People v. Halpin

114 N.E. 932, 276 Ill. 363
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 21, 1916
DocketNo. 10626
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 114 N.E. 932 (People v. Halpin) 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. Halpin, 114 N.E. 932, 276 Ill. 363 (Ill. 1916).

Opinions

Mr. Justice; Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff in error was convicted of bribery in the criminal court of Cook county and has sued out a writ of error to reverse the judgment. The errors assigned and argued relate to the admission of evidence and the refusal of instructions.

The single count of the indictment, after setting out certain sections of an ordinance of the city of Chicago establishing the police department and providing for its organization, charged that the plaintiff in error was on January 7, 1913, a captain of police assigned to duty as chief of detectives of the city of Chicago, and that then, and for a long time prior to that date, Christian P. Bertsche, Frank Ryan, James Ryan, John Strosnider, and other persons whose names were unknown, were engaged in the commission of crimes known as the confidence game and had committed such crimes in the city of Chicago, and were about to commit, and did commit, other such crimes in that city; that they had before that time obtained from William T. Kirby $20,000 by means of the confidence game, and were about to, and did, obtain by means of the confidence game, money, checks and drafts of the value of $15,500 from Hope L. McEldowney, and like property of the value of $11,000 from Mary E. Rapp, and large amounts of property from other persons whose names were unknown. It is further charged that on January 7, 1913, the plaintiff in error unlawfully, corruptly and knowingly did accept and receive from Christian P. Bertsche the sum of $500 as a bribe, present and reward for the purpose of influencing the plaintiff in error in the performance of his duties as a member of the police force and causing him to execute such duties with partiality and favor, and to permit the said Bertsche, James Ryan, Frank Ryan, and other persons unknown, to commit the crime of confidence game in the city of Chicago without molestation and without being arrested, and to permit them to avoid arrest in the city of Chicago for the offense of confidence game, and with the intent to induce and persuade and cause the plaintiff in error to refrain from arresting or causing to be arrested said Bertsche, Ryan and others for the commission of the offense of confidence game committed by them before that time arid to be thereafter committed in the city of Chicago, and to keep and protect them, and each of them, from arrest and punishment and free, clear and exempt from police molestation, interference or attack while engaged in the commission of the crime of confidence game and other crimes in the city of Chicago.

Evidence was introduced tending to show that during the time from June, 1911, until March, 1913, James Ryan and Frank Ryan, who are named in the indictment, and other persons under various names, at different times were engaged, under the guise of clairvoyants, in operating the confidence game in the city of Chicago; that during that time they swindled their victims out of large amounts of money in sums ranging from $50 to $20,000, Frank Ryan’s enterprises having brought him the sum of $75,000, though that amount also included his receipts from the business of fortune telling, which he operated in connection with his clairvoyancy. Bertsche was not a clairvoyant, but he organized a combination by virtue of which the clairvoyants and fortune tellers, wire-tappers and other criminals who operated under his-authority, in consideration of payments of money were to be permitted to commit these classes of crimes in the city of Chicago without molestation by the police. Bertsche acted as the representative of the combination in the transaction of its business with the plaintiff in error. He received from the criminals themselves the money which was paid for the purpose of securing the acquiescence of the police and paid over monthly to the plaintiff in error the sums agreed upon with him. He notified the plaintiff in error when and where “book-stores,” as the places were called where the operations were conducted, were to be opened and who were to conduct them. In March, 1912, two policemen, O’Brien and Carmody, were at Bertsche’s suggestion detailed by the plaintiff in error specially on clairvoyants instead of the two policemen who had previously had that assignment. Thereafter all papers to be served and all complaints and investigations in regard to clairvoyants were turned over to these officers, and Bertsche paid to O’Brien $400 a month,—$200 for himself and $200 for the-plaintiff in error. Numerous crimes were committed and complaints by victims of the conspiracy were made at different times, but were delayed, hindered and suppressed and no action was taken on them. On January 4, 1913, the place of Frank Ryan in which he was operating as a clairvoyant was raided by two policemen not on the clairvoyant detail,—Egan and Dempsey. Ryan was warned by his doorman before the admission of the officers and left the house by the back door until after their visit. McCabe, a clairvoyant who assisted Ryan, Strauss, a man in his employ, and a visitor who had called to have his fortune told, were arrested and taken to the police station, held for about an hour and a quarter and discharged without any charge being made against them. Egan, one of the officers, searched the place and took away with him a book which Ryan called his “red-book” and which Bertsche in his testimony called the “sucker book,” used to keep the names of people who were swindled and certain personal data in regard to them and the amounts of money received from them. Through Bertsche and O’Brien the book was returned to Ryan on the same day and Egan was paid $500 for it. Frank Ryan complained to Bertsche about the raid, saying that he was satisfied it was a frame-up, that O’Brien was in it, and that he wanted to have a better assurance than that of O’Brien and Bertsche against the recurrence of the raid. Bertsche told Ryan that he would have the plaintiff-in-error assure him everything was all right, and two or three days later the plaintiff in error, with Bertsche, visited Ryan in his place in the evening. Ryan was a fugitive from justice from Boston and from New York, and shortly before this had been compelled by a lawyer and a detective from New York to pay $2900 on" account of a forfeited bail bond, and he was concerned about this as well as Egan’s raid. Both of these occurrences were mentioned, and the plaintiff in error said that the New York affair could not be avoided but in future Ryan should go right along,—nothing would happen to him. Bertsche then gave to the plaintiff in error $500 and said, “Here is a present from the boys,” and the plaintiff in error said, “All right.” This is the transaction which was charged in the indictment and was the basis of the prosecution.

It was clearly shown that clairvoyants were engaged in conducting their business and in connection with it operating confidence games in the city of Chicago during the time in question, that many people were victimized and that complaints made to the police produced no results. The direct testimony tending to connect the plaintiff in error directly with the conspiracy for the operation of confidence games without molestation by the police was given by Bertsche and others of the conspirators, whose testimony, if believed, was sufficient to establish the guilt of the plaintiff in error.

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Bluebook (online)
114 N.E. 932, 276 Ill. 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-halpin-ill-1916.