Chapter 21
A Great Judge's Opinion
Chapter 21
A Great Judge's Opinion
John P. Barnes, if he hadn't
decided to become a lawyer and a judge, would have been a fine, compelling,
honest author, I believe. He had all the talents—a sense of timing, comedy,
suspense, understanding and zest. His vocabulary was superb and his integrity
was beyond question.
Convicts read hundreds of books
in prison, and some of them become better than green hands as literary critics.
Many of the men in my cellhouse studied Judge Barnes' written decision in my
case. It kept them entranced for hours.
The opinion ran about 60,000
words, the length of the average book. It covered every facet of the Factor
frame-up, including many long and involved legal precedents to back up his
decision. Presented here will be Judge Barnes' words on the facts of my case
and the personalities concerned.
The judge, a moderate man,
refrained from bad names in summing up Jake the Barber. Instead, he used this
scholarly, but piercing, language: "John Factor has an extraordinarily
agile mind—certainly the most agile mind of anyone the court has observed in
connection with this case. He has learned all that a boy and man can learn as a
bootblack, wash-room attendant, newsboy, barber, high-pressure stock salesman,
Florida land salesman, bucket-shop operator and confidence man—except to be
honest. "So far as the so-called business morals are concerned, he is
completely amoral"
Another section on Factor in
the opinion read: "John Factor's appearance and demeanor on the stand and
about the court room, and the testimony of all witnesses who dealt with him,
all indicated that Factor was eminently well qualified by character, ingenuity,
mental resourcefulness and experience to devise and perpetrate a kidnapping
hoax.
"Furthermore, he had money
which he was willing to spend. Finally he had a motive. He was in real trouble.
He faced a long prison sentence when he went back to England."
After blistering Factor, Judge
Barnes took care of another poisonous trial witness against me:
"The court is of the
opinion that Isaac Costner was not in Illinois on June 30th, 1933, and did not
come to this state until August, 1933; that aside from making telephone calls
to Factor . . . Costner had nothing to do with the Touhy case until John Factor
and Captain Gilbert contacted him in the Baltimore jail . . . and bribed him
with the promise of a five-year sentence for robbery in North Carolina, to
testify against Touhy.
"It is true the government
did not keep the promise made to Costner, but that is not the point. The
promise made by Factor and Gilbert was the payment for his perjury."
[Author's Italics]
In commenting on me, the judge
made no effort to mold me into a plaster saint. He pointed out that I was
"in the business of violating the prohibition law" by peddling beer
and running slot machines, but he gave me an even break:
"He had never been
convicted of a felony. He was a family man, having a wife and two sons of whom
he was very proud. He had a brother Tommy who had a criminal record with whom,
in the public mind, Roger was sometimes confused."
The judge then went into the
motive for railroading me:
"He [Touhy] had incurred
the dislike of Captain Gilbert and the enmity of the Capone mob . . .
principally because of his aiding labor union officials in their fight against
the taking over of their unions by the Capone mob."
Judge Barnes reviewed the
situation in the State's Attorney's office under Tom Courtney during my two
trials. He stated that Courtney and Crowley were men of "relatively little
experience," while Tubbo Gilbert had a long background as a labor unionist
and a police officer.
"In 1933 and 1934, of the
three men, Captain Gilbert, because of his age and experience in life, would be
expected to be the dominant personality", the bearded judge observed.
Judge Barnes used gentle language
when he dealt with Mrs. Sczech, but it was impossible for him to be gallant.
Not with the fabric of lies she had woven on her busy loom. The judge remarked:
"As has been noted, Mrs.
Sczech does not always tell the truth. The court is convinced that Factor went
to her home [and not to the Glenview house] on the night of June 30th-July 1st,
1933, and remained there until the night of July 1st.
"Buck Henrichsen arranged
for Factor to stay there, but did not tell Mrs. Sczech who Factor was. . . .
Factor was not under restraint. He was free to use the telephone and come and
go at will."
When Mrs. Sczech learned Jake
the Barber's identity from newspapers, she insisted to her son, Eddie
Schwabauer, that Factor be taken from her Des Plaines home, the judge stated,
and it was done.
Regarding the testimony of Mrs.
Sczech and Schwabauer, Judge Barnes said:"In the court's opinion, they
only told the truth when they felt free of the State's Attorney's power and
Factor's money. The court thinks that Mrs. Sczech and Schwabauer told the truth
only in the affidavits which they made [at South Bend] in 1938."
In evaluating the testimony of
the mother and son in his court, Barnes said:
"...there is an obvious
explanation for their conduct on the stand here—fear of reprisals from Captain
Gilbert and the State's Attorney's office, and the influence of Factor's
money."
Reviewing the sworn statements
made by Stevens and Kator in 1938, Judge Barnes said he believed them. Both
Kator and Stevens had sworn that Jake never was under restraint or, in fact,
kidnapped-- the judge remarked, adding: “Roger Touhy knew nothing about the
meeting on the proposed kidnapping of Factor.”
Of the so-called ransom money,
Judge Barnes expressed this opinion: "That some financial institution or
other responsible agency did not keep a record of the amount of money paid, the
denominations of the bills and the [serial] numbers of the bills strikes the
court as an extraordinary characteristic of this case."
The judge pointed out that
Gilbert, immediately after the reported kidnapping, charged that the
"Touhy gang" was responsible. It was rather extraordinary, the judge
found, that none of my associates and I were arrested, questioned or charged
until 19 days later, when Sharkey hollered "t-i-m-b-e-r" as the pole
went down at Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
"The court is of the
opinion that the incident of June 30 and July 1, 1933 was a hoax planned by,
and executed under the direction of, John Factor in order to avoid extradition
to England", Judge Barnes said.
As for who was responsible for
Jake the Barber's success in beating removal to England, the distinguished
Federal jurist pointed out: "The purpose of the hoax—the keeping of Factor
in this country—was accomplished. The responsibility of State's Attorney
Courtney for its accomplishment was admitted by Mr. Courtney, who testified
that he went to Washington and talked to the President [Roosevelt]. "Factor
is in this country today because of that intercession [by Courtney]."
Judge Barnes found that Factor
had lied in his stories of having seen me partly concealed behind a blanket:
"The court is of the opinion and finds that the only
reasonable inference is that the
statement contained material unfavorable to the State's theory of the case.
Every item of evidence that was produced on the question of identification by
Factor (other than Factor's testimony of visual identification) tends to
establish Factor's utter inability to identify Touhy and the prosecution's
knowledge of this inability. Taken together these items are overwhelming, and
establish to a certainty that Factor could not identify Touhy, and that the
State knew he could not. The court is of the opinion and finds that Factor's
testimony, elicited by the prosecution, of a visual identification was false
and was known to be false, and a case of material subornation of
perjury has been made
out."
He also dwelt upon the
statements made by Jake the Barber to newspaper men, police officers and others
in July that he could identify none of the purported "kidnappers:"
"Captain Gilbert and
Factor have sought to explain Factor's many statements prior to the Touhy trial
that he could not identify any of his alleged captors by saying the F.B.I.
agents and Captain Gilbert told him to deny that he could identify any of his
alleged captors.
"So far as the F.B.I.
agents are concerned, this statement is impossible to be believed. The F.B.I,
agents are thoroughly trained investigators and it is difficult to believe that
any of them would ever tell a prospective witness upon whom they were going to
have to rely to identify another person, to deny ability to identify that other
person and thereby to lay himself open to successful impeachment."
"Captain Gilbert had 16
years of experience as a thief catcher and investigator when, according to Mr.
Factor's story, he is supposed to have told Factor to lie in response to
questions as to whether he could identify his captors and thereby to lay
himself open to successful impeachment when he testified otherwise.
"Lawyers and investigators
almost invariably advise witnesses not to talk, but good lawyers and good
investigators never advise witnesses to lie."
Judge Barnes stated flatly that
the State's Attorney's office knew in advance that testimony against me and my
codefendants was false:
"The court finds that both
with respect to Factor's identification testimony and Costner's entire
testimony, guilty knowledge on the part of the prosecution was established
....The state is directly chargeable with knowledge that Factor actually stayed
at the Wauconda, Bangs Lake house. Captain Gilbert suppressed important
evidence on this point by directing Officer Miller to ‘forget the place, leave
it alone’. . .
"The state is charged with
knowledge that the actual place where Factor stayed the first night was in
Schwabauer's [and Mrs. Sczech's] house in Des Plaines, not in Glenview, and
with failing to disclose this information to the court and the defense."
In pointing out the changes in
Factor's testimony in the second trial as against the first—on such important
matters as the Glenview house basement and the lifting of the blindfold—Judge
Barnes said:
"First Assistant State's
Attorney Wilbert F. Crowley's methods of handling the evidence in the second
trial demonstrates the state's own awareness of the deficiencies in Factor's
testimony both in the matter of identification and location."
"Under ordinary
circumstances, no favorable inference could be raised from a prosecutor's
change in the method of presenting the state's case in a second trial."
"Here the changes were so
marked and so obviously designed and calculated to bolster a thin case on
identification, that it having been otherwise shown that the identification was
designedly false, the prosecution's awareness and knowledge of the falsity of
such testimony appears.
Judge Barnes punched another
hole in the cloth of my conviction when he wrote:
"One of the strongest
single factors pointing to the inability of Factor to identify Touhy in July
was the fact that he [Touhy] was not kept in Chicago. He was returned to
Wisconsin . . . and later was sent to trial in St. Paul on what the government
knew was 'a very weak case'."
Before Judge Barnes, Johnstone
introduced scores of July, 1933 Chicago newspapers, quoting Jake the Barber as
saying that he could recognize none of his "kidnappers." Also, there
were quotes in the papers by lawyers for the British Crown that the kidnapping
was a sham.
Prior to June 30-July 1, there
had been headlines on the efforts to extradite Factor to England and about the
disappearance of Jerome Factor. In this connection, the judge commented on
testimony by Tom Courtney, indicating a belief that Courtney had been less than
candid, at least:
"State's Attorney Courtney
denied ever having heard about Factor before the date of the alleged
kidnapping, but his later testimony, when asked about the incident involving
Factor's son, indicated the contrary.
"In the 1949 hearings,
Judge Courtney admitted he read the papers every day. In the 1952 hearings, he
said first he didn't follow the case in the papers but later admitted that he
did."
Judge Barnes dealt with
Johnstone's charges that I was convicted as a result of a conspiracy by state
and Federal authorities. The judge said: "With respect to the state's
attorney's office, this has been abundantly shown . . . State's Attorney
Courtney admitted that he was the motivating factor in getting the State
Department to withhold execution of the extradition warrant and permit it to
lapse . . .
"Secondly, the prosecution
was appraised at all times of Factor's predicament, of the gaping holes in his
story with respect to identification and location, and of the existence of the
plot involving the 'railroading' of Touhy, both from the British authorities
and from Father Weber . . .
"Finally, the state . . .
indulged in numerous stratagems and artifices . . . consistent only with a
design to bring about the conviction of Touhy at any and all costs . . ."
The proof of conspiracy by the
Federal government was not so conclusive, Judge Barnes said, adding:
"However, the fact is that
the Department [of Justice] did evince an astounding disregard for Touhy's
rights and indulged in practices which . . . cannot be condoned. . . Keenan's
assistance was indispensable in enabling the state to administer the death blow
in the second trial through the use of the spurious witness Costner."
Judge Barnes ruled, therefore,
that Factor, the State's Attorney's office and the Department of Justice
"worked and acted in concert to convict Touhy of something, regardless of
his guilt or innocence . . ."
One of the sternest criticisms
of Captain Gilbert came in a section of the ruling which said: "Once Touhy
was introduced as an actor in the drama, sinister motives of Captain Gilbert
and the politico-criminal syndicate for wanting to remove him permanently from
the scene of action, seemed to intensify the state's efforts to pin a
conviction on him."
Regarding Jake's chumminess
with Tubbo, the judge said: "With respect to Factor, all the evidence
establishes that the relationship between him and the prosecution was far more
than the ordinary relationship between prosecuting
witness and prosecutor. This
will be more fully developed hereafter, but standing alone, it would justify
charging the state with Factor's own guilty knowledge and improper motive in
the case."
Pointing out that Courtney and
Gilbert knew Jake the Barber's finesse as a swindler and liar, Judge Barnes
said further:
"The state cannot deny
knowledge of Factor's capability as an inventor and narrator of untrue stories and
of his capacity for deceit and trickery."
The "timeliness" of
kidnappings in the Factor family came in for discussion by the judge:
"The supposed kidnapping
in his case was the second to occur in the family of the victim within a
relatively short period of time, two and a half months.
"The supposed kidnapping
of Jerome Factor took place at a time when the sympathy of the public for the
victim of the supposed kidnapping and his family might be expected to be
helpful to a member of that family in his enterprises.
"John Factor had given a
bond for his appearance before the Supreme Court of the United States.
"It is certainly not a
violent presumption that he did not want to appear in a jurisdiction [the
District of Columbia] where the crime with which he was charged in England
might be more clearly spelled out than it was in the statutes of
Illinois."
Judge Barnes remarked:
"The supposed kidnapping of his son furnished an excuse for his not going
to Washington."
Of Factor's personal kidnapping
story, the ruling stated:
"The Supreme Court of the
United States, by its order of May 29th, 1933, foreshadowed the final order
that it did render." [The final order was that Jake be sent back to
England, although the order never was carried out.]
"Within five weeks after
the order of May 29th, 1933, John Factor was himself supposedly kidnapped. This
supposed kidnapping furnished an excuse for his not going back to
England." [Author's italics]
The judge said he thought it
unusual that Factor, soon after the presumed kidnapping of his son, would visit
the Dells, "known to be run by members of the so-called Capone syndicate,
located outside of the city of Chicago ... along a lonely road ..."
Judge Barnes remarked that the
Capone mob operated gambling and other rackets in Cook County, and commented:
"The relationship between
the State's Attorney's office, under Courtney and Gilbert, was such that during
the entire period that Courtney was in office no syndicate man ever was
convicted of a major crime ..."
"To put it mildly, Roger
Touhy was not an acceptable person to Captain Gilbert. Touhy and the opposition
with which he was identified was an obstacle in the drive of the
politico-criminal Capone syndicate to control and dominate the labor unions . .
.
"That criminal syndicate
could not operate without the approval of the prosecutor's office . . . They
did continue to operate and thrive without interference from Courtney
or Gilbert . . .
"That the arrangement
between Gilbert and the syndicate was closer than a mere tolerance is evident
from his function as a go-between in the Horan and Wallace surrenders and from
the fact that his men were put in key posts in the Capone-dominated unions, as
well as from his ability to place Henricksen with the Skidmore-Johnson
outfit."
The opinion pointed out that
the F.B.I. or the State's Attorney's office obtained signed statements from
Factor's wife, from F.B.I. agents, from employees of the Dells and
from other witnesses.
Certainly, the judge commented, a statement was taken promptly from the most
important witness—Factor, himself. Barnes went on:
"That the F.B.I. had a
complete statement of Factor's testimony is clear from Factor's testimony. . .
. The relator [Roger Touhy] and the court did everything possible to secure
production of this statement in this case without success ..."
"The question persists,
why wasn't any statement of Factor ever produced by the
State?..."
"The court is of the
opinion and finds that the only reasonable inference is that the statement
contained material unfavorable to the state's theory of the case."
In other words, Judge Barnes
deduced that a statement was taken from Factor sometime soon after July 12,
1933 —and that it was held out because Jake the Barber said officially, perhaps
under oath, that he could describe or recognize no kidnappers. Such a statement
would have had much more weight in my behalf, of course, than did quotes by
Factor in the newspapers.
An element of humor entered the
ruling when Judge Barnes recalled a deposition by Herman Becker, a convict who
had driven a garbage truck in the Federal prison at Sandstone, Minnesota. Jake
the Barber was a helper on the odorous, untidy truck. The judge reviewed
Becker's sworn statement with these words: Becker said that a lot of fellows
over there [in Sandstone] wouldn't talk to him and when he inquired they said
they didn't like him because he was hanging around with that rat, meaning Jake,
who framed Touhy . . .
"At the incinerator,
Becker asked Factor whether he was the guy they called Factor and Factor said:
'Roger Touhy, I ain't worried about him, let him and his family take care of
him; to tell you the truth, the man ain't guilty.'. . .
"Becker then said: 'What
did you put him in for?' and Factor said: 'Well, if I didn't go along with the
[attorney] general, the lawyer, the state's attorney—otherwise I would be
deported back to England because me and my friends took $5,000,000 over there'.
. .
"And Becker said: 'Why put
another man in jail?' and Factor said: 'Well, I am looking out for my own
skull, I have got two sons and a wife on the outside'."
It seemed pretty wonderful to
me that multimillionaire Jake—welcome in the finest hotels and flossiest night
clubs—would be shunned as an outcast in prison.
Judge Barnes made a few remarks
that were genuinely pleasing to me and to my family about the testimony of my
wife's girlhood friend, Emily Ivins. Said the distinguished judge of Miss
Ivins:
"She testifies
unequivocally that Roger Touhy was at home with his family [on the front porch]
at the time of the alleged kidnapping. If what she said is true, Roger Touhy
could not have been guilty of kidnapping John Factor.
"Emily Ivins seems like a
responsible person and one who would not intentionally tell an untruth. The
court believes she is worthy of belief and does believe her."
The judge said he also believed
testimony by our aunt, Mrs. Morgan, and by my wife and two sons. All of them
said I was at home practically all of the time when Jake the Barber claimed I
was negotiating with him for ransom.
The testimony of Mrs. Ruth
Mullinux and other Knoxville witnesses proved beyond doubt, of course, that
Costner and Banghart had been in Tennessee during the period of Jake the
Barber's Alice-in-Wonderland caperings, Judge Barnes found.
I sort of think the judge was
grinning in his beard when he commented on the adventures of Basil the Owl and
Ice Wagon in trying to collect the additional $50,000 on the deal with Jake to
make his kidnap story look good. The judge said:
"That when the two police
officers . . . drove out in the country ... to deliver the supposed 'supplemental
ransom' their firearms were stored underneath the seat of the cab so that they
had to stop the cab, remove the seat and reassemble the parts of the machine
gun before they could go into action, strikes the court as being a rather
extraordinary thing." [The judge kept using the words "rather
extraordinary thing" for what I would call just plain damn foolishness.
But he had a better vocabulary than I.]
The judge evidently placed full
credence in Harry Geils' testimony of having entertained Jake in the Bangs Lake
house in Wauconda. His Honor's comment was: "Geils saw Factor . . . Factor
was sitting at a table in the basement ... he had dark glasses on. They were
drinking down there. Factor was not tied in any way. Witness [Geils] did not
see him under restraint. Witness did not see any guns there. He was in Factor's
presence for about half an hour. There were no guards at the doors, there was
no unpleasantness of any sort while the witness was there, everybody was happy,
laughing, kidding, and telling stories, there was a quart of Johnny Walker
whiskey on the table and there was some beer in cases."
Discussing an appearance of
William Scott Stewart before him, the judge wrote in the opinion: "Mr.
Stewart's testimony makes it clear that serious differences had arisen between
him and Roger Touhy and that he did not want to represent Roger Touhy in his
second trial and that Roger Touhy did not want Stewart to represent him.
"Mr. Stewart's testimony
also makes it clear that Roger Touhy desired to testify in his own behalf but
that Stewart forbade his testifying."
In his summing up, Judge Barnes
pointed out that no one bit of proven perjury by Gilbert's witnesses, and no
single piece of evidence uncovered by Morrie Green and Bob Johnstone could
absolve me of guilt and establish the Factor kidnap story as a hoax. As the
judge commented:
"No one of the foregoing
facts, or supposed facts, nor all of them together, without other facts and
circumstances . . . would warrant the court in overturning the work of the
state courts, but all of the foregoing facts, or supposed facts, are in the
background of the case at bar and help to make the climate of the case."
The eclat with which the
Federal government accused me of having kidnapped William Hamm, Jr., at St.
Paul also came in for some discussion:
"That Touhy was indicted
at all on the Hamm matter is something for which the Department of Justice
should answer. They knew it was a very weak case. The only identification
witness was . . . completely spurious. . . . The state has admitted that Alvin
Karpis was guilty of this particular crime."
Of the public officials who
tried their best to put me in prison or sit me down in the electric chair,
Judge Barnes had some kind remarks for Wilbert F. Crowley:
"Mr. Crowley, who tried
the two Touhy cases, twice testified in this court in this case. He was and he
is still a highly respected judge of the Superior Court of Cook County,
Illinois. He made an excellent impression as a witness. He was frank and told
the truth as he remembered it. "
When he slammed into a resume
of the Factor frame-up, Judge Barnes left no possible doubt of my innocence:
“In the opinion of the court,
Costner was a completely spurious witness. He was in Tennessee during the
entire kidnaping period of June 30th, 1933 to July 13th, 1933 ...”)
"The court finds that
Touhy was at home after midnight of June 30th, 1933, which is when the
kidnapping is supposed to have occurred ...."
An overly dramatic Jake Factor
surrounds himself with a small army of guards.
"The court finds that John
Factor was not kidnapped for ransom or otherwise on the night of June 30th and
July 1st, 1933, although he was taken as a result of his own connivance
...."
"Roger Touhy did not
kidnap John Factor and, in fact, had no part in the alleged kidnapping of John
Factor."
Then came the clincher of the
ruling, on a point which Bob Johnstone had stressed throughout the Barnes
hearings: "Perjured testimony was knowingly used by the prosecutor to
bring about Touhy's conviction—this being the case, his conviction cannot
stand, regardless of the motive [of the prosecution]."
Thus did Judge Barnes knock out
every vestige of legality in my conviction in the Factor sham. His words proved
me innocent, over and over again. He next attacked my conviction and sentence
of 199 years for aiding and abetting the escape of Darlak.
He stated that my
constitutional rights had been violated all to hell when I got 199 years and
Darlak's brother—the real aider and a better—was let off with only three years.
It was a violation of the sound, sacred principle of law that offenders must
receive like punishment for like offenses. Out the window, therefore, went the
second conviction and the 199-year term. Judge Barnes ordered me freed—and it
was done. But I knew freedom for only 47 hours.
Assistant Attorney General
Schwartz appealed Barnes' finding to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Schwartz didn't
deny that I was innocent of kidnapping Jake the Barber—in fact, he later
admitted that perjured testimony had been used against me. He didn't really
contradict Barnes' ruling that the 199-year sentence was unconstitutional. But
he insisted that I hadn't exhausted state court remedies before taking the
aiding and abetting conviction to Federal court. The Appeals Court agreed with
him. The technicalities of the law, no matter what hardships might be
inflicted, must be met. I was ordered back to prison, pending a review of the
case.
Johnstone telephoned me the bad
news. I got a cab and went at once to the U.S. Courthouse. What a reception
awaited me there! Sheriff John Babb was waiting for me. He had lined up a dozen
squads of deputies and city police. On went the handcuffs, along with chains
and an escape-proof belt.
I went back to Stateville with
the effects of a desperate criminal captured in a gun battle, rather than as a
man who had surrendered voluntarily on a court order. I didn't care much, since
I was optimistic for an early release. My optimism was as ill-advised as the
hope of a man condemned to the electric chair that electricity might go out of
style. The U.S. Court of Appeals reviewed my case —but the decision was against
me. The finger of fate was leaving me bruised all over.
There was no question involved
about my innocence of the Factor charges. The 199-year term for the escape was
the hitch-bitch. The Court of Appeals agreed with Schwartz that I hadn't used
up my sources of remedy in the Illinois courts.
In order for me now to go free
on a court order, I would have to carry the 199-year conviction all the way
through the state courts, probably getting turned down, and return to Federal
jurisdiction. It would take years, not because Judge Barnes was incorrect, but
because I had to unwind the red tape of the law.
Bob Johnstone and others filed
appeals for me in both state and Federal courts. Johnstone was joined by Frank
Gagen, Jr., Daniel C. Ahem and Kevin J. Gillogly, all capable, hard-working
lawyers.
Legal technicalities blocked me
at every door to freedom. Judges, in their zeal to follow the letter of the
law, seemed to forget that the evidence showed I was innocent. My best bet was
to appeal to Illinois' Governor William G. Stratton and to the Illinois Pardon
and Parole Board.
The board granted me a hearing
in 1957. I was allowed to tell my story, and I thought the board members were
sympathetic. The hearing room in Stateville was crowded with newspaper people
and many of them held up two fingers in a hopeful V-for-Victory signal for me.
Camera flashbulbs flashed. I
answered the board's questions and then sat down, thinking it was all over. And
then a dark, youngish, compactly-built man stood
up in the audience and asked to
be heard.
I recognized him from his
newspaper photographs. My hopes sank. He was Benjamin S. Adamowski, State's
Attorney of Cook County, in the job Tom Courtney had held. His words could
condemn me.
Adamowski spoke softly, but
firmly. I jittered. He said he did not know the minute details of the
Touhy-Factor case, but that he had consulted with people who did. He did not
believe, he said, that I was guilty of kidnapping Factor. The prosecutor paused
for a moment, said he would have no objection to my release from prison and
added quietly: "In fact, I would urge it."
(John William Tuohy Note:
Thomas J. Courtney, who was also the son of a Chicago cop, died in December of
1971 of natural causes. He never varied from his belief that Roger Touhy was
guilty of kidnapping Factor.)
A great feeling of relief
surged through me. At last, for the first time, an important Illinois state
official had come over to my side. My happiness was almost as great as when I
heard Judge Barnes' decision or when I saw Clara and the boys in the visiting
room after ten years.
The board recommended to
Governor Stratton that he commute my sentences. He agreed—cutting the kidnap
term from 99 years to 72 years, making me eligible for parole on that one,
since I had served 24 years, or one third of the sentence. He reduced the
199-year term to three years.
The upshot was that I became
eligible for release late in 1959. By that time, I would have spent more than a
quarter of a century in prison for a crime that never happened. This is the end
of my story.
I am thankful for the
opportunity of telling it—for the sake of my family and, also, to set the
record straight. It was my privilege, thank God, under the American way of
life, to tell my story.
I have no bitterness, no enmity
toward anyone. Instead, I have the deepest sense of gratitude toward the many
people who have befriended me. My hope is to live out the few years remaining
to me in peace and quiet—and freedom—with those I love and respect.