Peter Lazier was shot and killed at the Joneses’ farmhouse in 1883. (Courtesy of Sandra Foreman Photography)
The fateful events unfolded on Saturday, December 21, 1883. Gilbert Jones went to Bloomfield Station that afternoon to sell part of his hop harvest, for a considerable sum. Toward evening, he and his wife, Margaret, welcomed Peter Lazier, a relative from Belleville, who would be staying overnight.
Around 10 p.m., Margaret Jones answered a knock at the kitchen door. Two armed and masked men burst in. Her frightened screams catapulted Lazier out of the guest bedroom. In the ensuing tussle, one of the intruders struck Lazier on the head. The bandits fled when Jones emerged from his bedroom clutching a gun; on the way out, one of them “deliberately” fired at Lazier, “the shot,” according to the Gazette, “taking effect almost instantly, when he gradually sank to the floor and expired.”
A group of concerned neighbours, including the county constable, rushed to the Joneses’ farm. By lantern light, the posse was able to follow two sets of footprints heading away from the house toward the homes of Joseph Thomset and the Lowder family.
What followed was a classic case of how not to conduct an investigation.