CRIME: Six for One

It is an uneventful day when only six people are killed in automobile accidents; but when six convicts are sentenced to death in Illinois for the murder of one man it is a historic moment.

One morning last May in Joliet, Ill., seven convicts in the Stateville penitentiary (four of them were already murderers, one of them was only 19, three of them were Mexicans) talked feverishly together. Why not be free? Part of it was easy—they had a crowbar and several pairs of scissors. Deputy Warden Peter N. Klein resisted them. Convict Duchowski, who had killed a Chicago policeman, broke the Warden’s skull with the crowbar; others stabbed him with their scissors. One thing remained. They must help Nathan F. Leopold Jr., the boy who killed for a thrill, escape with them. “His old man has lots of cash,” they said, “he will set us up.” But young Leopold was padlocked in solitary confinement for stealing the prison’s sugar. They could not open his cell; he would have to be left behind.

At the point of a pair of scissors they forced Capt. John Kelley to lead them out of the penitentiary grounds. Casually, they climbed in Deputy Klein’s car, drove away— free men. That night, a posse recaptured five of them. Weeks later, Duchowski was found on the Mexican border. One, James Price, is still free.

Early in October, their trial began. It took five weeks to choose a jury who would agree either to hang all six men for one murder, or declare all of them “not guilty.” The high light of the trial was the appearance of young Leopold, who said: “I am afraid I shall have to be excused from answering since I am an inmate and have a very long term [life and 99 years] to serve, and it would be contrary to the ethics of the institution for me to testify.”

Last week in Joliet the jury announced its verdict . . . and soon six forms will dangle on the gallows unless they are saved by further legal delay or by Gov. Len Small, crook-pardoner.