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.
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”.
I am getting a sense that we may be finding out a lot more as more details emerge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 …
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.