Newspaper Article, Stephen M Reddish & Rachel Cisco, Jersey County, Illinois

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: 
Mary Hillman
<hillman@irtc.net>

Sheriff Jas. Catt and State's Attorney Paul M. Hamilton, of Jersey
county, Illinois, are investigating the mysterious murder of Stephen
M. Reddish 85 years old, wealthy land owner of Jerseyville, and Mrs.
Rachel Cisco, negro servant in the household, who were found shot to
death yesterday afternoon in the Reddish home.

The bodies were discovered by Clarence G. Reddish, cashier of the
Jersey State Bank, and son of the dead man. After a search for more
than 24 hours, following the failure of the elder Reddish to answer
a telephone call. He believed his father was visiting in St. Louis,
and it was not until yesterday noon that the son decided to visit
the home.

Upon entering the house through a raised window, Clarence made his
way to the second floor, where he found his father lying in his bed
clad in his night clothes, with a bullet through his head. The woman
was lying on the floor in a rear room. There was evidence of a
struggle. She had several bullet wounds in the head and body.

At a Coroner's inquest held yesterday by Deputy Coroner Dr. F. G.
Warner of Grafton, Clarence Reddish testified the last time he saw
his father was Friday, April 25, 1919. On Monday, he said, he went
to the home of his father and found the house locked. He found a
kitchen window open and entered. He did not suspect anything wrong
at the time, he testified, thinking the servant had gone to her home
and that his father was in St. Louis.

The wife of the dead man at the time of the murder was in St. Louis
under the care of a physician, and was accompanied there by her son,
Dr. Horrace Reddish, who had been making his home with his
parents.

Clarence testified that he was again at the house Tuesday. The mail
of his father, deposited since Saturday, was in the box on the
porch, indicating, he stated, that the double killing must have
taken place some time Friday night.

The motive for the crime is yet undetermined. A steel box in which
Reddish kept his papers had been tampered with. It is believed his
father had very little money in the house, and that the negro woman
had about $100 in her room.

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Contributed by:
Mary Hillman
<hillman@irtc.net>