"That's the dirty bastard that killed my brother" - An injured Nick Kuesis immediately recognizes and points to James Morelli, who killed his brother and shot him in the neck

"That's the dirty bastard that killed my brother" - An injured Nick Kuesis immediately recognizes and points to James Morelli, who killed his brother and shot him in the neck

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"That's the dirty bastard that killed my brother" - An injured Nick Kuesis immediately recognizes and points to James Morelli, who killed his brother and shot him in the neck. Morelli and two other men were implicated in five shootings, three of which were fatal, Chicago, 1947.

Thomas Daley, 42, was the leader of a small street gang. James Morelli and Lowell Fentress, both 19, were members of said gang. On December 12, 1947, Daley brought Morelli and Fentress to the garage of 33-year-old John Kuesis.

The men planned to enact revenge on John since had tipped the police off about an $800 robbery that Daley and Fentress committed in September. Daley and Fentress had been tried for robbery based on John's statement, but were acquitted.

Four other men who were friends and associates of John were present: Theodore Callis, Emil Schmeichel, Frank Baker, and John's brother, Nick. Morelli held the four men at gunpoint while Fentress and Daley beat John. However, when he fought them both off, Daley ended the fight by shooting and killing John.

Daley, Morelli, and Fentress decided to kill the others to eliminate witnesses to the murder. They forced them into their car and drove them around the Chicago suburbs for 8 hours. After finding an isolated spot, the trio shot all four men, threw their bodies out of the car, and left them for dead. Callis and Schmeichel died. However, Nick and Baker survived with critical injuries.

Afterwards, Fentress dropped off Morelli and Daley at Morelli's apartment. He then went back to his own apartment. Later that night, police approached Fentress's apartment to question him about the shootings. Fentress surrendered and gave up the address of Morelli's apartment.

When the police approached Morelli's apartment, they found that he was gone, but Daley was there. They fatally shot Daley as he tried to escape through a window. Morelli surrendered the next day, telling officers that "I'd rather sit in a jail cell than lie on a slab in the morgue."

Fentress was very cooperative with the police after his arrest. He explained why the shootings happened and showed them around the crime scene.

Morelli and Fentress tried to put most of the blame on Daley, calling him the ringleader. They said they didn't have it in them to carry out a mass shooting.

Morelli said the only shot he fired was when his gun accidentally discharged. Fentress said Daley had ordered him to give Nick and Baker a coup de grâce after Daley wounded them. He claimed that he'd fired into the ground next to their heads. He then said Morelli had fired several shots into the victims.

Officials agreed that Daley was the ringleader. However, they deemed all three men equally guilty. The local prosecutor said he would pursue death sentences for Morelli and Fentress. In 1948, they were tried jointly for killing John. During their trial, both men continued to blame Daley. Nick and Baker testified against them.

Morelli and Fentress were quickly found guilty of murder. However, after deliberating, the jury spared their lives. They were each sentenced to 199 years in prison instead. The judge had nothing to say to Fentress. However, regarding Morelli, he remarked, "If anyone should have 'burned', as they say in the street, it is this young man."

In 1949, Morelli and Fentress were tried jointly for killing Schmeichel. During the trial, Baker said the other men pleaded for mercy and that Daley had remarked earlier that evening, "I'm going to get me a mess of Greeks." Once more, both men were found guilty of murder.

During sentencing, Morelli's attorney, Charles Bellows, pleaded with the jury to be merciful. Both Morelli and Fentress, he said, were products of their environment: slums and broken homes. The prosecution said the law was made for teenagers as well. While feeling sorry for them was understandable given their young ages, he said that the jury should not compromise in cases this brutal.

After deliberating, the jury condemned Morelli to death. Fentress received an additional 199 years. While imposing the sentences, the judge told Fentress that he would've gladly sentenced him to death. I am not sure why Fentress was spared, but not Morelli. The jury never explained their reasoning.

I assume it was due to Fentress's earlier cooperation. Another factor could've been given this photo, Morelli clearly personally shot the men.

Morelli's appeals were unsuccessful. He had a clemency hearing with the Illinois Parole Board in July 1949. His attorneys called his trial was unfair, since local newspapers repeatedly called the killers "mad dogs", which biased the jurors against them.

Charles Bellows asked the board to vote for Morelli's sentence to be commuted to life in prison. He presented a clemency petition signed by 1600 people who lived in Morelli's neighborhood. The local prosecutor urged the board not to intervene. He said Schmeichel had been killed "in true gangland fashion" and that his murder was "one of the most vicious in the history of Chicago."

The board declined to recommend clemency.

Thirty hours before he was scheduled to be executed, two of Morelli's friends tried to smuggle him hacksaws and a gun to help him escape. However, the plot failed. The day before his execution, Morelli abruptly claimed he was completely innocent.

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