Author: admin

“As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free.”
William Shakespeare
The Tempest – Act 5

The annals of true crime are filled with interesting stories. Sometimes these stories provide the seed for cinema. I recently stumbled onto one of these stories. It is too compelling not to share.
In 1948 famed Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart was featured in the movie Call Northside 777. The movie relates a true story. Presented in a semi-documentary style, with frequent narration, much of the movie was filmed on the north side of Chicago using actual locations where the events in real life took place. This movie falls into the category of Film Noir (French for dark film – a cinematic style used in crime dramas of the 1940s-1950s, often shot in black and white). This movie is worth watching (you can find it on YouTube). Here is the backstory…
On October 10, 1944, an ad appeared in the classified section of the Chicago Times. It read – “$5,000 reward for killers of Officer Bundy on Dec. 9, 1932. Call GRO-1758, 12-7 p.m.” The ad was placed by a Mrs. Tillie Majczek, whose son Joe Majczek, along with his friend Ted Marcinkiewiez, had been convicted of the crime and was serving a 99-year sentence in the Illinois State Penitentiary. Believing her son innocent, Mrs. Majczek toiled nightly scrubbing floors, saving $5,000 reward money after working 11 years in hopes of solving the crime and freeing her son.
The actual murder that triggered the events in this story took place inside a delicatessen located at 4312 S. Ashland Avenue during an attempted robbery in December of 1932. Chicago police officer William D. Lundy was shot by two intruders as he tried to stop the robbery. The state’s key witness, Mrs. Vera Walush, owner of the deli, was operating an illegal speakeasy on the premises (a speakeasy was an illicit establishment selling liquor during prohibition).
Eleven years later, the ad placed by Mrs. Majczek caught the eyes of two veteran reporters at the Chicago Times newspaper and out of curiosity they started digging…and writing.
In the movie, as is normal in film, creative license was taken with certain details added and names changed. And the phone number from the ad, which became the title of the movie, was changed to Northside 777. Note – Before the 1950s, phone numbers were preceded by letters indicating the telephone exchange serving a particular area. Full words were used to help customers remember the telephone exchange name. Later exchange names were dropped as U.S. phone systems switched to area codes and all-number calling.
Among the troubling details real-life reporters Jack McPhaul and James McGuire dug up (in the movie Jimmy Stewart plays their role as reporter P.J. McNeal) was the fact that Vera Walush had originally told the police she could not identify the holdup men. Joe Majczek, on probation at the time for a robbery committed when he was a juvenile that netted him $2, had been placed in a police line-up. Twice Vera Walush had failed to pick him out as a suspect.
Later, Vera Walush suddenly remembered that one of the killers was Ted Marcinkiewiez, a regular at her deli and friend of Joe Majczek. It was noted that she had only identified the two men as the killers after the police threatened to arrest her for bootlegging if she couldn’t identify any suspects. To save herself, Vera lied under oath.
The reporters also learned that a detective involved in the case informed the presiding judge during the trial that Joe and Ted had been framed. The judge pledged to push for a new trial, but was advised that if he did this, his political career would come to an end.
It is believed that these two innocent men had been convicted after city leaders, fearful that violence was tarnishing Chicago’s image and causing political damage, decided to “do something.” Six murders had been committed in the city the week Officer Lundy was killed. Homicide was a growing problem in Chicago.
When the truth came out, Majczek’s story was splashed across the pages of daily newspapers everywhere. And after all the evidence was presented to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Governor Dwight H. Green granted Majczek a full pardon. On August 14, 1945, Joe Majczek walked out of prison a free man. Five years later, his friend Ted Marcinkiewiez