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
Judges in all courts have a steady stream of disturbed and angry individuals in their courtrooms. The marshals take protection of the judges very seriously, but when you see all the crazies, the angry defendants and their families, you marvel that more judges, prosecutors, etc. are not attacked. The people appearing in court, even if they aren't outright crazy, simply don't understand the system and they can't deal with being unsuccessful. Focusing on any one person who had appeared before this judge wa an obvious mistake. I am sure she has dealt with dozens of these types who might cross the line.
That's not FAIR, man! (c8
What a brilliant straw man.
Your quarrel may lie with the media. I beleive law enforcement has acted very responsibly in this case.
I calls em like I sees em.
"If you think it was simply chance and a broken taillight that caused the cops to stop this guy's van, you're naive. And the cops in the New Jersey case were after the right suspects all along as well."
Speculation
"Sympathetic to Nazi's are you?"
I heard the complete story on Hale, where of all places it was on Chris Matthews. Even Chrisy, the uber right wing hater said the entire case about Hale's conviction stinks.
Should've hired John Edwards.
Hmm... so it's okay to prejudge on a death threat, but not okay to prejudge on a death threat plus a religious edict plus a global culture of committing precisely that sort of murder plus evidence pointing to religious motive. What standard are you working on?
You are probably one of those who jumps off the deep end and blames every trainwreck on muslims, yet thinks the cops are out of line by investigating the possible connection to this crime.
Some people are obtuse. Thank goodness for the rest of us.
Stumbled is right because they sure weren't looking for him.
Has been reported that investigators were looking at Ross. The media may have been fixated on Hale but that doesn't necessarily mean that the people doing the investigation were.
"The media may have been fixated on Hale but that doesn't necessarily mean that the people doing the investigation were."
That's true. It will be interesting to see if John Walsh and the rest of the pundits who had Hale convicted and judged will return to say they were wrong.
It's the same bunch who had the guy judged and convicted of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. He was no angel but he wasn't guilty of the crime he was accused of. That guy died in jail under some pretty severe stress I'm sure.
Now, if someone on FR says they weren't looking at him, then they weren't. Good grief the MMQB that goes on here. I just heard an interview on local talk radio in Milwaukee of the officer who made the traffic stop. He came within inches of being struck by the bullet as it exited the car. He had glass fly into his face.
Because of the circumstance of this particular case and the the phenemona of violent groups of that sort merited invetigation. Why would anyone object to that? Those kooks don't reflect on White Christians in anyway.
Look at the commuter train derailment in LA. Everyone was thinking the guy who did it was an illegal immigrant - and salivating over it, in my opinion. It turned out that the disturbed individual who was responsible was an American citizen.
Nothing. No mea culpa at all.
The attorney general has been alleged to be an acitvist for La Raza - that was a claim from a syndicated columnist that has been repeated here. But it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity - and again, there's been no correction of the record by the folks who make the claim.
I guess some rushes to judgement are acceptable.
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