Skip to main content

Arson in the Arizona Republican, 1900 & 1920

Arson as a Crime

When dealing with arson as a crime, insurance tended to pop up as a trend. There were five articles that dealt with the connection between arson and insurance or money in some way. Some of those articles talked about them as not quite connected in and of themselves so much as committed by and dealing with the same person. One talked about a woman and her husband burning down their wealthy and lavish house and then collecting the insurance money on it. In addition to arson dealing with insurance, there was a trend of articles talking about minors committing arson as well as articles that talk about arson but specifically in relation to another crime with the other crime, not arson, as the main focus.

There were four articles that talked about children committing arson, one was mentioned to be an accident while the others were mentioned to be on purpose. Most of the other articles that dealt with arson as a crime talked about it in conjunction with someone committing another crime, usually murder, with the murderer often getting the focus, not the arsonist.