Silas Jayne

Silas Carter Jayne (July 3, 1907 - July 13, 1987) was a Chicago-based stable owner who, after his death, was implicated in one of the most notorious crimes in the city's history, the 1955 Peterson-Schuessler murder of three young boys.

In 1973, he was convicted of conspiracy to murder George Jayne, his maternal half-brother.

Jayne is also suspected of having been involved in the murder of the two Grimes sisters.

Silas Jayne was born on July 3, 1907. His father was a farmer in Cuba Township, in Lake County, Illinois.

Jayne was the eldest of three brothers in a family of eleven children born to Arthur and Katherine Jayne. His half-brother, George Jayne, was fathered by George William Spunner in 1923.

At the age of 17, Jayne was convicted of rape and served one year in a state reformatory.

In the 1950s, Jayne and two of his brothers worked at the Green Tree Stables in the village of Norridge, and at the Elston Riding Academy in Chicago. They had found success in horse trading and, by the 1930s, they had secured ownership of a ranch near . They transported feral horses from the Western United States to the rail yards at Woodstock.

Jayne had acquired a reputation for bullying behavior, but was described as a savvy businessman who was discerning in matters concerning horses.

Jayne, who was ineligible for the military draft due to his rape conviction, traded in horse meat during World War II. He used his profits to enter the horse show business, and his stable was patronized by the Chicago elite. He sold virtually worthless horses to prosperous men with daughters in their early teenage years, claiming that the horses were of the top quality needed if the daughters were to become champion riders.

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