People v. Fisher

Decision Date20 June 1930
Docket NumberNo. 19947.,19947.
PartiesPEOPLE v. FISHER et al.
CourtIllinois Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Robert E. Gentzel, Judge.

Lafon Fisher and others were convicted of murder, and they bring error.

Affirmed.Joseph B. Lofton, William M. James, John L. Fogle, and Richard E. Westbrooks, all of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., John A. Swanson, State's Atty., of Chicago, and Roy D. Johnson (Edward E. Wilson, John Holman, C. Wayland Brooks, and Charles A. Bellows, all of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

STONE, J.

Plaintiffs in error, Lafon Fisher, Leonard Shadlow, and Leon Brown, with one Melvin Jenkins, Herbert Here, and Steve Dixon, were indicted for the murder of Martin French. Dixon was not apprehended, Hare was given a separate trial, and Fisher, Shadlow, Brown, and Jenkins were tried at the April, 1929, term of the criminal court of Cook county, were found guilty, and Fisher, Shadlow, and Brown were sentenced to death and Jenkins to life imprisonment. The three first named bring the cause here, assigning numerous errors on the record.

On January 18, 1929, five men entered the Franklin Trust & Savings Bank at the corner of Thirty-Fifth street and Michigan avenue, in the city of Chicago, at about 1 o'clock, in an attempt to rob the bank. The five men were armed with pistols and a sawed-off shotgun, and, while four of them kept their guns trained on the officers, employees, and patrons of the bank who were in the bank at the time, one of them climbed over the top of the teller's cage, and, drawing a gun, required the teller to hold a cloth sack while he took the money from the desk. However, shooting commenced just before the robber inside the cage reached the money, and, seizing a handful of bills, amounting, as was afterwards found, to $801, he dashed out of the bank building. It appears that Martin French, a former police officer, who was then police officer for the bank, was in the bank when the robbers came in. It appears that he drew his gun, and the firing commenced. A number of the officers and employees of the bank joined in the fusillade, and about twenty shots were fired. This all occurred within three or four minutes, by which time the robbers had left the bank. French was found lying on the floor of the bank lobby suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital, and that afternoon died. Evidence showed that his death was caused by two loads from a shotgun in the hands of one of the robbers. There was also found in his body the wadding from a shotgun load and a .38-caliber bullet in the upper right thigh, which traveled inward and slightly upward, but which was not a dangerous wound. Edgar Olson, one of the officials in the bank, was shot in the wrist, and Leo Poquette was wounded in the left ankle. That evening, about 8:30, the police arrested plaintiffs in error and some fifteen or sixteen other persons at No. 3341 Wabash avenue. They were taken to the Stanton avenue police station and kept there during the night. On the morning of January 19 one John E. Geraghty, a patron of the bank, went to the police station and there identified plaintiff in error Shadlow as one of the men participating in the robbery and as the one who used the shotgun. Other persons visited the police station that morning to determine whether any of the persons held were among the robbers. Shadlow was the only person positively identified at that time.

On the afternoon of the 19th, plaintiffs in error and others were taken to the detective bureau. Shadlow was taken before Deputy Commissioner of Police John Stege, who informed him that he had been identified as one of the men participating in the robbery and requested that he tell him about it. Stege testified that after a moment or two hesitation Shadlow admitted to Stege and Lieutenant of Police Eugene Barry, who with his squad had made the arrest, that he (Shadlow) together with Fisher, Brown, Jenkins,and Dixon, participated in the holdup. Stege thereupon called the state's attorney's office, and Assistant State's Attorney Bellows arrived at the detective bureau about an hour later. Shadlow was again brought to the commissioner's office, and, in the presence of Charles Bellows, the assistant state's attorney, Stege, Officers Armstrong and Sullivan, and three citizens, Harry W. Solomon, Robert McEwen, and John V. French, made a detailed confession, which he signed. Brown and Jenkins were brought before the same group and made statements. These statements were first made individually and not in the presence of the other parties charged. Questions were asked by Bellows and answers made by the prisoner being questioned and reported by Frank A. Sheeder, a court reporter. The questioning of these defendants began about 6:15 in the evening and continued until nearly 1 o'clock in the morning of January 20. Brown and Fisher first made a statement before Lieutenant of Police William J. Cusack, which was taken on the typewriter by Officer Sullivan. When Fisher was questioned, he was first alone before Cusack, Sullivan, and other officers. After the statement had progressed a short while, Brown was brought into the room, and the questions and answers which had been asked of and given by Fisher were read to Brown, who confirmed all of them with one exception, which had to do with the length of time Brown had known Fisher. When correction was made of this, with the assent of Fisher, the questions were then propounded in the presence of both Fisher and Brown and their answers transcribed. Each read and signed the statement. Later in the evening Brown made a more detailed confession before Assistant State's Attorney Bellows, Stege, Barry, and others. Fisher made no further statement. The preliminary statement signed by Brown and Fisher consisted of two full pages of questions and answers. The statement of Shadlow consisted of five and one-half typewritten pages, of Jenkins four pages, and Brown's second statement five pages. Except for minor discrepancies, each confession or statement details the same acts and happenings before, at the time of, and after the robbery; each gives the individual's birthplace, age, occupation, residence, marital status, and length of acquaintance with each other; each stated that he had not been abused, mistreated, or promised immunity, and that he understood any statement he made might be used against him. Their confessions described in some detail preliminary conferences held by them at which plans were made for the robbery and each assigned his particular task. Their stories agreed almost in minutiae and are substantially as follows:

After a conference in the morning of January 18, 1929, at 3341 Wabash avenue, while eating a lunch, Shadlow, Fisher, Brown, Jenkins, and Dixon, a few minutes before 1 o'clock, took their gun or guns and left 3341 Wabash avenue. Jenkins drove the automobile, and Dixon rode with him. Fisher, Brown, and Shadlow walked. All arrived at the bank at about the same time. The car was parked on the east side of Michigan avenue, a few feet north of the bank entrance. Jenkins guarded the outside door with a .45 Colt automatic. Dixon, Shadlow, Brown, and Fisher entered the bank through the main entrance on Michigan avenue. One of them said, ‘Stick 'em up!’ Dixon turned to the right and to the south part of the room. Fisher went directly east and climbed over the teller's cage, carrying a .32 Savage automatic pistol. Brown followed Fisher and stood in front of the teller's cage with a .38-caliber revolver in each hand. Shadlow stood on the inside of the banking room, a little north and east of the door, with a .32-caliber revolver. As Fisher dropped over behind the cage, the shooting began. He went into the cage, seized a handful of bills, vaulted back over the cage, and all the robbers ran out of the bank.

Jenkins in his confession stated that as soon as the first shot was fired he ran down Michigan avenue and through an alley. About 4:30 in the afternoon he went to Dixon's home, and there Dixon showed him a wound he had received in the head. He remained there until about 8 o'clock in the evening and arrived at 3341 Wabash avenue about 8:30, where he was immediately arrested and taken to the police station. Before making his written confession on Saturday afternoon, Jenkins told Officer Barry that after the robbery he hid his .45 automatic in a rubbish can at 3308 Indiana avenue. Officer Barry and a Mr. McKay went to the spot and found the gun, fully loaded, no shots having been fired thereform. Jenkins took the stand in his own defense and admitted having participated in the robbery, and testified to substantially the same facts recited in his confession.

Shadlow's first confession was not entirely consistent with the others. In it he claimed that Dixon had the shotgun and that he drove the car, a Sterns-Knight sedan. Later, when brought back before Bellows, he made an amended statement, stating that Jenkins drove the car. He therein stated that he mingled with the crowd after the holdup and did not leave until the police squad had arrived at the bank and left, and that he later returned to 3341 Wabash avenue, where he was arrested.

Fisher's statement was that after the holdup he jumped in the car with Brown and Dixon; that Dixon drove the car north on Michigan avenue to Thirty-fourth street, west on Thirty-Fourth street, and then north to Twenty-Sixth street, then east to a place one block west of Wentworth avenue, where Dixon left the car. Brown then took the wheel and drove to Thirty-Seventh and Federal streets, where the car was abandoned and that they returned to 3341 Wabash avenue, where they found Shadlow and argued with him about the division of the money until the police arrived and arrested them.

Officer Barry testified that immediately after the robbery he scoured the district with his squad and found an abandoned...

To continue reading

Request your trial
67 cases
  • State v. Shawley
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • 20 December 1933
    ... ... 544; State v. Trull, 169 N.C. 363, 85 S.E. 133; Commonwealth v. Manfredi, 162 Pa. 144, 29 Atl. 404; Wright v. State, 35 Ark. 639; People v. Anthony, 146 Cal. 124; State v. Spaugh, 200 Mo. 571; State v. Howell, 117 Mo. 307; State v. Hannebrink, 44 S.W. (2d) 142. (12) The court did not ... 360, note, p. 373; People v. Bolton, 215 Cal. 12, 8 Pac. (2d) 116, 120; State v. Campbell, 213 Iowa, 677, 239 N.W. 715, 719; People v. Fisher, 340 Ill. 216, 237, 172 N.E. 743; People v. Myering, 345 Ill. 598, 178 N.E. 122, 125.] ...         [9] VI. The tenth assignment is that it ... ...
  • Reed v. State
    • United States
    • Maryland Court of Appeals
    • 6 September 1978
    ... ... People v. Kelly, 17 Cal.3d 24, 130 Cal.Rptr. 144, 549 P.2d 1240 (1976); Jones, Danger Voiceprints Ahead, 11 Am.Crim.L.Rev. 549, 554 (1973). See also Shanks ...         In People v. Fisher, 340 Ill. 216, 172 N.E. 743 (1930), the court, which but seven years before had referred to the science of firearms identification as "preposterous," ... ...
  • State v. Shawley
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • 20 December 1933
    ... ... Trull, 169 N.C. 363, 85 S.E. 133; Commonwealth v ... Manfredi, 162 Pa. 144, 29 A. 404; Wright v ... State, 35 Ark. 639; People v. Anthony, 146 Cal ... 124; State v. Spaugh, 200 Mo. 571; State v ... Howell, 117 Mo. 307; State v. Hannebrink, 44 ... S.W.2d 142. (12) ... 373; People v ... Bolton, 215 Cal. 12, 8 P.2d 116, 120; State v ... Campbell, 213 Iowa 677, 239 N.W. 715, 719; People v ... Fisher, 340 Ill. 216, 237, 172 N.E. 743; People v ... Myering, 345 Ill. 598, 178 N.E. 122, 125.] ...          VI. The ... tenth assignment ... ...
  • People v. Enoch
    • United States
    • Illinois Supreme Court
    • 11 February 1988
    ... ... (Nomaque v. People (1825), 1 Ill. (1 Breese) 145, 149; see People v. Fisher (1930), 340 Ill. 216, 259 [172 N.E. 743].)" (Emphasis in original.) People v. Free (1983), 94 Ill.2d 378, 435, 69 Ill.Dec. 1, 447 N.E.2d 218 (Simon, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) ...         Here, without warning, the court has adopted a retroactive change in the rules ... ...
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • Self-incrimination - what can an accused person be compelled to do?
    • United States
    • Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Vol. 89 No. 4, June 1999
    • 22 June 1999
    ...State v. Thompson, 161 N. C. 238, 76 S. E. 249 (1912); Thomas v. State, 19 Ala. 187, 96 So. 182, 184 (1923). In People v. Fisher, et al., 340 Ill. 216, 172 N. E. 743 (1930), several accused persons re-enacted a bank robbery, while under arrest and without protest, and this was held not to c......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT