Delaware gazette and state journal., 1902-12-18
LAURA BlGGAR ON TRIAL.
She Asks to Plead ms tile Widow of Henry
Il nannaff


II. Dennett,
Freehold, N. j., Dec II. lin CON
nection with the alleged conspiracy in
the Henry NJ. Bennett will case, Laura
Biggar, a former noted actress. DIR. @.
@. Hendricks of Bayonne and former
Justice of the Peace Samuel Stanton
of Hoboken were put on trial hero yes
terday.
Miss Biggar, who has been out on
bail, entered with her friend, Mrs.
Mclean, and her counsel, Joseph M.
Noonan of Jersey City. She was
dressed in mourning. Miss Biggar sat
down right beside Mrs. Hendricks on
the prisoners bench, and the two
women chatted together in friendly
manner.
When the case opened Attorney
Noonan refused to allow Miss Biggar
to plead to the indictment, in which
she Is called "Laura Biggar," and
asked that she he alloweud to plead as
Laura Bennett Prosecutor Foster
refused to change the Indictment and
Miss Biggar's counsel refused to allow
her to plead as Miss Biggar. so plea
of not guilty was entered by ogder of
the court. The drawing of the jury
was then completed.
Prosecutor Foster opened for the
State. saying he expected to prove that
the blank on which Justice Stanton
certified to the fact that he married
Henry NJ. Bennett and Miss Biggar on
Jaunary I'd, 1893, was printed in Now
York in 1900 and that by unlawfully
confederatinR the accused schemed to
! get larger share of the Bennett estate
for Miss Biggar than she would have
| received under the will. The scheme,
the prosecutor said, was to produce q
child alleged to have been born 10 Miss
Biggar as a result Of her marriage with
Bennett
Surrogate Crater of Monmouth
county told of the probate of the Ben
nett will, which Miss Biggar alter
ward tried to have set aside. on the
ground of her marriage with Bennett.
On the petition she had signed her
name Laura A. Biggar.
There was 51nable among tho
lawyers as to whether the testimony
taken in the Orphans Court when
the conspiracy charge against Miss
Biggar gas first made, should be ae-
mitted as evidence, Judge Heisley
ruled that the testimony should oe adj
mitted, and it was read by the court
stenographer.
| John f. Hawkins, administrator
pendente lite of the Bennett estate,
said that the estate consisted of a 400
acre farm at Fa-mingdale, N. j. &c
valuable horses, 20 head of cattle, five
houses in New York, the Biiou Theatre
property in Pittshurg; property al
Avon, NJ j.; jewelry; S15 900 in AS
bury Park banks, 81, 500 in New York
banks and SIS, 600 in Pittsburg banks.
Undertaken O'Brien YVES put on ths
stand at the request Of the defendants
with view to showing that the actor
Of Laura Biggar at the sanitariun
when he went to take charge OF the
child's body for burial were such al
to cause him to believe that Laurt
Biggar was the mother of the baby
This sort of testimony was objected to
Next the lawyers for the deiencl
sought to learn from the witnes
whether he had observed that th'
physical condition of Laura Biggar a
The time was such as to make him hs
lieve that she had recently become |
mother. When the judge was informed
, that the undertaken was called in
days after the. birth of the child b
ruled out the testimony.