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

[Bargle]

As for the dog not barking, someone did say there were many strangers in this house often. I know that was the case at the time of the crime. Also, of course, it was a large house and the dog was on the other side of it, and on a different floor and perhaps locked behind at least one door from where the crime took place.

Yes, the dog was in the covered walkway between the house and garage, not in the house itself.

 

[Bargle]

Why didn't anyone hear Valerie being attacked/why didn't she scream?

If you believe Mrs. Percy, and I do, she actually did.

Good point. I think that many people who are new to the case (not you, Winward) wonder why no one else did. They read that Valerie struggled with her killer and she had defensive type injuries and I think they envision some sort of standup struggle. That isn't what happened. As far as we know, she never got off the bed, so the sounds were muffled.

 

[Bargle]

Of course, everything's second hand in this case, filtered through the press. I can't remember ready ANY account of Valerie's clothing as it was when the family, or anyone else, first attended to her.

I thought, or assumed, that perhaps her clothing had been raised by the neighbor/doctor who first examined her, who had only a few minutes earlier been sleeping. He must have been as shocked as anyone, and may have left her clothing as it was during his examination? Just a guess. Also, didn't the first cop on the scene attend to her (I can't remember who got there first, the cop or the doctor.)

That came from the article in True Detective magazine as quoted by one of the posters back on the old C&J board. It was published in 1968. May not be accurate.
It was Dr. Hohf who was first on the scene. He pronounced Valerie dead.

ETA: I've just read a 1 year anniversary article that says a Sgt. Wolff and a fireman checked Valerie before Dr, Hohf arrived. I tend to think that article has it wrong, since Mrs. Hohf went outside when the alarm was set off, so the Hohfs were up immediatley after the attack, but who knows for sure?

 

[Bargle]

Just a thought, but if Valerie put up enough of a fight, or even if the guy when all out as it appears he did, perhaps any guy with enough hair would have had it described as bushy?

Yes, a good possibility.

Here's a link to a newspaper article of Loraine's description at the inquest.

 

[Winward1]

Thanks, Bargle. A baffling case it is. It's hard to believe people driving by such forces stop, then of course they do get older and may become less impulsive. But still, it's not like Richard Ramirez was able to just one day quit.

The Evanston attack sounds similar. I understand why Mr. Percy was tired. He didn't go to sleep until after one, and the attack was as few as three and a half hours later.

 

[Winward1]

By the way, did Richard Speck attack anyone else on any other occasion other than the infamous nurse stabbings? (I know he was apprehended before the Percy attack.)

 

[Bargle]

By the way, did Richard Speck attack anyone else on any other occasion other than the infamous nurse stabbings? (I know he was apprehended before the Percy attack.)

He is suspected of other cases. See the links below. I've heard of the waitress murder before, but not the others.

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-speck-cri/

http://www.prairieghosts.com/speck.html

 

[Winward1]

It's amazing, how much this crime was on people's mind when the Percy attack occurred.

 

[Bargle]

This month I decided to pay for a membership to Newspaper Archives for a month. There are many articles with Valerie's name in them, but many are duplicates. The great majority are AP Wire Service stories and are either exactly the same or close, but edited somewhat.

Most of the info is stuff we're already familiar with, but I have found some nuggets of new or corrected information.

Barred Percy Campaign workers. Article dated Sept. 21, 66: "Daley said Percy had rejected reports that he had barred several former campaign aides from the family home." I didn't think it was likely that any campaign workers were involved, but it's good to have them eliminated.

The green station wagon. Article dated Sept. 22, 66: "Police found the driver of a green station wagon which was observed near the Percy estate early Sunday. Daley said the investigators are satisfied with the driver's explanation that he was merely 'turning around' near the Percy home."

The sandy footprints. Article dated Sept. 23, 66: "The theory that the slayer came from the beach onto the patio before entering the home, has been virtually abandoned. No traces of sand have been reported found in the home." While re-reading old stuff on the murder, I'd been wondering if the sandy footprints were a false lead.

The boy on the el train. Article dated Sept. 28, 66: I'll synopsize this one. A girl acquaintance of Valerie saw her introducing a rough looking boy to Sharon on the el. The boy followed them for a short distance after they got off the train. The boy was found and cleared.

That's all for now.

 

[Winward1]

Weird that the EL was mentioned as the other train, then the Chicago and North Western, ran a lot closer to the Percy's home than the EL. But apparently she was going down to the EL as it was closer to the campaign office on the other end, and could get rides a couple of miles back and forth on the north end. The EL is mentioned in the NY Times stories I believe.

The case is so baffling. There has always been a predisposition in the area to blame any crime on city dwellers coming up on the trains. And this was the case for several months in the late 80s regarding the triple homicide that happened just up the road from the Percy's old place. The cops there had theories about Columbian drug cartels and IRA hits until it was found some kid who lived a half mile away did it with no other motive than to kill.

My first theory is same as the Chicago cop who said it was a crime of passion. The flashlight makes me think it was someone checking to make sure they got who they were looking for. Second is a local stalker or psycho, attacking at random.

 

[Bargle]

Unfortunately for the solving of this crime, there were a lot of side issues going on at the Percy home at the time, not to mention SKs were unlikely to considered or a crime recognized as such by LE of the day.

Well, I have to eat a bit of crow here. In looking through the old newspaper articles, it is clear the that the detectives in the early stages of the investigation kept an open mind as to the type of person that might have been the killer. I found several cases that had similar MOs where a suspect was cross checked as a possible for Valerie's murder as well. All were cleared by alibi or not matching the palm prints.

It wasn't until the 70s that LE seems to have gotten stuck on the Malchow, Evans, Hohimer break-in gang.

 

[Winward1]

And one wonders how stuck they were on that. Sounds like maybe the writers at the SunTimes were the ones pushing that theory the most. I'm amazed they won a pulitzer for a series of articles that were not only on an unsolved crime but one that amounts to nothing more than hearsay of one jailbird about another.

 

[Winward1]

Per the sandy footprints, there's no reason the attacker would have had to have come, or fled, via the beach. Devonshire is more a driveway than an actual "lane." I think it only served two properties back then, and now. It's just barely big enough to accommodate the tractor trailer dump trucks that have hauled away the old houses. One could have walked from the street through the lane and up the driveway to the back in a minute. I'm amazed anyone was out to have even out in the area to have seen the green station wagon turn around in the lane at 5 a.m. I can only imagine that vehicle itself was anything other than a newspaper deliver man, driving that vehicle at that hour on that day of the week.

 

[watermelonlady]

I wonder why a house alarm didn't go off when the killer broke in? Mrs. Percy activated one on top of the house after she caught the killer in Valerie's room but I am surprised in that big of a house they didn't have an alarm set to go off if there was an intruder. :waitasec:

 

[Winward1]

I don't know. But seeing as the town hadn't had a murder in its 75 year history, perhaps people felt pretty safe.

 

[watermelonlady]

Yes, very good point.

 

[Winward1]

I'd be interested in knowing just how sophisticated residential alarms were circa 1966.

 

[Bargle]

I'd be interested in knowing just how sophisticated residential alarms were circa 1966.

This came up on one of the old C&J boards. I'll check this weekend and see if I have it saved. I want to think someone was able to show that they weren't very sophisticated in 1966, but I don't trust my memory alone on this.

 

[JBean]

The home we lived in had an alarm but it was not very sophisticated. we actually had to flip a switch and it set off a loud blaring noise. The alarm would run until we turned it off by flipping the same switch.
Many of us iwere secured by a patrol service that would drive around and check the houses in the area every night several times a night. North Shore Patrol or something like that.

 

[Bargle]

No luck on the alarm thread. I did find a post by one of JBean's sisters describing their alarm just like JBean's post above. The Percys also had the same night patrol service.