The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-03-09
A Terrible Tale of the Murder and
Dismemberment OF a
jewish Peddler.
The Reported Wealth Of the ltinerant
Merchant Costs Him
His Life,
Cahokia's Mystery at Last Revealed
Arrest and Full Confession Of One
Of the Murderers.

ST. LOUIS, Mo, March Sells Rep
tow, the peddler last seen in company
with the notion peddler who was MUIR
dered at CahOkia in such a CHASTITY man
ner, returned to East st. Louis this morn
ing, and gave the name of the murdered
man as Layigne, RussianJew. Reptovi
resides at No. Sl7 North Seventh street,
this city, and his story is that he started
with Lavigne from st. Louis on Tuesday,
the 26th ult., Layigne carrying stock of
oil cloth bibs and aprons, and Reptovi a
bunch of tnware. They crossed the big
bridge to East st. Louis, on their way to
Cahokia, where they parted company in
the afternoon, agreeing to meet that eve
ming to pass the night at a boarding
house kept by a white woman.
REPTOvI PASSED THE NIGHT
there, but Lavigne did not come in This
was the last time Reptovi saw Lavigne.
When asked this morning as to whether
Layigne was in the habit of drinking, he
said no, and seemed to be surprised at
the question, but said sometimes he
would drink glass of beer, but no
whisky. Reptovi describes Lavigne as
being about forty-tive years of age, five
and half feet high, of stout build, light
hair and goatee, and wore a No. 7
boot, which corresponds with those
found cut in Browns house, at Cahokia
THE CONFESSION.
After VIM. Brown, his wife and sister,
in-law, "Katie Joe, had been placed in the
East st. Louis Jail, yesterday, the belief
in the guilt of the negroes became so gen
eral that Sheriff Ropiequet decided to re-
move them to Belleville for safety.
Bailiff James escorted Brown and worked
SO successfully on his fears by telling him
that lynchers were awaiting him that the
prisoner had,given away half the horrors
of the crime before the Relay Depot was
reached. The further information caiol-
ed out of him on the cars guided the Off
GERS in their search. After locking tie
prisoners up the officers started for
Browns hut.
Browns story was that the victim was
notion peddler and that a white man
called Doc, George or Jack, a resident of
Cahokia, and VIGOROUSLY bad negro
named Tom Jones assisted him in the
murder. At 1880 p. IN. on February 26,
these two men brought drunken peddler
to Browns hut, where he was alone, his
wife and sister-in-law being in ST. Louis,
One of the Cahokia men carried the ped
dler's pack and Brown was ordered to
produce whisky. The doctor" and
Jones pretended to get drunk and soon
had the peddler helpless. The Doctor
then told Brown that the man was lousy
with wealth and must be fixed. Brown
claims that he refused to assist, but was
told that the man was to be killed and h
would be party to the crime anyhow
lie then produced an AK. With this thu
Doctor knocked the victim all of a hear
and
AS HE STRUGGLED
they held him and cut his throat. They
carried him into the sleeping-room and
decided to cut him up so that if the re-
mains were found it would be supposed to
be the work of medical students. The
head was first cut off and thrown into the
stove after being cut into convenient
pieces. The feet and hands were next
thrown into the fire and were followed by
lhC III AZ lhlS tliuC,
Browns wife returned and it was
found that the remains could not
be disposed of by fire before morn
ing. He and his wife therefore stuffed
the trunk and some of the limbs into {
sack, took it to the little copse near the
creek and buried it. They crossed The
creek backwards to disguise their tracks
The doctor" took all the portable plum
der, promising to divide it when conven
lent There is no doubt that the victim
was notion peddler, foreigner, who
breakfasted on the day of the murder at
the house of Mrs. Arnott, at Prairie du
Point, a mile from Cahokia. She describes
him as forty years old, five feet six inches
tall, OF dark complexion, and weighing
about l60 pounds.
Search at the house revealed the bloody
ak with which the deed was committed
1t was still bloody. The body had beer
chopped up between the bed and the wall
which was despatched with blood to the
ceiling. The ashes in the stove contained
portions OF a charred human head and q
lump of
BURNT FLESH,
bones and blood, the size of mans fist
In other ashes were found a piece o.
charred skull with brain matter adhering
piece OF large bone calcined, a foo
bone, hand bone and flesh, which clear
~ proved how the missing eXtremitieS
had been disposed of. Search was
Immediately made for the "Doctor'
and Jones, but they had taken the hin
OF Browns arrest and disappeared from
Cahokia.
Deputy Sheriff Anthony and Al. Daw
son, the jailer, started for Cahoki
about noon to-day to. make anothe
hunt for them