Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-01-04
DISMISSAL OF
CASES OF CROOKS
States Attorney L. M. Magill
Explains Recent Clearing
of Criminal Docket.
DEVELOPMENTS PROMISED
Public Called Upon TO Punish Crook
Who Has Beaten Accomplish
at His Own Came

ROCK Island, Ill, Jan. 4.-Editor The
Argus: In response to your request
for an interview concerning the dis
mlssal of certain cases in the circuit
court. an account of which appeared
In The Argus sometime ago. will say
briefly: There has been a large num-
Der of cases remaining on the docket
OF both the circuit and county courts
Tor many years and it is time that
some disposition be made of them.
I explained the situation TO Judge
Graves apd he told me he would be
glad to take up this matter at his first
convenience. A short time ago John
x. Scott, my predecessor, and who is
familiar with the facts in many of
these cases, was present in court and
Judge Graves suggested that he had
little time and inasmuch as Mr.. Scott
was on hand 1t would be good moment
to dispose of these matters. We went
over the undisposed cases upon the
docket and I made such recommends
lions as I deemed proper, and l viii
say in this connection that 1 have
given each one of these cases which
I have made a motion to dismiss the
most careful consideration. and 1 am
prepared to defend my action in every
instance
History of Cases.
I have not your article before me,
but as I remember the particular cases
referred to were those of Clara Heuer.
John Lowe, Phineas Tarver, Vile, ct al.
and the Bradley-Kramer case. l will
speak of each in the order named.
charges. convicted her upon one and
the other I dismissed. She served a
six months sentence In the county
Jail. John Lowe is an alias, his right
name being John Reiger. He was in
dicted on three charges. l convicted
him on one of the charges and dis
missed the other two Phineas Tarver
was indicted on three charges. He |
was given the highest penalty under /
the law for assault and I dismissed /
the other two charges against him at /
the request of the person whom he as
saulted. Thus you will see it fire. /
quently happens when there is a fail I
ure TO convict on one you can hold /
the defendant on the other. The case
of Harvey Hutzel is another case /
where I dismissed two of the indict-
ments remaining against him. He was .
indicted for defrauding the Port Byron
bank He was indicted on three diff
ferent indictments, pleading guilty 20
one indictment and was sentenced to
the penitentiary, and is there now.
Take the case of Peal and Walters.
They were indicted on three charges.
I convicted them on one. They were
sent to the penitentiary and I have
dismissed the remaining charges. This
is true in many other cases.
VILE in Penitentiary.
Now about the Vile case: In the
first place Vile is in the Joliet peni-
Tertiary He was convicted last sum-
mer for completely in a similar deal in
Chicago. He took an appeal to the
higher courts The decision of the
trial court was upheld and a short
time ago he was taken to the states
prison. States Attorney Wayman Of
Chicago informs me that he will be
there for the next 10 years and in all
probability 20 as he has been con-
victed on two or three other charges
that will follow up the other. In the
second place / have been informed
that Goodman, who was victimized and
for conviction IS wanted for forgery
IN this state. and 1t is not very proba-
bic that he viii come here voluntarily.
IL the third place. the bonds under
which VILE IS held here are not worth
the paper they are written upon One
of the bondsmen has gone through
bankruptcy and the other Is a profess
s:onal bondsman in Chicago who never
pays q forfeit and is regarded as
joke from q standpoint of surety.
He has fled a schedule in this county,
but 1t is made so -cleverly that it would
require a partition suit and various
other complications to reach him under
this bond.
Could Not Hold Bondsmen-
Thus you will readily see that the
bondsmen whom you claim are re-
leased were never firmly held Vile
made a confession at the time he was
arrested. and should we desire to have
him testify 1 can bring him here at
anv time through a process known as
q flabeas corpus ad testifcandum
served upon the warden Of the peni-
Tertiary. Now about the other defend
ants in this case. the only other one
that has been arrested is Hayes, and
one of the reasons that prompted me
in dismissing this case was to prevent
his discharge and release forever. If
g. demand for trial had been made at
the closing of this term of court he
would have been entitled to his abso-
Lutte discharge. Our statute provides
that a defendant upon demand for
trial at a term of court commencing
within four months after commitment
or after giving bail and not tried Is
entitled to discharge.
Are Not Discharged.
Vile would have been entitled to a
discharge. also, as there was no chance
to try him either. You will recall the
famous Nagel case where the muir