Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-04-24
STATE BOARD OF PAROLE REC
oMMENDS RELEASE OF
GRuNDY COUNTY MAN.
REMARKABLE PRISONER
SERVES RECORD TERN
Glyndon Sent to Penitentiary Thirty
One Years Ago on Charge of Murder
ing Girl-Now a White. Haired Old
Man-comes From Good Family and
Declares He is Innocent of Crime.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times
Des Moines, April 24.-The state pa
role board has decided to ask Governor
Carroll, when it meets May 5, to grant
a pardon to William P. Glyndon, SEN
fenced to life imprisonment from
Grundy county more than thirty years
ago and now a white-haired old man.
Cilyndon has served longer than any
other prisoner ever confined in Fort
Madison.
Every member of the board and all
others who have heard Glyndon's story
and talked to the old man at the prison
are more deeply interested in his case
than any that has come to the attan-
ton of prison officials in years. 1t is
practically assured that the old man
will be allowed to spend his twilight
days in the free air and if possible find
his relatives in eastern Ohio. He is
now II years old.
In many ways Glyndon is a remark
able convict. The son of a preacher in
eastern Ohio, he is proud of his family
and from the day of his arrest, almost
thirty-two years ago, has never
breathed his real name. "Glyndon"
was assumed as a shield behind which
the family honor has been protected.
\ searching examination by Secre-
tary B. W. Garrett of the board of pa
role has failed to find trace of another
man who served as long as tllirty-one
years in state prison in the United
States. According to the life tables
Glyndons expectancy expired seven
years ago and he has already served
more than an ordinary life sentence.
His Innocence Possible.
But Glyndon's possible innocence is
the most remarkable and pathetic
feature of his case. Members of the
board suspect that there is actually
considerable doubt. He was convicted
on circumstantial evidence of murder
ing 14-year-old girl on a country
road in Grundy county, just after the
country side had been aroused by a
series of outrages by gang OF rail-
road workers. in 1878.
Glyndon was then SO years old. He
was working with thrashing outfit,
and making a canvass of farm houses
in the neighborhood when he passed
the girl toward evening. She was car
rying a heavy plow lay over her left
shoulder and Glyndon at the trial ad-
mitted meeting her and described the
manner in which the plow lay was car
ried.
The next morning the girls people,
named Martin. found her body in a
corn field twenty-five rows back from
the road. Under her was the pillow Law
and the ground showed no signs of a
scuffle. There We're the foot prints of a
single pair of feet from the road TO
the place where the body lay. No
bruises or cuts were found, and the
theory was that she had choked to
death. A criminal assault was charged,
but an examination showed that this
had not been accomplished, and failed
to prove that it had been attempted.
Glyndon was arrested the same day.
He made no effort to hide or leave
the county. After his trial a mine own
er who had employed him for three
years thought enough of Glyndon to
pay the expense of an appeal to the
supreme court.
Before the board of parole at Fort
Madison last week Glyndon said:
Il realize, gentlemen, that only God
and myself know whether or not I am
guilty. But (here the old man raised
his right hand), 1 am willing to swear
on all the bibles that you can bring,
and would swear it on my death bed,
that 1 am innocent of that girls
DEATH"
! Those who have visited him at the
prison say that Glyndon is one of the
most interesting and intelligent old
men they ever talked to. His record as
a prisoner is perfect, and every man
about the prison is his friend. The
prison doctor is said to have worked
out theory that the girl with whose
murder he is charged died of heart
disease augmented by carrying the
heavy pillow lay.
Glyndon has saved about $500 and
draws s12 a month pension from the
government. He fought thru the civil
war as a member of the Seventh Ohio
sharpshooters. Relatives in Ohio think
him dead and have never known that
| he is a convict. His one great desire
is to be freed before he dies and to
find his relatives in Ohio.