The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1869-02-19
ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS MURDER.
Hon. Murray Mcconnell, Of Jackson
VILE, Ill, Killed in his own Room
on Thursday, In Broad Day.
JACKSONVILLE, ILL.,, Feb. 9.

JAChSONF lLLE, ILL., IeU. ..
This ordinarily quiet and peaceful com
munity was plunged into the widest excite
ment this morning by the startling intelli>
gence that Gen. Murray Mcconnell, one ct
the most widely known men in the state,
and one of the Oldest and most prominent
citizens of the place, had been brutal|y
murdered in his own house. Thousands
of excited people Immediately thronged
the vicinity where the crime was commits
ed but nothing which could be elected or
surmised could furnish an Ineligible solu-
ton of the manner in which the foul deed
had been perpetrated, or who could have
been the assassln.
Gen. McConnell's residence is on one Of
the principal and most frequented streets
and, at the time the murder was com
mitted people were passing and repassiDg
in front of it. The house is an ordinary
TWO story structure, with hall opening
from the front at one size, and extending
clear through 1T to the rear. At the side
of the house is a one>story addition, with
a hall opening from the front at one size,
and extending clear through it to the rear
At the side of the house is one story ad
dltion, with a door opening to the front,
and another into the hall in the main
building.
In this addition arc located the private
room and Office of the General, and in this
room the foul deed was perpetrated. He
was last seen at about twenty minutes be-
fore 9 O'Clock, by his grandson, who
brought him his morning mail
just before the murder his grandson
found him sitting with his right side to the
table, and his feet on the hearth of the
stove. AT clock-certainly not later
his wife was in tie kitchen, getting up a
lunch for the General, who was preparing
to 60 to Springfield
The door from the kitchen to the dining
room into the hall, and the back hall out
side door all being open, the servant girl,
heard sound like a fall in the General S
room, ike the violent samming of the door,
and, she believes, footsteps in the hall.
The general had recently had slight at
tack OF apoElexy, aud was apprehensive OF
another attack. Fearing the general had
fallen In an apoplectic fit, the girl imme
diately came down and went to the room,
where she found him living PROSTATE on
the floor, weltering in his blood.
The alarm was Immediately given; Mrs.
Mcdonnell came in, and George MCCon-
mel, the generals son, was sent for The
general was breathing when George arriv.
ed, but expired before the arrival of ply
stefan. George and the physician wero at
first of the opinion that the general had
been taken with heinorrhage Of the lungs.
he was lying with his face in a pool OF
blood, which conclealed his injuries but
when Tie physician commenced to wipe
away the blood from his face, the fact that
a murder OF more than usual atrocity had
been perpetrated, became apparent.
Five wounds were found, any one of
which would have proved fatal. The as
sassln, whoever he was, having been deter>
mined to complete beyond all probability
Of failure, his bloody work, he had receiv>
ed blow upon the back of the head, by
which the skull had not only been crushed,
but literally pulverlzed, fragments of the
bone having been driven far into the
brain. The skull, near the right temple, a
little above the line OF the eye, was trac-
tured. There was wound on the left
temple, reaching upward under the edge
OF the hair. In which some three squareinc
es OF the skull had been completely driven
In, as with hammer, the wound being
fully two inches in depth. Back of the
left ear was another serious fracture of the
skull, and still another under the right ear.
Besides these wounds-any one of which
would have proved fatal-the left jaw was
broken, without, however, any abrasion of
the skin. Some of the wounds are double,
precisely in size and angle as
if the deadly blows had been inflicted with
q mohkey-wrench.
Suspicion at first pointed directly to the
servant girl, from the fact that it seemed
as Ii some one having access to the Gener-
ALI room at all times must have committed
the deed, and from the fact that it seems
for her TO have heard the noise
she says she heard but her appearance on
the stand, and the fact that she has resided
with the sanity SIX years, that she has
been on the best terms with the general,
and, to all appearances, devoted to him,
and that the family utterly refuse to enters
tain such thought, have entirely relieved
her from suspicion. II is generally sup
posed that the part Of her story relating to
the noise OF fall she heard, is the result of
an impression created upon her mind by
the excitement attending the discovery OF
the horrible crime.
The outside door of the generals room,
1t is proper to say, was locked when the
girl went in, but it was subsequently found
unlocked, without any one knowing how it
became unlocked. There is closet in the
room; and one hypothesis is, that the MUIR
derer was surprised by the approach of the
girl, aid concealed himself in this closet,
and subsequently, came out and escaped
by this door, unlocking it for the purpose.
Another circumstance which tends to
shroud the assassination in mystery is the
position In which the body was found.
There was but one pool of blood upon the
floor, and no blood upon the chair or ia
es,-showing conclusively that the mur>
dered man was not moved, and did not
himself move, after receiving the first
blow. The assassin must have come In
either at the front or rear hall door, and
how he could have done SO without Mrs
hearing him, seems strange
and In coming into the Generals room,
must have approached him from the left
and front side, while the position of the
body shows that the blow was from be-
hind and on the right side; for the body
had fallen out of the chair to the front and
to the left, the feet being under the hearth
Of the stove on which they were resting.
A later telegraph despatch reads as fol-
COWS: