The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-03-19
A CHUM OF PENNELL
w. M. Babcock, the Attorney, Knew
the Buffalo Man Intimately
At Yale.
He Believes the Real Guilty Ones
Are MaIgning the Dead
,- Man

:Willoughby M. Babcock, an attorney at
Clio Temple Cuort, was a. college chum at
Yale of Arthur Pennell, the Buffalo at
| torney, who recently met death in an
automobile accident. and whose name is
now being unpleasantly associated with
the Burdick murder mystery They were
lconstantly in each others society in the
four years they spent at Yale from 1883 to
1887, and their friendship lasted to the
time Of Pencils tragic death.
II have no means, of course, of know
ing" said Mr.. Babcock .'the actual Cir
cumstances surrounding the ugly Buffalo
tragedy, but from what i know Of Arthur
Pennell, am willing to bank my life that
he was absolutely innocent of any wrong
doing in connection with the murder.
am convinced that he is entirely inno-
cent of any guilt in connection Herewith,
either In his relation to Mrs. Burdick or
to the murdered man. AS Mrs. Burdick's
attorney, and moving as he did in the
same circle, there was a chance which his
enemies--to whom the guilt could doubt
less be fstraced-have not failed to take
advantage of, to connect him with the
crime. & There is a fine chance, now tina
he is unable to- defend himself, to divert
suspicion from the guilty parties by Shout
dering it on the man whose lips are still
! In death. don't takeany stock in the
letter to which this mornings dispatches
REFER, crediting Pennell with the state
dick. The letter, if such a one has been
produced as evidence in this case, will
doubtless be found to be a forged docu-
ment, the purpose of which is too obvious
to require comment.
| A Sober, Industrious Student.
Tn college Arthur Pennell was a quiet
self-possessed young man, sober, studous
and industrious. whose chief concern
seemed to be to make theS.most Of his
opportunity to round out his education.
He was not given to dissipation In any
! form and about the only sport which T
! remember him to have INDUCED lin was
1 la crosse, at which he was as apt as in
his studies. I should not have called him
brilliant in any respect, but he had the
application and perseverance which i'm
4 pressed me at the time with the conviction
that he would at least be fairly success
full at whatever he might undertake.
| AT that time he was a young man of
moderate means who had to husband his
| resources In order to; complete his course.
I. understood that his widowed mother,
" with whom he lived, had lost her fortune,
but I have since been Informed that they
managed to recover a portion of it. This
may have given him his start, for he was
apparently quite well-to-do at the time OF
his death. His wife was livingNat 8Lynn
Mass at that time. AS, .shesvisited him
frequently at Yale had an opportunity
to meet her. and most charming and
estimable woman I found her.
"Pennell was as square a man as evel
lived, and of good morals. There was
nothing abnormal or erratic about him
He believed in a strict application of the
golden rule. [. @,"
II am satisfied that he is being cruelty
maligned, but I know that anyone who
ever knew the man as Intimately as die
will stand up for him when he is no Longer
able to fight his own battles,S
HE took a regular course at college
and on deciding to follow the law later
4 took a degree at Columbia universrty."'