People v. Bopp

279 Ill. 184
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1917
DocketNo. 11337
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 279 Ill. 184 (People v. Bopp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Bopp, 279 Ill. 184 (Ill. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

Lloyd Bopp was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, and he has sued out this writ of error to reverse the judgment of conviction.

About two o’clock in the morning of June 14, 1916, Herman Malow and Thure Lindhe, two motorcycle policemen in the village of Oak Park, who were standing near the southwest corner of Cuyler avenue and Washington boulevard, saw two automobiles drive up to the curb on the north side of Washington boulevard, a short distance west of Cuyler avenue, and stop. One of the automobiles was a black Paige car, the other a grey Chalmers. The grey car stopped just outside the- black car, toward the center of the street, with its rear about two feet behind the black car. Loud talking was heard from the cars and the two officers went toward them, Malow on foot, pushing his motorcycle, and Lindhe riding. When Malow was within two or three feet of the grey car shots were fired from the rear of that car and it started to move. Malow was struck by a shot and fell to the pavement. Lindhe on his motorcycle followed the grey car, in which we're two men. It was driven' with increasing speed west on Washington boulevard to Scovel avenue, where it turned south to Madison street, where it again turned east. Shots were fired from the car at Lindhe, and as the car approached Parkside avenue, going at the rate of fifty-five or sixty miles an hour, he was wounded by one of the shots and stopped. This grey car had been stolen earlier in the evening from the street in front of an apartment house on Lake Shore drive and /was found by the owner the next day at the Maxwell street station. The black car contained two men and a girl. The two men jumped out of the car and ran north along the east side of an apartment building a little west of where the car was standing. The girl went to the corner of Cuyler avenue and. Washington -boulevard, where she got into a milk wagon and disappeared. An occupant of the apartment building having heard the shots, ran to the window and saw the two men running north past the building. He telephoned to the police that there was a shooting* and, partially dressing himself, went out on the street, which by that time was deserted. .He found Malow lying upon the, pavement, discovered by his uniform and star that he w,as a policeman, and went back in the house and telephoned to the police station. He then returned and found Malow still alive. The patrol wagon arrived soon and Malow was put in it but died before reaching the hospital.

The defendant and Frank McErlane were arrested on the night of June 14, at about eleven o’clock. Bopp was indicted for murder and McErlane as an accessory after the fact. On the trial of the defendant Alfred Michelini testified that on the evening of June. 13, about ten o’clock, he, together with Bopp and McErlane, was riding in the Paige car with Walter Ralston. All four were young men about twenty-one or twenty-two years old, who had served terms for various crimes in the State reformatory at Pontiac and who had been recently discharged from that institution, Bopp and McErlane being on parole. He described the course of their wanderings during the evening and .their stopping and drinking at various saloons. Ralston was driving the car. They decided to go over on Lake Shore drive and steal another car, and about 11:3o they stole the Chalmers car from in front of 1200 Lake Shore drive. Ralston and Michelini were in the Chalmers car, Ralston driving, and McErlane and Bopp in the Paige car, McErlane driving. After visiting a few saloons they exchanged cars, and about half-past twelve, at the corner of Lincoln and Madison streets, Ralston and Michelini, who were then in the Paige car, picked up Grace Lytle, a girl of the street. The cars then proceeded in company and two or three places were visited in an effort to pick up another girl, a' friend of Grace Lytle, but she was not found. As the cars were going west on Washington boulevard, according to Michelini’s testimony, Bopp produced a revolver and informed the three in the Paige car that they were under arrest. This was two or three blocks from Cuyler avenue, and he kept the revolver on them until they got about two hundred feet from Cuyler avenue, when he told them to drive to the curb. Before this he had told them to drive to Oak Park police station, but they did not do it. Ralston drove to the curb and the other car drove up alongside. Bopp got off the car with a revolver in his hand and went back to the other machine to look at the license number. He came back and told the occupants of the Paige car to get out of the car, and then a policeman came up. He went" back to his car and the car was started to running. McErlane was at the wheel. The policeman made a grab for the car and shots were fired. Bopp was in the car and had the revolver in his hand at the time the shots were fired. After the shooting the grey car sped away west. Ralston and Michelini jumped out of the black car and went back to the city by the elevated railroad.' They went over to Bopp’s house on the- morning of June 14 and saw Bopp on the street. About five or six o’clock in the evening they went over to Bopp’s room and he showed them the revolver. He said it looked pretty bad. The next time Michelini saw Bopp1 was at the police station. Grace Lytle testified to her meeting with Michelini and Ralston and being taken in the car with them. Her account of the occurrences at the time of the shooting is substantially the same as that of Michelini. She had not met any of the men before, and when she met Bopp at the detective bureau, after his arrest, she was at first unable to identify him. He wore a dark suit at that time, but when the suit was changed for a grey suit she did identify him. Both these witnesses were in the custody of the police at the station in Oak Park from the day of the homicide until the trial of the defendant, and no criminal proceedings have been taken against them.

It was proved that the Chalmers car was stolen as testified by Michelini, and the elevator man at the apartment building from in front of which it was taken identified Bopp as one of the men who stole it. It was proved that Bopp bought a Colt’s revolver, 38-caliber, together with a box of cartridges, between two and three o’clock in the afternoon of June 13. This revolver was found on McErlane at the time he and Bopp were arrested, loaded and thrust down inside his trousers. The box of cartridges- was in a suitcase which Bopp carried, containing clothing and other articles. Bopp stated at that time that he was on his way to go to see his mother in Lawrenceville, Illinois, of whose sickness he had received word through a letter from his sister.

Bopp’s defense was an alibi,, shown, in part, by the testimony of the woman at whose house he roomed, at 17-11 Monroe street, who testified that he came to the house on the evening of June 13 about eight o’clock and went to his room soon after and that she did not hear him go out again that night; that there was some defect in the lock of the door and that it was necessary to slam the door to make it stay shut, and that she would have heard him if he had gone out. A man who occupied another room in the house also testified to Bopp’s being in the house and going to his room at ten o’clock. The witness’ room was close to" Bopp’s, and he sat up until midnight reading and Bopp did not leave the house during that time. A waiter, who also roomed in the house, testified that he came in late from his work, which he left at one o’clock.

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Bluebook (online)
279 Ill. 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-bopp-ill-1917.