The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1904-12-16
CONVICTED OF ARSON.
George :. Wigeer Found Guilty and His
Punishment Assessed at Five
Years in the penltentiary.

1
which lasted from Saturday mornin
until Tuesday afternoon, George +
Wlggcr was convicted in the Circui
Court OF this county (Judge Z NJ
bearing presiding OF arson und HI
punishment assessed nj five years il
he penitcntiary.
HISTORY OF TIM CASP.
> W. II Wiggcr, son Of &. F Wig.
ger aud Z B. jennings, each con.
Quoted a saloon within about four hund.
red yards Of each other, on opposite
side, Of Koen Greek, on the outskirts
Of the town Of Esther On the morn
ing of January ,, 1902. between aud
( o'clock, L b jennings saloon and
stock of goods were set fire to and
burned, This led Jennings and the
neighbors to believe that an inccudiary
had done the work Nothing definite,
however, was obtained until the 10Th
Of July following, when Clarence c.
Ngger, an orphan boy and nephew of
G.. +. Wggcr, made sworn conics-
sion in writing to Prosecuting Attorney
Il. II. Marbury, IN which he not only
confessed to the crime of arson, but
to several other crimes; and on this
confession involved the defendant, G..
/. Wigger, as co-principal On this
information MIR. Murbury filed his in
formation against both G.. +. Wigger
and Clarence {, Wigger on \ charge
of arson. The officials then. tYkluy
the confession Of Clarence As - Ua.,.
began 10 weave a web OF strong posi-
tive and circumstantial evidence about
G. +. Wigger, which fully supported
the confession; aud when this was
done, Mr.. Marbury dismissed the char
grs against Clarence, that he might be
permitted to use him AS a witness
against & +. Wggcr The conles-
sion Of Clarence also enabled Sir. Mar
bury to break up well organized gang
Of robbers, even though to do this he
had TO allow Clarence Wggcr to 90
free, in order that he might convict
the instIgaturs Of the crime confessed
TIM TRIAL.
The case against George + Wgger
was called last Thursday, a jury or.
dcred for Friday aud qualified on the
latter day, before T.. NJ bearing of
Potuai, who had been called ia by
Judge Anthony to Try the case, the de.
Tense having sworn Judge Anthony OF
the bench The taking OF testimony
began Saturday morning, aud follow
lug Is the substance Of the evidence on |
behalf Of the State elected from the
several witnesses:
ON the night the saloon wn- Lurncd |
the weather was mild, so that at clos
ing time Jennings had no fine in any
room in the saloon; that the house was |
burned between , and o'clOck in the |
morning that defendant had contract.
ed with Clarence Niggcr to assist him
in burning Jennings saloon that de
PENDANT purchased the coal oil aud pre-.
pared a rag ball, and went with Char
cncc to the building, aud finding
window pane out threw the oil in the
wareruom, then saturated the rag bali
with oil, lighted it,, threw it into the
warcruom on the oil aud then rau to
Wiggcr's saloon Clarence was con
Quoting restaurant at the Wiggcr sa-
loon II was shown by defendants
batkerpcr that he (dcfrndanl) slept in
The bar room that night. 1t was fnr-
Their shown that defendant short while
before the burning Of the saloon had
offered sam Wigger, a cousin OF de.
PENDANT, and SiIas Love 500 zach to
bum Jennings saloon
The theory of defense, a. shown by
the testimony was: first, by the de.
PENDANT himself, that he knew nothing
about the alleged burning, aud at
tempted to establish on abb; that the
motive of Clarence for charging him
with the OffcnSr was that the defend
ant had refused to sign his bond when
charged with the robbery Of Almond
Raney at Bonnie Ierrc, July 2, 1908
that Clarence had told defendant aud
nl,o had told Cha encc AuBucbon that
he (Clarence) and one Alex. Robuetl,
now in the pcnitentiary from Wash
ington county for ten years, had burned
the saloon building; and further that
Clarence by his confession had admit.
ted that he was guilty, together with
others, of robbing Rancy and an old
man by the name Of Jolley in Wash
ington county, and showed that Clar-
cncc stood charged, on the affidavit of
Robinctt, whom his confession had
sent to tho pen, with robbing a man
by the name of Dollar from Bollingcr
county; therefore Clarence, being an
accomplcc of the defendant and q self
confessed thief and robbcr, was wholly
unworthy of belief,
But the jury seemed to take differ
ent view of the matter, and after de
libcrating an hour returned verdict
OF guilty aud assessed his punishment
at five years in the pententiary. Every
inch of the ground was pcrsistently and
stubbornly contested by defense, which
was represented by Mcssrs. Anthony,
Burks and Abernalhy. Mr.. Marbury,
on the part of the State, was assisted
by Mr.. lIenslcy.
The case will be appealed