“Sentenced To ‘Pen’ For Railway Theft,” Toronto Star. May 19, 1938. Page 03. --- Judge Declines Suggestion of Reformatory Term --- The suggestion of defence counsel that his client be given a reformatory or Burwash term, was disregarded by Judge O’Connell in general sessions today when he sentenced Louis Male to two years in penitentiary for theft.
Male was found guilty by jury yesterday of stealing cigars, cigarettes and tobacco from a C.P.R. freight car last March.
Noting from the accused’s record that he previously served a three-year term at Kingston, his honor declared: ‘Men are sent to reformatory to see if something can’t be done for them. A man who has been in penitentiary before can’t go to the reformatory to corrupt the morals of other people.’
[AL: Male was 27, of German descent (both his parents were naturalized immigrants), from Toronto, a steam-fitter and a Catholic. He had been in the penitentiary once before, as well as in the reformatory. He was convict #5042 at Kingston Penitentiary, was written up a few times during his sentence, worked in the mail bags, and was released December 1939. He would be back at least twice more.]