Joseph Majczek and Theodore Marcinkiewicz were two Polish-American men arrested and convicted of the murder of 57-year-old Chicago police officer William D. Lundy on December 9, 1932. Initially, officials held 10 youths in custody on suspicion of killing the officer. Some 11½ years later in 1944, following the intervention of Chicago Times reporters John McPhaul and James McGuire, both men were exonerated of the crime. The real killers have never been identified. The details of the case formed the basis of the 1948 film Call Northside 777 starring James Stewart, Lee J. Cobb and Richard Conte. Background 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. Criminal case McGuire first suspected there may have been a wrongful conviction when he learned that Majczek and Marcinkiewicz had not gone to the electric chair for the officer's murder but were sentenced to 99 years each at Joliet. This might have indicated that the trial judge had concerns about their convictions. On October 11, McGuire read notes that Majczek had written in prison. In these, Majczek stated that following his conviction, the trial judge, Charles P. Molthrop, told Majczek that he believed a miscarriage of justice had occurred and promised him a new trial. Additionally, Majczek stated that a certain