Posted on 03/10/2005 10:59:25 AM PST by TheOtherOne
Source: Man Claims Responsibility for Slayings of Judge's Family
Published: Mar 10, 2005 CHICAGO (AP) - 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.
Lefkow had ruled against Ross in a civil case involving a medical-malpractice lawsuit, a ruling that was upheld by a federal appeals court in January. Ross, 57, was also being evicted from his home and had a court date Thursday.
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.
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.
In the letter to WMAQ, Ross said he waited all day in a utility room in the basement and shot the judge's husband after being discovered. 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 found in the van 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 note also included details in the slayings that were not released to the public, Tribune Deputy Managing Editor James Warren said in an interview on CNN.
Ross was stopped by police 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 the van contained a suicide note that also listed other judges.
The Tribune also reported that about 300 .22-caliber shells were found in the van. Investigators found three casings of the same caliber in the Lefkow home.
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.
Ross was also about to face eviction from his home, according to Cook County Sheriff's spokesman Bill Cunningham. A lawsuit was filed in housing court Feb. 23 seeking to evict Ross, and sheriff's deputies tried three times in early March to serve Ross with court papers. The case was due in court Thursday.
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."
AP-ES-03-10-05 1330EST
Oh, you mean, like, the Oklahoma City federal-building bombing?
Swarthy men? What swarthy men renting vans? We're looking for the vast right-wing conspiracy.
I heard that Mr. Leftkow was in a cast and that it would have been difficult for him to have gotten to the basement at all. A local radio host talked about how cruel it was that he was hurded into the basement in the first place. But this says that he went down there on his own. Earlier in the piece, though, it says that he was shot on the basement floor which has a different meaning to me. If this guy broke in at 4:30 am, then surely he had an opportunity to kill the judge had he wished to do so. So killing her family was the desire all along?
Gee whiz! When you are convicted of and awaiting sentancing for arranging to knock off a Federal Judge, and said judge's family is shot to death, lo and behold suspicion is going to fall on you.
Sympathetic to Nazi's are you?
All judges have kooks appearing before them yet few have serious death threats against them much less an actual murder attempt made on them. Therefore, I have to wonder what there is about this judge that resulted in her having 2 men (both possibly kooks, possibly not) threatening and trying to kill her in a relatively short frame of time. I don't believe in coincidences. Something is strange in this and I think perhaps her record needs to be reviewed.
The only reason Hale was involved with her is because she happened to be the one who presided over his copyright case. And she initilaly ruled for him until a higher court overturned her ruling.
Too bad he couldn't admit to killing JonBenet Ramsey while he was at it.
"Sympathetic to Nazi's are you?"
Somehow I doubt it but I prefer people to be convicted of actual crimes they commit not because we don't like them.
"the prime suspects until the police stumbled on this guy."
Stumbled is right because they sure weren't looking for him.
I don't think the police - or the media - should be fingering anybody without substantial evidence. Compare and contrast the behavior in this case, and in the DC sniper case, with the NJ case in which a family of Copts was murdered not long after they were threatened in a very similar way by Muslims. Consistency in law enforcement is a requirement of the 14th Amendment, and my objection is the double standard in which suspects are only identified if they appear to be white.
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.
He should have moved to Montana and joined the militia. The type is familiar; these are the people who will want to show you their 8 inch thick file of absolute proof that the Constitution is not valid and green men are ruling the world from Area 51.
What a bunch of horsesh*t. I see suspects "identified" all the time by the police and the media "appear to be" other then white.
No one fingered anyone. If you arrange to have someone killed and they are murdered by someone else, suspicion is inevitably going to fall on you. Go figure.
Sure, it is the judge's fault. POSSIBLE kooks?
Both men are (were) without any shred of doubt kooks -- and psychopathic killers.
As we can see now, the results of prejudging the situation with insufficient evidence is that the real killer would have gotten away.
Did ya hear about Martha being released from jail by chance?
He fingered, arrested, tried, convicted and executed himself.
Apparently he had some remnant of a conscience.
As to his race, it's irrelevant.
"Gee whiz! When you are convicted of and awaiting sentancing for arranging to knock off a Federal Judge, and said judge's family is shot to death, lo and behold suspicion is going to fall on you."
Agreed. Matthew Hale's followers were known to have been violent. Did any of those complaining about the suspicion falling on Mr. Hale ever hear of Benjamin Smith? Hale had threatened the judge - that is why he was awaiting sentencing - they got it on TAPE.
Sounds to me that you would be quite happy to have allowed the actual killer to go on about his merry way as long as you got to see Hale convicted for it.
I don't know what you call it but it sure ain't justice.
Very true. I remember posting caution when these sordid murders were announced when some were jumping to conclusions about who did it and why.
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