The People v. Scalisi

154 N.E. 715, 324 Ill. 131
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1926
DocketNo. 17745. Reversed and remanded.
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 154 N.E. 715 (The People v. Scalisi) 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
The People v. Scalisi, 154 N.E. 715, 324 Ill. 131 (Ill. 1926).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Heard

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiffs in error, John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi, were in the criminal court of Cook county convicted of the murder of Harold Olson and were sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for the term of fourteen years. The record of the cause is now before this court for review upon writ of error.

Albert Anselmi, forty-three years of age at the time of the trial, was born- in Marcella, Sicily, and first came to America in 1913. He resided in the State of New York until the latter part of 1921 when he returned to Italy, where he remained until November, 1924, at which time he came to Chicago and engaged in the cheese and oil business, in which business he continued until June 13, 1925. His knowledge of the English language was limited and his examination as a witness was conducted with the aid of an interpreter. So far as this record shows, prior to June 13, 1925, he had never been charged with any criminal offense and was a man of good reputation. Plaintiff in error John Scalisi, aged twenty-seven years, was born in Sostraintriano, Italy, and came to America about four and one-half years ago. He first resided at St. Louis, Missouri, and afterwards came to Chicago, where on June 13, 1925, and for some time prior thereto, he conducted an Italian restaurant at 1014 South Halsted street. So far as this record shows, prior to June 13, 1925, he had never been charged with any criminal offense and was a man of good reputation. In the morning of June 13, 1925, he went to a barber shop at Taylor street and Blue Island avenue, where he met Anselmi. While they were there Mike Genna came up in a Cadillac car and Anselmi went out to talk to him. Genna asked him if he wanted to take a ride, and he also called Scalisi and asked him if he wanted to take a ride. Scalisi and Anselmi got in the rear seat of the car, and, with Genna driving, at about nine A. M. they started to go to the residence of Tony Genna, a brother of Mike. They went west on Taylor street to Ogden avenue and thence to Western avenue, upon which they proceeded south almost to Sixtieth street. When Scalisi and Anselmi got in the car they saw four or five shot-guns and three revolvers on the floor of the car. Genna told them why the guns were there, but Scalisi and Anselmi were not allowed to testify as to what Genna told them on that subject. Their attorney offered to prove that Genna said that he had been informed by a friendly police officer that a raid was being planned upon the Italian-American Club, in which the guns were, and that he had been informed by the police officer that it would be well for him to get the guns out of there, and with that in mind he-had them in the car and was taking them out to the home of his brother, Tony, who lived in the vicinity of Fifty-sixth street and Western avenue. The State’s attorney objected and plaintiffs in error were not allowed to make this proof. Each plaintiff in error testified that he did not own any of the guns and that of his own knowledge he did not know whose guns they were; that he had no information from any source that he was wanted for any offense by the police of Chicago at the time he got into the automobile; that he had no reason to believe that the police of Chicago might want to arrest him; that the guns were not in the car for the purpose of resisting police officers if they should attempt to arrest him, and that he did not on June 13, 1925, or before, have any malice, ill-will or hatred toward police officers as a class.

About nine o’clock in the morning of June 13, 1925, four police officers of the city of Chicago, Harold Olson, Charles Walsh, William Sweeney and Michael Conway, comprising a police automobile squad, were cruising about in the neighborhood of Forty-seventh street and Western avenue in a seven-passenger Paige touring car, equipped with a large brass bell located on the running-board near the right front fender, and painted dark blue, — the same color as the car. The bell, when rung, was manipulated by a cord leading from the right front seat, where the squad leader, Conway, sat. To the left of Conway, and driving the car, was the deceased, Harold Olson. In the rear seat were Sweeney and Walsh. A rack in the tonneau, fastened to the back of the front seat, held two repeating Marlin single-barreled pump-guns, the magazine of each loaded with five 12-gauge shells. The chokes of these guns were cut off or left out in manufacture and on that account they were known as riot guns, or sawed-off shot-guns. While going north on Western avenue, about 400 feet north of Forty-seventh street, the squad car met Genna’s Cadillac touring car, going south. When the squad car had gone about 100 or 200 feet further north, Conway, the squad leader, directed Olson to turn the car around and follow the Cadillac car to see who the men were who were in it. Conway testified that the only reason for following them was out of curiosity, and that outside of the fact that the car was a Cadillac, with these men in it at that time in the morning, there was nothing about the Cadillac which attracted the attention or suspicion of the police squad. When the cars met they were each going about ten miles an hour. A-fter the squad car got south of Forty-seventh street the Cadillac started to go faster. Up to Fifty-fifth street, a mile south of Forty-seventh street, the greatest speed which the Cadillac had attained was 35 to 40 miles an hour, the squad car gaining on it. A short distance north of Sixtieth street the Cadillac car swerved to one side, as Conway testified, as if the driver had lost control, and it either skidded or was backed up over the west curb and came to a stop with its rear end over the parkway and the front facing northeast. The squad car continued south past it for about twenty-five feet and then turned around toward the Cadillac, stopping with its. front portion facing northwest, — a distance variously estimated at from seven to twenty-five feet from the right side of the Cadillac. The four policemen and the occupants of the Cadillac got out of their respective cars at about the same time. The police were not in uniform. Conway wore a pepper-and-salt suit, a straw hat, a white shirt with a red stripe in it, with collar to match, and a black tie. Sweeney wore a dark suit and a dark cap. Walsh wore a brown suit, cap, tan shirt, ancj a soft turned-down collar to match. Olson wore a blue suit, cap, and a white shirt and collar. All of the police were cleanly shaven except Sweeney, who needed a shave.

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Bluebook (online)
154 N.E. 715, 324 Ill. 131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-scalisi-ill-1926.