Vermilion County Louisiana Archives News.....Simon, Louis and wife Murdered - 1859 October 29, 1859
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Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer.00@gmail.com February 5, 2023, 12:39 am


Source: The Opelousas Courier. (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910,
Saturday, October 29, 1859, page 2


BURGLARY, MURDER AND ARSON. - A most horrible and fiendish double murder was 
perpetrated in this parish, on the North-west side of bayou Vermilion, on the 
night of the 18th inst. The victims of this outrageous assassination were Louis 
Simon and his wife--an old couple who were living to themselves, (not having 
even a servant), and known to possess a considerable amount of money, which they 
kept at home, in an iron safe. When the assassin or assassins entered the house, 
the old people must have ran out, each through a separate door, and were then 
caught and murdered near the house for there was a pool of blood near each door, 
which clearly indicated that they had been murdered outside, and afterwards 
dragged in the house. The old man was stabbed in the right breast and also in 
the head; the old lady had a deep cut on her head which must have been inflicted 
with an ax. After the commission of the crimes the fiend or fiends took the 
bodies, laid them in the middle of the floor, placing thereon all the bedding 
and set fire to the whole, with the intention, no doubt of burning the house, 
and thereby destroying all traces of their hellish deeds; but strange as it may 
seem, the house did not burn, although the bedding and floor were burnt up, and 
the bodies so badly charred, as to render it almost impossible for the Coroner's 
jury to say what sort of instruments were used by the murderers, to kill their 
victims.

It was not until the next evening that the neighbors, several of whom lived in 
about a quarter or half mile of the place, discovered that Simon and his wife 
had been murdered.

The safe resisted all their attempts to force it open, and after battering it 
and nearly breaking the lock off, they were compelled to leave, without getting 
the money, to possess which they had so deeply stained themselves in crime.

It is not known who the assassins are, neither does suspicion rest on any one.


From the Coroner's inquest we extract the following:

Louis Simon Sr. and his wife, Marie Louise Trahan were murdered on the 18th 
inst. at their residence in this parish, by some unknown person or persons, in 
the following manner: The said Louis Simon received a wound in the right breast, 
made by a sharp instrument about the width of one inch, and also two wounds on 
the back of the head the size of a sharp pointed file; his wife, Marie Louise 
Trahan, received a deep cut on the back of her head, which seems to have been 
made with an ax. The said Simon and his wife are supposed to have been killed 
near the house and then taken in the house and burnt. - (Lafayette Echo of the 
22nd)


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