One Man Escaped
<span>A visit to see relatives turned into an investigation into a 100-year-old murder for Steven F. Meeker.</span>
<span>Meeker's book "One Man Escaped" is about the murder of his great-aunt Ida Meeker on September 16,1914 in Danville by Alva C. "Tenil" Horr.</span>
<span>She was less than a month from celebrating her 35th birthday.</span>
<span>"I retired in 2011 and after living in Florida for more than 20 years, I moved back up to Indiana and I decided to visit some family members," Meeker told the Herald Tribune. "It was then I remembered the story of my great aunt Ida and decided to do some research."</span>
<span>Meeker's research led to a headline in the Danville Commercial News announcing the murder. After a year on the run, Horr was arrested in August 1915 and tried and sentenced to 25 years in Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Chester, now known as Menard Correctional Center.</span>
<span>Four years into his sentence, Horr escaped from the facility in March of 1919 and was never recaptured.</span>
<span>"His last name, Horr, is really not his actual last name," Meeker said. "He assumed another name after he escaped from prison and I document that all in the book."</span>
<span>Meeker's book documents a timeline of events before and after the murder. The author also sprinkles clues to what happened to Horr throughout the book and readers are invited to visit his website (www.bookspreferred.com) and submit their guess as they are reading.</span>
<span>"Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to find the answer," Meeker said. "If you think you know where he's at before you get to the end, you can send me a note on my web page."</span>
<span>Meeker said his book contains "historical fiction."</span>
<span>All of the names are real, including the witness and jurors' names during the trial, which Meeker acquired through research, but their conversations are fictional.</span>
<span>"The story in the book is true; I have documentation," Herr said. "But the conversation is fictional."</span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9255def2-8db6-cca5-d82b-99d68fd96cb0"><span>For more information on One Man Escaped, visit Meeker's website. The author also asked that if an organization is interested in having him speak about the book to contact him at steve.meeker450@gmail.com.</span></span>