The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-02-20
WIFE AND NIECE
Murdered by Robert Laughlin on q
Farm Near Augusta, Ky.

The House Set on Fire to Hide the Crime.
LAughlin at First Said Burglars Did the
Decd, but After Being Placed Under
Arrest Admitted That He Did Il.
AUGUSTA, KY, Feb. 17.-rhe worst
crime ever committed in Bracken coun-
ty occurred about four o'clock Satur.
day morning.
Two persons lost their lives in the
flames and q man was badly wound
ed. About three miles west of here
Robert Laughlin and his wife, re-
spectacle country folks, reside. Satur-
day morning Mr.. Laughlin was aroused
by feeling knife upon his throat He
reached out and grabbed man by the
coat. The man made another stab and
struck Laughlin's shoulder. It was
light in the room and he saw two men,
ono with long black whiskers and
brown coat Laughlin started out of
the door and one of the men started
after him with knife.
Mr.. Laughlin ran down the road to
the residence of Mrs. Lyde McCracken
to give the alarm. When he arrived
there he turned and saw his home
afire. He never heard q sound from
his wife or from May Jones, 13, daugh.
ter Of Charles Jones, of this city, who
was spending the night with the
Laughlins.
There were no men at the McCrack-
en- house, so Laughlin started back to
the fire. There he met Lee Jones, q
neighbor, who is brother of Laugh
s,,Sc xrysf 6,,< o&
ruins. Laughlin has not an enemy in
the world that he knows of and there
was only about 81. 40 in the house.
The wife was about thirty-five. and
her maiden name was Jones. Peter
Laughlin, brother of the bereaved
man, brought the word to town Setur-
day morning.
Marshal Sayers and Constable Mar
tin and about three hundred men and
boys at once went to the scene. The
building was four-room log house,
and sits back in the yard. The bod
les of the two unfortunate women were
found lying in the cellar, Mrs. Laugh
Inns in the western part of the ruins.
She had evidently got out of bed.
A ravine runs just west of where the
building stood, and some tracks were
found in the soft clay. Marshal sayers
kept the crowd back until the blood.
hounds arrived.
E. w. Fitzgerald, of Covington, who
is a special detective for the c. and o.
railroad, arrived here at II o'clock
Sunday, and proceeded at once to the
scene of the murder. Mr.. Fitzgerald
was in company with Marshal VIM.
Sayers, of this city, and in the name
of Acting Coroner Louderbach de-
manded the underclothing and outer
shirt of Robert Laughlin.
Laughlin objected to handing them
over at his sisters (Mrs. McCracken's)
house. about a quarter of a mile from
the scene of the murder. Upon exam
ination the neck of the overshirt,
which was of heavy checked cotton,
was thoroughly saturated with blood.
Just beneath the undershirt it was
found equally as bloody, and both
sleeves of both shirts were saturated
with blood.
The front of the undershirt at it's
lower edge was also bloody. The
drawers show the same signs. 1t is
now current belief that Robert Laugh
lin knows more in connection with the
murder of his wife and little niece
than he has yet told, and detectives
have him under guard.
LATER-It was Robert Laughlin who
killed his wife and little niece, May
Jones' and burned their bodies. He is
also guilty of having first assaulted
the little girl in the presence of his in
valid wife.
1t is the words of Laughlin himself,
uttered in the presence of a. reporter,
which thus stamps him as an inhuman
brute, he having made a full confess
sion to save himself from threatened
lynching. He was at once arrested,
but the fact of the confession having
been made was kept from the public,
lest he should meet justice at the hands
of his neighbors
AUGUSTA, KY, Feb. ia little
after IL o'clock Sunday night Laughlin
was secretly ushered into the Taylor
house by Marshal Sayer and taken to
room 9, on the third floor. where he
Immediately undressed and went to
bed.
At S o'clock Monday morning Sayer
quietly slipped Laughlin on board
the steamer Courier, and before the
people were awake he was on the way
toward Maysvile, as the Jail there is
new and strong; besides he has init
mated his fear of being quartered in
Covington, on account of Jaskson and
Walling's probably being predestined
| for that sanctuary.