SAID WIFE HAD
DISGRACED HIM.
PIGG SHOT HER AND TURNED
WEAPON ON HIMSELF.
HE WILL LIVE.
TRAGEDY OCCURS IN HOUSE AT
1108 EUCLID AVENUE.
Woman Was Shot in the Top of Head.
Pigg Tried to Fire Another
Bullet Into Body When
Police Arrived.
James Monroe Pigg, a liveryman of Deepwater, Mo., shot and fatally wounded his wife, Mrs. Allie Pigg, in the latters room on the second floor of 1108 Euclid avenue at 7 o'clock last night. The ball entered the top of her head, and lodged in the right temple. She will die. Pigg then shot himself in the left breast, but the ball struck a rib, passed around the body and lodged near the spine. Both were taken to the general hospital, where Drs. W. T. Thornton and J. Park Neal operated upon them. Piggs wound is only superficial, and the ball was removed. He is now being guarded at the hospital.
"BETRAYED ME," SAYS PIGG.
J. D. Gregg, who occupies the flat below Mrs. Pigg, heard five shots, and finding the door to the room licked, notified the police. John R. McCall and Benjamin Goode, plain clothes men, were sent to the house. When they entered the room where the shooting occurred Mrs. Pigg was lying on the floor, bleeding from the wound in her head. Pigg was sitting on the floor beside her, a revolver in his hand. As the officers entered he raised the weapon as if to shoot.
McCall covered the apparantly dazed man with his revolver, not knowing that Pigg was wounded, and said, "Drop that gun." At that Pigg turned the gun to his breast again, and would have fired another shot, but was seized by the officers.
When asked who had done the shooting, Pigg answered promptly:
"I did. She betrayed me. There's no use in holding an inquest." Then he asked that his father, William L. Pigg, of Deepwater, be notified. Still rambling he said his daughter, Mrs. Hortense Burleigh, 808 South Twenty-first street, Omaha, had been here on a visit and that Mrs. Pigg had refused to allow the baby to call her grandma.
"And she wouldn't kiss our daughter, either," he said, "turning only her cheek."
He mentioned a man whom he called "A. P." as being the cause of all his trouble.
HE WROTE TWO LETTERS.
Pigg directed the officers to his coat hanging on the hall tree, saying his "dying words" would be found there. One was addresed on the envelope to "the coroner" and the other "to the people" in a scrawling hand.
"With wife betrayed life is not worth living. No inquest is necessary. I committed the deed. Betrayed by A. P. W., me having confidence in him. P. S. -- Wife betrayed me is all and with confidence. Betrayed by a scoundrel, A. P. W. is all. Don't let any man in on your home. He will betray your confidence as this scoundrel betrayed mine. "
A short note to his daughter read: "Dear Hortense. Your mother has betrayed me." Then he speaks of a diamond ring he had bought her for Christmas.
Another note to "Dear papa and mama" reads: "Life is not worth living with my wife. I am in awful disgrace. With love to all, Monroe." On a post-script in the parents' note he scrawled: "Notify father, W. L. Pigg. My name is J. M. Pigg. Betrayed confidence in my wife. Love to Hortense and baby. They care not what I am worth as I have only my wife's love which is not affectionated love. Hortense and baby I am to die."
COUPLE LIVED APART.
Mr. and Mrs. Pigg have lived apart for about fifteen years, but he visited her regularly and there appeared to be no trouble between them. Mrs. Pigg made fancy embroidery for the Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods Company.
J. D. Gregg and wife, who have known Mrs. Pigg for six years, said so far as they knew, Pigg had not the least foundation for his suspicions. Mrs. Pigg is 51 years old and Pigg 53.
Mr. Gregg said that Mr. Pigg most always came up here Thursday or Friday of every other week and remained over Sunday with his wife. They went down town together yesterday afternoon and not the least sign of trouble was to be seen. Pigg, he said, was a man who "talked a great deal and said nothing, always talking in a rambling fashion."
All who know Mrs. Pigg say that she is a woman whose character is above reproach and that Piggs mind must have been affected. At the general hospital it was said that he bore symptoms of having taken some drug, probably a strong narcotic. He said while on the table that he was sorry he had not killed himself as there was little to live for now.
William Young, a brother of Mrs. Pigg, and his mother left their home at Knob-noster, Mo., last night for the city. They are said to be among the wealthiest families in that county.
How Pigg happened to shoot his wife in the top of the head is not known, unless she was lying down at the time or leaning toward him in a chair. Five bullet holes are in the room and the shells were picked up by the officers. Pigg's gun was loaded again when he was found.
