Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1901 — YOUNGER BROTHERS FREED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

YOUNGER BROTHERS FREED.

Minnesota State Board of Pardons Yields to Appeals of Friends. The Minnesota State pardon board on Wednesday approved the parole of Coleman and James Younger, who have been in the Stillwater penitentiary for the past twenty-five years for complicity in the robbery and murder at the time of the raid on the Northfield, Minn., bank. The friends of the Youngers have never ceased their work on behalf of these well-known characters and for over twenty years have used all possible means to secure their legal release from prison. Ench succeeding Governor was requested repeatedly to grant a full pardon, but the opposition to such an action was so strong and active that denials always

met them. It was largely to get rid of the repetition of this request that the pardon board was created ten years ago. Four years ago the friends of the imprisoned men undertook a new movement. trying to secure legislation that would permit the parole of the men instead of the pardon, which had previously been the only relief possible for them, the parole law not extending its provisions to the prisoners. The measure'faiied at that time, tbe Honse refusng to pas# it. Its friends revived it last winter and secured its passage.

THE YOUNGER BROTHERS.