Throat slit ear to ear after selling half his wife

We like to pretend sometimes that our forbears were nicer people, less prone to the slings and arrows of outrageous behavior. But anyone who reads a little history knows better. 

Here's an example, involving a sensational slaying in the south of Iowa during August of 1874 at Creston, the second county seat west of Chariton on the main line of the C.B.&Q, now Burlington Northern & Santa Fe. At that time, however, Afton was the Union County seat; Creston, merely aspiring to greatness.

The link to Chariton is tangential --- the unfortunate victim, John Lorenzo Brister, a marble cutter by trade, had relocated to Lucas County earlier that year from Bedford, in Taylor County, after reportedly selling half the affections of his wife, Mary Lucretia, to a business partner. Brister found employment in Chariton with Mr. Webster, a marble dealer, and board and room at the Sherman House.

While living in Chariton, Brister decided to reclaim his spousal share and traveled to Creston, where Lucretia and the third party in the equation, James T. Burnett, had by then relocated. Lorenzo ended up dead there, throat cut from ear to ear with a razor while in bed with his wife during the early morning of Aug. 10.

Here's the report of the slaying as published on the front page of The Chariton Leader of Aug. 15, 1874, under the headline, "The Creston Murder:"

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Creston, Iowa, Aug. 10 --- At 3 o'clock this morning J.T. Burnett entered the bedroom of his stepson, J.L. Brister, and cut the latter's throat from ear to ear. The presumption is that the murderer must have alarmed his victim as he approached the bed, for there was evidences of quite a struggle. Brister's wife was in bed with him and was literally drenched with blood. The woman was so crazed that the name of the murderer was all that could be got out of her. Burnett escaped, being pursued by a large force and his capture is regarded as certain.

Creston, Iowa, Aug. 11 --- The man Burnett, who murdered Brister by cutting his throat from ear to ear, was captured this morning about eight o'clock by a Mr. Barnes, a farmer living near this city 

Naked and Hungry.

Burnett had been out all day yesterday and last night with nothing on or to eat, and being nearly starved and frozen, was compelled to leave his hiding place and laid in a ravine near Barnes' house until he caught Barnes' attention, who took him to his house, made him a prisoner and guarded him until aid arrived. While on their way to Afton, the county seat, they (the Union County sheriff and his deputies) were compelled to forcibly resist a mob, who were intent on

Lynching the Scoundrel.

The men came here for arms to rescue him from the party and hang him, but were disappointed in this. About fifty or seventy-five men then went on a train to head them off, but when they reached Afton they found the Sheriff with a heavy force guarding him and

Great Excitement Prevailed,

which finally subsided by the mob being promised his return to Creston on the first train. He arrived here at noon looking very bad, his cheeks all sunken in and his eyes had a wild scared look, which was increased by seeing so many people at the depot to meet him.

At the examination he plead guilty, and gave as his reason for committing the horrible deed, that Brister sold him

A Half Interest in His Wife

last spring, at Bedford, Iowa, and he had a contract to that effect. The first night after he slept with Mrs. Brister, Brister went away and censured her for allowing him to do so, and Burnett told her that if he came back, "I would either kill him or he would kill me."

Burnett brought her here and stayed with her two weeks before Brister came, and when he got back he refused to fill his contract, whereupon Burnett decided to kill him.

This statement was also sworn to by Mrs. Brister and she said that he was not her stepfather, but that she had represented him as such under his advice.

The sheriff has taken Burnett away so that he cannot be lynched, as he would surely be had he remained over night. He shows no regrets whatever at his bloody deed.

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The course of justice was trifle quirky back in those days and so it was the editor of The Creston Gazette rather than an investigating officer who obtained Lucretia's statement concerning the tragic affair not long thereafter. The edition of The Gazette that contained the resulting report has not survived, but the Gazette article was reproduced as follows in The Des Moines Register of Aug. 14 under the headline, "Statement of the Woman Whose Husband Sold Half of Her."

At the request of Mrs. Brister, a representative of the Gazette called on her and obtained her statement as follows:

Mrs. Lucretia Brister, first being duly sworn says: I formerly lived in Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio, where I married J.L. Brister. (Belmont County marriage records show that Lorenzo Brister and Lucretia Monroe were married there on July 14, 1860. The 1870 census of Barnesville records the family: Lorenzo, 35, a marble cutter; Lucretia, 25; Alice, 7; James, 6; and Albertus, 3.)

In the spring of 1874 my husband informed me that he had sold me to James L. Burnett and that thereafter I would be obliged to share Mr. Burnett's happiness. He also told my little girl the same thing. Burnett came into my room at Bedford, Iowa, and told me that he had given my husband half (of what) he was worth and that I was to share my happiness with him. He then slept with me all night.

The next morning my husband came into the room and said, "Lucretia, I am going to leave you." I asked him why and he said, "Oh, the devil." Then Burnett came in and said, "Cretia, I will befriend you while I live and if he ever comes back I will kill him or he will kill me." My husband went to Chariton and he wrote my litle girl a letter telling her where he was. Burnett tore the letter up.

I asked Mr. Burnett to send me back to Ohio, as I could not live this way, and he promised to do so. He told me, however, that I had better not do that, as he would move to Creston if Brister never came back. 

Burnett brought me to Creston, I lived here with Mr. Burnett about two weeks before my husband came. I was not expecting him, and was getting ready to go to Ohio. Burnett asked him whether we would live as we had been living, and my husband said, "No. I have grieved my wife almost to death." I said, "Oh, how can I stand it?"

They then seemed to make some agreement that we were to live together as we had been. Burnett told me that under these circumstances he had agreed to set my husband up in business. I told him that I would die before I would continue such a life. Mr. Brister told me if I did not quit cohabiting with Burnett, it would be worse for me. This was after Burnett let him have the money.

Burnett said, "then you refuse to let me share your happiness with you?" Burnett then drew up a paper for the money that he had let him have, and my husband refused to sign it, because it drew interest. Burnett said, "you have got to do it," and I told Brister to do it and he signed it. My husband would still accuse me of criminal intercourse, saying, "Now, Cretia, didn't he come up stairs?" When I would answer, "No, Brister, don't you know that I will not deceive you?"

After my husband had signed the note, Burnett went up stairs into his room, and I heard him load his gun, as I supposed, and I said, "I am afraid he will kill us." Mr. Brister then told me to go into Mrs. Philpot's room and tell her that he is my step-father, also that he forced me to sign that note. (signed) Lucretia Brister. Witness: John C. Schroder, E.S. Sealy, R. Morley, Marcus T. Perrin.

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By this time, reports of the sensational Creston murder were being published nationwide, including the Belmont (Ohio) Chronicle, Saint Clairsville, of Aug. 13, which prefaced the same report that would appear in The Leader at Chariton with the following paragraph:

"J. L. Brister, late of the firm of Brister & Cunard, of Barnesville, marble cutters, was murdered somewhere west a few days ago. We understand that his body was to have arrived in Barnesville on Tuesday."

So it appears that Lorenzo had family in Ohio with the resources to claim his body and have it shipped east, although I've not been able to find a marked grave in either Belmont or neighboring Monroe County --- where there is a Brister family cemetery --- for him.

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There are no direct reports in Iowa newspapers of court proceedings against James T. Burnett, which appear to have moved slowly once the immediate threat of lynching had subsided. Reports of the murder suggest that he had admitted his guilt and a Union County grand jury appears to have indicted him for murder, then deposited him in the Mills County jail at Glenwood.

Nearly a year later, on July 12, 1875, The Quad-City times published the following paragraph under "Iowa News" --- "J.W. Burnett, indicted by the grand jury of Union county for the murder of Brister, at Creston, last July, has escaped from the jail at Glenwood, whither he was remanded by Judge Forney for safe keeping."

On July 10, Iowa Gov. Cyrus C. Carpenter had signed an order authorizing a reward of $300 for information resulting in the arrest of J.T. Burnett, indicted for the murder of J.T. Brister and at large after escaping from the jail at Glenwood.

There are no reports to suggest that Burnett ever was recaptured or that the reward was paid.

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I've not been able to track with any degree of certainty Lucretia Brister and her three children, so for the time being at least their outcomes remain a mystery.