3 are slain in Belleville beauty salon

Authorities were working both sides of the Mississippi River late Wednesday night in their search for a killer who stabbed a popular Belleville hairdresser and two of his customers earlier in the day.

A customer who showed up at the salon just after 11 a.m. Wednesday found the bodies of salon owner Michael J. Cooney, 62, and sisters Dorothy E. Bone, 82, and Doris J. Fischer, 79. Police believe Cooney knew the killer, who fled in Cooney's sport utility vehicle. Authorities were seeking that vehicle, a tan Nissan Pathfinder with personalized license plate MJC-6, with a disabled designation.

Robbery was the likely motive, police and friends of Cooney said. He often carried large sums of cash, and his house was filled with expensive antiques, which he bought and sold, they said.

"The two women happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Deputy St. Clair County Coroner Robert Shay. "They were witnesses that had to be eliminated."

Police were also looking for a part-time employee who lives in the Belleville area but frequents several places in St. Louis, Delaney said. The man is not a suspect, he said, but may have information important to the investigation. Police said they did not know if he was supposed to be at work at the salon Wednesday morning.

Cooney ran the salon out of his home at 7813 West Main Street. The back door of the home remained open throughout the day as customers came and went.

"I said a couple of times: 'That's not safe,'" said Shirley Schulte, a 30-year customer who showed up at the salon for a 1 p.m. appointment. "Anybody could walk into the house."

There was no sign indicating a business was inside, but Cooney didn't need one. He had been styling hair in Belleville for 30 years, and his longtime customers knew where to find him.

"It had to be someone who knew him," said a friend, Karen Horvath. "Those who don't know him wouldn't know he had a business."

Delaney said nothing was amiss when other customers left about 9:30 a.m.

The three bodies were found close to each other, authorities said. Fischer and Cooney lay dead in a back room that held the wash basins where Cooney rinsed customers' hair. Bone was found lying in a hallway near the room with a stab wound to her chest - it appears she had been sitting in the dining room and was killed when she went to investigate the commotion, Shay said. The coroner's investigation will determine how many times each victim was stabbed.

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If the murderer was a 16- or 17-year-old, he won't have to fear paying the ultimate price for his crime, thanks to the sickening 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court banning executions of young brutal killers.

As a result, police no longer have the death penalty to give up during plea-bargain negotiations. Now we'll start seeing plea bargains in which a life sentence is given up, so the murderer will be back on the streets later in life to kill again.

As time goes on, Justice Kennedy and the four usual libs of the Supreme Court will have more and more blood on their hands.

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