Majczek and Marcinkiewicz

Joseph Majczek and Theodore Marcinkiewicz were arrested and convicted of the murder of Chicago Traffic Police Officer William D. Lundy on December 9, 1932. Initially, officials held 10 youths in custody on suspicion of killing the 57-year-old Lundy. Some 11-1/2 years later in 1944, following the intervention of Chicago Times reporters John McPhaul and James McGuire, both men were exonerated of the crime.

The details of the case were used as the basis of the 1948 film Call Northside 777 starring James Stewart, Lee J. Cobb and Richard Conte.

On October 10, 1944, a classified advertisement appeared in the Chicago Times: "$5,000 REWARD FOR KILLERS OF OFFICER LUNDY ON DEC. 9, 1932. CALL GRO 1758, 12-7 P.M." The ad was brought to the attention of the city editor Karin Walsh, who assigned seasoned police reporter James McGuire to dig into the story further. McGuire researched the case and learned that Officer Lundy had been murdered on December 9, 1932 and that Joseph Majczek, 24, and Theodore Marcinkiewicz, 25, were convicted in 1933 at the Cook County Superior Court.

The convictions (which the Illinois Supreme Court had affirmed as People v. Majczek, 360 Ill. 261 (1935)) were based largely on the testimony of eyewitness Vera Walush. She was recorded as the proprietor of a "delicatessen" (a euphemism for a speakeasy) where the crime occurred. Though both defendants presented strong alibis based on a number of witnesses saying they were elsewhere when the crime took place, both were convicted.

Upon calling the number from the ad, McGuire reached Majczek's mother Tillie. McGuire realized there was potential for a human interest story developing when he learned that the $5,000 on offer had been earned by the mother scrubbing floors at the Commonwealth Edison Company.

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