Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-19
Invitation to Crime
By Mirium Gutenberg

FOllCe CIlleI 6OOeTC v. murray
emphasized today that police
accuse prisoners of a series Of
crimes only when they have the
evidence to prove their cases
in court.
He made the statement after
some callers to The Star wanted
to know whether the police
really had basis for charging
a man in cases which never get
to the grand jury.
The Star, in a series of articles,
has shown that when police
charge a housebreaker with 100
crimes or place a dozen charges
against an armed bandit, the
multiple offenses go through a
process of elimination until the
defendant is finally punished for
only one or two of his crimes.
willie Pye" Method.
There was a time when the
willie Pye" method of clearing
the books was popular in police
circles. BY this. method, a sus-
pect arrested for one or two
crimes obligingly would confess"
to a long series of unsolved cases.
The cases were marked ''closed
by arrest" and no effort was
made to take the cases to the
grand jury. The system got its
name from an old police charac-
ter. and inspired this jingle:
willie Pye was a regular guy.
He took the rap for you and I"
To show that times and police
methods have changed, Chief
Murray offered to let The Star
spot-check the police files on
criminals accused of a series of
crimes but indicted for only a
fraction of them.
This check showed that a de-
tailed statement of fact is pre-
pared in each case. This state
ment outlines the offense and
presents all the evidence that
has been gathered against the
defendant.
The Star reporter found that
in some cases, not presented to
the grand jury, the evidence in
cluded f1ngerprints of the de-
PENDANT. In other cases, the
loot was recovered exactly where
the criminal said it would be
found. Some loot was taken from
the defendant himself or his
room.
Detailed Admissions.
In a number of cases, the
statement of fact included a de-
tailed admission from the ac-
cused going into matters that
only the person who committed
the crime and his victim would
know. There were details about
the method of entry. the exact
location of the property stolen,
where the escape car was aban-
doned and-in one case-even
the fact that the bandit tore his
pants in fleeing to escape police.
The names of all witnesses were
listed in the statement of fact.
The cases reviewed by The
Star were those that assistant
United States Attorneys refused
to accept for presentation to the
grand jury. A prosecutor now
appearing before the grand jury
told The Star that it was "a
matter Of common knowledge"
that he will present no more
than four or five cases to the
grand jury even though police
might accuse the man of a dozen,
so or 100 different crimes.
In the case Of a housebreaker
accused by police Of 80 cases,
The Star found a separate de-
tailed statement Of fact in each
case. He was indicted in four
cases. Here are two typical
cases which were not presented
to the gran djury.
A week before this defendants
arrest. he broke into an apart
ment at Eighteenth and Cali
fornia streets NV, by jimmying
the front door. He stole a
watch. two suits, several jackets
and a $50 savings bond. After
his arrest March 6, 1852, the
prisoner admitted this charge,
handed over the $50 bond and
told police where he had sold
the two suits. The suits were
recovered from the second hand
shop where the suspect said he
had sold them and the COM
plainant identified his property.
Police thought that was apretty
provable case but the grand jury
never saw 1t.