I first came across Joe Boyle's murder in a 1988 article about Daisy Satterfield's life in Golden.
Golden was also a rough and rowdy town during the '20s and '30s. Daisy's uncle, Joe Boyle, was shot to death on November 26, 1927, in front of the Miner's Cafe, an innocent onlooker to a dispute over who was the state's toughest guy. Eventually, the man charged with the shooting—the cafe owner—was found not guilty and moved to another state.
Golden Transcript - February 9, 1988
In the family's memory, Joe Boyle had been a victim—and an innocent bystander.
97 Years Ago
A search back to the December 1, 1927 Colorado Transcript found this front page article:
Joe Boyle Shot And Killed
Argument Leads to Death of Young Man In Golden Restaurant Early Sunday
CAFE OWNER IS HELD
The article reported that the owner of the Miners Cafe had shot Joy Boyle.
The bullet struck Boyle on the left arm...striking the fifth rib, and ricocheted, penetrating one edge of the lung and then followed a straight line to the neck where is severed the jugular vein.
In this initial version of the story, the restaurant was closed but several men came in and sat there drinking. Kimbrough, the restaurant owner, argued with one of the men as to their fighting ability. "Boyle after preventing several fist fights between the two men suggested that they go home and settle the argument the next day if they were still in the fighting mood." As they were leaving, Kimbrough got a .22 caliber rifle from the kitchen and shot at them. Kimball was hit and died within minutes.
In this version of the story, Boyle is a peacemaker and bystander--guilty of no offense again Kimbrough.
The trial occurred the following March. This time, Kimbrough got to tell his version of the story. He recalled that his restaurant was closed and he was counting the money in his cash drawer when the group of men came in, uninvited, and said they wanted to listen to his radio. Kimbrough told them they were too late and "tried to put them them out." A scuffle followed and the men settled in. They had been drinking before they came, and continued to drink as they sat in the restaurant.
One of the men slid down under a table as Boyle entered the building. He helped pull the man back into a chair, but knocked "ketchup an' everything down," according to Kimbrough.
Another of the group announced that Boyle was the king of the Lion Tamers (a local group of toughs) and he had "licked 'em all." They insisted that Kimbrough join them in a drink. He refused, and said he would get a cop. They said "they had ruined one restaurant here an' they would ruin mine."
They accused Kimbrough, who was from Alabama, of being a Ku Klux Klan member and a coward. He denied it. Then they hit him and kicked him, "Boyle holdin' onto my arms all th' time an' then Boyle took a kick at me." Kimbrough got loose and hit Boyle, and then he was "knocked out for a second time." The fight continued, and Kimbrough crawled under a table to get away from Boyle. "When I did, my hand struck against a rifle." He claimed he fired over the gang's heads, to scare them away. Apparently, the bullet hit and killed Joe Boyle.
In this version, Boyle was a chief aggressor against Kimbrough: he punched and kicked the restaurant owner, then held others while they did the same.
The doctors who arrived at the scene testified that Kimbrough had been beaten by the men.
At the trial, the jury learned that the group had called themselves "the Lion Tamers...an organization of rowdies that had decided to 'clean up' every restaurant in Golden."
Harold Kimbrough Acquitted Of Murder Of Joseph Boyle
Colorado Transcript, March 29, 1928
The jury concluded that Kimbrough had acted in self defense.
Prohibition was very much in effect at the time of this incident. The Pastor of the Methodist church preached a sermon, followed up by a letter to the editor of the Transcript, stating that the entire community was guilty of the murder.
An easy going tolerance toward evil is intolerable.... Perhaps if Golden citizens and officials had not been so tolerant of lax law enforcement and observance as displayed in the Lion Tamers we would not now be having a murder trial in our court. The fact that Kimbrough was found not guilty makes it all the more apparent that the community ought to be pronounced what it is--GUILTY OF MURDER. I understand that this brawl at the Miner's Cafe which resulted in a killing was not the first nor the last drunken brawl participated in by this gang, and both our city and our county officials are at fault in not long ago having put a stop to its activities.
Colorado Transcript, March 29, 1928
In the Methodist's version of the story, the community at large was responsible, for turning a blind eye for so long to the illegal consumption of alcohol.
