After John Higgins had a quarrel with a his wife, she took her two children and left him. When Higgins discovered that his wife and children were living with Thomas Scott, he immediately went to there and began to fight with Scott. During the course of the argument, Higgins stabbed Scott with an ice pick several times. Higgins then picked up a faltiron and shattered Scott's skull. After John Higgins killed Thomas Scott, Higgins walked into the police station at 123rd street and confessed what he had done. He was immediately arrested and later arraigned in Harlem Court. He was held without bail on the charge of homicide.
DA file version: The defendant turned himself in at a West 123rd Street police station, stating that “he had just had a fight with a man named Scott, who was living with [his] wife.” Upon investigation, police officer Thomas P. Tunney found Thomas Scott “lying on the floor [of his West 119th Street apartment]... dead.” After interviewing witnesses, officer Tunney charged the defendant “with... striking the said Thomas Scott several violent blows upon the head, face and neck with a flat iron.”