From Under the Elm Tree: The Kidnapping & Murder of Maria Ridulph
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December third nineteen fifty seven, the small town of signore, illinois is excited for Christmas. Seven year old maria riddle at a belly full of her, a favorite suffer rabbit legs with carrots, potatoes and a glass of milk. Snow had fAllen the night before, and maria wanted to play outside with your best friend cat.

The signal SHE bet her mother Frances to let her go outside. Mom said, okay, but make sure you dress warmly. Maria and Cathy met on the corner of rg place and center across street under a thick ARM tree.

The girls played their favorite game, ducked the cars in duck. The cars players waited until they see headlights coming down the road. Then they must scamper between the entry and rg and the light ball across the street before the headlights pass.

It's not the safest game in the world, but passing cars were the least of these girls worries. They had just arrived at the entry when a Young, good looking man approached them. He had a blond hair, a narrow face, big teeth and a high voice.

He said his name was Johnny, and he asked the girls if they d like a piggy back ride. The naive girls didn't know any Better, but who could blame them? Sycamore, illinois, was a small town of seven thousand people at the time.

IT was the kind of place where everyone knew everybody and nobody locked their doors at night. The biggest danger to children was a mild case of the flu. After a round of piggy back rides up and down center cross street, john y asked the girls if they liked to play with doors and resize, burst with excitement, and he ran home to get her favorite one.

Meanwhile, Cathy stayed behind with Johnny maria erruptive through the door and began remagen through her play chess. Her father, Michael, was in the living room watching a western on TV. Francis gLanced over her newspaper in sommerard looking for a toy.

SHE suggested taking the rubber doll as IT wouldn't get damaged in the snow. Maria agreed, and was off this quickly as she'd come. That was the last time Michael and Frances ever saw their little girl.

SHE ran back to the corner and rejoined Cathy and Johnson. Now Cathy was feeling cold, so SHE ran home to get a Better pair of mittens. SHE asked maria to come with her, but maria didn't want to.

She's stay behind with Johnny, hoping for an extra piggy bag ride. When Kathy returned, maria and Johnson were gone. SHE called to them, but her shrilled voice only cracked and echoed in the cold december air.

SHE ran to the riddle home where he found mari's brother chuck listening to music with a friend in the garage. SHE told him maria was missing and both boys sprang into action. They sprinted down R.

T. Place, calling from maria. A police car passed, but the boys were too late by the time they tried to stop.

IT IT turned the corner and vanished in the light snowfall. Meanwhile, Kathy's mother called the riddle home. After learning about Johnny and maria's disappearance, both mothers exchanged panic phone calls and their respective husbands tried calling them down.

Michael recalled an incident from a year prior when little maria wandered off without a trace. SHE turned up hours later. Just as the igher hood dads must have to search part, Michael l.

Remembered the embarrassment and didn't want to feel that way again. Francis has motherly instincts. S told her to overrule her husband.

At eight ten P. M, SHE drove to the police station and reported maria missing. Police and neighborhood volunteers combed the streets.

Several men ran a rough tesser home at two, two, seven, seven cross street, where he lived with his wife. I live and there's seven children. Routh owned a hardware store, and neighborhood fathers hoped to borrow flashlights and other supplies.

They also knew test years. Seventeen year old sun john was more than capable of helping with the search. Unfortunately, john wasn't home.

Remember that fact, as it'll play a significant role later in the story. During the surge, somebody found maria's rubber dolly abandoned on the side of the road. Sh'd never bad ways with IT, not by choice.

Something happened to maria that night, something and imaginable. Sadly, the riddles would have to wait another fifty five years for closure. The kidnapping and murder of maria riddle h is among the oldest cold cases in american history.

So let's start from the beginning. From the time I read vanished from under the entry to the moment or alleged killer was tried, convicted, sentenced and ultimately acquitted. Part one, a mother's lie, something evil, have been brewing in sicca Moore.

In the week sleeting optimi is kidnapping. After halloween, residents began noticing obscene images and words drawn in shock at the intersection of center cross and arg. The entree where maria and Kathy liked the play was heavily vanilla zed.

At one point, hours before maria went missing, an overcoat clad man spotted two unrelated girls walking near the public library about a mile from the entry on rg place. He tried striking up a conversation, but the girls felt he was strange and ducked inside a restaurant to avoid him. When they left, they found about a half dozen images of naked women on the sidewalk where the man was standing.

The morning afternoon disappeared. A headline in the afternoon paper confirmed what everybody already knew. IT read, missing girl, seven, feared kidnap. Police suspected val play from the start. They surfed every car entering and leaving the signal, all area they questioned everybody they can think of.

On day three of the search, a female tipster called the decode county share of the office and told them about a boy named Johnny fresher who matched the description of john y. Sh'd read about in the paper. Two FBI agents investigated the lead but found nobody named fresher listed in the county that got them thinking of ralf test here.

And to seventeen year old son john, perhaps the tips of this book, where the Operator wrote the name incorrectly, cca mn. Police had already been back to the days year home and december 4， when they asked about john's whereabouts on the night of december third, his mother, I leam, said he was home all night, according to john, five Younger sisters. That was a lie.

When the FBI came knocking, I leaning tessy are saying a different tune. SHE and wealth acknowledged that john matched the description of Johnny. They sign the papers, but john couldn't have done IT.

He was allegedly in rock ford, a city about forty miles and northwest of sick. mr. According to his parents, john hadn't been home in several days.

On december second, he left for chicago to undergo a physical exam for the U. S. Air force.

From there, he got a drain to rock ford, where the enlistment office was located. When john got to rock ford, he called home and asked his father for a ride. He'd left his car in cicca, mr.

And used trains and taxes to get around the rock ford to post office time. Stamped the phone call at six fifty seven pm. On december third nineteen fifty seven, the Operator jotted the color's name down as john tasio.

From there, john went to the enlistment office, where two air force recruiters confirmed talking to him around seven fifteen m. It's unclear if these FBI agents ever spoke to the sigma o police officers who interviewed in texture on december 4。 If they had, they would have known.

SHE told two different stories. Her daughter, we've overheard both conversations, never spoke up. Based on the current timely, the FBI deemed IT impossible for john to have kidnapped and killed maria while traveling between the three cities.

They believed the killer had taken maria closer to seven pm, based on multiple eyewitness statements and Kathy's retelling of the story. Others spoke holes in that timely. For example, cicco s.

Police chief William hindon burn said the girls were outside playing closer to six pm. Maria's mother claims IT could have been as early as five fifty. Meanwhile, the deal county sheriff said maria didn't call cat his home and to ask her to come outside until six thirty.

The half hour window is crucial to the case, and the investigators and lawyers have been arguing about IT for over half a century. A week after maria's disappearance, police told residents to keep in eye out for scavengers. They believed he was dead.

Everybody had been likely dumped somewhere nearby. Swarms of vultures and buzzard could lead them right to IT. Meanwhile, the FBI was running out of time funds.

Twenty nine agents had taken up shop in cca mr, costing the agency thirty six hundred dollars per day, or about forty thousand in today's money. After two weeks, they attract down two hundred fifty leads and interviewed over two hundred suspects. Everything came up empty, and agents still had about one hundred twenty five leads left to explore.

Christmas came in wind. The holiday season was subber that year in sycamore. Or the local paper ran a front page story about maria with a picture of her family opening presence under the tree.

Maria's parents had bought her a typewriter that year. As for john test year, he was already off the fbs list of possible suspects. He reported for basic training on december and never returned to c.

Mo again, not until twenty eleven, when he was arrested and charged with the murder of maria ridolfi. Part two command do john test year and read riddles, grew up under polar opposite circumstances. Mario was the Youngest to ford children born to Michael and Frances riddle h.

While most people in the town worked on local farms, maria's father worked in a wire and cable factory, making about eighty dollars a week. Her mother stayed home and cared for the children. Money was obviously tight.

Mario was an honor student at sank john evAngelical luthor school. He was always a nervous girl, according to Frances, and would scream and become hysterical ical whenever he was in trouble. Whoever took maria would have to kill ler to keep required.

John tessier was born in belfast, northern ireland, in november one thousand thirty nine. His father, sam Cherry, was a sergeant in the british army. His mother, I makola, was among the first female plane batters in the royal air force since his parents were in the royal army.

John spent his early childhood with an elderly couple from the english countryside. He had a little interaction with other people in children and spent many nights worrying for his parents as german planes prepared london with bombs. Johns biological father died during world war two.

Alien later married ralf test year, who served in the eighth army air force and R A F. Bowden base in england. They moved to amErica after the war and settled in cy kawa.

When john was seven. The test years lived around the corner from the riddle home. Like everyone else in sykora ore, they knew maria and the rest of her family well.

Rf left the air force and began working as a sign painter. He was locally famous for painting the logos on the doors of sycamore police cars. The work LED to a lifelong g friendship with the chief of police.

John always saw himself as a protector. He was known to walk the streets of sick Moore in camouflage pants while Carrying a wooden sod. Local kids called him commander.

And the tenth grade john was expelled LED after pushing his teacher and calling her an unsafe name. It's unclear if he continued his education. After that, john spent thirteen years in the military, rising to the rank of captain before he was discharged.

In one thousand nine hundred and seventy four, he moved to seattle and enrolled in the king county law enforcement academy. He graduated and became a police officer, bouncing between departments and lacy melton, and become a washington. He got married at two children and was divorced shortly after, as a cop and lacy, he met his second wife, Laura.

But that marriage didn't last long either. According to john, they broke up because he cheated on her while working for the coma pd, the chief described him as a constant screw up. John racked up several complaints, many of which involved local women.

In one incident, john arrested a woman for DIY. They struck up a relationship and he later moved into his apartment. Another time, a woman complained about someone slipping up scene photographs through her window. John responded to the goal, and IT wasn't long before they wound up in a relationship to the chief.

IT seemed that john used his role as a police officer to pick up women being escalated in one thousand nine hundred eighty two when john took in a fifteen year old runaway named Michelle wine men. Michelle l. Had recently fled the clutches of her abuse of father SHE had a friend into coma who said he knew a policeman they could stay with.

John welcomed the girls with open arms, offering them the higher way bed in his living room. He took Michelle on dates to the movies and dinner. He d let her drive his squad car and worked the sirens, but always made sure he did well in school.

He taught her how to dress and how to wear makeup to Michelle. John was just being friendly. In an interview with CNN, SHE said, I was raised of fear.

God pressed police officers and respect teachers. Then things got weird. John began with saucing her and would yang her pants down to rubber buttons.

IT made her uncomfortable, but Michelle never spoke a word at IT. SHE felt grateful that john had put a roof over her head if this was the Price so beat. John kept pushing the envelope.

He began kissing the girl's good night light kisses at first, which eventually turned into boyfriend kisses as Michelle described them. The final straw came when john snuck up on the sofa bed one night. SHE awoke in him performing oral sex on her.

SHE couldn't move. SHE couldn't scream. SHE was scared, ashamed and letting IT happen. SHE told her friend who went to the school councillor.

The next day, the school pulled a michale out of class and asked her to tell her story. Unfortunately, the belief didn't believe. They called her a trap and said he probably wanted IT.

They threatened to make her life a living heart and drag her through the mud if he spoke of IT again. The cops, all man, worked for the department in the neighbor town. They didn't have to know john personally.

He was a fellow officer, and theyd defended him until the bitter end. Ultimately, john was charged with statuary rates, but pleaded down to a lesser charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. He denied that he ever sexually assaulted Michelle White man and only took the deal because he couldn't afford a lawyer.

The bleed deal earned him a year of product, and he was allowed to quietly resign from the milton police department on march tenth, one thousand nine hundred eighty two. After leaving the force, john took up photography in the early one hundred and eighty. One of his models introduced him to a woman named the new telle, who, like Michelle, had just escaped an abusive relationship.

SHE needed a protector. SHE needed command to. Dennis was an intelligent, self made women. SHE earned good money as an engineer building electrical systems for commercial trucks. John attached himself like a leach.

He acted like her personal body guard and moved himself into our middle class home. They were married within three months. And like john's other relationships, this one didn't last long either.

According to Dennis, john became controlling and mentally abusive. He, at the emotional level of a four year old, but could manipulate her like soft clay. John rarely spoke about his family.

The one time his parents came to seattle, denis considered them wonderful people. SHE also noticed that john's mother controlled him like a puppet master. He seemed afraid of and intimidated by her.

To john's credit, he never mistreated Dennis sexually. According to her, their relationship was mostly patton's. Two incidents did disturb her, though john, twelve year old daughter from a prior marriage, would stay with them for short stints.

One morning, dennie's came downstairs to find them in the kitchen. John was holding a banana in a suggestive way into making sexual comments. Another time, Dennis was remaining through a desk when he felt one of the draws catch.

SHE reached under to see what was blocking IT and found a picture taped to the underside. IT was a naked photo of john's daughter john and donees were together on enough until one thousand nine hundred eighty nine, when john confessed to meeting somebody else. Dennis didn't fight, and they both want their separate ways.

Part three, one hundred mile's west of cinema. Back in cca, mr. Police and FBI agents were still coming up empty. IT had been months since vanished, and nobody knew if he was still alive. Then everything changed. On April twenty six, nineteen fifty eight, Frank sit down and his wife were on vacation and northern illinois and inquired about a good spot to hunt wild mushrooms.

A local guide pointed them toward herman bonnet, woods and woodbine about ten minutes from their hotel and one hundred miles west of cigna, they ventured to the spot and searched the thick under brush about four hundred feet from the highway. That's when Frank spotted what he assumed to be a deer circus, came up to IT then, and I could see some bones, and I bought, somebody had shot a dog, he told reporters at the time. Then I looked closer, and IT looked like human bones.

He knew heat found something significant when he stumbled upon a little girl skull. Maria's parents didn't need dental records to confirm what they already knew. Her father always said that if a child's body was found wearing such socks, IT would be maria.

When maria's mother arrived, SHE immediately noticed to pat shedd sewn into her daughters black and White flan el shirt. SHE was finally laid to rest inside a small White casket under a warm spring sky. Over three hundred people attended her funeral at the lutheran church of saint john.

Her best friend cafe stood by under intense police guard. The investigation officially pivoted to a homicide, but because maria's body never crossed state lines, the FBI didn't have jurisdiction, IT was up to local police, and the decode county shares department dissolve marias case, and they didn't have much to work with. DNA was still several decades away, and maria's body was far too decomposed to determine a cause of death.

They didn't observe any trauma or broken bones, suggesting SHE may have been smothered or poisoned. That meant the murder weapon was likely long gone or impossible to connect to a suspect sycamore pollutant Patrick solar thought called a break in one thousand nine hundred and eighty eight when sixty six year old William Henry redmond was charged with the one hundred and fifty one kidnapping and murder of eight year old jan mary out off. Unfortunately, the case against redmon was dismissed when the officer in charge refused to disclose the name of a confidential informer who helped capture him.

Nevertheless, redmond, who was a corner of a worker at the time of jeans murder, he confessed to struggling her after SHE kept pasturing him for extra fair rs wheel rides. Police later discovered redman's fingerprints all over the truck cab where jane's body was found. Lootenant solar was convinced that redmond was responsible from maria riddle fs murder, so confident that he officially closed the case after redmond died in one thousand and ninety two.

Then another death in one thousand nine hundred and ninety four brought the case back to the most obvious suspect, alien. Tesser was dying. Her body was riddled with cancer, and he needed so desperately to get something off chest.

Her daughters, Janet and mary pat, were present in the hospital room on january twenty third nineteen ninety four, with one of our final breaths, alan urgently called Janet. Janet came over and alien allegedly whispered in her ear those two little girls and the one that disappeared, john did IT. John did IT.

And you have to tell someone I lean back away. Shortly after this death bed confession, janne took IT to mean that her half brother john was responsible from mario riddle fh murder. Even her mother had kept in a secret all these years, but was IT an authentic confession, or the ramblings of a cancer patient hide on morphine.

Jane t. Believed IT was true, and he was well within her rights. SHE and john had a rocky relationship, to say the least. When Janet t.

Was twenty one and still trying to chart the rest of her life, big brother john invited her to stay with him to come a washington. Janet t always saw john as a protector. SHE thought he was some kind of war hero, and he was excited to help with his new photography business.

But john had a dark side that john IT had never seen before. One day, during an argument, john drew a gun and slammed IT on the table. He threatened to kill Janet and dump of body where nobody would ever find IT.

The next day, jane t. Backed up and flew home to sick. mr. John was dead there.

SHE Carried her mother's death bed confession around for fifteen years before someone would listen, so long as premature. Closing of marius case also didn't help. Then in two thousand and eight, somebody finally gave jan at the time of day.

Officer tony rapper was a state police commander stationed in elgin, illinois, a city twenty five miles east of sick mo. He knew the maria riddle case like the back of his hand, as did every illinois officer born after one thousand nine hundred fifty seven. By then, john tessier had legally changed his name to jack in honor of his late mother, as mccolo was her made name.

He was on his fourth marriage in his early seventies and living in a retirement community northwest of seattle. Rappid was coming through tips when he saw email from Janet t teaser IT red cca o illinoi. December nineteen fifty 7， a seven year old child named maria riddle f vanished.

The remains were found in another county several miles away in the early spring of one thousand fifty. I still believe that john Samuel tesser from sick mo illinoi was and is responsible for her death. He is living in the seattle to come a washington area under the name jack Daniel, a cola.

I've given information to the person responsible for the cold case in cicca, mn. I've done this a few times. Nothing has ever done.

This is the last time I mention this to anyone. What information I do have makes test year makola a viable suspect and worth looking into. I'm not going to keep doing this over and over.

It's exhAusting. And IT juges up painful orrible memories report could sense change its frustration in those last few lines. He decided to give her a chance.

SHE told him about iran's death bed confession and that her brother wasn't to be trusted. Police found a common threat among all the text or siblings. John was estranged, and they only had negative things to say about him.

That's when his sister gene came forward with a heartbreaking story. SHE claimed john molested her when they were growing up. He'd also forced to watch while he molested other girls in the neighborhood.

Then, when he was fourteen, john offered her like sexual meat to his buddies while home on military leave. As police dug into the new john tessier angle, they uncovered several never before seen facts about the case. Let's start with the piggyback g rides.

It's well documented that john y offered maria and Cathy piggy back rides under the entry that fit full december night. Years prior, john offered piggyback rides to another neighborhood girl named panel along. Thankfully, SHE lived long enough to tell the tail.

SHE knew john my name and appearance. SHE also knew the neighborhood kids liked to make fun of them. In colon, commander, his grandparents lived behind her home in the most affluent art of sicca, mr.

One day, john approach her while walking around with his wooden sod and camel pants. He offered her a piggy back ride, and he couldn't resist. Her father caught them in the ad and flew into a fit of rage.

He warned john to stay away from his daughter and reported the incident to seek more pd, but nothing ever happened. That's likely because john's father was buddy, buddy with the chief. The FBI didn't think the story was relevant when they interviewed the long family.

John could have given piggy back rides to every girl in summa before december third, nineteen fifty seven IT still wouldn't have made him a killer is iron clad alii proved he wasn't in town when murray a vanished officers spent the rest of the twenty times trying to dismantle IT. Part for the alibi, the marie riddler case, boils down to one critical times down at six fifty seven pm. On december third, somebody identifying as john tessier called the teaser or home from the post office in rock ford anode, roughly forty miles northwest of cicca.

mr. If the original theory is true that john y kidnapped to maria sometime between six, thirty and seven and IT would be impossible for john test her to grab her, kill her and be in rock ford in time to make that phone call. Then there was the matter of transportation.

John claims he took trains from sica, mord, chicago and eventually rock ford between december second and third. He only called home in the third to ask his father for a ride. This train story fell part when police uncovered and unpunished one way military issued train ticket from rock ford to chicago, dated december second, one thousand fifty seven.

And their minds, john never took the train, as he claimed. Instead, he found another way to get the chicago, most likely his own car. Everyone in sick. mr. New john carr IT was a two door nineteen forty eight coup with flames painted on IT.

Nobody other than john was allowed the driving in old high school friend to claimed he saw the forty eight coup driving around symbol on the afternoon of december third. At the time, john was dating a local girl named je ne Edwards. They were supposed to meet for a date at nine twenty when john got home from rock ford, but her parents were so dispute over maria's disappearance that they refused to let jane go out.

Police tracked john to florida and asked if he had an old picture of john they could use for a photo lineup since he was expelled in the tenth grade. There wasn't a high school year book photo on record that would have shown what john y looked like at the time. They got a massive break when jane discovered a photo from a summer form only nineteen nineteen fifty seven.

IT was a perfect headshot of john tessier on a black background. SHE quickly melted from Flora to sick. When I arrived, our officers found a bonus hidden inside the unpunctuated in ticket.

It's unclear if the ticket had been there since one thousand nine hundred and fifty seven, or if janne had held on to IT all this time for reasons unknown. Police had a road block when the recruiting station in chicago confirmed that john had taken a physical exam there on the morning of december third. He left around noon and wasn't seen again until seven fifteen pm and rock ford when he arrived at a different recruiting station.

Nobody can prove his whereabout ts between noon and seven fifteen on the third. Yes, the rock ford to post office color identified himself as john tessier, but there's no proof that IT was really join to alter the timeline. Police had the leaning on neutral witnesses.

The first was an oil delivery driver who knew Cathy and the segment family. He recalls Cathy waving to him when he arrived at the big White house on the corner of r place and center cross around. He spent about fifteen minutes filling the oil tank and was back in his drug at six twenty.

As he left, he looked to see if the girls were still playing under the tree he claims they were gone next to. Police spoke with a city bus driver who passed the corner at six thirty. They claimed nobody was there, thus caborn the oil man's story.

Police in the late two thousands concluded that mario was taken between six and six twenty, about forty minutes to an hour earlier than previously thought. If that's true, john tessier could have easily pulled that off. A new theory quickly emerged.

John never took the train from radford to chicago. Instead, he drove there in his forty eight coup, took his physical and return to cycle war. Later that afternoon, he stocked the area where he knew maria and Cathy liked to play, then bartercard down a nearby ally between six and six twenty.

John approached the girls, offered them piggy back rides and then kidnapped, and he tossed her in the back of his car and drove body mile's northwest to rock. Ford were recalled home to see if anybody was looking for a missing little girl armed with a mountain of never before seen evidence. Police and sycamore believed they had finally cracked one of america's longest cold cases.

They flew out to seattle and slapped the cuffs on their primary suspect. Part five of a century in the making, with Johnny handcuffs, police could finally investigate his checkered past in open organ county, washington. They found a storage container listed in john's name.

IT seemed abandoned in almost about twenty acres outside of to asked a small town of about eleven hundred people inside the container. Police found thousands of photos of scantily clad women. They held hips and chains and war dog colors, leather boots and tight boost.

As when officers reached down to these models, they described how john flight them with alcohol and claimed he worked for a famous artistic magazine. The discovery LED, as a john's third wife, denies traxler, who told them about the lude photographs of Jones daughter. Later on, denise learned that while he was at work, john would take more suggestive photos of his daughter and her middle school friends.

Sadly, john's daughter went missing in two thousand five while living in san antonio, texas, was found dead on a golf course a few days after her disappearance. Upon identifying the body in two thousand thousand and thirteen, police learned that the girl's middle name was maria, and that wasn't the only coincidence either. When seattle police arrested john in twenty eleven, they first knocked on his apartment door unit number six sixteen maria riddle h lived at six sixteen R G, place sycamore illinoi.

During the interrogation, john became physically uncomfortable when officers brought up sex and his family. He denied having sex with his sister and claimed they were just playing around. When maria riddle PH came up, john looked police officers in the eyes and said, I did not have anything to do with that little girl.

He was loved in neighborhood. He described maria as a stunningly, beautifully Young girl with big Brown eyes. SHE was lovely, lovely, lovely to police officers.

IT sounded like john was describing somebody he was deeply in love with when breasts on the unused train ticket, john said he must have hitchhike. He maintains that his car never left his parents driveway. Between december second and december third, after an eight hour interrogation, police officially arrested john tessier A K A jack for the murder of maria riddle f.

More than fifty years after the fact prosecutors faced an appeal battle, most of their star witnesses were long dead, and john's alibi seemed rock solid. They tried exhuming mari's body, hoping to find some DNA evidence. All they had was a rodding corpse that smelled worse than anything you can imagine, because maria was so badly decomposed when they found her, the funeral home couldn't in bomb the body.

Instead, they sprinkled her with lime, assuming nobody would ever open her tiny White coffin. While they never found any DNA, modern doctors with modern gadgets could finally determine a cause of death. Maria was stabbed to death evidence by the tiny neck on astern um and vertebrae.

Someone plunged a long, sharp object into her throat at least three times. According to reports, mario stench lining erred in the building. Ironically, the sycamore r corners office has located in the basement of the jail.

Some felt in fitting that john tessier had to sit there and smell marias body for several days. At the time, john faced two trials, one for marias murder and one for aping his sister. Prosecutors decided to try the rape case first as a guilty conviction could help them during the future murder trial.

Unfortunately, things didn't go their way. John's defense team asked to try the case before a single judge rather than a jury. The judge, Robin, struggled, couldn't understand why jenie waited so long to come forward with the allegations against her brother.

He felt the timing was too convenient. Gene never wanted to file charges and only went along with IT because he thought he would help the maria rid of investigation. There were also many holes in gene story that the prosecution couldn't fill.

In the end, the judge ruled in john's favor and acquitted him on all charges. John's murder trial began with two critical ruling by a different judge. Both have to do with here, say, and its place in the courtroom.

During a trial, there are two types of testimony direct. And here say, direct testimony is what a witness hears and seas with their own ears and eyes. Here, say, is one of witness repeat something told to them by somebody else.

In most cases, here, say evidence isn't permissible because the accused can't confront their accuser. There are exceptions, like when the witness is dead. In john's case, his mother's death bed confession was considered.

Here, say prosecutors argued for an exception because confessing was against our own interests. Her saying john did IT suggests that I learned, knew about the murder. If he were still alive, SHE could face criminal charges for running cover all these years.

The judge ruled in their favor and allowed alien's death bed confession into the trial. On the other side, john's defense team wanted their own here, say exception. Their entire case rested on the FBI reports from one thousand and fifty seven that allegedly cleared his name in ilan oi.

Police reports and documents cannot replace actual witnesses. Typically, the authors of those reports are called to testify on what they wrote. Unfortunately for john, the agents who wrote his report in one thousand nine hundred and fifty seven were long dead.

John's team argued that here say rules borrowing police reports are meant to protect defendants. In this case, the reports would help prove the defendants innocence. The judge rejected their argument.

The FBI reports would not be permissible. The only person who could attest to john alevi was john himself, but putting him on the stand would open him across examination. John's defense team didn't want to take that risk.

He never took the stand, and the jury never heard about his alibi. During the trial, the prosecution called three jail house snitches. They all claimed john talked about killing maria or they were held at the cob county jail.

They, however, told three different stories. The only thing they agreed on was that john strangled, married to death, contradicting the stabbing theory put forth by the doctor. Who are you going to believe? Three jail house snitches, who will say anything to reduce their sentences, or a doctor with decades of experience?

The most convincing testimony came from Kathy signal that was in amid sixties when the prosecution called her to the stand. SHE told the story, as sh'd been telling IT for fifty years, that SHE and maria were playing duck the cars when john y approached and offered them piggy back rides. Cathy ran home to grab mittens when he returned, john y.

And mario were gone for the jury. The decision came easy. John tessier slashed jack makola was found guilty of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life in prison.

He d be eligible for parole when he was ninety three years old. Olive sick mon took a collective sigh of relief as police escorted john from the courtroom. Mariah riddle h, and her family finally had justice, but justice wouldn't last long.

Part six IT all falls apart. John tessier appealed his conviction as soon as possible. In february twenty fifteen, the illinoi appealed.

Court upheld the murder charge, but vacated his convictions for abduction and kidnapping as they fell outside the statute of limitations under one thousand fifty seven law. They also determined that iron mccollam death bed confession should not have been allowed into the trial. But because the judge didn't rely heavily on IT, they didn't believe IT was enough to overturn the murder conviction.

Later that year, the new decode county states attorney, ichard cha k, took another look at john's case. Nothing made sense. He couldn't figure out why the judge refused to let the FBI reports in as evidence, but allowed iceland's death bed confession.

After coming through everything, Richard came to a shocking conclusion. John is innocent. He brought the case before a judge, claiming that police and prosecutors tweet the timelines to prove their own case.

They focused on testimony that suggested mario was kidnapped closer to six o'clock and ignored evidence that proved otherwise. According to smar, there's no evidence that mario vanished a little after six, as the illinois's state police suggest. Instead, the FBI got IT right back in one thousand nine fifty seven when they said he vanished between six, forty five and seven when john was in rock ford.

In April twenty sixteen, an illinois circuit court judge vacated johns murder charge, leaving him open to a new trial. Then a week later, another judge dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning john was a free man, but the state could still charge him again. Finally, on April twelve, twenty seventeen, a, the cow county circuit court ruled the john tessier slash jack mccoll was innocent.

In response, john said, I am innocent, proven innocent. I want my name back. I have been put forward as a monster, and people still believe I am a monster.

As for a rea's family, the news rope their hearts all over again. Her sister Betty chen said more horrid than when he was taken. John may have been a weird guy with many skeleton in his closet, but in the words of his lawyer, nothing else matters. If he was in rochford at the time, he couldn't have kidnapped and murdered mario riddle. So going on sixty years, the question remains, who did?