Posted on 07/03/2011 3:49:17 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) — Charles "Chuck" Ridulph always assumed the person who stole his little sister from the neighborhood corner where she played and dumped her body in a wooded stretch some 100 miles away was a trucker or passing stranger — surely not anyone from the hometown he remembers as one big, friendly playground.
And, after more than a half century passed since her death, he assumed the culprit also had died or was in prison for some other crime.
On Saturday, he said he was stunned by the news that a one-time neighbor had been charged in the kidnapping and killing that captured national attention, including that of the president and FBI chief. Prosecutors in bucolic Sycamore, a city of 15,000 that's home to a yearly pumpkin festival, charged a former police officer Friday in the 1957 abduction of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph after an ex-girlfriend's discovery of an unused train ticket blew a hole in his alibi.
Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, has been held in Seattle on $3 million bail. A judge overseeing a Saturday court appearance for him said he had been taken to a regional trauma center but did not elaborate. She rescheduled his bail hearing for 12:30 p.m. Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Interesting article, thanks for posting that!
I’m glad for the brother, the best friend and the entire town that this crime will finally be solved. Amazing that the ex-girlfriend still had the old train ticket.
Hell is where “Johnny” forced everyone to live for 54 years and where he will have lived for 54 years and now a few more.
May peace and the forgetfulness that time allows us under such circumstances, as well as forgiveness from some, let everyone (except Johnny) enjoy from this day forward.
God bless and protect that innocent life he took from her family.
May the devil and the fires of hell remind Johnny of his deed the rest of his life.
Sounds like they did some crappy police work back in 1957.
The did not follow-up on his story that he was on a train and did not check phone records.
And because of that, the POS walked for 55 years.
Yep.
Here’s a story on this case from yesterday’s Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015495148_coldcase03m.html
Congratulations to the current police for finally solving this case.
But I agree that the police back in the 1950s seem to have been totally incompetent. They had the guy’s first name. They suspected that he did it. But they never bothered to show his photo to the other girl to see if she recognized him? Incredibly dumb.
Not the sort of story I would usually post. But I thought it interesting as well.
There was a similar case in my hometown when I was a kid. It was very traumatic for the whole community. Still haunts me a bit, frankly.
Thanks.
Scum like this don’t cure themselves. I wonder how many other victims he’s amassed over these past 54 years.
The keeping of the unused train ticket was very strange. It was crazy to keep it but fortunate it was found.
He probably liked to keep “souvenirs” of his deeds.
This is a fascinating story. As a former Prosecutor, I can’t tell you how often we were grateful that the criminals were so stupid.
I wonder how this will play out. If the guy is 71 now, he might have been 17 when he killed the girl. Will he be tried by today’s standards as a juvenile criminal or adult?
I wonder how many more he killed during the intervening years. These types of creatures are prone to repeating their acts and it is why, when discovered, they must be put down.
I’m wondering if this was his only kidnapping and murder. There could be other victims of this guy.
Interesting that the FBI can uncover a 50 year old murder suspect but can’t seem to do a thing about an illegal pResidents bone fides.
Ping and double ping. I’m happy the perp was finally caught. But the Fed’s refusal to deal with illegals is unconscionable and pathetic.
I had a Chicago cop tell me once, ruefully, “we don’t catch the smart ones.”
More to the point..if he killed a child at 17, he just didn’t stop...it’s a pathology..he developed a taste for it..wonder how many more he’ll own up to..
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