PEORIA’S UNSOLVED MURDERS

                  PEORIA’S   UNSOLVED   MURDERS

                                 NORMAN  V.  KELLY

I have been asked numerous questions concerning murders in Peoria, Illinois, and have written stories about 235 of them. I avoided writing about unsolved murders because to have a book of them would soon prove very frustrating…not knowing the killer…is a frustrating thing.

 

DETECTIVE  GIFFORD                                   1922

During Prohibition in 1922 railroad Detective Gifford confronted a trespasser and during the shootout Detective Gifford was shot and died a few hours later.  In spite of a long and rigorous investigation the murder went unsolved to this day.

 

MR.  SZOLDS                                                        1922

 

During that same year a brewery guard named Szolds was found shot

in front of a brewery.  Now this was Prohibition and the brewery was closed.  What was the motive since nothing was stolen from the closed brewery?  Who killed Mr. Szolds?   The detectives and a special investigator were unable to solve that murder.

 

CORA  GARRISON                                                 1930

 

In November of 1930 Cora and Clyde Garrison lived in a nice home on McClure.   The couple had taken a drive and when they returned they drove the car into the back yard near the rear garage.  Two or perhaps three gunmen were hiding behind the bushes waiting for them.  They told Clyde to put up his hands.  Clyde pushed his wife aside and began firing his revolver at ‘The talking bushes.’ When the smoke cleared Cora was lying dead with a slug to the head.   Clyde Garrison had a serious wound in the right leg.  This attempted kidnapping/murder was never solved.

 

HENRY   FASH                                                              August   1938

 In August of 1938 police officer Robert Koegel was seriously wounded when he confronted an armed man who was threatening a couple in a parked car in Downtown Peoria. Numerous shots were fired within the car leaving Henry Fash dead from bullet wounds.  The officer recovered.  The killers, a man and a woman fled on foot and the crime was never solved.

 

ANTON ‘Tony’ MILLER                                           January  1938

 In January of 1938 Anton ‘Tony’ Miller was shot from ambush behind a car that trapped him in its headlights as he walked to the rear door of his home on Madison Street. He was hit with a blast from a 12 gauge shotgun.  He rose trying to make it to the back door.  He was felled again by another blast.  He managed to get just inside the door where he died in his wife’s arms.  The murder went unsolved.

 

FRANK  KRAEMER                                                  February   1946

February 1946 Frank Kraemer, a man that was among the first to stop gambling in his two taverns was shot and killed by a lone gunman armed with a rifle.  Frank was sitting in his glassed in porch when three shots were fired at him.  He lived a few moments but died on the way to the hospital. Police were unable to solve this crime.  Gangsters, no doubt, said the armchair detectives and the press.

 

JOEL  NYBERG                                                             September  1946

In September of 1946, well-known police character and convicted killer

Joel Nyberg, out on appeal bond, was found beaten and shot at the Lacon Golf Course.  Newspapers called his killing a ‘Gangland Style Killing.”  The murder of this infamous man was never solved.

 

PHILLIP  STUMPF                                                      October 1946

In October of 1946, another gangster wannabe, Phillip Stmpf left a tavern on Big Hollow Road after servicing the tavern’s slot machines. 

As he drove away a car with four men in it took up chase and fired multiple shots at him as he drove through a field.  Phillip died from one slug to the back of the head.  Another ‘gangland style’ murder said the newspapers. This was just one of three murders in Peoria that went unsolved during 1946. It is this year that Peoria’s reputation changed.

 

OLIVE  BAKER                                                         May   1947

On May of 4, 1947 Mrs. Olive Baker had a spur of the moment rendezvous with a married man which ended in a parked car out at Bradley Park.  The ‘lovers’ were confronted by a lone gunman with a red bandanna over the lower part of his face and a silver pistol in his hand.  Olive got a bit ‘out of line’ and the bandit shot her in the neck.  She died on the way to the hospital. This titillating murder went unsolved but it kept the local folks gossiping for a long time.

 

GEORGE   McNEAR                                                 March   1947

In March of 1947, rail road kingpin, George McNear walked home from the Bradley game at the Armory.  When he got near his home on Moss Avenue and walking on High Street a lone gunman was waiting in the darkness behind a tree.  He fired his 12 gauge shotgun loaded with .00 buckshot, killing the famous Peorian.  It was a sensational murder, with national and international media coverage.   Just over $54,000.00 reward was offered but the crime went unsolved to this very day.

 

BERNARD  ‘Bernie’ SHELTON”  Peoria’s mythical gangster…in my 10 plus articles on this man I called him  Peoria’s Pet Gangster. I showed evidence of what he did and did not do.  In July of 1948 he exited the dump tavern that he hung out in on Farmington Road and   was shot in the back.  The slug from this Winchester rifle took out his spleen and he died 40 minutes later down at Saint Francis.  His killer was never charged and it remains unsolved.  A very long time ago I told my readers that is was my view that Charles ‘Blackie’ Harris killed him, but it was just an educated guess on my part.

        

                LETS START IN 1983  AND GO  BACKWARDS

 

KIMBERLY  McClASKEY                                        July   1983

Kimberly was seventeen when she came up missing.  In 1993 a skull was found in Fulton County.   Forensic evidence identified the skull as that of Kimberly McKlaskey in 2006.   That murder remains unsolved.

 

JOHN  CASEY                                                               February   1980

I knew John Casey, he was an entertainer, a woman impersonator and my wife knew him from Manual High School.  I remember serving him a subpoena after a rather long search I found him at the Julian Hotel.  When I knocked I told him who I was and he opened the door.   He had about a five day old beard and stood grinning at me in a red bra and a yellow skirt.  We talked for over a half hour and I never saw him again.  John Casey was murdered by an unknown assailant inside his apartment on February 2, 1980.  The murder went unsolved for a long time.  A man who was a prisoner in a Missouri Jail finally admitted that he was the killer, claiming that he was forced to hit John over the head with a heavy wine bottle defending himself. The man came back here for sentencing which added less that a year to the term he was already serving. But at least the murder is now marked ‘Solved.’    But…was it really?

 

DEBRA  STRODE                                                     May   1979

DEBRA   STRODE:   She was murdered in her Kings Park Mobile Home witnessed by her FIVE-YEAR  OLD DAUGHTER.  She told police that LOU   “drowned her mommy.” A man was charged with her murder but the charges were dropped a couple weeks before the trial.  Unsolved.

 

ROBERT  JACKSON                                                   May    1976

ROBERT JACKSON was a veteran of the County Sheriff’s Department but had quit the job and was working as A Security Guard at a South Adams grocery store.  He intervened in an attempted robbery and was shot and killed by the teenage gunman.   Never Solved.

 

SAMUEL  McFALLS                                                    July7                                       

 

SAMUEL McFALLS       Sam was walking with his wife and when he stopped at his gate on Greenlawn Street a bullet struck him in the chest. His wife saw the lone gunman who was hiding at the side of the house run away.  No Motives…no idea why he was killed.  Police suspect it was a case of mistaken identity.  Still no suspect, and case is Unsolved.

 

ROBERT  MERREIGHM       (  Murrain)                 May   1977

 

Shot in the back of the head while lying on his bed. A man was suspected and the case was taken to a Grand Jury…but they failed to indict him.  Another unsolved   murder.

 

DAVID  ALLEN  HOYLE                                           April   1977

 

Well known by police in Peoria and Pekin HOYLE’S body was found on Walnut Street.  Police arrested two prostitutes but they passed their Lie Detector tests and the case went unsolved.

 

·        Within a three month period during this time in 1977 there were a total of 7 murders.

 

MARSHALL JOHNSON                                           October   1976

 

A teenage was shot to death on Perry Avenue.  Police followed a trail of blood that led to a house containing eight members of a motorcycle club on Glendale.  They were arrested.  Police believe that a wounded member had fled earlier. Police indicated there were racial motives behind the killing. All the men were released and the case went unsolved.

 

EUGENE  OTKINS                                                      July  1974

 

Eugene was a bartender at Charlene’s Lounge on Second Street.   His killer shot him point blank in the face.  Sixteen months later police arrested a suspect and jailed him.   He was later released and never came to trial.  Case still unsolved.

 

ROBERT  HUTCHINS                                                  January  1963

 

His body was found in his home, his hands were tied and a stocking stuffed in his mouth.  He died of suffocation.  His house on Hawthorne was ransacked, items taken and his car was stolen.  They found it a few blocks away.  A $2,500 dollar reward was offered, but police never found a suspect:  Case unsolved.

 

GEORGE  DAY                                                               August  1968

 

George was a Journal-Star photographer who was walking from his home to Bradley University.  He was attacked and beaten.    Police found the apparent murder weapon, a tire iron a block from the attack.  Day was found at Western and Ayres.  Police arrested two men for his murder and they held them in jail for two months.  They were never charged. A $15,000 dollar reward was offered but no one came forward.  Unsolved.

This is but a sample of the unsolved murders in Peoria’s  history.  However, the record shows that most of the murders here were solved not only by good detective work but active tipsters and witnesses.

 

LINDA’   Some of these stories were done in detail in some of my True-Crime books, others were part of magazines articles I wrote over the years.  Most of them were part of my Lectures over the years.  All my books were copy righted and are available in the Peoria Library, however many of them have been stamped ‘Research’ and cannot be checked out. Linda, As my friend and a person that has helped me over the years you have my permission to use these six pages as long as they are not used in some ‘for profit’ book without my permission.

Actually most of my historical works end in 1951.  However in MURDER IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD, my book on 18 murders I did go beyond that.  Of course there are other unsolved murders in what I refer to a ‘Current history’ and I have no interest in them.

Norman V. Kelly      norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net