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

[Winward1]

I suspect that your father's partner was the one who was killed on Lake Ave. in Wilmette, early 90s? That was just after I moved back to Chicago, and very bizarre. When it happened I was confused as to where because I grew up in Wilmette but I don't think that office complex was there when I moved away in 1981. Anyway, yes, that guy was a madman and proof even someone like that could get away with murder as he had done in Northern CA., killing so randomly.

 

[Luckymanuh]

I was going through some old newspaper articles and I found an interesting tib bit. At the time of Valerie's murder the estate was mention to be worth $200,000. Can you believe that. How times have changed. Who would have thought. Just found it interesting.

 

[Winward1]

It's hard to know exactly what the house sold for at that time, though if the price is near accurate, amazing because it was really three lots that, as we know, just sold for over ten million plus costs to tear down and cart off the structures.

 

[JBean]

I was going through some old newspaper articles and I found an interesting tib bit. At the time of Valerie's murder the estate was mention to be worth $200,000. Can you believe that. How times have changed. Who would have thought. Just found it interesting.

I would think that is probably fairly accurate based on the value of our family home.
That area, for those that don't know, is fabulous. I grew up there and spent all my formative years riding my tandem with my friends to the beaches along Sheridan. I spent most of my time in Kenilworth, but I swear I never put the bubbles in the Kenilworth fountain.
The homes most of my friends lived in in Kenilworth were so cool and old. My boyfriend's room was on the 3rd floor of a house on Essex and we used to scale the trellis all the way up to access his room..ahem.... after hours.

Ahh those were the days.

 

[JBean]

I suspect that your father's partner was the one who was killed on Lake Ave. in Wilmette, early 90s? That was just after I moved back to Chicago, and very bizarre. When it happened I was confused as to where because I grew up in Wilmette but I don't think that office complex was there when I moved away in 1981. Anyway, yes, that guy was a madman and proof even someone like that could get away with murder as he had done in Northern CA., killing so randomly.

That is correct. My father was in practice with him in Evanston at the Carlson Building forever. Then after my father retired,he opened a second office, I believe, in Wilmette.
Still can't wrap my mind around that one.

Ok thanks for indulging me and my OT posts.

 

[Luckymanuh]

JBean...you reminded me of how simple life use to be!!! Thanks

 

[Winward1]

yes, the office building is in West Wilmette, over near the Dairy Queen that has been there forever, west of Edens Plaza. When it happened, I had not known the building was there as it was built when I lived in CA. The weird thing is, when the manhunt was on, they were looking for a guy in a vintage VW beetle, the one he'd driven from Northern CA in.

I had just returned from Southern CA in my own vintage VW beetle. I can tell you, at that time, the early 90s, as now, there were few vintage VW beetles driving around the north shore. I was in Winnetka at the time and sorta freaked until I heard the suspect's car was a different color than mine.

 

[Winward1]

One thing about the case has occurred to me; many stories that cover the moments after Valerie's attacker fled say the police reported that Dr. Hohf's wife saw no one to the rear of the Percy's home after the attack.

Having seen the property with at least some sections of the original structures still there, as well as what appears to be the Hohf's original house and property, one wonders what kind of vantage point Mrs. Hohf had, and whether she was really seeing the rear or front of the Percy's house. The Percy's property, which was actually three properties, was pretty expansive.

There wasn't that much space between the beach and the house (i.e. its rear/backyard.) Also, the patio where the killer made entry, and supposed exist, was pretty far north from the Hohf's house, which likely had a decent wall and/or hedges between. The pool house also was between the two houses, and it was sizable. Hohf's house isn't very tall, if I remember. So I'm not sure if she could have looked out a window. Of course, she may have come over part of the way.

 

[Luckymanuh]

Back then was that public beach next to the Percy property?

 

[Winward1]

Way back, at the founding of Kenilworth, 700 feet south of Devonshire was allotted to the village for the public's use. However, at some point in the teens or 20s it gave up the right to land and at some point later purchased a couple of hundred feet north of there for the KW public beach. Then, during the 50s or early 60s, the land that included the Percy's beachfront was returned to the village. All is documented except precisely when and how the latter was done. They're not even sure at the historical society.

 

[Winward1]

Bargle, I see earlier you noted the dog was in a room you described as a covered walkway between the garage and...the precise wording escapes me now, the house?

Anyway, I stood on the garage floor, one of the parts of the house that seemed not to have changed much in the renovation in the late 60s (though who can be sure?) and it seemed not to be far at all from the basement, which was still there.)

 

[Winward1]

I see one of the "killer's route" illustrations, correctly or incorrectly says the dog was in the garage, not a hallway. If it was in the garage, that would make it even more likely not to have been aroused.

 

[Bargle]

Yes, the dog was in the walkway between the garage and the house according to various articles.

 

[Luckymanuh]

We use to call that a "breezeway". If I remember the layout from pictures I doubt the dog would have heard anything.
Is it possible that the killer came onto the property from the public beach side and then exited? And if so would the Dr's wife been able to see from her vantage point? I was there a few years back and if I remember correctly there was a street that back up against the Percy property with houses that lined it. It dead ended into this public beach you had to walk down stairs to get to. Am I correct?

 

[Winward1]

Devonshire goes to the beach, right. I'm not sure about the steps. The Percy's property had a couple of paths that went to the beach as well.

If the killer left the same way he entered, that door was approximately 150 feet or more north of the Dr.'s property line. There were also some big trees in the yard and not a lot of yard there.

Seeing as it turns out there was no evidence proving whoever it was came or went via the beach, I think it's fair to assume he just walked up and then ran out Devonshire.

He also could have run out the driveway, across Devonshire, which is only like 12 ft. wide, and through one of the yards of the houses to the north, the rears of which faced the 420 Devonshire property.

That would have put him onto Kenilworth Ave., a fairly wide street with a good vantage point. The first police to arrive would have driven out it.

I'm not sure how loud and what type the alarm that was thrown was, whether it would have been enough to jar neighbors out of their beds quickly. If it was just a bell, those houses were pretty far from each other and he probably could have moved through the backyards of one of those homes in a matter of seconds not much more than a minute after the alarm was thrown. I can't remember, who was living in the guest house at that time?

 

[Winward1]

I had a look at the Dr.'s house today. If it was then as it is now, it looks like only one room, a dormer window on the second floor, could have looked onto the Percy's property, and would have looked into the driveway and yard in front of the house rather than the back of it.

There are hedges there now. Perhaps she went into her yard and took a look over but who knows. I would think whoever was fleeing an alarm would have been gone minutes before she was able to get out in her yard. Percy himself had to be roused from sleep, and was said to have checked on his daughter, run through the house and back to a phone before calling the Doc.

Though the alarm could have gotten the neighbors up and looking before they got the call. The way the stories are written it sounds like the Doc's wife wasn't looking around until he'd gotten the call and ran from their house.

 

[Bargle]

We use to call that a "breezeway". If I remember the layout from pictures I doubt the dog would have heard anything.
Is it possible that the killer came onto the property from the public beach side and then exited? And if so would the Dr's wife been able to see from her vantage point? I was there a few years back and if I remember correctly there was a street that back up against the Percy property with houses that lined it. It dead ended into this public beach you had to walk down stairs to get to. Am I correct?

That's what the illustration below shows. I thought I had a picture of the stairs, but no. Perhaps Winward or Jbean can confirm if it is correct.

 

[Winward1]

I took some pics as it is now, which of course may or not be as it was then. I'll send them to Bargle and maybe he can post them. I have to get them out of the camera first. The original gate and small wall along the beach of the old Percy Property is all that's left of the old fieldstone design that the house had. I suspect it goes back to '23, but who knows. It could have been added in '60 or whenever the pool house was built.

 

[Bargle]

We use to call that a "breezeway". If I remember the layout from pictures I doubt the dog would have heard anything.
Is it possible that the killer came onto the property from the public beach side and then exited? And if so would the Dr's wife been able to see from her vantage point? I was there a few years back and if I remember correctly there was a street that back up against the Percy property with houses that lined it. It dead ended into this public beach you had to walk down stairs to get to. Am I correct?

I do have one pic that shows the stairs coming down from the Percy property, but not the ones from the street.

 

[Winward1]

This is the end of Devonshire at the beach (where you seen the fence. The stairs look to go way back. The newer concrete is part of the KW beach infrastructure that looks to be quite new.)