The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-03-19
CONVICT A-9l5
WILL Gu FREE
Released This Afternoon AT
ter Righting Wrong "a
Which Brought j
Sentence.
rs A PATHETIC STORY
Outraged Community Demanded Sc
we're Punishment and Limit Of
the Law Was
Given.

limited Press Leased Wire Service.1
CHESTER, H., March 19.-Charles
Kinney, father of Baby Vallie. Is !
free man this morning, though he
will not know it until afternoon,
said Chairman Lewis j. Stevenson, OF
the state pardon board today.
Cora Calvert, girl mother Of Baby
yallie, came to Chester this morning
to greet Kimsey WHEN he steps from
behind the walls. She was to be mar
ried to Kimsey at 2:S0 this afternoon
in the prison parlor outside the walls
Of the penitentiary. Prison Chaplain
McDuffy was to perform the eere-
mony.
The Communication papers with the
governors signature attached will be
handed to Kimsey by Chairman Stey-
i enson when the wedding ceremony is
performed. l.. o. Porter, grandfather
4 of the wronged girl who prosecuted
| Kimsey with such ardor that he was
sentenced to thirty year term, came
hare today with marriage license,
/ civilian clothes for Kimsey and a
| plain gold wedding ring.
Only Baby Valie" is absent. Val
tlie is with his great-aunt in a rough
4 little farm house near Murphysboro.
/ The crime for which Kinney was
4 convicted was committed in Jackson
!. county, III, along the Misstss' ppi
i river. Kinney was farmers son
grown to manhood; Cora Calvert, q
4 girl living in the same household.
i When Baby Vallie came, an out
Z ragged community demanded severe
punishment for Kinney and he was
given the limit-thirty years in pris-
on. He entered Chester prison as
convict A-915, the nams he has borne
in the crusade to bring about his re
lease
From the time Kinney became con
vict A-915, he and the girl he con
fessed hs had wronged, exchanged
love letters. Kinney had seen Baby
vallie only once and his letters sale
: he had, thought of nothing else but
the boy. Cora Calvert, living witt
her great-aunt in a rough cottage neal
Murphysboro, wrote that she wanted
: Kinney to marry her. give her
name and free the boy from tn
Z taunts of his playmates who knew
I the story of Baby Vallie and his father
Kinney replied he was willing t.
/ take his medicine but that he, too
hoped to some day lift the stain from
\ the boy baby. The correspondence
continued; Cora sought help and fin
! ally her grandfather, who prosecuted
the case against Kinney, presented |
petition to the state board of pardons
asking that convict A-915 be freed o
. paroled The pardon board was pla:r
= ly puzzled The problem of whethe
Baby Eallie needed a father NOR
? than the state of Illinois needed cor
vict A915's services and needed t
SATISFY the demands of justice was s
> weighty that the board pondered fc
!, several months. syndicate of seS
enty powerful newspapers took UP tn
= case of Baby. Vallie in every sectio
!, of the country and this collective ser
timent of its readers was made know
to the pardon board and to Governo
y Dunno.
;. Full Pardon.
SPRINGFIELD, H.. March 19.-Go'
ernor Edward F. Dunno today signe
full pardon for Charles Kimze.
:. father of Baby Vallie.'' whose cas-
:. has attracted national attention, an
J. kinney was released from the soutl
!. ern Illinois pen at Chester where h
:. was serving a thirty year term fc
= the act that brought Baby yalle
:. into the world.
'I have this day commuted til
sentence of convict who was co..
a victed of an atrocious crime sal
Tx Governor Dunno. "The crime We
committed by an adult man with I'll
consent of a female child incapab
of giving legal consent under the LAY
n. But / have every justification fro
ly the standards that appe&s to hume
w heart, tinged with human sympath
IS, To refuse this appeal for a pardt
and keep Kinney longer in priso
3 would have the effect of compellil
this woman to bear upon her brea
the scarlet letter and to expose til
child Of three years of age, in It's d
velopipg consciousness to taunts of j
"a. Eplaymates and would prevent this m;
.