STARTLING ARSON CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18641, 23 February 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

STARTLING ARSON CASE.

LIFE IRANGE FRAUD. BODY BURNED IN HOUSE. GIRL AS •?' AN ACCOMPLICE. With the arrest at Napa,. California, of Edward J. .Bailstad, former president of the MUlt'iphono Phonograph Company, of Eau Claire. Wisconsin, there was made public a startling story of -what Americans call a " fire bug "—one who commits arson for the purpose of claiming money —and of a " ' esurrectionist " {or bodysnatcher). v •* Sailstad has been sought for four years by various life insurance companies In October 1919 a small house which he had rented at Lake Nebagammon, Wisconsin, as a summer retreat and, fishing lodge was burned to the ground. A charred body found was supposed .to be his. Mrs. Saflstad had . no doubts. Some months later she married, again. Also she sued the life insurance companies for £12.500. But they, holding the identity of the charred body not fully established, refused to pay. The " widow " won her suit, but did not get the "money, for the companies 'appealed, a'nd the case is actually pending. According 'to ' the District Attorney Thomas C. Angelim, : of Napa, Sailstad denied that he had committed murder,

but confessed that he set fire to the bouse at Lake Kebagammon. He said the charred body was that of one Allen McFee, which he exumed in the local cemetery and placed "in -the house to create the impression that he (Sailstad) had perished. It appears now that Sailstad • had been acquainted with the man whose grave he desecrated. In his " confession ' he said " After I had dug, the body up I wrsjppad it in canvas and took it in my automobile to the cottage. • There I carried it to the second floor and placed it on the bed. Then I put my ring on one of McFee's fingers, my watch in a pocket, and other trinkets in other pockets, so that the body would be identifed as mine after I burned the cottage. "I then set fire to the mattress, and as the smoke and flames grew bigger I ripped the canvas from the body. Frightened By His Own Deed. The sight of the face of my friend— casual friend though he was—unnerved me. " When I came to my senses, outside the house, and fled in terror, I still had the canvas in my hand. " I walked all the way to Allonez and took a train to Chicago. I was so scared that I did not even dare to look at a newspaper." With iSailstad at the time of his capture was a young woman supposed to be his wife. But, after telling several stories of herself, she admitted that she had been Sailstad's stenographer and was his accomplice in the .plot, helping him to disinter McFee's body and to set fire to the house.