Bill May Presents “The Biddle Boys—The Escape, Capture and Death of Butler County’s Most Notorious Outlaws”

Butler County’s most famous crime story comes to life on this Thursday, August 17^th  @ 6:30 p.m. when master story teller Bill May presents his free 60 minute slide show and talk–“The Biddle Boys—The Escape, Capture and Death of Butler County’s Most Notorious Outlaws” in the Carousel Shelter of Butler’s Alameda Park.

The story of the Ed and Jack Biddle captured the attention of the entire nation in 1902 and garnered front-page news from New York to San Francisco.

The Biddles had killed a grocer and a police detective in Pittsburgh in 1901 and were sentenced to hang in the Allegheny County Jail. Ed Biddle, the most handsome man most women had ever seen, seduced the wife of Warden Peter Soffel who supplied with saws and guns and chloroformed her husband.t  The trio succeeded in their daring winter escape. Stealing a sleigh, the Biddle brothers and Mrs. Soffel headed north through the streets of Butler and ending in a gun blazing shootout with police halfway between Mt. Chestnut and Prospect.

The hour is filled with rare photos and never before heard stories of the enthralling story of the Biddle Boys.