What news does John share about Mrs. Pignati in Chapters 6-8 of The Pigman?

John’s news is that Mrs. Pignati was dead. 

When John tells Lorraine that Pigman’s (Mr. Pignati’s) wife was dead, she is suspicious.  To her, he is just a funny, harmless old man.

“His wife’s dead!” John whispered.
“What?”
“I just found her funeral bill.
A terrible chill ran through me when he said that because I had been afraid Conchetta was not away on vacation.  (Ch. 8)

She is not surprised that Mrs. Pigman is not alive because she was suspicious that he murdered his wife and hid the body in the basement.  Pigman does act strangely when he talks about his wife, such as his reaction to the picture of the girl in the confirmation dress.  Lorraine interprets a normal reaction to grief as guilt.  Her wild imagination, and the fact that her experience with positive role models of relationships, as in her own parents, has led to think that love is strange and dysfunctional.

John and Lorraine seem to have no problem rooting around in an old man’s house, and certainly take no issue with jumping to wild conclusions with what they find.  The normal, everyday reaction to the sadness in Mr. Pignati is interpreted in them as guilt and deception.  They clearly do not understand how the world works, as their reaction to the charge card shows, and Lorraine wonders about love.  Later that night she thinks about “how many thing the Pigman and his wife must have shared,” literally and figuratively (Ch. 8). 

She realizes there are deeper things to love, including sharing what you enjoy.  Pigman has lost this now that he lives alone.  She ponders the fact that she and her mother only eat seem to eat canned soup, and do not enjoy conversation.  She has found an affinity with the Pigman.  Like him, she is lonely.  She empathizes with him, now that he has lost what company he had.

How did John learn about Mrs. Pignati's death and what papers did he find in The Pigman?

The answer to this question can be found in the closing paragraphs of chapter 7 and the beginning paragraphs of chapter 8. Chapter 7 sees John and Lorraine at Mr. Pignati's house in the evening, and Mr. Pignati is quite happy to see the two teenagers. He tells John and Lorraine to make themselves at home, and he lets the two kids explore his house. Lorraine finds a picture of Mr. Pignati's wife as a young girl in a confirmation dress. John continues snooping around the house, and he probably oversteps his bounds by going through drawers. In one drawer he finds a pamphlet from a funeral home. Next, he finds a bill from the funeral home and Conchetta's social security card. This confirms to John that Mrs. Pignati is not in California. She is dead, and chapter 8 begins with John telling Lorraine.

"His wife’s dead!” John whispered.
“What?”
“I just found her funeral bill.”

While snooping around the stranger's home, John finds a statement, or bill, from the funeral home entitled "Authorization of Services" (66). The statement gives The Silver Lake company permission to direct services for one "Conchetta Pignati" and is signed at the bottom by Mr. Angelo Pignati. It's a most surprising find because Mr. Pignati had just been telling the teenagers that his wife was on vacation in California and that she'd been there a long time.  The finding of the funeral statement after such a discussion seems to make Mr. Pignati an even more desperate and depressed character for whom the reader can sympathize. The question at this point in the book is how the kids are going to use this information later.  It's one thing to prank call people. It's another to actually go to their home and take money from them for a bogus charity; but it's even worse to acquire personal information about a victim who is too desperate to notice or care that he's being duped.