IL IL - Maria Ridulph, 7, Sycamore, 3 Dec 1957

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I guess we knew the gf's story would change.

[...]
The witness, Jan Edwards [Swafford], was dating McCullough in 1957. Last year, she appeared on the "Dr. Phil" TV show and "provided information that was totally contrary to the state's theory of the case," McCulloch wrote.

In a 2010 interview, according to investigators, Edwards said she did not see McCullough the night Maria disappeared. Her father, she reportedly told investigators, forbade her from leaving the house as residents and authorities combed Sycamore for the missing girl.

But in a 2014 letter to DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack, Edwards disputed the report made by investigators.

"It is completely the opposite. I did not ever say that (McCullough) wasn't with me on that night or that Dad wouldn't let me out of the house," she wrote.

[...]
"I don't know whether it was a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday — I'm not sure," Swafford said.

[...]
Swafford said she doesn't think McCullough killed Maria Ridulph.

"But they say Ted Bundy was a nice guy too," she added.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...re-murder-appeal-met-1024-20151026-story.html
 
State’s Attorney Richard Schmack said "newly discovered evidence" shows there is no way Jack D. McCullough could have been in Sycamore when Maria Ridulph disappeared on Dec. 3, 1957. He said his office will not oppose a defense motion to dismiss the conviction.

"I know that there are people who will never believe that he is not responsible for the crime," said Schmack, who was not the state's attorney when the trial was held. "Many of these people are my neighbors in Sycamore. But I cannot allow that to sway me from my sworn duty."
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...lough-conviction-overturn-20160325-story.html
 
Well, back in the unsolved column. That's not good although it's better than a wrongful conviction.
 
Request for special prosecutor latest twist in 1957 Sycamore murder case

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-sycamore-cold-case-murder-motion-0329-20160328-story.html

The brother of a Sycamore girl murdered in 1957 wants a special prosecutor to investigate the case after the DeKalb County state's attorney said the conviction of the man found guilty of the crime four years ago should be reversed.

Charles Ridulph, whose sister, Maria, 7, was kidnapped and murdered, filed an emergency motion Monday asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor to intervene in the case of Jack McCullough, who was convicted in 2012 of murdering the girl.
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Schmack said Monday that he had seen Ridulph's motion, and it did not change his conclusion.

"I stand by everything I had written in my report to the court," Schmack said.

Ridulph, in his motion, said he was begging the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to "review the claims of Richard Schmack and the defendant and to handle the matter in an unbiased manner so that we may all know justice is being served."
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Well there ya go, I was convinced of his guilt because of the mother's deathbed confession, but due to new evidence he must be innocent. I am now dubious about many confessions.
I am also surprised the phone records from nearly 60 yrs ago could be retrieved, absolutely brilliant.
 
Regarding the phone records. If they were available why didn't the defense subpoena them?

I hope msm explains this further. It appears the phone call wasn't in question, but rather the time Maria dissppeared. The defense and current SA seem to believe Maria disappeared closer to the time the collect call was made, the original prosecutor seemed to think it was earlier.

I am going to guess a copy of the defenders families phone bill was in the SA'S hands providing a number for the collect call and what was most recently discovered was the exact address of the payphone. If that's the case, then how can it be proven it was the defendant who made the collect call?

What if the collect call was made by someone who arrived at the train station to pick up the defendant only to find he wasn't there and collect called to say the defended the never got off the train? Especially considering the unused train ticket presented as evidence at the original trial?

Lots of questions.......
 
i am to now thinking Jack didn't do it. I am pretty sure whoever killed this little girl was someone else maybe his still alive today, If Jack does get release I do hope they will reopen the case, study it and find her real killer. I find it extremely sad that her case will once again be unsolved and her family and siblings will have to go through all this pain again not knowing who killed Maria. There will never be true justice in Maria's case as she was taken at the age of 7 years old still a baby her a innocent child's life was taken away.

I do hope Maria's case will get more talked about even more now if Jack get's release, it's good that everyone still remembers a dead little girl after 50 years later and will continue to do so and help find her real killer,
 
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/us/oldest-cold-case-jack-mccullough-maria-ridulph-sycamore-illinois-hearing/

An Illinois judge declined on Friday to free the man convicted of murder in one of the nation's oldest cold cases, even though the prosecution and defense agree Jack Daniel McCullough is "demonstrably innocent."

Judge William Brady said the situation is so unusual he needs more guidance on what to do -- and more time to review the facts and the law. He asked McCullough's attorneys to clarify in writing how the law would apply to their client's case and told them to return to court on April 15.

"I acknowledge that I'm making this up as I go along," the judge said. He agreed he probably could "skip over" the next step but said he was not inclined to cut corners on a case of such importance to the small town of Sycamore, Illinois.
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/15/us/1957-cold-case-jack-mccullough-maria-ridulph/index.html

The man convicted in the oldest cold case ever brought to court broke into a wide grin as a judge ordered him released from prison Friday and granted him a new trial.

Jack McCullough, 75, was serving a life sentence for the 1957 murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph. Judge William P. Bradley threw out the conviction after a prosecutor found "clear and convincing evidence" that McCullough was wrongly found guilty.

He was freed shortly after the hearing and was whisked away in a car driven by a family member.
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case is unsolved once again ): hope they reopen the case again, it's horrible a 7 year old little girl's murder case should be taken seriously and should be reopen again to find her real killer. I feel so sad for her family.

http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2007...-would-have-been-something/aqriqsz/news02.txt

news022.jpg
sweet little 7 year old Maria Ridulph with a sweet smile taken in the summer of 1957 on a family vacation.
 
This article points to John "Johnny" Tessier's (a/k/a "Jack McCullough") guilt. But, of course, his release after conviction is due to "procedural error" at trial. So, even if you are guilty of murder, you can't be punished unless all the "i's" are dotted, and "t's crossed properly. In the interest of doing so, a retrial is the only lawful remedy; not a "Get Out of Jail Free Card."

http://www.kcchronicle.com/2011/07/...57-cold-case-as-having-troubled-past/aso6c7w/
 
It sure seems like Tessier/McCullough's family suspected him from the get-go. However, that is pretty much irrelevant as evidence. The timeline and the record of the Collect Call seem to give him a rock solid alibi. Perhaps he is completely innocent.

There is a real problem asking people details about what they did or experienced fifty years before. It isn't just that people don't remember things; they remember things wrong.

The problem with the trial was that the judge ruled the original police reports from 1957 were inadmissible under the hearsay rule. Investigators, who were dead by the time of the trial, interviewed various witnesses and pinned them down to times events occurred. From those interviews, it seemed close to certain that the abduction happened well after 6:30. Since the defendant was making a phone call 40 miles away at 6:57, it would give him a solid alibi. That was why he was pretty much ruled out by the FBI at the time.
(There was no trial at that time so nobody's statement was "on the record". All there was was the accounts taken by various investors in the records of the investigation)

At the trial, some key witnesses were dead an those who we able to testify were not able to give an account that would narrow down the time of the abduction. Things were vague enough so that the prosecution could claim that the abduction could have occurred as early as 6:00.
 
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