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

[Winward1]

1. Where Devonshire splits. The road going to the right is 420's driveway. Going to the left is Devonshire going to the beach and the rear of one of two houses on Kenilworth Ave.

2. Former doctor's house next door to 420 property today. It's nearly impossible to see the dormer window that overlooks former Percy property. If it was that way then, whoever was looking though it would have had a view of the front of the Percy property, not the rear of it.

If the doc's wife was in her back yard she may have had a view of the rear of the Percy property. I think that's how some reported it. Either way, she didn't see anything. If the killer left where he arrived that was probably 160 or so feet from the Dr.'s property line.

 

[Winward1]

Original gate to beach north end of property (where was a path and access at the south end under the pool house. Not sure if it's still there. I'll go back and check if I can at some point.)

Approximately 200 ft. beachfront property south of gate shown.

View north from 420's driveway just before it turns into 420 property. You can see Devonshire as it continues past 420 property.

 

[Winward1]

Devonshire continues, east of split from 420's driveway. The entire length of the street is one medium sized block.

 

[Luckymanuh]

There is a street next to Devonshire that ends at the beach. I don't know the name. It would be to the left of where the Percy house was looking at it from Sheridan Rd. That is the beach I was talking about. I think the one pix is taken from there. Was that beach there back in the 60's do you know?

Thanks for the updated pix. What a shame such a grand house was demolished.

 

[Winward1]

That is Kenilworth Ave. The public beach runs from there through 420s beachfront as you can see here. This pic was taken from there looking south, the newer concrete walk you see here ends at Devonshire.

 

[JBean]

That is Kenilworth Ave. The public beach runs from there through 420s beachfront as you can see here. This pic was taken from there looking south, the newer concrete walk you see here ends at Devonshire.

That right there, that exact spot is where I spent all my free time. But there were a lot of alewives sharing the area with me.

Thanks for posting all these pix winward.

 

[Winward1]

Yes, those fish were there when my family moved to the area. We could smell them six blocks away. But the problem was soon solved them they introduced the Salmon to the lake.

 

[Bargle]

Seconding Jbean, thanks for all the pictures!

 

[Winward1]

You're welcome.

 

[Winward1]

The Dr.'s house.

 

[Luckymanuh]

That is the beach I was talking about. Thanks alot for posting that picture and all the others.

 

[Winward1]

You're welcome. I'd like to get down and see if there's anything at the beach level around where the south beach access is/was. I was over there one night recently, first time I was there at night. There is a breakwater between the property where it meets the beach. I can see it was there back in the day as well.

 

[Winward1]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7453182

 

[Winward1]

The above ABC story has a great overhead shot of the property a month or so back, but what's weird is, short as the copy is, it takes from the Pioneer Press story about the demolition, which ran on the same date, almost verbatim without crediting that reporting yet it COPYRIGHTS the story to the local ABC station. I sent the link to someone at the Pioneer Press with that observation and asked whether that's legal, let alone ethical, on the web or elsewhere in reporting nowadays. It is simply amazing what's going on in that regard. Another thing is, the overhead shot shown in the story was taken days, if not weeks, after the May 20th date of the story. I knew the standards of broadcast journalism were shoddy, but to carry that over to the web, which is more like print is weird.

 

[Winward1]

Pic from ABC story.

 

[Tori2]

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.

...snipped by me


Your coincidence quote is very interesting, Bargle. Yesterday I was looking for the Kyron forum and happend to see Valerie Percy's name right underneath where his is located. A few months back I was looking up stuff on her murder b/c something brought it to mind. Lo and behold here was a wealth of information! And, I do NOT think it was a coincidende that I stumbled upon it.

This case has bothered me since I was 13! I lived in Elmhurst, Il at the time and I was freaked out by this and the Speck murders. I've never forgotten either. In fact, we actually bought a new car at a dealership right by where Speck was found. Never forget that, either.

Anyway, you, Winward, JBean and the others have provided so much good info. I've spent a whole day going over everything as best I could. I do have a few questions that maybe one of you could answer.

1. I remember something being said about a boyfriend being the prime suspect. Did I imagine that or was there one? I think it was Valerie's, but not sure.

2. Regarding the person breaking into JBean's house; was he actually in a red sports car and did they ever find him and rule him in/out for the Percy murder?

I tend to agree with you guys that this was not the step-mother or mob or political. It seems way too personal to me. I think it very well was much as you've said - rape/rape-murder. If this guy was casing the area, he probably saw many of the people and knew who to look for. After reading all this I think he probably started out robbing, and escalated. Or, maybe he was robbing for undergarments and moved up the scale.

I'm wondering why all this is coming back now. Have you guys ever contacted W.S. astrologers, Tuba in particular? I wonder what she might say about a chart for this.

Anyway, thank you all for all your hard work. I did join the other places to continue to read about this. Like you, I would love for it to be solved.

 

[Winward1]

Just wondering if anyone knows how many articles contain mention of the Bubes attack and whether any do so exclusively.

 

[Winward1]

There is not mention of such an attack in the local Evanston paper in the late June and early July editions. I checked both '65 and '66 and didn't see a word. Did that attack really happen?

 

[Winward1]

This is the house where it supposedly did (1516 Brummel):

 

[Bargle]

Tori, as far as we can tell, Valerie's boyfriend was named Andrew Potash. He was in England at the time of the murder and doesn't seem to have been a suspect.

The red sports car guy was from one of the break-ins prior to the one at Jbean's. He was never caught.

While we on the subject of those prior break-ins, one of the newspaper reports mentions Jbean's dad seeing a boy on a bicycle at the time of the break-in. That turned out to be the paper boy.