Guilty on Three Counts

For more than four tormented years, Kenneth and Joseph ("Chip") Yablonski have waited for justice in the murder of their father, United Mine Workers Insurgent Joseph A. ("Jock") Yablonski, their mother and sister. Prosecuting Attorney Richard Sprague has labored relentlessly those same years, winning the convictions of three triggermen and four co-conspirators and working his way up to the suspected mastermind of the plot. Last week it was all over after 4 1/2 hours of jury deliberation in Media, Pa.: "Guilty, in the first degree," droned the jury foreman. "Guilty, in the first degree," he said again and once again, leveling three counts of murder against former U.M.W. President W.A. ("Tony") Boyle. The conviction--which Boyle will appeal--carries an automatic life sentence.

Boyle, thin and haggard at 72, some times relying on a wheelchair, betrayed little emotion as he was led out of the courtroom, head bowed. Said Sprague: "I felt right back from the beginning that it was Boyle. I knew that I would never get to the top in one snap. It was going to be a slow process. Had we lost any one of the previous cases leading up to Boyle, the chain would have been broken."

For the case against Boyle, Sprague questioned more than 50 witnesses, including tobacco-chewing Kentucky pensioners who were entrusted with $500 checks for union services never performed, which they then returned to the union; they knew only that the money was part of an elaborate kickback scheme, not that it would be used for the murders. Sprague also placed on the stand FBI agents who had investigated the Dec. 31, 1969 killings. Each witness helped buttress Sprague's contention:

Boyle had authorized Yablonski's murder three weeks after the insurgent announced that he would challenge him for the union presidency. Said the prosecutor to the jury: "Why was Yablonski killed? To get rid of Yablonski's fighting spirit." As proof, Sprague questioned former U.M.W. Official William Turn-blazer, who recounted a June 23, 1969 meeting with Boyle at U.M.W. headquarters in Washington. According to Turnblazer's testimony, Boyle said: "We're in a fight. We've got to kill Yablonski. Take care of him."

In counterattack, Boyle's attorney, Charles F. Moses of Billings, Mont., attempted to prove that the murder conspiracy was a local plot in U.M.W. District 19 in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. He offered little testimony to that specific effect, but tried instead to undermine the credibility of Sprague's witnesses.

Finally, Moses called Boyle to the stand. As Boyle rose to defend himself, his air of dejection suddenly disappeared. Once again he showed the argumentative, cantankerous spirit that had marked his nine years as U.M.W. president. "Did I have anything to do with the murder?" he asked rhetorically. "Absolutely not. It was a shock to me. I usually work a 14-hour day, but I went home early that day and was sick."

Boyle's testimony cracked under Sprague's 88-minute crossexamination. Despite Boyle's frequent pleas of poor memory, the prosecutor repeatedly trapped him. He denied sending Turn-blazer a transcript of a U.M.W. meeting outlining a phony alibi for union officials linked with the murder. Sprague asked why FBI agents had found Boyle's fingerprints on the document. The courtroom stirred at the news, which Sprague had dramatically withheld until Boyle's testimony.

As his arguments fell apart under questioning, Boyle tried a final tactic. "Jock Yablonski and I were very close friends," he said. "The day after I heard of the murder I put up $50,000 in reward money for the apprehension of the killers." Sprague then turned to Suzanne Richards, Boyle's executive assistant for 20 years. Richards said that it was she who proposed a reward--for $100,000 --and prepared a press release to that effect. "I gave it to Boyle, who said he'd think about it. Later, he said he was against any reward at all, but finally agreed to put up $50,000."

State Judge Francis Catania told the jury that under Pennsylvania law, if a defendant is found guilty of ordering a murder, he is as culpable as the actual triggermen. The jury's decision turned out to be easy. Said the foreman: "There were never any firm votes for not guilty."

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