Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1910 — THE PARKER PAROLE. [ARTICLE]

THE PARKER PAROLE.

Remington Press : Robert Parker, piesident of the Bank of Remington, who was sentenced April 23, 1908, tp serve from two to fourteen years for embezzlement, was paroled by the State Pardon Board last Saturday. -

He left immediately to join his wife at Huntington, where they spent Saturday and Sunday, leaving Monday for. Logansport. Tuesday morning Fred Berger (his nephew) and family went to Logansport and spent the day with them, taking dinner at the Barnett Hotel. M,r. and Mrs. Parker left for St. Louis Tuesday evening where their daughter Mirs. Jones Templeton, resides. Fred Berger and family returned on the evening train, and reported Mr. Parker in good health, and say he will probably never return to his old home here. The circumstances surrounding the parole are very peculiar as no on here heard of the action of the pardon board until Tuesday and no account of it appeared in any of the daily papers. The report at first was not generally believed until Tuesday when a number of persons saw his name qn the register at the Barnett Hotel. The paroling of Mr. Parker meets with the approval of a few of our citizens but the majority of'the people of Remington and vicinity think he should have served a longer time. The indictments returned and to which Parker plead guilty, for embezzlement from the following persons and the following amounts: James Hogan...s79; fine..slsß Thos Calligan.. 90; fine.. 180 Jas Calligan.... 75; fine.. 150 M A Gray...... 20; fine.., 40 Andrew Eller.. 25; fine.. 50 Hattie E11er.... 9; fine.. 18 The total of the fine was $596.

Concerning the parole of Mr. Parker, the Indianapolis News of •Monday evening had thisto say: “The law gives the parole board of botfi the state prison and the state reformatory the right to make rules for the release of prisoners under the indeterminate sentence act. Under these rules, a prisoner whose record, preceding the offense far which he was convicted, is clear, and whose record in prison is dear, presents himself . automatically before the board at the expiration of his minimum term for parole. Under the rules adopted, his parole generally follows, the board having consideration for the nature of the crime committed in addition to the prisoner’s record. “Governor Marshall has taken the stand, since assuming office, that the prisoner whose record is clear should not, under the law, be held after the expiration of the minimum sentence. It was on this score that he and former Superintendent Whittaker, of the state reformatory, differed widely. While the Governor knew nothing personally of the case of Parker, he held that Parker should, under the law, have had his release at the time it was given, provided his prison record was cttear. “The Governor also took exceptions to an editorial criticism of him printed in The News, in so far as it referred to the release of Rufus Cantrell, the negro grave robber, who was sentenced in the Marion county court for from two to fourteen years in 1903. Cantrell was paroled about a year ago by the prison board of the state prison, and the first intimation the Governor had of the release was in a letter which Cantrell wrote to him from a city in the north part of the state, After he had been released. The first official information given the Governor concerning his release was given by M. F. Foley, a member of the board, after Cantrell had, been out one month.

‘‘Considerable feeling is understood to have been caused in Remington and vicinity by the release of Parker, according to reports from that place.” - As stated in Saturday’s Democrat, Governor Marshall had nothing’whatever to do with the parole of Mr. Parker, and according to the News the first notice he had of his release was in a letter received from Remington Saturday.