The Innocents
(1964)
by Edward D. Radin
Excerpt from Chapter 10 on
Louis DeMore
Fear for one's life can cause an innocent person to make a voluntary
false confession.
After his wife left him, Louis DeMore, a Chicago taxi driver, decided to
start a new life elsewhere. He went to St. Louis and, in keeping with his
determination, even adopted a new name, registering at a hotel as Peterson.
That same night in April, 1934, shortly before midnight, a man boarded a
streetcar in the downtown section of the city, and while he fumbled in his pockets as if seeking the
fare, the motorman started up the car. The passenger suddenly whipped out a
gun and demanded the receipts. The motorman slammed on his brakes and ran,
shouting, to the rear of the car. The only passengers on board were three
women who promptly began screaming. The bandit panicked, smashed a window,
and leaped out of the car. A produce merchant, who had been driving behind
the streetcar in his automobile, saw the unorthodox exit, sensed what had
happened, and found a police officer. Patrolman Albert R. Siko set out in
pursuit and caught up to the fleeing man, who stopped so suddenly that the
officer lunged by him. As he did, the man grabbed Patrolman Siko's gun and
fired three shots into him. Police soon swarmed in the area, but the only
clues they could find were a discarded gray hat and six exploded .38 shells.
Siko's gun was missing. The officer was dying in a hospital.
It was about an hour after the shooting when DeMore left his hotel and
crossed the street to an all-night restaurant. It had been a trying day for
the lonely taxi driver, accustomed to talking to many people. Three
patrolmen who had taken part in the futile search for the wanted man were
drinking coffee, waiting for further orders. When DeMore entered the
restaurant he called out to the officers that he had just arrived in St.
Louis that day, liked the city, and was going to settle there. The morose
patrolmen merely glanced at him and returned to their coffee. A few minutes
later a sergeant entered the restaurant with a more detailed description of
the wanted man, which he read aloud to the officers. DeMore, who was on his
way out, paused to listen and then remarked that he answered the
description. He promptly became the focal point of interest. Now the
officers not only wanted to listen to him but they had questions to ask.
DeMore said he had strolled about the city from 7 P.M. until 10 o'clock and
then had returned to his room until he went to the lunchroom at 1 A.M. When
he was
taken across the street to his hotel, the desk clerk there confirmed that he
saw the guest come in at 10 o'clock and not leave again until he went out
for coffee, but he also added that there was a side-door exit that was out
of his view and any guest could slip out without being seen by him. And when
DeMore's personal identification papers did not agree with the name he used
at the hotel, the officers brought him to headquarters for further
investigation.
The various witnesses were still present, looking at photographs of known
criminals. The motorman promptly identified DeMore, but the three women
passengers were uncertain. The prisoner was taken to the bedside of the
dying patrolman. Siko nodded his head when he looked at DeMore, and this was
taken to be an identification. Not long afterward Siko sank into a coma and
died the following day. A coroner's jury ordered DeMore held for trial for
murder.
Alone in a strange city without friends, with little money, and told by cell
mates that he was sure to be executed, the frightened taxi driver grasped
at a straw when he heard that if he confessed he would receive life
imprisonment. When an assistant prosecutor confirmed this, DeMore promptly
confessed to the murder of the patrolman. Asked what he had done with the
gun, he said he had thrown it into the river. He was so anxious to plead
guilty that he would not even wait until he was indicted. At his request he
was taken into court and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on
information filed against him. Within five days of the murder he had both
been sentenced to life imprisonment and taken to the prison at Jefferson
City on the same day that the funeral was being held for the slain
patrolman.
Ten days after DeMore had been sent to prison for life, St. Louis police
picked up George Couch, twenty-seven, who had served ten years for armed
robbery in Indiana. He had been spotted on the street at 4 A.M. and, when he
refused to give his address, had been taken into custody. Officers finally located his room and found a Colt Police Special
under his mattress; it was Patrolman Siko's gun.
Couch refused to discuss where he got the weapon. DeMore in his confession
said he had thrown it into the river, but there were no indications that the
revolver had been in water. Puzzled detectives went to prison to interview
DeMore. The taxi driver explained how he had panicked at the identification
and had confessed to a crime he had not committed simply to avoid being
executed. "I've been praying that the real killer would be found," he told
the startled officers.
A thorough investigation was made. The three women passengers all identified
Couch and so did the motorman, who admitted he had been mistaken about
DeMore. The gray hat found at the scene was tested on both men; it fitted
Couch but was too large for DeMore. Additional evidence was found placing
Couch at the murder scene. On October 1, 1934, DeMore was pardoned and
released from prison. Couch, was was convicted of Patrolman Siko's murder,
was killed later in prison by another inmate.