As far as I know, there is only one ancestor in my direct line that has had a major run-in with the law, and it was quite a shameful event, so I’d rather focus on my 2nd great granduncle’s brush with the prison system.
Week 18: Crime and Punishment
The eldest son of my 3rd great grandmother, Margaret (O’Keeffe) Boyce was first only known to me as William T. Boyce. Other than being aware that he was born circa 1864 by the 1870 and 1880 US censuses that he appeared on, I didn’t really have any other info on him.
It wasn’t until this past year that I took note of the fact that William was born several years prior to any of his siblings, and more importantly, even though he held the Boyce surname on the censuses, his birthdate appeared to have fallen previous to his parents’ marriage date in 1868. I knew his mother, Margaret, had been married once before to a papermaker in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Originally, I believed her 1st marriage to have ended quickly and before any offspring were had. However, it dawned on me that William may have been the first and only child born to that marriage. Maybe that would explain why William disappears after the 1880 census. Maybe his surname wasn’t Boyce, afterall. Maybe it was Murphy, as in Margaret’s first papermaker husband – Patrick Murphy. And maybe I could find him under that surname instead.
Sure enough, I did! And where did he pop up? IN THE PENNSYLVANIA PENITENTIARY SYSTEM!
I knew it was him because he was not only listed on the prison intake form as William Murphy, but he listed an alias of William O’Keefe – his mother’s maiden name! All of his other known details lined up as well, such as his age, state residence of origin, mother’s residence of origin, occupation, etc.
Below is the record that answered so many questions for William, as well as his family.
Pennsylvania, U.S., Prison, Reformatory, and Workhouse Records, 1829-1971 , online database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 May 2021), Lehi, UT, USA; Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, prison records, 1911-1916, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, series 15.128.
THE CRIME
What was William serving time for? Upon initial inspection, I thought his crime was listed as “sodomy thuggery.” Although I had never heard these terms as a single phrase before, my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that William was being charged with rape and general thug-like behavior. Did I find the phrasing odd? I sure did.
But lucky for me, I was so enthused by the discovery, I shared it with my (non-genealogy) friends, and one of them quickly corrected my false assumption! Although she is not as experienced with reading cursive as I am, that didn’t matter, because she had knowledge I did not. An old British English term for anal sex was buggery! The form did not say “sodomy thuggery” as I had read it, but instead “sodomy + buggery.” I had mistook the “plus” symbol for a “t.”
This revelation was both exciting and saddening, as it was now clear why this 50-year-old man was likely still a bachelor. He had almost certainly never married, because he was likely gay. Not only was gay marriage illegal in the early 1900s, but as you can see by this charge, even acting on any homosexual impulse was against the law. There is a possibility that one could be charged with these offences even in a heterosexual relationship, or an act of bestiality. For now, I have not acquired any further documents surrounding William’s case, so I am defaulting to the most likely reason for his arrest.
THE PUNISHMENT
This was William’s first conviction in the Allegheny court system. He was sentenced on 21 June 1914 for a minimum prison sentence of 2 years and maximum of 4. I could not find a similar convict’s form in this record collection, so I have nothing to compare to in terms of whether this was a fair sentencing during that time period.
This document is so rich with detail, but 2 more items in particular really sparked my interest.
The first was the physical description of William. Everything from his height, forearm length, nose size, and facial hair was recorded. But the most intriguing part were all the skin blemishes and tattoos listed under Marks and Scars. It really paints a picture!
The second was what was listed under Residence. The lines were filled with:
Jos. O’Shea
Everson, Pa.
And scribbled next to Jos. O’Shea’s name? Cousin.
That’s right! This document exposed a new surname for me in this tree. At this point, I was crossing my fingers so hard that the O’Sheas were cousins on his mom’s side of the tree and not his dad’s, because I’m genetically descended from his mom, but not his father (her 1st husband). In addition, I had already been attempting to track down his mother’s siblings, several of which had relocated throughout the United States following their emigration from Ireland. I was hoping O’Shea would be a married name of one of his mother’s siblings. And sure enough, it was!
I got really lucky with this record! William’s punishment wound up to be my pleasure.
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