Next, Green went to see Mrs. Sczech and her
son, Eddie Schwabauer. It was Schwabauer who agreed to hide Factor in his
mother's house on the night Factor kidnapped himself. Green pegged the pair the
same way that Tubbo Gilbert did, as pushovers, so he took a gamble. He told
them that he had absolute proof that Touhy was innocent and that it was only a
matter of time before Buck Henrichsen swore out an affidavit stating that the
mother and son had lied on the witness stand at the Factor kidnapping trials.
It worked because they knew that Buck Henrichsen was a man who could not be
trusted.
On advice from Touhy's lawyers, Green took
Mrs. Sczech and Eddie Schwabauer to South Bend, Indiana to the office of a
former U.S. Congressman where they confirmed a statement that laid out the kidnapping
plan. They admitted lying on the witness stand, and their statement said that
less than an hour after Factor's car was run off the road that Jake Factor
appeared at Mrs. Sczech's home, not blindfolded or bound in any manner, and
made several phone calls before retiring for the night.
When Mrs. Sczech and Schwabauer learned that
Touhy's lawyers would have to file their statements as affidavits to the U.S.
Supreme Court, they insisted on being moved to Canada for their own protection
though Roger said, "few, if any, terrorists have the courage to harm or
murder witnesses in United States Supreme Court cases."
Unfortunately, the Canadians turned the
party around at the border, denying them entry. Instead Green hid them in a
rented house in Kankakee until the papers were before the court.
Then Green went to Manard Prison and
interviewed Touhy gang members Gus Schafer and Albert Kator, both of whom had
been convicted with Touhy. "I was," Roger said, "a little hurt
by what Morrie learned from them. They had in fact been in on the Factor hoax.
Buck Henrichsen had brought them into the deal. They had shared in the $70,000
pay-off."
Years later in court, Schafer told Roger,
"We were afraid to let you know. Anyway what in the by jesus good would it
have done?"
Schafer and Kator told him that Buck
Henrichsen had cut them in on the Factor kidnapping and had taken turns keeping
Factor company at a house at Bangs Lake in Wauconda, Illinois.
Green found the house, and both
its owner and the yardman gave sworn testimony that they had seen Factor around
the property during the time that he was missing. They even went so far as to
say that they had seen him taking walks around the lake alone on several
occasions.
Next, Green found Harry Geils and Frankie Brown,
the comedy team hired by Henrichsen to entertain Factor while he was in hiding.
Each gave their statements that Factor wasn't tied up when they saw him. In
fact, they had shared drinks together.
Green interviewed Chicago policemen Walter
Miller and Lieutenant Thomas J. Maloney who had worked for Tubbo Gilbert and
had been assigned to guard Factor after his reappearance in La Grange. Factor
had told both of them that he never saw his kidnappers and had no idea what
they looked like.
Green then traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee,
and picked up sworn statements from a woman who testified that on the night
Factor was kidnapped she had been out to the wrestling matches with Ike Costner
and Basil Banghart at the Lyric Theater in Knoxville.
Green returned to Statesville and reported
everything to Roger who doubled over with joy. Based on the evidence that Green
had uncovered, Roger's lawyers prepared a brilliant appeal for the Illinois
State Supreme Court. But their appeal was denied without a hearing, as was
another appeal placed before the United States Supreme Court. Then, Robert
Lally, a newspaper reporter with the once powerful Chicago Daily News who had
taken up Roger's cause, died of cancer. Lally had worked closely with Morrie
Green and had even developed his own information which he assured Roger would
get him out of jail.
"His death," Roger said,
"saddened and shocked me, partly for selfish reasons, I'll admit...Lally
kept telling me that he had proof to get me out, that I would never spend another
Christmas in Stateville. I believed him and I still think he had something big,
although I never learned what it was...I was now as dead, legally speaking, as
the old broken-down cons who get a $27 funeral at the state's expense, in a
prison made burial suit, out of Stateville. The difference was that I hadn't
been embalmed."
It was at that point Roger decided to escape
from Stateville.