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He Was Here: The Chicken (Season Five) Limited Series
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In today’s episode, we continue the limited series “He Was Here” about an unsolved 2010 murder in Chicago.
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Music in this episode was licensed for True Crime XS by slip.fm. The song is “No Scars”.
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Sources:
Various News Sources Mentioned by Name
https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/june-2015/chicago-crime-stats/
https://footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com
https://fstoppers.com/education/biggest-dangers-photographers-face-299728#comment-thread
Recommended
Transcript
Content Warning and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
The content you're about to hear may be graphic in nature. Listener discretion is advised.
00:00:49
Speaker
This is True Crime XS
00:00:58
Speaker
So we were just doing a series on an unclosed homicide and we have to sort of separate this episode from that. So you
Bill's Early Crimes and Arrest
00:01:09
Speaker
and I are going to do that. And we're just going to tell you the story of a guy named Bill who's tied to Chinatown in Chicago.
00:01:20
Speaker
We have dug pretty deep into this particular individual, and I can tell you that like he really pops on the criminal radar in January of 1987. On the first Friday in January of 1987, he robs a bank. this is and he He gets caught. The way that this goes down is one of those things that like, if it if the situation we were talking about weren't so serious, there's an element of this that I would find hilarious because this person is clearly not a very good criminal. You can track this to the Chicago Tribune. And on Sunday, January 11th, a guy named Jerry Crimmins wrote a blurb on the crime page, on page 28 of the Chicago Tribune.
00:02:15
Speaker
And it just says real crash ends fake gun robbery. Two Chicago men who allegedly robbed a Burbank savings institution last week, apparently using a fake gun as their only weapon, were arrested after they smashed their car while trying to escape, according to police.
00:02:35
Speaker
In arresting the suspects, Robert L. Kennedy, 27, of 4609 South Emerald Avenue, and William R. Swinarski, 27, of 533 West 40th Place, police found a plastic replica of a .357 Magnum pistol. The incident began about 1130 a.m. Friday, when two men entered United Savings of America.
00:03:04
Speaker
at 5750 West 87th Street. And this is according to the Burbank police chief, Robert Erickson. He says that one guy jumped up on the countertop, he pointed a gun at everybody, and he demanded money. The police chief said that there were six tellers present at the time, the robbers grabbed what they could, and they got out of there. According to the chief, they were in and then out in about a minute and a half.
00:03:31
Speaker
Erickson said that one witness had seen two men circle the building before entering and became suspicious. When the men ran out, the witness called police and described their getaway car as a blue sedan. Officer Robert Catcher, 29, responded to the call and saw a blue sedan coming toward him eastbound on 87th Street and then turning north up Long Avenue. Officer Catcher pursued the car and was eventually joined by another squad car driven by Commander William Kajawa, who's 40, and Sergeant Larry McDonald, 42. Erikson said that the suspects discovered while going east on 81st Street that the street had ended at Lammon Avenue.
00:04:17
Speaker
Their vehicle failed to make the turn onto that street and crashed into a garage. The two then fled on foot, were pursued by officers to 80th and Laverne Avenue. The officers drew their guns and ordered the suspects to halt. The suspects lay on the ground and were arrested. In the pockets of one, the officers found $3,200. We believe that's how much they took. They didn't get a chance to get rid of any of the money.
Continued Criminal Activity and Legal Battles
00:04:43
Speaker
So that's where we start off with this guy, William Swedersky. At this point in time, in 2024, we've done a ton of looking into Mr. Swedersky. He doesn't really stay out of prison very long. Do you think that's an accurate inscription? Yes, it is. um Did you get the date on that?
00:05:06
Speaker
yeah January 11th of 1987 is when the article ran. it's the I said first, but I think it's the second Friday that this happened, so it would have been January the 9th. Right, and of 1987? Yep, 1987. Okay, so that's kind of where ah the information starts, right? Yes, and I think that's in important to mention because generally speaking,
00:05:33
Speaker
We're dealing with a crime that happened in January in that series that we covered while William Swodersky ends up getting sued by the bank at that time as well as his co-defendant. And you would think that spending a little time in jail and being sued by a bank would dissuade you from committing future crimes. That's the whole point of the rehabilitation part of the Department of Corrections in every jurisdiction. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.
00:06:03
Speaker
And in October of 1992, another warrant was issued for William Swidersky. This time he had recruited two different accomplices to a assist him in a new bank robbery. Those accomplices were Allen Lee Mindenhall and Terry Lofton. I bring all of this up because it's kind of important. In the scope of everything that's happening here, we had to kind of backtrack and use Pacer to a degree, because this guy, he really doesn't commit that many, quote, local crimes that he's convicted of. But these federal crimes, they stick. And Meg and I are able to track through Pacer pretty much everything that happens to him. So the complaint is filed in October on the 8th in 1992. And arrest warrant is issued the same day for the three gentlemen I just mentioned. And they are arrested. And by the time October 26 rolls around,
00:07:01
Speaker
ah They are appointed counsel, and on October 28th, William Raymond Swidersky makes his first appearance in court. In Pacer, you can find the financial affidavits. You can find that he did receive an attorney. He's indicted in November of 1992, the week before Thanksgiving. He is indicted there. Alan Lee Mendenhall is indicted. Terry Lofton is indicted.
00:07:30
Speaker
And they are held without bond. There's a detaining order in there from the magistrate basically saying that they're going to hold on to these guys. ah They received their arraignment notice and they start to put together what is going to be a trial. But along the way, essentially everyone turns on everyone. In December of 1992, so William Swedersky has pled not guilty to robbing a bank. He's informed of his rights in this December 28, 1992 hearing before the Honorable Charles Kuporis, who's the judge in this matter. And once he's informed of his rights, he withdraws his not guilty plea and enters a plea of guilty to the first count in his indictment
00:08:24
Speaker
The cases then ordered over to the probation department of the US government, this is not a local Chicago case, for a pre-sentencing investigation report. And they they set a status hearing for March of 1993. And this guy is basically gonna sit here. ah The co-conspirators are gonna make statements between Christmas of 92 and Valentine's Day of 1993. And those are all gonna be entered into evidence in February of 1993.
00:08:54
Speaker
Initially, they set sentencing for March the 1st, related to William Raymond Swaderesky pleading guilty. They end up having to reset the sentencing to April the 20th. And then there's some questions over the paperwork, kind of hammering out details and some both grammatical errors and legal argument errors.
00:09:16
Speaker
So the court kicks the plea agreement back out and says, you guys need to go fix this. On April 13th of 1993, the judge grants the government's motion to reject plea agreements for them. This is being granted means whatever happens, we're going to vacate it.
00:09:38
Speaker
So the judge ends up vacating both the defendant's pleas and the the judgment that they were about to put forth and a status hearing gets set for April the 20th again. So on April the 20th, a plea agreement is entered for William Swudersky. And the the general error is there were two counts of of robbery related to this bank robbery.
00:10:06
Speaker
And he is withdrawing a plea to count one and entering a plea of not guilty, but then entering a guilty plea on count
Release and Subsequent Arrests
00:10:17
Speaker
two. He's informed of his rights again. And another pre-sentencing investigation is drawn up, but now it's related to the second count on this indictment.
00:10:28
Speaker
That sounds a little goofy in court speak, but the bottom line is they were correcting an error of which charge William Raymond Swittersky was going to plead out to. On May the 12th of 1993, Judge Kokoris issues a sentencing order for William Swittersky, and he sentences him to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons, and he's gonna be in prison for a term of 235 months, which is 19 and a half years. This is on count two of his indictments.
00:11:03
Speaker
Upon release from his imprisonment, the defendant is going to have to be on supervised release, so he's going to have a probation and parole officer for a term of five years. He also ends up with an order for restitution and forfeiture. Basically, fruits of what have happened here are forfeited back to the court to be distributed to the victims, and he's ordered to pay some restitution. The next morning, the judge writes a commitment to the U.S. Marshals, and William Swudersky starts to make his path off to prison. There's a sealed document entered on June 21st, and I couldn't tell you what that is. um I am interested in it, and I have not been able to find it. Later in the year on December 9th of 1993, there is a motion by the state and by counsel for Williams-Woodersky to modify the restitution order so that he can increase his monthly payments. That motion is granted, and
00:12:03
Speaker
The court orders the defendant to pay each month towards this restitution law in custody. And they may notice on this. It's not something that he comes back to. But essentially, any earnings that he has, 50% of those earnings will go towards the restitution in this order. By January of 1998, the court reviews this order and they keep it in place.
00:12:27
Speaker
And May 18th of 2006, they enter a full satisfaction for the restitution order related to William Swidersky, indicating that he paid back $7,289 over the course of this.
00:12:43
Speaker
I mentioned this here because do you notice the jump in time Meg? Yes. So essentially from 1992 until 1993, we're kind of working out the details of what's going to happen to this guy. And in 93, he is sentenced to pay restitution to forfeit assets and to spend 20 years in Britain. We should not, this guy should not see the light of day before May of 2013.
00:13:12
Speaker
because his probation and parole is set. And honestly, if you look through the history of US probation and parole, so that's federal probation and parole, they do away with ah federal probation and federal parole at different times of the years. But because of how things go for William Swiderski, he is able to be released After serving 16 years and just under 7 months, William Swiderski is released on December 4, 2009.
00:13:51
Speaker
We don't hear much about him at this time, but I can tell you that doing background work on him and tracking his movements, I traced him to Rockdale, Illinois, and I traced him to having a PO o box that opened in late 2009 in Chinatown in Chicago. For some strange reason, in March of 2010, William Swodersky has a very strange
00:14:27
Speaker
motion hearing that he does not attend, but his probation officer ends up requesting to modify the conditions of his release for the term of supervision and has a consent order with him, meaning that William Swidersky signed off on whatever the probation officer is asking for the court to modify.
00:14:53
Speaker
So Will Smith, his probation officer, requests to add the condition ah to his supervision that the offender shall participate in the mental health treatment program at the direction of the probation officer. This is signed off on and entered on March 25, 2010, which means at some point in early to mid-March, the probation officer saw something that made him want to put Swedersky in a mental health program. It took time to get that on the docket. And by the point that we're talking about it at the end of March, the judge has already signed off on that. Right, because he William Swedersky agreed to it, essentially. That's what a consent order is. Right. It's just making it official within the court, right? Right. The next thing that happens with Swedersky
00:15:52
Speaker
on paper is that in late 2011, an article pops up on TwinCities.com. Now it pops up in December of 2011 initially, but it turns out that William Swedersky has been sort of on the run. The article itself is by Elizabeth Moore,
00:16:19
Speaker
ah She was writing for the the Pioneer Press at the time up there at TwinCities.com. And you could read it. It's ah ah got an updated date of November 12, 2015. But here's what the article says. It says that an Illinois fugitive wanted for rape is caught in Washington County. An Illinois rape suspect and fugitive is in custody in Washington County after federal and local authorities tracked them down in Scandia.
00:16:49
Speaker
It says, William Raymond Swedersky, 52, is accused of raping a woman at Knife Point in the village of Rockdale on Tuesday. That's according to a statement from the U.S. Marshal's Office, by the way. He reportedly used a knife during the rape and was believed to be in possession of a gun when he fled. Authorities received tips leading them to believe Swedersky was hiding out in rural Washington County.
00:17:14
Speaker
He was arrested on Wednesday night following a traffic stop conducted by Washington County Sheriff's officers and the minister Minnesota State Patrol helicopter. Swedersky is currently on probation for a federal bank robbery conviction, according to the U.S. Marshal statement. He's being held in the county jail on a $2 million bail. Wait, follow all that? Yep. According to court records,
00:17:42
Speaker
William Swidersky held his roommate at knife point and sexually assaulted them. And he kept a record of this. He is eventually going to plead out to this and he is going to receive a very long sentence. The victim was 38 years old at the time and Bill or William Raymond Swidersky was 52 years old at the time of the offense.
00:18:12
Speaker
with, he's going to end up with two convictions of criminal sexual assault by force. And it's going to be required to be on the sex offender registry. By the time this all happens, uh, he is listed at six to 250 pounds. Uh, I think it's October, 2014. They put him on the sex offender registry, like as a ah registrant, so to speak.
00:18:38
Speaker
He does have a current picture on there from 2023, I believe. It's interesting, while he's in jail, Will Smith, his probation officer there in Chicago, he files a motion in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in the Eastern Division. ah Here's what he runs down. This is the This is called the defendant's position regarding violation of supervised release. So when you get arrested held arrested and held on $2 million bail, your probation officer is going to investigate because it's highly likely that you have violated the terms of your release. This is a very serious sexual assault. I'm just curious. I don't think it's possible for you to be arrested and not have violated it.
00:19:30
Speaker
and Okay, so that's ah like that's a really technical thing. Yes, you could actually be arrested and not have violated your probation, but the conviction is definitely going to be a violat violation. like You could be accused of something or be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the truth is a police officer could be investigating something And when they learn you're on probation, it might become probable cause to detain you if it's a similar crime or proximity thing. There's a number of reasons, like yeah like I've seen people get a probation violation just for the arrest and I've seen people only get it for the conviction. It depends on the jurisdiction of the judge. And like I do know like some of the places I'm most familiar with have gone to quick dip programs.
00:20:18
Speaker
So what they'll do is they'll pick you up on the violation, even if your sentence is three years or 10 years or something that you're supposed to serve. What they'll do is they'll just drop you in jail for the weekend, warn you, and and like that's your quote, violation. But they tell you at that violation hearing when they sentence it you to the two days or three days or whatever that if you're uh, convicted of the crime that you're going back and you're also going to serve that sentence. Right. Okay. Yeah. So this motion is, is interesting. It's a little weird, but it's to Charles Kokores and it's by Will Smith from the probation, probation department. Uh, it's an eight page document, but the first part is the cover sheet and I'm just going to run through it. It says defendant, William Swidersky in the federal defender program.
00:21:03
Speaker
and the attorney for the federal defender program, Sergio Rodriguez, submit a position paper as to violations of supervised release. Mr. Swedersky requests that his appearance be waived at any hearing and sentencing for the violations of supervised release. He respectfully requests that any period of punishment be ordered to be served concurrently with the 16 year sentence he received in criminal court in Illinois.
00:21:30
Speaker
in support that the defendant states as follows. Mr. Swedersky was originally convicted in sentence by this court on one count of armed bank cor robbery and received a sentence of 235 months plus five years of supervised release. That's attached to our December 6, 2013 special report. On December 23, 2011, a special report was issued detailing new criminal charges in the state of Illinois.
00:21:57
Speaker
Mr. Swedersky is currently incarcerated in Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois. On May 21st of 2013, Mr. Swedersky pled guilty and was convicted in the Illinois Circuit Court in Will County of criminal sexual assault and sentenced to 16 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. His projected parole date is March 4th, 2039. Okay, right there I have a major math issue.
00:22:25
Speaker
You follow me? Yes. A hearing is scheduled before this court for December 19th. December 19th is 2013.
00:22:36
Speaker
And that's going to be ah an AM court. thing The second section of this motion says that the Rules 32 and Rule 43 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure permitted defendant to waive his presence at his revocation and sentencing hearings. Mr. Swodersky's case ah can be resolved without Mr. Swodersky's presence. And then they restate the rules and they just basically explain that that these rules make it so that all of this can take place while the defendant is in custody elsewhere. Part three, the defendant's position. And a letter just received by council dated December 10th, 2013, Mr. Swedersky writes, and I have a copy of this. It's pretty close to what they put here. I, William Swedersky is writing this letter to state. I agree with the copy. I agree with the US probation violation recommendation of 33 to 41 months custody and one year supervision to run consecutive to my current state sentence. I will not argue against this and I do not wish to be present for any here.
00:23:37
Speaker
Council has not been able to arrange a telephone call with Mr. Swodersky to go over his rights to confirm what is in this letter. The letter is attached as Exhibit 1. It is clear from his letter that he does not desire to attend any hearing, but it is unclear whether he recognizes that, at least theoretically,
Murder Allegations and Investigation
00:23:54
Speaker
Mr. Swodersky, through counsel, can request that his sentence on the violation be run concurrent and not consecutive to a state sentence. Because the crime he committed is a violent offense, he will not receive day-for-day credit for the sentence he received in the state court.
00:24:07
Speaker
That is why his projected parole date is not until 2039. This is plenty of punishment for his actions. Wherefore, counsel on behalf of Mr. Swedersky requests the sentence be run concurrent or in the alternative that the case be continued for a short period to allow kind counsel to contact the defendant. And then it references the federal defender program. It's actually not even being written by his counsels be written on behalf of his counsel. And they attach the letter at the bottom that he does not wish to be present for anything.
00:24:37
Speaker
And then it closes out with the typical court documents that sort of affirm all of this is, you know, official. What did you think of that? um It sounded to me like somebody that was running away from something the best that they possibly could while in prison. Yeah. Yeah. I think this guy is as running as far and as fast as he could to get away from something and It is my opinion, only my opinion, if I were to speculate really hard on all of this, that William Swodersky is running away from a murder charge. Or being confronted with a murder. He does not want to be confronted with a murder. I would agree that is also something he is trying to run away from. Here's my my thoughts on William Swodersky. I have read, he's written on the internet like little poetry assignments for whatever they're doing for him in prison.
00:25:37
Speaker
I do not have any direct ill will towards William Swedersky right now. I think that he is a murderer, but I also think that William Swedersky's records have been withheld from me. I cannot look at disciplinary actions. I can't listen to his phone calls. I can't find a good reason ah that the officers I've talked to who are relatively convinced that William Swedersky is a murderer and also a serial sexual offender. I don't have anything that proves it to me otherwise. So I reached out to him. I reached out to talk to him through the Connect services of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Now, right now, William Swedersky is in Penkneyville, Illinois. um He's not
00:26:32
Speaker
having a very rough life there. Um, he's just in prison, which is not great, but he does not seem to want to talk to me about the questions I have. So I thought I would tell his story for him here today because in my opinion, he's a murderer. The Chicago police think that he's a murderer. The Indiana state police think that he's a murderer. The will County prosecutor's office think that he's a murderer.
00:27:02
Speaker
The Cook County state's attorney's office thinks that he's a murderer. I think that he's a murderer. And I think behind bars, he's an abuser. I don't know what the next step is to have William Swidersky be considered to be Bill from Chinatown, but I can tell you this.
00:27:30
Speaker
He gets out in December of 2009. Jay Polhill goes missing in early 2010, and his body is found shortly thereafter. William Swidersky was a white guy in Chinatown.
00:27:51
Speaker
Bill from Chinatown's name and phone number were found on a post-it note by Jane Polhill, when she was cleaning out her dead son's dorm room at his college. And she turned it over to the police. And at the time the police believed that it was possible J. Paul Hill had killed himself and jumped into the river.
00:28:21
Speaker
The file on J. Paul Hill is referenced as being an inch and a half to two inches thick. And I haven't read it but I have talked to several of the people that put that file together. I have it on good authority that William Swidersky is a confession away from spending the rest of his life in prison and that they did the best they could on the sexual assault and the criminal aggravated sexual assault charges to put him in there for as long as they could. But until he is charged with the murder of J. Paul Hill,
00:28:59
Speaker
and gets his trial and his day in court, nothing will convince me otherwise that he did not pretend to be a military person who's I guess deployed to prison and wanted to take some pictures in his military uniform. So he took advantage of a 20 year old college student in Chicago, Illinois, by dangling 500 bucks out as a photography fee to come and do a session.
00:29:28
Speaker
I think that Jay packed up his gear, took his phone, his camera, his his computer, and he went to take pictures of this guy. So this guy who claimed to be in the military, Bill from Chinatown, would have photos to share of him in his uniform, except there was no uniform. I think Jay Polhill probably died almost instantly when confronted by William Swedersky when they met.
00:29:58
Speaker
And I think William Swidersky was too cowardly to complete the act of disposing of his body by dismembering him. And I think he resorted to putting him in the Kalamant River because it's all he could do. I don't think that Jay Polhill was scared or felt a lot of pain, but I do think that the reason that is true is because William Swidersky assaulted him, rendered him unconscious,
00:30:28
Speaker
And as you guys heard in the earlier episodes, I think those injuries that Meg and I referenced as being homicidal in nature were caused by William Swedersky. Can I prove it? No. I think there's enough information at the county's attorney's office that they can prove it. But you know what? I'm totally okay if William Swedersky wants to come on and tell a story.
00:30:56
Speaker
I'm totally okay if he just wants to email and tell me he didn't do it. But until I'm told otherwise, I cannot not believe that William Sweet Airski is a murderer and that there's not anything else to be done with the evidence except for us to sit here and wait for him to confess. Jay Polhill is a priority for me. This limited series is all about him.
00:31:26
Speaker
His life meant something to a lot of people. It apparently didn't mean anything to William Swidersky, who is Bill from Chinatown. I don't want people to think that they can get away with murder. And I don't really understand what's gonna happen with him. Actually, that's not true. I do understand what's gonna happen with him. He is old, fat, white, and protected in prison. He's gonna die in there. what How old is he now, Meg? 60-something?
00:31:55
Speaker
I heard he was born in 1959, so yeah, he'll be 65. He is a 65-year-old criminal, and honestly, he's in exactly the place he needs to be. He's a murderer. He's a murderer. I don't know what is wrong with the man.
00:32:12
Speaker
I cannot tell you how angry I am about this entire case. It's sad, but it's also anger inducing. The reason it's anger inducing is because he's right there. They know where he is. They know who the suspect is.
00:32:25
Speaker
Right. And we had come to this independent conclusion before it was verified. We're the only ones who know this. yeah it's It's verified by all of the investigators and the state's attorney at this point. They've all verified it. They tried to work out a plea deal on this case when he was going down for the Wills County case. They just, they were having to make a sacrifice there that like he was going to get a shorter sentence for one thing and they didn't know what the sentence would be for the Cook County case, which is, it's not the Cook County case. It's J. Paul Hill's murder.
00:32:57
Speaker
So they made what is it, I get why they made the decision they made, like I understand parts of it. They essentially don't get the confession from Bill Swedersky, but they get this long sentence where he is going to spend, at the time he's 52-ish years old, so he's gonna spend basically the rest of his life in prison.
00:33:26
Speaker
whether he wants to or not, because if it's 2024 and he's going to be 65 and he's not getting out until 2039 for ah probation and parole to take him, that's another 15 years. He's going to be 80, but he gets to live to be 80. And there is no death penalty on the table here. I totally understand that. I just want people to know that William Swatowski killed Jay Bullio.
00:33:51
Speaker
Right. And honestly, I get the strategy. Well, I sort of get the strategy behind why he hasn't been charged, but he needs to be charged with it.
Pursuit of Justice for Jay Polhill
00:34:02
Speaker
He needs to be held accountable for it. He shouldn't get out. I don't feel like the guy is going to live until he's 80 years old. But if he does, he needs to not get out. Well, he's like, we talked about this. You and I have talked a lot off mic about this guy and what to do about him.
00:34:20
Speaker
I'll go ahead and say this. There's this case in a neighboring state to this in Indiana, where they're talking about Odinism and Hedonism and Wotanism being applied to a double homicide from 2017 there. it's the it's it's sort of this It's considered to be sort of an outlandish defense theory there. A lot of that stuff is true here.
00:34:44
Speaker
This guy has the Viking tattoos that he clearly got in prison. He spent the bulk of his life in prison. I like i don't know how to explain like the supremacy element to all of this to people without just starting to sound like a lunatic, but this guy's sort of protected in prison or has people in prison that are like watching his back to some degree. um I would like to end that. you know I would like for him to basically be in some kind of solitary confinement for the rest of his life or what he did to Jay.
00:35:14
Speaker
um i don't I don't get to make that decision. I was gonna say, I'm okay with it going through the process. like I would rather it go through the process. And here's what I decided, I think, and like if we come up with a different ending, I'll put it in here. But this is what I think I decided. Meg had a really good idea. The wrongful death act in Illinois, basically two years from somebody's death, you can sue someone.
00:35:40
Speaker
And you know the goal there is is money and responsibility for death that has occurred for a number of reasons. There's a whole list. I think it's um i think it's under Illinois 740 slash Wrongful Death Act. But there are exceptions for that. Homicide is one of those. insecs all All the types of homicide to a person or an unborn person the way it's written up. I would say that if somebody out there is listening to this and you are in a position in Illinois If William Swodersky were to be charged, even if it's based on the evidence that that is in front of them and they need like to bring him in and and like get that final confession, it opens up the possibility for what's known as a slayer ending to this. And a slayer ending is when a judge in a wrongful death case hears from attorneys, like one would be for William Swodersky, the other would be for the family,
00:36:40
Speaker
ah In this instance, it would be for Jay Polhill, for his family. And the judge makes a decision of whether or not William Swodersky is responsible for his death. This is a civil decision that he makes. He declares him the Slayer. Now, sometimes it's done for money, but i don't William Swodersky doesn't have anything. What this will do, by having him declared the Slayer of Jay Polhill, it would be to hold him accountable for taking the life of a 20 year old college student.
00:37:16
Speaker
And if we can't hold people like that accountable, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Right, if a 20 year old can go off to college and be murdered, and his murderer can get away with it,
00:37:31
Speaker
Even though we know who it is, it appears that a lot of people know who killed him, but nothing's been done for various excuse-driven reasons, right? Our justice system has completely failed. Yeah, our justice system failed Jay Polhill and his family in this instance.
00:37:52
Speaker
Completely. to And I feel like in this particular situation, that was my, mood that was my latest ah thought was because the statute of limitations is told to when someone is, if someone's criminally charged. Yeah. And so I feel like lacking the specific evidence for a conviction, which I'm not so sure there's not enough evidence there. Okay.
00:38:19
Speaker
um I would have to see more information than I'm privy to. I feel like there might be enough. Yeah, I think things have changed enough. I think you're right. like There's enough digital evidence that and like this we know it's there. We talked to the people who handed over to the police and we talked to the police. so The phone records are there. That that to me is enough. They are, right. and i feel like You know, a prosecutor has to make the decision about when they have enough to charge. Um, I can't remember. This didn't go to grand jury, right? I, if it went to grand jury, no one has mentioned that to me. I tried to get that information out of both of the prosecutors. So I say both of the prosecutors because the assistant state's attorney's office had this case in Cook County.
00:39:12
Speaker
But the suspect was going away for a crime that affected another, like it had occurred in another jurisdiction. Like a neighboring county basically had him. And I tried to get the story there to see if that was as far as it got, and I think it is. No one had said to me, we took it to the grand jury, they said no.
00:39:33
Speaker
right and so I understand that there are certain aspects of cases that are evaluated by who would ultimately end up being the prosecutor you know if the indictment was procured from a grand jury. right and I understand that. um i feel like for whatever reason. And I think it's largely just because the perpetrator is in jail for other reasons and they felt like that was enough. ah Clearly that is never going to be enough because he murdered a 20 year old college student and essentially for all intents and purposes got away with it. He did. He did.
00:40:14
Speaker
and that's absolutely unacceptable. And until it has exhausted all of them, because granted,
00:40:27
Speaker
It's my impression, this is not an active case, right? It's not a closed case, but nobody's working on this case. Nobody's working on this case. No, nobody's working on it because they've done all the work. Like the only thing left is like, and that's and that's another thing that technically could be done. If you happen to know a a cold case,
00:40:49
Speaker
Detective either with the Illinois state police or the Chicago police, maybe even Cook County Sheriff, but I doubt it. If you know someone there and and can convince someone to go in and to make like an attempt to get him to confess, because I even, I mean, we we were at a point here, I considered paying him for the information just to get him to say it, but then it's kind of tainted and useless.
00:41:15
Speaker
So there's, you know, i I've run down so many different rabbit holes on this. Like, how do you get this guy to talk? I thought I had him at one point, I thought in messages, I thought he was going to unburden himself. But I guess like, when you, you know, practice a fake religion and like, do fake things to live your fake life behind bars and pretend to get through every day, like, you don't really care much about giving people closure.
00:41:40
Speaker
Right. And again, as long as that I need a grand jury to say, no, we're not going to indict him. I need it to him to be indicted and a jury of his peers to say, no, there's not enough evidence. Right. I'm not going to. I don't feel like those avenues have been fully explored. And I feel like it was some snap decisions made at the beginning that caused you know, the investigation not to be as thorough as it should be. There was an investigation done. There is some evidence there. I'm not so sure that it's not enough evidence. However, being criminally charged gives the opportunity for the civil suit to be brought for Jay's wrongful death. And I feel like that could be leveraged. All we really want is for him to be held accountable. We want William Swidersky to be proclaimed by a judge
00:42:41
Speaker
that he is the murderer of Jay Polhill. And I'm kind of at a loss as to why we're even having to talk about this. So, you know, there's some reluctance here. It's interesting. Jay is one of the invulnerable. He is a 20 year old college male and you and I talk about them a lot, you know, especially the ones that are more athletic and outgoing.
00:43:07
Speaker
we We talk about the fact that like they're sort of forgotten. That's the whole point of the series in some ways. And I think, look, there are a couple of different ways to go here. And now I'm getting an, app you know, I said, I think he killed him, but now I'm getting the accusations as to to what else happened. If Jay were a 20 year old female college student, he would have 10 podcasts about him and be on 2020 and 48 hours and everything else where Like for some reason that young girl would be in the spotlight because Jay is a 20 year old male. It's he's sort of overlooked.
00:43:47
Speaker
And I don't understand. I've wondered because in talking to the different investigators, I asked and like, ah you know, I hate to say this because I know his family is going to listen to this, but I said, is there a possibility that Jay was sexually assaulted? Would that make it like we're doing all these initiatives to close these cold case sexual assaults around the country, especially the ones that resulted in homicides. Like it, would that push it forward? And nobody had an answer to me.
00:44:13
Speaker
But at least one of the investigators said, look, as far as I'm concerned, I think that's the direction this was headed. Like whether it got there or not, I think we would have evidence of it. But I don't know because I wasn't the first investigator on that. So it's kind of like you're saying earlier on when you just got this John Doe, he shows up with no pants in the river in March. Right. But they immediately classified his death as a suicide. Yeah.
00:44:41
Speaker
and And that's where it began to fall apart. And you know we talked from the very beginning about how Chicago is a it's laden with gun violence driven homicide cases, right? Correct, correct. And it it's very straightforward. Most of the cases are very straightforward. It's you know one bad dude shooting another bad dude or one person who knows the other person shooting the other person, right?
00:45:11
Speaker
it's It's very straightforward. And under the circumstances for whatever reason, whatever reason it was, they chose to say this was a suicide, even though the medical examiner never said that. Correct. And the information provided to us at this point, which is 14 years later, like it nothing about it says suicide to me. um Initially,
00:45:40
Speaker
you know, looking at what was available before we spoke with Jane, it, the only question it seemed to be was if it was a suicide or some sort of accident, right? It's incredibly strange. Yeah. I mean, so we ended up taking this case because Jane pole Hill reached out to me and I had a 20 year old kid at the time that she reached out to me.
00:46:03
Speaker
And the fact that my kid was 20 made me think about it more. I had passed over Jay's case originally when I was looking at something else, which we discussed in sort of the smiley face episode of this. But, you know, I want to tell everybody something. I called this an unclosed homicide the whole time that we've been talking about it. Because one of the important things to remember here is that ultimately Jane Polhill solved her son's homicide.
00:46:32
Speaker
She was the one who found the post-it note and had kept in enough touch with her son that she could link it all together so that when investigators did get interested, they could go back and they had someone to look at based on that post-it note with a name and a phone number. She solved it.
00:46:53
Speaker
And I think that's like a ah really important thing to remember in all of this, but because she and her family live every day without Jay. But she was able to solve her own son's homicide. Now all she wants is for the system, which some of the pieces of work, some of them haven't, not to fail, but to close her son's case.
00:47:15
Speaker
Special consideration was given to True Crime XS by LabratiCreations.com. If you have a moment in your favorite app, please go on and give us a review or a five-star rating. It helps us get noticed in the crowd. This is True Crime XS.
00:48:21
Speaker
True Crime Access is brought to you by John and Meg. It's written, produced, edited, and posted by John and Meg. You can always support True Crime Access through Patreon.com, or if you have a story you'd like them to cover, you can reach them at TrueCrimeAccess.com. Thank you for joining us. As much as it pains me to say it, I'll keep following this case, I'll keep sending out the information, and I will be trying to get someone to listen to it.
00:48:50
Speaker
But that's it for now. The best thing that you can do for J. Paul Hill is if you see his name and a story about him, comment that William Swodersky is someone that we should talk about. I see him from time to time on the internet on different forums. I see his name pop up. Here's what you can do. If you're just a person listening to this, go Google J. Paul Hill's name with quotes around it.
00:49:16
Speaker
And read the articles from Columbia College, from his friends over the years that have talked about him and remembered him fondly. Check out the different blogs that talk about him. Give his name views. Make sure that like he gets as high in the search engine optimization as he can, because that's what I'm going to do. And just remember that like there's a guy out there. He may be in prison.
00:49:43
Speaker
But he is getting away with the murder of a 20 year old college student. And everyone should be outraged by that.