the gymnasium in Hedrick where a mass funeral was being held for his innocent victims.

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RITES SET
Sigourney Ia.
from the Des Moines Register

Mass funeral services will be held on Wednesday afternoon in the High School gymnasium at Hedirck for the five members of the Andrew McBeth family.

The Revs. John Robinson and George Huffman will officiate at Methodist services.

The Reynolds Funeral Chapel here was handling the arrangements. The bodies will lie in state in the chapel beginning this morning. Burial will be in the Helm Cemetery northeast of Fremont.

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Gayno Smith confessed and was convicted on all counts. He also admitted to the murder of his stepmother Juanita Smith who had disappears months earlier. It was speculated that Andy McBeth may have discovered clues and become suspicious of Gayno regarding the disappearance of his stepmother which led to the killings. Gayno Smith spent 42 years, the rest of his life, in prison, where he died at 67 years old.

By Dana