Corpun file 25892 at www.corpun.com

The Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 23 December 1930, p.15

Summary punishment by whipping given to six Michigan youths

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Lapeer, Mich. -- (AP) -- Summary punishment with whips was administered today to six youths with the approval of the circuit judge before whom they were charged with a series of thefts.

The whippings were administered by or under the personal supervision of the parents of the youths, who ranged in age from 17 to 19. Five of the boys had confessed, and had implicated the sixth. After the corporal punishment, Judge Henry H. Smith, who was to have pronounced sentence, suspended action until June.

The five who confessed are William Erwin, John and Harold Bennett, Bernard Torr and Dorland Stoneburg, all sons of farmers living near here. They admitted robberies of farms and stores.

About an hour before they were to have been sentenced, the parents appeared at the jail and asked permission to take the boys one at a time to a nearby garage for "consultations." Erwin went first, and his father, Alfred, wielded the whip. The Bennett boys were whipped by an older brother, to whom the father delegated the task, and the older Bennett attended to Torr. Tony Shutz, awaiting arraignment after being implicated by the others, also was punished at the request of his parents. The boys' mothers stood by while the whip was applied.

Judge Smith placed his approval on the course of action and let the boys go home after they promised to make restitution.