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Crop Outweighed The Wife

Crop Outweighed The Wife image
Parent Issue
Day
8
Month
May
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

CROP OUTWEIGHED THE WIFE

"Butch" Ely Got Two Years in Jackson

FOR STEALING CHICKENS

The Contents of the Crops of the Chickens He Sold Was the Evidence Against

Georgc Ely, familiarly known as "Butch" Ely, was sentenced by Judge Kinne to two years the Jackson prison on the charge of burglary. Ely's real offense was breaking into a chicken house belonging to Mrs. Goodell on the Whitmore Lake road April 17 and stealing a dozen chickens.

The evidence on which the conviction was secured was somewhat on the Sherlock Holmes order. Ely sold some chickens to Mr. Prettyman the next day. They were picked but their erops were yet in and this proved Ely's undoing. The crops were found to contain barley and the gizzards a mixture of oats and ground feed. Mrs. Goodell followed the unusual practice of feeding her chickens oats and ground feed in the morning and barley at night. The chickens were stolen at night. It killed at once barley would be found in their crops, while the oats and feed would have passed to the gizzard.

Mrs. Ely took the stand and swore that lipr husband was at home on the night in question. But the jury believed the evidence of the crops and brought in a verdict of guilty. When asked what he had to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon him, Ely protested his innocence. Judge Kinne asked him whether he would prefer to be sentenced to Jackson or Ionia, and be quickly answered Jackson. Sentence for two years was then imposed upon him.

There are two reasons why Ely probably prefered Jackson. In Jackson the prisoners are able to make some pocket money. Ely also has a son there who was sent up from Ionia for burglary.

The more reasons charge of selling the meat of a dying cow around the city, brought against Ely will be held in abeyance. The extreme penalty for this offense is but six months. There is a widely prevalent feeling that the peddling of diseased meat, which necessarily endangers human health if not life, is deserving of a heavier penalty.