OK, the States timeline is definitely screwy, and I cant for the life of me figure out why the defense didnt jump on this.
According to the testimony of Charles Ridulph, Marias older brother, he was at home looking at baseball cards and listening to records with his friend Randy Strombom when Kathy came to the door and asked if Maria was there. He says no, Kathy leaves, but returns less than 10 minutes later.
So now Charles tells his parents, and Charles and Randy head out to look for Maria as well. They go down Archie Place towards Center Cross, where Maria and Kathy had been playing, turn on Dekalb Avenue and stop at a friends house to see if Maria is there, then head back home.
In his testimony, Charles says this first search took about 15 minutes, and that by the time he got home from the first search, there was already a huge commotion going on and that the police were then called.
Now we know the police were called at around 8pm. That means he went outside at around, say, 7:40-7:45pm. Which means that Kathy was at his house around, say, 7:20-7:30pm or so.
Kathy testified that she was outside playing with Maria for between 15-30 minutes when Johnny showed up, and that Johnny was on the scene for only a few minutes, definitely less than 10 and probably less than five.
This means either one of two things.
1) If the abduction happened at around 6:20pm as the State now insists, eight-year old Kathy spent an hour or more searching for Maria, by herself, before asking anyone for help. Not only is this not remotely believable, it doesnt match Kathys testimony, which is that she very quickly went to Marias house and spoke to Charlie.
2) Alternatively, the abduction happened after 7pm. Not only does this match the original FBI timeline - the DeKalb County sheriff said Maria didn't call Kathy and ask her to come out and play until 6:30pm it exactly matches the timeline based on the testimony of Kathy and Charlie:
6:30pm: Maria calls Kathy to go out and play
6:35-6:40pm: Maria and Kathy are outside playing
6:55-7:05pm: Johnny shows up. Says hes 24, not married. When Kathy asks him what time it is presumably when Maria has gone to get a doll - he says that its 7pm
7:05-7:10pm: Kathy goes back home to retrieve her mittens. By the time she gets back, Maria and Johnny are gone
7:20pm: Goes to Marias house.
7:30pm: Returns to Marias house a second time
7:35pm: Charlie and Randy head out to search for Maria
7:50-8:00pm: Charlie and Randy arrive back home to a huge commotion and the police are called.
We can substantiate this timeline with information directly from the FBI files found here..
https://jackdmccullough.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fbi-files-from-cnn.pdf
As well as historic television schedules found here.
http://ctva.biz/US/Western/Cheyenne.htm
Maria's father Michael Ridulph was interviewed by FBI Agent Robert Wilson on Dec. 7th, 1957.
Ridulph gave a detailed account of his interpretation of the events of the evening of Dec. 3rd...the night Maria disappeared.
Here is a copy of the relevant part of his statement.
He recalls reading the paper until about 6:30 PM then began watching television. He believed the show was "Cheyenne" or some other Western.
This next image is a small snip of the history of the show "Cheyenne" and it indicates that it did indeed start at 6:30 PM on that evening and the episode was entitled "Town Of Fear".
The above image was clipped from this page.
http://ctva.biz/US/Western/Cheyenne.htm
Ridulph went on to state that he was still watching tv (presumably-Cheyenne) when Maria came in and went to "her corner" for something. Mrs. Ridulph supported this by stating that at about 6:40, Maria came to her and asked if she could take her new doll outside. Mrs. Ridulph told the FBI that she did not allow Maria to take the new doll, after which Maria retrieved an older one from her corner.
After Maria had arrived back at the corner, Kathy had run home to get her gloves.
When Kathy returned to the corner she did not see Maria and went to her house looking for her.
She went to the side door and asked Charles if Maria was at home. Mrs. Ridulph stated that this occurred at 6:45. Kathy, then went back to the corner looking for Maria, only to return 5 minutes later, telling Charles that Maria was gone. Charles told his mother, who then went into the living room and told her husband.
On one hand there is clear and provable evidence that Maria had come into the living room to retrieve her doll while "Cheyenne" was showing on the television, and the show started at 6:30 PM CST. We know that Maria was again seen by Kathy after that time on the corner. It was when Kathy left to go home, Maria disappears.
On the other hand, there is ISP Larry Kot who was reinvestigating the case and based on the fact that Tom Braddy, did not see anyone on that corner when he passed at 6:15 or so...and a bus driver saw no one there at 6:30, Kot decided that the crime happened at 6:20. It makes absolutely no sense and for the State to use that as a basis for a time line, especially in light of the known and provable statements of the Ridulphs, makes this a clear miscarriage of justice. Even if the FBI files were deemed inadmissable in court. the ISP knew what was stated in them and that their new timeline was flawed.
But in typical fashion, they needed someone to prosecute and Jack fit the bill.
