The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1872-09-17
THE MILSTEAD HOMICIDE

c. Y. DIFFENBACHER, CIRCUIT CLERK or
CAss COUNTY, SHOOTS AND KILLS W. X.
MILsTEAD, AN OLD CITIZEN OF THAT
COUNTY.
The following particulars Of the shoot
ing of w. 4. Milstead by G. +. Differ.
bacher, at Virginia, last week, is from the
Virginia Jeffersonian,' of the 9th inst.
"The last day of the Cass county fair,
eliminated in dreadful tragedy, in which
Mr.. Ed. Milstead, one of the oldest citizens
Of our county, lost his life.
at appears that on Thursday evening
about o'clock, ss Mr.. Easley and Mr..
Diffen bachcr, Of Csss county, and Mr..
Russell of Mensrd, were engaged in con-
versation, on the southeast corner of the
amphitheatre, in the fair grounds, Mr..
Milstead had come up and was talking to
q gentleman few feet from the parties
above named, when Diffenbacher saw him
and went up to him In a friendly manner,
saying, Ed. there Is part Of that letter
referring to q private letter the former
had written to DR.. Snyder that l wish to
explain as did not expect it to be made
public-being private letter. and was
going on to explain il, when Milstead re-
torted, well, Diff, the amount Of i: is, you
want to 90 back on everything you said
and done in this matter Some further
conversation took place, which our in.
formant did not hear, when Diffen bacher
said, in reply to some remark of Milstead
that, Ed, l attribute to your weakness
or your ignorance
"At this point Milstead grabbed Diffen-
bacher by the throat and told him, IL you
say am ignorant again Ill mash your
id face Dffenbacher replied that,
If you strike me I'll defend myself or
words to that effect.
"Mr. Easley stepped between them,
saying, gentlemen, for Gods sake this
won't do-you are both too sensible to
fight over this matter"
A crowd Immediately began to gather
around the disputsnts, SO that our reporter
could not hear the conversation betwee n
them. But Milstead then struck Diffen-
bacher in the face, and followed him up,
clinching with him. Diffenbacher, as far
as We can learn, jerked his right hand
loose-in doing SO, swinging Milstead of
! his feet, and then reached for his revolver,
and fred as Milstead was about to fall, or
after be fell.
The wounded man was Immediately
assisted into the inner ring and everything
done that could be by Drs. Hubbard and
Snyder. He was afterwards removed to
the residence OF A. L. Wyatt, where his
family soon arrived. He fingered until
4 o'clock this morning when he died. He
remained perfectly rational and consciou:
up to the last, conversing with friends and
relatives who called upon him.
Diffenb scher, Immediately after the un-
fortunate occurrence, came to town and
delivered himself up 10 an officer, who
took him to Beardstown in the evening
"a coroner's jury was summoned, and q
post mortem examination had. Drs. Sny'
der, Logan and Littlefeld proceeded tc
their duty, but after long and laborioui
search failed to find anything which had
any resemblance Of bullet, so they ceased
the examination.
"The jury assembled at the town hall
and after hearing the testimony of severa
witnesses, agreed upon verdict, which
was:
THAT VIM. Z. Milstead came to hi
death by a pistol shot willfully fired b,
the hand Of {. F. Diffcnbacher."