Unjustified: George Wilson Part 2 or If the Boot Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit

Archie & Nettie Coble Slept Here

Part 1 can be found here - I could go into a lengthy discussion about the events leading up to George Wilson’s arrest but I would be distracted from the meat of the post and the awesome title I came up with for it.  So to save you all the suspense, George Wilson was jailed, “confessed,” and arrested, in that order.  In fact Wilson was held in a jail cell without a warrant or access to council for five days before the alleged confession.  Found in the Wilson’s tent was a piece of paper, believed to be soaked with blood.  The Thurston County Sheriff, George Gaston also took measurements of Wilson’s boots.  This was in order to match up to the boot prints found outside the Coble’s cottage window.  Another bit of “evidence” was an alleged conversation between Mrs. Coble and a neighbor about George Wilson’s behavior toward Mrs. Coble.  But the most damning evidence the prosecution would produce, indeed the entire case hinged on it, was the alleged confession of George Wilson.

Colorado Springs – 101

Henry and Blanche Wayne

Four years ago I wrote a brief summary of the murders of two families in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  These crimes are now one-hundred-one years old this week and as far as I know, no one is any closer to naming a possible suspect then they were over a century ago.  I certainly haven’t got any answers but I still dig.  I have corresponded with relatives of the victims as well as other researchers.  I have had promising leads disintegrate into nothing, pleasant surprises from vague guesswork and countless dead ends.  By focusing on then entirety of the series of crimes I have created a lot of work for myself.  The number of facts and fantasies I can delve into on just one of these crimes is enough to bore people (or scare) people over conversations at parties.  Yet, I feel like I am missing something.  Just one more bit of evidence that can snap everything into focus.  Allow me to give a brief update of some things I now know.

The Smithsonian...Wow! Has the Inspector arrived!?

Look what I found completely by accident today!  Smithsonian.com linked to my (as well as the excellent Villisca Ax Murders Blog) little ol' blog.  It would have been nice if they'd let me know but I'm quite happy anyway.  Ahh...the internet.  This makes me wish I'd stuck with journalism.

The Sinister Left Hand or Damn Lies and Statistics

Analysis at the crime scene in Villisca by special agent and "fingerprint expert" M. W. McClaughry of Leavenworth Prison indicated the killer was left handed.  Later, upon observing George Kelly chop wood, it was found that the reverend was left handed as well.  I bring this up because the investigators on both the Ardenwald and Rainier crimes scenes came to the conclusion the killer (or killers) was left handed.  There are many things you have to worry about as a lefty.  Manual can openers are an affront to your existence, golf clubs cost double and you're only allowed to play 1st base or pitcher in baseball.  But those are minor complaints really.

Unjustified: George Wilson, Part 1

Not "Mother of the Year"

In the pursuit of justice, sometimes our courts get it wrong.  Most outside observers would say defendants such as OJ and Casey Anthony got away with murder.  In the case of Anthony, justice prevailed.  There is a reason why there are so many layers and technical specs when it comes to evidence presented in a court of law.  Like the verdict or not, the judge in the Anthony case would not allow certain facts, such as Ms. Anthony's partying ways in the wake of her daughter's disappearance, to be admitted as evidence since it had no bearing on the ultimate question in the case: Did Casey Anthony murder her daughter?  And so the case came down to the jury's opinion about new, untested science in order to make a decision and the result is Ms. Anthony will now live in an undisclosed location for the rest of her life (maybe).  A Criminology professor of mine put it this way (paraphrasing): "In the United States, justice is for accused, truth is for the victims."  When the court system seeks justice for the victim, many  times, not only is the accused run over but the truth is often made victim as well.  Case in point:  Mr. George Wilson, Rainier, Washington, 1911.

Suspect Roundup: William Riggin

William Riggin - 1917

I have previously discussed William Riggin with regard to the murders of the Hill family in Ardenwald, near Portland, Oregon.  However that was written a long time ago and I would like to revisit Mr. Riggin in a little more depth and perhaps discover a little more about what made him tick.  William Riggin was born in 1883, in Yamhill county, Oregon, to George and Susan Riggin.  For George, William was his third child and for Susan it was her first.  Susan was George's second wife and was about 10 years younger than him.  Not much can be said for William's younger days except to say that his mother died sometime between 1883 and 1885.  William wouldn't grow up with any full siblings and his only mother figure would be a step mother.  George married his second wife, America Thomas, in 1885 and had six more children with her.  There are a couple of things to note at this time in William's young life.  The new "mother" of the family was just seventeen years of age when she married George, literally young enough to be George's daughter.  She would have married into the responsibility of caring for a a teenage girl of fourteen, a boy just entering adolescence at eleven and a just barely two-year-old boy, none of whom where her children.  By the age of five, two new babies would have come into the family and it would have been easy for a rambunctious young boy to get lost in the chaos.  And lost he was.  At the age of eleven he stole a horse, a major crime in 1894.  Because of his age he was sent to Salem and the Oregon State Reform School, with occasional visits home, until he was eighteen.