The Bizzare Case of Harold Kagy

Cleveland, Feb.23 – Judge William H. McGannon, in a statement issued today, announced that he would resign as Chief Justice of the Municipal Court on or about March 15. The statement was made in reply to a resolution adopted by the Cleveland Bar Association last Monday asking him to resign.  Feb.24, 1921

The New York Times

The Eighteenth Amendment and it’s enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act helped make downtown Cleveland the place to be at night. Weekend nights were especially busy, lots of traffic, both pedestrian and automotive, and streetcars running up and down Euclid Ave. every ten minutes. The area around Public Square was the center of activity, as people visited the numerous speakeasys that downtown Cleveland offered.

In the early minutes of Sunday morning, May 8, 1920, three men stood near a parked Cadillac, near the corner of East 9th and Hamilton. A shot pierced the night and one of the men fell.

Harold Kagy, a local automobile salesman and owner of a repair shop, was shot in the back. The .38 caliber slug entered at an angle near his tenth rib and punctured his lung. He staggered and yelled out, “My God, I’m shot!” before falling to the sidewalk. Two men rushed to help Kagy along with two plainclothes policemen, Walter Schould and James Perko, who had heard the shot.

At first Kagy claimed not to have seen his assailant, but as Schould and Perko rushed him to Lakeside Hospital, he gave a statement identifying Johnny Joyce, the notorious Cleveland bootlegger as the shooter. Joyce was easy to spot, he had a reputation as a sharp dresser, and was identified as one of the three men standing by the Cadillac. He had also been observed running from the scene by several people that recognized him.

The third man was not identified, but Cleveland Police quickly established that the Cadillac belonged to Judge William H. McGannon, Chief Justice of the Municipal Court. McGannon graduated from Western Reserve Law School in 1898 and was appointed County Examiner that same year. In 1905 he was selected as Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and two years later elected Police Court Judge.

He was elected as the first Chief Justice of the Municipal Court in 1911 and reelected for a six year term in 1915. McGannon would likely be the victor in the upcoming mayoral election of 1921.

Cleveland Police detectives arrived at the judge’s home ninety minutes after the shooting. Strangely, they found the judge’s wife awake along with the judge’s brothers. McGannon was sleeping, when awakened, it was obvious to detectives, that the judge had been drinking.

When questioned about his parked car, he told police he had been with Kagy earlier in the evening so that he could experience the problem that he was having with his Cadillac. While road testing the car they stopped at a cafe where Kagy ate and he himself had a very small brandy.

From there they went to Ferguson’s Cafe, on Euclid Ave. where they met up with Joyce. According to the judge, Kagy had very little to drink, while Joyce was drinking heavily, as for himself, not a drop.

The three left Ferguson’s around midnight, with Kagy driving the Cadillac. McGannon said he got out of the car on East Ninth and walked to Public Square to catch the streetcar home. He said he got to bed around 1am.

Back at Lakeside Hospital, Kagy stuck to his story, accusing Joyce and denying the judge was present at the time of the shooting. The following afternoon, Joyce turned himself in to police and was taken to lakeside to be identified by Kagy. Kagy told police, “That’s the man that shot me.” Joyce denied the allegation, telling Kagy, “You know who really did it. Why don’t you tell them who it really was? Why don’t you tell them the truth?”

The hunt for the third man intensified when Kagy died from an infection in his lung on May 23. Rumours on the street and in the newspapers pointed at McGannon as being that man. The judge denied the accusations and police did not subpoena him. Joyce was indicted on a second degree murder charge on June 4.

The trial took place in  November and offered a very different version of the events of May 7-8. Joyce stated he had been drinking for a couple of days before meeting up with Kagy and the judge at Ferguson’s. they drank together there and then left a couple of hours later in the Cadillac with Kagy at the wheel.

The car stopped at East 9th and Hamilton and Kagy and the judge helped a very inebriated Joyce out of the car. Joyce said he was leaning against a telegraph pole and remembers the judge and Kagy arguing over money.

He heard a noise, but wandered away from the two not realizing Kagy had been shot. The defense and the prosecution offered a variety of less than reputable witnesses. In the end the jury delivered a verdict of not guilty.

The day after the trial, the prosecutor pushed for further investigation of the case. McGannon knew he was to be the main focus of the investigation and began searching for witnesses for his defense. When he was indicted for murder later in November, wife of Cleveland prizefighter Johnny Kilbane posted his $10,000 bail.

The trial began on December 14, and basically mimicked Joyce’s trial with the roles of the two men reversed. The prosecution did call a surprise witness. Miss Mary (May) Neely, was a practical nurse, who claimed to have been following the judge that evening. She said she had known the judge for many years, and her activity that night had something to do with a personal relationship she had or had with the married judge. At any rate she delivered potentially damning testimony about the shooting.

Not to be outdone, the defense offered testimony from the judge’s brother who claimed to have seen him walking on two seperate occasions that night. Another “witness” who claimed to have seen the judge from an improbable position, was labeled by cleveland newspapers as “the man with the Xray eyes.

The witnesses came one after another, mostly contradicting one another. The jury finally went out Dec.29. after 53 ballots, they remained deadlocked and a mistrial was declared Dec.31.

The second trial was more of the same, except for the testimony of May Neely. Under examination by the prosecutor, her memory of the events vanished. There were other witnesses for the prosecution, but Neely’s testimony or rather lack of it was the deciding factor. After twenty hours of deliberation by the jury, McGannon was found not guilty.

This case made national news and the outrage over the verdict was just as widespread. Government agents came to Cleveland to investigate and within weeks, perjury charges were filed against McGannon and the witnesses who provided his alibi.

That case went better for the prosecution and McGannon was found guilty. He was sentenced  to 1 – 10 years to be served at Ohio Penitentiary. He served 19 months before being released on medical grounds. To his dying day, he proclaimed his innocence. Even though his presence at the scene was confirmed, no one could confirm with certainty that he was responsible for pulling the trigger.

For more information about this case, see the New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com, the Cleveland Press, teachingcleveland.org, John Stark Bellamy II’s book They Died Crawling. Bellamy is an outstanding story teller and historian. His books shine a light on the darker side of Cleveland history.