Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-08-01

About ? O'Clock yesterday afternoon
while in conversation with Jail Guards
Wet and Gleitz, Divers admitted that
he killed Mrs. Cain, but refused to
make any further statement. They
argued with him on the futility of
withholding a confession, and he fin
ally consented to talk to a Globe Dem
ocrat reporter, who had a lengthy inter-
view with MIN Sunday afternoon.
When the reporter entered the Jail
Divers confessed that he had killed
the woman, said he knew he was
doomed to die, and asked that his wife
and Sheriff Windsor be sent for, and
that he be hung in the St. Louis Jail.
eyes; I did it," said Divers, in reply
to a question.
"Why did you kill herr"
"Because l did not want her to have
the ring l had taken from her."
"But you already had the ring"
"Yes; but she tried to take it away
from me-"
The negro chung to this statement,
ana related the following story:
81 left home about 9 O'Clock in the
morning to look for work. reached
the Cain house about an hour later.
The door was open and l walked in.
The woman was sitting by the bed
cutting out quilt pieces. asked her
if there was anybody there but her.
She said no. l asked her to give me
the ring she had ON her finger. She
| said she didn't want me to have it. l
then started to take it away from her
and got it off her finger. 1t dropped
to the floor. | then knocked her down
| with my fist. She started to get up.
l saw a rope lying on a chair and tied
her right hand to keep her from fight
ing me I then put the rope around
her neck and drew it as tight as 1
could. She kept trying to fight me
and cut her throat"
"How many times?"
"Only once"
When informed that the woman's
throat was cut eight times, the negro
said:
"Then somebody else must have
done it. only cut her once" And
he could not be moved from this state
ment.
"What else did you do?"
"Nothing. l just put the rope
around her hand and neck and cut her
t~hroat-that's all 1 done to her."
And the negro, who seems devilish
in his cruelty, smiled as he said it.
For fifteen or twenty minutes he
denied hat he had used a rope, but
finally confessed to that part of the
crime, as stated, although still holding
to the story of the ring. All he was
inclined to confess was the murder.
That, to him, seemed to be a very
slight thing, and all else he denied.
Admissions concerning the rope would
lead to the admission of a graver
crime, and this he persistently fought
clear OF. The two guards, who had
tired of listening to the negro's de-
malls, retreated to another part of the
Jail. Finally the negro seemed to be
convinced that he could gain nothing
by withholding the rest of his story,
and confessed it. Nobody but the re-
porter was present. After repeated
questions the interrogation said:
Snow, you outraged the woman
didn't you? Tell the truth"
mo, sir; l didn't do anything like
that"
"But everybody knows that you
did"
"Well, they can say / did, but I
didn't. never touched her after I
got the ring"
"But you did"
"Well, you can write it down that
way if you want to-"
$50 you outraged her?"
eyes, SIR"
elbow many times?"
"Once."
"After you knocked herdown?"
"Yes, SIR"
CATER you tied her hand?"
eyes, SIR"
"After you tied her neck?"
ayes, SIR"
Sand then you cut her throat?"
eyes, SIR"
"Was anybody else present."
"No, SIR"
And the story was told. The negro
expressed no emotion whatever.
Throughout the entire recital there
was a look of calculating shrewdness
in his eye, and his features wore a
grin that was particularly fiendish.