State v. Pierson

* NOTE: Opinion filed at May Term, 1938, August 17, 1938; motion for rehearing and transfer to Court en Banc filed at September Term, December 20, 1938. Appellant, Ralph Pierson, and Robert Cotham and Andrew B. Meadows were indicted on April 4, 1930, on charges of murder in connection with the burning of the Buckingham Hotel Annex in the city of St. Louis, on December 5, 1927. Seven persons were known to have lost their lives in this fire, and eight indictments were returned, seven for murder and one for arson. Appellant asked and was granted a severance in all of the cases. He was tried in…