Commonwealth v. Batley

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Jones,

On the evening of March 28, 1968, Gary Batley, Kenneth Perrine [Batley’s half-brother], Arthur McConnell and Donald Hosack abducted four persons, namely, Kenneth Frick, Richard Dragan, Kathleen Kreminski and Jean Leister 1 from an automobile owned by Frick’s father, which was parked near a deserted restaurant located on a rural road in Butler County.

At gunpoint Dragan and Frick were ordered from Frick’s car, their wallets taken from them, and they were then forced into the trunk of a Ford motor vehicle which had been rented by McConnell from an agency in Mercer,…