Boyle
Verdict
carries
sentence
MEDIA. Pa. (AP) Former United
Mine Workers President W. A. "Tony"
Boyle was convicted last night of three
counts of first-degree murder in the 1969
slaying of union rival Joseph "Jock"
Yablonski and his wife and daughter.
Boyle's attorney said he would file a
motion for a new trial.
The jury of nine men and three women
took just 4 1 2 hours to reach a verdict.
"Guilty, first degree," jury foreman
Clyde M. Parris responded three times
to the indictment read by Judge Francis
J. Catania of Delaware County Common
Pleas Court.
The convictions carry a mandatory
life sentence.
No date for sentencing was an
nounced.
The 72-year-old Boyle exhibited no
emotion as the verdict was read, but his
face appeared drawn as he waved to his
wife while being escorted from the
courtroom and voiced a "goodbye."
Boyle's wife. Ethel fidgeted in her seat
and strained for a look at her husband.
Next to her. Boyle's daughter, An
toinette. rubbed her eyes and appeared
to be holding back tears.
Kenneth Yablonski, son of the slain
man, stood with tears on his cheeks and
remarked to Sprague: "You don't know
how happy I am. There's no words that I
can express."
It was the fifth murder conviction
obtained by Sprague in the case. Three
others have pleaded guilty and a fourth,
William Turnblazer, the prosecution's
principal witness. has pleaded guilty to a
federal charge of conspiring to kill
Yablonski
The trail of the conspirators had led
House subpoenas Nixon
WASHINGTON ( AP I—President
Nixon was subpoenaed by the House
Judiciary Committee last night to turn
over all tapes and other materials
sought for its impeachment inquiry but
the White House declined to say it would
fully comply.
After the subpoena was issued by a 33-
:3 committee vote. White House press
secretary Ronald L. Ziegler promised
only that Nixon would supply the
committee within two weeks with un
specified materials that would be
"comprehensive and conclusive in
regard to the President's actions."
Ziegler said the White House had been
pledging since Tuesday to make some of
the requested materials available when
Congress returns from its Easter recess
on April 22. He said the White House
review of these materials would con
tinue
The White House Spokesman declined
to sa,!, that Nixon would fully comply
v.ith the subpoena, declaring only that
he would turn over materials "con
sistent with his constitutional respon
sibilities "
Ziegler argued that the materials
which he said would reach the com-
"Renaissance Man"
FORMER PENN STATE FOOTBALL PLAYER MIKE REID exhibited his vocal
and musical talents last night in Schwab. See story page 10.
the
daily
convicted of murder
from southwestern Pennsylvania, to
Washington, D.C., to Cleveland, Ohio
and to the coal fields of Kentucky and
Tennessee.
With the conviction of Boyle, Sprague
said the case was finished.
"Boyle was the originator. We got
back to the beginning and that's where
we'll stop."
Turnblazer, a lawyer and former
president of UMW District 19 in Ten
nessee and Kentucky, has testified that
Boyle told him and Albert Pass, another
former district 19 officer, that Yablonski
had to be killed.
life
Turnblazer said the order was given
June 23, 1969 at UMW headquarters in
Washington, D.C. as the three men stood
outside an elevator for a minute or two.
Boyle who testified in his own defense,
denied the charge and said such a
meeting never took place.
Boyle, who had ruled the 200,000-
member union with an iron fist for 10
years and was a protege of the late John
L. Lewis, was accused of masterminding
the Dec. 31, 1969 slaying. .
The charges against him stemmed
from a statement Turnblazer had given
to FBI agents last year.
Sprague had said at the time of Boyle's
indictment "This is where the case began
and this is where it ends."
The defense had claimed that Turn
blazer was an admitted liar who had
perjured himself in previous testimony
and could not be believed.
Charles F. Moses, of Billings, Mont.,
Boyle's chief defense counsel, claimed
the plot against Yablonski was con
ceived and carried out by District 19
officials to cover up misuse of nearly $1
million in district funds.
The Yablonskis were shot to death by
three hired gunmen as they slept in their
beds in the family's sprawling red brick
home in Clarksville, Pa., in the riclrsoft
coal fields of southwestern Penn
sylvania. Their bullet-riddled bodies
were discovered Jan. 5, 1970.
The slayings occ rred three weeks
after Boyle defeatelthe reform-minded
Yablonski in a bitter election for the
UMW presidency.
The frail-looking Boyle who suffers
from a heart condition and is recovering
from a suicide attempt last September,
is serving a three-year federal prison
sentence for misuse of union funds.
mittee between April 22 and April 25
would bear out Nixon's past ex
planations of his Watergate role and
"will receive the support of the House."
The subpoena directs the President to
respond by 10 a.m. on April 25, four days
after Congress returns from its Easter
recess.
All dissenting votes were cast by
members of the Republican minority.
The committee's order came despite
an offer from James D. St. Clair, the
President's Watergate lawyer, to deliver
some of the material requested within a
few days. But St. Clair had refused to
make an immediate decision on all of the
material the committee had requested in
a letter delivered to the White House task ,
Feb. 25.
Rep. Robert McClory, R-111., who had
supported many White House requests
at committee sessions, called St. Clair's
offer "entirely too equivocal." He then
voted in favor of the subpoena.
However, Rep. Edward Hutchinson of
Michigan, the ranking Republican on the
committee, voted against the subpoena.
Later he said he opposed it because it is
not enforceable and because the White
House had indicated it would turn over
Collegian
Photo by Erlc Polack
Sprague
ends
4-year
pursuit
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) "This is the end
of the line," Richard A. Sprague said
last night.
As minutes earlier, his nearly four
year pursuit of the assassins of United
Mine Workers insurgent Joseph "Jock"
Yablonski reached its apex in the
murder conviction of W. A. "Tony"
Boyle.
"Boyle was the originator," he said.
"We got back to the beginning and that's
where we'll stop."
Sprague's quest for justice in the case
had taken him from the rich soft coal
fields of southwestern Pennsylvania, to
Cleveland, Ohio, the coal fields of
Tennessee and Kentucky and ultimately
to UMW headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
Tenacity is a trademark of the man
who was charged with unraveling the
assassination.
The 49-year-old Sprague is a no
nonsense lawyer who serves as
Philadelphia's first assistant district
attorney.
He strongly backs the death penalty
and readily admits he's never lost any
sleep over a man he has sent to the
electric chair.
Often brash and famous for his one
line office memos such as "Why did this
happen?," Sprague was named chief
prosecutor in the Yablonski case nearly
four years ago.
Since then he has. obtained four
murder convictions, including Boyle,
and has obtained guilty murder pleas
from three others. A ninth man has
pleaded guilty to a federal charge of
conspiring to violate Yablonski's civil
rights.
all or most of the material the committee
is demanding.
It doesn't seem to me as though it was
necessary to issue a subpoena today,"
Hutchinson said.
If the White House should defy the
subpoena, the Judiciary Committee
would have several alternatives. One
would be to prosecute its subpoena in the
court as the Senate Watergate com
mittee is doing with its subpoena for
tapes. A committee lawyer said the
committee could ask the House to cite
the President for contempt or simply
determine defiance of the subpoena to be
an impeachable offense.
Terrorists kill 18
QIRYAT SHMONAH, Israel (AP)—
Three Arab terrorists raided this Israeli
border town as its inhabitants were
rising from their beds yesterday and
killed 18 men, women and children with
bursts of submachine-gun fire and
rocket grenades. Another 15 persons
were reported wounded.
USG elections slow
tax suit, Ellis says
By RICH GRANT
Collegian Staff Writer
Undergraduate Student Government
elections have delayed the lawsuit
against the Centre County per capita
tax, according to Allen Ellis, a lawyer
retained by USG.
Ellis said the Pa. Department of
Justice was asking for factual proof that
the tax discouraged students from
voting before deciding on whether to
become a party to the suit.
Part of the proof would be affadavits
from students stating they did not regis
ter to vote because of the tax.
"They (USG) promised me they would
do the legwork," Ellis said. "They said
let's hold off until after the election."
Ellis said he expects to meet with USG
President George Cernusca soon.
Tim Holmes, director of USG
Department of Legal Affairs, said
behind the slow-up wag- - a missing list of
students who had agreed to. fill out af
fadavits.
"No one seems to know - where the list
is," Holmes said. "Yesterday, I spoke to
Ellis. He didn't have it. Frank M. (Frank
Muraca, former USG vice president)
thought it was in his desk. Yesterday,
George C. said he would get the list to
me."
According to Cernusca, there was a
mix-up.
Sprague, whose parents knew him as a
softhearted boy who wept over birds
with broken wings, joined the
Philadelphia district attorney's office in
1958.
Since then, he's played a powerful role
in the fate of over 10,000 persons,
prosecuting them for everything from
shoplifting to murder. And he has
become one of a few prosecutors to win a
conviction in a murder case where the
body never was found.
Two years ago, Sprague recalled, he
received a series of threatening phone
calls. One of the callers warned:
"You're going to get the same thing
Yablonski got we know where you
live."
Sprague reacted in his typical fashion:
"That's the kind of chance you take
when you're doing your job. You can
either freeze or ignore it. •I don't intend
to freeze. I don't even carry a gun."
Sprague's no-nonsense approach is
characterized in a story told by one of his
aides: "I got married Monday at 6 p.m.
and got to work Tuesday at 9:30 and Dick
asked me what the hell took me so long,"
recalls Asst. Dist. Atty. Bill Wolf.
"I may be a bastard to work for,"
Sprague says, "but I'm not aloof."
"He's a bastard to work for," says
another aide, "but I love that man. All I
know is that he'd have to kick me out
physically to get rid of me."
ARHS, OTIS ask veto
to USG
By STEVE SIIIKOFF
Collegian Staff Writer
The Undergraduate Student Govern
ment Senate passed a bill Monday night
creating a Bureau of Town Affairs and a
Bureau of Residential Life without con
sulting two organizations operating for
similar purposes.
The Association of Residence Hall
Students and the Organization of Town
Independent Students claim they are
threatened by the bill and want it vetoed
by USG President George Cernusca.
The organizations said a joint meeting
with USG members and a re-written bill
will be acceptable to both grpups.
The bill, passed 22-4, is to create
political advocacy on policies relating to
town and dorm life, according to Paul -
Stevenson, one of the bill's sponsors.
"It is not our purpose to step on the toes
of ARHS and OTIS, but to complement
these organizations. These groups are
not political organizations, and political
advocacy is something both town and
dorm students need," Stevenson said.
He said these bureaus are to aid OTIS
and ARHS by working for alternate meal
plans, dorm contracts and tenant unions,
the areas most in need of political ad
vocates.
Stevenson told ARHS members
Tuesday night that representatives from
the bureaus will aid ARHS and OTIS by
helping students attain political rights in
these areas.
Officials said most of the dead were
children. The Arabs died in an explosion
inside a four-story apartment building
they had seized.
"They were throwing children from
the top floor of the building," a local
police officer said.
A Palestinian commando organization
"The list is here," Cernusca said,
explaining that the list was in the USG
office and that Muraca knew where it
was.
Aside from the affadavits, Ellis said,
other evidence for the state justice
department would consist of minutes
from meetings of the county corn- .
missioners and the basis behind the
commissioners' decision to approve or
deny individual requests for exonera
tion from the tax.
Ellis added the other evidence had not
been gathered yet.
On Tuesday, the Centre County
commissioners approved 199 of 233 per
capita tax exoneration requests, in
cluding 166 approvals on the basis of non
residency claims.
According to Commissioner J. Doyle
Corman Jr., some of those approved who
claimed non-residency were students.
All had furnished some proof of out-of
county residence. None were registered
to vote in Centre County.
i lixi
Twenty-nine of the 34 turned d wn
were over 65 years of age but fail to
meet the indigency requirement of $l,
or less.
The county's exoneration ' policy
permits those over 65 to apply for
financial exoneration under financial
inability guidelines.
Ten cents per copy
Friday, April 12, 1974
Vol. 74, No. 134 10 pages University Park, Pennsylvania
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
Guilty
FORMER UMW PRESIDENT TONY BOYLE after a jury last night found him
guilty of first-degree murder.
bureau measure
Former-USG senator Walt Grabowski
said, "Without talking to members of
OTIS and ARHS, this bill has set back all
the goodwill USG has done."
Cernusca, speaking to ARHS council
members, said, "I have gotten the
feeling from you that USG is trying to
take over the other organizations. We do
not want to do that."
He said the bill will give more power to
OTIS and ARHS and an ability to effect
change.
"The purpose of this is so that USG will
have an apparatus to link to OTIS and
ARHS without a communications
problem," Cernusca said.
"A unified effort is the best, but you
have alienated USG when you don't talk
to ARHS about the bill," ARHS Vice
President Joe Davidson told Cernusca.
ARHS President Wendy Morris called
the bill "poorly written and ambigious."
North Halls President Mike
Christopher told Cernusca, "This is a
step in the right direction to unify groups,
but in two or three administrations from
now your goodwill will be gone. We need
a guarantee that ARHS will be in exist
ence. You must veto the bill."
But OTIS Vice President Ron Gordon
said, "I don't believe the bill is
necessarily a bad one. I would like to see
either a veto or consultation before this
could take effect. ARHS and OTIS are
very open."
in Israel
in Lebanon said Arabs were on a suicide
mission to enforce demands for the
release of Arab guerrillas held by Israel.
Israeli officials said they had received
no such demand from the guerrillas.
Premier Golda Meir, speaking in the
parliament in Jerusalem, termed the
attack "murder for the sake of murder"
and said Israel would hold Lebanon
responsible because Palestinian
guerrillas are based there.
The raiders slipped across Mg bOrder
of Lebanon, about a mile away,: with
three other Arabs who burst into a
school, but fOund it empty because Of the
Jewish holy season of Passover. Of
ficials said these three escaped- back
across the mountainous border.
Israeli officials described the attack
as the worst of its kind in the war that
Arab guerrillas have been carrying out
against Israel throughout it's 26-year
history. It was the worst terrorist ptrike
inside Israel since the attack on Tel
Aviv's Lod airport two years ago:r
Police here said the three AralA blew
themselves up with explosives the y were
carrying as Israeli security forces
moved in on them in the apartment
building. But the Israeli military
command in Tel Aviv said gunfire from
security forces set off the explosives.
In Jerusalem, Mrs. Meir, who is
stepping down as premier, announced
the casualties as 33 dead or wounded.
She added that eight of the dead were
children, five were women and the
remainder were men. She identified the
wounded as five civilians, seven
policemen and three soldiers. The
Weather
Sunshine and warm today, high 70.
Tonight mostly cloudy and mild with a
chance iof a few showers, low 52.
Tomorrow mostly cloudy and warm with
showers and possible thundershowers in
the afternoon, high 71. Sunday mostly
sunny and cooler, high 58.
A random survey of town and dorm
students indicated ARHS and OTIS
should be consulted before creating the
residential life and town bureaus.
Almost all students surveyed said they
felt USG intentions were good, but they
said if ARHS and OTIS were not con
sulted it would affect the service in many
ways.
Kathy Gallagher (9th-social services
said, "Communications should be opened
up, not only in the executive council, but
between entire organizations as well."
When asked if USG intentions are good
Gallagher said, "USG has good in
tentions but they went about it the wrong
way. It had made ARHS and OTIS look
like empty service organizations and
that is not true."
Walter Stembach (Bth-business ad
ministration) said, "Communications
must be opened up. I don't think they
should be able to form organizations like
this without cooperation from ARHS and
OTIS.
"The best thing to do would be to make
ARHS and OTIS members of the
bureaus."
Terry Clark (10th-nursing) said, "In
tentions are good, but that doesn't take
away from the fact that they did this
without consultation. Eventually it could
be a good thing, but this issue wouldn't be
a problem if they had worked on this
together and it wouldn't be ambigious.
town
soldiers and policemen were hit while
storming the apartment building, she
said.
Only two hours after she officially
announced her resignation, Mrs. Meir
issued an indirect warning to Lebanon
for harboring Arab guerrillas and said
the raiders were "not warriors of
liberation but people who came just to
murder... The killing of children, women
and innocent civilians is murder for the
sake of murder...
"The government of Lebanon must
know that we regard it, and residents of
Lebanon who help the terrorists, as
responsible for this act."
In the Lebanese capital of Beirut, a
Palestinian splinter group, the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine-
General Command, claimed respon
sibility for the raid and said it was a
suicide mission to demand the release of
100 Arab guerrillas jailed in Israel. It
also said it was to free Kozo Okamoto,
the lone Japanese survivor of the May
1972 massacre of 26 victims at Lod
airport.
But Mrs. Meir read to Parliament a
leaflet left by the dead terrorists which
made no mention of Okamoto or freeing
guerrillas.
The Israeli premier quoted the leaflet
as denouncing Israel for "expelling .the
people of Palestine in a Nazi-like way...
"We are sorry to talk in the language
of weapons but we have found no
listening ear for our just demands," it
said, accusing Israel of racism and
dispossessing the'Arabs. Mrs. Meir said
it was signed by Popular Front-General
Command.
The guerrillas crossed the mountain
frontier about a mile away from Qiryat
Shmonah after dawn, slipped into the
awakening town of 18,000 and opened fire
with submachine guns and grenades,
spraying everything in sight about 7:30
a.m., police said.