Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, March 31, 1909, Page 3

Pic hg BOY IDENTIFIES HIS KIDNAPPERS Man and Woman Arrested at Cleveland Are Confronted by Willie Whitla. ACCOMPLICE TAKES POISON Suicide Believed by Police to Have Been Implicated in Plot—Grand Jury Takes Case. Cleveland, March 25.—In the arrest here last night of a man and a wom- an having $9,790 in their possession the police believe théy have captured the kidnappers of Willie Whitla. In fact the woman in the case, who is somewhat befuddled, admitted that she had been responsible for the kid- napping. When placed in custody at the central police station she said to Capt. Shattuck: “I am the one who planned the whole thing. There will be trouble for me and h—1 in Sharon tomorrow!” Beneath the woman’s skirt was found $9,790. All of it but $40 was bound in packages with the original slips placed on the money when Whitla took it from the bank still around it. Capt. Norman Shattuck and Detec- tive Frank Wood made the arrests in the East end of the city. When near the police station the man broke away from Detective Wood and ran towards an alley. The policeman fired two shots from his revolver into the air and the man stopped. The wom- an made no attempt to escape. Boy Given Ovation, Sharon, Pa., March 25.—The whole borough of Sharon turned out last night and participated in the demon- stration over the homecoming of Willie Whitla, who, with his father, Cleveland police as the persons who kidnapped him from the school at Sharon, Pa., last Thursday and held him for the $10,000 ransom, which was paid by his father, Attorney James P, Whitla, Monday. . ~ Willie said the man, who gave the name of James H. Boyle, was the one who took him from school and carried him through a tortuous route to Cleve- land, then to Ashtabula, back to this city, and placed him in the house in the East end, where he was held un- til the money was paid. Woman Acted Part of Nurse. Willie also declared that the woman was the one who cared for him at the house where he was detained and who acted the part of a nurse. Boyle said the woman is his wife. The police have no other identifica- tion of the couple than the names given. So far as the man is\concern- ed, the police believe the .name is correct. Boyle is said to reside in Sharon and is a plumber by trade. The woman, who is accredited with being the wife of Boyle, declared soon after her arrest that her identification would cause a sensation in Sharon. When the identification was complet- ed Mr, Whitla would say nothing re- gording the woman. He said he knew Boyle slightly. Go Before Grand Jury. Immediately after Willie Whitla had seen the men and women at the central police station they were taken to the county court house and there appeared before the grand jury, They were examined for the purpose of aid ing the jury in its attempt to find an indictment against the two prisoners. Immediately after leaving the grand jury room Mr. and Mrs. Whitla, Willie and the janitor of the Sharon school, which Willie attended, left for Sha- ron. Accomplice Kills Self. A woman known as Mary Diener, who the police say may have been an associate of the kidnappers, or was implicated in the plot, committed suicide yesterday by drinking mor- phine. The woman drank the poison while standing in front of a drug store in the East end, not far from the house in which Willie Whitla was detained. She died in an ambulance while being taken to a hospital. “That Woman Again?” | Mrs. Maud Forker, who is the wife of Harry Forker, brother of Mrs. It was the unanimous opinion of the officers that it would be safer not to take any chances by exposing their prisoners to the wrath of the Sharon populace. Armed Guard at His Cell. Mercer, Pa., March 28. — Heavily manacled to Sheriff Ctress and guard- ed by several detectives, James Boyle, one of the kidnappers of little Billy Whitla, was brought here yesterday from Pittsburg and lodged in the Mercer county jail. His wife, it is said, will be brought here from Pitts- burg today and the couple will be for- mally arraigned on a charge of kid- napping in a few days. Boyle feared violence on his arrival in Mercer, and on the journey from Pittsburg asked Sheriff Chess if he thought the crowd would harm him. The prisoner looked greatly relieved when he saw only a scattering of peo- ple at the Mercer station. Armed Guard at Jail. Boyle was hurried into a waiting bus and taken to the jail. An armed guard was placed in front of Boyle’s call and a patrolman will be stationed outside the jail all night. Sheriff Chess said that the jail would be guarded until the trial of the Boyles was over. Word that the authorities were bringing Boyle to this place caused small crowds to gather at all stations en route from Pittsburg. Over 200 people flocked about the train at Grove City and peered in the car win- lows. There were no demonstrations of violence during the trip, but Boyle clearly showed he was nervous. Want Boy in Vaudeville. “Sharon, Pa., March 28.—News that James H. Boyle had been removed to the Mercer county jail at Mercer was received here with little interest yes- terday. Boyle escaped from the Mer- cer county jail several years ago, when confined there on a minor charge. When informed yesterday that Boyle had been returned to the same jail, James P. Whitla said: “T hope they will take every pre- caution to keep him safely. He is a dangerous man in the community.” Since Boyle’s escape the jail has been rebuilt and is now considered safe. An offer for Willie Whitla to go on the vaudeville stage at $1,000 a week has been received by his father, who merely remarked: @WILLIE WHITLA JAMES T. FATHER oF WHITLA. Bor. - ¢ ved here soon after noon yester- A big parade was led by the Independent Rifles, a national | Bubl guard company, and the Buhl Rifles’ band, both named for Willie's uncle, and thousands of persons marched behind them through the principal streets of the town to the Whitla home, where fully 5,000 persons as- sembled on the lawn, cheering and giving every evidence of the public | participation in the family joy over | the recovery of the little wanderer. The band took a position on the front porch of the Whitla home and played several selections. In a front room were the Whitla family and De- tective Ward. Whitla Thanks Everybody. When calls were made for a speech Mr. Whitla appeared on the porch, accompanied by Rev. Joseph McCart- ney of the First Presbyterian church, who spoke briefly. Mr. Whitla then addressed the throng, extending his thanks to all the officials and individuals who had assisted in the search for the boy and expressing the gratitude of his: family and himself for the sympathy of the people, which, he said, had done so much to help the family bear up during the darkest hours of their sorrow. With the singing of the doxology by several thousand voices the dem- onstration was ended. Kidnappers Identified. Cleveland, March 26.—Willie Whit- la yesterday identified the man and woman held on suspicion by the WHITLA’S HOME. ¢ 7 ¢ Whitla, was seen at her home in Nor- folk, Ohio, yesterday. When she was given a description of the woman un- der arrest here, she exclaimed, ‘That woman again!” She then broke down and wept bit- terly. Mrs. Forker would say noth- ing more nor explain her remark. The police were able yesterday for the first time positively to locate the house in which the Whitla boy was held in Cleveland. It is the Granger, a down-town apartment house of the better order, Fear for Safety of Kidnappers. Pittsburg, March 26.—Fearing for the safety of their prisoners if they were taken to Sharon or the county set at Mercer, officers last night brought James H. Boyle and his wife, accused of kidnapping Willie Whitla, tothe Allegheny county jail here. The prisoners were guarded in their car by sixteen detectives and officers. The car was kept securely locked and non one was granted admission to the car except an Associated Press correspondent and a few other news- paper men. “They will have to go higher than that.” Woman Is Identified. Cleveland, March 28.—Chief of Po- lice Kohler, when shown a dispatch from Chicago identifying Mrs. James H. Boyle as Ann McDermott, said it fully agreed with the information he had, but which he had been unable to confirm. Information as to the exact identity of Mrs. Boyle came through a chance statement made by William H. Beck- er, a Cleveland vessel’owner. Becker first suspected the identity of the woman and arranged later to catch a glimpse of her without being seen by the prisoner. “She is the daughter of my half-sis- ter,” Becker said. ————— Student Kills Himself. Fargo, March 28. — Said to have been despondent over ill health and despairing over love affairs, F. Egge Russell, a student of the agricultural college, yesterday committed suicide by shooting himself three times in the head. ~e—errrrrrrrereeeeeeeeeeereeeeere eee POISON RIVALS DIVORCE COURT. Russian Woman Charged With Rid- ding Wives of Husbands for Fee. London, March 28.—A dispatch to the Daily Mail from, St. Petersburg says that a woman named Popova has been arrested at Samara, charged with having poisoned at least 300 per- sons during the last thirty years. She made a business of ridding wives of their husbands for a small fee. | COUNTY TREASURER IS GONE. St. Paul, March 26.—Peter W. Ehr, resigned treasurer of Carlton county, is missing and a shortage of $3,852.95 in the county’s treasury was reported to Gov. Johnson yesterday by Public Examiner Anton Schafer. Last July it is said a discrepancy of $3,000 was found in Ehr’s accounts, but this was made good, it is claim- ed, by his bondsmen, and he was re- elected to the office, IMMIGRANTS MOVE WEST. St. Paul, March 26—About ten spe- cial full-car consignments of immi- grants, mostly from Northern Euro- pean countries, have passed through St. Paul the past seven days. Others have passed through on regular coach- es. Immigration officials at the union depot believe that:more than 2,000 Northern Europeans have gone West, through St. Paul, during the past week, : St. Paul, March 24. — The senate yesterday passed the bill killing the trading stamp. The bill was one pre- pared by the judiciary committee aft- er argument in which the best law- yers of the state talked on the con- stitutionality of the proposed act. The bill prohibits the usual trading stamp, but permits them when the article is stated for which the stamp is good and provided that no definite number of stamps "be; required before some- thing is obtainable. The Bjorge tonnage tax bill, pass- ed by the house last week, was given a first reading in the senate yester- day and referred to the committee on’ taxes and tax laws. The bill providing for uniform bills of lading was passed by the senate by a vote of 36 to 6. The following bills were passed: Providing for assessment for town ditches; providing for addition of ter- ritory to towns and villages; author- izing county commissioners to issue bonds; proposing a _ constitutional amendment permitting a payment by the state of one-half instead of one- third on local road improvements; relating to bastardy; relating to addi- tional aid to high schools with a busi- ness department; relating to the con- struction of bridges between villages; relating to proposals by banks as de- positories; providing for additional judge in Duluth district; permitting municipalities to register city real estate under Torrens system. Copies of the reapportionment plan which the committees of the two houses are working on were handed to the members of both houses yes- terday. The scheme calls for fifty senators instead of sixty-three, as at present, but does not reduce the num- ber of representatives, 119. The sen- ate apportionment {fs based on one for each 40,000, and the representa- tives one for each county, with one for each 15,000 additional, In the House. The Thayer bill providing for a stamp tax on board of trade sales of 1 cent per $100 was recommended to pass after a lively debate in the house committee of the whole. The bill to reduce the mortgage registry tax from 50 cents to 10 cents per $100 was recommended to pass. Some of the house members are sorry now that they passed the new prison bill, and yesterday a resolu- tion for a committee of five to inves- tigate the matter was presented to the house, signed by nine members. The resolution states that it has been learned that much of the $2,250,- 000. appropriated'is to be used for fine residences for the warden and his’ assistants, for greenhouses and for an expensive chapel. The resolu. tion went over under notice of de- bate. To discourage kidnapping in this state Representative Nimocks yester- day introduced a bill providing a life sentence for those convicted of that crime. The bill for state-wide prohibition was killed in the house by a vote of 61 to 38. The anti-treating billalso was kill- ed by a vote of 40 to 59 The house adopted Representative Spooner’s resolution calling for an in- vestigation of the feasibility of a ca- nal to join the waterway of the Great Lakes at Duluth with the Mis- sissippi river at St. Paul. eee St. Paul, March 25.—With just sixty votes, the exact number needed, the house yesterday passed the bill intro- duced at the request of the tax com- mission requiring that all property shall be listed at its true value and as- sessed at 40 per cent for taxation pur- poses. The bill had been a special or- der last week and killed, and recon- sidered. Several members participat- ed in the debate on the bill. The house killed the county as- sessors’ bill after a short debate. The ‘house also killed the bill increasing the exemption on personal property from $100 to $200. There are about 200 bills in the house which have been reported by the committees and are awaiting con- sideration, yet the house does well if it disposes of half a dozen each day. New bills continue to come in, two dozen or more each day. A bill providing $20,000 for an inves- tigation into the feasibility of the sys- tem of canals suggested by R. J. Mer- shon of Chicago was introduced by Representative Spooner. The bill makes the governor, state auditor and attorney general a board to carry out the work. The house yesterday passed by an almost unanimous vote the resolution offered Tuesday by Representative Nolan and others asking for an inves- tigation of the manner in which the $2,250,000 appropriated in the Spooner bill is to be expended. The bill creating a state land de- partment, recommended by State Au- ditor Iverson, was killed by the house yesterday. The house adopted the majority re- MRS, FARMER TO SEE HUSBAND. Woman Condemned to Death Will Say Good-by to Him Before End. ‘Albany, N. Y., March 28. — Before Mrs. Mary Farmer meets death in the electric chair at Auburn prison next Monday morning she will be permit- ted to bid good-by to her husband, James D. Farmer, who occupies a cell in the death house of the prison, con- demned to die for complicity in the miurder of Mrs. Sarah Brennan, for which Mrs, Farmer is to be executed. MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE REVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK OF THE STATE LEGISLATORS FOR THE WEEK. port of the committee on public ac- counts and expenditures exonerating the board of control in the matter of the charges made regarding coal re- bates, In the Senate. A Dill to relieve from taxation lands allotted to an Indian in severalty by the federal government until the In- dian has conveyed the land to some one else was passed by the senate yesterday under suspension of the rules. The senate adopted a resolution fa- voring the erection of a $25,000 state building at Hibbing for the local headquarters for inspection of the mines. The house has adopted the same resolution. The senate passed the bill giving $500 additional state aid to graded schools which have two years’ high school work. The bill declaring civil marriages illegal passed the senate without de- bate. A big bunch of bills were put through the senate yesterday, among the more important being: Authoriz- ing counties to help construct hospi- tals; relating to the sale of public lands,; relating to the minimum price for state lands; providing for uniform official bonds; authorizing courts of record to suspend sentence in certain cases; juvenile court law for entire state; increasing powers of state drainage commission; permitting be- quests to charitable institutions to es- cape inheritance tax; making automo- bile drivers liable for injury to person or property. * es 8 St. Paul, March 26.—Members of the Ramsey delegation in the house yester- day, by moving for the indefinite post- ponement of the Rowe bill prohibiting the location of the Armour packing plant on a site near the university, paved the way for a bill which will prevent the location of any packing plant where it will become a nuisance to the state institutions. When the Rowe bill came up yesterday afternoon as a special order Representative Stone of St. Paul moved that it be indefinitely postponed. The house agreed to the motion unanimously. The new meas- ure has not been agreed upon in all its details, but it will be along milder lines, probably allowing the location of pack- ing plants wherever the state board of health considers their location will not be detrimental to public health, A minimum distance of two and a half miles from any state institution will probably be provided for in the bill. The house yesterday passed the bill providing a stamp tax of 1 cent on each $100 of sales or agreements to sell on boards of trade and chambers of commerce. The vote was 72 to 43. The senate bill proposing a constitu- tional amendment to promote the re- forestation of land of private owners was passed by the house. The bill to reduce the mortgage reg- istry tax to 10 cents on $100 also wae passed. A step towards the consolidation of St. Paul and Minneapolis into one city was taken yesterday when the house passed under suspension of the rules a bill for the appointment by the gov- ernor of a commission of five citizens from each city to draw up a bill which would make such consolidation possi- ble, and report the bill to the next leg- islature. The bill was introduced joint- ly by J. F. Selb of St. Paul and Thomas Kneeland of Minneapolis. The house had another tussle with the Cass Lake normal school bill yes- terday, spent an hour in talking and roll calls and then left the bill just where it was before. Incidentally the Hinds bill giving the state normal school board the right to locate the schoo! was killed. In the Senate. The senate yesterday killed the Cashman distance tariff bill. The vote was 23 to 28. Some of the most emi- nent attorneys of the senate voted for the bill. Former Attorney General Young, who has charge of the present rate cases for the state, was quoted in debate as strongly opposed to further legislative action until the present cases are disposed of. Senator Noonan lead an attack on the Wright bill pensioning citizen sol- diers of the Indian outbreak of 1862. His fight was unavailing, however, and the bill was recommended to pass. Senator Swanson renewed his fight against the tuberculin test in the sen- ate yesterday. He made an effort to get an amendment to his bill, making the application of the test optional with local health authorities. No action was taken by the senate. The establishment of public tubercu- losis sanatoria in the counties of the state is authorized in a bill by Senator Pugh. es ee St. Paul, March 27.—Two railroad measures, the Johnson bill for the regulation of stock and bond issues by railroads and the redrafted com- modity rate bill, were passed by the house yesterday. The Johnson Dill provides that stocks and bonds must be sold at or above par, for stated purposes only, after the permission of the railroad commission has been se- cured. It is planned to protect people against fictitious stock issues The commodity rate bill is the same as that passed at the last session, ex- Six Hundred Miles of Canals. Calgary, Alberta, March 28.—Con- tracts were let yesterday for the ex- cavation of over 600 miles of canals and ditches. When completed and added to the already extensive irriga- tion system in operation the ditches will serve the entire western section of the Canadian Pacific irrigation block. Foley, Welch & Stewart se- cured the contract and will commence work April 15. The contracts invelve the handling of over 2,500,0(0 yards of material, | ulate cept that the penalty clause is omit- ted. The 6 per cent gross earnings bill was recommended for indefinite post- ponement yesterday by the commit- tee, and the report was adopted. The county assessor Dill, which was voted down in the house last Wednesday, was resurrected yester- day. Immediately following the bill exempting $200 of the personal prop- erty of each family was reconsidered and the bill was placed on the calen- dar for today. The abolition of passes to the grand stand at the state fair is recommend- ed in the report of the committee which has been investigating the state fair board’s doings. The board is upheld in its decision on a disputed contract to supply fireworks. Some fault igs found with the method of bookkeeping, and the report recom- mends a better system; otherwise the board is given a clean bill of health, and there is not the slightest hint at any question of the integrity of the board. The employers’ liability bill drawn by the special committee appointed for that purpose was a special order in the house yesterday, but was con- tinued until next Tuesday. The house adopted a resolution pro- testing against the reduction of the tariff on barley from 30 to 15 cents, as proposed in the Payne Dill. The existence of a mineral spring with wonderful curative properties at Finlayson, Pine county, was called to the attention of the house yesterday when Representative Webb intro- duced a bill to have the state pur- chase eighty acres around the spring for a public park. In the Senate, There will be no change in the pres- ent system of handling public lands. This was decided yesterday when the senate killed three different propo- sals to make more extended provision for the lands, forests and minerals of the state. The bills were killed after full debate. One of the bills was de- signed to enlarge the state auditor’s department without creating a sepa- rate department. The two other bills were modeled after the ideas of the state auditor and the governor re- spectively. Each contemplated a new department. Only seventeeen state senators yes- terday voted in favor of a reappor- tionment of the senatorial and legis- lative districts of the state when the matter came up for consideration in the senate on the majority and minor- ity reports from the reapportionment committee. This probably means that there will be no reapportionment for another four years, as at the next session all of the senators will have just entered upon a four-year term, and probably will not vote themselves out of office at that time. A bill was ‘introduced by the reap- portionment committee providing for a constitutional amendment permit- ting changes of legislative districts at any session. eee St. Paul, March 29.—The new pack- ing house bill was introduced Satur- day in both the house and the senate. Senator Hanson was sponsor for it in the senate, and ih the house it was presented by Representatives Holm- berg, Saugstad, Ware, Dorsey, White, Fitzpatrick, Pfaender and Noble. The bill prohibits the location of any packing plant within two and one-half miles of any state educational insti- tution. If it is proposed to locate such a plant between two and one- half and five miles of any such insti- tution the permission of the state board of health must be secured. The board of health is given power to reg- these plants after they start operations to stop the work of any part or the whole plant if it should become a nuisance. The house suspended the rules and passed a bill providing life imprison- ment for kidnapping. The penalty in the 1905 code is twenty years. Other bills passed in the house were: Authorizing villages to own telephone lines; authorizing railroad commission to select a sealing device and require all scales to be equipped therewith; amending reciprocal de- murrage law. In the Senate. The senate, after spending several hours debating the anti-tuberculin measure, finally killed it. Bills introduced were: Relating to the locating of packing plants; pre- scribing rights of villages which tried to include other lands; requiring rail- roads to move stock at an average rate of fifteen miles an hour; relating to salary of state highway engineer; to prevent fraud by means of finan- cial statements; relating to protec- tion from fire in halls seating a hun- dred; limiting powers of county com- missioners in spending revenue, Monday is the last day on which bills can be introduced without the consent of the governor. A deluge is expected, Arabs Fire an Steamers. Constantinople, March 30.—Attacks by Arabs on steamers plying the Ti- gris have been so persistent that the British steamship line has been com- pelled to suspend service, Yesterday @ government steamer was riddled with bullets, several of the passen- gers being killed or wounded, Kisses Boy; Shot by Wife. St. Louis, Mo, March 28—As he stooped to kiss his four-year-old son, Auton Stebe was shot and seriously ag cae by the boy’s mother, who ischarged a double-barrel at her husband. Soca Stebe saved himself by throwi his arms about his face, the chicas riddling his hands. The woman, who had instituted di- yorce proceedings, wag arrested, nin according to the police, acknowledged woun‘line her husband.