Lawrence Styles, leaves fingerprints at burglary scene, contributes to science, Detroit Free Press, 22 Dec 1922
Prints on Glass Call Man Robber; May Be, He Says. Can’t Just Remember as He Was Drunk at Time; Sentenced to Jackson
Science receive a remarkable show forward Thursday when Lawrence Styles, convicted by finger-print evidence of breaking into the Ternes Coal & Lumber company, October 29, was brought up for sentence before Judge John Faust.
“For the benefit of science, will you now state whether the finger prints found on the broken glass of the company’s doors and the copies of yours shown in court were one and the same?” asked the court.
Styles pondered and then made this gift to science:
“I don’t know whether I was there or not. I was very drunk that night. I might have been there, but I’m not sure.”
He was given two and a half to 15 years in Jackson. His bride, formerly Mary Stafford, who married Styles the day after his alleged visit to the coal company’s office, fainted on her mother’s shoulder when sentence was pronounced.
Later when she recovered she went to the cell door, and put her hands through he gratings on Styles’s cheeks.
Judge Faust recommended the minimum term.
“I’ll stick,” she promised.