Accused Wife-killer To Defend Himself

With his trial scheduled to begin Monday in Circuit Court, accused wife murderer John Bemard McGee still wants to act as his own attorney, McGee, 28, appearing Thursday in Circuit Court, argued on his own behalf on two motions bef ore the court, setting the stage for, a trial in which he will apparently be his own lawyer. And also on Thursday, a civil lawsuit against "practically 'anybody in the (Washtenaw) county," in the words of one official involved, was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. McGee's suit, said Detroit attorney Sheldon Halpern, focuses on McGee's treatment by various agencies and people named in the suit. McGee, who was released from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry at Ypsilanti State Hospital just a month before his wife's murder, was found not I guilty by reason of insanity in a 1974 Detroit murder. He has been involved in I criminal and civil proceedings in Detroit I stemming from his alleged needs as a I professional hit man, and questions I about his mental health have been interI twined with a series of changes in menI tal health and commitment laws for acI cused crimináis. Halpern could not be reached for deI tails of the lawsuit, but it was learned I that a hearing was to be held at 3:30 p.m. I today in U.S. District Court in Detroit. I Halpern, who has. represented McGee in I other court proceedings in Detroit, said I he is not acting as McGee's attorney in I the murder case here. Among those named in the lawsuit are I Prosecutor William F. Delhey, Public I Defender Daniel Bambery, and the U.S. I Veterans Administra tion. No other coI defendants names' could be obtained this I morning, and Delhey said early today he I hadn't even been served with papers yet ■ and had no idea what the suit alleges. ■ In Circuit Court Thursday, McGee was I again declared indigent by Circuit Judge I Rfírick J. Conlin, who noted that the igCTcy matfer has already been ■ ed by the court. McGee, because he nasi been found indigent, may be represented ■ by the Public Defendér's office if he sol ehooses. i But yesterday, with a motion before I Conlin to free McGee on personal ■ zance bond, McGee himself argued in his I own behalf for nearly an hour, according I to Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney I Jerome D. Farmer II. McGee has been I described as an admitted professional ■ killer who has, law enforceinent officials I say, acknowledged that he killed some 25 I people for payment. I Conlin denied the motion to release I McGee, and he will continue to be held I without bond in the County Jail where he I has been since he was arrested in I nection with the eárly morning beating I death of his 29-year-old wife, Julia, in her apartment at 3605 Green Briar Blvd. April 14. In preliminary hearings on the premeditated murder charge, Julia M;Gee's 12-year-old daughter Fonda Boyce testified that she saw McGee beat , her mother with his fists. At one point, she has said, he jumped up and landed on his wife's face with both f eet. Pólice said her murder, one of the most brutal beatings they have seen, resulted frorh being "punched, stomped, kicked . . . she was just broken,'"in the words of Ann Arbor Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny. McGee had been offered a courtappointed public defender during lower court proceedings in connection with the murder last spring. He refused a public defendér's counsel then, claiming he has a monthly income of $1,300 f rom Social Security and Veterans Administration disability payments. The money, he said, had been "misappropriated" under the guardianship of his wife. Halpern had said then that there were "serious financial questions" about . pcGee's resources. ■