The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-05-10
The MAXIMUM
PENALTY GIVEN
BOTH BOYLES
Man Got Life Sentence and
Woman Received TWENTY
Five Year Term
WOMAN DECLARES THAT THEY
WILL BOTH COMMIT SUICIDE

A"AA VI 0u Appchl Ill tllc SdSc vi IHc
Woman to the State Supreme Court
To-day Was Her Twenty.Third
Birthday.
Mercer, Pa, May 10-James H.
Boyle was sentenced today to life i'm
prisonment in the western peniten-
tiary at Pittsburg for the KIDNAPPING
of BILLY" Whitla. Mrs. Boyle. in
dicted as Mary Doe, received a SEN
tence of twenty-five years, with a
fine of $4,000 and the costs of the
prosecution. Boyle did not create a
scene in court as he had threatened
and did not utter word prior to his
sentence. His counsel, however, made
plea for both Boyle and his wife.
pleading for leniency in both cases.
He stated that until recent period,
the extreme penalty for kidnapping in
this state was ten years, and in view
of the fact that the boy had been
treated with every consideration and
that all care had been taken not to
inflict unnecessary mental anguish
upon the parents. he felt that leniency
might be asked for with propriety.
Both Boyle and his wife collapsed
! completely upon hearing their SEN
tences pronounced. When they were
started back to the Jail from the court
room, Boyle managed to walk with as
sistance down the steps. but upon
reaching the front door he became
limp and unable to stand. He was
lifted into an old-fashioned omnibus
in which prisoners have been trans
ported for several days between the
court house and the Jail. When he
was placed upon the seat inside the
vehicle, he was left for q moment
unsupported and fell nearly out of it
before he was caught. He was utter
ly unable to support himself and had
to be held all the way to the Jail and
carried to his cell.
| Mrs. Boyle was in even a worse
condition. She was nable to walk
down the steps from the court house
to the street and was carried by
Sheriff Chess and Chief OF Police
Livermore down three flights of
stairs to the street. She was lifted
into the omnibus and when the Jail
was reached she was again lifted out
by these officers and carried to her
cell, where she wept violently. No
handouts were placed on either pris-
oner on the journey back to their
cells and 1t was considered unneces-
sary to manacle them because of the
condition they were in.
Mrs. Boyle, just before sentence
was passed, said:
Seriously, want to tell you there
is going to be a double suicide. I
will not spend much time in the peni-
tentiary. have made all arrange
ments and have the means now to
depart quietly and quickly. Jimmy
will do the same
do you think l am going to the
penitentiary for many years? No sir
When my sentence would expire
would be an old woman. would
have no friends and no money. Who
wants anything to do with an old wo-
man? would rather die young.
"This is my twenty-third birthday
and am / not in poor position to
celebrate the event? I am innocent
of crime, however and may God in
his goodness allow me to spend many
happy anniversaries. But there is
the shadow of the penitentiary and
the remedy, suicide.
II wish the penalty for kidnapping
were death. Innocent as l am.
would plead guilty if were sure of
being put to DEATH"
The abductors will be taken as
soon as possible to the penitentiary.
1t is believed an appeal to the su-
0f c,,1x ;n .,,;l1 l>o
taken in the woman's case.
The penalty in each case is the
maximum provided under the Penn
sylvania statutes for the crime of
kidnapping and that of accessory be-
fore tn efact.
That death is preferable to impri-
sonment in Mrs. Boyle's opinion was
indicated by the reported attempt to
take her own life during last night by
swallowing morphine, alleged to have
been secured from fellow prisoner.
Her threats of double suicide might
have been carried out but for the
failure of the morphine to act and the
discovery by the sheriff of razor
secreted in the clothing of Boyle when
he was searched this morning.
Ten Years or.
Pittsburg. May 10.-Mrs. Boyle,
sentenced at Mercer today to twenty
five years in the penitentiary and to
pay fine of $4,000 and the cost of
prosecution. may only serve fifteen
years. The usual allowance for good
behavior would reduce her time to
fifteen years and the fine will not
have to be served out.
Warden w. Johnston of the Western
penitentiary said today:
Mrs. Boyle is state prisoner, and
while she is sentenced to pay a fine
Of $4,000, she will not be called on to
do so at the expiration of her SEN
tence. 1t is the custom here in the
case of state prisoners to let them go