The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-21
BEYOND BELIEF.
Cruel Treatment Given the
Little Riggin Boy.
Testimony of NeighbOrs Shows
Practical Starvation.
BAD FOR STEPMOTHER.
Was Not Allowed to Eat at the
Family Table.
Often Seen Picking Crumbs
From the Floor.
BAD FOR STEPMOTHER.

Fort Scott, Kan, Oct. 21.-The tes-
timony in the higgins murder case
while it tended to exonerate George
F. higgins of the charge of directly
contributing to his 6-year-old sons
death by brutal treatment, was strong
against Mrs. higgins, the stepmother,
who. according to the testimony of
fully a dozen witnesses not only beat
the child brutalIy while he was weak
from hunger but denied him food and
permitted her daughter to club him
with a broomstick
Awful Treatment.
Five or six of the neighbor women
told with tears in their eyes how the
little fellow begged food at their
homes and other testified having seen
him compelled to stand in another
room and watch Mrs. Riggin and her
children eat their meals while he
seemed hungry.
The witnesses saw the daughter
who is accused Jointly of the murder.
go out and get a heavy stick for the
last punishment the boy received.
IheSe three witnesses happened to be
at the home of Mrs. Myers, a next
door neighbor of the Higgins, that
Sunday afternoon. They had been
commenting on the case just as the
Shaw girl appeared with the stick.
/
marked to the others, 20, they're go
ing to finish that poor boy now. I
can't bear to see it, nor hear his cries.
Thus saying she got up and went
away. Mrs. Myers and Mrs. Roos de-
termined to see 1t out and they testi-
fed that the Shaw girl began beating
he boy, who ran toward his stepmoth-
er. AS he approached her Mrs. Rig
gin struck him and knocked him down
and then took him into the house and
whipped him numerically. The next
day the police were called in and
found the boy beyond hope of recOv-
cry and the next day the doctors held
a post mOrtem examination on his
wasted body and found according to
their testimony that a condition of
maInutrition existed and that the
child probably died of starvation and
of violence, evidences of which were
found about his body.
Boy Begged Bread.
Mrs. Sarah Scales, a neighbor, testi-
fed that Herbert higgins frequently
begged bread at her house; that Mrs
Riggin told her that she would get rid
/ of the two stepchildren or leave her
husband; that Herbert was almost
/ dead at that time. Hattie Wardell tes-
titled that the boy begged bread at her
/ home and that she frequently saw him
/ standing at the window while the fam
/ ily was eating. Another witness testi-
/ fed she had been at the higgins home
! three times at meal time and that RlS-
I gins. his wife ana her Two cHuOES0 were
I eating, but that the boy and his little
sister We're compelled to remain in an
/ other room and that no places were set
for them at the table She was told
/ that the children had stomach trouble.
/ Several witnesses testified that before
/ the two children were taken in charge
/ by their stepmother they had perfect
/ health and were bright and interesting.
/ In fact they had so won the adnira-
ton of several families that frequent
1 applications had been made to the faith
| er to permit Of their adoption into good
/ homes Mary Lawrence testified that
/ Mrs. higgins told her that Mr. higgins
/ had told her to whip the children and
that she would make them mind If she
had to kill them
said Dogs Scratched Him.
Robert Marcus said that he asked
/ Mrs. higgins what made the boy so
siclxIy and what caused the sores on
his body, whereupon she replied that
the dog had scratched him and added
that she wished the dog had killed him.
William H. Amber, a co-employe with
higgins at the Missouri Pacific shops,
testified that higgins whipped the boy
severely and told Mrs. higgins to whip
him higgins at one time took three
switches and used them at one time on
the child Emma White told the court
that higgins admitted to her that he
had slapped the boy when the child s
face was badly swollen from having
been struck previously.
The state has still more testimony to
present and the hearing may not be
concluded today as was expected.