The Just And The Unjust (36 page)

Judge Vredenburgh drew his mouth down. 'You will have an opportunity to advance what theories you may have when the defence opens, Mr. Wurts. Keep them until then. There will be a five minute recess.'

While Howell was taken out, Bunting sat down again. 'You through with us?' Lieutenant Dunglison asked.

'Yes, thanks. I'm just going to have the confession read into the record.'

Dunglison nodded and went over and sat down in the ring of seats along the outer rail by Kinsolving. Abner said, 'They don't see much, do they?'

'They're pretty careful. They know they're going to be witnesses to the signature and will have to testify. The Judge didn't like it.' Bunting sat back stretching and yawning. 'I don't like it either. But they had the goods on Howell. There was never a doubt in the world; and they know the kind of evidence they have to present — Kinsolving, there, has a law degree. He told me this morning. A lot of the Federal men do. There's no sense, or no use, in handing over to us a case that won't stick.' Bunting shrugged. 'Of course they have no right to take it on themselves to decide whether the goods they have on a man are really good. But I'd trust them. They know when a man is guilty. You know yourself how that is. We've had cases when we knew who did it, but we didn't have the proof. Well, Field was a good case. We had to work on him. We say he confessed of his own free will. It isn't true. We broke him down. Of course, all we had to do was just talk to Field and keep after him; but how far would you get just talking to Howell? In principle there isn't a nickel's worth of difference.'

Abner said, 'Well, were you going to beat Field up, if talking didn't work?'

'No. Certainly not.'

'You mean, because it would have made such a stink?'

'I mean, because I would have felt a reasonable doubt about his being guilty,' Bunting said. His smile was dry. He struck a light emphatic fillip against Abner's arm. 'Don't work so hard at it, Ab. There is always theory and there is always practice. If you think you're going to change that, you're wrong. Theory is where you want to go; practice is how you're going to get there.'

'Yes,' said Abner, 'or else, theory is what you tell people you're going to do; and practice is what they catch you really doing. Get anything out of Susie?'

'Not much. Harry asked for an offer of proof and so I made it, and he objected. Immaterial, of course. Vredenburgh said it would show they were associated, and continued to be associated — stealing the other car, the one they wanted to use when they got rid of the one they used for Zolly.' Bunting shook his head. 'Matter of fact, Harry fooled me. I didn't expect that, because I thought he'd like to cross-examine to try to mix her up in it more. The way it came out, I couldn't risk asking her a lot of questions I might have, because I wanted to keep it narrowed down so he'd have to take a few points I'd laid for him. Harry did the smart thing by just saying no questions. The jury was disappointed, I think. They were expecting some hot stuff.' He looked toward the hall door. 'There's Howell. Now, we'll have a brawl over the objections. I want you to read the statement, if and when.' He pushed it over to Abner and stood up.

Judge Vredenburgh said, 'You were making an offer in evidence, Mr. Bunting.'

'Yes, sir,' Bunting said.

George Stacey said, 'I object to the admission of any confession so far as it concerns the defendant Robert Basso.'

'Yes,' Judge Vredenburgh said. 'That objection is well taken.' He leaned back and lifted off his glasses. 'I think I shall caution the jury that the statement or confession will be admitted, if it is, only as against the defendant Howell. I will so instruct in the general charge; but in order that the jury may not get a wrong impression, we will state to you at this time that this alleged confession will not be considered as in any way affecting Basso.'

Standing up, Harry Wurts said, 'And now, if your Honour please, I object to the introduction of the confession in the circumstances under which it was obtained. The testimony shows that this confession was obtained by —'

Judge Vredenburgh said, 'You need not review it, Mr. Wurts. You are overruled.'

'Very good, sir. I enter a further objection on the ground that only the last sheet of this alleged confession bears the signatures of the attesting witnesses.'

'That objection is also overruled.'

'And the further objection that the confession is in no way fastened together, but consists merely of five or six loose sheets. Will your Honour rule upon that?'

'Overruled. We will grant you exceptions, Mr. Wurts,'

'If you please!' said Harry. He sat down, satisfied, Abner could see, that he had tried everything — more things than most people would think of.

Abner went around the table to face the jury. In the poor light he was obliged to hold the typed pages close to see them. He read: 'I, Stanley Howell, do make the following statement of my free will and accord, without threats or promises of immunity and with full knowledge that the same may be used against me in court. On or about April sixth —'

The dark courtroom sank in silence. For a moment no one stirred, no one coughed or murmured or moved his feet Just over the top of held-up sheets, Abner could see in the front row of jurors Louis Blandy's pop-eyes strained with attention. To the side, against the curve of the rail, Mrs. Zollicoffer's haggard face was white in the gloom. In the rising rows of benches most of the spectators had leaned forward, and Abner raised his voice: '— we, that was Robert Basso, Bailey, Roy Leming and me, we left this bungalow we had been at and drove along some roads I don't know and we got out to Zollicoffer's house at around ten-thirty at night. It was early yet and in about twenty-five minutes Zolly pulled up in his machine; and when he pulled up and put it in the garage, Basso and me and Bailey, we had been in the garage. Bailey was standing here and I was in the corner. When he came in and got out of the machine, he did not see us; and Bailey hit him with the butt of' a gun. When we carry him out, Zolly, he thought it was the law shaking him down for dope. He got hit again; and the stuff dropped out of his hand; and I was picking it up. He said, ''Let me do away with this junk and I'll pay." He went in our machine and I got in front. Bailey hit Zolly twice. Bailey said, "You bastard, many a poor soul you destroyed. I never killed anybody." There was no more conversation until we got to the bungalow.'

Abner paused for breath. It was surprising when you thought of it, that however little they feared God or regarded man, they still wanted to make out a case for themselves. The many poor souls presumably referred to were Zollicoffer's customers; Zollicoffer's business gave Bailey a chance to feel that he was the moral superior of his victim. That Bailey had never killed anyone was not, perhaps, quite true; but perhaps he never had sold narcotics. The truth, surprising to Abner when he first observed it, was that men like Bailey were often letter-perfect in any number of ethical and moral platitudes. They were usually reformatory boys; and that meant that without wishing to, with hatred and rebellion in their hearts, they had just the same absorbed certain principles. Outwardly, they might despise and deride those principles, and never think of putting them in practice; but when the need came to make moral judgments, to strike an attitude in defence of themselves or condemnation of others, they opened their mouths and out spoke the warden and the chaplain. They had not respected these men or their talk; but it was talk that perhaps corroborated the warnings of a poor old mother; and, in turn, was corroborated by laborious reading (there was so much time to kill in such a life; the days in hiding, the months in prison) of pulp paper magazines and Sunday supplement feature articles. Narcotics destroyed both body and soul; all his authorities said that; and Bailey must, in fact, have seen the destruction himself in men he knew.

Abner read, 'They took him in and put him upstairs in this room, and it was cold and I throw the coat over his feet. We stayed there talking the four of us, and he said, "I know who is in back of this.'' He said Roy Leming was. He said, "What did you have to do this for?'' Bob Basso told him that many a person — '(The elegant phrase, so often repeated, was probably Bailey's — the warden and the chaplain, again; and Basso, impressed, echoed it; and Howell, admiring, remembered it)' — he had killed. So he said to Roy Leming, "You sat in my office many a day. If you wanted anything you were welcome to it.'' Roy said, "If I went up in your office you know I'd be out on some road now." Bailey said, "Is your life worth one hundred thousand dollars?" Zolly laughed at him. He said, "They had that money one time; but no more."'

Abner cleared his throat. Though hardly begun, the statement already seemed to him long, and he began to read more rapidly, 'I went downstairs and came back in about an hour; and they left me with him. Zolly said, "Have you got anything I can smoke with?'' He says, "Haven't you got an outfit?" I said, "I don't use it." I said, "I never smoked,'' and he said, "I have been smoking eight or ten pills a day. The same way as you like liquor, I like this." I told him I only like beer. I told him I take it or I leave it alone; and he said, "I crave this just like you crave beer." When Bailey came in, he said, "How are you going?" He said, "You do not like me, do you?" and Bailey said, "No." They started arguing; and I said, "What is the use of arguing now; the people in the next house will hear us." He said, "All right. I won't say nothing more." He wanted a smoke; and I said, "I will give you a shot of booze".'

Frederick Zollicoffer must have been having a bad time. When Abner read the account before, he did not notice that point about the people next door. Abner had seen the houses and it would not be hard to make oneself heard from one to another; but Zollicoffer didn't dare. The neighbours might hear and call the police, and the police would come and release him; but that took time. In time the police might come; but Bailey and those who obeyed him were here now. Meanwhile they had been arranging meetings with Walter Cohen, a tedious and delicate negotiation. Abner read, 'We waited, myself, Bailey and Basso in the machine until three o'clock; and they didn't show up. Basso said, "I know how he is." We got back to the house; and then Zolly said, "What is the matter?" and we said we didn't see Cohen. Zolly said Cohen was afraid to go out on a lonely road; that there was some clique after him. He said he had been shot at around February. Zolly said, "You can't blame him for not coming out." So Bailey got him to write another letter to the office. We are back in the house; and Dewey has the breakfast cooked; and Basso says to me, "I am sorry I went into this God damn thing." I said, "I feel the same way." I laid on the bed and went to sleep and woke up around ten; and Bailey said, "You go down and eat and tell the others to come up." I ate and Roy Leming went up. That is the way it went on from day to day. The meet we made where we got the money, I don't know the time, a Saturday. I went to get it with Basso; but I didn't like the look; and so Basso gets it from a car. When we come back, I says, "Now we can turn him loose." Leming said to me, "He is not going to be turned loose. He is going to be killed." I said, "Well, that is murder." Basso was worried that Zolly knew him and Bailey. He did not think it would be so good for them if Zolly was let loose. He would say one minute, "Kill him"; and the next minute, "Let him go." Bailey says, "We will vote on that. What do you say?" I and Leming, we said, ''No.'''

Abner thought that very likely. Though the account did not tally at all points with Leming's statements, and neither version was necessarily the true one, Howell tacitly allowed Leming's minor part by mentioning him so seldom. They were both scared, in short; and the dangers of murder scared them more. Abner read on: 'Bailey said, "We will kill him. We will put him in the car and take him up the road and kill him." It was then agreed that he would be killed on account of him knowing them, and letting him go was not safe.

'I went upstairs and said, "Where do you want to be turned loose?" and Zolly said, ''Where is Walter's machine at?" I said, '' You will see; but we will not go there first. We will drive you around so you do not know where this is." He said, ''Can I get dressed?" and I got the pants for him to put on. He said, ''Give me my vest," and I did. After a while I went downstairs and Basso and Bailey comes up. He said, ''All right. I am ready to go home." I put his coat and overcoat on him, and Bailey said, "Do not forget I am going to put something on his face." He put a piece of blanket over his face and tied it. We took him down and put him in the machine. Bailey says I am to drive; so Bailey and Basso and Zolly are in back.

'After we had driven some, all of a sudden I hear two shots. Bailey said, ''That's another God damn monkey gone." And then I got pretty leery. Bob looked at me and I am getting pretty leery. Bailey said, '' We will stop here and put some weights on him." The weights are in the car. Bailey took care of the weights. I don't know where they came from. Then I drove up the road to the creek bridge; and Bailey said, ''Here it is deep. Stop." With the weights, they couldn't one of them lift him. He fell in the road; and Bailey said, '' Put out those lights, are you crazy. We do not know when some car is coming." So the three of us got him on the rail. He fell in. It was about half-way across the bridge we threw the body, the left side going up. We went back to the bungalow and Susie and Leming were there; and Leming says, "Where is he?" and Bailey says, "Where you will be if you ask them questions." So we left the bungalow and did not come back there. I hereby certify that the foregoing statement is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Signed: Stanley Howell. Witnesses: P. T. Kinsolving, Special Agent; Merrill Klapper, Special Agent; J. J. Shannon, Special Agent.'

Lowering the paper, Abner turned and walked in silence around the table and sat down. Bunting said, 'If the Court please, I desire to offer in evidence the criminal record of Stanley Howell and the criminal record of Robert Basso, for the purpose of giving the jury information on which they may base the penalty in the event that they find the defendants guilty of murder in the first degree.' Judge Vredenburgh said, 'Any objection?'