Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 298, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1911 — Aged Churchman Charged With Arson [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aged Churchman Charged With Arson

Newark, n. j.— eiiis Appleby, of Old Bridge, N. J., 60 years old, deacon 1n the Baptist church, wealthy and well known, was recently arrested on a charge of arson. Action comes after an inquiry of six years, in which the whole county of Middlesex has been terrorised by Incendiary fires. Daring the reign of terror murder followed arson. The Specific.accusation is made by an insurance company in the case of tbe burning of tbe home of Mrs. Jessie Brown on August 31. In six years the residents of Old Bridge have been strangely murdered and more than a dozen fires occurred Six years ago Mrs. Jane Wright, an octogenarian, was found dead in bed one morning in her house, where she lived alone, across from thd Baptist church of which Appleby is 6ne of the elders. Every effort was made by the authorities to find the murderer, but the case baffled the cleverest detectives. One of, those who threatened to bring tbe murderer to justice waß George Whiteman Jr., son of tbe keeper of the Rooster Inn, two miles from Old Bridge. A few days later young Whiteman and his father were murdered in the inn, both having been shot by some unknown assailant

A f«w weeks later a laborer who was thought to have, some knowledge of the crime was found murdered in the road on the outskirts of Old Bridge. The murder of the 'laborer was followed by the finding of the body, In a deserted part of the town, of Thomas Collins, a prominent citizen of Old Bridge, who had made the statement that tie would spend every' cent he possessed to bring the murderer to justice. ’ In the meantime the insurance companies, the county board of freeholders and the townspeople had detectives working. So baffling was the series of crimes that two well-known detective agencies gave' up the work. It was a private detective, employed by an insurance company, that finally placed the blame at tbe door of the Baptist church elder. The Appleby family is one of the best known in New Jersey.