People v. Marx

• Decision Date: 04 February 1920
• Docket Number: No. 12913.,12913.
• Citation: 125 N.E. 719,291 Ill. 40
• Parties: PEOPLE v. MARX et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

291 Ill. 40

125 N.E. 719

PEOPLE

v.MARX et al.

No. 12913.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 17, 1919.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 4, 1920.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; M. Henry Guerin, Judge.

Alex Marx and others were convicted of rape, and bring error.

Affirmed.

Daniel L. Madden and Roy C. Merrick, both of Chicago, for plaintiffs in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., and Maclay Hoyne, State's Atty., and Edward C. Fitch, both of Chicago (Edward E. Wilson and Daniel G. Ramsey, both of Chicago. of counsel), for the People.

CARTER, J.

Plaintiffs in error were found guilty in the criminal court of Cook county of the crime of rape, and each sentencedto a term of five years in the penitentiary. This writ of error has been sued out to review the record of the criminal court.

Rosette Arnold, also known as Virginia La Verne, was a young woman about 23 years of age, who resided at the Calvert Hotel, at Wabash avenue and Eighteenth street, in Chicago. She made her living partially by singing. On the evening of May 3, 1919, she was substituting for another singer in a cabaret conducted by one Tancl, at Ashland and Blue Island avenues, in Chicago. On that same evening the five plaintiffs in error and another young man called ‘Skippo,’ whose real name appears to have been Joe Petkus, were driving in an automobile around the city, visiting various saloons and cabarets on the west side. The car belonged to the father of Peter Marx. It was driven by Alex Marx, a foster brother of Peter, who had worked for the elder Marx as a chauffeur for several years. Peter was aged 20 and Alex 22, George Haley was 23 years old, and worked for one of the large dry goods stores, as did Petkus. John Haley was 20, and worked for a newspaper, and Robert Duffy was 22, and worked for a teaming company. Alex Marx, George Haley, and Duffy had all been in the army during the late war. Apparently the two Marx boys had started out that evening with the car without any preconceived plan of where they were going or whom they were to take with them, and had taken in the others as acquaintances on their way. The complaining witness, Rosette Arnold, testified that she had danced with Petkus at Tancl's cabaret, and had talked with the other young men; that one of them had invited her to ride home in the automobile, and, on account of the long wait necessary if she took the street car, she consented; that after they had gone a short distance in the automobile she was attacked and Petkus and two Haley boys, and Duffy all had sexual intercourse with her forcibly and against her will, on the back seat of the car; that she struggled and cried, but they assisted each other in holding her, and when she tried to cry out they put their hands over her mouth; that they rode around the streets of the city for an hour and a half or two hours, leaving the cabaret shortly after 1 o'clock and arriving at her hotel at 2:30 in the morning; that when she got to her hotel her underclothes had blood on them, her hair was all down, her face was black and blue, and her arms and limbs bruised. She further testified that when she got out of the car in front of the hotel they threw out after her the grip which contained her costume, but that she missed her pocketbook and cried after them, ‘Give me my pocketbook, please,’ but they refused with an oath and drove on, and that she never got it back. She further testified that at the time of the trial she was suffering from gonorrhea or an enlarged gland, which she had been free from at the time of the occurrence, and that she had never had any sexual intercourse with any person except that forced upon her on this occasion. The clerk of the Calvert Hotel testified that Miss Arnold came into the hotel at about 2:30 on the morning of May 3d and was hysterical and crying, and that her face was swollen; that he asked her what was the matter, and it took quite a while to get a statement out of her; that he then called the hotel doctor, and Miss Arnold went to her room and was examined by Dr. Weinlander, the physician in question. This physician testified that he was called about 2:45 that morning, and found complaining witness very nervous; that her cheek and lip were bruised and her face swollen, and that there were some bruises on her leg and thigh as well as a slight laceration of her private parts and some blood stains on her clothes; that about a month later he examined her, and found she had an infection of the glands of her private parts, the nature of which he could not state with certainty. The policeman who arrested the five plaintiffs in error and who was in charge of investigating the occurrence, testified that when these young men were in the station, after their arrest, they were identified by the complaining witness, and charged by her with committing the offense, and that neither of them said anything in reply.

The five plaintiffs in error took the stand in their own behalf. Peter Marx testified that when they started from Tancl's he sat in one of the small chair seats in the middle of the car and Duffy in the other; that Skippo and George Haley sat in the back seat with Miss Arnold, and witness' brother, Alex, and John Haley, were in the front seat; that he was dozing and sleepy, and did not hear any one scream or any fighting in the car, and did not see any act of sexual intercourse, or take part in anything of the sort; that shortly after they started the ride in the automobile, as John Haley wore no overcoat, witness changed seats with him, and sat in the front seat with his foster brother, the chauffeur. The complaining witness testified that Peter, before he moved to the front seat, put his hand on her breast, and that she objected and moved it away. He testified that after he moved into the front seat he did not notice particularly what was going on in the back seat, but suspicioned that the young men were having sexual intercourse with the complaining witness and without any objection on her part. Alex Marx testified that he drove the car; that he did not know that Miss Arnold was in it until he arrived at Eighteenth and Throop streets; that he did not hear any outcry or fighting or wrestling in the back of the car, and did not take part in any way in having sexual intercourse with any one, or know that there was anything of that nature going on. George Haley testified that when they were sitting at the table at Tancl's cabaret Miss Arnold came over and asked them if they did not know that that was her table, and they then invited her to sit down, and afterward Petkus danced with her, and later suggested that they take the girl home; that Petkus and he and his brother, John, and Duffy, each had intercourse with her in the order named, on the back seat of the car, while they were driving along; that she did not resist him, and nobody held her or offered any violence to her to get her to consent to such intercourse; that when she got out of the car she said, ‘Don't say anything at Tancl's about the trip.’ John Haley testified that the four young men just mentioned had sexual intercourse with Miss Arnold, Petkus being the first, and that before that time Petkus had been hugging and kissing her; that it was perfectly agreeable to Miss Arnold, and no one forced her in any way; that after his brother got through with the sexual intercourse witness was to have the next turn and Miss Arnold asked him to wait a few minutes so she could rest, and that while she was waiting she kept her dress partly up. This witness also testified that she asked him not to let her employer know about the matter. Duffy also testified that Miss Arnold asked him to wait a short time, and that he then had intercourse with her consent, she waiting for him with her dress up while she rested, and that afterward she asked them not to tell at Tancl's about her being out with them. Miss Arnold herself testified that when she got out of the car she told the young men not to tell what had happened, because she was ashamed, and did not want any one to know about it. The man called Skippo or Petkus does not seem to have been arrested, and was not tried with plaintiffs in error.

The testimony is all to the effect that Skippo, the two Haleys, and Duffy all had sexual intercourse with Miss Arnold on the back seat of the automobile as they drove from Tancl's cabaret to the Calvert Hotel, through the streets of Chicago. The evidence also shows that they drove several miles out of their way in going between the cabaret and the hotel in the early morning hours of May 3d. The testimony of the complaining witness, as well as that of the plaintiffs in error, agrees substantially that the car was running at a moderate rate, about 15 miles an hour. The complaining witness testified that they went through some streets that were rather dark; that the top of the car was up; and that everything inside of the car would be somewhat dark, even if the streets were lighted.

[1] Counsel for plaintiffs in error argue with great earnestness that the evidence was not sufficient to justify the verdict; that the testimony of the complainant is not corroborated by the facts or circumstances otherwise proven on the trial; that the automobile did not drive through dark country roads or deserted localities but through a populously settled portion of Chicago, where a woman's screams, if made, would quickly bring assistance, and that the young woman showed by her own testimony as to asking for her pocket book after she left the car that she was not as greatly excited or moved, as she naturally would have been if her testimonywere true and if the acts were committed upon her forcibly. We cannot concur in the conclusions as to the evidence reached by counsel for plaintiffs in error. This question was peculiarly one for the jury. They saw and heard the story of the complaining witness and the other witnesses, including the plaintiffs...