The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-10


| NOT easy to divine his motive for entering the
priesthood. for it is evident his heart was not
in the work from the start, and certainly
there are no attractions for n sensual nature
in the life Of q Roman Catholic priest. Be
that as it may, he gained good education
quito early in life, took short course at st.
Francis Xavier college, New York, and en-
tered the priesthood in 1888.
His career was checkered from the start.
He served in various places in Illinois, but
did not give satisfaction as n priest, and was
made an instructor in a convent school. His
superiors found him entirely too erratic, and
It is related that strangers who met him on
the cars or anywhere save in church could
not believe he was priest; they often took
him for a fast young MANI masquerading in
a priestly dress. For time he disappeared
from church records, but the police of st.
Louis think he was in that city, nominally
for retirement and study, but really leading
most icentious life and spending the money
he had embezZled from church in illinois,
About year ago priest was arrested at O
diSorderly house in st. Louis, and the police
say Boyle was the man.
Be that as it may, he appeared in New
York later and secured the good will of
Bishop Leo Haid, vicar apostolic Of North
Carolina, by whom he was first employed as
a lecturer in that state. There he acquired a
remarkable ascendancy over Father Reilly,
of Raleigh, whose health was very bad and
his mind probably affected. And in this pc
culiar attitude, nominally as assistant, but
really acting as director of the Raleigh con-
gregation, he met and became infatuated
with Miss Geneva Whitaker, organist of the
church. His daily walk and conversation at
Raleigh were even less priestly than in Hi
nois. He was intimate with many festive
youths and drank freely with them, getting
intoxicated once at q wine supper given by
himself.
He cultivated the acquaintance of ladies',
dressed in q peculiarly "natty" style, swung
q dudish cane and 1ourished dainty hand
kerchief with oil the grace of a New York
''mGsher." de cultivated the acquaintance
of wealthy Protestants and quite neglected
his own parishioners, who are generally of
the laboring class. Leading members of the
congregation complained to Bishop Haid
and action was soon to have been taken when,
on the 1lth Of May, the priest brought his
unholy career to criminal climax, and In a
few hours thereafter passed from the juris-
diction of the church to the custody of the
state.
There were some peculiar circumstances
connected with the crime, and good lawyers
think Boyle might have been acquitted but
for his own evidence. His story was so
wildly improbable, and his bearing on the
stand so bad, that the few who had inclined
to him changed their minds. The offense was
committed in an upper room, when there
were two persons below, yet the jury believed
the testimony Of the victim that she was SO
held and frightened that she could not cry
aloud.
Al the collected facts tended TO confirm her
story. She had evidently been roughly used,
and her arms were badly bruised. The
priest swore she had made advances and only
charged him with violence when she found it
necessary to save her character. He was
lodged in Jail so quietly that the people did
not know the particulars for some days.
At the completion of his trial few days
ago Boyle made singular address, or rather
harargue-one that will not bear reporting
verballyAand in Jail he has enjoyed himself
chiefly in playing cards with man under
sentence of death for outraging his own
daughter, and with two colored women i'm
prisoned for theft He expresses himself as
confident Of a new trial and final acquittal,
and there arc still few who synpathize
with him. His congregation and Catholics
generally in the vicinity believe his condemna-
ton is lust