THE PRISONER SMILED

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4326, 10 August 1937, Page 7

THE PRISONER SMILED

Joseph Swanda ; 30 years old, Nebraska farmhand, who killed Sidney Adelman, a Berwyn automobile salesman, who was demonstrating a car to him in 1933, was sentenced to 199 years in prison for the murder by Judge Peter H. Schwaba in Chicago. Swanda, who had pleaded guilty and thrown himself on the mercy of the court, was visibly relieved at having escaped the death penalty demanded by Assistant State’s Attorney Mai Goughian. “ What’s that? ” Swanda cried impulsively as sentence was pronounced. His moody demeanour changed as the realisation dawned on him that he was to be permitted to live, and he was led away smiling. Mrs Jane Adelman, widow of Swanda’s victim, who was present with her son, Robert, 12 years old, burst into tears as she heard the sentence. But outside the courtroom she declared that she was satisfied with the verdict.

! Swanda confessed that he came to I Chicago from his home with a pistol 1 and a set of Nebraska license plates to get a car. On August 22, 1933, he visited a Berwyn saleroom and was taken for a demonstration ride by Adelman.

Later in the day Adelman’s body, with two shot wounds in the head, was found in a lonely spot in North Riverside. Swanda in his flight dropped a suit case containing papers that established his identity. He was traced to Omaha, and was arrested there last October 29. At first he laid the killing to his cousin, Frank Brombora, 1,836 South May street, but when confronted by Brombora, admitted that he was lying.