People v. Spencer

• Decision Date: 16 June 1914
• Docket Number: No. 9409.,9409.
• Citation: 264 Ill. 124,106 N.E. 219
• Parties: PEOPLE v. SPENCER.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

264 Ill. 124

106 N.E. 219

PEOPLE

v.SPENCER.

No. 9409.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 16, 1914.

Error to Circuit Court, Du Page County; Mazzini Slusser, Judge.

Henry Spencer was convicted of murder, and he brings error. Affirmed.Anton Zeman, Oliver M. Olson, and Harry W. Standidge, all of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

P. J. Lucey, Atty. Gen., Charles W. Hadley, State's Atty., of Wheaton, and George P. Ramsey, of Springfield (S. L. Rathje, of Wheaton, of counsel), for the People.

CARTER, J.

At the October term, 1913, of the circuit court of Du Page county the grand jury returned an indictment against the plaintiff in error, Henry C. Spencer, for the murder of Mildred Allison, alias Mildred Rexroat. On a trial before a jury in that county a verdict of guilty was returned, and his punishment fixed at death. After motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment had been overruled, he was sentenced to be hanged. The record is before us for review.

At about 8:23 o'clock in the evening of September 26, 1913, a freight train on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad running in a northerly direction was approaching Wayne, in Du Page county, when the engineer saw a dark object in the track ahead. He tried to stop the train, but was unable to do so until after it had passed over the object. The train crew went back to the south to ascertain what they had struck, and a short distance south of the caboose they found the body of a woman cut in two just above the hips. On the upper part of the body was a blue jacket. A lady's large, blue hat and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles were found in the vicinity, and a gold bracelet, marked ‘from W. H. A. to M. A.,’ was on one of the arms. The witnesses testified that the body was neither warm nor cold when found. They at once notified the officials of the railroad company and an undertaker at West Chicago. The undertaker, under direction of the coroner of Du Page county, took charge of the remains and removed them to his morgue at West Chicago. The next morning the coroner of the county found near the scene of the tragedy, close to the railroad track, a lady's white hand bag turned inside out, with spots of blood on it. The Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Electric Railway runs from Chicago westerly through various towns, and a little west of Wheaton, the county seat of Du Page county, one branch turns northwesterly towards Wayne. About 30 rods southeast of the station at Wayne it crosses on a viaduct over the tracks of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad. The dead body was just south of this viaduct. The remains were identified the day after they were found as the body of Mildred Allison Rexroat. She had been first married to W. H. Allison, by whom she had three sons. A few months before her death she had been divorced from Allison and shortly after married one Everett Rexroat. Allison's home was in Chicago. Rexroat was from Macomb, Ill., and the deceased had been with him there for a while, but does not appear to have been living with him for some time previous to her death. Some time prior to September, 1913, and during that month, Mrs. Rexroat had been engaged as an instructor at a dancing academy owned by one Frank L. Oleson, at 459 East Thirty-First street, in Chicago. The evidence is to the effect that the plaintiff in error, Spencer, met Mrs. Rexroat at this dancing academy several days prior to September 26, 1913, he being at this academy taking lessons, and that he danced several evenings with Mrs. Rexroat, as well as with some others there. Thursday evening, September 25th, he was at the academy and danced almost exclusively with Mrs. Rexroat. Oleson and at least two other witnesses testified that on that evening, while Spencer and Mrs. Rexroat were together at the dancing academy, Mrs. Rexroat said, in Spencer's presence, that he had arranged for her to teach the tango to a class of young men which had been formed at Wayne. To one of these witnesses Mrs. Rexroat, in Spencer's presence, said that she was to receive $15 a night and her hotel bill, and this lady said that she would be glad to go as Mrs. Rexroat's assistant, but the latter replied that she did not need any just then; that Spencer was going to take one night in small towns, naming Wayne and several other places. At the close of the evening's dancing Spencer, Mrs. Rexroat, and Carl White left the dance hall together and went to a neighboring café and drank four bottles of beer among them, and there again Mrs. Rexroat stated to White, in Spencer's presence, that the latter had arranged for her to teach a class in dancing out at Wayne. All of these witnesses identified Spencer positively.

Mrs. Rexroat was rooming, at this time, with Mrs. Ada Johnson, on Eggleston avenue, in Chicago. At about 3:30 o'clock p. m. on the day she met her death Mrs. Rexroat packed a rattan suit case and left her boarding place. She wore at that time a dark blue suit, a new, large hat, short, white gloves, a bracelet, diamond ring, Tiffany setting, earrings, another ring with small stones, a small brooch, and spectacles. She carried a white hand bag and the rattan suit case. The diamond ring had been given her by Everett Rexroat, her husband, and he testified it cost him $300. The white hand bag, hat, suit, and bracelet found at the scene of the tragedy were identified by Mrs. Johnson as the articles Mrs. Rexroat wore or carried when she left her house the afternoon of September 26th. About 6 o'clock the same evening a man and woman resembling, according to the witnesses' testimony, Spencer and Mrs. Rexroat, and carrying a rattan suit case, appeared at the Fifth Avenue Station of the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railroad Company, in Chicago. The lady wore a large hat and a dark blue suit. They were told by the man in charge of the 6 o'clock train that it did not stop at Wayne; that the first train stopping there would leave at 6:30 p. m. This last-mentioned train was in charge of Hugh Cargo, and left at the proper time. Cargo testified that Spencer and a lady answering the description of Mrs. Rexroat were on his train on that trip and were seated in the third seat from the rear, in the first car. C. A. Goodwin, a resident of Wheaton, sat in front of them and heard them talking about the tango dance, and how it should be taught, also about a diamond, and about the will of the man's father. Cargo and Goodwin both identified this man as Spencer. About 7:25 p. m. the man came to Cargo, who was in the second car from the front of the train, and asked the latter to be sure not to carry him past Wayne. The conductor told him that it was then 7:25, and that they would be at Wayne at 7:45. The two rear cars of this train were cut off at Wheaton, and the first car went on to Elgin with Conductor Cargo in charge. The car arrived at Wayne on time, and Spencer and the lady left the car there. Two other passengers got off the car—a man whose identity is not shown by the record, and Mrs. Louisa Pratt, who lived at Wayne. She testified that she could not identify Spencer as the man who got off with the other lady, as she did not see the man's face; but the description she gave of the lady fitted Mrs. Rexroat, so far as it went. At the station of the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railroad Company at Wayne its tracks are crossed by a public highway running east and west. The electric road runs in a northwesterly direction; the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad running practically north and south. The highway, after crossing the electric railway, crosses the right of way of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company about 40 rods east of the interurban station. Mrs. Pratt testified that the man and woman she saw on the electric car alighted ahead of her at Wayne at 7:45 p. m., walked south to the end of the station platform, then walked east on the east and west highway, ahead of her, to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern tracks, and then walked south on the railroad tracks towards the viaduct of the electric railway; that the two were laughing and talking. About five or six minutes after the witness had crossed the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern tracks she heard what sounded like the report of a pistol shot coming from the south—the direction of the viaduct.

The car in charge of Conductor Cargo went to Elgin and returned, arriving at Wayne about 8:12 p. m. The conductor testified that one passenger boarded his car there on its return trip to Chicago. At Wheaton, Cargo was relieved by Conductor C. S. Croumer, who took the car on to Chicago. Croumer testified that Spencer was on his car on that run; that he had to wake him up to get his ticket; that the car arrived at Chicago at 9:30 p. m. At about 10:15 the same evening Spencer appeared at 2215 Michigan avenue, the home of W. R. Patterson, with whom he had been acquainted for about eight years, being known to Patterson by the name of Burke. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson were at home at the time. Mrs. Patterson asked Spencer what was the matter, stating, ‘You look as white as a sheet.’ Spencer replied that there was nothing the matter with him, but went over to the looking-glass and looked at himself. He said, ‘I feel like a bum; do I look dirty?’ and looked at his hands. Mr. Patterson said, ‘No,’ but spoke of the dirt on his shoes. Spencer replied that it was not Chicago dirt, but came off the country road, and taking a handkerchief from his pocket dusted his shoes. During the conversation he took a lady's solitaire diamond ring, Tiffany setting, from his pocket, wrapped in a lady's handkerchief, and showed it to the Pattersons, remarking on its beauty. This diamond ring answered the description of the one belonging to Mrs. Rexroat and worn by her when she left Mrs. Johnson's. Her diamond ring was not found on her remains. Spencer handed the ring to Mrs. Patterson, and she asked him if he wanted to sell it. He replied that he would take $100 for it. Mrs. Patterson told him she did not have the money at that time for...