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

[JBean]

I have the original article from the Trib where the intruder broke into my home the night before. I will see if there is any good info on it.

 

[Bargle]

Thanks for posting all the details of the case on here, Bargle. I haven't had the chance to read through it all yet, but I appreciate you taking the time to post it. Thanks!

You're welcome. There's more to come. In addition to the article Jbean will be adding (Thanks for that, Jbean. I think I've got a copy of it as well from one of the old boards, just in case.) I'll be adding some more articles, especially some that illustrate the crime scene or have pictures about the case. This is a case where understanding the layout of the home really helps in understanding the actions of the people involved that night.

 

[Luckymanuh]

Hi Bargle, good to see you again. Glad to see you are trying to peak new interest in this almost forgotten case.

Luckymanuh

 

[Bargle]

Hi Lucky. I never quite go away, I just take a break sometimes. :crazy:

 

[JBean]

This article right here is the one about my family. I have it in my files and it may be interesting because there is infomration regarding the thought process and suspects at the time. The link is not to the article, but I do have a physical copy. I will review it as soon as I can and see if there is nything of interest in it.

"Earlier Prowler Hunted in Percy Slaying," by Sandy Smith, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 30.1966

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/valerie_percy/15.html

 

[nadjatheresa]

This article right here is the one about my family. I have it in my files and it may be interesting because there is infomration regarding the thought process and suspects at the time. The link is not to the article, but I do have a physical copy. I will review it as soon as I can and see if there is nything of interest in it.

"Earlier Prowler Hunted in Percy Slaying," by Sandy Smith, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 30.1966

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/valerie_percy/15.html

JBean, you said your father foiled the intruder the night before the Percy incident and then called police.

Does this mean area residents may have been aware of the attempted break-in at your house before the Percy murder took place?

Do you know how quickly and based on what evidence police linked the Percy incident to the one at your house?

 

[nadjatheresa]

<...snipped...>

4:45-4:55 am Loraine is partially awakened by the sound of glass breaking. She thinks someone has knocked over a drinking glass and goes back to sleep.
5:00-5:03 am Loraine is awakened again, fully this time, by the sound of someone moaning. She goes down the hall, first to Sharon's room where she hears nothing, then to Valerie's. She opens the door and sees a man bending over the bed, shining a flashlight on Valerie's bloody body and bed. She screams in surprise. The man shines the flashlight in her eyes, briefly blinding her. Loraine steps back, turns and runs to rouse Charles. The attacker runs out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out the french door.

<...>

BBM

Is there any theory about how the killer was able to see while he committed the crime? He (or she) would have had to see his way up the stairs, to Valerie's room, and see which bed she was in (although s/he may have known the house). Then bludgeon and stab her and engage in a struggle.

Was there ever an arrest in the Sharon Bubes case? Did police think her attack was with a modified ball peen hammer, or a regular one?

 

[JBean]

JBean, you said your father foiled the intruder the night before the Percy incident and then called police.

Does this mean area residents may have been aware of the attempted break-in at your house before the Percy murder took place?

Do you know how quickly and based on what evidence police linked the Percy incident to the one at your house?

Our break in was 24 hours prior to Valerie's murder. The intruder broke into our house at about 4:30 am. My father saw a "youth" riding away on a bicycle but had no way of knowing if it was the same person that had broken in. They did take footprint casts from the flowerbed and there was a broken gutter where he hung from my mothers dressing room before falling to the ground.
As I recall it, a connection was made almost immediately the next day due to the time of day and the method of entry.
Immediate area residents would have been aware, but we were in Winnetka and maybe a mile from the Percy residence. But certainly they were back at our house right away after the news of the murder broke. I was 9 at the time, but happened to be sleeping in the master sun porch that night and so I remember it well.

 

[JBean]

here is the article

 

[nadjatheresa]

From an ABC 40th anniversary article on the murder. Sharon is quoted in this article.

link

Joe Dileonardi knows murder. The former Chicago police superintendent was an Area 6 homicide cop in 1966 called into the Percy case when Kenilworth realized the murder was more than it could handle.

"She was found Sunday at 5 a.m. We got there Monday morning and it was 24 hours old, and we get to the crime scene and there was none, no crime scene, the room where she was murdered was completely renovated. You cannot conduct a homicide investigation like this," said Dileonardi.

"If this crime were to happen today, you would have a group of people who would immediately begin investigating. There would be no delay, there would be no chaos involved in trying to figure out who's going to investigate what or who is going to be part of the investigation," said Sgt. David Miller.

"This was not a burglar, nothing was touched, not a thing was touched in that house," said Joseph Dileonardi. "A burglar would not strike a victim 14 times, a stick up person does not strike a victim 14 times. the other motive, the last motive, was revenge and that's what I think happened to Valerie Percy."

 

[JBean]

you can see by the article that by Thursday they were looking for our prowler in connection with the Percy murder.

 

[nadjatheresa]

here is the article

This is so interesting. Roughly same time of night (early morning) but at your house he scaled a pipe to the second story, cut through the screen and forced the French window in, whereas at the Percy house the perp supposedly cut the screen and then used a glass cutter to cut a hole in the French door glass to gain entry.

They never caught the intruder at your house, JBean? You do not know who he was or why he was really there, although you presume burglary?

The footprint casts---did they compare them with the barefoot prints in the sand at the Percy beach?

 

[nadjatheresa]

Sharon stopped by Valerie's room to return a raincoat. Was it raining that night? Weather Underground only goes back to 1970.

If it was raining, would there have been wet shoeprints (or footprints) in the house?

 

[MaryLiz]

Thanks for posting your article, JBean. Wow - how frightening that must have been. It certainly does seem like the 2 cases are connected, and also the case of the girl attacked with the ball peen hammer in Evanston the previous June. You were very lucky your father awoke when he did. Thankfully, no one from your family was attacked!

I'm wondering if the guy on the CTA bus had anything to do with Valerie's murder and the other break-ins. It said in your article that he closely resembled the suspect. I have always wondered about him. I read in another article that he was talking with both Sharon and Valerie on the bus, and I thought the same article said that he followed them for a ways after they got off the bus. I'll have to see if I can find the article.

Thanks again for posting yours news article.

 

[JBean]

This is so interesting. Roughly same time of night (early morning) but at your house he scaled a pipe to the second story, cut through the screen and forced the French window in, whereas at the Percy house the perp supposedly cut the screen and then used a glass cutter to cut a hole in the French door glass to gain entry.

They never caught the intruder at your house, JBean? You do not know who he was or why he was really there, although you presume burglary?

The footprint casts---did they compare them with the barefoot prints in the sand at the Percy beach?

I have doubts as to whether it was the same person, but I will say that our french windows were probably easy to push open. IIRC, there were similar tool markings left on the screen and that was the big connect.
BUT, I do not think that Kenilworth police really knew what they had.
The intruder was never caught and I am going to think on your question of rain.
My parents had a sun porch off their bedroom that I liked to sleep in as a girl just for the heck of it. It would have been even better if it was raining. But I do not recall.
I do remember looking at the kickmarks in the side of the house and at the flower bed with the footprint. I am trying to remember if they were 'wet' prints. My GUESS is that while it may not have been raining that night, it had been raining. I will ask my sister. She followed this case very closely and she is the one that brought me here to Websleuths.

 

[nadjatheresa]

<...snipped...>

I was 9 at the time, but happened to be sleeping in the master sun porch that night and so I remember it well.

That is a very sensitive age. It must have been terrifying.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Without anyone going to a lot of trouble to find out.
I was just curious if anyone knows, if the Percy s had any work done on the home or any yard work done, during the summer etc, any remodeling inside or out, that was finished a few days or so before the murder?
Between June and August perhaps?
especially any indoor work.
Tia

Sept 18,1966
And a Sunday, why Sunday, why not Friday or Saturday
Was it due to family plans?....a change in plans perhaps?
Was she leaving on that Monday?
so it had to be Sunday?
Some one whom knew about the comings and goings of the family?
Just thinking out loud.

Just from reading what is posted here, and i am waiting for the photos of the layout inside the house!
If, and that's a strong if, the barefoot prints did in fact belong to the killer, i find that strange, seems normally one would not go to kill wearing no shoes?.....Unless its something that they have become accustom to.
someone living by a beach, that spends time walking up and down the beach barefoot. then perhaps on this night, they left where they were and left barefoot?.......just speculating.
And thinking out loud once again, i know the one said revenge.
but determining by the photos when posted, and from what i read, it seems coming upstairs to the sleeping area, the killer came a pond Valeries room first yes?
And if that is the case, then perhaps this person had the intention, of killing the whole family, and not just the girl?

Thinking out loud again.
No screaming heard?
Had to be really quite.
to hear the class breaking downstairs, to hear Valerie moaning.........according the the step mother i believe it was.
From what i have read here already, no one else heard anything is that correct? .....But no screaming, brutal attack, i guess its possible, just seems strange to hear, glass break and someone moaning, but not hear any screams or any other disturbance one would make if they were being brutally murdered in a quite home. I guess its possible, and did happened, that's what she said.
Gave the description to, man etc ran downstairs, and exit the same way he came in........
thats right, instead of waking the husband , she got out of bed, and went and checked the rooms, without being concerned with safety, even though few minutes early she heard glass break downstairs........then she walked in on Valerie being murdered, and then she went back to her room to awaken the husband and tell him what she seen.
Not implying anything against the step mother here, just seems strange her , Valerie being murdered like that, and no one but the step mother hears and sees nothing on that quite morning.
​

 

[nadjatheresa]

<...snipped...>

Sept 18,1966
And a Sunday, why Sunday, why not Friday or Saturday
Was it due to family plans?....a change in plans perhaps?
Was she leaving on that Monday?
so it had to be Sunday?
Some one whom knew about the comings and goings of the family?
Just thinking out loud.

<...>
​

The ABC article says she'd have started at Johns Hopkins in "two days" and I don't know if they meant two days from Saturday or Sunday (since the killing was sort of in the middle of the night, although it was nearer dawn):

Twenty-one-year old Valerie Jeanne Percy had graduated from Cornell that summer and was two days away from postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Because you bring up a good question. When was she planning to travel from Chicago to Baltimore?

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

The ABC article says she'd have started at Johns Hopkins in "two days" and I don't know if they meant two days from Saturday or Sunday (since the killing was sort of in the middle of the night, although it was nearer dawn):

Twenty-one-year old Valerie Jeanne Percy had graduated from Cornell that summer and was two days away from postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Because you bring up a good question. When was she planning to travel from Chicago to Baltimore?

random killing perhaps.
But more then likely, im speulating of course, but pre- meditated.
Lets say it was that Monday, or Tuesday..........then it had to be Sunday, Sunday was the last chance to kill her, almost at the last moment, it had to be done that night, morning, for she may had been gone come that Monday morni9ng sometime.
Sunday was the last chance to do it.
And perhaps, someone knew that, that she was leaving and when she was leaving, so it had to be done there and then.
Its almost as if they were waiting until the last possible moment, for they was not sure 100 percent what she was going to do, as if she had not made up her mind totally about leaving in two days, and the killer wanted to be sure.

And the flashlight, I don't understand.
she walked into the room, did she turn the light on first and seen the man before he shined the light in her face, or did she open the door, and it was dark, but there was some moonlight shinning in, and she seen him before he shinned the light in her face......
I am confused on this part of the investigation.
Did all family members, those whom were in the house, take polygraph tests?, I believe they were available and was being done back in that time yes?

And i know she could had flown, if she wanted to.........but does anyone know, if perhaps she could have taken a train instead?
Just curious about it.
​

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

There was a phone call made from the Percy estate to a business owned by Leo Rugendorf sometime after the murder.

sometime after the murder?
Do you mean that as in a long time after , or do you mean in a short time after the murder?
And any ideas of a connection, the reason behind the phone call?

Those photos you said you was going to post of the layout of the house, are they photos from that time period 1966?
ACTUAL photos, of inside the house ?
That would be WONDERFUL, if they are, but any photos taken that you can share would be tremendously appreciated.
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