Regional Murder Mysteries

[belinda]

Who really did this?

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/winchester-murder-trial-fair-or-not/300449.aspx

[sdreid]

2 -- As he approached his home in Peoria, IL on March 10 of 1947, George McNear, the president of the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad, is cut down by a shot gun. He was walking back from attending a Bradley University basketball game. His company was embroiled in a bitter multi-year strike in which both sides had resorted to goon tactics. A couple of weeks previous, two strikers had been killed in a picket line incident. It was one of the few strikes that occurred during World War Two with the main issue involving the continued employment of steam locomotive firemen even though they were no longer needed on the new diesels. The murder was never solved.

Mr. McNear's private railroad car is being moved to the Wheels O' Time Museum today in what will likely be its final journey.

[sdreid]

6 -- Susan Hendricks, her children, Rebekah, 9, Grace, 7, and Benjamin, 5, were found hacked to death in their Bloomington, IL home on November 9 of 1983. The weapons were an ax and a butcher knife. Her husband, David claimed to be away on a business trip at the time of the murders but this couldn't be proven. He was also shown to be having an affair at the time. It was charged that he'd killed his family because they were in the way of his extramarital activities. Mr. Hendricks was convicted but later won a new trial which ended in an acquittal. Not everyone agreed with that verdict but the case is officially unsolved.

The 1992 book Reasonable Doubt is about this case.

[sdreid]

5 -- On November 26 of 1955, 8-year-old Janice May vanished in Canton, IL. She was soon found beside a set of railroad tracks. The little girl, who died a short time later, had been raped and beaten with a piece of broken concrete. A cab driver, named Lloyd Miller, inexplicably left town right after the crime and was eventually arrested. Police also found a pair of red stained undershorts, reportedly belonging to Miller. He was convicted of the slaying and sentenced to the electric chair. After eleven years on death row and ten execution dates, the "bloody" boxers were finally tested and the stains were found to be paint. He was released and had no further trouble with the law but his innocence is still the subject of debate. Legally, the murder is still a mystery.

There have been at least two books written about this case, Tenth Stay at Midnight and Scapegoat Justice.

[sdreid]

Another

On November 18 of 1979, a pair of youths hunting near Granville, IL found a woman's body under a pile of leaves and a wooden pallet. She was naked and had been beaten to death. The woman was buried in an unmarked grave but was identified, several years later, as Denise Laack who was 24-years-old and from Appleton, WI, some 300 miles drive away. Her murder is still unsolved. Authorities have not found that Denise had any ties with the area in which her remains were discovered.

[sdreid]

Upupdate

One update on Beaman - Even though the verdict has been thrown out, the charges dropped and Beaman released, the State is apparently balking at returning his bond money. If anything, they owe him that and a lot more.

Beaman has applied to be declared innocent which would clear the way for him to file a claim for state compensation. That will be the day.

[sdreid]

Yes Rick, it was sad. As I recall, the car was found to have fuel and with no mechanical problems so I suspect that the trucker motioned her to pull over with a claim that the car was smoking or leaking or something of the sort then attacked her when she was out of the vehicle. This murder became a kind of cause celebre as to the need for a cell phone.

Illinois killers seem to be up to making world changes like the Tylenol Poisoner and all the safety seals that we have to mess with now.

[Rick Mattix]

9 -- Twenty-one-year-old Tammy Zywicki left New Jersey on a trip to her college in Iowa. Along the way, she dropped her brother off at his college in Chicago. On August 23 of 1992 near Utica, IL, her derelict car was found. Passers-by later told of seeing Tammy talking to a truck driver with the hood of her car up. Nine days later, her stabbed body was found in Missouri. The truck had a rather unique paint scheme but it was never traced. With the close proximity to Veronica Blumhorst, some thought a serial killer might be about. The so-called Truck-Stop Killer was mentioned but the case is still unresolved.

10 - On March 26 of 2003, 7-year-old Dalton Mesarchik was taken while waiting for a church bus in Streator, IL. The next day, his beaten remains were found in a river south of town. It was determined that the murder weapon was a bench-top sledgehammer that came from K-Mart. His killing is still a mystery.

OK, that's my list at present.

I remember the Zywicki case. Lovely blonde girl in glasses. I think they had posters up with her photo at every rest stop along I-80 almost as soon as her car was discovered. Think some of them still hung there for a few months after the body was found. As I recall Tammy's body was dumped somewhere near Joplin, MO. Tragic story.

[Rick Mattix]

3 -- On July 26 of 1948, a sniper gunned down Bernie Shelton, a local gangster, as he exited his tavern in Peoria, IL. He died within the hour. Police found the sniper's nest on a nearby wooded hillside. The case remains officially unsolved. Decades later, a convict related that another hoodlum named Charles "Blackie" Harris had claimed in prison that he'd been behind the slaying. Harris' account lacked details however.

4 -- Fay Rawley vanished from his home near Summum, IL on November 8 of 1953. Rawley was a well-to- do farmer and politician. He was last seen earlier that evening when he left his girlfriend's home in Macomb. There were signs of a struggle in his house. Neither he nor his new Cadillac were ever seen again. A strip mine was being filled in across the road from Rawley's home and the theory was that he was murdered and buried in his car there some 300 feet down. A local sheriff spent years drilling into the mine but never found Rawley or the Cadillac. The case is a total mystery.

Heard lately from Taylor Pensoneau, who wrote the good book Brothers Notorious a few years back about the Shelton brothers. He's about to publish a biography of Charlie Harris that might shed some more light here.

[sdreid]

Update

2 -- As he approached his home in Peoria, IL on March 10 of 1947, George McNear, the president of the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad, is cut down by a shot gun. He was walking back from attending a Bradley University basketball game. His company was embroiled in a bitter multi-year strike in which both sides had resorted to goon tactics. A couple of weeks previous, two strikers had been killed in a picket line incident. It was one of the few strikes that occurred during World War Two with the main issue involving the continued employment of steam locomotive firemen even though they were no longer needed on the new diesels. The murder was never solved.

McNear's personal rail-car is being moved to a railroad museum this month. Until now, it was part of a local restaurant that is currently being torn down.

[sdreid]

Speaking of possible budding serial killers, Richie Neavear, 18, was found stabbed to death in a patch of tall weeds south of Pekin, IL on July 14, 1995.

On September seventh of 2009, 27-year-old Randy Englebrect was found buried on his property in Mason County, also south of the city. Police are not releasing the cause of death but, since people don't bury themselves, we can safely assume that it was a homicide. There are several men who are suspects in both murders.

[sdreid]

7 -- On October 31 of 1984 in Decatur IL, Sherry Gordon, 12, and, her cousin, Theresa Hall, 9, vanished while out trick-or-treating with Theresa's 7-year-old sister. They were later found strangled and sexually assaulted in an abandoned building. The younger girl was found hiding but was too traumatized to identify the attacker, thus leaving the case unsolved. UPDATE: Just last week, Decatur police announced that DNA from the crime scene had been matched to a convict named Melvin Johnson who'd died in 2003. It looks like we can probably consider this one solved.

Mr. Johnson has now been tied to murders in 1985 and 1988 so I guess we had a serial killer here and didn't know it. In the same regard, other slayings are being looked at.

[sdreid]

4 -- Fay Rawley vanished from his home near Summum, IL on November 8 of 1953. Rawley was a well-to-do farmer and politician. He was last seen earlier that evening when he left his girlfriend's home in Macomb. There were signs of a struggle in his house. Neither he nor his new Cadillac were ever seen again. A strip mine was being filled in across the road from Rawley's home and the theory was that he was murdered and buried in his car there some 300 feet down. A local sheriff spent years drilling into the mine but never found Rawley or the Cadillac. The case is a total mystery.

Additionally, nine years later, two years after Rawley was legally declared dead, his son was killed in an automobile accident. Investigators found that the car's brakes seemed to have been tampered with. Was there some sort of vendetta against the family?

[sdreid]

One update on Beaman - Even though the verdict has been thrown out, the charges dropped and Beaman released, the State is apparently balking at returning his bond money. If anything, they owe him that and a lot more.

[sdreid]

Thanks Jeff. I even remember when that last one when was in the news and discussing it at school the next day.