Convicting the Innocent: Errors of Criminal Justice
(1932)
by Edwin M. Borchard
Case #17
Everett Howell
ILLINOIS
Albertus Janssen, cashier of the Exchange State Bank of
Golden, Adams County, Illinois, usually arrived at the bank to open it for
the day's business at eight o'clock. When he opened the bank on August 20,
1928, there was nothing unusual to indicate that this was to be a red-letter
day in his life. According to his custom, he started arranging the books. In
a minute a stranger entered the bank. To Mr. Janssen's cordial "Good
morning," the stranger produced a revolver and ordered him to open the safe.
Just then a confederate entered the bank and closed the front door, so that
Janssen had little choice. He unlocked the safe. The robbers stuffed a large
number of bank notes into a black bag they were carrying. Cashier Janssen
was gagged, bound, and left in the vault. As the bandits were leaving the
bank, James Garrison, a customer, entered the door, and was forced at
pistol's point to retire to the rear of the bank and join the cashier in the
vault. Then the robbers fled, having taken with them, it was later found,
$4,305.
The burglar alarm at the bank was sounded immediately, and a fleeing Whippet
sedan was traced by John Bedale, F. W. Witler, and W. F. Seeman as it left
Golden in an easterly direction at a high rate of speed. The trail was lost
at the end of a hidden lane deep in the woods on Missouri Creek near a farm
formerly occupied by one John Barnhill. At this spot they found torn bits of
paper which were perfectly dry, although there had been a heavy dew that
morning. Upon these bits of paper there were pencil markings. Sheriff
Kenneth Elmore examined the spot carefully and found more bits of paper.
Fitting them together, he had a sheet of paper bearing an outline plan of
the plundered bank sketched in pencil on the back of an advertisement.
Evidently, the culprits had dropped these bits of paper at this spot after
the robbery. The printed side of the paper bore the announcement of Farmer
Barnhill's horse sale.
Barnhill did not have a good reputation in Adams County. Upon finding the
suspicious bits of paper, the officers ordered his arrest. As more evidence
was found, the authorities became certain that Barnhill had directed the
scheme though he had not appeared at the bank. Handwriting experts found
that the writing accompanying the sketch of the bank on the bits of paper
found near Missouri Creek was exactly the same as on one of Barnhill's
checks. Anna Woerman, an employee of the bank, and Eleanor R. Gronewald, as
well as Cashier Janssen, remembered seeing Barnhill, in the spring of 1928,
take down one of his horse-sale bills from the wall of the bank and make
notes on the reverse side while examining the layout of the bank.
These circumstances strongly indicated that Barnhill was implicated in the
holdup. He was located in Peoria and was continuously shadowed, while his
friends and associates were watched. Finally he was arrested, but denied any
knowledge of the affair.
While these facts were being developed, investigations were pressed to
locate the two young men who had actually entered the bank and stolen the
money. A number of persons saw the Whippet car standing in front of the
bank, and then speeding out of town just before the burglar alarm sounded.
Henry J. Gerdes had sold some gasoline to the operator of the car just
before it drove up to the bank. Gerdes got a good look at the man. Samuel R.
Woerman and Frank F. Winkle were with Gerdes and saw him, too. Henry
Schuster was near by when the bandits came out of the bank with a black bag,
entered the Whippet, and drove away.
All these people, in addition to Cashier Janssen, had seen the bandits in
broad daylight and therefore were of assistance to the police. The
descriptions given led to Everett Howell of Farmington, Illinois, who was
arrested in Peoria about two weeks after Barnhill; he had been seen with
Barnhill a number of times during the time Barnhill was being shadowed. His
record was none too good, though not criminal. Barnhill and Howell denied
knowing each other. Witnesses of the Golden robbery were brought to Peoria
to determine whether Howell was one of the participants. Howell was
positively identified by gasoline-station owner Gerdes and his companions,
Woerman and Winkle, and by Henry Schuster, as the man who had driven the
Whippet. Cashier Janssen was positive that Howell was the one who held him
up with the pistol. Customer Garrison was not sure that Howell was one of
the robbers, but said that he looked like one of them.
The testimony thus collected was presented to the Grand Jury of Adams
County, which returned an indictment against Howell and Barnhill on
September 20, 1928, just one month after the crime had been committed, and
within the succeeding month they were called for trial before Judge Fred G.
Wolfe in the Adams County Circuit Court. Neither defendant took the witness
stand, but Howell's attorneys, Hartzell and Cavanagh of Carthage, Illinois,
produced a number of witnesses to establish the alibi that on the morning of
the robbery, Howell was in Fulton and Peoria counties, dozens of miles away
from Golden. Richard Whitney saw him at 7.00 A.M. on the Peoria-Farmington
highway. Dr. William Glover, Ed Larson, and Policeman George Greenwell saw
him in Canton, Illinois, seventy miles from Golden, at eight o'clock, the
hour of the robbery. He had gone there to call at Dr. Glover's office.
Between nine and ten o'clock, he was seen back in Farmington, only ten miles
north of Canton and about eighty miles from Golden, by his neighbors, Dr.
and Mrs. William Plummer, who had known Howell all their lives, and by Mrs.
Charles Thomas, William Settles, and William J. Aiken.
The jury, apparently believing the witnesses from Golden rather than those
from Farmington and Canton, returned a verdict of guilty against Howell, as
well as Barnhill. On October 17, 1928, Judge Wolfe sentenced them each to
the state penitentiary for terms of from one year to life. Appeal bonds were
furnished and the cases appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Before the appeal was completed, Barnhill made to the sheriff a full
confession of his part in the robbery, but said that Howell had nothing
whatever to do with it. He named Gilbert Ammerman and Peter McDonald as the
ones who had committed the actual holdup and admitted that he had met these
young men in Chicago and induced them to come to Adams County for the
purpose of holding up the Exchange State Bank.
McDonald, a nineteen-year-old lad, was soon apprehended in Chicago and
confessed. Ammerman was located driving a taxicab in Indianapolis. When
arrested, Ammerman stoutly maintained his innocence until he was confronted
by the confessions of Barnhill and McDonald, both of whom he admitted
knowing. He then made a complete confession covering all the details of the
case. McDonald and Ammerman were taken to Quincy, where they both pleaded
guilty before Judge Wolfe on July 23, 1929, almost a year after the holdup.
Ammerman was sentenced to the state penitentiary for a term of from one year
to life, and McDonald, because of his age, was sent to the state reform
school.
The Supreme Court of Illinois affirmed the conviction of Barnhill, but, upon
the appearance on December 11, 1929, of Attorney-General Oscar E. Carlstrom
to confess error as to Howell, the case against Howell was remanded to the
Adams County Circuit Court, "for such other and further proceedings as to
law and justice shall appertain."
On January 25, 1930, Judge Wolfe ordered a new trial, and the State's
Attorney dropped the case. Everett Howell left the County Court on that day
a free man but only after an expensive sixteen months' fight to clear his
name.
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The Howell case is not unusual. Again a jury lent greater weight to the identifications of the overwrought victims and witnesses of a crime of violence than to the testimony of sober-minded and disinterested persons who positively saw the accused at other places and thus established a perfect alibi. Howell and Ammerman bore but a slight resemblance. Yet five people, including the principal victim, were positive that Howell was the guilty bandit. One of the witnesses had seen him in a passing automobile, one of the least reliable, if not worthless, opportunities for identification. The seven witnesses who swore to having seen him in Canton and Farmington the morning of the robbery were impliedly stamped as perjurers by the finding of the jury. Possibly the greater indignation and vehemence of the witnesses from Golden carried the day against Howell. But for the fortunate confession of Barnhill, after his conviction, completely exonerating Howell, and implicating Ammerman and McDonald as the robbers, and but for the confession and conviction of this pair, Howell might now be serving his one year to life sentence in the penitentiary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Records in the Circuit Court of Adams County, Illinois,
in the cases of: People v. Everett Howell and John Barnhill, Case
No. 3572, September Term, 1928; and People v. Gilbert Ammerman and Peter
McDonald, Case No. 3678, June Term, 1929.
2. Supreme Court of Illinois, People v. Everett Howell and John Barnhill,
Case No. 19408.
8. Confession of Gilbert Ammerman dated July 22, 1929, and Peter McDonald
dated July 18, 1929, in office of the Sheriff of Adams County.
4. Manuscript statement of the case, prepared after investigation by Richard
Scholz of Quincy, Ill.
5. Washington Star, July 22, 1929, p. 16.
6. Indianapolis Star, July 22, 1929, and July 24, 1929.
7. Acknowledgment: Mr. J. Leroy Adair, attorney at law, Quincy, Ill.