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Power retail sales data. The

1:01

first snow of the season for the town

1:03

of Sycamore, Illinois fell on December 3rd. It

1:06

was 1957 and though it was already dark, many

1:09

parents let their kids go play outside

1:12

and enjoy the flurries. Seven

1:14

year old Maria Redolf and her best

1:16

friend Kathy Sigmund went to go play

1:18

after dinner like they had many nights

1:21

before. Maria lived at 616 Archie

1:24

Place and the girls would often play

1:26

in a large corner lot where Archie

1:28

Place met up with nearby Center Cross

1:30

Street. They made up a

1:32

game they called Duck the Cars where they

1:34

would hide behind a big elm tree at

1:37

the corner whenever a car drove by. And

1:39

if either of the girls got hit by

1:41

the cars headlight beams, they lost. At

1:44

approximately 6pm, Maria's mother Frances left

1:46

their house to take their older

1:48

daughter, Kaye, to a nearby music

1:50

lesson. Frances got home between 10

1:52

to 15 minutes later and

1:55

saw the girls still playing their game. But

1:57

that would be the last time she saw

1:59

her. daughter who shortly after had

2:01

an encounter with a monster. At

2:29

some point between 6.10 and

2:31

7.00pm a man who called himself

2:33

Johnny approached the girls. He

2:36

was wearing a blue, green and yellow sweater

2:38

and jeans and at one point took off

2:40

his winter hat to reveal a head of

2:43

blonde hair. He smiled and was

2:45

friendly with the girls and had teeth that

2:47

were large with a gap in the top.

2:49

Johnny made a bit of small talk

2:51

with the girls and offered them a

2:54

ride, saying he could take them somewhere

2:56

either by car, bus or on a

2:58

piggyback ride. Maria took him up on

3:00

his offer. He gave her a short piggyback

3:02

ride around the area they were playing in

3:04

and said he would give her another ride

3:06

if she brought him a doll. Maria

3:09

ran home leaving Kathy and Johnny alone.

3:11

In some accounts he offered

3:13

Kathy a ride then but she declined.

3:15

In others he asked her to go

3:17

get a doll as well. When

3:19

Maria got home and started picking through

3:21

her dolls her mother told her that

3:23

because of the snow she needed to

3:25

grab a rubber one, not a porcelain

3:27

one, so she grabbed a rubber baby

3:29

doll in a red and white skirt.

3:31

When Maria ran back outside to Kathy

3:34

and Johnny Kathy seemed ready to take

3:36

Johnny up on his offer but her

3:38

hands were cold. She asked

3:40

him what time it was and he

3:42

told her approximately 7pm. She

3:44

ran home to get her mittens and perhaps a

3:46

doll as well and when she got back outside

3:48

she found Maria and Johnny were gone. She went

3:51

to the red doll's home nearby to see

3:53

if they'd gone there and Maria's 11 year

3:55

old brother Chuck answered the door. He knew

3:58

the girls frequently played hide and play. seek

4:00

and asked Kathy if Maria might just be

4:02

hiding from her. Kathy then ran

4:04

back out to start yelling for Maria

4:07

to come out. When that didn't work,

4:09

she knocked again. Chuck then told

4:11

his parents what was going on and Francis

4:13

and Mike Redolf came out to help search

4:15

and send Kathy home. Mike brought

4:18

out a whistle that the family sometimes

4:20

used to summon whichever child was out

4:22

playing too late at night. They

4:24

checked some of Maria's favorite spots but

4:27

found nothing. Francis went home

4:29

to call Kathy's mother Edna and she

4:31

became worried when she heard the story

4:33

about the girls playing with an older

4:35

man. Francis found her husband still searching

4:37

and asked if they should call the

4:39

police, but Mike didn't think there was

4:41

anything to be worried about. As

4:43

they kept searching and found no trace of

4:46

Maria, however, Francis started to

4:48

think it might be an emergency. She

4:50

left for the police station some point between 7

4:53

and 8pm. Slightly different

4:55

versions of Kathy's story would bring more

4:57

details later on. She said during their

4:59

chit chat, Johnny had offered up the

5:02

information that he was 24

5:04

years old and hadn't yet found a wife. She

5:07

said he complimented both girls and made sure

5:09

to tell Maria her doll was lovely as

5:11

well. The exact timeline in

5:13

which Maria's abduction took place is something

5:15

that's still up for debate. The

5:18

theory would later come forward that when Kathy

5:20

asked Johnny for the time, perhaps he had

5:22

lied to confuse her. How

5:24

much time had elapsed between Maria Vanishing

5:27

and Francis leaving for the police station

5:29

could have been anywhere from 20 minutes

5:31

to an hour and 10 minutes depending

5:33

on whether Johnny had given Kathy the

5:35

right time. Police sent out

5:37

a few squad cars who failed to

5:40

find the girl, so they started bringing

5:42

in some more experienced volunteers. The

5:44

idea that Maria had simply run away was

5:47

pushed to the side quickly when police made

5:49

a grim discovery. An early

5:51

search party traced the footsteps from the

5:53

Elm Tree to a nearby field. The

5:56

tracks led behind an old barn, then

5:58

stopped where tire tracks began. men.

6:00

Whoever had taken Maria had stashed

6:02

their car nearby. The abduction

6:04

had been planned. Police called

6:07

for backup. The houses and

6:09

yards closest to Maria's were searched again

6:11

and again which makes another clue that

6:13

was found perplexing. At

6:15

around 10.30 pm, Maria's teenage sisters,

6:17

Pat and Kay, found Maria's doll

6:19

near a rock in a yard

6:21

just a few doors down from

6:23

the Redulf home, but officers were

6:25

sure they'd canvassed that spot. Had

6:28

it been out in the woods or a field,

6:30

it might have gotten missed, but this was in

6:32

a yard that was scrutinized over and over again.

6:35

Many of the townspeople stayed up all

6:37

night to help. Women took turns bringing

6:39

coffee and an assortment of jugs to

6:41

the police station to help everyone power

6:44

through the night. Some of

6:46

the search parties were essentially vigilante groups

6:48

of armed or drunk, sometimes both, men

6:50

who had not slept enough and felt

6:52

it was up to them to mete

6:54

out justice. Various groups and

6:56

mobs started knocking on doors and demanding

6:58

to be let in, but despite the

7:01

tension, as the sun rose the next

7:03

day, police brought in planes to fly

7:05

over the town and search from the

7:07

air. Local men started combing the woods

7:10

and walking along streams and railroad tracks.

7:13

Though the FBI could not formally become part of

7:15

the case until 24 hours had elapsed,

7:18

an agent showed up that morning and

7:20

local papers implied he was ready to

7:22

start helping early, though he wouldn't officially

7:24

be on until 7pm. Police

7:27

were quick to say they believed the abduction

7:29

had been done by someone local, and they

7:31

said they wouldn't be surprised if the culprit

7:33

lived near Center Cross and Archie Place. Privately,

7:36

they wondered if the person who'd kidnapped

7:38

Maria had left the doll out during

7:40

the search to taunt them. Police

7:43

made a public appeal to whoever had

7:45

left the doll to come forward with

7:47

information, playing the angle in the papers

7:49

that perhaps someone had simply found it

7:51

on their property and been worried about

7:53

mob justice with the way the search

7:55

went those first few days. A

7:58

few odds and ends were uncovered early. in

8:00

the search. Someone found bloody towels

8:02

in a bag and someone else found

8:04

a rabbit's end trails. The

8:06

strangest find though was a collection

8:09

of well-preserved newspapers about two sisters

8:11

who'd recently been murdered in Chicago.

8:14

Their names were Barbara and Patricia Grimes and

8:16

they'd been just 15 and 12 when

8:19

they were killed. The murder had

8:21

been a year prior on December 28th of 1956

8:24

and Sycamore is only 90 minutes from

8:27

Chicago. Just before

8:29

Christmas police thought there was a chance

8:31

they'd found Johnny. On December

8:33

2nd, Kathy Sigmund was taken to Wisconsin

8:35

for a lineup and identified one of

8:38

the men as certainly being Johnny. He

8:40

was a farm worker in his mid-thirties

8:42

who fit Johnny's description exactly apart from

8:45

being a bit older. However,

8:47

upon further investigation police discovered the man

8:49

could not have taken Maria as he

8:51

was actually in jail on the night

8:54

in question for check fraud. The

8:56

next few months passed with all of the

8:58

usual leads that come up in any disappearance.

9:01

Psychics called in to talk about their

9:03

dreams and sex offenders were examined in

9:06

a steadily widening net. Maria's

9:08

parents went back and forth between believing

9:10

she was dead and holding out hope

9:12

she might somehow be alive. The

9:15

next major development happened months later. On April

9:17

26th, 1958, a couple vacationing from

9:22

Minnesota were looking for places to

9:24

hunt mushrooms. They were near

9:26

the town of Woodbine in Joe Davies

9:28

County and only a little way into

9:30

the woods when they made a grim

9:32

discovery. They found a badly decomposed body

9:34

and quickly went to call the police.

9:37

There were no other girls Maria's

9:39

age missing in northern Illinois so

9:41

local law enforcement contacted Sycamore right

9:44

away. Woodbine was only about 90

9:46

minutes away. The body

9:48

was identified quickly using dental records

9:51

and confirmed the Redol family's worst

9:53

fears. An autopsy failed to

9:55

give any clues about the killer or even

9:57

Maria's cause of death as her body had

10:00

been scavenged by animals and mostly

10:02

decomposed by the time it was

10:04

found. Though no clear-cut evidence of

10:06

sexual assault was presented, she was

10:09

wearing only her shirt, undershirt, and

10:11

socks. Her coat, pants, and undergarments

10:13

were gone. Maria

10:15

was finally laid to rest a few days

10:18

later on April 30th. Mourners

10:20

sang her favorite hymn and she was

10:22

buried between two plots that Mike and

10:24

Francis purchased to be there resting places

10:26

when they passed. A dozen

10:28

plainclothes officers watched those in attendance,

10:30

keeping an eye out for anyone

10:32

who could match Johnny's description in

10:34

case he decided to attend. In

10:37

the Redulf house, Maria did not have her own

10:39

room, but there was a corner in the living

10:41

room where she kept her toys. After

10:44

she vanished, they kept her unopened

10:46

Christmas presents there, not wanting to

10:48

turn the room she'd shared with

10:50

Chuck into a shrine. After her

10:52

funeral, they finally started putting her

10:54

things away. When

10:56

the case had still been hot in

10:58

the news those first few weeks, FBI

11:01

Director J. Edgar Hoover got involved, and

11:03

as a result, President Eisenhower did as

11:05

well. It was a passive

11:07

involvement with occasional comments passed down from

11:09

a secretary here or assistant there, but

11:12

it helped spur the media attention to

11:14

the case. But with Maria's

11:16

body being found in Illinois, the FBI

11:18

could no longer be involved as it

11:20

was apparent that she had not crossed

11:22

state lines. The months

11:25

turned into years, which turned into decades,

11:27

and after fifty years no one had

11:29

forgotten about Maria, but they moved on.

11:32

Many certainly thought that answers to her

11:34

murder might never be found in this

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12:08

Who'd followed the case did manage

12:10

to find closure, and Nineteen Ninety

12:12

Seven now a local Sycamore detective

12:14

named Patrick Solar had been investigating

12:16

the case on the backburner, but

12:18

with passion whenever new leaves came

12:20

up. In. Nineteen Ninety Seven Solar

12:22

Sound Possible evidence to connect Murray as

12:25

murder with a child killer by the

12:27

name of William Henry Redmond. William.

12:30

Traveled the country frequently as a carnival

12:32

worker at has eluded the killing at

12:34

least a few more girls that law

12:36

enforcement were never able to panel on

12:38

him. However, he died in Nineteen Ninety

12:40

Two, so any conclusive evidence would likely

12:42

never be found. Solar. Pitched

12:44

as idea to maria siblings who

12:46

received the theory with mixed results.

12:48

He also pitched as theory to

12:50

the media, took a story embellish

12:52

dead and ran articles claiming the

12:54

case had finally been solved. Solar.

12:57

Would later say he was embarrassed about the

12:59

media spin on his theory. The

13:01

story had given Tapie Sigmund some measure

13:03

of closure, but she didn't realize that

13:05

it was inconclusive. the first year or

13:07

so after Maria's disappear and she'd been

13:09

pulled out of school constantly to look

13:11

at line ups and spent a lot

13:14

of time being afraid the Johnny would

13:16

come back for. Plus. The police

13:18

had drilled into our had the she was

13:20

the only person who could identify Johnny so

13:22

even as she grew up she found herself

13:24

always looking for his face and crowds see

13:26

at least. was glad it was over. By.

13:29

The late nineties maria siblings, Pat K,

13:31

and Shop At all grown up and

13:33

had children of the road. Her. Parents

13:36

fi it's us and make a divorced

13:38

since Murray his disappearance might passed away,

13:40

and Ninety Ninety Nine and Francis and

13:42

two Thousand and Seven still without definitive

13:44

answers. It would be five more years

13:47

after both of Murray as parents passed

13:49

away that are family would finally see

13:51

their day and Cork. In

13:53

two thousand and eleven, police told the

13:55

media the shocking news that they'd finally

13:57

made an arrest: A man named Jack.

14:00

The cola from Seattle was being

14:02

extradited to Illinois to be put

14:04

on trial, but who was Jack

14:06

Mcauliffe? To. Get into the intricacies

14:08

of how his family intertwined with the

14:10

community of Sycamore am the Riddle Family.

14:13

It's perhaps easiest to start at the

14:15

beginning. Jack Mccolo was not the name

14:17

that this man had been born with.

14:20

In fact, as a kid he went

14:22

by Johnny. Jack had originally been John

14:24

Samuel Cherry. He was born near the

14:27

start of World War Two and Belfast

14:29

and Nineteen Thirty Nine. His father was

14:31

killed soon after and his mother, I

14:33

Lean Mccollough, fell in love with an

14:36

American soldier named. Ralph test the year.

14:38

years later. after the war, she came

14:40

to America. By then Johnny was seven

14:43

and had a new baby sister, copy

14:45

who was born in Nineteen Forty Five.

14:47

I lean and Ralph when on the

14:50

have five more children Jean and nineteen

14:52

forty seven, followed by Bob men, Janet,

14:54

marry and Nancy. Nancy was born disabled

14:56

and sent to a care home when

14:58

she was young, which is why she

15:00

never really talked to the media. Later

15:03

on, John took a step father's

15:05

name and stopped going by Johnny and or

15:07

Will third team as he wanted to sound

15:09

more grown up. John. Would always

15:11

recall his childhood fondly, remembering Sycamore as

15:13

an idyllic place where Maria's disappearance had

15:16

been the only serious crime the town

15:18

and ever known. the night Maria vanish

15:20

the test years didn't even know where

15:22

their house key was because they never

15:24

lock the doors. It was a small

15:26

town in the test years live two

15:28

blocks from the Were Gold Sovereigns Center

15:31

cross street. Their family had been among

15:33

the many to send the Rudolf a

15:35

letter, offering prayers and condolences. when Murray

15:37

as body was found. Interestingly

15:39

enough, John Test Years life had

15:42

also been somewhat intertwined with taffy

15:44

segments as well. Shortly. After

15:46

coming to the United States, Little Johnny

15:48

was hit by a cab. He spent

15:51

over a week in a coma. His

15:53

parents noted some behavioral changes after the

15:55

Your Deal. He. Would later come out

15:57

that the man who would hit him had been

15:59

tapping. The father Some had put

16:01

forward the theory that if Johnny

16:03

had been the one to kidnap

16:05

Maria he'd likely been originally going

16:08

for can be some kind of

16:10

convoluted revenge plot, but that theory

16:12

was never seriously considered by law

16:14

enforcement. While. John recalled i'm

16:16

mostly happy childhood and said he

16:18

got along with everyone. Others have disagreed.

16:20

Some people later came forward and said

16:23

that they always knew John was a

16:25

bit of an oddball. One witness claimed

16:27

that John would sit near the front

16:30

window of his living room in his

16:32

underwear and stare down anyone who walked

16:34

by someone else. Were called. an incident

16:37

shortly after Maria vanished, where John poorly

16:39

disguised himself as a reporter and started

16:42

asking questions about her. Of course, John

16:44

denies both of these claims. Much.

16:46

Of what we know about the Tessier family

16:48

household growing up comes from G who was

16:51

eight years younger than Johnny. Unfortunately,

16:53

A lot of that knowledge comes

16:56

from Jeans memoir and extensive court

16:58

testimony about the childhood sexual abuse

17:00

he suffered growing up. With.

17:02

Jean was still a toddler, Ralph

17:04

would touch her and appropriately when

17:06

she was six, the abuse escalated

17:08

to rape. The. Abuse had escalated

17:11

because she'd been wearing a dress with

17:13

no wonder where and her father decided

17:15

she was looking for sex or trying

17:17

to seduce them. Of. Course.

17:20

None of her other sister as have come

17:22

forward to claim sexual abuse, but none of

17:24

them have come forward to defend their late

17:26

father either. Gene says her brother

17:29

Johnny would abuse her throughout her childhood

17:31

as well, the worst of which Gene

17:33

would eventually testify about in court. In.

17:36

A story with several differing accounts. Perhaps

17:38

it's easy to skip ahead to two

17:40

thousand and Twelve when Jean and John

17:42

now Jack found themselves and court. During.

17:45

the investigation into maria rudolph the murder

17:48

gene ended up confiding in law enforcement

17:50

about the sexual abuse he suffered at

17:52

the hands of her father and brother

17:54

recounting and especially horrible event when she

17:57

was fourteen and john had raped her

17:59

before off her to his housemates. States

18:02

Attorney Clay Campbell, who was working with

18:04

the prosecution, tried to talk Jean into

18:06

holding a separate trial first to charge

18:08

John with rape, as that would make

18:10

the murder trial much easier. He assured

18:13

her that it would be her choice and

18:15

he would not pursue that angle unless she

18:17

wanted to, but when Jean refused saying she

18:19

didn't think the case would hold up in

18:21

court, Campbell told her they were moving forward

18:24

with it anyway. Jean had

18:26

been hesitant for a variety of reasons.

18:28

The crime had happened in 1962, but

18:31

she didn't know what day. She also didn't know

18:33

the names of the other men who'd raped her

18:35

and there was no evidence. Despite

18:37

that, Jean told her story in court

18:39

in as much detail as she could

18:41

remember, and to provide evidence of a

18:43

pattern of attraction to young girls, the

18:45

state brought in another girl who'd been

18:47

a victim of John. John

18:50

had had a variety of careers throughout his

18:52

life. He tried unsuccessfully to

18:54

be a photographer, worked odd jobs, and

18:56

for a time after he came back

18:58

from serving in Vietnam, he'd been a

19:00

police officer. It was during

19:02

that time that he allegedly took advantage

19:05

of another teenage girl. Michelle

19:07

Weinman had been a 15-year-old runaway who'd

19:09

ended up staying with Jean when she

19:11

felt unsafe at home. She'd

19:13

end up there because he was a police

19:16

officer and deemed someone safe to watch over

19:18

her. At first, Jean seemed to

19:20

be trying to be a father figure to her,

19:22

but the longer she stayed with him, the more

19:24

it seemed he was courting her. Things

19:27

escalated one night when he approached her while

19:29

she was sleeping and started performing oral sex

19:31

on her. He tried to get her to

19:33

come to bed with him, but she refused

19:35

and he left her alone. She

19:38

left the next day and went to the police

19:40

and he was eventually fired. John

19:42

claims that Michelle asked him to touch her

19:44

sexually and that he began to initiate sex

19:46

with her but stopped. Despite

19:49

Michelle and Jean's testimony, the case fell

19:51

through for all the reasons Jean thought

19:53

it would and John was found not

19:55

guilty. John denies any of

19:58

that ever happened, but during interrogation

20:00

in 1958. He

20:02

did admit to having some kind of sexual

20:04

play with at least one sister but said

20:07

the incident was when they were children. Since

20:09

John is eight years older than Gene,

20:11

whatever happened, happened when John was a

20:13

teenager and Gene would have been between

20:15

four and eight years old. In

20:18

any case, the rape trial concluded and the

20:20

murder trial began, and with it came the

20:22

story of just how John had been arrested

20:24

for the murder of Maria. It turns out

20:26

it was his own family that turned him

20:28

in. John had been estranged

20:31

from his family since around 1980, but

20:33

Eileen had come down with cancer in

20:36

1993, and that Thanksgiving was going to

20:38

be her and Ralph's 50th

20:40

wedding anniversary, so they wanted to renew

20:42

their vows. John attended and

20:44

brought his kids as they wanted all

20:47

the grandchildren there. Apparently, at

20:49

some point during the ceremony, John snuck

20:51

up behind Gene and grabbed her crotch.

20:54

Near the end of that year, as Eileen

20:56

was in the hospital and Janet and Mary

20:58

were keeping her company, she blurted out some

21:01

kind of confession. What exactly

21:03

she said, Janet and Mary are

21:05

in disagreement about and their testimonies

21:07

differed. Mary does agree that

21:09

her mother said something along the lines

21:11

of, John did it, but said it

21:13

was a vague statement. Janet

21:16

says it was more specific, and

21:18

Eileen mentions specifically those two little

21:20

girls. She also says

21:23

their mother said, quote, you have to

21:25

tell someone. Mary told Janet

21:27

not to do anything and to let their

21:29

mother die in peace, and when Janet reached

21:32

out to Gene, she agreed. In

21:34

either December of 1993 or

21:37

January of 1994, Eileen

21:39

became comatose. Janet

21:41

decided she would do the right thing and

21:43

call the police anyway. A detective

21:45

came to her apartment, but when he

21:47

learned Eileen was not likely to wake

21:49

up before she passed, he told Janet

21:52

there wasn't much of a chance of

21:54

anything happening. Eileen died on January 23rd, 1994. John

21:56

was told he would not

22:00

be welcome at the funeral. Jean,

22:02

at some point during her adulthood, confided

22:04

in her sisters about the sexual abuse

22:06

she'd suffered at the hands of John,

22:08

so that was likely what caused the

22:10

rift, but John claims he didn't talk

22:12

to his family because they just drifted

22:14

apart. Ralph passed away in

22:17

2006 and he was barred from attending

22:19

that funeral as well. Along

22:21

with Eileen's death comes the story

22:24

of how John Tessier became Jack

22:26

McCullough. John started going

22:28

by Jack when he got a trucking job where

22:30

two of the drivers were already named John,

22:32

so his boss told him if he wanted the

22:34

job he needed to be Jack. He

22:37

liked the new name and stuck with it even

22:39

after he left. Around that

22:41

same time, he proposed to his girlfriend,

22:43

but word got back to his ex-wives

22:45

and one of them sent a nasty

22:47

letter to his fiancée, telling her not

22:49

to marry him. He decided

22:51

to change his last name both to

22:53

honor his mother and to keep some

22:55

measure of privacy because he didn't talk

22:57

to his family anymore anyway. Plus, that

23:00

way his new wife wouldn't be the

23:02

third Mrs. Tessier and would be the

23:04

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23:37

In 2008, a friend encouraged Janet to reach

23:39

out one more time to the police and

23:41

tell them her story. She sent

23:43

a short email telling the police it was

23:46

the last time she was going to try

23:48

to bring them the story and found that

23:50

things had changed. There were fresh faces in

23:52

the department and they wanted to reopen the

23:55

case. Investigators had their eyes

23:57

on John back in 1958 because he

24:00

lived nearby and fit the description. John

24:03

had not been home the first time

24:05

the FBI stopped by, but Ralph and

24:07

Eileen told them that John had been

24:09

in Rockford on December 3rd trying to

24:11

enlist. They said he called home

24:13

around 7-10 for Ralph to come get him and

24:15

the men didn't get home until about 9 PM.

24:19

On December 9th, police brought John in.

24:22

He maintained his innocence and even passed

24:24

a polygraph test. The version

24:26

of the story he gave then was that

24:29

on December 2nd he'd been in Chicago getting

24:31

a physical to see if he could enlist

24:33

in the army. He had tuberculosis

24:35

when he was 3 and his lungs showed

24:37

a spot that concerned the recruiters, so they

24:39

said they would take a more in depth

24:41

look the next day and gave him a

24:43

voucher to stay in the city that night.

24:46

He stayed at the YMCA and the next

24:48

day they still weren't sure if they could

24:50

take him. They said he needed a letter

24:52

from a family physician assuring them that the

24:54

spot was benign. That was

24:57

around noon and his train to go back home

24:59

wasn't leaving until 5-15 so he took in

25:02

the sights. He wandered the city

25:04

and ended up at a burlesque show. The

25:06

train took him to Rockford and he got

25:09

out about 6-45 PM then wandered around until

25:11

he found a phone at the post office

25:13

and made a call at 6-57 PM to

25:16

tell Ralph to come get him. John

25:18

stopped at a nearby recruiting office as it would

25:20

save him time if he could just come back

25:23

to Rockford the next day. He

25:25

found a few people still working and talked to them.

25:28

One recruiter brought him inside to speak with someone

25:30

else and they talked until about 7-30. Both

25:33

men corroborated his story and also remarked

25:35

that they hadn't liked John much. Then

25:38

John went off to a nearby diner to wait

25:40

for Ralph. He had a slice

25:42

of pie and chatted up the waitress, then Ralph

25:45

got him some time after that and by the

25:47

time they got home the search for Maria had

25:49

begun. The next day John

25:51

took a train back to the recruiter's

25:53

office and spoke with a staff member

25:55

named John Oswald. When speaking

25:58

with police soon after, Oswald recalled numerous

26:00

things he found to be odd about the

26:02

encounter. John went out of his

26:04

way to bring up Maria's abduction and joked about

26:06

how it was a good thing he was at

26:08

the recruitment center the night before. Oswald

26:11

also noted a small cut on John's lip,

26:13

but it could have just been from shaving.

26:16

John also went out of his way to

26:19

show Oswald a bizarre diary he kept with

26:21

the names and measurements of various teenage girls

26:23

he knew. Perhaps

26:25

the most concerning aspect of the

26:27

conversation happened by accident. Oswald

26:30

got a call from his landlady who happened

26:32

to have the surname of Grimes. After

26:35

the call, John asked Oswald if she

26:37

was related to the Grimes sisters who

26:39

had been killed in Chicago the previous

26:41

year. Oswald said

26:43

he didn't know and unprompted, John began

26:45

to tell him about the case in

26:47

great detail. Interestingly, that's the

26:49

same case where a collection of newspapers

26:52

about the case was found hidden in

26:54

Sycamore during the search for Maria. Due

26:57

to his extensive alibi with numerous witnesses

26:59

backing him up, police crossed John off

27:02

their list. And because Kathy was already

27:04

looking at so many lineups, they didn't

27:06

add his photo to the pile. They

27:09

didn't have Kathy look at John's photo

27:11

until 2011 and though she did pick

27:13

him out, it was decades later. When

27:16

police realized John may have done it,

27:19

they started to wonder if maybe the

27:21

original timeline for the abduction had been

27:23

wrong. If Maria had been

27:25

kidnapped closer to six, John could have

27:27

theoretically driven his car back to Rockford

27:30

in time to make the call. He

27:33

was unaccounted for from noon until seven

27:35

that day, so if the abduction had

27:37

been earlier and he made the call

27:39

on the outskirts of Rockford, not the

27:41

downtown post office, he might have done

27:43

it. He'd also really gone

27:46

out of his way to be memorable

27:48

to the recruiters that night, even telling

27:50

one man he'd tried to join the

27:52

army before but had been rejected for

27:54

being unstable. Perhaps he

27:56

thought that was appropriate small talk because he

27:58

was a bit unstable. Or perhaps he

28:00

was going out of his way to be

28:03

remembered at the recruitment center should anyone question

28:05

his whereabouts. I do have

28:07

to question this theory though, because it

28:09

relies on John having kidnapped Maria and

28:11

then driven himself back to Rockford. If

28:14

that was the case, his car would have been left

28:16

there when he was picked up by Ralph. How

28:19

did he get his car back? Or were

28:21

they suggesting that John's parents were lying about

28:23

Ralph having picked him up? And

28:25

it was confirmed that John was in Chicago,

28:28

so how did he get back to Sycamore

28:30

in order to kidnap Maria? There are a

28:32

lot of unanswered questions with this theory. In

28:35

order to make the theory work,

28:37

the prosecution moved the timeline up

28:39

despite initial reports. Frances,

28:42

along with three neighbors, had initially

28:44

reported Maria playing outside at about

28:46

6.30, but Frances

28:48

later remembered the music lessons she took K

28:50

to had been closer to 6. Another

28:54

witness who was a delivery man substantiated

28:56

the new timeline, saying he'd seen the

28:58

girls at 6.05, but

29:00

not when he returned from his delivery 15 to 20

29:02

minutes later. Investigators

29:05

started questioning John after his 2011 arrest

29:07

again. They

29:10

quizzed him about his alibi and pointed out

29:12

that Ralph had been helping with the search

29:14

early that night and couldn't have picked him

29:16

up, but he said he'd hitch-eyed home. The

29:19

detectives pointed out that his sisters did not

29:21

see him come home that night, so he

29:23

said he snuck in through a window. He

29:26

changed his story a few times at one

29:28

point, saying he'd also helped with the search.

29:31

Despite his changing story or just his

29:33

shaky memory, it had been over 50

29:36

years after all. John did have

29:38

quite a bit of evidence in his favor. The

29:41

changed timeline was tedious at best,

29:43

and if the timeline didn't hold

29:45

up, his alibi was rock solid.

29:47

However, almost all of that historical

29:49

evidence was barred from discovery. The

29:52

prosecution had convinced the judge that

29:54

because the accounts were so old,

29:56

they weren't reliable, which is strange

29:58

because their own evidence was witness

30:00

accounts from over 50 years ago.

30:03

With the FBI's evidence from the

30:05

50s gone, so too was any

30:07

evidence of John's alibi. Leading

30:10

up to the trial, Maria's body was

30:12

exhumed and a more up-to-date autopsy revealed

30:14

she'd been stabbed in the throat. Her

30:17

family held a second funeral when her

30:19

body was buried again and the town

30:21

was ready to finally see justice served.

30:24

The trial began in the fall of 2012. One

30:27

crucial piece of evidence came from Jan

30:30

Edwards, who'd been John's girlfriend before he

30:32

left for the military. She

30:34

recalled that either on the 3rd or 4th of

30:36

December they were sitting in a car when he

30:39

told her he'd been accepted to the military. They

30:42

had that inevitable talk many high

30:44

school seniors do and they parted

30:46

amicably. John gave her a ticket

30:48

the military had given him to use the next

30:50

time he had to go to Chicago as he

30:52

didn't want to lose it. She tucked

30:54

it in a picture frame behind her favorite photo

30:56

of the two when they had gone on a

30:58

date to a nightclub. The picture would

31:01

later be the one used in the line-up

31:03

that Kathy chose. If John

31:05

was planning on taking the train back to

31:07

the recruitment center the next day, it's strange

31:09

he wouldn't have used the free ticket. If

31:12

he had driven rather than taken the train,

31:14

he might have had time to abduct Maria.

31:17

John's sister Kathy testified that John owned

31:19

a sweater he loved that was blue,

31:22

green, and yellow just like the one

31:24

Kathy Sigmund described, but after December 3rd

31:26

she never saw the sweater again. She

31:29

also testified that Johnny didn't come home

31:31

that night. Other testimonies were

31:33

more ambiguous. A girl who'd grown up

31:35

in Sycamore named Pam Long testified at

31:38

the trial that when she was a

31:40

child, Johnny had given her a piggyback

31:42

ride and when her father saw it

31:44

happen he seemed extremely worried to see

31:46

her playing with a boy. Another

31:49

local said he could have swore he'd seen

31:51

someone driving Johnny's car that day, which didn't

31:53

make sense if he'd been out of town

31:55

as he didn't let anyone else drive his

31:57

car. one

32:00

of the officers to question John in 2011

32:02

and she testified that he spoke

32:04

about Maria as if he were talking

32:06

about someone he'd been in love with.

32:08

He called her lovely and said she

32:10

had beautiful eyes. He even compared her

32:13

to a Barbie doll. On

32:15

September 14th, 2012, John

32:17

was found guilty of kidnapping and murder and

32:20

would not be allowed to seek parole until

32:22

he'd served at least 20 years. At 74,

32:24

it was essentially a

32:27

life sentence. During John's

32:29

trial, his children and extended families

32:31

spoke in his defense. Despite the

32:33

conviction, his family was hoping that

32:35

John might be able to successfully

32:37

appeal his case. He had children

32:39

and grandchildren who spoke admirably of

32:41

him and said they wanted him

32:43

home. It took years,

32:45

but starting in late 2015 during

32:47

a review of his sentence, things

32:50

seemed promising. The review

32:52

was expedited by DeKalb County Attorney

32:54

Richard Schmack who had been somewhat

32:56

involved in the original trial. Schmack

32:58

and a few other investigators reviewed many

33:01

of the original documents that had been

33:03

barred from discovery and felt John had

33:05

a compelling case. John's

33:07

sister Kathy said during the trial that

33:09

she'd seen police cars searching for Maria

33:11

when she got home at about 7

33:13

PM, which would support the new timeline

33:15

but other witnesses who were at the

33:17

same events said it didn't end until

33:19

9 PM. Phone

33:22

records had also proven that John had

33:24

indeed been at the post office in

33:26

downtown Rockford, meaning even with the prosecution's

33:28

new timeline he would have been cutting

33:30

it very close to if kidnapped Maria

33:33

and made it back to Call Ralph.

33:36

Testimony from Kathy Sigmund also

33:38

proved useful. In 2012,

33:40

Kathy testified that there was a street

33:43

light on the corner where the kids

33:45

played, which was later proven to be

33:47

untrue and added fuel to the argument

33:49

that the eyewitness accounts that had condemned

33:51

John were unreliable. With

33:53

new old and re-examined evidence, the appeal

33:55

was very convincing. The bulk of the

33:57

evidence was simply in the old FBI.

34:00

case files though. John

34:02

was released on bond on April 15th, 2016 and

34:04

the charges were formally dismissed

34:07

a week later. Kathy

34:09

has since passed but Pat and Chuck

34:12

have openly told the media they still

34:14

believe their brother is guilty. There's

34:16

no doubt that John Tessier or Jack

34:18

McCullough, whatever he's going by has done

34:20

some bad things. If we take everything

34:22

he said as the absolute truth he's

34:24

still someone who took advantage of a

34:27

15 year old girl in his care when he

34:29

was in his 40s. He still

34:31

had some kind of sexual contact with at

34:33

least one sister who was much younger than

34:35

him. Some would argue that

34:37

even if John's alibi held true and he

34:39

did not kill Maria he still deserves to

34:42

be punished. That might be true but that's

34:44

not how the justice system works and that's

34:46

the kind of thinking that puts innocent people

34:49

in jail. That sentiment is

34:51

also partially what led to John's

34:53

release. The department that handled the

34:55

case after his Washington arrest was so hell

34:57

bent on getting him behind bars no matter

35:00

the cost that they bent their own rules.

35:02

They questioned him after he asked for a

35:04

lawyer and embellished some of their testimony during

35:06

the 2012 trial which

35:09

was later used against them on appeal. The

35:12

2012 trial itself is another example

35:14

of that. The fact that the

35:16

original FBI files were barred from

35:18

discovery was unusual and ultimately what

35:20

led to John going free. Had

35:23

the case been approached more objectively and

35:25

had facts been checked more thoroughly perhaps

35:27

the truth could have been found during

35:29

the initial trial. If John was

35:32

indeed guilty then law enforcement's bending of their

35:34

own rules only helped to let a guilty

35:36

man go free. But if he

35:38

is innocent then a great injustice was prevented

35:41

and the case still needs to be

35:43

solved. Just exactly

35:45

a year after he was released

35:47

John was granted a certificate of

35:49

innocence and the case was officially

35:51

reopened. He went back to

35:53

his family in Washington with a newfound

35:55

appreciation for his life. He told

35:57

the media he wanted to travel more and spend

35:59

time with kids and grandkids. At

36:02

this point, the kidnap and murder of

36:04

Maria Redolf is still officially unsolved and

36:06

a monster is still on the loose.

36:09

That is, if they're still alive. If

36:12

you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out

36:14

to someone for help. Please talk to

36:17

your local shelter or call the National Domestic

36:19

Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's

36:22

1-800-799-7233. Or

36:26

you can go to thehotline.org to chat with

36:29

someone online. This website is set up so

36:31

that, at any time, hitting the escape key

36:33

twice will take you to a Google search

36:35

page. That way, if your abuser is nearby,

36:37

you won't get caught seeking help. If

36:40

you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone

36:42

else or even just need someone to talk

36:45

to, please contact your local mental health facility,

36:47

call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention

36:49

Hotline by simply dialing 988 in the United

36:51

States. They're

36:53

available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,

36:56

and we'll talk to you about any mental health

36:58

issue you may be facing. Please

37:07

contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564

37:09

or go to lgbthotline.org. or

37:13

go to LGBT hotline. Org.

37:16

Thanks so much for letting me tell you this story.

37:19

If you enjoyed it, subscribe on whatever platform you're

37:21

on, hit like, rate us, or leave us a

37:23

comment. You can check out out our other shows

37:25

Somewhere Sinister on YouTube or anywhere you

37:27

listen to podcasts. If you'd like to

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support the show, check out our merchandise

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