A Lumberman, a Ransom Plot, and a Jailhouse Betrayal
Donald Boyd is convicted of kidnapping Seattle lumberman Patrick McCoy, as a convicted accomplice’s courtroom gambit exposes a plan to seize wealthy Skagit County men.
Mount Vernon—Donald Boyd was convicted here last week of kidnapping Patrick McCoy, a wealthy Seattle lumberman, in the woods near Bow last autumn, with the intention of holding him for ransom. Leo Bezmer, serving 20 years for kidnapping Edward English, admitted he was one of the McCoy kidnappers, but tried to save his “pal” from conviction by swearing a man named Boyle helped him. It developed during the trial that Bezmer, Boyd and Boyle planned a series of kidnappings of wealthy men in Skagit County, and that all three participated in both crimes.
“He tried to save his “pal” from conviction by swearing a man named Boyle helped him.”
Kidnapping for ransom was a rare and sensational crime in 1909, but the case’s details—wealthy targets, a remote handoff, and a co-defendant trying to protect a “pal”—rhyme with modern true-crime coverage. The Skagit County woods where McCoy was held are still rural working land, a reminder that isolation once made such crimes easier to hide.
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