On the evening of Dec. 7, 1931, local law enforcement officers Oscar Pederson and W.T. Lewis waited expectantly in the crisp winter air and diligently watched a barn located in northwestern Provo. The lawmen hoped their efforts would soon break a novel extortion ring supposedly composed of unemployed miners and railroad men. These swindlers had recently threatened to dynamite the home of Amanda Knight, widow of local mining magnate Jesse Knight. As their payoff, the extortionists demanded seven 100 dollar bills to be delivered by tying them to the leg of a homing pigeon.

Lawmen clipped some feathers off the pigeon's wings to slow its flight and turned the bird loose on Dec. 5, sans the currency. They succeeded in following it to Thomas H. Sumner's barn at 270 West 100 North. Sumner's son Robert, who was 13 years old at the time, still remembers Deputy Lyle Davis appearing at the Sumner door holding the gray homing pigeon. Davis asked if the family owned the bird, and when the answer was affirmative, the Sumners came under suspicion. Their claim of innocence must have been convincing, for the officers staked out the barn and watched it patiently.

After two-and-a-half days of constant scrutiny, their tireless efforts produced the long-awaited reward. A stealthy figure slipped into the barn. When the form emerged from the structure, the officers nabbed their suspect. They may have been almost as surprised as their startled prey.

The malfeasant they captured was neither a destitute, desperate miner or railroad man, nor a hardened criminal. He was, instead, the shy, mild-mannered, sensitive, bird-loving, 19-year-old son of a Provo farmer who lived in the northeastern section of town.

The officers arrested the young suspect and escorted him to police headquarters where the authorities searched him. In his vest pocket, they found incriminating evidence -- the note the Knights had attached to the pigeon's leg before they turned it loose on Dec. 5 and the tape with which they had secured it.

When Provo Police Chief Otto Birk began questioning the suspect, the young man claimed a number of unemployed men were to blame. As the questioning continued, this story broke down, and it finally became inconceivable.

At some point in the interrogation, the officers became angry, and Chief Birk said they would not leave his office until the whole mystery was cleared up. The interrogators told the suspect the crime was not such a serious one, and if the young man would tell the truth, they would all go home and get some sleep.

After five hours of constant questions and grilling, the harried youth caved in and confessed. He now claimed he was the only one responsible for the crime, although he said he had no intention of carrying out the dynamite threat. He was of the opinion that the officers could not arrest him unless he actually received the money. The suspect asserted he planned to use the money he collected from the Knights to buy a car and go to school.

The young man told investigators he got the idea to use pigeons about a year earlier from a magazine story two youths from Eureka showed him while they talked near the Provo River. The article told how birds had been used successfully to transport extorted money in another part of the country.

The Evening Herald reported the would-be extortionist told his inquisitors he "tried out" pigeons belonging to other people in different parts of town before he used them. He believed, and rightly so, that using purloined pigeons would make it more difficult for authorities to find his house. Unfortunately for the lad, the officers didn't need to know where his residence was in order to find him and his "borrowed" birds.

Instead of sending the suspect home for a good night's sleep, like Chief Birk had hinted he would to, the young man who loved the feathered tribe became a jail bird himself. Luckily, because of his youth, the officers segregated him from the older, more hardened criminals.

J. William Knight responded to the news that police had arrested and jailed a suspect in the extortion case by informing the Herald, "It's the best Christmas present I can imagine." J. William and widow Knight received their first good night's sleep in many months. The ordeal had been especially difficult for the elderly Mrs. Knight. When she died, months later in 1932, her family asserted that the experience had shortened her life.

Authorities bound the accused over to district court on Wednesday, and he appeared before Judge Maurice Harding at 10 a.m. Attorney Luther Eggertsen represented the suspect, who appeared "downcast and penitent," according to the Herald. When the suspect saw his mother, both of them burst into tears and continued to weep during the arraignment. After charges were read, Eggertsen waived the preliminary hearing, and Judge Harding set bail at $2,500.

The young man later told Herald reporters he wished he had abandoned the idea after his first unsuccessful extortion attempt in the spring. These newsmen described the prisoner as being a bashful, unsophisticated boy "without any appearance of bravado."

In the meantime, Attorney I.E. Brockbank drew up a complaint based on only one of the three attempts to extort money via the pigeon plan. The county attorney said it was technically possible to bring complaints on each of the three offenses. The maximum penalty for extortion -- three years in the penitentiary. J. William Knight signed the complaint.

Family and friends immediately began their effort to raise bond and have the young man released from custody. They succeeded, and the suspect left jail on Wednesday and returned home.

Provo Attorney George S. Ballif joined Luther Eggertsen on the defense team, and when the defendant was arraigned on Jan. 8, 1932, they entered a plea of not guilty. District Attorney M.B. Pope represented the prosecution. The Herald predicted the trial by jury would last two or three days, and they were correct.

The opposing attorneys chose an all-male jury on Jan. 11. Four males and four females were excused. Not one of the eight men sitting on the jury was from Provo. Arthur V. Watkins served as judge.

The trial opened that same day, and curious spectators crowded into the courtroom, as they did on succeeding days of the trial. The defendant was not in attendance because of illness.

When Judge Watkins found out the young man was not confined to his bed, he ordered the accused to appear immediately -- which he did.

W. Lester Mangum, a son-in-law of Mrs. Knight, was called as the first witness for the prosecution that afternoon. He testified he saw two pigeons in a box and read the first threatening letter to Mrs. Knight. Attorney Pope used the letter as an exhibit, but he did not submit it as evidence until later in the trial.

After Mangum stepped down, Police Chief Otto Birk took the witness stand. He attested to finding, in the vest pocket of the accused, the last note the Knights wrote to the suspect. He said he also found the tape used to fasten the note to the bird's leg.

District Attorney Pope called other witnesses for the prosecution on Tuesday and Wednesday. Several deputies and police officers testified concerning the suspect's capture and the methods they used to obtain his confession. J. William Knight also took the witness stand.

Defense attorneys Ballif and Eggertsen asserted the lawmen used forceful, third degree tactics to extract a confession from the boy. The Herald reported the dramatic duo made an emotional plea to the jury to "save the youth from becoming a criminal by sending him to the state prison."

The defendant took the witness stand for a short time on Wednesday afternoon. He appeared shy and timid in front of the large crowd and sat with his head lowered much of the time. He testified that he had been coerced into confessing.

Under cross examination, he admitted there were others involved in the crime, but he decided to take the full blame. The boy who loved birds would not become a stool pigeon. The Herald quoted him as saying, "I decided to take the blame, because of thinking what the other fellows that sent me in the barn might do in case it should happen to them."

The defense emphasized that up to the time of the crime, the accused had lived an exemplary life, and they called in a string of character witnesses in an effort to confirm their assertion. The attestants included the suspect's mother; four of his teachers, Guy C. Wilson, Edgar M. Jensen, Miss Billie Hollingshead and Mrs. Stella P. Rich; two of his classmates, Joe Swenson and Lyman Partridge; and several neighbors, Charles Penrod, Elmer De St. Jeor and Lavera De St. Jeor. All of the witnesses swore the young man was quiet, mild mannered and unassuming.

The case went to the jury at 4 o'clock Thursday afternoon. When the jury took their first vote, the tally stood at 5 to 3, favoring acquittal. They deliberated until 2 a.m. Friday morning. At that point, Judge Watkins ordered them to a local hotel with orders to reassemble at 8 a.m.

By the end of their session, the vote had narrowed to 7 to 1. A single juror stood steadfastly for conviction.

Deliberation began again at 8:30 a.m. A half hour later, foreman James A. Daniels Jr. notified W.H. Callahan, the court bailiff, that the jury had reached a decision. Judge Watkins called them into the courtroom shortly after 10 o'clock.

When Court Clerk Sterling Bean read the acquittal verdict, the friends and family of the accused applauded loudly. This outburst raised Judge Watkins' ire. He asked spectators who had applauded to stand up, and he severely reprimanded them. The impassioned magistrate warned the crowd that future offenses would warrant punishment. Then he dismissed the jury.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the suspect, who had remained calm during the trial, seemed unaffected as the verdict was being read. Then he congratulated his attorneys and the jury before hurriedly leaving the courtroom.

After the trial, reporters from the Herald interviewed several jury members who said the prosecution failed to conclusively prove the suspect wrote the letters and placed the pigeons on Mrs. Knight's porch.

In addition, jury members claimed District Attorney Pope failed to ask the accused to deny complicity in the case while he was sworn and on the witness stand.

The jurors claimed they paid little attention to the fact that the young man had in his possession, at the time of his arrest, the note the Knights taped to the pigeon's leg on Dec. 5 and the tape they used to secure it.

Madame Rumor informed local journalists that although the jurors felt the suspect was, indeed, involved in the extortion attempt, the prosecution failed to prove he was wholly to blame, and his accomplices were not apprehended.

These reasons, coupled with the youth's crime-free background and naive nature, convinced the jury to acquit him.

Justice and the jury may have been blind that day, but they were not nearsighted. The acquitted youth learned a valuable lesson from his experience, and he never again ran "afowl" of the law.

D. Robert Carter is a historian from Springville. He can be reached at 489-8256. "Tales From Utah Valley" is now available at Borders, Pioneer Books and BYU Bookstore, all in Provo and The Read Leaf in Springville.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B2.