Commonwealth v. Becker

• Decision Date: 12 April 1937
• Docket Number: 74
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Becker, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

191 A. 351

326 Pa. 105

Commonwealth v. Becker, Appellant

No. 74

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

April 12, 1937

Argued March 22, 1937

Appeal, No. 74, Mar. T., 1937, from judgment of O. and T Jefferson Co., Jan. T., 1937, No. 1, in case of Commonwealth v. John Becker. Judgment affirmed.

Indictment for murder. Before LONG, P.J.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, with penalty of death, and judgment thereon. Defendant appealed.

Errors assigned, among others, were excerpts from charge of the court.

All the assignments of error are overruled, the judgment is affirmed and the record remitted to the court below for the purpose of execution.

John W. Conrad, of Conrad & Conrad, with him Clarence O. Morris, for appellant.

Robert M. Morris, District Attorney, with him Alex S. Scribner, Assistant District Attorney, and William A. Sykes, for appellee.

Before KEPHART, C.J., SCHAFFER, MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN and BARNES, JJ.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE DREW:

The defendant, John Becker, was indicted and tried for the murder of Kathryn Bracken, who was employed by the Pittsburgh & Shawmut Railroad Company as a telegraph operator at the Shawmut signal tower in Brookville, Jefferson County. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and recommended the death penalty. From the judgment and sentence imposed, after refusal of defendant's motion for a new trial, this appeal was taken.

The record discloses a cruel and sordid crime. Some of the facts are of such a revolting nature that they do not bear repetition here; they may be found in the nine hundred and forty-five pages of testimony. Suffice it to say that the body of the deceased was discovered lying in a shallow ditch at the bottom of a twenty-five foot embankment in the rear of the tower where Miss Bracken worked, some time between 9:30 and 10 o'clock on the night of April 10, 1936. It bore evidences of a brutal attack. There were five long scalp wounds, all two-sided or V-shaped, evidently inflicted by a blunt triangular weapon. Across the throat were three deep gashes, one of which had severed the jugular vein. The left wrist had been cut to the bone. Death was due to hemorrhage from the throat and wrist wounds. It was clear that the motive for the attack was criminal assault.

The signal tower contained two rooms, and entrance was provided by a flight of five or six wooden steps. In the outer room, known as the "trainmen's room," was a counter, a trainmen's register and a telephone. Between this and the operator's room, where deceased performed her duties, was a door the upper and lower halves of which swung separately. The top of the lower half of this door was a shelf on which an inkwell, the trainmen's register and other papers were customarily kept.

There can be no doubt that the crime was committed in the operator's room. This was conclusively shown by the blood-stained walls and floor, and complete disorder of the room. Papers were scattered about in confusion. The deceased's telephone breastpiece and head set were found on the floor. A pair of blood-stained bloomers lay near by. The telephone headpiece, the electric light bulbs in both rooms, the inkwell, several sheets of paper and the door between the rooms, all bore traces of blood and bloody fingerprints. A heelprint, dried in blood, was observed by officers upon the zinc floor covering near the switchboard. Close to the door lay a large inkwell, streaked with blood. Through this doorway was a path of blood almost a foot wide, extending in a narrowing strip through the trainmen's room and down the steps outside the tower. A trail, caused by the dragging of an object in the loose material forming the embankment, led from the steps to the place where the body was discovered. Deceased was to be on duty that evening until 10 p.m. At about 9:35, Reed Lettie, who was to relieve her, arrived and found the rooms as above described. He summoned help and some twenty minutes later the body was discovered.

Among those questioned by the police the night of the killing was the defendant, who had been working as a substitute night watchman at a glass plant a short distance from the tower. At that time he was asked merely if he had seen "any hobos or colored fellows around," and where they usually "hung out." He denied having seen anyone. On April 24, he was requested to appear at the district attorney's office. He did so voluntarily, and there declared he had made the regular rounds of the plant that night, and had registered them on the time clock at 7, 9 and 11 o'clock. The next morning, April 25, he made a substantially similar statement. That afternoon he was again interrogated and at that time a knife was found in the hip pocket of his trousers. Dirt and a reddish-brown substance covered the larger blade. He was then arrested, taken the next day to the State Police station in Clearfield, where he was examined at length. The questions and answers were taken down and transcribed by a court stenographer, and were later placed in evidence without objection. He then admitted that he "had lied" when he said he had not been away from the glass plant the night of the crime, and when he stated that he had made the nine o'clock round. He said he had concealed the fact that he had not made the round by changing the dials on the time clock, that he "had to have something to show that he had made the round." He claimed he did not make the round because he was asleep at the time. He admitted he had burned the old dials. He then explained the stains on his knife by saying he had used it to cut up beef kidneys for his dogs.

Joseph Becker, a cousin of the defendant, was interrogated by the police. The story he told was that at approximately nine o'clock on the evening of April 10, he had gone to a point near the tower to steal coal from a loaded coal car; that he had heard peculiar noises emanating from the direction of the tower; that on walking toward it he saw defendant standing on the tracks some thirty or forty feet away from him and near the place where the victim's body was found. He said he did not see the body, that the night was dark, and that defendant did not see him. He declared that on the following day he met defendant, and told him he had seen him the night before, and that the defendant replied, "Shut your mouth -- It's all over town now."

On the morning of April 28th, the defendant was again questioned. He denied all knowledge of the commission of the crime. His cousin was then brought in to confront him, and when asked, "Who killed Katie Bracken?" he replied, "John Becker." The defendant answered, "I didn't." Then another question was put, "Joe, who was it that you saw at the tower on the night Katie Bracken was murdered?" He replied again, "John Becker." The defendant remained silent. An officer then suggested that he might prefer to talk to him alone. In this defendant acquiesced. After the two had spent some time together, a statement containing information received from questioning the prisoner, was typed by the officer and read to and signed by defendant in the presence of four subscribing witnesses.

In this statement defendant declared that he had arrived at the glass plant about 5:30 the night of the crime; that at 7 he made his first round; that he slept from 8 to 8:30; that he then went to the tower, made improper advances to Miss Bracken, was repulsed, raised the inkwell from the shelf of the half-door with his left hand and struck her on the side of the head; that she fell to the floor and he pulled out his pocket knife and slashed the blade across her throat about three times; that he cut her hands so that she could not fight him; that blood splashed all over the office; that he "got her by her feet and dragged her body out of the office, through the registry office, down the steps, and I then rolled her body down the embankment just near the tower steps"; that he then tried to have intercourse with the corpse, but was unsuccessful; that he walked away and washed the blood from the knife in the water of a ditch along the railroad track. He said he then returned to the glass plant, and "faked the dial in the clock to show that I made the nine o'clock round." Defendant also demonstrated the manner in which the crime was committed, using an officer as the victim and a comb as the knife.

On the afternoon of the same day, defendant was again questioned. His answers, as taken down by the stenographer, were substantially similar to those previously made, although there were minor variances as to details. On the evening of April 29th, he was taken to the offices of a physician for a mental and physical examination at which defendant's family physician was also present. He was questioned by the medical men in attendance, and admitted the killing, again demonstrating how he had accomplished it.

The Commonwealth relied for conviction principally upon the admissions of guilt in the statements made by the defendant, Joseph Becker's identification of him at the scene of the crime, and the testimony of a qualified pathologist that the blood of the deceased was type number one, that of the defendant type number two, and that he removed human bloodstains of type number one from defendant's trousers. The defense practically conceded that the deceased was murdered, and that it was murder of the first degree. Their evidence was restricted to proving that defendant was not the guilty party.

Forty assignments of error have been raised on this appeal. Complaint is chiefly directed against the charge as a whole against the admission in evidence of the defendant's statements, and the refusal to grant a new trial because of...