CAIRO GIRL MURDERED

November 9, 1909

It was raining last night when 24-year-old Anna Pelley got off the streetcar at 28th and Sycamore and began walking towards her sister's home a few blocks away. In her arms she carried an umbrella, an alligator pocketbook and eleven yards of red material with which she planned to make a dress.

Anna has been living in Cairo with her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. John Coffman, since her parents died. One of eleven children, Anna was the daughter of Joseph Pelley, who had immigrated to this country from Ireland and established a truck gardening business in Anna. Determined to support herself after her parents' death, Anna had found employment as a clerk in Pupkin's Drygoods Store in downtown Cairo.

Mrs. Coffman was slightly worried when Anna failed to show up after work; but she decided that her sister was probably spending the night with her friend Ella Dolan. Usually, however, Anna had called her sister to let her know she would not be home, but on the night of Nov. 8, 1909, no call came.

This morning little Katherine Boren got up early and went outside to play in the alley near her home. There she found the body of a woman, lying face upwards, her clothing torn and her face badly bruised. Little Katherine ran home to tell her papa, who immediately notified the Cairo police.

Near the body, which had already become rigid, lay a broken umbrella. The handle of which was later found only three doors from the Coffman home. It was surmised that Anna had broken it while attempting to fight off her assailant. Almost every shred of clothing had been torn from her body, and her throat bore blue marks where unknown hands had strangled her.

In the girl's mouth a wad of material had been stuffed so tightly that the police had some difficulty in removing it. This gag was given to a pair of bloodhounds, who had been brought in from Wickliffe, Ky. The dogs, taking up the scent, led the police to a ramshackled house which belonged to a negro woman who sometimes shared her quarters with three men.

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