Ray County, Missouri Richmond Conservator transcription; October 29, 1896 (page 1)

This is a transcription of the newspaper articles relating to the triple murders of Mrs. Jesse Winner and her two young children


Richmond Conservator, Thursday, October 29, 1896 (page 1)

Mrs. Jessie Winner and her two children brutally murdered, only rivaled in its sickening details by the
Meeks murder in Linn County.

Coroner’s Jury Ask, that the husband and father be held for the murder.

A horrible triple murder, rivaling in all its sickening details that of the Meeks family in Linn county a year
or two since, was perpetrated in a small log cabin on the E. T. Watkins farm, eight miles northeast of
this city, some time during Monday night.

For four years past, Jesse Winner, has rented a few acres of land from Mr. Watkins and each year has
raised a crop of corn. Winner is a coal miner and when work was to be had in the mines in this city he
as accepted it. It has been his custom to work in the mines during the week and go to the farm and
spend Sunday with his family. Last Sunday he was out as usual, coming back to town Sunday evening.
On Monday he cleaned up his room at Mine No. 11, where he had been employed and prepared to go
home Tuesday morning to gather his corn. Tuesday morning awhile he was sitting on the court house
fence a messenger arrived in town and brought the startling news that his wife and two children had
been murdered. In company with a friend he left at once for the scene only to find the report too true.

When the news was brought to town at an early hour Tuesday morning that the wife and two children
of Mr. Winner had been murdered and that the body of Mrs. Winner had been mutilated by hogs,
intense excitement prevailed and large numbers of people at once left for the scene of the butchery.

When a Conservator reported reached the scene a sight met his gaze which can never be effaced from
his memory. Lying in the yard on the south side and about 8 feet from the house, was the body of Mrs.
Winner, with her head mashed and crushed in a horrible manner. The flesh had been eaten away from
one side of her face by hogs and her scalp was torn and lay back upon her neck. Her right eye had
escaped the teeth of the hogs and was lying out upon the exposed cheek bone, presenting a most
horrifying and revolting spectacle. Within a few feet of the body was a blood-stained ax, which had
evidently been used with such fatal effect upon the poor woman. Near her feet was also a rail, upon
one end of which was blood and a tuft of hair, showing that it, too, had been used.

While the body of Mrs. Winner presented a most, horrifying spectacle, there was in the little cabin
home a still more horrible and revolting picture one which made strong men weep and caused women
to cover their faces and almost go into hysterics. On the bed in the southeast corner of the room in a
pool of blood was lying the body of the little three-year-old daughter of Mrs. Winner, cold in death,
with a gaping knife wound in the left side of her throat. On the floor just at the edge of the bed lay the
baby of the household, a beautiful boy 18 months old, with a deep cut in his throat, from whcih the life
blood had run in a crimson stream. Both children looked as though they were sleeping and their deaths
had evidently been quick and painless.

After the officers had viewed the bodies, a search of the premises was made for clues which might lead
to the apprehension of the assissin, but not a thing could be found. In the house and in the yard were
evidences that a terrible struggle had taken place between the dead woman and her assailant. There
were splotches of blood all over the floor of the cabin and lying just behind the cook stove on the north
side of the room was a broken wooden bottomed chair which had no doubt been used by the
murderer. Pieces of the bottom of this chair, covered with blood, were also found in the yard.
Everything went to show that the struggle was a terrible one and that the poor woman had fought for
her life with the desperation born of despair. The assassin must have been a powerful man, as the blow
from the ax had cleft the skull in the depth of several inches and almost severed the head in two pieces.
The blow had evidently been delivered while Mrs. Winner was on her feet, as the opening in her skull
was wider at the top that at the bottom, and shows that the blow was a downward one.

Discovery of the murder.

M. D. Street who lives about an eighth of a mile east of the cabin occupied by the Winners, was the
first one to discover that a foul crime had been committed. About 7 o’clock on Tuesday morning he
was going by the cabin on an errand, when his attention was attracted by the strange actions of and
eight-year-old deaf and dumb girl. Going to the fence he looked over and saw some hogs worrying[?]
over a body in the yard. Quickly clearing the fence he saw that the body was that of a woman in her
night clothes. He then drove the hogs away and at once gave the alarm to other neighbors and when
they arrived and entered the house they discovered that the two young children had also been
murdered. A messenger was at once sent to town to notify the officers and they arrived on the scene as
soon as possible.

Acting coroner Baber summoned a jury composed of the following named gentlemen and proceeded to
hold an inquest. L. C. Hill, James B. Duvall, Daniel L. Settle, J. M. Reynolds, F. V. Wright, and S. M.
Asbury.

Drs. C. B. Shotwell and E. L. Hamilton had made a critical examination of the bodies and were the first
witnesses examined. They of course knew nothing of the murder and could only testify as to the fatal
character of the wounds found upon the persons of the victims. A critical examination of the body of
Mrs. Winner had been made and the physicians were confident that if the murderer had attempted to
outrage the poor woman he had not succeeded.

Mrs. Hankins, wife of the superintendent of the county poor farm, said that sometime before midnight
on Monday she heard three screams, but supposing they came from some of the inmates of the poor
house, she paid no attention to them. She is now confident that the cries were made by Mrs. Winner.
The poor house is fully a half mile west of the scene of the murder.

The family of M. D. Street are the nearest neighbors and live about 500 yards east of the Winner cabin,
but they did not hear any noises. A negro family living about a quarter of a mile northwest of the cabin
did not hear any disturbance during the night and knew nothing of the murder until 8 o’clock Tuesday
morning.


Mrs. Margaret Smallwood stated that Mrs. Winner was at her house Monday and stayed until some
time in the afternoon. Just before leaving Mrs. Smallwood asked her if she was not afraid to stay in the
cabin with only her children. She stated that she was not, and said that on Sunday night someone was
prowling around the house but had been frightened away.

All the neighbor women who were at the cabin on Tuesday stated that Mrs. Winner was a most
excellent woman. She was at all times very quiet and seemed to be ?wed down by some secret sorrow.
She was never communicative, but during her residence in the neighborhood it had been learned that
she came of a good family near Hicksville, Ohio, and that she had been married before she met Winner.
The eight-year-old deaf and dumb girl was the fruit of the first marriage. Her parents had opposed her
marriage to Winner and she had eloped with him. A picture of the dead woman taken a few years ago
by a Hicksville, Ohio, photographer, shows that she was unusually attractive and in her youth must have
been something of a beauty.

The motive of the triple murder is at present a mystery. It could not have been robbery, for there was
absolutely nothing in the cabin to tempt the cupidity of a thief. The only furniture in the cabin was a
table, a bed, a cook stove and two or three old chairs. There was no food to be found in the house on
Tuesday. If rape was the aim of the assassin he did not accomplish his purpose. One theory
advanded[?] is that the woman’s first husband had learned of her whereabout and had committed the
crime out of revenge. Color is lent to this theory by the fact that the deaf and dumb child escaped. It is
stated that she is heir to a large estate in Ohio. It was rumored yesterday that the woman’s first husband
had recently been seen here, but this could not be verified.

Winner in Custody.

After hearing the evidence of several witnesses the coroner’s jury adjourned without bringing in a
verdict, but recommended that Winner, the husband of the dead woman, be held pending further
investigation. This was done and he was brought to town and placed in jail Tuesday night.

The little deaf and dumb girl was also brought to town and an effort was made by several deaf mutes to
see if she could tell anything of the crime, but as she is uneducated and unable to converse in the sign
language, this attempt was futile. She evidently knows something of the way in which the crime was
committed, as on Tuesday morning she tried to tell Mrs. Hankins by motions how it was done. She
usually slept upstairs in the cabin on a pallet, but on Tuesday morning there was a pillow at the foot of
the bed and an indention in the bed as though she had slept there. Neighbors stated that when Winner
was away she always slept in the bed with her mother. A strange feature of the case is that while the
murdered members of the family were in their night clothes she was fully dressed when Mr. Street first
saw her.

The coroner’s jury was in session again Wednesday afternoon and held until a late hour, many
witnesses being examined, but no positive evidence was had as to who the guilty party is. The jury,
however, after hearing the evidence and considering the case carefully, asked in its verdict that Jesse
Winner, the husband and father be held for the crime and he was accordingly returned to jail. An
information will be filed and a preliminary hearing will follow.

Later.

As we go to press we learn that Lon Lackey, a b[?] friend and associate of Jesse Winner, has just been
arrested upon a warrant sworn out by coroner Dr. Doxe[?] and is now lodged behind the bars in the
county jail. Suspicions are very strong that he knows more about the murder than he told while on the
witness stand yesterday, hence his arrest.
 










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