Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-30
BLACKHAND LETTER
THREATENS WH|TLA
TWO MEN ARE ARRESTED AND
CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY
TO EXTORT $4,000 FROM
FATHER OF KIDNAPPED BOY.

BOSTON, April 2S.-Charged with at
tempting to extort $4,000 from James
Whitla, of Sharon, Pa, under the threat
that they would kidnap his son, Willie,
two men were brought to police head
quarters today for examination.
The men, who were arrested yesterday
at the South End postoffice, gave their
names as John w. Wright and Ernest
H. Martin.
The police claim that on April %
Wright and Martin wrote to Mr.. Whitla
demanding that he send them $4,000 un-
der penalty of having Willie kidnapped.
No Regard for Life
The letter stated that the writer's had
no regard for the life of the child and
that he would only be a means to &C
complish their end of getting from Mr.
Whitla the sum named.
From the general tone of the letter
the police believed that close watch at
the South End postoff1ce might be profita-
BILE. Yesterday afternoon two officers
saw Wright and Martin enter and ar
rested them. The police say that a
search of Martins pockets resulted in
finding a red ink pad, similar to the ink
used in the letter received by Mr.
Whitla.
The letter was printed in red ink, ap-
parently with rubber type, on white pa
per, and was mailed from the Dorchester
central postoffice.
The Blackhand Letter
1t was as follows. shorn of its mis-
spelling of nearly every word:
Dear Sir-Our society not having re-
ceived the money for return of boy,
voted to send the four men that had
charge of all arrangements of getting
boy and take him again in the night.
To n
was voted to give you a chance to pay
the money. The Black Hand, on receiv-
ing same will not trouble you. Not in
terested in the Boyles; just tools of our
men. Send $1,000 in $50 bills and $1,000 in
s., 900 bills. Send II in three lots. Have
1t here Monday morning. No trickery. or
it will go hard with the boy when taken
Will send man of steel for letters.
'Send Arthur Howard Brown, post
station A, Boston, Mass"
After the arrest of the two men Mar
| tin told the police that he had met a
man who told him he would give him so
cents If he would call at the South End
postoff1ce (Station Al and ask for a let
ter for Arthur Howard Brown.
BOYLE PLANS DEFENSE;
WOMAN DEFIES STATE
MERCER. Pa, April 2S.-James H.
DOylcf awaiting lIldl Oh the charge
kidnapping Willie Whitla from Sharon on
March is, has outlined his defense He
expects to prove by witnesses from
Youngstown, o.. that he was in Youngs-
town and not in Sharon on the evening
before the abduction and that he left
Youngstown the morning of the abduc-
ton, going by rail to Warren, o.
He will offer testimony to show that
at Warren he accidentally met a couple
of his friends who had the Whitla boy
in their charge. He says he was inform
ed by them that smallpox had broken out
at Sharon and that they were taking the
boy away from the disease. To accom-
modate them, he says, he agreed to take
Willie Whitla to his apartments in Cleve-
land, but he insists he knew nothing of
any correspondence regarding the ran
som. If any correspondence was had in
regard to it, he says, it must have been
! conducted by Mrs. Boyle, and he calls at
tention to the fact that ii was she who
had the money when they were arrested.
Mrs. Boyle has no defense prepared
She merely defies the state to prove any
thing against her. She refuses to say a
word about the case that could injure her
self or her husband.