Bunfill v. People
| Decision Date | 14 January 1895 |
| Citation | 39 N.E. 565,154 Ill. 640 |
| Parties | BUNFILL v. PEOPLE. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to circuit court, Brown county; Jefferson Orr, Judge.
Indictment of Wesley Bunfill for detaining females for purposes of prostitution. Defendant was convicted, and he brings error. Reversed.
E. A. Perry, for plaintiff in error.
M. T. Moloney, Atty. Gen., Alexander Hedrick, State's Atty., T. J. Scofield, and M. L. Newell, for the People.
The second section of an act entitled ‘An act to prevent the prostitution of females,’ approved June 17, 1887, is as follows: ‘Whoever shall unlawfully detain or confine any female by force, false pretense or intimidation in any room, house, building or premises in this state, against the will of such female, for purposes of prostitution, or with intent to cause such female to become a prostitute, and be guilty of fornication or concubinage therein, or shall by force, false pretense, confinement or intimidation, attempt to prevent any female so as aforesaid detained, from leaving such room, house, building or premises, and whoever aids, assists or abets by force, false pretense, confinement or intimidation, in keeping, confining or unlawfully detaining any female in any room, house, building or premises in this state, against the will of the female, for the purposes of prostitution, fornication or concubinage, shall on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more than ten years.’ Under this section the defendant was indicted, tried, and convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of seven years. The indictment contains three counts, the first of which charges the defendant with detaining and confining one Ida Goodwin, against her will, in a house or room, by force and intimidation, for the purpose of prostitution. The second count charges the defendant with confining and detaining in a house or room, for the purpose of prostitution, one Laura A. Goodwin, against her will, and with the intent of causing her to become a prostitute and be guilty of concubinage. The third count charges the defendant with detaining Ida Goodwin and Laura Goodwin, by force and intimidation, against their will, in a room, for the purpose of prostitution and concubinage. There was no motion to quash the indictment made, nor was there a motion in arrest of judgment. The offense designated by this statute is of a similar nature to that declared by the first section of the CriminalCode, and the offense under such is a felony. Slocum v. People, 90 Ill. 274. The evidence discloses that the defendant became the stepfather of Laura A. Goodwin and Ida Goodwin when the former was about the age of 10 years, and the latter was about the age of 7 years. Shortly after that relation was created, by his marriage with their mother, he had illicit intercourse with Laura A., which continued by frequent carnal acts, until about the time of his arrest, shortly before trial. The same thing occurred with Ida from the time she was 13 until his arrest, at which time she was about 17 years old; and to Laura and Ida, each, a child was born. The testimony of each is that the subjection of each to his embraces resulted from threats and acts of violence towards each, by which he compelled Laura to accompany him to a room where he had intercourse with her, on one occasion, in his own house; and the testimony shows that Ida was once pulled from her bed, and compelled to go to his. The frequent occurrence of the carnal acts (sometimes, all three in the same bed; and others, his children in the same room) is shown by the testimony of both Ida and Laura, and also by his own son, a boy of nine. The testimony of the defendant is that the testimony of Laura and Ida is in the main correct, as to the threats being made, but that they were made, by previous arrangement, to deceive their mother as to their having consented, and further declaring that each act of intercourse was at the solicitation of the female. The evidence discloses the fact that the defendant objected to either of the females being away from the house, and seriously objected to their association with yound men, and was angry if they allowed themselves to be escorted by young men to their home from respectable places where the young congregated. The crime, depravity, and immorality shown by the evidence in this record is of that character that, notwithstandingthe flexibility of our language, it is difficult to find arguments to describe it without making the statement offensive for obscenity. We will not, for the purpose of discussing questions of law, attempt to state the more hideous deformity of bestiality still existing in this record, not herein stated, which is of...
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State v. Gardner
...the woman may be punished.” 2 Bouvier's Dictionary (Rawle) p. 785. And see State v. Gibson, 111 Mo. 92, 19 S. W. 981;Bunfill v. People, 154 Ill. 640, 39 N. E. at 566; and Century Dictionary. While cases hold there may be prostitution though there be no desire for gain (State v. Clark, 78 Io......
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State v. Gardner
...are, by a general rule of construction, to be construed according to their most usual and best understood signification. Bunfill v. People, (Ill.) 39 N.E. 565 at 566; Fahnestock v. State, (Ind.) 1 N.E. at 376. And also, Commonwealth v. Cook, 12 Metc. (Mass.) 93, at 97. 2. Since the statute ......
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People v. Ryberg
...or building or premises where prostitution, assignation, or concubinage is allowed or practiced. In the case of Bunfill v. People, 154 Ill. 640, 39 N. E. 565, prostitution was defined as the act or practice of prostituting or offering the body to indiscriminate intercourse with men or the c......
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People v. Rice
... ... It is in this restricted sense that the word inmate is used.The following definition of prostitution as given by a recognized lexicographer was quoted and approved in Bunfill v. People, 154 Ill. 640, 39 N. E. 565:The act or practice of prostituting or offering the body to an indiscriminate intercourse with men; common lewdness of a female.A house of ill fame or assignation for the practice of prostitution is therefore a house where women prostitute themselves by ... ...