Did a Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Get Away with Two Cold-Blooded Slayings?
By Robert A. Waters
The Murders
On October 20, 1941, in Media, Pennsylvania, two elderly women suffered a brutal attack that would ultimately kill them.
In late afternoon, Elizabeth Watson, 83, and her sister, Belle Geary, 80, walked toward home after dining at a local restaurant. Elizabeth had long been widowed and Belle never married. As they made their way through a secluded alley toward their residence, the sisters realized someone was following them. Suddenly, the stalker blitzed the women. Using a rock, he beat Elizabeth to the ground, then pummeled Belle. As the octogenarians lay bleeding, the assailant flung the stone at Belle’s head, knocking her cold. Then he fled. He took nothing.
Someone heard screams and called police.
Elizabeth suffered a skull fracture while Belle’s lacerated face and head bled profusely. An ambulance crew raced them to Chester Hospital. Three days later, Elizabeth died. Belle lingered for nearly four months before she passed away. The coroner said her death was a direct result of the assault.
Investigators quickly identified a suspect, 14-year-old John “Jackie” Leeds. On the day of the murder, he had escaped from Glen Mills Reformatory, a nearby reform school for juvenile delinquents. Another inmate, who had also escaped that day, ratted him out to authorities. The Republican and Herald quoted District Attorney William B. McClenachen: “Leeds has made a complete confession and admitted the murder of Mrs. Watson and severely beating her sister. He told us he did the job by himself.” In fact, he wrote out one confession, and signed two others written by officers. In addition, the other teenager who fled the reformatory at the same time as Leeds told detectives his friend had bragged about killing Elizabeth and showed off a “roll of bills.”
The next day, investigators took Leeds from the jail intending to participate in a reenactment of the crime. However, before he could lead them to the crime scene, cops ended the walk-through after local media descended en masse.
Prosecutors thought they had a slam dunk case and held Jackie Leeds without bond on a first-degree murder charge. In fact, the District Attorney was so confident in his case he went on vacation.
But the local justice system had never reckoned with a mom like Margaret Leeds Braden. Immediately after her son’s arrest, she spoke with reporters. Sobbing, she said, “He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t do it.” And with those words hanging in the air, she hired E. Leroy van Roden, one of the finest attorneys in Pennsylvania.
Before leaving, McClenachen released one of Jackie Leeds’ confessions to reporters. It read: “I was broke and hungry and I saw one of [the sisters] carrying a pocketbook. I grabbed at it and the ladies resisted. One of them hit at me with her cane. I got mad and hit her with my fist. Then I picked up a rock and beat the one lady (i.e., Elizabeth Watson) over the head until she fell down. Then I threw the rock at the other one and hit her in the head. Then I kept on beating them. It was horrible the way I beat them. They were both unconscious. I got frightened and ran away.”
His mother responded: “If they got a confession from Johnny, they beat it out of him. They beat him at Glen Mills although he is just a boy. After he left Glen Mills, he walked all the way to the home of my brother, a few blocks from ours, and slept in my brother’s car. We found him there…He still had on the uniform that he had on when he left school. There was not a scratch on him except the black and blue spots from the beating school attendants gave him that caused him to leave.”
The Trials
On January 19, 1942, just three months after the crimes, Leeds stood trial for the murder of Elizabeth Watson. The prosecution relied heavily on his written confessions, as well the testimony of Charles Mitchell, the boy who escaped the same day John did. Mitchell told the court he saw John at Broad Street Railroad Station in Philadelphia and John had flashed a wad of cash. After allegedly revealing to Mitchell that he’d killed an old “broad,” John supposedly gave his friend one dollar.
The defense tackled the written confessions first. John took the stand and said he did indeed write the confessions, but only because interrogating detectives threatened to arrest his mother if he didn’t confess. He said they told him his mother was already in custody and could be given life in prison or even the death penalty. John, who did not look like a “hardened” criminal, made a good impression on the jurors. Cops, suddenly placed on the defensive, denied they’d coerced the teenager.
The second strategy for the defense was to show that John was
nowhere near the location where the octogenarians were attacked. The Republican
and Herald reported John’s mother “denied that he was in the Media area at
the time. She contended that he had walked 20 miles from the reformatory to the
home of her brother in Germantown.” Her brother, a respected businessman, told
the court he found John sleeping in his car the following morning. In addition,
John Dickinson, a truck driver, testified he gave Leeds a ride from Westtown,
16 miles from Media, to Philadelphia the night of the slayings.
On January 26, the jury acquitted Leeds.
The decision stunned Judge Albert Dutton McDade. The Delaware County Daily Times reported that Dutton “denounced the verdict from the bench and told the jurors they were guilty of a ‘miscarriage of justice.’” He said he’d heard that Leeds had molested a nurse at Glen Mills Reformatory and was a danger to the community.
On the same day he was found not guilty of Elizabeth Watson’s murder, Miss Belle Geary died. The coroner told reporters her death was a direct result of the beating.
In June, 1942, the court committed John to Fairview State Hospital where he was diagnosed as “mentally ill with criminal tendencies.” The hospital released him a few months later.
Immediately after leaving the hospital, prosecutors ordered Leeds to stand trial for the murder of Belle Geary. This time, the prosecution’s case was even weaker than before. Charles Mitchell, the reformatory inmate who claimed Leeds confessed to him, could not testify since he was fighting with the United States Marines in the South Pacific.
And this time, the defense’s case was stronger than at the first trial. The lawyers had located additional witnesses who claimed to have seen Leeds in Philadelphia at the time of the attack.
Once again, the “bad boy” was acquitted.
His mother celebrated with her son, telling the press, “I told you so.”
Aftermath
John “Jackie” Leeds had accomplished something few people have. He’d been acquitted of two murders in separate trials. Now all he had to do was live a clean life. Alas, he seemed to not be able to do that.
After his acquittal, Leeds joined the United States Army.
On December 4, 1945, Mrs. Anna E. Reiker had just returned to
her home in Germantown. Her husband was overseas in the military. The Delaware
County Daily Times reported “John J. (Jackie) Leeds, now in Army uniform,
who was acquitted of a charge of murdering the aged Geary sisters in Media four
years ago, was arrested in Germantown Monday on charges of attacking a
soldier’s wife.”
The victim told investigators that before she removed her coat, she heard a knock on the door. “As I opened the door,” she said, “a man in uniform grabbed me by the neck and threw me to the floor. I struggled and he broke my glasses and I started to scream.” She told investigators the stranger punched her in the face several times, then attempted to pull her to him and kiss her.
Fortunately for Mrs. Reiker, her two sisters were visiting and ran to her aid. When he saw them, Leeds fled as one of her sisters called police.
As responding officers spoke to Mrs. Reiker, Leeds arrived back at the house. He said he wanted to “apologize” to his victim. Cops, noticing Mrs. Reiker's bruised and battered face, quickly arrested Leeds and charged him “with aggravated assault and battery and attempt to ravish.”
On December 12, 1945, Leeds went on trial. Although he was acquitted of “attempt to ravish,” the jury convicted him of “aggravated assault and battery.” The judge sentenced Leeds to three years in prison.
On November 26, 1947, the Philadelphia Times-Tribune reported the following: “John (Jackie) Leeds, twenty-two, who as a teenager was acquitted in the slayings of two Media sisters, was sentenced to fifteen to thirty years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary charges. Burglaries of a private house, two churches and a parked car netted $4.35 in cash and a chalice. A lunacy commission which examined the youth said he was not insane but had a ‘psychic illness.’”
At this point, John Leeds disappeared from history.
No comments:
Post a Comment