Letters tie traffic-stop suicide to Lefkow case

[paineinthearse]

Letters tie traffic-stop suicide to Lefkow case
Chicago man, 57, claims judge was target, not her family

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:57 p.m. ET March 10, 2005

CHICAGO - 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. Police Chief Phil Cline said Thursday that two letters and a witness description appear to connect Bart Ross to the killing, but he stopped short of calling the 57-year-old Chicago man the sole suspect.

Cline said authorities believe Ross was the man a witness had described seeing near U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow’s home the day of the killings. “We’re satisfied that there’s information in the letter that would point us to Ross being in Lefkow’s house,” Cline said. The suicide note was found in Ross’ van after he shot himself just outside Milwaukee, the source told the AP on condition of anonymity.

Handwritten note
NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV in Chicago said it also received a handwritten note Thursday signed by a Bart Ross, in which the writer describes breaking into the house of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow around dawn on Feb. 28 with the intent to kill her, the station reported. 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 was also being evicted from his home and had a court date Thursday.

Cline cautioned that authorities were still searching Ross’ Chicago home and comparing crime evidence to him. “We are not prepared at this time to definitely say that any one person in responsible for these homicides,” he said. Lefkow, 61, 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.

more......

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137455/

[Retired AF Dem]

1. Won't get much of a reply on this

since so many have already blamed people that might not have been involved. Guilty without a trial is rampant here.

[Amfortas]

2. Suspect in judge kin killings had grudge

www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11103790.htm


SHARON COHEN

Associated Press

CHICAGO - He would come to court and sit quietly in the front row, an angry man with a disfigured face, a tormented mind - and an all-consuming grudge against the doctors he claimed had botched his cancer treatment and ruined his life.

Bart A. Ross, the 57-year-old Polish emigre who killed himself in a Milwaukee suburb Thursday, left a suicide note in his van saying that he had killed the husband and mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, Chicago police said.

Lefkow was one of several judges who had ruled against him in a long-running series of medical malpractice suits. Lefkow's decision was upheld in January by a federal appeals court.

The judge found the bodies of her husband Michael Lefkow, 64, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, in their North Side home when she returned the night of Feb. 28. WMAQ-TV reported Thursday it had received a letter from Ross in which he said he had broken into Lefkow's house in the pre-dawn hours, intending to kill the judge, but had instead encountered her family.

[Catch22Dem]

3. Hey, Retired AF Dem

Jeez, you have 400+ posts, and I've never seen ya. Shows you how active I've been on DU these days. Anyway, a belated welcome to DU! :toast: I was 8 years USAF. Langley and Kadena (and many points in between) F-15 Avionics Backshop.

[Retired AF Dem]

7. Thanks Catch

Myself, Nellis, Chanute, Ramstein, Rhein Main, Hess-Oldendorf, izmir turkey.

[Catch22Dem]

8. Good stuff!

Hope to run into you more around here.

[tinonedown]

4. Wow

I guessed wrong. Wasn't alone, there were many giving speeches and writing threads about the white supremacists. MSM led us that way, though.

[AndyTiedye]

5. He Wrote a "Suicide Note" In Anticipation of Getting Stopped??

He just assumed that the cops would know he was guilty as soon as they saw him,
so he kept a suicide note and a gun handy while driving, just in case.

Yeah, that's it.:crazy:

[Retired AF Dem]

6. DNA match up helps

[emad]

9. Suicide man shot judge's relatives out of revenge

March 11, 2005

Times
From James Bone in New York

THE search for the killer of a judge’s family took a dramatic turn yesterday when a cancer patient who had lost a case that she heard shot himself during a routine traffic stop.

The man, identified as Bart Ross, killed himself when his minivan was stopped in the Milwaukee suburbs on Wednesday evening. “While approaching the driver, a single gunshot was fired from inside the vehicle,” Dean Puschnig, the local police chief, said.

A Chicago television station, WMAQ-TV, said it had received a handwritten note signed by a Bart Ross in which the writer described breaking into the house of Judge Joan Lefkow around dawn on February 28 with the intent to kill her.

In the letter, Mr Ross said he had waited all day in a room in the basement and shot the judge’s husband after being discovered. When Judge Lefkow’s mother heard the gunshot and called out to her son-in-law, he shot her too.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1520460,00.html

[emad]

10. Guardian:Suicide link to judge in murder puzzle

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday March 11, 2005
The Guardian

A man who killed himself after he was pulled over by police for a routine traffic violation in Wisconsin may have been linked to the murder of the husband and mother of a Chicago judge, the authorities said yesterday.

In the wake of the murders on February 28, suspicion had focused on a white supremacist who had been jailed for a plot to kill Judge Joan Lefkow.

However, the motorist, who shot himself in the head on Wednesday evening after his van was stopped by police for a faulty tail light, did not immediately appear to have links to white supremacists.

"Our investigators discovered some material that led us to believe that this man could be involved or have some vital information ", said Dean Puschnig, the police chief in the town of West Allis where the shooting took place.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1435149,00.html

[TR Fan]

11. Boy, this thread sank like a stone...

It seems there's no more interest in this topic when the killer turns out not to be a right-wing Aryan Nazi, but rather, a demented would-be victim of medical malpractice who, evidently, characterized the Judge as a Nazi.

This guy's complaint was so bad that he couldn't even get a single ambulance-chaser to take it on, so he ended up writing it himself. Hard to imagine.

[RegexReader]

14. both are equally demented

and the Aryan Brotherhood uses 88 to signify the highest IQ found amoung their members

RegexReader
$USA =~ s/Republican/Democrat/ig;

[paineinthearse]

12. PBS Newshour tonight

Protecting Judges

Kwame Holman reports on today’s courthouse shooting of a judge in Atlanta and the recent slayings of a Chicago judge’s family members. Then, Senior Correspondent Margaret Warner speaks with Jane Roth, judge on the third circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Frederick Calhoun, author and security trainer, about how best to protect judges.

[Chicago Democrat]

13. Lesson here is: Don't jump to conclusions!!! A shame on our rabid

guilty until proven innocent, Nancy Grace style news.