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

[meanmaryjean]

I was an eleven year old kid when this happened. Being from Chicago, it's the case I would like to see resolution to in my lifetime.

This came just weeks after Richard Speck butchered eight student nurses - and that summer was just so horrific to me.

 

[Luckymanuh]

William Thorsen. He was the suspect in the new book.

 

[Winward1]

A link to last night's story:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9405395

 

[STANDREID]

Since when does claiming that the victim committed other murders get you off a murder charge? At any rate, perhaps this guy could have done it but he looks more like a scapegoat than a suspect to me.

 

[Luckymanuh]

I totally agree. I have not finished reading the book as of yet but will have to now to see why a connection there.

So if he killed Valerie than he tried breaking into the Doctor Perillo (sp?) house the night or two before? Remember there were blue marks left on their window sill and some were found at the Percy home also. If I am not mistaken.

 

[TracyLynnS]

I followed this case off and on from my days back on delphiforums True Crimes and Beyond. I just bought the kindle book and will (hopefully) start reading it tonight.

The thing I remember from a few years ago (delphi TC&B) was that there was a "pastoral green" station wagon reported as being seen in the Percy driveway very early in the morning. The police chief held a press conference telling everyone to be on the look out for a pastoral green station wagon in connection to the murder, since a man in a suit was seen standing next to one in the Percy driveway in the very early morning hours of the day Ms. Percy was murdered.

But as it turns out, the entire police force was driving Pastoral Green station wagons because the wealthy citizens in Kenilworth did not like seeing black and white police cars patrolling their streets.

I'll have to read the book now to see if it has anything to do with the case, but the "pastoral green" description has always stayed with me for some reason...

 

[Winward1]

There's no reason to suspect Thoresen for the Percy murder except:

1. His family home was a block and a half from Percy's house

2. His family home stood almost directly between Percy's home and another house (Pirruccello) cops believe was broken into by the same offender 24 hrs. prior.

3. The murder weapon was a WWII era bayonet, and detectives that investigated thousands of murders in their time couldn't think of one other case in which a civilian was murdered with a bayonet.

4. Thoresen's wife was arrested at JFK less than 3 months after the Percy murder while trying to transport 4 bayonets manufactured between 1942-44.

5. The doctor who saw the crime scene said whoever committed the Percy murder was "some deranged person," which describes Thoresen to a T.

6. The crime was committed at 5 a.m. Thoresen's neighbor told the FBI that Thoresen was very weird and slept all day and was up all night.

7. Thoresen's description (6 ft. 1 in., dark hair, medium build) matches Mrs. Percy's eyewitness description. She said he was 5 ft. 8, 180, with dark hair. (When seen "leaning over the bed" at a distance of about ten feet, that would make a difference of 5-6 inches.)

8. Smashing his way into Percy's home and going ballistic on someone with no apparent connection to the killer and being seen at the scene of the crime was a reckless, senseless act. Thorsen's police record is full of senseless, reckless acts.

9. Thoresen had a long history of being in area homes without permission.

10. Thoresen was a suspect in the case and refused to discuss it with the FBI.

11. In a letter written by Thoresen's brother to Thoresen, the brother asks "why do you keep returning to Kenilworth and causing trouble?"

12. Percy's daughter was bludgeoned. Thoresen's wife said he admitted to bludgeoning one of his other victims.

13. Thoresen's wife wrote a detailed memoir of life with her husband. In it, the whereabouts of her husband at the time of the Percy murder and two prior home invasions to which the offender was linked are not accounted for.

14. The home invasion the day before, which police said was committed by the same offender, was committed by someone who pulled himself up from a gutter and up to a balcony. Such an act would require significant strength. A Kenilworth cop who arrested Thoresen numerous times recalls Thoresen as remarkably strong.

15. The glove found outside of Percy's home was linked to the crime via fiber evidence. Detectives who worked the case said the glove was not a type commonly worn by burglars and home invaders known to work the area, and from Chicago. As a woolen, winter glove it suggests an amateur, if not local. Thoresen was certainly no pro criminal, and definitely had a local connection.

16. Nothing was taken from Percy's home. Thoresen was rich. He had no need to steal and committed crimes for the thrill and challenge of it.

 

[Winward1]

So if he killed Valerie than he tried breaking into the Doctor Perillo (sp?) house the night or two before? Remember there were blue marks left on their window sill and some were found at the Percy home also. If I am not mistaken.

Yes, he would indeed be guilty of the Pirruccello home invasion the night before and the Wacker home invasion in Lake Forest in Feb., '65.

Keep in mind, Thoresen's wife wrote that he went into a downward spiral after having had his brother killed in Sept. '65, and became, in her words, "suicidally nihilistic."

That might explain why, in early '65, he was committing crimes in Lake Forest, 16 miles from Kenilworth where, ostensibly, law enforcement was not familiar with him. But by the time of the Pirrucello and Percy crimes, he seems likely to have been more reckless, likely committing crimes two minutes from the front door of his parent's home in a village where he was well known to police.

 

[Dreamnine]

I wonder - and this wasn't mentioned in the book - if WT knew Valerie or Sharon growing up and living so close; he would have been 7 years older than they, and around 13 when the Percys moved to that house in 1950.

And if they knew him, did they give him a wide berth?

 

[Winward1]

Good question. I know and was familiar with people that lived all over my neighborhood when I was growing up. But there were many others, in the same place and time, that I did not know.

As someone else who might be able to tell you about Kenilworth, at least in those days, much of the small town was made up of huge estates with lots of land in between and often the houses were behind a lot of foliage, like Percy's. I rode through there on my bike many times in the late 70s and can't recall seeing anyone, much less kids.

Valerie and Sharon went to New Trier, a school a few blocks northeast of their then home. Thoresen went to North Shore Country Day, at least until he was asked to leave or no longer would go (he did not graduate.) That is a school that is north east of his former home, but considerably farther away.

So, there were significant age differences and they went to different schools. No reason to think they knew each other. Pirroccellos didn't know the Thorsens, either, though they had 8 kids and lived in the area.

Thoresen was clearly an anti-social trouble maker from age 13, or seemingly not the kind of kid Percy would allow his kids to interact with. Unlike Thoresen's parents, the Percys were quite strict.

Thoresen's one and only younger brother did go to New Trier. But he was three classes older than the Percy twins and graduated in '59. Percy's eldest son was two years younger than the twins. So there's no reason to suspect he knew either Thoresen son.

 

[Luckymanuh]

Winward1 if Thoreson had committed previous crimes and caught don't you think there would be fingerprints on file? Why not compare with the thumbprint and partial found at Percy home. Why all the sudden it is a bayonet knife when the bashing in the head Valerie took left diamond shape marks, if I am not mistaken. They never could explain that and what kind of tool. Plus, carrying all the tools to break in and kill Valerie. I honestly have a hard time with this one. I am not done reading the book and might change my mind when I do finish it, but I would think the PD would have done their homework more thoroughly now or back then.

 

[STANDREID]

Yes, the accounts I've read say that the weapon was most likely a hammer. I would hope that police tried to match the bayonet with the wounds and, if so, it would be easy to determine if it was the weapon or not. Are there any autopsy photos of the wounds so we can see for ourselves?

I'd heard that they were unable to determine the weapon in the Marilyn Sheppard murder but, the instant I saw the autopsy photos, I thought to myself - either a chisel or an ice ax.

 

[Winward1]

Winward1 if Thoreson had committed previous crimes and caught don't you think there would be fingerprints on file? Why not compare with the thumbprint and partial found at Percy home. Why all the sudden it is a bayonet knife when the bashing in the head Valerie took left diamond shape marks, if I am not mistaken. They never could explain that and what kind of tool. Plus, carrying all the tools to break in and kill Valerie. I honestly have a hard time with this one. I am not done reading the book and might change my mind when I do finish it, but I would think the PD would have done their homework more thoroughly now or back then.

Some of these things, like why the impressions on the victim's head were as they were reported, indicate the pummel of that particular bayonet. Remember, most of the reporting on the head wounds came prior to the discoverey of the bayonet. Murder was on a Sunday. Bayonet was found Wednesday afternoon. Things were said prior to the discovery about fireplace pokers and sharpened metal objects. But that was before they found it, and it was a very uncommon weapon to be used in the murder of a civilian in a suburb that had never had a murder, despite being one of the oldest in the area.

Far's the prints go, there are a number of open prints in this case. There's no indication that any of them were the offender's save the bloody palm print, which may have been useless. There is evidence he was wearing gloves. If it was Thoresen, his wife said he said, with not a little credibility, that he murdered, and or had murdered at his direction, three others and was never charged in those crimes. Remember, she was acquitted for shooting him five times in the back in a jury trial. That was no small feat in 1970, when spousal abuse was not a known term. He was one diabolical dude.

As for sets of prints, it's clear that they didn't have a full set. The FBI documents reveal one of the reasons they wanted to talk with Thoresen is because they wanted to obtain a full set of prints. Yes, he had an extensive criminal history on the North Shore. But it was not a place, ahem, well known for top police work.

That stuff is all in the book, which has a lot of info about Thoresen. Plus there is Thoresen's wife's book. I'm not trying to do either of them justice here, because there's a lot more info in them. At least you have one of them so you can decide for yourself.

 

[Winward1]

Yes, the accounts I've read say that the weapon was most likely a hammer. I would hope that police tried to match the bayonet with the wounds and, if so, it would be easy to determine if it was the weapon or not. Are there any autopsy photos of the wounds so we can see for ourselves?

Once again, you have to consider when what was written about the wounds was written. For all intents and purposes, four days passed before they found the bayonet. That was a lot of time to write a lot of speculative and inaccurate things for nationwide newspapers.

Joe DiLeonardi, one of Chicago's best homicide detectives at the time, said the pathologist told him in person the wounds were consistent with the weapon. That was a few days after the bayonet was found. Look at the pummel end of an M1 Garland Bayonet, even the one found in this case. Note how one side of it comes to an end in a triangle like shape. Not a perfect triangle but one nonetheless. there's your answer.

 

[Luckymanuh]

Winward1--Wasn"t he arrested out west in Nevada? Get a set of prints from that LEA.
I was told by KPD and Illinois State Police if they had a suspect's thumb print they could match it the one bloody one found on the banister.

Separate question being his wife stated he murdered other people was it ever stated in the book who and where? I am 1/2 through the book. Hoping to finish this weekend.

 

[Dreamnine]

I'm linking to the discussion we have on zodiackillersite.com where a poster, Seagull, has unearthed a lot of info on William Thoresen from True Police Cases December 1970.

I hope you don't mind, Winward1, that I quoted you there: http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=1358

 

[DebbS]

Here are two pictures of the bayonet recovered from Lake Michigan and said to be the weapon used in the Percy murder. They are from two different detective magazines, and labeled.

The definition of a bayonet is knife that attaches to the muzzle end of a rifle. To my mind the knife pictured would not be capable of doing that so I'm not certain why the murder weapon is called a bayonet in almost everything you read about this murder.

 

[DebbS]

Winward1--Wasn"t he arrested out west in Nevada? Get a set of prints from that LEA.
I was told by KPD and Illinois State Police if they had a suspect's thumb print they could match it the one bloody one found on the banister.

Separate question being his wife stated he murdered other people was it ever stated in the book who and where? I am 1/2 through the book. Hoping to finish this weekend.

I have not read Sympathy Vote, yet. I ordered the paperback version and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

However, I do know from previous research that during Louise Thoresen's trial it came out that William hired a friend, Dale Stoddard, to kill his brother, Richard. Stoddard and his wife were friends of the Thoresen's when they were living in Arizona. The Stoddard's had also moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, settling near San Jose.

Louise related at her trial that after Stoddard murdered Richard he returned to the Bay Area from Illinois to collect money owed to him by William and it was in the Thoresen's San Francisco home that William killed Stoddard and then dumped his body into the Bay. Stoddard's body was never found nor did his wife ever see him again.

 

[TracyLynnS]

I'm halfway through the book. Very interesting and full of info I had either never known or forgotten about over the years.

And those Thorensen brothers... Dang! Someone should write a book about them. (I figured that William must have hired someone to kill his brother.... thanks for that info Debbs) What a mess those two were. They terrorized their family, their town, and half the country. And maybe even some other countries, if Richard kept up his criminal activities while he was overseas.

 

[STANDREID]

I can't imagine using the "pummel" on such a small knife - a butter knife would have almost been as effective. The pummel is only a weapon of last resort anyway; only used when a fighter doesn't have time to get the point of the knife in a position to thrust or slash.