This story really creeps the hell out of me.
`Execution-style' hits
Officers find broken window, bloody shoe print
Judge, family placed under tight security
March 2, 2005
Chicago police and federal agents joined forces Tuesday to investigate the slayings of a federal judge's husband and mother, killings that law-enforcement sources were calling "execution-style" hits.
With no arrests in the case and authorities exploring a range of possible motives, U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow and her surviving family members were in an undisclosed location under round-the-clock security.
Investigators on the task force formed Tuesday believe that Lefkow's husband and mother were forced into the basement, made to lie on the floor, then shot multiple times, including in the head and chest, the sources said.
From blood patterns on the floor, it appeared that Michael F. Lefkow, 64, remained alive briefly Monday and tried to move, a source said. The judge's mother, Donna G. Humphrey, 89, was apparently forced to the basement without the two walking canes she required to get around. The canes were found elsewhere in the house.
Investigators also found a shoe print in blood, and evidence that the killer made some attempt to clean up the scene before leaving, the sources said.
"Whoever entered was there with the specific intent to harm anyone they found inside," another source said.
While white supremacist Matthew Hale's 2004 conviction for trying to have Judge Lefkow murdered loomed at the forefront of the investigation, authorities maintained Tuesday that it was too soon to conclude that any hate group was behind the murders.
But security measures for other judges and prosecutors involved in the Hale case also have been increased, the source said.
Investigators at the scene combed the property Tuesday and searched sewers and garbage bins for a block in every direction, potentially for a weapon. They also re-entered the house Tuesday night to search the second floor for other evidence.
The task force also was trying to determine the significance of at least one witness' report of seeing two men sitting in a car in the street outside the Lefkow house in the 5200 block of North Lakewood Avenue, a source said.
Police Chief of Detectives James Molloy said the task force formed to handle this case includes more than two dozen Chicago detectives, FBI agents and U.S. marshals who will work around the clock in two shifts.
Molloy asked any potential witnesses to come forward, urging them to call in tips to Belmont Area detectives at 312-744-8445.
Investigators believe the "point of entry" was a broken basement window.
Shards of glass from that window, believed to have at least one fingerprint, were sent Tuesday to an FBI lab.
There were "signs of movement" in the muddy ground outside the window and someone had tried to secure the window after it was broken. Police also found material on the ground in front of the window that may have been placed there by the intruders.
Investigators have all but ruled out burglary or robbery as a motive for the killings because no valuables were taken from the home. Both victims were found wearing jewelry.
Molloy said forensic technicians have not determined an exact time of death, but based on known activity at the house, police believe the murders were carried out between 10:30 a.m., when Humphrey spoke by telephone to her granddaughter, and 5:30 p.m., when the judge discovered the bodies.
The judge called home sometime Monday afternoon and was concerned that nobody answered, a source said. The Lefkows' teenage daughter came home at 4 p.m. to retrieve a gym bag and left without seeing her family members or noticing anything amiss.
As the probe into the murders gets under way, Chicago detectives are taking the lead, Molloy said. Two high-ranking officials in the detective division will supervise the 24-hour operation.
Detectives were scouring past cases unrelated to the Hale case that were handled by the judge or Michael Lefkow, and were interviewing relatives of some people Judge Lefkow had ruled against.
In their long careers, both Michael and Joan Lefkow have been involved in thousands of cases between them. By their nature, legal proceedings are an adversarial process that ultimately involves winners and losers.
Michael Lefkow's practice concentrated in labor and employment law, often representing federal employees who had been fired or disciplined. He has pending lawsuits against clients for failure to pay legal bills.
Judge Lefkow's cases run the gamut of issues, from employee discrimination, wrongful-arrest claims, federal family leave law infractions, patent violations, federal detentions related to terrorism, gun transaction record-keeping, and determinations of guilt and innocence in criminal cases.
If the murders are linked to Lefkow's judicial duties, the Federal Judiciary Protection Act, passed by Congress in 2002, could come into play. Under the statute, a person convicted of trying to intimidate or retaliate against a federal judge--including by killing a family member--would be eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors said.
Hale's mother, Evelyn Hutcheson, confirmed Tuesday that FBI agents had visited her East Peoria house, asking where another Hale relative had been Monday.
But the mother said the relative had a solid alibi and had been at a local business that has a security camera. She also said FBI agents went to his workplace, where supervisors told the investigators he was doing a good job.
"It just ticked me off because it sure seems to me they want to link our family" to the deaths in Chicago. "Enough is enough," she said.
Hale's father, Russell Hale, said FBI agents had not visited his home, also in East Peoria, where Matthew Hale lived before his 2003 arrest. However, East Peoria's police chief confirmed that his department was cooperating with the FBI in the investigation.
Officials on Tuesday said a federal threat alert issued on the Aryan Brotherhood organization in the past several weeks was not a warning specific to Chicago, though it was available nationally and was noted by agents here. FBI spokesman Ross Rice said the alert originated in Houston, where a defendant was facing trial locally and allegedly made a list of witnesses in the case against him.
The information included a general note from the FBI that such groups have a long history of "witness intimidation and animosity toward law enforcement" but contained no information related to Lefkow.
Though Judge Lefkow had been the target of Hale's plot, she and the U.S. Marshals Service had agreed more than a year ago to end a protective detail assigned to her around the time of Hale's arrest, said James Tantillo, chief deputy for the service in Chicago.
A source said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge James Moody, who is scheduled to sentence Hale in April, was out of town and not thought to be in any immediate danger. A source said his family was being protected by federal agents.
How judge became target of hate
U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow originally ruled in favor of Matthew Hale and his white supremacist church when a trademark infringement case filed against the World Church of the Creator first came before her in January 2002.
But when an appeals court overturned Lefkow's decision and she tried to enforce the new ruling later that year, Hale became angry and plotted to kill her, a federal jury ruled last year.
The jury of six whites, five blacks and one Hispanic convicted Hale on April 26, 2004, of soliciting his security chief to murder Lefkow.
The security chief, Anthony Evola, was in fact an FBI plant in Hale's church who had secretly recorded their conversations.
On one of those tapes, recorded Dec. 5, 2002, at the church's headquarters in East Peoria, Evola is heard asking Hale, "We gonna exterminate that rat?" in reference to Lefkow.
Evola testified at trial that Hale leaned back in his chair with both hands behind his head and "nodded yes with a smile on his face."
"Whatever you wanna do," Hale then said on the tape. "My position's always been that I, you know, I'm gonna fight within the law. ... If you wish to, ah, do anything yourself, you can, you know?"
Hale then added: "So we're clear?"
"Consider it done," Evola said.
"Good," Hale replied.
The taped conversation took place one day after Hale sent Evola an e-mail asking for Lefkow's home address.
Prosecutors said Hale had targeted Lefkow because she presided over the case in which an Oregon church had sued the World Church of the Creator for trademark infringement.
Hale was on his way to a hearing in Lefkow's courtroom on Jan. 8, 2003, when he was arrested in the Chicago courthouse on charges of soliciting her murder.
Lefkow later rebuffed suggestions to move Hale's trademark case to another judge, saying that doing so would only pass along Hale's hatred to that judge.
After Hale was convicted last year of soliciting Lefkow's killing, her husband, Michael Lefkow, said he was grateful for the help of law enforcement and the support of the judge's colleagues.
"We hope Mr. Hale will repent of his advocacy of evil," Michael Lefkow said.
On the Web, allies of Hale cheer slayings
There isn't much left of Matthew Hale's organization, experts say, except a legacy of hate and a small group of unpredictable, angry sympathizers.
Monitors say the group formerly known as the World Church of the Creator has fallen apart since Hale was jailed in 2003 and convicted for plotting to kill Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.
But on white supremacist Internet sites Tuesday, some Hale sympathizers were cheering the slayings of two Lefkow family members--even as they criticized the rush to associate Hale or his group with the deaths.
Police confirmed that they are focusing their investigation on the Hale connection but cautioned that no evidence has been found linking the slayings to him or his followers.
Lefkow has been a target of vitriol for white supremacists ever since she became involved in a trademark suit against Hale's organization. Several groups even publicized the family's address, mistakenly stating that they are Jewish.
Even though Hale's group now boasts about 10 chapters, only a tenth of the number from its peak in the late 1990s, experts are still wary because they noticed that the anger against Lefkow intensified after Hale was convicted last year for plotting to kill her.
"The verdict was an indicator to the membership that the system was stacked against them and that it needs to be acted upon," said Devin Burghart, a researcher at the Center for New Community, which tracks hate groups.
According to watchdogs, the organization started in 1973 under the leadership of Ben Klassen, a white nationalist who preached that Adolf Hitler was a prophet and that members should prepare for "RAHOWA" (racial holy war).
The group slowly grew to include chapters in 20 states, according to an analysis by three anti-hate groups. But the leadership began collapsing in the early 1990s until Klassen committed suicide in 1993.
Hale, a graduate of Southern Illinois University Law School, led a resurgence after he was appointed the group's leader, the "pontifex maximus," in 1995. He moved the group's headquarters to central Illinois.
The group gained national prominence in 1999 when member Benjamin Smith went on a rampage across the Midwest against minorities, killing former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong and Indiana University student Won-Joon Yoon.
Federal authorities investigated Hale's role, but he was never charged.
The World Church's troubles started when Hale was sued for trademark infringement and eventually jailed for plotting to kill Lefkow, who was handling the trademark infringement case.
"This group was always more of a cult of personality around Matt Hale," said Mark Potok of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "The [movement] is now more like a decapitated monster."
But Potok cautioned that the membership remains especially violent, "the gutter of the gutter" among white supremacist groups.
Russell Hale, Matt's father, disputed that description and said in an interview Tuesday that his son's organization was "totally nonviolent." While Russell Hale acknowledged that his son attended inflammatory rallies, he doesn't believe white supremacists had any involvement in the deaths.
Hale's group, now generally known as the Creativity Movement, has been relatively quiet.
In Hale's home base of East Peoria, Ill., city officials say they have heard no activity from the group in about two years. Before, Hale and supporters frequently would pass out racist fliers or hold boisterous rallies.
In Montana, once one of the group's hotbeds, membership essentially consists of one activist living in a rural shack, said Travis McAdam, research director for the Montana Human Rights Network in Helena.
"Actually, the shack has burned down so he's out there in a trailer," he said.
But while researchers say the group is in tatters, many sympathizers have joined other organizations, including the West Virginia-based National Alliance, which promotes "Aryan values," and the National Socialist Movement, a pro-Nazi group based in Minnesota.
And experts warned that sympathizers still celebrate violence.
A purported member of Hale's group from Palatine posted this message Tuesday on the Vanguard News Network message board: "While I certainly understand that we are not supposed to be advocating illegal activities, there is nothing illegal or harmful in being happy about this incident. I can barely contain my glee."
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune[/b]
Judge's relatives killed - speculation of hate connection
Call me out of touch: I had no idea the WCotC was no more until I read this. Heck, I didn't even make hte connection with Hale's name.
You're right. It's a creepy, deeply disturbing story, the sort you see on L&O and wish wasn't "ripped from the headlines." The local press is all over it, unsurprisingly--the Sun-Times with its usual lack of restraint.
You're right. It's a creepy, deeply disturbing story, the sort you see on L&O and wish wasn't "ripped from the headlines." The local press is all over it, unsurprisingly--the Sun-Times with its usual lack of restraint.
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"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911
"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911
Horrible story. The kind you occassionally hear about from Central and South America, but not often here.
The irony, of course - or rather, more likely, the simple ignorance of Hale and his followers - is that Lefkow ruled in his favor, and it was the appeals court that overturned her verdict. In short, they targeted the wrong person for their revenge.
In addition, they accused Lefkow and her husband of being Jewish when they were not.
No one ever accused white supremecists of being brain surgeons, but come on. It's times like these (if you'll pardon the SHTV-ish reflection) that I'm reminded of Dylan's line from "Idiot Wind:" It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
The irony, of course - or rather, more likely, the simple ignorance of Hale and his followers - is that Lefkow ruled in his favor, and it was the appeals court that overturned her verdict. In short, they targeted the wrong person for their revenge.
In addition, they accused Lefkow and her husband of being Jewish when they were not.
No one ever accused white supremecists of being brain surgeons, but come on. It's times like these (if you'll pardon the SHTV-ish reflection) that I'm reminded of Dylan's line from "Idiot Wind:" It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
ray
RDK wrote:No one ever accused white supremecists of being brain surgeons, but come on. It's times like these (if you'll pardon the SHTV-ish reflection) that I'm reminded of Dylan's line from "Idiot Wind:" It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
Right on. They're so dumb and blind by ideology, they didn't even take time out to think about how an action such as this damages their own cause.
It's a horrific, grisly act, made even more repulsive by the execution style killing and the age of the victims, especially the mother.
Update on AP wires - the possible culprit has been found after comitting suicide - if he is the sole person involved, there may be no hate connection after all (at least with the homicides, not with the previous unsuccessfully ordered hits)
CHICAGO - A man who shot himself to death during a traffic stop in Wisconsin claimed in a suicide note that he killed a federal judge's husband and mother, a source close to the investigation told The Associated Press Thursday.
Chicago Police Department spokesman David Bayless identified the man as Bart Ross.
WMAQ-TV in Chicago also reported Thursday that it had received a handwritten letter signed by Ross in which he describes breaking into the house of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 28 with the intent to kill her and anyone else.
Ross said he waited all day in a utility room in the basement and shot the judge's husband after being discovered, according to the news report. Ross said he then shot Lefkow's mother after she heard the gunshot and called out to her son-in-law.
"After I shot husband and mother of Judge Lefkow, I had a lot of time to think about life and death. Killing is no fun, even though I knew I was already dead," the station quoted the letter as saying.
Ross said he stayed in the house until about 1:15 p.m. before deciding to leave, according to the letter.
The suicide note also indicated that Lefkow had ruled against Ross in a civil case, costing him "his house, his job and family," the Chicago Tribune reported, citing unidentified sources. The legal dispute involved the man's treatment for cancer.
Lefkow found the bodies of her husband, attorney Michael Lefkow, 64, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, on the basement floor of the Lefkow home the evening of Feb. 28.
There was initially speculation the slayings could have been related to a white supremacist who is jailed awaiting sentencing for plotting to kill the judge. But the Tribune said there was no immediately known link between Ross and any hate groups.
Ross, who is about 57, had been stopped in West Allis, Wis., Wednesday evening because his van had a faulty tail light, police said. As officers approached the car, he killed himself with a gunshot to the head, police said.
Police in the Milwaukee suburb declined to characterize the evidence found in the van. But a source close to the investigation told the AP on condition of anonymity that the van contained a suicide note that also listed other judges.
Last September, Lefkow dismissed a civil rights lawsuit in which Ross claimed doctors at the University of Illinois-Chicago Hospital and its clinic had disfigured him, damaged his mouth and caused him to lose his teeth when they treated him for cancer from 1992 to 1995.
Among other claims, Ross alleged doctors committed a "terrorist act" against him by giving him radiation treatment without his consent. He represented himself in the lawsuit.
Defendants included the federal government, the State of Illinois, five doctors and four attorneys who had taken part in an earlier Ross lawsuit that was dismissed by another judge.
The suicide note found in the van included details in the case that were not released to the public, including the specific location where the body of Michael Lefkow was found, Tribune Deputy Managing Editor James Warren said in an interview on CNN.
About 300 .22-caliber shells were found in Ross' vehicle, the newspaper reported. Investigators found three casings of the same caliber in the Lefkow home.
Police have been unable to find any of the man's family. Chicago police Thursday cordoned off the street outside Ross' last-known address, a two-story home across from a high school on a tree-lined street on the city's North Side.
Jinky Jackson, 34, a neighbor, said Ross was wearing a neck brace as of a month ago. She said she would say hello to Ross when she saw him but he would not reply.
"He doesn't mingle with other neighbors," Jackson said. "He'd come home late and stay inside."
After the slayings, suspicion immediately turned to white supremacist Matthew Hale, who had been convicted of soliciting Lefkow's murder after she ruled against him in a trademark dispute. Investigators insisted, however, that Hale's followers and other hate groups were just one focus of the investigation.
Hale, 33, is to be sentenced next month. He gained notoriety in 1999 when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting rampage targeting minorities across Illinois and Indiana. Smith killed two people, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded nine before killing himself as police closed in.
CHICAGO - A man who shot himself to death during a traffic stop in Wisconsin claimed in a suicide note that he killed a federal judge's husband and mother, a source close to the investigation told The Associated Press Thursday.
Chicago Police Department spokesman David Bayless identified the man as Bart Ross.
WMAQ-TV in Chicago also reported Thursday that it had received a handwritten letter signed by Ross in which he describes breaking into the house of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 28 with the intent to kill her and anyone else.
Ross said he waited all day in a utility room in the basement and shot the judge's husband after being discovered, according to the news report. Ross said he then shot Lefkow's mother after she heard the gunshot and called out to her son-in-law.
"After I shot husband and mother of Judge Lefkow, I had a lot of time to think about life and death. Killing is no fun, even though I knew I was already dead," the station quoted the letter as saying.
Ross said he stayed in the house until about 1:15 p.m. before deciding to leave, according to the letter.
The suicide note also indicated that Lefkow had ruled against Ross in a civil case, costing him "his house, his job and family," the Chicago Tribune reported, citing unidentified sources. The legal dispute involved the man's treatment for cancer.
Lefkow found the bodies of her husband, attorney Michael Lefkow, 64, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, on the basement floor of the Lefkow home the evening of Feb. 28.
There was initially speculation the slayings could have been related to a white supremacist who is jailed awaiting sentencing for plotting to kill the judge. But the Tribune said there was no immediately known link between Ross and any hate groups.
Ross, who is about 57, had been stopped in West Allis, Wis., Wednesday evening because his van had a faulty tail light, police said. As officers approached the car, he killed himself with a gunshot to the head, police said.
Police in the Milwaukee suburb declined to characterize the evidence found in the van. But a source close to the investigation told the AP on condition of anonymity that the van contained a suicide note that also listed other judges.
Last September, Lefkow dismissed a civil rights lawsuit in which Ross claimed doctors at the University of Illinois-Chicago Hospital and its clinic had disfigured him, damaged his mouth and caused him to lose his teeth when they treated him for cancer from 1992 to 1995.
Among other claims, Ross alleged doctors committed a "terrorist act" against him by giving him radiation treatment without his consent. He represented himself in the lawsuit.
Defendants included the federal government, the State of Illinois, five doctors and four attorneys who had taken part in an earlier Ross lawsuit that was dismissed by another judge.
The suicide note found in the van included details in the case that were not released to the public, including the specific location where the body of Michael Lefkow was found, Tribune Deputy Managing Editor James Warren said in an interview on CNN.
About 300 .22-caliber shells were found in Ross' vehicle, the newspaper reported. Investigators found three casings of the same caliber in the Lefkow home.
Police have been unable to find any of the man's family. Chicago police Thursday cordoned off the street outside Ross' last-known address, a two-story home across from a high school on a tree-lined street on the city's North Side.
Jinky Jackson, 34, a neighbor, said Ross was wearing a neck brace as of a month ago. She said she would say hello to Ross when she saw him but he would not reply.
"He doesn't mingle with other neighbors," Jackson said. "He'd come home late and stay inside."
After the slayings, suspicion immediately turned to white supremacist Matthew Hale, who had been convicted of soliciting Lefkow's murder after she ruled against him in a trademark dispute. Investigators insisted, however, that Hale's followers and other hate groups were just one focus of the investigation.
Hale, 33, is to be sentenced next month. He gained notoriety in 1999 when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting rampage targeting minorities across Illinois and Indiana. Smith killed two people, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded nine before killing himself as police closed in.