The Violent Years (24 page)

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During the time that the MacDonald suicide occurred and the police graft investigation was gaining momentum, Police Commissioner Heindrich Pickert was in California. In his absence Superintendent of Police Fred Frahm was the highest-ranking police officer in the city and in that capacity was put in charge of the inquiry. Taking a strangely relaxed approach to the investigation, Frahm promptly turned over the responsibility to conduct the investigation to Chief Inspector Fred R. Clarke. Frahm then left the city for a vacation in Wisconsin. In Frahm’s absence, Clarke became acting head of the Detroit Police Department. On August 10, 1939, the police department officially announced that Lt. John McCarthy had been exonerated of all of the charges made against him in the Janet MacDonald suicide notes. The police investigation of the graft charges was beginning to look like a whitewash.

By August 11, 1939, local media reporters could not get any information whatsoever from Detroit police headquarters as to the progress of the graft investigation. A
Detroit Free Press
headline read: “Headquarters Quiet Enough to Hear Investigation Drop.” Newspaper editorials began to demand for Police Commissioner Pickert’s return from California to take personal charge of the apparently stalled investigation. Other journalists questioned why McCarthy had been exonerated so quickly of the serious charges against him. Mayor Richard Reading continued to insist on a hands-off attitude in regard to the police department graft investigation until Commissioner Pickert was back in the city.

After Acting Superintendent Inspector Fred Clark had cleared police officials of any wrongdoing, Assistant Prosecutor William E. Dowling had pressed on with the graft investigation practically on his own. On August 10, 1939, Wayne County Prosecutor Duncan McCrea called a halt to the investigation of the charges being conducted by the chief assistant, stating that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office had an inadequate investigation staff with which to pursue the matter. “I am as anxious as anyone to get to the bottom of all this, but it is futile when we do not have our own investigators. All it amounts to is the police department investigating itself.”

The quick termination of the prosecutor’s investigation and the stand-by-and-watch attitude of Mayor Richard Reading started a public clamor for a grand jury investigation. The Detroit newspapers argued that a grand jury investigation would be the only legal vehicle that could be impartial yet thorough. Editorials noted that policy houses and other forms of illegal gambling had been operating wide open without any police interference for years. This, journalists contended, was reason enough for the public to have a suspicious attitude towards the Detroit Police Department. By the middle of August, Mayor Reading was still saying that a grand jury should only be called if Chief Inspector Clark’s investigation showed a need for one.

In August of 1939, Mayor Reading changed his position and was appealing for a grand jury investigation into the rumors and charges linking certain Detroit police officials with organized underworld gambling. McCrea rejected Reading’s suggestion to petition the courts for a grand jury. This, coupled with the Prosecutor’s Office dropping the investigation, only added fuel to the fire. This strange change of attitude on the part of the mayor may have had a lot to do with the fact that he was up for reelection that November. On August 21, 1939, the Wayne County Circuit Court judges unanimously chose Judge Homer Ferguson to act as a one-man grand juror and appointed Chester P. O’Hara as the special prosecutor to investigate charges of police corruption.

Judge Homer Ferguson had been one of five men appointed by the late Michigan Governor Fred W. Green to fill one of the newly created circuit judgeships in Wayne County. Ferguson was born in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, in 1889. As a young man, Ferguson had worked as a public school teacher to earn money to go to law school. He eventually was appointed principal of a school in Export, Pennsylvania, before being accepted to the University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated in 1913. That same year, he opened a law practice in Detroit, where he was married and began to raise a family. Ferguson had developed a reputation for honesty throughout his legal career and had a great interest in civic affairs.

Chester O’Hara was born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1890. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1910. At the age of 20, he was granted a special dispensation from the Michigan Supreme Court that allowed him to practice law before reaching his majority. Special Prosecutor Chester P. O’Hara had a reputation as a maverick and brought considerable experience to the grand jury both as a prosecutor and an investigator. As a young prosecutor, O’Hara had conducted the prosecution of the Detroit election recount fraud case in which 18 of 20 defendants were convicted of conspiracy in 1926. He won this case even though he had been opposed by a competent staff of 10 defense attorneys. As an Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor, O’Hara successfully convicted the President of the American Bank of Detroit and five bank officers on embezzlement charges. O’Hara was later elected Prosecutor of Berien County, Michigan, a post that he held for four years. He then served as attorney for the City of Jackson, Michigan. O’Hara had served on the staff of the Michigan Attorney General’s office. In 1936, he had unsuccessfully opposed Duncan C. McCrea in the race for the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. The backgrounds of Ferguson and O’Hara combined brought many years of experience in public office to their positions as grand juror and special prosecutor.

On August 29, 1939, Racket Squad Lt. John McCarthy became the first of many witnesses to go before the Ferguson Grand Jury. After several days of testimony, McCarthy was cited for contempt of court after being caught in a lie by the special prosecutor. He was sentenced to five days in the Wayne County Jail. On August 31, 1939, McCarthy was suspended from the department by Commissioner Heindrich Pickert. In November of 1939, William McBride died in Florida from complications of pneumonia. The Ferguson Grand Jury had lost an important witness. But this was just the beginning.

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The armed-robbery trial for the four Junior Purple Gangsters was originally scheduled for November of 1939. Although the grand jury had begun calling witnesses in August, they had made little headway. The trial of the four men was adjourned several times. However, a new city administration took office on January 2, 1940. Richard Reading had lost the 1939 mayoral race to Edward Jeffries Jr. The mayor’s new police commissioner, Frank D. Eaman, was eager to get to the bottom of the Robinson case and the accusations of a police graft scandal.

The four defendants were represented by Sidney Sherman, a well-known Detroit area criminal attorney. At the Recorders Court examination of Holtzman, Cooper, Feldman, and Jacobs on the charge of armed robbery, Sherman had stated that the Robinson incident was not a robbery at all. According to Sherman, Robinson had merely been conducting business transactions in gambling matters with the defendants.

Jury selection in the Dr. Martin B. Robinson holdup case began on January 9, 1940. After three previous adjournments, the case was finally assigned to Recorders Court Judge Thomas Cotter on January 11, 1940. The defense team consisted of Sidney Sherman, RJ.M. Hally, and George Fitzgerald. All three defense attorneys continued to argue that there was no holdup. During the course of the trial, Assistant Prosecutor John A. Ricca attempted to show the jury that Dr. Robinson had indeed been held up at his office by the four defendants on July 8, 1939. The defense continued to contend that the holdup was really nothing more than a gambling transaction.

When the defendants were put on the witness stand, each of them told the jury that the whole incident was faked. Robinson had owed the Purples more than $3,000 on a lost horse-racing bet. Robinson had asked them to tie him and his office staff up to make the whole thing look like a holdup. That way he could collect on his insurance and be compensated for the money he had lost. According to the defense, that was the reason that Robinson had called the robbery report in to the wrong precinct. This would allow the men time to get away. The guns that were found in the defendants’ car had been given to them as collateral for the balance of the money owed. Robinson had paid the Purples $2,600 on a $3,100 bet. The four defendants’ capture by police was an unforeseen quirk in the holdup-story plan. Other information obtained long after the trial from underworld sources was that the four Purples were merely shaking down Robinson for protection money. Again, according to this scenario, Robinson had asked the men to make the incident look like a holdup so he could collect on his insurance. Robinson was in the policy and numbers racket and was considered an easy target by the young thugs.

On January 12, 1940, Mrs. Senna Robinson (wife of Dr. Martin Robinson) took the witness stand. She told the court that she and the secretary, Florence Wolfe, had arrived at the offices of Great Lakes Realty when the robbery was in progress, but Mrs. Robinson had immediately fainted and remembered nothing. When Florence Wolfe took the witness stand, she positively identified Irving Feldman as one of the two bandits she saw in the office when she returned that day. Mrs. Robinson was in a state of collapse after her testimony, and a recess was called. That same day, the two detectives who were assigned to the Robinson case disappeared.

The Robinson case had been a routine armed-robbery trial until the morning of January 11, 1940. During the noon recess of the trial, Assistant Prosecutor John A. Ricca was seated at the counsel table. Detective Byron Farrish walked up to Ricca and whispered, “Do I have to tell about the $1,000 I gave back to Dr. Robinson?” Ricca was shocked. He immediately notified Chief Assistant Prosecutor William Dowling of this new development.

Police investigators were then called in and Chief of Detectives John Hoffman questioned Detectives Farrish and Brouillet. Both detectives admitted that they had returned $1,000 of the holdup money to Dr. Robinson the day of the reported holdup. They had done this on the orders of a superior officer whom they refused to identify. It was later learned that the superior officer was Inspector Myers. Detective Farrish had originally reported that $600 had been found in the bandits’ car. He now claimed that there had actually been $1,600. He had originally written this amount into the evidence book. He stated that he later doctored the 1 to make it look like $600. Farrish had no right to give the evidence money back to Robinson without a court order. After several hours of questioning by Hoffman, the two detectives asked their superiors for permission to go out to get a cup of coffee. Farrish and Brouillet walked out of the building and never returned. Later that same day, Farrish phoned Chief of Detectives John Hoffman. “I know I am in the grease, and I’m not coming back,” Farrish told the chief. “You better come in anyway,” Hoffman replied. “Such a resignation isn’t official.” “I don’t want to,” said Farrish, “I quit.” Defense counsel of the four Purple Gangster defendants immediately made a motion for a mistrial when they learned of the disappearance of the two detectives. The defense argued that the detectives’ absence prevented necessary cross examination.

On January 13, 1940, the new police commissioner, Frank D. Eaman, ordered a complete investigation. One of the first police officials questioned by Eaman about the peculiar discrepancies in the Robinson case was Police Superintendent Fred Frahm. Frahm told the commissioner that Farrish told him he had returned some of the holdup money to Robinson because the doctor had needed it for a real estate deal. By disclosing this information to the police commissioner, Frahm indirectly admitted that he knew about the return of the evidence money to Dr. Robinson. Heads soon began to roll at Detroit police headquarters. Eaman believed that there had been a coverup in the police department. The commissioner fired Superintendent Fred Frahm, who was later allowed to resign. Earlier that same day, Eaman had accepted the resignation of Chief of Detectives John Hoffman and removed Inspector Raymond Boettcher of the Bethune Station from active duty. The old district police inspector system was then abolished by Eaman. This move brought more resignations.

On January 15, 1940, the motion for a Robinson mistrial was denied, as was a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal by defense attorneys in the Robinson case. That same day, the defense called Irving Feldman to the witness stand. Feldman told the court that he operated several bookmaking joints in the city. According to Feldman, Dr. Robinson had placed a bet on a horse race the day before the holdup. Robinson lost $3,440 on the race. Feldman and the three other defendants had gone to Dr. Robinson’s office on July 8 to collect the money. Dr. Robinson only had $2,600 of the total owed to Feldman. He gave the men this money and the five guns found in the car as collateral on the balance of the debt. Robinson then suggested that the men stage a phony holdup so that he could collect the money he lost on the race through his holdup insurance and pay off the balance of the gambling debt. Feldman testified that Robinson had cut the telephone wires with a scissors and told him and Jacobs to bind him with adhesive tape to make the holdup look good to his wife and secretary. “Both women came in just as we were leaving with the money and the pistols,” said Feldman. “I told Mrs. Wolfe [Florence Wolfe, the doctor’s secretary] that the doctor was in the other office and to be quiet, and he would take care of everything.” Feldman then explained to the court that when he and Jacobs left the building, they met Cooper and Holtzman on Custer Avenue. In order to escape the heavy traffic on Woodward during lunch hour, the men drove down an alley where they were unexpectedly stopped and arrested by Inspector Myers.

Farrish and Brouillet were picked up later the same week by State Police in Erie, Pennsylvania. Warrants had been issued for their arrest. The two detectives were rushed back to Detroit Recorders Court, where they were brought before Judge Thomas Cotter. They had been out of the state for five days. Cotter found both men in contempt of court and sentenced them to five days in jail. Brouillet admitted that he had lied on the witness stand earlier, when he had stated that Inspector Myers ordered him and Farrish to give some of the evidence money back to Dr. Robinson. Farrish gave Robinson $1,000, and Robinson in appreciation had given each detective $75 for their services. Brouillet confessed that he then changed the property sheet from $1,600 to $600. Both detectives, Farrish and Brouillet, admitted that Inspector Raymond Boettcher of the Bethune Station and other high-ranking officers at police headquarters knew of the coverup for months. Two days after the holdup, Dr. Robinson called and complained to Farrish and Brouillet that it cost him several hundred dollars more in bribes to get out of the station.