Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1916 — FOURTH MURDER IN LAFAYETTE [ARTICLE]

FOURTH MURDER IN LAFAYETTE

Within Past Few Months, and Ail Attributed to Liquor Traffic. The partly decomposed body of Mike Kernan, aged 50 years, a brick layer, was found in the Monon yards at Lafayette Sunday afternoon. The body was found between the rails of a little-used siding and cuts and abraisions on the body indicated that the man had been murdered. The man was last seen alive on Thursday, in one of the saloons in Lafayette, and it is said had been drinking considerably. His home was in Chicago and he had of late been employed by a Logansport firm who are erecting a school building at Templeton. This is the fourth murder that has occurred in Lafayette In the Inst couple of months, to say nothing es numerous other crimes, all attributable to liquor, and the numerous automobile accidents, some of which have resulted fatally and It is generally believed were caused in several instances from “mixing booze with gasoline.” It would seem that the time is ripe for the good people of Lafayette to call a local option election and wipe the nearly 100 saloons out of existence there. With a population of less than 25,000, including West Lafayette, which is “dry,’ there seems to be more crime committed in Lafayette than in almost any other city in the country of four times its size, and it. would appear that a halt should be called by wiping out of existence the sources from which all this crime originates.