Originally published in “Murder And Mayhem In Rockford, Illinois” by Kathi Kresol. Copyright © 2015 Kathi Kresol.

Paul and Joe Giovingo and family. Courtesy of the Giovingo family.

The Police raids continued, and in 1930 a squad of federal agents was sent to the Rockford area. Agents from the United States Secret Service joined them. The Secret Service’s main interest was one of the gang leaders in Rockford, Tony Musso. They later learned that he moved out to California, and they followed Musso there. The leader of the task force, C. Edson Smith, who was a deputy prohibition administrator from Chicago, was kept busy organizing the raids. The gangs were feeling the pressure from the federal squad raids and the regular police. In the beginning of June, one such gang opened fire on the federal agents.

The federal agents were conducting a raid on a house on Sanford Street. It was a suspected distillery, and the agents were dismantling the equipment when they were almost “mowed down by a shower of machine gun bullets.” A car with curtains on the windows drove by, and suddenly there was the sound of machine gun fire. The bullets hit trees and the front of the house. No officers were hurt in this attack, but the act shocked the people of Rockford. “The mystery machine and the machine gunners were swallowed up by the night.” No arrests were ever made for this shooting, though police suspected that Dominick Rossi, who lived at 710 Sanford Street, was involved with the attempt on the officers’ lives.

On August 14, 1930, Joe Giovingo, a Rockford native, was standing on the curb by the corner of Morgan and South Main Streets talking to four men who were sitting in an automobile. One of the men was Tony Abbott. Abbott, whose real name was Abbatini, was reportedly part of Al Capone’s Gang from Chicago. Abbott allegedly killed one of “Bugs” Moran’s men, Jack Zuta, in Wisconsin and was in Rockford hiding out.

The scene of Joe Giovingo’s murder on South Main Street. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

As Joe was speaking to Abbott, two detectives standing on the sidewalk near the car called him over to question him. They wanted to talk to him about the recent raid at Giovingo’s home on Harding Street. The officers were Folke Bengsten and Roy Johnson.

Roy Johnson and Folke Bengsten inspecting the car Tony Abbot was sitting in when the shooting took place. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

They had just started to talk to Joe when a large “high-powered” Dodge sedan appeared on South Main Street. As it passed Abbott’s car, a shotgun was poked through the rear window, and shots were fired toward Abbott’s car and the three men on the sidewalk. The bullets struck the car that Abbott was sitting in. Abbott and the other men in the car scrambled out of the doors and hunched behind the car. Johnson hit the ground, and Bengsten ducked and then drew his gun to return fire. The car continued south on South Main and then turned onto Montague Road. Joe had seventeen wounds from the gunshot blast that had torn into his side. One slug hit his elbow first and then passed into his abdomen. He died a few minutes later.

The Dodge sedan was recovered the next day about a mile and a half from the city on Montague Road. This led the police to believe this was a premeditated hit. Bengsten and Johnson also reported that Abbott appeared nervous as he was sitting in his car prior to the attack. Abbott kept checking the rear view mirror as if looking for someone.

Deputy Chester Pence and Roy Johnson inspecting the car used in the Giovingo killing. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

Police officers could not agree whether the bullets were meant for Abbott or Giovingo. Abbott and his bodyguards were taken into custody but later released. Family members of Giovingo would later say that Joe’s murder was a case of mistaken identity. They stated they knew that Abbott was the intended target because Al Capone actually called the Giovingo house to speak to Joe’s mother. Capone apologized that Joe had taken the bullet instead of the intended target.

Paul Giovingo, Joe’s brother, came to the station to speak to police and then left with Abbott. Paul and Abbott were apparently good friends. Paul hosted his brother’s funeral at his house at 1033 Montague Road. Joe’s funeral was one of Rockford’s largest, with over 1,500 people attending. There were 150 cars in the procession from the house to the Catholic cemetery. The scene was mass chaos, as police officers, gang leaders, city officials, police officials, friends and family all wandered around the yard, waiting to leave for the funeral. Joe’s mother and sister were hysterical, and their shrieking could be heard as the casket was loaded into the car. Members of the Italian Athletic Club acted as Joe’s pallbearers.

Paul Giovingo would testify in September at an inquest about his brother’s death, stating that Abbott was the true target of the assassin’s bullets. Giovingo also told the jury that Abbott had recently been killed by the same men who had shot Joe. Paul, suspected to have gang ties himself, would soon become the subject of the police’s interest.

Jack DeMarco was the next man to fall victim to the gang’s retaliation. Jack DeMarco was born in Italy on November 28, 1891. He immigrated to the United States around 1917 when he was twenty-five years old. A suspected bootlegger, Jack DeMarco was in and out of trouble during the early part of the 1930s. He was arrested on suspicion that he was the leader in a stolen car ring and also several times for bootlegging and fighting. In 1928, he and the suspected leader of one of the bootlegging gangs, Tony Musso, were arrested when they were caught fighting in the street in front of the cafe where Joe Giovingo would later be killed.

In June 1930, DeMarco was operating a still from his home on Romona Avenue when he was arrested and sent with other defendants to Freeport to stand before Stanley M. Vance, United States deputy commissioner. The trial would be one of the most “spectacular trials in the history of Northern Illinois.” Eighty men and one woman were charged with “conspiracy to violate the Prohibition Act.” Fifty-nine of those arrested were sent to trial. The trial, conducted in Freeport, Illinois, started on January 12, 1931, and lasted until February 2. Thirty-six men were found guilty, twenty-eight of them were sentenced to prison and the rest were either given short-term sentences or placed on probation. The names of the men sentenced are: John Alto, Joe Baraconi, Joe Bendetto, Joe Fizula, Frank Theodore, Andrew Saladino, Tony Giovingo, Paul Giovingo, Frank Rumore, Theodore LaFranka, Louis Verace, Joe Stassi, Thomas Rumore, Tony Musso, Joe Domino, Alfred Falzone, Lorenzo Buttice, Tony Carleto, Frank Buscemi and Peter Sanfillipo. DeMarco would be sent to Leavenworth to serve twelve months of an eighteen-month sentence. It was while serving his time at Leavenworth that rumors started to spread about one of the twenty-eight men talking to the federal agents.

Rockford woke on January 20, 1932, to headlines that announced that gunfire had once again been heard in the southwest neighborhood. “Gangland guns, still in Rockford for the last year, roared a leaden greeting of death to Jack DeMarco, forty six, a local bootlegger at his home at 7 o’clock last night.”

The story went on to say that DeMarco, who had been released from Leavenworth penitentiary the day before, was killed in his own home on Romona Avenue. Jack’s family and friends were hosting a welcome home party when three well-dressed men knocked on the kitchen door and asked to speak to Jack. They flashed badges and were admitted into the home.

Jack was in the dining room placing another record on the Victrola when the men entered the room. All three pulled guns, stated they were the police and asked to speak to Jack alone. One of the men shepherded the family members into a bedroom while another watched the kitchen door. The third man walked DeMarco into the living room. Jack had just enough time to state, “You’re no sheriff or police” before the man opened fire. Three shots roared from the gun in quick succession followed by two more. The next sounds the family members heard were running feet and a car roaring away.
They crawled out of the bedroom window and ran for safety. Sam Gorrenti, a neighbor and friend of the DeMarco family bravely poked his head into the living room.

The autopsy revealed that Jack had been shot once in the back, once in the back of the head, and then after he fell, he was shot twice through the left ear. One bullet lodged in the floor next to DeMarco’s head. All shots came from a .45-caliber revolver.

Jack had only been home for ten hours. His wife, Fannie, was devastated by the loss of her husband. She was too hysterical to be questioned by police. Coroner Walter Julian and State’s Attorney Karl Williams read the letters that Fannie received from Jack during his time at Leavenworth looking for clues about who might have wanted him dead.

Undertaker F.S. Long conducted the funeral inside DeMarco’s home on January 22, 1932. The little band of mourners made its way to the cemetery, where the coffin was opened for a final goodbye. Fannie DeMarco, who spent most of the funeral moaning, suddenly hurled herself into Jack’s coffin and, for the last time, kissed his lips. Sobbing uncontrollably, she was carried back to the car by her family.

The Register Republic article stated, “A lone sexton silently lowered the casket into the grave. The last tragic chapter had been written to Jack DeMarco’s ‘home-coming’ from Leavenworth, a brief celebration terminated by five bullets from the guns of gangland’s executioners last Tuesday night.” DeMarco’s murderers were never caught.

Paul Giovingo was another of the Rockford bootleggers to be sent to the Leavenworth penitentiary. He was sentenced to two years and was released in the fall of 1932. A lot had changed in Rockford during the time he was away. Since th3 1931 indictment had cleared many of the small dealers out of way in the illegal liquor business, the much larger, better organized and more powerful liquor syndicates from Peoria, Springfield and southern Wisconsin swept in to take control.

Giovingo was using strong-arm “buy your liquor from me or else” tactics and kept running into resistance from the local speakeasies. The tensions were building, and trouble seemed imminent. Things came to a head on February 12, 1933. At around 7:00 p.m., Giovingo went to get his shoes shined at Midway Shoe Shine Parlor on East State Street.

When Giovingo left the parlor, he stopped at his house at 1033 Montague Street to visit with his wife and children. He shaved and changed his suit before he left his house on the way to his “exclusive” speakeasy on South Main Street.

Paul never reached his destination. He must have suspected that something bad was coming because when police found his body, his gun, though unfired, was in his hand. There was supposedly a letter that had been delivered to the house the day before, warning Paul that he should stay home that night. Giovingo was only a block from his home on South Winnebago Street when his time finally ran out. His car had been forced against the curb between Loomis and Montague Streets and was riddled with shotgun and revolver blasts on the driver’s side and back of the car. Paul’s body had eight slugs in his left side and there were four gunshots to his head. His car was found next to the curb with the ignition turned off and the emergency brake set.

The killers must have wanted to ensure Paul’s death because evidence showed they stopped the car and fired several revolver shots to the back of his head. Powder marks indicated that these were contact wounds.

Even though a large crowd of people gathered at the death scene, no one could or would tell the police anything. The police talked of it like coming up against a wall—a wall of silence. The assistant chief of police, Homer Read, and police captain Charles Manson involved themselves in the investigation right from the beginning, but nothing could penetrate the wall. The investigation that started out very slow quickly ground to a complete stop.

The motive for the shooting was very clear. The Morning Star newspaper stated, “Giovingo’s career has been linked closely to the rise and fall of the liquor industry in Rockford. Paul was first known in Rockford as a barber, affable and efficient, and with a large following. Then the easy profits of the liquor business became apparent to him and he abandoned his trade to become a bootlegger.”

This was a decision that he would not live to regret. The regret would be carried by his family, a mother who had already buried one son due to violence and his wife, who was left to raise their two young sons, Sam, seven, and Elmer, five.

Even before Paul Giovingo died, the illegal booze racketeers were feeling the pressure from within and without. The rival gangs had just about killed each other off, and the police were taking advantage of the fact that the people of Rockford were tired of all the violence on their streets. The writing was on the wall.

The Twenty-first Amendment that repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (also known as the Prohibition Act) was submitted to the states on February 20, 1933, and was ratified on November 7, 1933. The illegal liquor business was, for all intents and purposes, finished. The violence in the streets of Rockford, unfortunately, was not.

Sources:

Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “Federal Seize Still and Owner in Beloit,” June 13, 1930.
___________. “Gang Dictator Slain Here.” February 12, 1933.
___________. “Jack DeMarco Shot to Death Here.” January 20, 1932.
Rockford (IL) Register Republic. “Smiles Mingle with Tears as 21 Go to Prison.” February 21, 1931.
Rockford (IL) Republic. “Hunt for Owner of Death Car Here.” August 16, 1930.
___________.”Local Man Slain from Death Auto.” August 15, 1930.
___________.“Murder Marks New Chapter in Old Liquor Feud.” January 20, 1932.
___________.”Paul Giovingo Is Victim of Alky Gunmen.” February 13, 1933.
___________.”Wife of Gangland Killer Victim Collapses at Grave Site.” January 22, 1932.

Copyright © 2015, 2025 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

Originally published in “Murder And Mayhem In Rockford, Illinois” by Kathi Kresol. Copyright © 2015 Kathi Kresol.

David Dotz, a police informant during Prohibition. From Rockford Daily Republic.

Prohibition was a dangerous time in Rockford’s History. Police conducted
raids on houses and speakeasies, seeming to be always one step behind the rumrunners. By 1923, the police were desperately trying to catch up. They developed undercover men called “snoopers” and “spotters.” These men worked from the inside of the bootlegger business and reported back to the police on the makers and the sellers of the illegal liquids. Rival gangs also employed snoopers to gain inside knowledge of the other gangs’ activities.

But these undercover operators had a terrible side effect. When these men started reporting what they found, the gangs retaliated with gunfire. The first incident occurred on the corner of South Main and Morgan Streets. This area of Rockford was the center for the illegal activity associated with these gangs.

Believed to be one of the first victims was nineteen-year-old Adam Lingus. Lingus lived on South Winnebago Street and was known in the neighborhood for his disfigured face. He had a noticeable scar and a hair lip that made him very self-conscious. Lingus became a ward of the state when his parents forced him to leave their house. Phillip Oddo owned a cafe called Oddo Inn at 219 Morgan Street and supposedly helped Lingus by feeding him. On December 30, 1923, Oddo shot Lingus. Lingus lived for a while after the shooting and gave conflicting stories to the police. Phillip Oddo first claimed that an unidentified drunk man shot Lingus. Then after hours of intense questioning by the police, Oddo stated the shooting was an accident. He was cleaning the gun in the kitchen, and it discharged and hit Lingus in the side.

The .38-caliber bullet entered into his right side and passed through both of his lungs.

The police suspected they had the actual shooter in Oddo. What they could not discern was the motive. There was no known argument between the men, no love triangle and no jealousy issues. They could not find that any reason for Oddo to shoot Adam Lingus. Phillip Oddo was charged for Lingus’ murder, and at trial, acquitted, and he went back to running his cafe. He was arrested numerous times over the years for selling illegal liquor. A newspaper article from 1930 suggested that Adam Lingus was a spotter for the police and that Oddo had discovered this and shot him.

In 1925, there was another bad batch of hooch that circulated, but this time, the effects were worse than just making people sick. Near the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad line in Rockford, there was a sand house that was a popular hangout for hobos and transients near Kent Creek. Two of the men who rendezvoused there were John Wickler and William Waller. These men were old friends, and they had been unemployed for a while by November 1925. Apparently, the men had made a visit to their favorite bootlegger on November 4. Neither of the men could know that it would be their last. Police found John Wickler not far from the sand house around three o’clock that cold afternoon. Wickler was staggering around, and police initially thought he was intoxicated, so they took him to jail to sober up. Wickler soon started having seizures and died in his cell.

A short time later, an anonymous person called in a tip that there was a body inside the sand house near the railroad line. The police went to investigate and found William Waller inside. He was obviously dead, and the appearance of his body led officers to believe that he had been so for several hours. Despite an intense investigation, the makers of the poisonous liquor were never found.

Authorities in Rockford decided to go all out on for a “Make Rockford Dry by Christmas” campaign. The police department and the sheriff’s office combined forces and held a succession of raids of houses and known speakeasies. On December 2, authorities raided ten houses and arrested two men and two women. Police, working with spotters from Chicago, had gathered evidence for weeks until they had enough to act. Mr. and Mrs. Choppi of 144 Fourteenth Avenue, John Castree of 1224 South Main Street and Mary Pushca of 7 Magnolia Street were all arrested on charges of selling liquor. They pleaded guilty and were fined SI,000 each. During the raid, over one thousand gallons of wine plus three dozen bottles of beer were found at the Choppi house.

On the same day as these other raids, federal agents, working independently from the local authorities, raided the warehouse and then the home of William D’Agostin at 208 Fifteenth Avenue. First, the federals swooped down on the D’Agostin Soft Drink warehouse at 324 North Madison Street and collected eight hundred gallons of alcohol. Then they proceeded to the D’Agostin home, cut the telephone wires and arrested D’Agostin. Within fifteen minutes, the agents had taken D’Agostin into custody and confiscated seventy gallons of liquor. The Rockford Police Department, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office and even State’s Attorney William D. Knight had no idea the raid was going to take place. The federal agents were in Rockford less than two hours for the whole process.

Some of the leaders of the bootlegging gangs met to discuss joining forces to protect themselves against the raids. But as sometimes happens, one party thought another party wanted too much of the pie and negotiations literally exploded into gunfire.

This time, it was the attempted murder of police spotters David Dotz, twenty-three, and his eighteen-year-old brother, Alex, on September 22, 1926. The Dotz brothers were called spotters deluxe because of the number of bootleggers they reported on.

David Dotz’s car after the shooting. From Rockford Daily Republic.

The boys were leaving their house at 905 Sixth Avenue and climbing into their vehicle when they noticed a large sedan approaching. The four men in the passing car opened fire with their shotguns, and as a result, David was injured in his eye. He would later lose sight in this eye because of the wound. Alex was grazed in the head and took a full hit to his shoulder that broke his scapula. The car continued down Fifth Street toward Keith Creek, turned west onto Eighth Avenue and then onto Kishwaukee Street, where it was lost in traffic. Police found one of the firearms in a creek a few blocks down the street from the Dotz home.

Later, State’s Attorney Knight took David to a garage where a car matching the description was found. David identified the car and told the police that he recognized Phillip Caltagerone, George Saladino and Tom DiGiovanni as the shooters.

The next spring, the three men were put on trial for the attempted murder of Alex Dotz. The trial lasted fifteen days and ended in an acquittal for the men. It was described in the newspaper: “The trial of the three defendants was one of the most sensational and long drawn out criminal trials in the legal history of Winnebago County.”

After the trial, State’s Attorney Knight was quoted, “I have seen the signs of this growing boldness for some time and this shooting is what I’ve been expecting. It is time the people of Rockford awoke to the bootleg menace here. The time has come to choose to decide whether it will become another Cicero or Canton.”

The Dotz brothers were so frightened by the attack that they not only left Rockford but also Illinois and moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Later, they would be arrested for a robbery that occurred at the Kenosha Theater in which $ 1,000 was taken. The Dotz boys claimed they were framed. It was a hard fall for the once-legendary spotters.

On January 30, 1928, Larry McGill, a twenty-three-year-old watchman at the Joseph Behr junkyard, was shot. He was with a couple of friends in a Behr Company truck at a house on the corner of Keefe and Fifteenth Avenues. His companions were William Oberg and Joseph Kranski, both seventeen years old. The house that Larry was observing that evening was owned by Joseph Choppi.

As he lay dying, Larry McGill testified to Assistant State’s Attorney Karl Williams and Robert Nash at Rockford Hospital. Later, he would tell police that he was just curious and decided to watch the house. There was a betrothal party going on at the house, and McGill wanted to see who attended. The other two boys’ stories matched McGill’s.

According to Larry, two men and a woman left the house. One man, dressed in a long fur coat, spotted Larry and his companions sitting in the truck. The man approached the pickup truck, yelled profanity, slapped one of the men with McGill and then shot McGill. McGill told police that Vince “Big Jim” Diverno shot him. Diverno was known to police as a “rum runner, racketeer, and a general bad character.” He had also been questioned in Freeport as a suspect in other shooting and stabbing assaults.

Diverno owned a grocery store in Freeport, and police from both Rockford and Freeport searched for him. They followed tips in several different cities, and there were reports that police met with Diverno’s wife to work out a possible surrender. But it was all in vain, and authorities never found Diverno.

Police suspected that Larry was working undercover as a spotter for one of the local gangs, and his cover was blown when he got careless. They did not believe his story of just being curious about the party goers.

Coroner Fred Olson searched for family members to claim McGill’s body and had just about given up hope when McGill’s estranged wife appeared. She made arrangements for Larry’s body to be shipped to Cherry, Illinois, where she lived with their young son. Mrs. McGill promised Coroner Olson that she would bury Larry like “his parents would have wanted.”

Less than a week later, another murder, this one even more violent, took place. Tom Perra, thirty-five years old, also known as Redda, was once in the bootlegging business. He lived at 726 South Winnebago with his family. During the first week of January 1928, all of Perra’s bootlegging equipment was confiscated by the boss of one of the local gangs. A couple of days later, he decided to approach the police to offer to become a spotter for them. He was assigned to a partner who was working in Freeport. Perra moved his family to a new home at 810 Houghton Street on January 30, 1928. Later that day, he left the house, and his family never saw him alive again.

Perra went missing on Tuesday, January 30, but evidence showed he had only been dead a couple of days when he was found on Tuesday, February 6, 1928. Perra was the first Italian to turn into a spotter, and the man who worked with Perra in Freeport said that Perra was very spooked by the whole idea.

Perra’s body was found around 9:00 a.m. on February 6 by Ben Olsen, a farmer who lived near Cherry Valley. Olsen was headed into New Milford with his wagon when he made the gruesome discovery. Perra was found in the woods off Perryville Road “by the old rifle range,” one mile east of New Milford.

Perra was lying on his left side about fifty yards east of the road in the wagon ruts that lead through the woods. He had been shot in the head four times, and blood covered his face. The bullets had entered the back of Perra’s head on the right side and exited on the left side of the forehead. He had his arms up in front of him as if he was trying to protect his head. The gun used for the killing was found a short distance away from the body.

Another farmer, Frank Carlson, told police he heard several shots on Sunday morning. He did not report the gunfire because he thought it might be a hunter. Another farmer who lived in the area said he noticed cars coming and going in the woods, but that was usual for a Sunday. It seemed that the location was popular as a lover’s lane.

Perra’s wife, Rose, had been in bed since shortly before he went missing. She was expecting their next child. Rose gave birth, and police waited to tell her of her husband’s death because she was in serious condition after the birth of her fifth child. The Welfare Society and Visiting Nurses nursed the mother and baby while caring for the other four children. The family was left destitute by the death of Perra.

Police were searching for Walter Filkins, the man who was Perra’s partner for the spotter job in Freeport. They were hoping he could shed some light on the motive for the killing. They also suspected that the partner might have told local bootleggers of Perra’s true identity as a police spotter. Police never found Filkins, and Perra’s murder was never solved.

The bootleggers in Rockford got very nervous after the deaths of Perra and McGill. There were also rumors that federal agents were heading into Rockford for a “mop-up” campaign. The sellers were so cautious they turned customers away if there were any strangers in the area or the buyers were unfamiliar. There were also rumors that since it was suspected that some of the police force might be involved or at least warning the bootleggers of the raids, federal agents were working independently of local authorities.

The next time the guns roared, it was not a spotter they were aimed at. Gaetano DiSalvo, known as Tom DiSalvo, twenty-nine years old, owned a cafe at 1301 Seminary Street. He was a well-known racketeer who ended up at the wrong end of a gun. Tom’s body was found on September 2, 1928, on the 200 block of Morgan Street, inside a car he had borrowed from another alleged gang member, Peter Salamone. DiSalvo was slumped over the steering wheel of the fancy LaSalle Roadster with nine steel jacket bullets inside his body. Police had a difficult time with this investigation because no one wanted to share any information. They uncovered the fact that DiSalvo had moved to Rockford a year before his death from Cleveland. He still had a brother in Akron, Ohio.

DiSalvo was finely dressed and had a large diamond ring on his finger and a diamond stickpin in his tie. DiSalvo carried a bankbook with entries that added to over $1,000. He also had papers that declared his intent to apply for citizenship. The papers stated that he moved to the United States from Italy in 1923.

Police questioned DiSalvo’s supposed sweetheart, Lillian Tinney, who denied that they were lovers. Apparently, DiSalvo had a wife whom he left back in Italy. Lillian did admit she worked for him at his cafe and was in love with him. She claimed to have no idea why someone would kill him. Lillian was with DiSalvo on the night he was killed. DiSalvo took Lillian for a drive before dropping her off at home around six o’clock in the evening.

Others who remained nameless did admit to the police that DiSalvo was in the illegal alcohol business and that he had crossed another prominent local bootlegger and paid for it with his life. Another theory that was shared with police was that DiSalvo was killed as retaliation for the torture and murder of Tom Perra.

One thing was certain: when DiSalvo pulled his LaSalle Roadster up in front of the blacksmith shop on Morgan Street, there were at least two men waiting for him. One was probably on the sidewalk and engaged DiSalvo in conversation. Another man approached from the street and fired a bullet into the back of DiSalvo’s head. Both men opened fire and shot eight more bullets into DiSalvo’s body.

Only six people showed up for DiSalvo’s funeral. Even his girl, Lillian, stayed away The paper claimed that DiSalvo had no friends and no one mourned his death, except for maybe his wife in Italy, who, not knowing of his brutal shooting, waited for his return.

Sources:
Rockford (IL) Daily Register Gazette. “Hint Gambling Is Motive in Local Slaying,” October 12, 1925.
___________. “Take Alky in Night Raid.” December 3, 1925.
___________. “Tragedy Ends Scuffle Over Unloaded Gun.” December 31, 1923.
___________. “Trap Four in Pre-Holiday Liqour Raids.” December 3, 1925.
Rockford (IL) Republic. “Big Jim Diverno Hiding in Cicero, Police Hear.” March 9, 1928.
___________. “David Dotz Spends Morning on Stand.” May 12, 1927.
___________. “Fear More Liquor Gunfire Here.” September 23, 1926.
___________. “Gangland Code Seals the Lips of Girl Witness.” September 5, 1928.
___________. “Gangland Guns Blaze Death to Racketeer.” September 4, 1928.
___________. “Hootch Sells at $7.00 a Pint.” September 29, 1920.
___________. “Nine Shots Fired into Man’s Body.” September 4, 1928.
___________. “Not Guilty Verdict in Three Hours.” May 27, 1927.
___________. “Oddo Swears Killing Was Accidental.” February 7, 1924.
___________. “Pals Desert Murdered Racketter at Funeral.” September 8, 1928.
___________. “Rockford Has Seven Unsolved Deaths on Records.” August 17, 1930.
___________. “Search for Slain Man’s Pal Futile.” February 7, 1928.
___________. “Sheriff Raids Three Alleged Liquor Resorts.” May 9, 1931.
___________. “Shotguns Roar in War Against Booze.” September 23, 1926.
___________. “Truckload of Liquor Seized.” November 19, 1925.
___________. “Victims Taken for a Ride and Shot to Death.” February 6, 1928.
___________. “Wife Promises Decent Burial for Slain Man.” February 3, 1928.

Copyright © 2015, 2025 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford.

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

Susan Brady and Cecilia Burns were very excited. They had made plans for Susan to go over to Cecilia’s house after school. It was December 20, 1965, and it was chilly, so the girls bundled up before leaving the school.

They left the school around 3:15 p.m. and walked to Cecilia’s house on Irving Avenue. The time passed all too quickly and soon it was time for Susan to go home for dinner. Cecilia offered to walk part of the way with Susan since it got dark so quickly at that time of the year. They walked to the intersection of School Street and Albert Avenue together before going their separate ways at 5:45 p.m. Susan still had quite a walk ahead of her to reach her house at 703 N. Day Avenue. Cecilia was frightened by strange noises on the way home and looked back several times to check on Susan’s progress. She would be the last person to see Susan Brady alive.

Susan’s mother, Norma, grew concerned as the sky darkened and the day turned into evening. Susan was always home by dinner. After James came home from work, they looked for her on foot, following the route that Susan would have taken home. They spoke to Cecilia, who told them she left Susan at the intersection of Albert Avenue and School Street. As the evening grew later, they searched with their car. Two hours after they started searching, they decided to call the police. James explained later that he didn’t want to involve the police too early. The family really felt Susie would walk in the door any second. But of course, she didn’t.

The next day there was still no sign of Susie, and more people got involved in the search. On December 22, the search became a full-blown effort. There were men with dogs looking and others on foot that were divided into teams of five to six men accompanied by a police officer. Police Sergeant Robert Selgren gave the two hundred people that volunteered their last-minute instructions.

There were also ten airplanes taking part in the search under the supervision of Captain H. W. Lundberg. They were in the air looking for anything that should be checked out by the ground crew.

Susan’s father and two older brothers helped in the search. Norma sat in their beautiful home waiting for some word that Susan had been found, safe and sound. The house had been decorated for Christmas, and they plugged in the tree every night so the house would be all lit when Susan came home.

As the massive search was taking place, Susan’s school, St. Patrick’s held a special prayer service and over six hundred students attended. Susan was in Sister Leora’s sixth grade class and the day’s newspapers had quotes from the teacher and several of Susie’s classmates describing her. Sister Leora said that Susie was a good student, quiet, conscientious, and helpful to her fellow classmates. Susan’s friends said she was fun, friendly and that she loved to dance to her favorite group, the Beatles.

On Christmas Eve, the Brady family asked for a special Christmas wish. “Our only request is that everyone pray for her safe return and keep looking in their yards to see if they can find her.” James Brady was quoted in the paper. They also thanked the community for the great response. Many people helped by taking part in the search, answering the telephone, bringing food for the family and volunteers, and assisting with the other Brady children. The whole community seemed determined to find this little girl.

There was a $2,500 reward offered for information leading to the safe return of Susan by Register-Republic and the Rockford Morning Star. Other people gave money toward the reward, including a number of children. Later, another $1,000.00 was added to the reward by the Chamber of Commerce.

The Christmas tree at the Brady house still stood with the lights twinkling every night even through the middle of January. James Brady, Susan’s father, said, “We still are hoping to have our family’s Christmas celebration.” He went on to say the family is back to normal on the outside returning to work and school. But underneath, they still jumped every time they heard a car pull into the driveway or the phone rang.

Around the middle of January, claims from several young girls came to the police’s attention. One girl said that on the day that Susan went missing, December 20, 1965, she was walking just a few blocks from where Susan was last seen. The twelve-year-old little girl was walking home on the 1300 block of Blaisdell Street around 5:30 p.m. A man driving a 1961 green Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road and asked the girl if she wanted a ride. The girl refused and turned the corner and walked quickly away. The man drove away in the same direction where Susan was walking home. Police asked for information from anyone who might have seen the car, or the man described by the second little girl.

The Bradys were very touched by how wonderful and compassionate people had been to them. Cards, telegrams, and well wishes arrived at their house every day. These cards were not just from Rockford but from all over the country.

That Valentine’s Day of 1966 started out as a bright, crisp day but quickly turned dark as the family finally learned what happened to their beautiful, young daughter. The family’s hopes for reuniting with Susan were completely smashed. James and Norma were told that a man, Russell Charles Dewey, twenty-five years old, surrendered to FBI agents in California after returning from a flight to Mexico.

The police became suspicious of Dewey when reports by the little girls of a man in a 1961 Cadillac stopping them to offer a ride home. Dewey owned such a car until January 4 when he sold the car to Genrich and Harris Auto Sales. A day later, he quit his job and left for San Diego.

During questioning, Dewey stated that he was driving on School Street around a quarter to six in the evening when little Susie ran right out in front of his car near St. Patrick’s Church’s driveway. Dewey was unable to stop and struck her with his car.

Dewey scooped Susan up and placed her in the front seat on his trench coat to rush to Rockford Memorial Hospital to get her medical treatment. He drove as fast as he could but when he reached the entrance, the little girl was dead. He checked her heartbeat and pulse, but it was no use, she was already gone. Dewey became frightened, he said, because he had no insurance and was afraid to be sued.

Later that same day, Rockford Police Chief Delbert Peterson shared the sad news of Susie’s death and Dewey’s arrest for the crime at a press conference. Peterson explained to reporters that Dewey had admitted killing Susan but stated that it was an accident. State’s Attorney William Nash then spoke to describe some of the clues that were followed to solve Susan’s murder.

The men described the search for the car reported by the little girl. Following this lead, they came upon Dewey’s name for the first time. Their suspicions grew when they found out he had sold the car, quit his job, and then left town after Susan’s disappearance. The police involved the FBI to hunt Dewey down while they started to look for evidence here in Rockford. The police found out that Dewey had moved in with Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Carruthers, his grandparents, during the summer of 1965.

The police searched the Carruthers home after the reports from the attempted kidnap of the little girl on the day Susie disappeared. The search led to finding the incinerator designed from a 50-gallon drum. They also found some suspicious matter in the ashes at the bottom of the can that appeared to be human bone. The police sent that to the FBI lab in Washington, D.C. It would eventually come back as being bone from a child eight to twelve years old. A fugitive warrant was issued for Dewey.

Dewey admitted he was staying at the Carruthers house during December while his grandparents were in Florida. This is where he decided to take Susie after he realized she was dead. He told the police that he panicked after he realized that Susan was dead, and he drove to his grandparents’ house on West State Street near Meridian. It was here that he jammed Susan’s little body, her bookbag, and his trench coat into a 50-gallon incinerator. He used gasoline to set the items on fire. Dewey was shocked to see that even after hours of burning there were some larger pieces of bone that survived the fire. Dewey disposed of them in the Winnebago County landfill located next to the J.L. Case Plant w here he worked.

The police didn’t believe Dewey’s story of an accident. They felt that he had abducted little Susan, taken her to the garage behind his home where he killed her with a sledgehammer.

Dewey was very concerned about returning to Rockford because he didn’t think he would get a fair trial there. Assistant State’s Attorney Alfred Cowan flew out to San Diego to serve the warrant for Dewey’s arrest for the murder of Susan. Dewey was returned to Rockford in March. His attorney argued for a change of venue, and it was finally decided that the trial would be held in Sycamore.

On February 22, 1966, St. Patrick’s Church held a memorial service for Susan. Hundreds of families, friends, classmates, and members of the Rockford community came together to pay their last respects for the little girl so many had searched and prayed they would be returned safe and sound. Many who attended spoke of being impressed with the inspirational way the Brady family conducted themselves. The Brady family asked the community for fair treatment of the man who killed their daughter.

The trial of Russell Dewey began on August 8, 1966, in Sycamore, Illinois. Attorney Roy S. Lasswell was Dewey’s defense Attorney and State’s Attorney William Nash was assisted by the Assistant State’s Attorney, Alfred W. Cowan representing the State of Illinois. Circuit Judge Charles G. Seidel presided over the trial.

Dr. J. Lawrence, physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. testified about the largest bone found in the incinerator as being “a vertebra from an immature person”. He also testified that the other bone fragments found came from a child eight to twelve years old.

Four little girls also testified during the trial and told the jury how they had been approached by a man in a green 1961 Cadillac. When asked if they could identify the man, all four did not hesitate as they pointed to Dewey sitting at the defense table.

Norma Brady, Susan’s mother, was the last of the thirty-three witnesses called by State’s Attorney William Nash. Her sorrow was hard to witness and many in the court had tears in their eyes when she stepped from the stand. The defense called thirteen witnesses, and Dewey was the last to testify for the defense.

On August 22, the Dekalb County jury consisting of three men and three women, deliberated three hours and forty-seven minutes. Judge Seidel warned that he would tolerate no outburst as the verdict was read. The air was thick with tension as everyone waited to hear the verdict.

Russell Dewey was found guilty of the murder of eleven-year-old Susan Brady. He showed no emotion but his first wife, Sandra, was in the courtroom and she began to cry. Dewey patted her arm as if to comfort her. His mother and grandparents were also in the courtroom and were obviously shaken by the verdict.

Dewey apparently did his time without any further incidents and news came in February of 1987 that Dewey would be released in April 1987. There were a lot of people that were angered by the release. Dewey was originally sentenced to twenty to fifty years, but he was released after serving twenty.

Susan’s memory was honored by the opening of the Susan Brady Memorial Library at St. Patrick’s Elementary School. The Brady’s dedicated the money that had been donated by community members, students, and the Chamber of Commerce for the project.

On the anniversary of Susan’s twentieth birthday, St. Patrick’s Church held a special Memorial Mass in her name. Susan and her family are still remembered by many in the city of Rockford and 2025 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of her death. The little girl that disappeared so long ago joined this community together in a way that nothing had before. Her death touched all in the community and some would say that it changed Rockford forever.

Copyright © 2025 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

Originally published in “Murder And Mayhem In Rockford, Illinois” by Kathi Kresol.

There are certain images that come to your mind when you hear the word
“prohibition.” One might be sharp-dressed men driving fancy cars; the other might be wild parties with bob-haired women dressed in flapper-style dresses dancing their cares away as the bathtub gin flows. A darker image might be of the gangsters from that period, driving by and shooting their guns at people on the street or police raiding homes and breaking up stills, emptying bottles of moonshine into the street.

There are also stories of everyday folks getting very sick drinking what they thought was homemade moonshine but turned out to be poison. The federal government passed a law that methanol be added to all industrial alcohol to discourage consumption during prohibition. Methanol is a poison that causes blindness and even death. In July 1920, two soldiers from Camp Grant in Rockford Illinois, Private George Girex and Luther H. Davis, were admitted to the base hospital after consuming denatured alcohol.

Girex was in serious condition when checked into the hospital. He was blind and very confused. He was with a group of friends from Camp Grant on West State Street at the Loop Cafe when he passed out. Fortunately, both soldiers made full recoveries. Girex was the one who brought the liquor in a small bottle. At first, the doctors thought he drank the poison in a suicide attempt. His fellow soldiers told the doctors the truth, and eventually it was all explained.

During the period of 1920-33, there was a battle of sorts happening in the streets of Rockford. Sometimes the battle was between the police and the bootleggers. Other times, it was bootlegger against bootlegger as different gangs fought for the advantage in the selling of illegal liquor. There were smaller battles as the liquor makers stole from one another. They would break into houses, stealing equipment, mash or the bottled liquor from one another.
In the war between police and bootleggers, one of the first “kings” to be caught was Stanley “Big Steve” Makeshaitis, a Lithuanian who ran at least five different stills and was suspected of running even more. He pleaded guilty to making, transporting and selling moonshine. He was fined $1,000 and served sixty days for perjury and bootlegging.

The newspapers were filled with stories of the raids that the police held on different houses where the booze was made or the speakeasies where it was sold. People would remodel their homes to hide the booze under trapdoors and in closets. Other bootleggers were even more clever. One man became famous throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois when he shared his secret of smuggling booze in chicken eggs. He blew out the contents of the eggs, filled them with liquor and sealed the holes with candle wax. His house was raided several times, but the police never found any of the hooch. He loved to tell the story of the police tearing apart his house while he sat at the kitchen table right by a basket of freshly gathered eggs. His secret was discovered when he offered to sell it to the wrong man, who later used the information as a bargaining chip with the police.

The illegal liquor business was an equal-opportunity employer. Men and women—white, African American or Native American—were all represented in the jails in the beginning. Whole families became involved as people struggled to hold jobs and feed their families.

Claims of illegal hooch being dangerous were proven in 1922 when Jeremiah Mutimer, a well-loved local man, bought illegal hooch and died shortly afterward. Mutimer, forty-three years old, was going on a trip to California and left the house to buy his ticket. “I think I will go out and get a couple of shots of hooch for my California trip,” he told his niece before leaving the house.

When he returned around 5:00 p.m., he seemed slightly intoxicated and had no train ticket. He pulled the bottle from his pocket and drained the remainder of the liquor. As he finished the bottle, he collapsed. His family thought he was just intoxicated and carried him to bed.

In the morning, his niece’s eight-year-old son, Joe, who was Mutimer’s constant companion, tried to wake him up. Joe was unsuccessful and ran to get his mother. It was then that the family realized that Mutimer was dead. The coroner, Fred C. Olson, was sent for. Olson questioned the family and learned that Mutimer had been drinking. Little Joe told police and the coroner that Mutimer frequently purchased his booze from Big Mary.

Police were very familiar with Big Mary. Her full name was Mary Bukowski, and she was known to the police, the state’s attorney and the people on the southwest side of Rockford. Little Joe accompanied his great uncle to Mary’s place many times in the past to buy the illegal hooch. In fact, on the last trip, just two days before Mutimer’s death, he and Big Mary had argued and Big Mary had threatened Joe and told him not to return.

The county physician, Clarence Boswell, conducted an autopsy on Mutimer and sent the contents of his stomach to Kenneth Jones, the city chemist, to see if he could determine what ingredients were used to make the booze. This would allow them to determine which liquor maker had mixed the lethal dose.

Jeremiah worked as a knitter at the Burson Knitting Company in the past but had quit his job to move to California. He was home for a month-long visit with his family and staying at his niece’s house. The family told the police that Jeremiah was a well-known man with lots of friends. His only problems arose from his drinking habit. It had increased in the last year, and his family was concerned for him.

Jeremiah’s death was later determined to be caused by the swelling of his brain due to the poison contained in the illegal liquor. Big Mary and her son, Sigmund, were both arrested and later released on bond. It was decided that the poisoning was accidental.

Rockford earned a reputation for being so strict on bootleggers that the supply of hooch was well below the high demand. In 1922, bootleggers would come from all over Illinois to attempt to sell illegal liquor at higher prices than they could charge in other areas. This kept the police busy with the increased liquor traffic and with the skirmishes that erupted between the local dealers and the visiting booze sellers.

The bootleggers started to organize into gangs in 1923. The Rockford Sunday Republic dated August 17, 1930, stated the reason for this was “to withstand the attacks being made on them by enforcement officers, and to hold up the tumbling alcohol and moonshine prices which were rapidly slipping down.”

The gangs had to use strong-arm tactics to ensure their success. The first reported gangland killing in Rockford was on October 8, 1923. George Minert, thirteen years old, was looking for insects for his zoology class on the Fred Stoner property on the Old Freeport Road that branched off of Montague Road almost four miles southwest of Rockford. Young Minert must have been horrified when he looked into a culvert and found a body. The man was later identified as Louis J. Milani. Milani had his head bashed in, and his throat was cut ear to ear so deeply that he was almost decapitated. He had deep slashes on his face and hands. A large one-hundred-pound rock had been placed on his chest, and then his body was stuffed into the culvert. The police believed that Milani was grabbed from his rooming house at 412 Sixteenth Avenue, knocked unconscious and then taken outside the city. The evidence proved that he was already in the culvert when his throat was cut.

Police knew that Milani worked in the “bootleg racket.” They worked the theory that Milani had been “taken for a ride” by the gang for an unknown reason. They hit a brick wall in their investigation, and the murder went unsolved.

Coroner Olson was approached by a medical school in Chicago. They requested Milani’s body for teaching purposes. Olson decided that the body should stay in Rockford, in case family turned up at a later date. Louis Milani was laid to rest in the Potter’s Field in at the Winnebago County Poor Farm Cemetery.

Sources:
Rockford (IL) Daily Register Gazette. “Bootlegger Is Fined $1,000 and Draws 60 Days,” June 23, 1921.
___________. “Drinker Is Found Dead; Hunt Seller.” May 5, 1922.
___________. “Moon Too Cheap in the Tri-Cities.” January 10, 1922.
Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “Post Mortem Mutimer Body Causes Stir.” May 6, 1922.
___________. “Soldier Wanted a Drink of Liquor, Not Poison.” July 1, 1920.
Rockford (IL) Republic. “Man’s Head Almost Slashed from Body.” October 8, 1923.
___________. “Moonshine Egg.” June 10, 1921.
___________. “Rival Slew Milani.” October 16, 1923.

Photo Credit:
A Photograph of police dumping confiscated illegal liquor in the street in front of the courthouse. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

Copyright © 2015, 2025 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford.

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

The Legend of Blood’s Point Cemetery has been shared for many generations. It is probably one of the most discussed legends in the whole area. The legend that is most often shared speaks of a witch named Beulah that lived and died near the cemetery back in the early days of settlement here. The name Blood’s Point came from the fact that a man named Arthur Blood bought the land to make his home here in the 1840’s. His farm soon became prosperous, and his family thrived.

The Legend of Witch Beulah is connected not only to the cemetery but the entire road. It has existed in the area for generations. This legend remains elusive. I have found a witch story about a girl named Beulah but not in this location. I have not found any witch story along the road, nor any one named Beulah buried here.

I have interviewed dozens of people in the two decades I have been researching these legends. These folks have graciously shared their stories with me. These stories have included attacks by demon dogs, voices where there should be none, glimpses of an older woman at the edge of the cemetery and a dark shadow that seems to lurk in the back corner where the shed used to stand.
My goal is not to disprove or discount anyone’s experience but to investigate the origin of what took place here that could have led to these stories. And as is often the case, the truth of one of these stories is far more interesting than the legend. Perhaps in bringing this story back into the light, I can bring some peace to dead that are buried in this place.

Charles Chena and his wife Jane came to this area from Michigan to search for good farmland and to create a home for their family. He became a well-respected, successful farmer, Charles was also was instrumental in helping develop the agricultural groups called Granges in this area. These Granges were a fraternal order that was vital in giving the small-town farmer a voice in the national agricultural policy decision making process.

Charles and Jane had three children, two daughters and a son named Fred. Fred married a fine young woman, Mary Peal in 1895 and the couple was excited to have their first child in 1900. But the baby girl, Francis died at only 4 months old. Mary was devastated and Fred did not know how to help his wife. Mary started spending a lot of time at the cemetery to be close to her little girl. Fred started spending a lot of time drinking. This caused many problems for the young couple. Fred tried to quit and promised Mary many times that he would stop, but in the end, he always broke that promise. He just couldn’t seem to help himself. Fred became better at keeping secrets about how much he was drinking. But there were other, darker secrets that started to grow inside Fred.

Fred and Mary purchased their own little farm and hired a young man to help with the work. The families knew each other and the boy would stay overnight while he was helping Fred. The boy’s mother Jennie Hoyt appreciated the extra money the Chena family paid the boy.

On a hot August morning in 1902, Fred went into Belvidere. He knew his wife would be visiting the cemetery where their baby had been buried. But instead of joining Mary, Fred headed to the bar instead. He had quite a bit to drink again, and on the way home, Fred’s other, darker side took over. Fred went to visit Jennie Hoyt. He knew she would be there alone.
Fred attacked the young woman. She fought him off and at one point, Fred seemed to come to his senses. He apologized and started to head for the door. But something stopped him. Fred turned and Jennie would later report that when he turned, she did not recognize the man who stood before her. In that moment, she grew very frightened. Fred turned and without acknowledging her pleas, he attacked her again.

After the attack, Fred returned to his house. His wife, Mary, was surprised to find Fred in bed when she returned from the cemetery at 6:00 in the evening. She shook him but soon realized Fred had been drinking again. That night, Fred tossed and turned all night according to his wife. The next morning, he was up early. Mary noticed he grabbed the gun from behind the kitchen door. She found it odd that Fred went back upstairs with the gun but thought maybe he was going to wake up the Hoyt boy to start the work. She went out to the barn to work on her own chores for the day.

When Mary returned, she smelled gunpowder and was frightened. Mary ran up the stairs and when she opened the bedroom door, she was met with a horrible scene. Fred lay on the bed with his head completely gone. It took Mary a minute to realize what had taken place. Later, it would be determined that Fred had sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. He had placed the muzzle of the shotgun under his chin and used his toes to pull the trigger of the rifle.

There was another drama unfolding back in the village of Belvidere. The Belvidere Chief of Police Richardson was waiting in town for Fred to come to attend church. Richardson had issued an arrest warrant for Fred for the attack on Jennie the day before, but it was decided that it might prove safer to arrest Fred when the family came to church. It was less likely that Fred would be armed then.

The news of the attack on Jennie and Fred’s suicide shook everyone who thought they knew him. Some folks stated that his suicide spared the family of the shame of what he had done. But in truth, Fred only spared himself that shame. He was buried at Blood’s Point Cemetery a few days after his death. But maybe he doesn’t rest in peace. Maybe the darkness that some say exists at this little cemetery is the spirit of Fred, still hiding in the shadows. And still hoping no one sees what he kept hidden from even those who knew him best.

Copyright © 2025 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

Joe Greco was happy that May Day in 1959. Joe and his partner, Donald Burton had been on the road for a while and were just getting back to Rockford early in the evening. Joe was feeling pretty good. Their “sales trip” as they referred to it, had been lucrative and they were hoping to score some more sales that evening.

Joe was looking forward to arriving home. He missed his girl, Donna. They had only been living together for a couple of months but things were good between them. I n fact, Joe thought everything was looking up for him. He knew his parents were still upset that he had decided not to return to the Barnes Drilling Company to work with his father. They didn’t understand that Joe wanted something different than his parent’s lives. They also didn’t understand his friendship with Burt.

Donald Burton had come from a different background than Joe. His parents had split up when he was younger and Burt grew up tough. He learned how to take care of himself and was always ready for a fight. Burt also knew some magic tricks. Those magic tricks came in handy on their “sales trips”.

Joe knew his parents would definitely not understand that side of his life. His girl, Donna called it his dark side. Whatever you wanted to call it, Joe liked living dangerously.

Since they were in a hurry, the two men decided to stop at Joe’s parent’s house at 615 Montague Street. Joe knew his parents would be gone until late. The two men grabbed something to eat and Joe changed into some fresh clothes. They left his parent’s house around 10:45 p.m..

Early the next morning, between 12:50 and 1:00 a.m. on May 2, folks who lived on Montague Road heard a couple of cars drive down the road. They didn’t hear much else other than the sound of car doors closing. One of the neighbors was curious enough to look out the window. He saw a car parked outside but didn’t see anyone around it. He figured a couple of kids had pulled over for a little alone time.

The car was still there around 4:15 a.m. when Deputy Sheriffs Lester Krug and Robert Allen spotted it. They had just turned around to investigate when a call came over the radio. They sped off to answer the call and didn’t get back to the car until around 5:00 a.m..

At first, they thought the same thing as the neighbor and believed they would catch a couple of kids in an embarrassing position. The men were confused when they shone their lights in the car and found it empty. They made their way to the back of the car and decided to open the trunk.

The bodies of Joseph Greco and Donald Burton were found stuffed into that trunk. They both were only 21 years old. Coroner Collins Y. Sundberg examined the men and determined that they had been dead around four to five hours. Both men had some small bruises and Burton had been hit on the head. Authorities would theorize that he had fought his attackers. It was stated that both men had been strangled with a piece of rope. Joseph was carried to the trunk while Burton, who had a heavier build, was dragged to the car. The dragging had caused scrapes to his back.

The car trunk contained a couple of suitcases, 500 pairs of shaved dice, and walkie talkies that would be traced to a robbery in Peoria. When they searched the suitcases, Sheriff Deputies came across Joseph and Burton’s address books. They were filled with names of contacts listed in different states including Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri and Florida. Most of the names were listed for Peoria and the authorities recognized some of those names as part of a gambling syndicate.

The pieces to the puzzle of the men’s deaths started to fall into place for the authorities. While searching the car they found a piece of evidence that chilled even the most experienced officers. Inside one of the suitcases they recovered a $5.00 bill that had been torn into quarters. There were only two pieces of the bill found. One portion had the words, “Good Luck, Joe.” on it and the other piece had, “Good Luck, Burt.” The pieces fit together to make up half of the bill.

One man involved in the search said it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up when those pieces were found. All involved in the search took the pieces as a warning to the dead men. Unfortunately, it was a warning the two men had not heeded.

Though police had the motive for the murders of these two young men from the beginning and were hopeful they would uncover who had committed the crime, the investigation stalled. They came up against a wall of silence. The other men that traveled in the gambling circuit in Illinois made themselves scarce. They might have taken these deaths as warnings of what was in store for them if they talked.

These two murders were never solved and are listed under Rockford’s “Cold Case Files” along with twenty four others.

Copyright © 2024 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

Originally published in “Murder And Mayhem In Rockford Illinois”

Damaged Winnebago County Courthouse, 1878. Rockford Morning Star

Winnebago County decided it needed a brand-new courthouse to meet the needs of the growing area in 1875. The population of Rockford at this time was around twelve thousand people, and the town had twelve churches, five banks and several newspapers. The courthouse project was advertised, and many plans were submitted until, finally, Henry L. Gay’s design was accepted. W.D. Richardson was the contractor hired to build the newest Winnebago County Courthouse, and F.E. Latham was the supervisor of the project.

W.D. Richardson was a contractor from Springfield who had experience building the French Venetian style of building that was selected. Work began in the spring of 1876, and the cornerstone was set on June 22, 1876, with great fanfare and led by the state’s Masonic lodges.

The domed roof was to be the “jewel in the crown” of the building and originally was scheduled to be set in 1876. The weather didn’t cooperate, and the whole project was behind schedule for several months. It was not ready for the dome to be added until the spring of 1877.

On Friday, May 11, 1877, at around 11:30 a.m., W.D. Richardson and F.E. Latham were inspecting the domed roof and walls. They were discussing their concerns about the strength of the walls supporting the dome. Richardson heard the horrific sound of something cracking, and both men ran to the northwest corner of the building. They just had time to reach the west wall when the front of the building fell.

“Just as the keystone was being placed in the dome of the main pavilion the brickwork between the iron and the stone gave way, and the entire dome and interior walls of the structure came crumbling down with a terrible crash, which was heard nearly a mile away.”

The crash was tremendous, and a wall of dust sprang up where the wall once stood. Spectators hesitated just for a moment before they rushed forward to see what could be done for the twenty or so men working inside the structure.

Timothy Flanagan was one of the men working that day. His task on that Friday morning was to set the keystone in the pediment of the dome. Flanagan was working up at the top when the wall started to crumble. The crowd below looked on in horror as Flanagan leaped across in an attempt to grasp the main guy rope. Flanagan missed the rope and fell one hundred feet to the ground below, his body hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Several men ran forward, picked up Flanagan’s body and put it on the lawn of the courthouse. The masonry fell from all sides, and men’s screams could be heard above the roar of the falling stone. Men were seen hanging from ropes on different parts of the building, while others were jumping from windows.

Men from the crowd rushed forward to assist with the rescue efforts as others ran for doctors. The rescuers uncovered several men quickly. One of the first men uncovered was Andrew Bildahl, who had a terrible gash on his head that was filled with ash and mortar. He was loaded into a cart and taken to his home to have the wound dressed.

William Mclnnes of Rockford was almost completely buried under rubble, but the men quickly got him out and loaded into a cart to be delivered to his home. He suffered a broken leg and numerous injuries. George Gloss was so badly mangled that the sight of his body visibly shook the crowd. He was smashed and was missing a leg. He was carried over to the old courthouse, which was set up as a temporary morgue.

Two more men were saved from the fire escape, led to safety by Chief Engineer John Lakin. The word had started to spread throughout the city, and others came to assist. Family members rushed to the building to hear the condition of their menfolk. Many of the men working on the building were from the area, and friends would peer into the faces of the men as they were brought out of the debris. They were either loaded onto a wagon to be transported to their homes or laid in the old courthouse to wait to be identified.

Some of the men were from Springfield and had no family members living nearby, but they had acquaintances who ran to help. The injured men from Springfield were taken to the City Hotel to have their wounds tended.

There was a wretched moment when a poor German woman came forward screaming her husband’s name, Albert Haug. When his body was finally brought out, it presented a ghastly spectacle for all to see. His poor body had been pulverized and torn by the large stones that fell on him. The men rushed him through the crowd to the courthouse as quickly as possible.

Scene after heart-wrenching scene played out as the rescuers continued to dig for the men. A little girl wandered through the crowd crying for her papa. No one had the heart to tell her that he was still missing. His body would not be found for another day.

The inquest was started as soon as the bodies were laid out in the courthouse and covered with cloths. The purpose of this inquest was not to determine the cause for the accident but to identify the dead men. Other men were still missing, and the rescue efforts continued for days. Around 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, one of the workers came across a clump of human hair. It was shortly found to be A.E. Hollenbeck’s scalp. His body was pinned under a massive stone weighing several tons. Drills were brought in, and parts of the rock were drilled off until the only part still trapped was his arm. The decision was made to cut the arm off to free the rest of the body. The top of Hollenbeck’s head was completely gone. As they removed the rest of Hollenbeck’s body, they uncovered another man. “Big Fred” Haug was from Springfield, and his body was so ghastly that no description of the remains was given. These last two bodies took over four hours to uncover. In all, it took over forty long hours for all the bodies to be discovered.

Trains arrived from all over northern Illinois as people flocked to Rockford to see the remains of the building. The police roped off the dangerous area and stood guard to keep the crowds at a safe distance.

When the totals came in, seven men were killed immediately and two others died later; another twelve were wounded in the tragedy. Funerals were held, and more was learned of the men who died. Hollenbeck was forty-five years old and had been born in New York, like many of Rockford’s early settlers. He was a Mason and was buried with full Masonic honors. Over one thousand people attended his funeral.

Fred Haug left a wife and four children in Springfield and was a brother of Chris Haug, who formerly owned a marble yard here. Albert Haug was a son of the above-mentioned Chris Haug and left a wife and children in Rockford.

John Pipe moved to Rockford in 1875, and his father was the foreman on the courthouse project. George Gloss, who lived in Rockford, was an African American who left a wife and three children. John Warren, another African American, worked as a rigger and lived in Rockford with his wife and three children.

Frank Harris, the blacksmith, was on the roof when the courthouse fell. He advised a co-worker to run, but then he turned the other way. The co-worker lived, and Harris fell with the building. He was pulled from the ruins with a badly crushed leg. Fred was taken to the City Hotel for treatment, which included amputation of his leg; unfortunately, gangrene set in. Harris was the ninth man to die. He was only twenty-four years old and lived in Dixon. His family members came to retrieve his body and took him home for burial.

Inquests attempted to answer the questions left by the horrible accident. The articles in the paper seemed to point the finger at the architect, Mr. Gay. The same articles praised the builder, Richardson, stating that at personal cost, the builder added improvements to increase the safety of the building. Richardson had also impressed everyone with the care he gave the wounded men and their families.

The coroner’s jury investigated the accident for over twelve days, interviewing workmen, the architect and other architects who studied the design. In the end, they found the architect guilty for the flawed design, and the contractor and the county board were found guilty of negligence for not noticing the flaws. A new architect and designers were hired to assess the damage caused by the falling dome and to complete the project. The courthouse was finally completed with the dome, and the building was dedicated in October 1878. The final cost was $211,000.

In an excerpt from a story published in the May 18, 1877 Rockford Weekly Gazette the reporter wrote: “Never before has any public affliction found its way so near to the doors of our own homes or been made so sacredly our own.”

Sources:

New York Tribune. “A Courthouse Falls in Ruins.” May 12, 1877.

Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “First Courthouse Built without Public Funds.” November 15, 1969.

Rockford (IL) Weekly Gazette. “Courthouse Disaster.” May 24, 1877.

—————-. “Horror Stricken.” May 17, 1877.

—————-. “Rockford’s Calamity.” May 18, 1877.

Copyright © 2015, 2024 Kathi Kresol

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

Mornings started early on the Mack farm, even Sunday mornings. On Sunday, July 14, 1878, Joseph Watsic who was employed by George Mack as a farm hand struggled to get out of bed. He probably thought this morning would be like so many Sundays before. Joseph had no idea how different this day would be.

One of the other hands on the Wisconsin farm, Frank Dickerson, woke Joseph up that day to go to the barn and feed the livestock. Joseph entered the barn still groggy from sleep. But as Joseph’s eyes adjusted to the gloom of the barn, he saw a sight which caused him to shriek and run for the house.

There in one of the stalls lay his employer, George Mack. His body was horribly mutilated in what looked like a horse trampling. But things were not as they seemed that July morning.

Joseph’s shouts alerted Dickerson and both men went back to the barn. They carried George toward the house. George’s wife, Belinda, saw them coming and opened the door. One look at George’s mangled body made it clear that he was already beyond help.

Soon the news of George’s death spread and at first, folks accepted the story that “Old Jen” , one of the family’s work horses, had caused George’s death. But in the hours and days that followed, their opinions would change.

George Mack lived on his family farm near the town of Turtle Township. He lived with his wife, Belinda and three children and the two men who worked the farm, Frank and Joseph. They had a comfortable two-story house and were doing well. George was respected by his community, and it was said he was a good neighbor.

Authorities were called and they soon showed up at the Mack farm. They immediately began the process of determining how George died. Right away there were things that pointed to a story different than was first presented. Just opposite the stable was a muddy patch (called a hog wallow in the papers of the day) that looked like a struggle had taken place there.

George’s body also carried evidence that more than a horse trampling had taken place. His chest was caved in, his face was scratched and “pounded to jelly” according to the newspaper accounts. There was also a gash on the top of his head that seemed to be made with a sharp instrument. He had sustained a shattered shoulder and broken ribs. George’s hands and clothing were also smeared with mud that wouldn’t have come from the dry barn where Old Jen was kept.

This evidence aroused the suspicions of the coroner as he completed his examination. At the same time the coroner was coming to his conclusion that this was no accident, the other authorities were finding evidence of their own. The terrible news of George’s death had spread, and the townsfolk had begun to gather at the farm. They had also begun to talk.

They told stories of the fights that the couple had over Belinda’s friendliness toward the hired men, especially Frank Dickerson. George had grown so jealous of the time his wife spent with Dickerson that he finally fired the handyman in May. But then George had taken ill, and Belinda had hired Dickerson again to help with the planting. George tried to protest but Belinda ignored him.
It was customary during this time period to hold an inquest right at the scene of any death. It allowed authorities and the coroner to question people while the story was still fresh in their minds.

During the inquest into the farmer’s death, stories of the fights and jealousy between Dickerson and George were revealed. The inquest ended with a determination that George’s death was caused by blows by someone unknown. Authorities quickly took it a step further and decided that they had enough evidence to arrest Frank Dickerson for the murder of George Mack.

Frank Dickerson made a full confession to what had really happened to George on the night of July 13. The authorities had lots of evidence to prove their theory that Dickerson had done the killing. But Dickerson had his own story. According to Frank, he only helped move the body under the hooves of Old Jen. In Frank’s version, it was Belinda who had done the actual killing. He also shared that it was Belinda who had backed up Old Jen and walked the horse over George’s body several times to make it look like the horse had caused the farmer’s death.

After the funeral, Belinda went to stay with friends that lived in Beloit. And it was there that the police arrested her. Once the story broke and the townsfolk of Turtle Township and Beloit had their suspicions confirmed to the actual relationship between Belinda and Dickerson, they were outraged. The police ordered extra guards to protect the two people whose actions had caused George’s death.

As one can imagine, the interest in this story was immense. So many people showed up to the trial that the maximum limit was quickly reached. Many attendees were left standing in the halls and on the lawn of the courthouse. The papers described the courtroom as “crowded to the point of suffocation.”

Frank Dickerson’s testimony was one of the high points of the trial. He shared all the horrid details of the last hours of George’s life. Dickerson was in his room when he heard Belinda call his name. When Dickerson came down the stairs he saw Belinda strike George over the head with a club from the firewood box. Dickerson stated he headed for the door. According to Dickerson he was going to get help for George. That was Belinda when said that she would tell everyone that it was Dickerson who had struck the farmer with the club.

Belinda then told Dickerson that they needed to make it look like an accident. They carried George’s body to the barn. They laid him in the hog wallow while they chased the pigs out of the yard. Then they opened the barn and placed George’s body in Old Jen’s stall and Belinda backed the horse over the body several times. After the deed was finished, Belinda demanded that Frank get rid of their bloody clothes. He put them down in the privy. The police later recovered the bloody items.

Belinda’s defense had a lot of evidence to overcome. But of course, the main thing was Dickerson’s testimony. They painted him as a jilted lover who had tried to get Belinda to have an affair but that she had rejected his affections. He promised he would get even. Dickerson’s attempt to frame Belinda by murdering her husband and placing the blame on her was merely an act of revenge.

But it seems the jury didn’t believe the defense and on January 10, 1879, they returned with a verdict of guilty. Belinda was sentenced to “hard labor in the State Prison of Wisconsin, for the term of her natural life, and that on the 13th day of each July during such term her imprisonment should be solitary.”

Dickerson went on trial next. It lasted ten days and the outcome was exactly the same. But another twist in this story was about to occur.

Belinda appealed her conviction. The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with her claims that she should be granted a new trial because she was not allowed to share her side of the story. She was granted a new trial.

Belinda’s second trial ended with the jury being unable to agree on a verdict. Six jury members had voted for acquittal, two members had voted for murder and the rest, voted for manslaughter. The judge ordered a new trial. But it seemed that Wisconsin was done with this case. Belinda Mack never had a third trial.

When looking back at the two trials, there was one difference that stood out clearly. In Belinda’s first trial both men that were working for the family testified against her. The younger boy, Joseph, was only seventeen at the time of the murder. He testified about the Mack couple’s fights and that Dickerson and Belinda seemed to have a “close” relationship.

But Joseph never testified during the second trial. In the time between the first and second trial Belinda had married Joseph, even though he was almost half her age. Neighbors spoke of how smart Belinda was to marry young Joseph, the only other person that was at the farm when George was murdered. According to Wisconsin state law, spouses cannot be compelled to testify against their partners.

Belinda and Frank, who had such a passionate love affair, never saw each other again. Frank was released from prison in 1890 but didn’t bother to search for Belinda. It was just as well. If he had, he would have found the former widow Mack now living in Minnesota. She was still married to the young man who had discovered George’s body.

Another incident only deepened the mystery of George’s death. George was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Beloit. A short time after his funeral, one of the caretakers noticed that George’s stone had been vandalized. The caretaker questioned neighbors about visitors to George’s grave. The neighbors mentioned that a young lady visited the grave, but no one knew her identity. The motive for the vandalism was never determined. But when folks found out that the word “Murdered” had been removed from George’s stone it definitely added another layer of mystery to this already twisted story.

Copyright © 2024 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

William Sussmilch first became concerned when he stopped by his parents’ house around noon on July 20, 1889. His parents were both over 70 years old and had been suffering with health issues. Williams stopped by daily to check on the elderly couple. His concern grew as he stepped inside the deserted home.

He found two letters waiting for him on the table. William sunk into a chair as he read the words his parents had written to him and his siblings. He knew these words would change all their lives forever.

His parents, Johann G. and Christina Sussmilch had only lived in Rockford for a few years by 1889. They had been married for forty-two or so years and had three children. Their older son, Eugene lived in Kansas while their daughter lived in Iowa. William was a well-know artist in Rockford who was so successful he would one day live on National Avenue.

Christina had been an invalid for a while, but Johann was able to care for her with help from his son William. But Johann’s health started to decline and soon he was under the care of one of the more prominent doctors in town, Dr. Kimball.

Johann didn’t seem to be getting any better and struggled with depression about his failing health. The family decided to gather to lift their father’s spirits. By all accounts, the visit was a joyous one. But the time came for the families to travel back to their homes. The parting was heart wrenching for everyone. The parents stated that it would be the last time the siblings would ever see them in this life. The family assured their parents that there would be many more visits between them.

But Johann and Christina knew better. They had been discussing their fears for months and Johann’s recent illness only made it clear that they needed to act soon. So, they put their affairs in order and wrote their letters to their children. Then they left those letters for their son William to find.

The letters were later printed in full in the Rockford Daily Gazette.
“My Dear Children-
We are going to leave home this evening. If we are not here when you come tomorrow, we shall not be among the living. It has required a strong determination on our part to leave the world in this manner, and to seek the rest we so much long for. But our poor bodies are too nearly worn out to endure this suffering longer. Therefore, do not mourn for us, for we will be better off. As we have lived so long together, we wish to die together, and rest in one grave. So, then, farewell, and believe we shall have the rest we long have wished. Even in death, your loving parents.”

Christina too, wrote her goodbye for her children:
“My Dear Children-
Your father has expressed my feelings. God will forgive us for ending the life which has been so full of suffering. Also forgive us the pain we will causes the dear ones we leave.
Yours to the last breath, your loving Mother.”

William also found two checks next to the letters. He grew instantly concerned and notified the police. The police began searching for the elderly couple. They made inquiries of the neighbors and others in the city.

Through these inquires authorities eventually found a streetcar driver, William Spencer who had seen Johann and Christina. He told police that he had seen an elderly couple on the streetcar the night before. Spencer said the elderly couple rode to the end of the South Main line. The gentleman was calm and didn’t seem troubled at all. But the woman’s actions caught his attention. She seemed “restless and nervous” according to Spencer. He mentioned that the woman had trouble walking and was very pale.

The police decided to drag the river since that is the direction that the couple was last seen walking. The papers all reported this mysterious disappearance and people began to join in on the search. The word spread quickly about the missing couple.

A few hours later, police received word that two men fishing about four miles down from town along the Rock River had seen something in the water. The men, John Milner and George Ennett testified at the inquest later that day to what they have found.

One can only imagine what was going through the minds of the policemen as they traveled through a scenic wooded area to the farm outside of town. As they neared the bank on the east side, they saw an eerie sight. Sticking out of the murky was of the Rock River was a woman’s pale hand.

They borrowed a boat and made their way to the place in the river where the body was submerged. As they neared the location, they could see that there were two bodies in the river: one male and one female. When they retrieved the bodies, they found a rope tied from the woman’s right hand to the man’s left hand.

The men worked in silence as they cut the bindings and removed the bodies. The couple was laid side by side in the grass. There were no signs of a struggle, in fact, Christina had a hat tied onto her head and here shoes were sill on her feet. The men who recovered the bodies later described the contentment on Johann and Christina’s faces stating they appeared to be sleeping like children weary from play. The scene was described as extremely sad.

The bodies were put in a single pine coffin and taken to the undertaker’s office. Coroner Aagensen held a Coroner’s Inquest. He called many witnesses to establish what had happened to the elderly couple. The jury declared the deaths to be suicides. They stated that the couple suffering from their infirmities had decided to die rather than live one without the other.

Johann’s and Christina’s devastated family followed their parents’ wishes and buried them together in Greenwood Cemetery.

The newspaper eloquently stated:
“And so calmly and deliberately they resolved upon self-destruction. Soon they stand on the river’s brink. With premeditation their arms are tied together and as they lived, so they resolved to die, clinging together in mute despair. Trusting their souls to God they wade into the stream and are soon engulfed in the merciless current. So far as they are concerned the past is washed out and to the future alone, they look for hope. Hand in hand they stood together in the battle of life, hand in hand they died. The marriage vow taken in early life was sacredly kept, and who knows but that their last words were: “Till death do us part.”

Copyright © 2024 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events

The Wisconsin State Prison, located in Waupun, Wisconsin has many stories of hauntings, but it is the State Prison Cemetery that is the focus of this story. The graveyard for the prison is located almost two miles away from the prison and reported to be almost as old. It was used for the inmates whose family members didn’t want to bury them in their hometowns or in a regular cemetery.

Waupun State Prison, 1895

The cemetery is filled with the bodies of unclaimed prisoners that died while serving their sentences at the prison but contains no stones or identifying markers. The names have been forgotten and the cemetery has been abandoned. Most of the time, the feeling here is peaceful and calm. But sometimes, there is a definite feeling in this lonely place. Some of the folks who have visited here feel that they are being watched. Others speak of the feelings of sadness and loss that permeate the very air here. Others claim that they feel an angry presence at this location. But though the stories differ, most folks agree that something else is here.

Waupun State Prison, 1893; H.H. Bennett (1843-1908), 1 January 1893.

One of the men who was brought here to be buried was Peter Frahm (also spelled Fromm). Peter died inside the prison walls in 1871 but the story began much earlier and many miles away in Burlington, Wisconsin. It would be called one of the most horrible crimes of the day.

Besides Frahm there was another man at the center of this story, Anton Koch. Anton Koch had come a long way in his life by 1865. He owned 130 acres just outside of Burlington. He was married to a young woman, twenty five years his junior. Both Anton and his wife, Amelia were born in Bavaria and had come to Wisconsin with their families. They married in 1859 in Burlington. They had 3 small children, Joseph who was 4 years old, Anna Barbara who was 2 and a newborn boy named Ernest. A 12 year old niece, named Amelia after her aunt, was also living with the family during that winter.

December 3, 1865 was a Sunday and that meant church for the Koch family. For some reason, Anton and Amelia decided to leave the children at home that day. They weren’t worried because the younger Amelia was wonderful with the children. They also knew that their hired man, Peter Frahm would be around that morning. Anton had sold a lot of wheat and had $1,300 on him when he left for church. He had some bills to pay after the church service and decided the money would be safer with him.

Frahm had only been with the Koch’s for seven weeks by December 3. Frahm didn’t talk much about his past but he did tell Anton that he had traveled from Moline, Illinois. Frahm was working with Anton to earn some money and wait out the winter before heading toward Iowa.

Anton and Amelia felt they would be late for church so they hurriedly told their family goodbye and rushed out at 10:00a.m. The church service ended right around noon that day. Anton wanted to run a couple of errands so Amelia went home alone. She would later claim that she had a strange feeling when she approached the house.

The feeling grew as Amelia approached the house and saw that the door was open. The entrance was in the rear of the house right next to the woodshed. As she approached the open door, she noticed a small bundle on the floor of the woodshed. It took her a moment to realize that it was her little two-year old daughter, Barbara. The toddler lay in a pool of blood and was gasping for air.

Newspapers from the day described the horrific scene stating the toddler had a “deep gash on the side of her head, penetrating the skull, her flaxen hair clotted with blood and her fair cheeks covered in the crimson gore!”

Amelia quickly gathered her child into her arms and rushed into the house screaming for her niece. The house was eerily silent as she went room to room. In the parlor, she noticed that her baby was happily lying in the cradle.

As Amelia turned from the tranquil scene of her baby, she noticed her four-year old son, Joseph, near the kitchen stove. The little boy was obviously dead and next to him lay Amelia’s namesake, her twelve-year old niece. She was alive but was in a hideous state.

Amelia would later state that even at that moment, her mind refused to process the obvious truth. It took another minute or two for her to realize that someone had come into her home and murdered her children. When the truth finally registered, Amelia stumbled out of the house and began to scream.

Several families were making their way home from the church services and heard Amelia’s cry for help. Someone ran to notify Anton that his family was in trouble. The men were shocked by the scene that awaited them inside the modest farmhouse. They were helpless to help the distraught mother.

Little Barbara lived only a short time. It gave everyone comfort that she died in her mother’s arms. Amelia then picked up her niece and held her close while she took her final breath. Amelia was still rocking her when Anton returned to find his whole family changed. Their lives would never be the same again.

The murder weapon was left on the floor next to the children’s bodies. This added another shock in a day filled with them. It was an ax. The doctor that came to examine the bodies determined that it was probably the back of the ax that was used on the victims. The doctor couldn’t look the parents in the eye as he told them that the children had all died of skull fractures.

The authorities questioned Anton about why someone would hurt his children and ransack the home. Anton told them he had been paid a large sum of money a few days before. Maybe whoever committed the crime had been looking for the money. But Anton had carried the money with him inside of his clothes. When the police asked Anton who knew about the money, he told them that only a few people knew. One of them happened to be the hired man, Peter Frahm.

Part of the ransacking in the home included the destruction of a wooden bureau. It had been destroyed with the ax. When asked what was in the bureau, Anton told the man questioning him that he kept a pouch with a few dollars in silver coins. The pouch was gone.

The authorities hated to ask the questions of the grieving father, but they knew they had to catch the monster who had committed this heinous crime as fast as they could. As Anton was recounting the morning, the man in charge seemed to focus on the hired man, Peter Frahm almost immediately. Frahm was found by the authorities and brought in for questioning.

The evidence against Frahm added up quickly. The pouch with the silver pieces was found buried not far from the house. He also had blood on his boots. There was no DNA at that time or blood typing. That meant the main evidence gathered by authorities were the boot prints left in blood. Authorities matched Frahm’s boots with the tracks that they discovered inside and outside the home on the morning of the crime.

The Sheriff’s men gathered up the evidence. They also questioned Frahm about his whereabouts during the time of the crime. They reminded Frahm that he was supposed to be watching the children. Frahm had no answer to their questions about the evidence against him. He also had no straight answer for his location during the murders.

Even though Frahm claimed he did not kill the children, not many believed him. Anton and Amelia were highly thought of in Burlington. Anton was well respected for his assistance to other Germans that came to the area. He helped them with a job and a place to stay. That respect and the fact that the victims were innocent children kept this story in the headlines for a considerably long time.

Frahm was eventually found guilty of this horrible crime and sentenced to serve his time in the Wisconsin State Penitentiary at Waupun. There was no death penalty in Wisconsin at the time though many men in the town thought if any crime deserved the death penalty it was the murder of these helpless children. Most felt that Frahm deserved to be hanged for his crimes.

Anton and Amelia buried their children in God’s Acre Cemetery, now the St. Mary Cemetery in Burlington. All the family would be buried there eventually but not close to each other.

Frahm never wavered from maintaining his innocence. He was 57-years-old when he entered prison and grew into an old man during the first years at the prison. Frahm seemed a broken man and he struggled with mental health issues. He would pace the cell laughing and crying, calling to God to help him.

This lasted until March of 1871. On the morning of March 21, a prison guard found Frahm dead in his cell. He had ripped his shirt into strips to create a rope which he tied to his cell door. Then Frahm hung himself. The guards cut him down and tried to revive him, but it was too late. Frahm was dead.

Those who thought he was guilty claimed that the guilt had finally become too much to bear. Those very few who thought he was innocent, claimed the thought of spending years incarcerated for murders he did not commit pushed him into suicide.

There was no service for Frahm and since no loved one came forward to claim the body of the 62-year-old man, he was buried in the State Prison Cemetery. But there are some that believe that Frahm still continues to claim his innocence, even this long after his death. Visitors state that they feel an intense anger and sadness at the site. Whether it is the spirit of Frahm or one of the other murders who are buried here, only more investigation will tell.

One of the final articles written about the murder was in 1929 when Amelia passed away at the age of ninety-three years old. Amelia lived through so much heartache in her long life. The baby named Ernest, who survived the killing of the other children, died in childhood. Anton and Amelia had two more daughters after the murders, and they did survive to adulthood. But Anton didn’t live to see it. He died just ten years after the murders. People who knew Anton before that December day said he never recovered from the horrible way his children died. He would always bear the burden of knowing that he had brought the murderer into his home. Amelia outlived her husband by fifty-six years.

There is another ghost story attached to this tale, though it is far away from Waupun. The location where these children were murdered seems to be haunted. According to a woman whose family lived in the area, the children that were so horribly murdered on that day in 1865 still linger at the site. She has seen them playing in the house and around the barn which has now been remodeled into a business.

The same woman states that the stories of strange happenings in the house continue even today. The home has been converted into a business now. Stories are told of cleaning crews that have heard unexplainable sounds and doors slamming when there was no one else in the building.

Besides the children’s ghosts, others claim to have seen a woman in the yard and in the house. Perhaps the ghost of Amelia wanders reliving those moments when she returned from church to find her world destroyed. It makes one’s heart ache to think of the young mother searching for the children she couldn’t save.

There is a darker presence here as well. One that “feels” different from the other spirits that roam the house and barn area. Folks that experienced this entity claim to feel fear and anger when this spirit is near. They fear that Frahm or whoever killed the Koch family children is keeping the children trapped in the house. This may be another reason why Amelia’s spirit remains.

There is a theory about spirits who were wronged (whether by murder or wrongly accused of a crime). The feelings of anger, frustration, and lack of justice carry on after the person’s death. These feelings can grow and cause a different type of haunting.

Spirits involved with this type of haunting become vengeful, dark, and dangerous. They no longer care if they revenge on the actual person that caused their situation. They only care that they get revenge on society for the wrong that was perpetrated against them. This could be the dark energy felt at the State Prison Cemetery and at the home in Burlington.

There is no way that we will ever know if Frahm was innocent or guilty of the horrific crimes he was found guilty of committing. But one thing is very clear, the ghosts created by the long-ago murder of these small children reach far beyond the abandoned cemetery in Waupun.

Copyright © 2024 Kathi Kresol, Haunted Rockford Events