Police Get DNA Match in Judge Family Killings

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Judge_Bodies.html

CHICAGO — A DNA match from a cigarette butt convinced police that a Chicago electrician was the killer of a federal judge's husband and mother, authorities said.

The cigarette butt found in Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's house was matched to the electrician, Bart Ross, who killed himself during a traffic stop in Wisconsin this week, and the evidence points to him as the lone killer, police spokesman David Bayless said.

Authorities initially focused on associates of white supremacist Matt Hale, who was convicted last year of soliciting Judge Lefkow's murder. But a letter found Wednesday night after Ross's suicide instead tied him to the killings, police Superintendent Phil Cline said.

Hale's father, Russell, said he felt terrible for the Lefkow family but "great relief" for his own family when he learned of Ross' link to the slayings.

[Pachamama]

1. What a tragedy...but I'm glad they found out who the killer was & that the

killer is no longer out there as a possible threat to the family or anyone else. While its a relief to the Lefkow family, imagine the sorrow that is left for all, including the killer's family, who has now lost their father and will remember him as a killer....a dead one. And Judge Lefkow and her daughters have lost their father and mother/grandmother. :cry: For what?

And you know what folks - there are going to be a lot of "Bart Ross's" out there in the coming years after this Bankruptcy Bill....there will be a lot of people "ruined" and desperate and the suicide rate is going to go up and so is the rate of them "taking people with them".... :eyes:

[Kagemusha]

4. You mean like in Atlanta today?

I'm just asking, not knowing anything about that case. But um, isn't it going to change things if judges are under siege in this country?

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[plant-fan]

3. Yes, who knows how long it might have taken to solve given that

everyone in the world knew Matt Hale et al were guilty.

[Duer 157099]

5. How.... convenient?

Just sounds very suspicious to me

[daleo]

9. I have to admit, that was my first reaction too.

A mentally disturbed guy with a very peculiar motive, a detailed suicide note, and a successful suicide (dead men tell no tales). I hope an independent coroner gives this more than a cursory look. In Bushland, it is hard to take things at face value.

Besides the Matt Hale think, it would be interesting to know if this judge has been involved in any other high profile (political or corporate) cases.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. The judge was reportedly helping a prosecutor on the Plame investigation

I dunno, but this guy just screams "patsy."

[daleo]

11. The Plame case - that would be significant.

And patsy is just the word.

[Chicago Democrat]

12. Read the tribune article and scream " I was wrong"

jumping to wrong conclusions so often makes DU not credible on other things.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0503110284mar11,1,1855418.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[daleo]

13. I didn't see any reference to the Plame case.

If he was a patsy, the things in the article could fit into a frameup. I am not saying he was, though, just that there are some funny features to the case.

You have to admit it is odd he would go after the judge rather than the doctors who he maintain disfigured him. More specifically, the judges family. It is also odd that he would then have a huge case of killer's remorse, commit suicide, and have handy notes to explain it all. The fact that one note was to a TV station is a complication, but it is not insurmountable for a conspiracy.

If the judge doesn't have connections to any high profile government cases, then I can probably accept it. But if the judge is connected to a high profile case, it won't rest easy in my mind.

As to DU's credibility, our counterparts in the media and the internet would claim a proof of the Pythagorean theorom was a conspiracy theory if they read it here. I just can't get worked up about what they think.

[Toucano]

6. What was the motive?

Did Ross have any dealings with the Judge?

[Charlie Brown]

7. Here's what the article says

Lefkow last fall dismissed a rambling lawsuit in which Ross claimed that cancer treatments had disfigured his face and that the U.S. judicial system, which dismissed his medical malpractice claims, "is the Nazi style criminal and violator" of his civil rights. Lefkow's ruling was upheld by a federal appeals court in January.

Ross, a 57-year-old Polish immigrant with no known ties to extremist groups, shot himself to death on a suburban Milwaukee street after an officer pulled him over for broken brake lights.

"We came upon a note, written presumably by the victim, where he implicated himself in the murders of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey," Cline said. "In the note, the offender outlined in some detail the events of Monday, February 28th."

[DinahMoeHum]

8. This guy Ross obviously felt he got screwed by the system. . .

so he took matters into his own hands. I heard on the news that he had a "hit list" of judges, doctors, and lawyers.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened - and I daresay it will not be the last. This sort of shit may be just be the beginning of things as more and more people wind up in serious debt trouble and cannot declare bankruptcy anymore or find any other source of relief. Thanks to Chimpy & Co.


:grr: