People v. Bond

• Decision Date: 19 December 1917
• Docket Number: No. 11601.,11601.
• Citation: 118 N.E. 14,281 Ill. 490
• Parties: PEOPLE v. BOND.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

281 Ill. 490

118 N.E. 14

PEOPLE

v.BOND.

No. 11601.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 19, 1917.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Charles A. McDonald, Judge.

Isaac Bond was convicted of murder, and he brings error. Judgment affirmed.

Clarence Darrow, Victor M. Yarros, and J. Gray Lucas, all of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., Maclay Hoyne, State's Atty., and Edward C. Fitch, both of Chicago, for the People.

FARMER, J.

The plaintiff in error, Isaac Bond, colored, was indicted, tried, and convicted in the criminal court of Cook county on a charge of murdering Ida J. Leegson, a white woman, and his punishment was fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for life. A writ of error has been sued out to review said judgment.

Plaintiff in error insists the judgment should be reversed because the proof does not show him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and for the further reason that the court erred in admitting improper testimony.

Ida J. Leegson was an artist, art student, or teacher, and was also a practical nurse. She lived at 122 East Twenty-Fifth street, in Chicago. On October 5, 1913, her dead body was found on the prairie in the neighborhood of Forty-Eighth avenue and Seventy-First street. She had been ravished, and murdered by being choked. Her clothing was torn from her body and was scattered around for some distance. There were evidences of a fierce struggle and the body bore numerous bruises. Near the body there was a track made by a No. 11 shoe. Miss Leegson had caused an advertisement to be published in the Daily News on October 4, 1913, that she was a practical nurse, maternity cases preferred, and giving her telephone number. Some time after 2:30 o'clock p. m., October 4th, while Miss Leegson was absent from home, there was a telephone call for her, and the woman at whose house she was living answered it. A voice she recognized as that of a man inquired if there was a nurse at that place. Witness replied that the nurse was out but would be back shortly and suggested to the man that he leave telephone address. He said his wife needed a nurse and said something about maternity; that he had come far; and that he would call another nurse, and if he could not get another would call again. Miss Leegson returned about 15 minutes later, and shortly after her return the telephone rang. Miss Leegson answered it. The witness heard her say, ‘Fifteen dollars without washing and twelve dollars with washing.’ She said she would come within an hour, and repeated an address given her on the telephone. She repeated, ‘Go by Western to Seventy-First street.’ She said something to the person with whom she was talking over the telephone about a long walk after she should leave the car, and that she would have to bring a suit case. She left witness' home to keep the engagement, and the next day witness saw her dead body at an undertaker's rooms, where it had been taken after its discovery on the prairie.

The morning of October 5th a colored man pawned for a loan with Eli A. Nierman, a pawnbroker at 3020 South State Street, a lady's watch upon which was a monogram. The pawnbroker inquired of the man as to the ownership of the watch. The colored man said it belonged to his sister, whose name was Ida Leegson, but that he did not know what the middle initial stood for. He said his own name was A. J. Leegson. The pawnbroker put the watch and the pin attached to it in an envelope and placed them in a safe. The next day he saw a report of the murder of Miss Leegson in the newspapers and notified the police he had taken in a watch with the name Leegson on it and surrendered it to the police department. At the trial the woman at whose house Miss Leegson lived was shown the watch and the pin produced by the police department and identified them as the property of Miss Leegson. The pawnbroker identified them as the articles pawned to him by the colored man the morning of October 5th, which was the day the body was found.

Defendant denied his guilt and sought to prove that he was in Gary, Ind., October 4th and 5th. He is a tall man about six feet two inches, and has large, square shoulders and apparently rather small legs for the size of his shoulders and body.

On the part of the prosecution, James E. Connolly, a car inspector for the Wabash railroad, testified that about 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening of October 4th he left his home and drove across the field to the Wabash yards. While driving he saw a colored man and a white woman on Seventy-First street coming toward him. The man was large and powerful-about six feet tall. He gave his impression and recollection of the clothing worn by them or a part of it. The man carried a hand satchel which resembled in color and shape the one shown him at the trial as Miss Leegson's. It was about dark when the witness saw the parties. He was driving east and they were walking west. The man kept his head down and witness could not see his face. He particularly noticed the man's shoulders and thought they were as square as he had ever seen, but the lower limbs were small and did not seem in proportion. It struck witness as unusual to see a colored man and a white woman there together.

Thomas Bursach testified he finished painting his residence, 5324 Hoyne avenue, on Saturday, October 4th, and while standing in front of his house, somewhere about 5 o'clock in the evening, a colored man came up to him. A white woman was with the colored man. The man was tall, not black but brown, and had a small black mustache. He stood within four feet of the witness and inquired where Fifty-Fifth and Seeley streets were. The woman was about 12 feet away. Witness directed the colored man to the place he inquired for. He testified positively that he recognized defendant as the man he saw the evening of October 4th with the white woman. He had previously identified a picture of defendant shown him by a policeman as the picture of the colored man he saw with the white woman October 4th, and later saw and identified defendant at the coroner's inquest.

Willis H. Mays, special police officer for the Wabash railroad, testified he was stationed between Seventy-Fifth street and Western avenue, in the Wabash yards, and that his duties were to patrol the yards. He worked between 6 in the evening and 6 in the morning. The night of October 4th while witness was patrolling the yards back and forth, he ran across a colored man. The man had his hands in his pockets and ‘was a great big fellow.’ Witness drew his revolver and inquired of the man where he came from and where he was going. The man said he had come from St. Louis and was going to Gary, Ind. Witness made him put up his hands and searched him. He found three ten-cent pieces and a watch. The man told the witness a very good story, and the witness took him to the office, where he turned the light on and again questioned him. The man said he came on a freight train from St. Louis. Witness asked him what he was doing with a lady's watch in his pocket, and he said it was his dead sister's watch. After keeping him about 30 minutes witness told him to go about his business. There was a little three-pointed pin attached to the watch the colored man had. On being shown the watch and pin of Miss Leegson, the witness testified the pin resembled the one attached to the watch which he found on the colored man, but that he could not say as to the watch. The colored man was over six feet tall and had square shoulders. Witness looked at his face. He testified that to his best belief and knowledge defendant was the man he encountered in the Wabash yards the night of October 4th.

William Maher was a motorman. On Sunday, October 5th, while driving his car, he saw near the corner of Sixty-Third street and Forty-Eighth avenue a tall colored man who was looking at the sign on the car. When the car stopped, the colored man boarded it and came out on the front platform where witness was. Witness remarked to the man about his being tall, and the man replied he was nearly six feet two inches. There was plenty of light at the time. The man asked witness if he was going down town, and witness told him he was not; that he connected with the Archer Limits car and the man could take that car. The man got off there. He was tall, weighed about 200 pounds, had heavy shoulders, a small black mustache, was about 40 years old, and was rather yellow or copper-colored. His legs seemed small in proportion to his body. Witness would not say defendant was the man who rode with him on the car, but testified he looked exactly like him and that he resembled him very much.

The pawnbroker with whom Miss Leegson's watch was pawned testified he could not positively identify anybody from what he observed at the time he received the watch from the colored man. He testified the man was tall, had a slight mustache, and was brown (not real black) and was from 35 to 40 years of age.

Michael Binkowitz was a clerk in the pawnshop. He testified he was in the room when the colored man came in to pawn the watch. He was in a window, trimming it. There was some bargaining over the amount asked by the colored man which attracted the witness' attention, and he turned around and looked at the man. He testified positively defendant was the man who pawned the watch.

The foregoing is the material testimony for the prosecution to prove that the murder was committed by defendant. It must be regarded as conclusively proved that Miss Leegson was...