Word: yablonski
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...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 4½ 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...
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...
...Asleep. On Dec. 30, 1969, testified Vealey, the killers sat restlessly in their car near the Yablonski home in Clarksville, Pa., and waited for the lights to go out. The gunmen slugged whisky and beer, then tossed the empties-covered with fingerprints-into the snow. After midnight, said Vealey, he and the two others broke into the house and crept into the bedrooms. "They were all asleep," he testified. "Martin had the .38 revolver, and I had the rifle. I heard Joseph Yablonski making a gurgling sound after Martin shot him. I shot two or three times more to make...
Boyle's attorney, Charles F. Moses, contends that the murder conspiracy stopped at the local union level. Yablonski, Moses told the jury, threatened to expose misuse of union funds in U.M.W. district 19 in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. To quiet him, district leaders ordered the execution. Moses promised to produce an audit that will show approximately $907,000 unaccounted for by local U.M.W. officials between 1967 and 1969. "Sprague's paths," says Moses, "lead not to Tony Boyle but to others convicted in this case...
...plotting of the murder took place. Turnblazer has signed an affidavit Unking Boyle directly to the case. Promised Sprague: "You are going to hear it right here on this stand from Mr. Turnblazer himself, who will tell you that it was Boyle who gave the order to kill Jock Yablonski...