John and his brother Joe immigrated from Teplicka, Hungary (now Slovakia) to the Streator, IL area in 1885 with their mother, Anna (Filip) Hozza (later changed to Hozie). John married Anna Hamrak, born 15 Sep 1877 to Mathias Hamrak and Catharina Babcsanyik in Teplicka. Three children were born: John Andrew 8/17/1901-1971, Anna born 11/22/1902 and Margaret born in 1915.
Walnut Leader, Friday, March 26, 1915, page 5, column 3
SLAIN IN CHERRY MINE
John Hozie, night pump man at the St. Paul mine in Cherry, was mysteriously murdered Monday night. His body, with two bullet holes in the head and another through his left hand, was found at midnight in the pump room of the abandoned second vein. He had been dead about an hour.
Two mules stabled in the big barn in the third vein, were also slain and five others wounded by the mysterious assassin, who had so far eluded capture. Efforts are being made to trace the crime to miners who had a grievance against the coal company.
Giacomo Savanet Mutun, a strange Italian who was seen in Cherry Monday night, was arrested at Oglesby Tuesday by Officer James Lindsey upon instructions from Sheriff O.H. Skoglund. The prisoner was brought to Princeton yesterday morning for examination by State's Attorney C.N. Hollerich.
Information reached the sheriff Tuesday morning directing suspicion toward Mutun.
State's Attorney Hollerich put Mutun through a quiz in his office yesterday morning but could get nothing out of him. The prisoner was fined fifty dollars by Police Magistrate W.W. Herron on a charge of vagrancy, to hold him in the county jail for twenty days, pending a more thorough investigation.
The murder was discovered by Hugh Cochran, night boss at the mine. Cochran last saw Hozie alive at 10:30 o'clock on Monday night getting on the cage at the third vein to go up to the second level to look after the pump.
Since the disastrous fire of 1909 the second vein has not been worked and the east side has been sealed with a concrete wall but a ring has been dug around the shaft at the middle level, for drainage purposes and a pump has been used to lift the seepage to the surface. Four similar pumps are used at the third vein. It was Hozie's duty to look after the pumps.
About 11 o'clock Cochran began to get uneasy about Hozie, who had not reported his return. Cochran telephoned to the engineer, John Cowley, asking if Hozie was still in the second vein. The engineer replied that Hozie must be there because at 10:30 he had gone up on the cage and fifteen minutes later had sent the cage to the bottom again and there had been no word from him after that.
At midnight Cochran decided to investigate. He ascended to the second level and found Hozie dead near the pump. The body was reclining on a timber against the concrete wall, and there were two bullet holes in the head, one about two inches back of the left temple and the other close beside it. Both ranged downward and forward. Where the bullets entered, the skull was shattered as though the missiles had exploded after penetrating the bone.
Dr. T.P Guilfoyle, who assisted Dr. J.H. Franklin with the autopsy, said that either wound would have been sufficient to produce instant death. There were no other signs of violence upon the body. The evidence tended to show that Hozie was shot from behind.
It was about the same time that Cochran discovered Hozie, that drivers on the night shift, who were putting away their mules, found two mules dead in the main barn at the bottom vein. They had been shot. Later, five other mules were found to be seriously wounded. The barn floor and the sides of the stalls were spatter with blood.
Cochran called the men together immediately. There were seventeen at work on Monday night, and all of them fully accounted for their actions during the hour and a half that elapsed from the time that Hozie ascended to the second vein until the discovery of the murder.
Guards were stationed at the escape shaft to cut off the possible flight of the assassin if he were still in the mine and a search was started. The search ended in failure.
Cochran returned with two men to the scene of the murder. Hozie's body was placed on a stretcher and hoisted on top. It was placed in the morgue, where during the disaster the bodies of the fire victims were deposited awaiting identification.
A few shells for an automatic revolver, and three loaves of bread tied to a bundle, furnished the only clews to the solution of the mystery. The murderer it is believed, had prepared to stand a siege in the event that he should be discovered. The authorities are endeavored to find out at the village stores if any person recently bought bullets similar to those found in the mine. They were of a peculiar make and could be easily identified.
The bread found near the body of Hozie, had been purchased at a Cherry bakery and was in the original package. Efforts to trace the murderer through that clew came to naught. It was learned at the bakery Tuesday that a stranger had bought bread there the night before, but a description of the man could not be obtained, other than that he was a young fellow and wore a cap.
The woman from whom the bread was purchased told the officers that a man had come to the store about 7 o'clock Monday night, after closing time, and wanted to buy some bread. The front door was locked and she asked him to walk to the side door. She gave him the bread and he paid for it with a half dollar, receiving thirty-five cents in change. It was dark, the woman said, and she could not see the man well enough to describe him.
The supposition is that the crime was committed by someone familiar with the mine, and that the deed was inspired by a desire for revenge. It is not believed that the killing of Hozie was premeditated. He was shot, it is thought, while the assassin was leaving the mine after the shooting of the mules.
Mine officials are of the opinion that the mules in the third vein were shot first and that the fiend was interrupted in his bloody work and sought to escape through the air shaft but stopped to rest at the second vein. They think that there he encountered Hozie, and fearing detection, he killed the pump man and continued his flight by climbing the ladders of the air shaft to the fan house at the surface. It was through this air shaft that scores of miners found egress from the burning mine on November 13, 1909.
Coroner A.H. Malm, State's Attorney Hollerich and Sheriff Skoglund were on the scene Tuesday morning and started an investigation to clear up the mystery. Little progress has been made. The inquest was started at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning and the testimony of the night boss, the engineer and Dr. Guilfoyle was taken. An adjournment was then ordered until this morning to await further developments.
Jackson's bloodhounds were summoned from Peru and were put on the trail. They arrived about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. The dogs were given the scent of the air shaft and ran a trail in the "long row" west of the mine. Twise this was repeated. The inhabitant of the cottage was examined by the sheriff and state's attorney and admitted that he had passed the fan house on his way ome from town that night before, but furnished a satisfactory alibi and was released.
Sheriff Skoglund through secret sources learned that a strange Italian had called at a miner's cottage Monday evening about 5 o'clock to ask for a meal and a place to sleep for the night and had shortly afterwards disappeared. This clew led to the arrest of Mutun at Oglesby.
Mutun in the office of the state's attorney yesterday morning at Princeton, admitted that he was in Cherry on Monday night and had applied for work at the mine and was refused. He said that he was given lodging with an Italian family whom he did not know and had walked from there, leaving Cherry at 7 o'clock. He denied having any knowledge of the murder in the mine and said that the first information he received of the crime was when he was arrested by Officer Lindsey at Oglesby.
Mutun claimed that he had lived at Oglesby and Cedar Point for a number of years, but since December 5, he had been out of work. He said he had tried four times to get work at Cherry. At Oglesby he has the reputation of being a harmless fellow, but somewhat "queer."
When he arrived from the 10:30 interurban car at Princeton with the sheriff yesterday morning, Mutun presented a scared appearance, and his eyes were red with weeping. State's Attorney Hollerich is almost convinced that Mutun is not the slayer of Hozie, but has decided to hold him until further light can be obtained on the mystery.
Bureau Co. Republican.
From the Dixon Evening Telegraph, 29 June 1915
Cherry Mine Murderer in Chicago Admits His Guilt
Chicago, June 29 -- Crazed with a desire for revenge, Henry Forienteni descended 550 feet into the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Ill., March 21, 1915, and, it is alleged, shot and killed John Hozie, a miner, and nine mules.
He was brought to Chicago today from England, where he fled after the murder, by Sheriff Bert Skoaglund of Bureau county, where he will be taken for trial.
After murderering his fellow worker, Forienteni fled to New Orleans and sailed for England. He was traced to London by the Pinkerton National Detective agency. Sheriff Skoaglund said the steamship Philadelphia on which they sailed for the United States, encountered several submarines off the Irish coast, but the vessel was not molested.
Forienteni admitted the murder according to the sheriff and said he was insane. Hozie, he said, had always been "against him" and they frequently quarreled.
Walnut Leader, Friday, March 26, 1915, page 5, column 3
SLAIN IN CHERRY MINE
John Hozie, night pump man at the St. Paul mine in Cherry, was mysteriously murdered Monday night. His body, with two bullet holes in the head and another through his left hand, was found at midnight in the pump room of the abandoned second vein. He had been dead about an hour.
Two mules stabled in the big barn in the third vein, were also slain and five others wounded by the mysterious assassin, who had so far eluded capture. Efforts are being made to trace the crime to miners who had a grievance against the coal company.
Giacomo Savanet Mutun, a strange Italian who was seen in Cherry Monday night, was arrested at Oglesby Tuesday by Officer James Lindsey upon instructions from Sheriff O.H. Skoglund. The prisoner was brought to Princeton yesterday morning for examination by State's Attorney C.N. Hollerich.
Information reached the sheriff Tuesday morning directing suspicion toward Mutun.
State's Attorney Hollerich put Mutun through a quiz in his office yesterday morning but could get nothing out of him. The prisoner was fined fifty dollars by Police Magistrate W.W. Herron on a charge of vagrancy, to hold him in the county jail for twenty days, pending a more thorough investigation.
The murder was discovered by Hugh Cochran, night boss at the mine. Cochran last saw Hozie alive at 10:30 o'clock on Monday night getting on the cage at the third vein to go up to the second level to look after the pump.
Since the disastrous fire of 1909 the second vein has not been worked and the east side has been sealed with a concrete wall but a ring has been dug around the shaft at the middle level, for drainage purposes and a pump has been used to lift the seepage to the surface. Four similar pumps are used at the third vein. It was Hozie's duty to look after the pumps.
About 11 o'clock Cochran began to get uneasy about Hozie, who had not reported his return. Cochran telephoned to the engineer, John Cowley, asking if Hozie was still in the second vein. The engineer replied that Hozie must be there because at 10:30 he had gone up on the cage and fifteen minutes later had sent the cage to the bottom again and there had been no word from him after that.
At midnight Cochran decided to investigate. He ascended to the second level and found Hozie dead near the pump. The body was reclining on a timber against the concrete wall, and there were two bullet holes in the head, one about two inches back of the left temple and the other close beside it. Both ranged downward and forward. Where the bullets entered, the skull was shattered as though the missiles had exploded after penetrating the bone.
Dr. T.P Guilfoyle, who assisted Dr. J.H. Franklin with the autopsy, said that either wound would have been sufficient to produce instant death. There were no other signs of violence upon the body. The evidence tended to show that Hozie was shot from behind.
It was about the same time that Cochran discovered Hozie, that drivers on the night shift, who were putting away their mules, found two mules dead in the main barn at the bottom vein. They had been shot. Later, five other mules were found to be seriously wounded. The barn floor and the sides of the stalls were spatter with blood.
Cochran called the men together immediately. There were seventeen at work on Monday night, and all of them fully accounted for their actions during the hour and a half that elapsed from the time that Hozie ascended to the second vein until the discovery of the murder.
Guards were stationed at the escape shaft to cut off the possible flight of the assassin if he were still in the mine and a search was started. The search ended in failure.
Cochran returned with two men to the scene of the murder. Hozie's body was placed on a stretcher and hoisted on top. It was placed in the morgue, where during the disaster the bodies of the fire victims were deposited awaiting identification.
A few shells for an automatic revolver, and three loaves of bread tied to a bundle, furnished the only clews to the solution of the mystery. The murderer it is believed, had prepared to stand a siege in the event that he should be discovered. The authorities are endeavored to find out at the village stores if any person recently bought bullets similar to those found in the mine. They were of a peculiar make and could be easily identified.
The bread found near the body of Hozie, had been purchased at a Cherry bakery and was in the original package. Efforts to trace the murderer through that clew came to naught. It was learned at the bakery Tuesday that a stranger had bought bread there the night before, but a description of the man could not be obtained, other than that he was a young fellow and wore a cap.
The woman from whom the bread was purchased told the officers that a man had come to the store about 7 o'clock Monday night, after closing time, and wanted to buy some bread. The front door was locked and she asked him to walk to the side door. She gave him the bread and he paid for it with a half dollar, receiving thirty-five cents in change. It was dark, the woman said, and she could not see the man well enough to describe him.
The supposition is that the crime was committed by someone familiar with the mine, and that the deed was inspired by a desire for revenge. It is not believed that the killing of Hozie was premeditated. He was shot, it is thought, while the assassin was leaving the mine after the shooting of the mules.
Mine officials are of the opinion that the mules in the third vein were shot first and that the fiend was interrupted in his bloody work and sought to escape through the air shaft but stopped to rest at the second vein. They think that there he encountered Hozie, and fearing detection, he killed the pump man and continued his flight by climbing the ladders of the air shaft to the fan house at the surface. It was through this air shaft that scores of miners found egress from the burning mine on November 13, 1909.
Coroner A.H. Malm, State's Attorney Hollerich and Sheriff Skoglund were on the scene Tuesday morning and started an investigation to clear up the mystery. Little progress has been made. The inquest was started at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning and the testimony of the night boss, the engineer and Dr. Guilfoyle was taken. An adjournment was then ordered until this morning to await further developments.
Jackson's bloodhounds were summoned from Peru and were put on the trail. They arrived about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. The dogs were given the scent of the air shaft and ran a trail in the "long row" west of the mine. Twise this was repeated. The inhabitant of the cottage was examined by the sheriff and state's attorney and admitted that he had passed the fan house on his way ome from town that night before, but furnished a satisfactory alibi and was released.
Sheriff Skoglund through secret sources learned that a strange Italian had called at a miner's cottage Monday evening about 5 o'clock to ask for a meal and a place to sleep for the night and had shortly afterwards disappeared. This clew led to the arrest of Mutun at Oglesby.
Mutun in the office of the state's attorney yesterday morning at Princeton, admitted that he was in Cherry on Monday night and had applied for work at the mine and was refused. He said that he was given lodging with an Italian family whom he did not know and had walked from there, leaving Cherry at 7 o'clock. He denied having any knowledge of the murder in the mine and said that the first information he received of the crime was when he was arrested by Officer Lindsey at Oglesby.
Mutun claimed that he had lived at Oglesby and Cedar Point for a number of years, but since December 5, he had been out of work. He said he had tried four times to get work at Cherry. At Oglesby he has the reputation of being a harmless fellow, but somewhat "queer."
When he arrived from the 10:30 interurban car at Princeton with the sheriff yesterday morning, Mutun presented a scared appearance, and his eyes were red with weeping. State's Attorney Hollerich is almost convinced that Mutun is not the slayer of Hozie, but has decided to hold him until further light can be obtained on the mystery.
Bureau Co. Republican.
From the Dixon Evening Telegraph, 29 June 1915
Cherry Mine Murderer in Chicago Admits His Guilt
Chicago, June 29 -- Crazed with a desire for revenge, Henry Forienteni descended 550 feet into the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Ill., March 21, 1915, and, it is alleged, shot and killed John Hozie, a miner, and nine mules.
He was brought to Chicago today from England, where he fled after the murder, by Sheriff Bert Skoaglund of Bureau county, where he will be taken for trial.
After murderering his fellow worker, Forienteni fled to New Orleans and sailed for England. He was traced to London by the Pinkerton National Detective agency. Sheriff Skoaglund said the steamship Philadelphia on which they sailed for the United States, encountered several submarines off the Irish coast, but the vessel was not molested.
Forienteni admitted the murder according to the sheriff and said he was insane. Hozie, he said, had always been "against him" and they frequently quarreled.
John and his brother Joe immigrated from Teplicka, Hungary (now Slovakia) to the Streator, IL area in 1885 with their mother, Anna (Filip) Hozza (later changed to Hozie). John married Anna Hamrak, born 15 Sep 1877 to Mathias Hamrak and Catharina Babcsanyik in Teplicka. Three children were born: John Andrew 8/17/1901-1971, Anna born 11/22/1902 and Margaret born in 1915.
Walnut Leader, Friday, March 26, 1915, page 5, column 3
SLAIN IN CHERRY MINE
John Hozie, night pump man at the St. Paul mine in Cherry, was mysteriously murdered Monday night. His body, with two bullet holes in the head and another through his left hand, was found at midnight in the pump room of the abandoned second vein. He had been dead about an hour.
Two mules stabled in the big barn in the third vein, were also slain and five others wounded by the mysterious assassin, who had so far eluded capture. Efforts are being made to trace the crime to miners who had a grievance against the coal company.
Giacomo Savanet Mutun, a strange Italian who was seen in Cherry Monday night, was arrested at Oglesby Tuesday by Officer James Lindsey upon instructions from Sheriff O.H. Skoglund. The prisoner was brought to Princeton yesterday morning for examination by State's Attorney C.N. Hollerich.
Information reached the sheriff Tuesday morning directing suspicion toward Mutun.
State's Attorney Hollerich put Mutun through a quiz in his office yesterday morning but could get nothing out of him. The prisoner was fined fifty dollars by Police Magistrate W.W. Herron on a charge of vagrancy, to hold him in the county jail for twenty days, pending a more thorough investigation.
The murder was discovered by Hugh Cochran, night boss at the mine. Cochran last saw Hozie alive at 10:30 o'clock on Monday night getting on the cage at the third vein to go up to the second level to look after the pump.
Since the disastrous fire of 1909 the second vein has not been worked and the east side has been sealed with a concrete wall but a ring has been dug around the shaft at the middle level, for drainage purposes and a pump has been used to lift the seepage to the surface. Four similar pumps are used at the third vein. It was Hozie's duty to look after the pumps.
About 11 o'clock Cochran began to get uneasy about Hozie, who had not reported his return. Cochran telephoned to the engineer, John Cowley, asking if Hozie was still in the second vein. The engineer replied that Hozie must be there because at 10:30 he had gone up on the cage and fifteen minutes later had sent the cage to the bottom again and there had been no word from him after that.
At midnight Cochran decided to investigate. He ascended to the second level and found Hozie dead near the pump. The body was reclining on a timber against the concrete wall, and there were two bullet holes in the head, one about two inches back of the left temple and the other close beside it. Both ranged downward and forward. Where the bullets entered, the skull was shattered as though the missiles had exploded after penetrating the bone.
Dr. T.P Guilfoyle, who assisted Dr. J.H. Franklin with the autopsy, said that either wound would have been sufficient to produce instant death. There were no other signs of violence upon the body. The evidence tended to show that Hozie was shot from behind.
It was about the same time that Cochran discovered Hozie, that drivers on the night shift, who were putting away their mules, found two mules dead in the main barn at the bottom vein. They had been shot. Later, five other mules were found to be seriously wounded. The barn floor and the sides of the stalls were spatter with blood.
Cochran called the men together immediately. There were seventeen at work on Monday night, and all of them fully accounted for their actions during the hour and a half that elapsed from the time that Hozie ascended to the second vein until the discovery of the murder.
Guards were stationed at the escape shaft to cut off the possible flight of the assassin if he were still in the mine and a search was started. The search ended in failure.
Cochran returned with two men to the scene of the murder. Hozie's body was placed on a stretcher and hoisted on top. It was placed in the morgue, where during the disaster the bodies of the fire victims were deposited awaiting identification.
A few shells for an automatic revolver, and three loaves of bread tied to a bundle, furnished the only clews to the solution of the mystery. The murderer it is believed, had prepared to stand a siege in the event that he should be discovered. The authorities are endeavored to find out at the village stores if any person recently bought bullets similar to those found in the mine. They were of a peculiar make and could be easily identified.
The bread found near the body of Hozie, had been purchased at a Cherry bakery and was in the original package. Efforts to trace the murderer through that clew came to naught. It was learned at the bakery Tuesday that a stranger had bought bread there the night before, but a description of the man could not be obtained, other than that he was a young fellow and wore a cap.
The woman from whom the bread was purchased told the officers that a man had come to the store about 7 o'clock Monday night, after closing time, and wanted to buy some bread. The front door was locked and she asked him to walk to the side door. She gave him the bread and he paid for it with a half dollar, receiving thirty-five cents in change. It was dark, the woman said, and she could not see the man well enough to describe him.
The supposition is that the crime was committed by someone familiar with the mine, and that the deed was inspired by a desire for revenge. It is not believed that the killing of Hozie was premeditated. He was shot, it is thought, while the assassin was leaving the mine after the shooting of the mules.
Mine officials are of the opinion that the mules in the third vein were shot first and that the fiend was interrupted in his bloody work and sought to escape through the air shaft but stopped to rest at the second vein. They think that there he encountered Hozie, and fearing detection, he killed the pump man and continued his flight by climbing the ladders of the air shaft to the fan house at the surface. It was through this air shaft that scores of miners found egress from the burning mine on November 13, 1909.
Coroner A.H. Malm, State's Attorney Hollerich and Sheriff Skoglund were on the scene Tuesday morning and started an investigation to clear up the mystery. Little progress has been made. The inquest was started at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning and the testimony of the night boss, the engineer and Dr. Guilfoyle was taken. An adjournment was then ordered until this morning to await further developments.
Jackson's bloodhounds were summoned from Peru and were put on the trail. They arrived about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. The dogs were given the scent of the air shaft and ran a trail in the "long row" west of the mine. Twise this was repeated. The inhabitant of the cottage was examined by the sheriff and state's attorney and admitted that he had passed the fan house on his way ome from town that night before, but furnished a satisfactory alibi and was released.
Sheriff Skoglund through secret sources learned that a strange Italian had called at a miner's cottage Monday evening about 5 o'clock to ask for a meal and a place to sleep for the night and had shortly afterwards disappeared. This clew led to the arrest of Mutun at Oglesby.
Mutun in the office of the state's attorney yesterday morning at Princeton, admitted that he was in Cherry on Monday night and had applied for work at the mine and was refused. He said that he was given lodging with an Italian family whom he did not know and had walked from there, leaving Cherry at 7 o'clock. He denied having any knowledge of the murder in the mine and said that the first information he received of the crime was when he was arrested by Officer Lindsey at Oglesby.
Mutun claimed that he had lived at Oglesby and Cedar Point for a number of years, but since December 5, he had been out of work. He said he had tried four times to get work at Cherry. At Oglesby he has the reputation of being a harmless fellow, but somewhat "queer."
When he arrived from the 10:30 interurban car at Princeton with the sheriff yesterday morning, Mutun presented a scared appearance, and his eyes were red with weeping. State's Attorney Hollerich is almost convinced that Mutun is not the slayer of Hozie, but has decided to hold him until further light can be obtained on the mystery.
Bureau Co. Republican.
From the Dixon Evening Telegraph, 29 June 1915
Cherry Mine Murderer in Chicago Admits His Guilt
Chicago, June 29 -- Crazed with a desire for revenge, Henry Forienteni descended 550 feet into the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Ill., March 21, 1915, and, it is alleged, shot and killed John Hozie, a miner, and nine mules.
He was brought to Chicago today from England, where he fled after the murder, by Sheriff Bert Skoaglund of Bureau county, where he will be taken for trial.
After murderering his fellow worker, Forienteni fled to New Orleans and sailed for England. He was traced to London by the Pinkerton National Detective agency. Sheriff Skoaglund said the steamship Philadelphia on which they sailed for the United States, encountered several submarines off the Irish coast, but the vessel was not molested.
Forienteni admitted the murder according to the sheriff and said he was insane. Hozie, he said, had always been "against him" and they frequently quarreled.
Walnut Leader, Friday, March 26, 1915, page 5, column 3
SLAIN IN CHERRY MINE
John Hozie, night pump man at the St. Paul mine in Cherry, was mysteriously murdered Monday night. His body, with two bullet holes in the head and another through his left hand, was found at midnight in the pump room of the abandoned second vein. He had been dead about an hour.
Two mules stabled in the big barn in the third vein, were also slain and five others wounded by the mysterious assassin, who had so far eluded capture. Efforts are being made to trace the crime to miners who had a grievance against the coal company.
Giacomo Savanet Mutun, a strange Italian who was seen in Cherry Monday night, was arrested at Oglesby Tuesday by Officer James Lindsey upon instructions from Sheriff O.H. Skoglund. The prisoner was brought to Princeton yesterday morning for examination by State's Attorney C.N. Hollerich.
Information reached the sheriff Tuesday morning directing suspicion toward Mutun.
State's Attorney Hollerich put Mutun through a quiz in his office yesterday morning but could get nothing out of him. The prisoner was fined fifty dollars by Police Magistrate W.W. Herron on a charge of vagrancy, to hold him in the county jail for twenty days, pending a more thorough investigation.
The murder was discovered by Hugh Cochran, night boss at the mine. Cochran last saw Hozie alive at 10:30 o'clock on Monday night getting on the cage at the third vein to go up to the second level to look after the pump.
Since the disastrous fire of 1909 the second vein has not been worked and the east side has been sealed with a concrete wall but a ring has been dug around the shaft at the middle level, for drainage purposes and a pump has been used to lift the seepage to the surface. Four similar pumps are used at the third vein. It was Hozie's duty to look after the pumps.
About 11 o'clock Cochran began to get uneasy about Hozie, who had not reported his return. Cochran telephoned to the engineer, John Cowley, asking if Hozie was still in the second vein. The engineer replied that Hozie must be there because at 10:30 he had gone up on the cage and fifteen minutes later had sent the cage to the bottom again and there had been no word from him after that.
At midnight Cochran decided to investigate. He ascended to the second level and found Hozie dead near the pump. The body was reclining on a timber against the concrete wall, and there were two bullet holes in the head, one about two inches back of the left temple and the other close beside it. Both ranged downward and forward. Where the bullets entered, the skull was shattered as though the missiles had exploded after penetrating the bone.
Dr. T.P Guilfoyle, who assisted Dr. J.H. Franklin with the autopsy, said that either wound would have been sufficient to produce instant death. There were no other signs of violence upon the body. The evidence tended to show that Hozie was shot from behind.
It was about the same time that Cochran discovered Hozie, that drivers on the night shift, who were putting away their mules, found two mules dead in the main barn at the bottom vein. They had been shot. Later, five other mules were found to be seriously wounded. The barn floor and the sides of the stalls were spatter with blood.
Cochran called the men together immediately. There were seventeen at work on Monday night, and all of them fully accounted for their actions during the hour and a half that elapsed from the time that Hozie ascended to the second vein until the discovery of the murder.
Guards were stationed at the escape shaft to cut off the possible flight of the assassin if he were still in the mine and a search was started. The search ended in failure.
Cochran returned with two men to the scene of the murder. Hozie's body was placed on a stretcher and hoisted on top. It was placed in the morgue, where during the disaster the bodies of the fire victims were deposited awaiting identification.
A few shells for an automatic revolver, and three loaves of bread tied to a bundle, furnished the only clews to the solution of the mystery. The murderer it is believed, had prepared to stand a siege in the event that he should be discovered. The authorities are endeavored to find out at the village stores if any person recently bought bullets similar to those found in the mine. They were of a peculiar make and could be easily identified.
The bread found near the body of Hozie, had been purchased at a Cherry bakery and was in the original package. Efforts to trace the murderer through that clew came to naught. It was learned at the bakery Tuesday that a stranger had bought bread there the night before, but a description of the man could not be obtained, other than that he was a young fellow and wore a cap.
The woman from whom the bread was purchased told the officers that a man had come to the store about 7 o'clock Monday night, after closing time, and wanted to buy some bread. The front door was locked and she asked him to walk to the side door. She gave him the bread and he paid for it with a half dollar, receiving thirty-five cents in change. It was dark, the woman said, and she could not see the man well enough to describe him.
The supposition is that the crime was committed by someone familiar with the mine, and that the deed was inspired by a desire for revenge. It is not believed that the killing of Hozie was premeditated. He was shot, it is thought, while the assassin was leaving the mine after the shooting of the mules.
Mine officials are of the opinion that the mules in the third vein were shot first and that the fiend was interrupted in his bloody work and sought to escape through the air shaft but stopped to rest at the second vein. They think that there he encountered Hozie, and fearing detection, he killed the pump man and continued his flight by climbing the ladders of the air shaft to the fan house at the surface. It was through this air shaft that scores of miners found egress from the burning mine on November 13, 1909.
Coroner A.H. Malm, State's Attorney Hollerich and Sheriff Skoglund were on the scene Tuesday morning and started an investigation to clear up the mystery. Little progress has been made. The inquest was started at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning and the testimony of the night boss, the engineer and Dr. Guilfoyle was taken. An adjournment was then ordered until this morning to await further developments.
Jackson's bloodhounds were summoned from Peru and were put on the trail. They arrived about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. The dogs were given the scent of the air shaft and ran a trail in the "long row" west of the mine. Twise this was repeated. The inhabitant of the cottage was examined by the sheriff and state's attorney and admitted that he had passed the fan house on his way ome from town that night before, but furnished a satisfactory alibi and was released.
Sheriff Skoglund through secret sources learned that a strange Italian had called at a miner's cottage Monday evening about 5 o'clock to ask for a meal and a place to sleep for the night and had shortly afterwards disappeared. This clew led to the arrest of Mutun at Oglesby.
Mutun in the office of the state's attorney yesterday morning at Princeton, admitted that he was in Cherry on Monday night and had applied for work at the mine and was refused. He said that he was given lodging with an Italian family whom he did not know and had walked from there, leaving Cherry at 7 o'clock. He denied having any knowledge of the murder in the mine and said that the first information he received of the crime was when he was arrested by Officer Lindsey at Oglesby.
Mutun claimed that he had lived at Oglesby and Cedar Point for a number of years, but since December 5, he had been out of work. He said he had tried four times to get work at Cherry. At Oglesby he has the reputation of being a harmless fellow, but somewhat "queer."
When he arrived from the 10:30 interurban car at Princeton with the sheriff yesterday morning, Mutun presented a scared appearance, and his eyes were red with weeping. State's Attorney Hollerich is almost convinced that Mutun is not the slayer of Hozie, but has decided to hold him until further light can be obtained on the mystery.
Bureau Co. Republican.
From the Dixon Evening Telegraph, 29 June 1915
Cherry Mine Murderer in Chicago Admits His Guilt
Chicago, June 29 -- Crazed with a desire for revenge, Henry Forienteni descended 550 feet into the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Ill., March 21, 1915, and, it is alleged, shot and killed John Hozie, a miner, and nine mules.
He was brought to Chicago today from England, where he fled after the murder, by Sheriff Bert Skoaglund of Bureau county, where he will be taken for trial.
After murderering his fellow worker, Forienteni fled to New Orleans and sailed for England. He was traced to London by the Pinkerton National Detective agency. Sheriff Skoaglund said the steamship Philadelphia on which they sailed for the United States, encountered several submarines off the Irish coast, but the vessel was not molested.
Forienteni admitted the murder according to the sheriff and said he was insane. Hozie, he said, had always been "against him" and they frequently quarreled.
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