# 54 years later, train ticket leads to arrest in death of 7-year-old? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826 "2011-07-04T17:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/61 "2011-07-07T05:12:16Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > So as I said, I wouldn’t leave anything to chance with this investigation. They allegedly never showed the only eye-witness a photo of the suspect at the time. Maybe, though again, thats based on her memory from when she was seven, and she was allegedly shown dozens of pictures of various suspects. I’m skeptical her memory of not having seen a particular picture is meaningful. In any case, presumably the FBI kept a list of what photos they showed her, so I guess we’ll find out more definitively one way or another. > [@](#): > > And this kind of put a twist on my understanding of the facts: stories I am reading today are worded in a way that imply he was already wanted for this crime by the state of Illinois anyway, before any of this new testimony. Thats weird. I think the prosecutor is just using some dramatic license to paint the suspect in a bad light. “Evading prosecution for decades” is prosecutor speak for “we know now he’s been guilty for the past few decades, and he hasn’t come to confess and turn himself in, even though we’ve made no attempt to prosecute him until now”. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/62 "2011-07-07T05:26:07Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > In any case, presumably the FBI kept a list of what photos they showed her, so I guess we’ll find out more definitively one way or another. I am getting a sense that we may be finding out [a lot more](http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/Sycamore_Murder_Suspect_Could_be_Linked_to_Other_Cold_Cases_125120774.html?ref=774) as more details emerge. > [@](#): > > A 71-year-old Sycamore native and former police officer being investigated for murder, could be a suspect in other cold cases. > > Jack Daniel McCullough, formerly known as John Tessier, was arrested last week in Seattle after being charged in Sycamore for the 1957 murder of seven year old Maria Ridulph. > > According to news sources in Seattle, Washington, detectives involved with three other unsolved kidnappings of young girls are looking at McCullough as a possible suspect. > [@Simplicio](#): > > Thats weird. I think the prosecutor is just using some dramatic license to paint the suspect in a bad light. “Evading prosecution for decades” is prosecutor speak for “we know now he’s been guilty for the past few decades, and he hasn’t come to confess and turn himself in, even though we’ve made no attempt to prosecute him until now”. Yeah that must be the case, but it mentioned a fugitive warrant. I can’t discern if it meant a new one that was just issued it seems to be worded in a way to imply the warrant is decades old. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/63 "2011-07-07T05:33:31Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Unless the train ticket shows the passenger name along with the date, time and destination, I’d say it is worthless. > > I have a ticket here on my desk for an event I recently attended. It says, “Admit One,” not “Admit Musicat.” Using the ticket as proof of anything is actually kinda bizarre. According to the affadavit, Tessier was given a ticket by the military to go from Chicago to Rockford, which he claimed to have used. But the affadavit says the ticket they found was from Rockford to Chicago. The obvious assumption would be that the military gave him a round-trip, and he used one half, got a ride home from Rockford and then kept the return trip ticket unused in case he wanted to use it at some point in the future. But if thats true, then why is the prosecution bringing up the found ticket at all? An unused ticket from a trip the suspect never claimed to have taken would seem to signify nothing much at all. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/64 "2011-07-07T05:39:40Z")
I see little chance of a conviction. Not on this kind of flimsy evidence. A train ticket that wasn’t torn 54 years ago. Sheesh The old guy will probably die in jail before trial anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/65 "2011-07-07T05:49:08Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I see little chance of a conviction. Not on this kind of flimsy evidence. A train ticket that wasn’t torn 54 years ago. Sheesh [see posts #2 - 63] ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/66 "2012-09-15T02:32:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I see little chance of a conviction. Not on this kind of flimsy evidence. A train ticket that wasn’t torn 54 years ago. Sheesh > > The old guy will probably die in jail before trial anyhow. [Guilty](http://news.yahoo.com/man-convicted-1957-murder-7-old-girl-222542972.html) - [55 years later!](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/jack-mccullough-guilty_n_1883694.html) ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/67 "2012-09-15T02:51:11Z")
If the huff po article is reasonably fair in summing up the prosecution case that is NOT a safe conviction. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/68 "2016-03-26T02:20:52Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > If the huff po article is reasonably fair in summing up the prosecution case that is NOT a safe conviction. How prescient! “[Wrong man convicted](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/us/wrong-man-convicted-of-1957-murder-in-illinois-prosecutor-says.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news)”. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/69 "2016-03-27T06:47:28Z")
Hmmm… stepsister claims perp’s mother confessed to her about covering for him; Defendant also admitted years ago to sex play (molesting?) with neighbourhood girls as a youngster. > [@](#): > > His half-sister Janet Tessier, who told police about her mother’s deathbed comments, spoke with her eyes still red from tears. > > “He is as evil as prosecutors painted — and some,” she said minutes after the verdict. If we can deduce who was one girl who may have been a victim of sexual molestation by him as a youngster, we can probably also deduce a motive for possibly falsely reporting an accusation of murder. > [@](#): > > The smoking gun for Mr. Schmack was evidence that Mr. McCullough, who at the time went by John Tessier, placed a collect phone call to his parents from a pay phone at a post office in Rockford, Ill., at 6:57 p.m. on the night Maria was abducted. Other evidence, Mr. Schmack said, showed that Maria was probably kidnapped around 6:30 p.m. at the earliest, and it would have been impossible for Mr. McCullough to have taken her and made it to Rockford, about 40 miles away, on the night of a snowstorm, in time to place the call. Mr. Ridulph disputed Mr. Schmack’s timeline, saying that the one created by the state police that had his sister being abducted around 6:15 p.m. was more accurate. They know which phone and time of the call. Obviously he was seriously investigated as a suspect at the time, and cleared. The guy would have had 27 to 42 minutes to kidnap and kill a girl, hide the body and then drive 40 miles in a on pre-expressway-era roads, in a snowstorm, and park near the post office and go in to make a call from the pay phone inside. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/70 "2016-03-27T07:55:07Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > The guy would have had 27 to 42 minutes to kidnap and kill a girl, hide the body and then drive 40 miles in a on pre-expressway-era roads, in a snowstorm, and park near the post office and go in to make a call from the pay phone inside. Were Post Offices really open at 6:57 pm? I recall from my youth that Post Offices were strictly open 9 to 5, except for the couple of weeks before Christmas and maybe April 15th. They didn’t start experimenting with different hours and 24-hour Post Offices until maybe the late 80s or early 90s – well into the USPS era. (Side note: There are no 24-hour Post Offices any more, except for some Post Offices in low crime areas where they leave the lobby doors open so people can access the automated postal machine and Post Office boxes.) Of course, it could have been a phone on the outside of the building. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/71 "2016-03-27T21:27:36Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Hmmm… stepsister claims perp’s mother confessed to her about covering for him; Defendant also admitted years ago to sex play (molesting?) with neighbourhood girls as a youngster. > > If we can deduce who was one girl who may have been a victim of sexual molestation by him as a youngster, we can probably also deduce a motive for possibly falsely reporting an accusation of murder. According to Wiki, Jeanne accused John Tessier/Jack McCullough of raping her in 1962 and then handing her over to three other boys to be raped. McCullough was tried for the rape. Tessier’s siblings and the girl from the 1982 statutory rape charge testified against him about his behavior but it was dismissed for lack of corroborating physical evidence and because the Jeanne had waited so long to talk about it. I think the fact Tessier’s siblings all testified against him is … telling. I also think that if Tessier had a group of friends who made a habit of gang sexually assaulting girls, it would easily explain how Maria’s body got so far away and the various questions about transportation. But that’s all speculation, on my part. > **[Murder of Maria Ridulph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Maria_Ridulph#Trial_for_rape_of_Jeanne_Tessier)** > > Maria Elizabeth Ridulph (March 12, 1950 – c. December 1957) was a seven-year-old girl who disappeared from Sycamore, Illinois, on December 3, 1957. Her remains were found almost five months later in a wooded area near Woodbine, Illinois, approximately 90 miles (140 km) from her home. Maria was last seen by her friend on her neighborhood corner of Center Cross Street and Archie Place with an unknown man in his early twenties who called himself "Johnny". > The case, which was well known in the Chi... ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/72 "2016-03-28T18:43:04Z")
Of course, it also is a mitigating piece of evidence in that there were several others in the neighbourhood inclined to commit sexual crimes. And it certainly suggests the stepsister was motivated to fabricate death-bed accusations that nobody else could corroborate or disprove. And its not inconceivable that in the good old days, the lobby of a post office, with mailboxes and a pay phone, would be open when the counter area was closed. I’ve seen a lot of Canadian post offices set up like this. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/73 "2016-03-28T19:24:39Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I have taken several train trips where the conductor did not collect the ticket. > > Just sayin’ :dubious: The last time I rode a train, I had nothing to do with the ticketing, because I was 12 and my dad handled all that. But even if the conductor didn’t collect the ticket, didn’t they do something to mark it as “checked” and therefore “used on the trip?” Because a dim memory of Mr. Conductor punching a hole in the ticket with a hole punch hanging from a pocket watch chain comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/74 "2016-03-29T02:17:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, that jumped out at me, too. How does that make any sense? I’m curious if he had to buy another ticket since he had lost the original; after the investigation, he kept it as a reminder of how close he had come. That, or he could have had a guest that didn’t get to go, and never got around to refunding the ticket. Why else would one save it, let alone behind a photo? ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/75 "2016-03-29T06:34:50Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Wrong man convicted". Yes thats why the thread has become active again … its in the news, people have thought about this … But incorrectly. No mistake has occurred. The ticket has a meaning. The meaning was obvious in 1957, but the ticket reawakened the idea… WHY ? Why does he have it ? The general redux of the known facts is - John goes to Chicago, December 2, join the Air force, gets rejected due to a health confirm, unhealthy lungs. He stays overnight for a Chicago to get a 2nd xray done, morning of the December 3. \< Room for supposition here… what DID HE DO when he was REJECTED ? \> - John has very poor Alibi for the daytime hours in Chicago … where he SAYS he was … at BURLESQUE … He was watching nude girls … as HIS ALIBI ??? - late on December 3, after the girl was dead, John then does this strange thing of going around Rockford trying like his life depended on it, OR SOMETHING, to get interviewed and accepted into the army, navy , airforce, anything, calling people at 6.45pm, who he could get because they ran engineering businesses which may well be manned 24 hours, and so he could call up "Liberwitz Brothers " and ask to speak to COLONEL Liberwitz, and get through to ask about the Army Reserves… it was only RESERVES … so no great urgency… the urgency on the evening of December 3, 1957 … was SOMETHING ELSE , surely… - John even gets a train ticket voucher thingy, its good for a month… Being from Rockford to Chicago, its really no use to someone who lives in Sycamore, but anyway … This is the army reserve saying “no urgency today, come back in a few weeks.” John was desperate to get proof he was in Rockford on the evening of December 3. - Technical Sergeant JOHN FROOM says he spoke to John late on December 3, after Liberwitz gets him into the office late in the evening. Froom said John sounded “Narcotic”… like he was off his head and unfit for service… hence the “come back in a few weeks”. SO… the circumstancial evidence is that John says he was running away from home on December 2, but then he calls home at 6pm asking his step father to come get him, and then he 's meeting Froom at 7pm, still hell bent on running away from home, to NEVER go back to Sycamore… He was busy establishing his Alibi that he was never back in Sycamore that day… thats what he was doing. Thats why the ticket is relevant, it shows how DESPERATE he was to get SOME SORT OF EVIDENCE… to use as an alibi… it backfires, as he doesn’t actually establish an alibi for the afternoon of December 3. It shows how he was desperate on the evening on December 3 to say “Hey , here I am in Rockford …” although its only a bit away from Sycamore… That far that you’d go to get away from the murder scene … ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826/76 "2016-03-29T15:01:20Z")
Sorry. In the article about the DA saying he was innocent, it is implied that the phone call from Rockford “come and pick me up” happened in a town about 40 miles away, about half an hour to less than an hour after the girl was abducted. If that is the timeline, then yes the conviction is doubtful. If as you suggest, he had a whole day or more to dispose of the body, panic, try to leave home, and build an alibi and go to Rockwood - then I don’t understand why the DA would suggest the timeline says he’s innocent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/54-years-later-train-ticket-leads-to-arrest-in-death-of-7-year-old/587826.md?page=3)