The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-04-05
GROWS THE LIST.
Another Fiendish Murder in a New
Hampshire Town.
AFTER THIRTY TWO YEARS
Not Quite an Enoch Arden Case for
He Left u Wife Behind Him-The
News of the Day I'm the States OF
New England.

MEREDIrA, N. H., April GA murder
has been committed here. George Z.
wiggin is the murderer; his wife, Dru-
silla A. Wiggiss is the victim. Wiggin
and his wife have always had the reputa-
ton of quarreling and she has left him
several times. Something over a year ago
she left him and removed TO Lake Village
with her three children. She instituted
proceedings for o divorce, and the case
was expected to be heard at the court
now In session at Laconia.
There were a dozen or more people In
sight while the murder was being done.
One young man named Chapman threw q
stone which hit Wiggin severely behind
the ear, but IL was hardly noticed by him.
The deed was done before the bystanders
could hardly realize what was being done.
Drusilla A. Wiggin, the murdered wo-
man, went mp from Lakeport to Mere
dith On the morning paper train, accom-
panied by her 10 years old daughter, to
meet her lawyer, James Wilson Of Ash
land, who was coming down On the first
train south. Her husband, George +.
Wiggin, the murderer, went up on the
same train, ostensibly to procure wit
nesses in Meredith tc testify on his side
in the divorce case which was to have had
n hearing before the Supreme Court at
Laconia, Tuesday afternoon.
The husband m wife met on the depot
platform at about $50 O'Clock. He want
ed to talk with her. She refused and he
then attempted to draw her aside from
the crowd on the platform. Mrs. Wig
started to her relief, but wiggin quickly
drew a dagger and before any one could
reach him stabbed her three times In the
back and neck, then threw her to the
ground and cut her throat, ~inssrting the
blade and prying the spinal cord and
yertebre apart SO that her head hung to
her body merely by the skin and flesh on
the left side.
He made no talk while this was going
on, n she did not make any cutlery ex-
cept to groan when the knife went into
her. After completing the butchery
Wiggin knelt beside his dead wife until
arrested a few minutes later by Officer Jas.
B. Bartlett, assisted by George Greenleaf.
He made no resistance to arrest and re-
fused to talk. Indeed the officers state
that he has not spoken a word since COM
hitting the crime, even refusing to talk
with his counsel.
In a little room in the Elm House, bare
ly large enough to accommodate the in
terested parties and the newspaper men,
Wiggin was arraigned before Hon. Sam
Solicitor w. 8. Peaslee appeared for the
state and Judge Frank NJ. Beckford
looked after the interests OF Wiggin.
The prisoner lay on a bed, his shirt, cuffs
and coat well spattered with the blood OF
his wife. He was apparently unconscious
est In the proceedings. Whether he is
shamming or has given way to the mem
tai strain Is a matter of dispute. His
counsel could not arous him enough to
plead not guilty, when Judge Rollings
read the complaint, but Wiggin finally
managed to shake his head a negative to
the charge and then relapse into appar-
short and brought out no new facts.
Judge Rolling promptly decided to hold
Wiggin without bail for the September
term OF the supreme court.
The body OF Mrs. Wiggin lies on a
stretcher In the furniture rooms of Un-
dertaker Herbert Moulton. Unless called
for by her friends it will be buried by
the Meredith selectmen.
Wiggin was taken by Deputy Sheriff
Irville Prescott to Laconia, the trip being
made on q mixed train, arriving at $50,
whence he was taken to the Belknap
county Jail, about two miles from the
city.
with Wiggin, claiming that his wife was
a bad woman and had ruined her own
daughters and broken up the home.
Friends Of the prisoner maintain that his
domestic troubles had practically crazed
him on this subject, although evidently
all right on other matters.
He was a man Of violent temper and
had threatened his wife before. In fact,
only a few months ago he was put under
bonds to keep the peace on her com
plant.
There can be little doubt that the crime
was premcditated, as Wiggin told his
counsel, Judge Beckford, only yesterday
that the divorce case would never come
up for trial. The dagger with which the
crime was committed was not a weapon
such a. q peaceful man would carry. The
blade In Ave inches long and very keen,
where the edge was turned over
in cutting apart the back bone of the