IL IL - Valerie Percy, 21, Kenilworth, 18 September 1966

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Welcome sammyollie. I'm not sure any files on unsolved police cases are ever released. FOIA materials have to be about deceased people. So living suspects would need their permission, each one, even if the cops would release it I'd think.

This case was interesting in that the family moved out of state not long afterwards as the Senator moved to D.C. and, seeing as the crime was committed inside the house, it would have been hard to continue living there for the family.

It would be hard to overstate how terrible this one was.
 
After going thru some of the blogs I was able to link to the crime scene, the photo that really surprise me was of the bedroom. I never realized just how large it was. This would explain how Mrs Percy was able to run down the hall without the killer getting to her first. But what I noticed was that the bedroom floors had carpets on them and it too hard to tell if the house had carpets in the entire house. Back when this killing happen most home had carpets in the entire house does anyone know how much of the Percy home and where the house had been covered with carpets?
 
Spearhead said:
After going thru some of the blogs I was able to link to the crime scene, the photo that really surprise me was of the bedroom. I never realized just how large it was. This would explain how Mrs Percy was able to run down the hall without the killer getting to her first. But what I noticed was that the bedroom floors had carpets on them and it too hard to tell if the house had carpets in the entire house. Back when this killing happen most home had carpets in the entire house does anyone know how much of the Percy home and where the house had been covered with carpets?
Click to expand...
Could you share a link?
 
Were Valerie and her sister identical twins? I have never seen any information about this but it might be relevant?
 
The family's lack of interest and follow up on this case completely astounds me!

Identical twins and nothing is mentioned in the media about this and who might hold a grudge about either? In fact, media sources are almost inaccessible for this case? Hmmm.
 
I believe a number of stories mentioned the twins connection. Valerie's twin married a Rockefeller the spring following the murder and has a pretty high profile job. I think stories covering the murder and about her often mention the slaying.

Sharon's husband spoke about her father on the Senate floor when the latter passed and mentioned Valerie and how the murder affected the family. I believe, a few years ago, an anniversary story mentioned that, at one point, the family hired a law firm to do their own investigation. That indicates they were quite interested in the case. They also cooperated with a writer who was researching the case.

They may have had more investigators thrown at that case than any murder case in state history. Yet they financed their own investigation on top of that. The publicity surrounding murder would likely have been affected because her father was a three term Senator. How so is debatable. He mentioned the murder in speeches years later, when discussing the crime issue.

Otherwise, the family is pretty private. This case was a horrific ordeal to live through, and it is pretty difficult to be a member of a family that has a high profile unsolved murder in its history. The public can be pretty ill informed, not to mention downright nasty.
 
Here are some recent articles about Valerie's murder:

Charles Percy Obituary: The Obituary and Death Notice of ...
Sep 18, 2011 ... Charles Percy Tribute: CHICAGO (AP) — Former Sen. ... Percy's daughter, Sharon Rockefeller, announced in March 2009 that he had Alzheimer's disease. ... Valerie, was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her bed in the ...

www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?n=charles-percy&pid=153664565


Questions about Valerie Percy murder outlive her father - ...
Sep 18, 2011 ... The murder occurred as Percy's first U.S. Senate campaign was hitting stride, and to this day .....

www.dailyherald.com/article/20110918/news/709189818/


Newly disclosed account surfaces in 1966 Valerie Percy murder ...
Jun 19, 2011 ... Newly disclosed account surfaces in 1966 Valerie Percy murder case. A document, written by the doctor who first examined the victim, ...

seattletimes.com/html/living/2015369876_webpercy20.html


Mystery, memories linger after demolition of former Percy home ...
Jun 4, 2010 ... Charles Percy, launched his political career. ... The sprawling home also was where Rockefeller's twin sister, Valerie, was murdered at age 21.

articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-04/news/ct-x-n-percy-mansion-0604-20100...


Charles Percy, Former Illinois Senator, Is Dead at 91 - ...
Sep 17, 2011 ... Senator Charles H. Percy, center, with Senators Arlen Specter, left, and .... Sharon's twin sister, Valerie, was bludgeoned to death in the family ...

www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/politics/charles-percy-former-illinois-senator-is-...


Charles H. Percy obituary - Los Angeles Times
Sep 18, 2011 ... Charles H. Percy, a three-term U.S. senator, was a former Foreign Relations ... Percy's daughter, Sharon Rockefeller, announced in 2009 that he had ... when he learned of Valerie Percy's death and that in the campaign's ...

www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-charles-percy-20110918,0,3266583.story
 
Pink Panther said:
The family's lack of interest and follow up on this case completely astounds me!

Identical twins and nothing is mentioned in the media about this and who might hold a grudge about either? In fact, media sources are almost inaccessible for this case? Hmmm.
Click to expand...

I think you are gravely mistaken about the family. Unlike other families - there was plenty of publicity about this case when it happened and for a long time afterward. They did not 'need' to be as active in the media as perhaps other families, as the late Senator was already a public person. This case garnered intense national media, and to say the family 'lacks interest' is unfair at best.
 
marycarney said:
I think you are gravely mistaken about the family. Unlike other families - there was plenty of publicity about this case when it happened and for a long time afterward. They did not 'need' to be as active in the media as perhaps other families, as the late Senator was already a public person. This case garnered intense national media, and to say the family 'lacks interest' is unfair at best.
Click to expand...

Not to mention, a lot of media coverage for this case isn't available on the Internet. I don't know of any website where you can watch any evening news broadcasts from the 60s that you want. Many newspapers do not have archives online, or do not have them as far back as the 60s.
 
Valerie Percy - The Evidence

An autopsy showed that Valerie had been bludgeoned up to four times on the head with a ball peen hammer, a fireplace poker or a similar instrument with a conical or triangular head. She was stabbed as many as 14 times in the neck, chest and abdomen.

Her hands, knees and left foot bore signs of defensive wounds. She had died fighting.

Evidence showed the killer got in by cutting a screen, then scoring a door pane with a glasscutter—the crash that awakened Loraine Percy.

Cops scoured the property and came up with a number of potential clues: a moccasin, a glove, a bayonet, a pocket watch, a scissors blade and a rusty knife, although none of the objects was ever determined without doubt to have been left by the killer.

Likewise, police found bare footprints of nebulous origin on the beach. Investigators told reporters that they found a good-quality fingerprint on the broken glass, palm and fingerprints on Valerie's door and a stairway railing, and hair and fibers of indeterminate origin in her room.

In adherence to Illinois law, a coroner's inquiry was mounted to establish the cause of death. The inquiry seemed like cruel overkill given the results of the autopsy.

LINK:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/valerie_percy/5.html
 
Unusual to hear about a home invasion murder, even more so when there is a witness.

The fact that it was a stabbing is another thing this one apparently has in common with the Percy case though it's still early and some of this info could be inaccurate.

Interesting that another another witness reportedly saw a man running from the scene (will be interesting to see how accurate that report is.)
 
The family has stayed private and we have heard next to nothing from them since their daughter was first murdered.

moo
 
From the book description on the link - Percy's "notorious career in Washington" - exactly what was notorious about it?
 
STANDREID said:
From the book description on the link - Percy's "notorious career in Washington" - exactly what was notorious about it?
Click to expand...

Well, he basically became an enemy of conservative Republicans. He was a 'Rockefeller' Republican (read: liberal) and was the first senator to call for an independent prosecutor in the Watergate case. I suppose that made him "notorious" enough in the eyes of many in the GOP.
 
He had perhaps the most independent voting record of any senator of his time. He also was honest. Not that he shouldn't have been. But a lot of his peers, prior to, during and after he was in office went to prison for one reason or another.
 
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