HUGHES ADMITS TWO WIVES,
BUT PLEADS NOT GUILTY.
Arraigned Before Justice Remley,
and Trial on charge of Bigamy
Set for January 11.
Benjamin Franklin Hughes, admitted bigamist and real estate agent, was arraigned yesterday morning in Justice Theodore Remley's court on the charge of bigamy. He pleaded not guilty, and was released on $1,000 bond. His trial was set for January 1.
In a statement made to Norman Woodson, assistant prosecuting attorney, Mr. Hughes admitted that he had two wives living.
"I confess I have two wives," said Mr. Hughes. "The first one I married in Osborne, Mo. Rev. James E. Hughes, my uncle, a pastor in the Baptist church, married us. I have never been divorced from this wife.
"Seven days ago, December 7, I married Miss Valerie Wiler of Kansas City. Judge Prather of the Wyandotte, Kas., probate court married us."
Why did Mr. Hughes marry Miss Wiler and expect to escape prosecution? This question cannot be answered by the prosecuting attorney's office. It is said that he was advised not to, before it was known that he had a wife living. Mrs. Clay, matron of the industrial school for girls at Chillicothe, is quoted as saying she advised him not to, and so did other persons connected with the case. When Mrs. Clay brought the girl here from Chillicothe December 3, to meet Hughes and plan the marriage, the girl was kept at the detention home. It was after an investigation of the case that the advice against marrying was given.
The report was brought to Mrs. Clay that Miss Wiler was in love with another man. Hughes was told that if he married her that she would probably leave him soon and marry the young man who kept company with her, after she and Hughes became acquainted.
Hughes, so it appears from the statement made by Miss Wiler, had a second affinity after he became enamored with her. He rented a flat at 807 Troost avenue, early in August, and he and Miss Wiler lived there together three days and two nights. It was at this juncture Mrs. Cora Westover, the girl's mother, heard of her daughter's wrongdoing and had her sent to the industrial school in Chillicothe.
"After I was taken away," says Miss Wiler in her statement to the prosecuting attorney, "Mr. Hughes got another woman to live with him. They occupied the flat together for some days following."
