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

[liz b.]

What a strange and fascinating case. What, I wonder,was the motive ? No mention of a sexual assault. Not a robbery, since cash was left at the scene.The killer went to a lot of trouble to kill this young woman. Hardly seems feasable it was a random killing. Makes me want to read and research everything I can find about this case.... All JMO

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

What a strange and fascinating case. What, I wonder,was the motive ? No mention of a sexual assault. Not a robbery, since cash was left at the scene.The killer went to a lot of trouble to kill this young woman. Hardly seems feasable it was a random killing. Makes me want to read and research everything I can find about this case.... All JMO

Yes, motive.
For the life of me, i cant think of anything this child could have done to anyone, that would have caused them, or someone for them, to murder her the way she was killed. She was bright, intelligent etc.
and being 1966 she could have ended up serving some time in another country for charity work.

And then i thought about the father, and politics, being 1966 with all that was going on back then with the war etc. and being in Chicago i thought about the mob, but then realize, back then, i don't believe the mob would have done this to the daughter, to get back at the father. No they would have just delt with the father directly, and left the wife and children alone.

The only motive, i can think of right now.
She was killed, not for something she did, nor was she killed for something she was going to do, but she was killed because of whom she was.

If we had the official investigation reports, where the detectives spoke with family, friends, people at her schools, her hang outs, the neighbors etc etc, perhaps we could speculate on a motive, a more probable motive, with the answers that were given during these interviews.
But we do not have access to that information, which is a shame, especially since, this case has gone on for so long, but like most cold cases, we can only speculate on things with the information we can prove to be true and provided to use by other members.
getting any validation, or confirmation on certain questions asked by members, on cold cases are few and far between, because the people with the answers, such as LE, are not talking, since its still an active investigation, even though its been a cold one, for a very very long time.
​

 

[liz b.]

Yes, motive.
For the life of me, i cant think of anything this child could have done to anyone, that would have caused them, or someone for them, to murder her the way she was killed. She was bright, intelligent etc.
and being 1966 she could have ended up serving some time in another country for charity work.

And then i thought about the father, and politics, being 1966 with all that was going on back then with the war etc. and being in Chicago i thought about the mob, but then realize, back then, i don't believe the mob would have done this to the daughter, to get back at the father. No they would have just delt with the father directly, and left the wife and children alone.

The only motive, i can think of right now.
She was killed, not for something she did, nor was she killed for something she was going to do, but she was killed because of whom she was.

If we had the official investigation reports, where the detectives spoke with family, friends, people at her schools, her hang outs, the neighbors etc etc, perhaps we could speculate on a motive, a more probable motive, with the answers that were given during these interviews.
But we do not have access to that information, which is a shame, especially since, this case has gone on for so long, but like most cold cases, we can only speculate on things with the information we can prove to be true and provided to use by other members.
getting any validation, or confirmation on certain questions asked by members, on cold cases are few and far between, because the people with the answers, such as LE, are not talking, since its still an active investigation, even though its been a cold one, for a very very long time.
​

"Killed for who she was " Yes,could well be. No murders in that neighborhood in the preceeding 75 years ? That's very telling. What could have made her family,perhaps her father, a target ? Off to read,take notes and wonder..... All JMO

 

[MaryLiz]

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.

JBean, do you think maybe Valerie's case could be connected to the break-in at the Evanston home where Sharon Bubes was attacked? The use of the ball peen hammer makes me think those 2 cases might at least be connected. But deep down, as I mentioned before, I've always thought this case might have been related to politics and maybe had something to do with her father.

And then there's the guy on the bus...he's crossed my mind before as a POI when I think about this case.

I could be way off base on both of those theories but the whole thing was just so strange since robbery didn't seem to be a motive.

 

[JBean]

I wish my sister were still a member here. she knows everything about this case. she spent a lot of time on it at other boards. She strongly feels there is no reason for this case to have remained unsolved.
There was stuff collected that could be analyzed by today's modern methods.

Then again, this could be a John Gardner that just likes to prey on people with no agenda as to who they are.
But Percy was wildly popular and the politics in Chicago are, well, the politics in Chicago.

 

[delaney]

I grew up in Skokie, I remember this case well. I have written this

at another forum, but will put it here also. I was just 16 when

Valarie was killed. It was huge news in Chicago, everyone talked

about it. The men in my family made their living as jewelers. One day

after the murder my dad came home from work and announced that

the police had been in the jewelry store. I could hardly wait until his

hands were washed and he sat down to the dinner table to share his

news. I remember it very clearly. He said the police had been in the

store asking, if a watch from the Percy estate had ever been repaired

there, was there one in the shop now? The police were told no.

It was not until years later in reading about the murder as a cold case,

did I find out that police had been canvasing all the jewelry stores in the

area, because a jeweler's hammer may have been the murder weapon.

After learning that, I asked my uncle,recently, who owned a jewelry store

in a near-by suburb if the cops had also canvased his store. He was not

aware of them comming in, but did remember the murder and expressed

the same opinion as my now elderly mother, "that the step-mother",

had something to do with it, that is what I recall also, lots of talk about

the step-mother.

 

[JBean]

I remember you telling me that story delaney. I used to hang out at Old Orchard in Skokie. this was pre-malls

 

[nadjatheresa]

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.

It would be great to hear your sister's recollections.

This must have been the talk around your house for months, if not years? What an amazing experience.

I was also in a Chicago suburb, but was only a toddler. Even so, I remember the mystery around it and my parents talking about it. But since I was so young it was fuzzy to me and later I confused the Percy family with Percy Faith, thanks to my parents' record collection, LOL, and thought Faith's daughter had been murdered.

I know exactly what you mean about the sun porch and how it would have been even better sleeping there if it had been raining. Maybe your sister will remember. Maybe she will know more about the Sharon Bubes case?

 

[Bargle]

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.
​

The call was a short time after the murder. It was, apparently, someone on the police force tipping Rugendorf that it was an 'inside job'.
I don't have have any photos of the inside of the house, but there are 2 different illustrations from articles showing the murderer's path through the house and the general interior layout. There are photos of the outside. I'll try to get these up in the next couple of days. I want to clean them up a bit, as they have a fair amount ofdiscoloration, stray dots and blotches on them.

 

[Bargle]

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 shined the light in her face...

The killer was shining the flashlight on Valerie's body, after he stopped stabbing her, when Loraine reached the room. He turned towards Loraine when she reached the bedroom door and screamed. He shined the light in her eyes then.

 

[liz b.]

Chuck Percy was slated to win that senatorial race. His opponent, Paul Douglas, had been in office since 1949. Both candidates were very well liked ; it was just that 1966 was a good year for republican candidates. Percy's politics have been described as liberal to moderate. In the1968 presidential election,Percy was favored for the VP slot on the ticket with Richard Nixon.But Percy endorsed Nelson Rockefeller, as his daughter was married to Jay Rockefeller. Jay Rockefeller is a senator from West Virginia. On the finance commitee at this time.
I do not think this murder had anything at all to do with the politics of the time.

I read that J.Edgar Hoover stepped in and directed the investigation himself. A forensic psychiatrist for the Bureau told him that this was probably a personal crime, a crime of rage by someone who knew the victim. They must have known her well, because she was due in Baltimore a day or so before she was killed. I doubt it was an ex boyfriend ; LE would have looked in that direction very early in the investigation.

What a mystery, and what a beautiful young woman. Were Valerie and her sister identical twins ? Must have been so hard for her sister.

I'm going to keep reading, see what turns up... All JMO

 

[Astrogirl]

This case is very fascinating. If Valerie and her sister were identical twins, I wonder if LE thought about the possibility that it was Sharon (that's her sister's name, right?) who was the intended target and not Valerie. Case of mistaken identity. Just a thought.

 

[Stella]

This case is very fascinating. If Valerie and her sister were identical twins, I wonder if LE thought about the possibility that it was Sharon (that's her sister's name, right?) who was the intended target and not Valerie. Case of mistaken identity. Just a thought.

You make a good point. I don't think anyone has come up with the "other sister" angle.

 

[Bargle]

The 'other sister' angle has been considered before, though not here, obviously. It is a possibility. Valerie and Sharon were identical twins and Sharon was in Valerie's bedroom that night, returning a raincoat. If the killer was lurking outside at the time, he may well have seen Sharon through the window and thought that was her bedroom.

 

[MaryLiz]

Here's an article from WLS in Chicago 4 years ago in which Valerie's twin, Sharon, actually speaks about the murder.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news&id=4563621

 

[liz b.]

Cambria,
Great article. I found it interesting that LEO Joseph Dileonardi said that when he and other LE officers arrived at the scene 24 hours later " the room had been completely renovated ( I think he meant totally cleaned IMO) " He said : " There was no crime scene " "impossible to do an investigation with no crime scene (paraphrasing). "

I do not believe that this was a case of mistaken identity. I agree with Dileonardi, when he said that it was "all about revenge. "

The house was huge , I can't see how the killer was not someone very close to Valerie ; how else would they have known which bedroom was hers ?

All JMO

 

[Bargle]

OK, here's 3 images. 2 drawings of the interior with the killer's route through the house and the suspect sketch from the Bubes assault. Be warned, the drawings are not exactly to scale. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.

 

[KLCD620]

The 'other sister' angle has been considered before, though not here, obviously. It is a possibility. Valerie and Sharon were identical twins and Sharon was in Valerie's bedroom that night, returning a raincoat. If the killer was lurking outside at the time, he may well have seen Sharon through the window and thought that was her bedroom.

True, we may not know which twin sister the killer is targeting for. It could be wrong person. Valerie is more prettier than Sharon. She helped out Chuck with senator campaign while Sharon is engaged to Jay Rockefeller. None of them/us will know what the killer is revenge for. Being reject by either woman for a date or take Chuck out of the senate race. It's cold case for 44 yrs.

 

[liz b.]

Here is an interesting article from last month about a speech given by a former crime reporter. He mentions the Valerie Percy murder and says many homicide detectives think the crime was a personal one, and was committed by someone she knew, and not by someone who intended to rob the house.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/2111337,5_1_WA19_DRUMMOND_S1-100319.article


Moderators - Is there any way you can add Valerie Percy's name to the title of the thread so no one starts a new thread if they do a search for her name? TIA

Cambria,
That looks like an interesting article ; but it gives a "that page is unavailable " message when I try to open it. Is it available anyplace else ?

 

[MaryLiz]

Cambria,
That looks like an interesting article ; but it gives a "that page is unavailable " message when I try to open it. Is it available anyplace else ?

I can't open it now either. I went to the Suburban Chicago News main website and searched all the suburban papers and it wasn't there. They must only leave the pages open so long. It basically just said the former crime reporter (can't remember his name) gave a speech and talked about many crimes and Valerie Percy was one of them. That was really the only thing I can remember that he said about her murder, about LE thinking it was personal and committed by someone she knew. I wish they would have left the article available longer!