THE MURDERS THAT CHANGED PEORIA’S REPUTATION

THE MURDERS  THAT CHANGED  

PEORIA’S REPUTATION

                                                                                                                                                          

                                                            NORMAN   V.  KELLY

 

ROGER:  Norm when you were here last we talked about Peoria’s Reputation as a Dangerous Gangster Town. You told us that 6 murders during 1946…1947…and 1948 were responsible for what you called the “Gangster Myth.” Is that right?

NORM:  That’s right Roger you have a good memory. Peoria was truly a Metropolitan City and had a very fine reputation all the way until 1920 when Prohibition began. During that thirteen-year period crime rose all over America and Peoria was no exception.

ROGER:  You mentioned that during that era we were usually described as a Bawdy…Wide Open town, but certainly no Gangster Era…right?

NORM:  Exactly right.  Peoria always had prostitution, tightly controlled, however, and Gambling really took hold during Prohibition and Peoria deserved the reputation of being this wide-open…wild town.

 

ROGER:  So, Norm, back to the six murders that changed all that. Can you tell us about these murders and how they changed Peoria’ reputation?

NORM: Well, Roger, let’s get a little closer to the old fireplace and I will tell you a story about murder in your Hometown.

ROGER:  Reminds me of when we used to listen to those creepy, scary radio shows.

NORM:  These stories were real and believe me when we read about them,

there was a certain fear connected with them.  The first murder was that of

Frank Kraemer…He owned two taverns in town, The PAR-K-Club and the SPOT.  He was very well liked, had never in his life been in trouble with the police and the last one anyone would think would be assassinated. He must have crossed the wrong person.

It was evening, February 21, 1946 and Frank was doing some paper work in his glassed in Sun Room out at 3900 Farmington Road. He heard glass breaking and he yelled to his wife…”Honey Get Down.”   The first slug from a .30 caliber semi-automatic rifle hit his watch stopping it at 7:31.  Six shots were fired in all and three of them hit him in the upper body.

 

ROGER:  Norm did he survive and die later?

 

NORM:  He was alive when a Deputy George Shelton got there. Shelton asked him who shot him and he wisely answered…”Get Me To The Hospital.”  He died shortly after that.

 

ROGER: Norm was that way out there by that old restaurant Shady Oaks?

 

NORM:  Yes, remember Jack Rosanack had that place at one time. So the police do the investigation, the county and the State Police. All the slugs etc. are turned over to the FBI. Dozens of men are rounded up and everyone the police could think of were questioned. The mystery that bugged people was the fact that his three dogs were in the shed. Usually they run free…one of them was a pretty mean watchdog. Had they been outside his family said they would have barked.

 

ROGER:  So that murder went unsolved and no one was even arrested?

 

NORM:  That’s right. The cops herded a lot of people to headquarters but I can tell you they never picked up the Sheltons, who by the way lived just off Farmington Road. Reporters wrote an awful lot of stories about that murder and even dug up the Garrison shooting way back in 1930.

 

ROGER: So that murder started the change of Peoria’s reputation.  Who was the next victim?

 

NORM: Joel ( Joe) NyBerg. Now for all the gangster fans out there this guy was as close to a gangster as we had in town in 1946. He had been arrested numerous times, in and out of jail and was out on bond after being convicted of manslaughter.  His “Bullet Ridden Body” was found on Lacon Golf Course, murdered Gangland style. 

 

ROGER:  Bullet Ridden…does that mean a machine-gun?”

 

NORM: Absolutely…that’s what the reporters want you to believe. Truth is he was hit with a ball bat and shot in the head and chest with a .38. As I said dead is dead…but these reporters knew what choice of words to use. Again for over a week it was the news here and in other cities. A reporter named LINK from Saint Louis really hated us and he alone did more to destroy our reputation than any other reporter in the United States. Later our State’s Attorney had him indicted by the Grand Jury.

 

ROGER:  So they rounded up the usual suspects, which resulted in another unsolved murder?

 

NORM:  Exactly. An important thing to note here that on September 3, 1946, Mayor Triebel made his “No More Gambling” speech, here in Peoria. So the atmosphere seemed to be changing for the better, reputation wise, but these two murders ended all that.

 

ROGER: Didn’t Triebel have the reputation as some kind of “Reformer”

 

NORM:  Yes, he did, but he certainly did not consider himself a reformer. Remember he was elected in May 1945 and he did not stop gambling until September 3, 1946.

 

ROGER:  BY gambling, you mean all the casino type gambling. I remember in the 50’s that slot machines seemed to be everywhere.

 

NORM:  That’s true, anyone our age knows that for a fact. I never considered the slots “gambling”  Of course it was but it was small change compared to what was going on in our town.

 

ROGER:  So, Norm, did we have yet another victim in 1946 that added to the gangster reputation:

 

NORM:  Yes, just a month later, October 25, 1946.  Phillip Stumpf was killed and a man named Logsdon was wounded. Stumpf was an ex-convict from Leavenworth and was a well-known petty thief here in Peoria.  He was an ironworker, but repaired and ‘fixed’ slot machines part-time.

 

He drove out to Big Hollow Road and 150 to the Stork Club to repair some nickel slot machines. When they left a car pulled in behind them. Stumpf sped up, and turned into an open field to try and get away. The car raced up behind him and opened fire. Police reported that four witnesses saw four men in the car and everyone one of them had a machine-gun, according to the witnesses.

 

ROGER:  There’s that machine-gun, no wonder it was made part of Peoria’s history.

 

NORM:  That’s for sure. Truth is that after all the out of town newspaper reporters disappeared, the autopsy and the Coroner’s inquest always revealed the truth. I give credit to our local reporters because they attended all of these hearings and eventually printed the facts. Of course, by then, the reporters from all over had already filed their sensational stories and just waited for the next murder.

 

ROGER: So, Norm, what type of weapon was used to kill Phillip Stumpf?

 

NORM:  The rear of the car and the window had a total of 9 holes in it. Stumpf was hit in the back of the head by a .38 slug and Logsdon had a .38 slug lodged just between the ear and the head. He left the scene and went to a private doctor, Stumpf died at the scene. Now there were three other murders in 1946, just domestic type killings, they got coverage, but it was purely local.

 

ROGER:  So, Norm, did the police just zero in on local suspected bad guys, which left this murder unsolved as well?

 

NORM:  That’s right. As I mentioned the most damaging part of the reporting, other than the sensationalism, was that all of the reporters went back into our history, repeating other murders. The Garrison murder, the Gerald Thompson case in the thirties, and a few other murders as well.  As a reader, when you finished reading those articles, your view of Peoria, Illinois was tainted forever.

 

ROGER:  Norm, let’s jump to 1947, I think you said that Peoria’s reputation even worsened, is that right?

 

NORM:  It surely did.  It was March 10, 1947. Bradley had just played the last game of their season down at the Armory. Bradley won but the game was taken away later when the officials decided the time clock was wrong.

 

Our Victim, George McNear, the wealthy owner of the TP&W Railroad walked to the game and back to his home at 202 Moss Avenue.

 

ROGER:  What was the name of Bradley’s star player…do you remember, Norm?

 

NORM:  The only one I can remember is Ray Ramsey an outstanding athlete in several sports. In fact this was to be his last home game as a Brave.

 

ROGER:  Was Mr. McNear a Bradley fan?

 

NORM: Yes, he was an athlete at Cornell, a big tennis player and he watched a lot of sports in Peoria. After the game he walked up main and was seen by several people. Since 6:25 PM there was a black out in the upper bluff because a huge transformer owned by CILCO had blown.

When he got up to High Street he crossed over and was just about home when a shot rang out.

 

ROGER:  One shot?  Is this one case that did not involve a mythical machine gun?

 

NORM:  Sorry, no such luck, out of town reporters clearly stated that this too was a typical Peoria gangland murder and most definitely mentioned a machine gun. Not one of our local reporters stated that, because they learned quickly what caused McNear’s death.

 

ROGER:  Mr. McNear is almost home when he was shot.  Did neighbors hear the shot?

 

NORM:  Yes, two Bradley students heard the shot and looked out the window. A car was passing by and they saw what they thought was a body. They ran out to the street as did several other people. Dr. Sutton recognized the man lying at the side of the street as George McNear. He told police it was 10:37 P.M.

 

ROGER: Did the police think that the killer was in that car that passed?

 

NORM:  No.  That man drove down to the city hall and told the police what he had seen. By then, of course, people had called the police and soon the scene was crazy.  A neighbor lady heard the shot and heard footsteps run behind her house.  Police found footprints and a scuff mark on a tree.  They think the man was hiding there at that tree.  To make a mark like they described he would have fired the gun while resting it on the side of the tree. Other clues, in my view, suggest that he did not do that.

 

ROGER:  Norm I was wondering how would a killer know that McNear was going to pass by that exact spot where he was hidden?

 

NORM: You are not alone in that thought. The police certainly wondered. People and neighbors that knew George said he walked every night, and often his wife walked with him. Like all assassinations, a lot of planning goes into these killings, and I am sure the killer knew he was a Bradley fan and often walked to the games. Certainly a small amount of surveillance would be all the killer needed.

 

ROGER: So, Norm, take us back to the scene of the murder after the police get there.

 

NORM:  Once the word got out who the victim was the police had a problem trying to keep everyone out of the way.  George McNear was a very prominent well-known man. They found McNear’s cane some 60 feet from his body. They speculated that he saw or heard his killer and threw the cane at him. And…they found paper wading from the weapon embedded in his coat. To me that tells me that the killer got pretty close to him before he fired.

 

ROGER:  Paper wading…so the weapon was a shotgun, right?

 

NORM:  Elementary my dear Roger…you are exactly right. In those days, police reporters, reporters and photographers were allowed to view the body.  They usually saw them at the morgue and most of the time they were in the nude. George McNear was hit 6 times, five holes in his chest and one in his neck. Once the out of town reporters got that piece of evidence they ran with the story.  What else could hit a man six times except a machine gun? And…after all, the murder was in Peoria, Illinois Peoria, Illinois….right?

 

ROGER: I am beginning to catch the drift here. The out of town reporters had dead lines and other stories to write. Once they decided it was just another machine gun, gang style murders it was off to the presses.

 

NORM:  Exactly. Now our local reporters were hardened, disciplined men and they knew Peoria like most cops did.  They filed their initial reports…that resulted in EXTRAS being sold on the street. They did interviews and follow-up stories and waited for the coroner’s inquest and of course the Medical Examiner’s report. That is when the real facts came out and believe me it made great reading here in Peoria, Illinois.  The cities across the United States carried their own version and rarely did those reporters attend the Inquests.

 

ROGER:  Well this case, like the others you told me about, were indeed gangland style murders right?

 

NORM: Oh, yes, no doubt. Everyone of them but Fueger was a hit…an assassination no doubt.

The reporters had a duty to report…the problem was the out of town reporters were more interested in the sensational aspect of the murders here in Peoria. They clearly let their readers think that these murders stemmed from the gangster style town we lived in. That was not true. It would be my guess that  ONLY one of these killings was committed by a Peorian.   Also only one of these men was killed within the city limits of Peoria, Illinois.

 

ROGER:  were rewards offered in these cases?

 

NORM:  Not for Kramer, Nyberg and Stumpf, but rewards were offered in the cases of McNear and the next one I will tell you about, Flavel Feuger.  The highest was $52,000 for the McNear case.

 

ROGER:  that was a lot of money, especially in 1947.  So the next victim was Flavel Feuger?

 

NORM:  That’s right, he was a Navy veteran and a Bradley Student.  He was a great student, very good looking, and came from a wealthy family.  He was engaged to a beautiful girl and drove around in  a brand new 1947 Pontiac. In fact the car is what caused him to be a victim.  If you were looking for a kid that had a bright and happy future, Flavel Feuger would be the guy.

 

ROGER: He certainly does not sound like a man that would be a victim of a gangster killing.

 

NORM:  You are right…he wasn’t. Flavel was driving around downtown on December 3, 1947 in his new 1947 Pontiac. He had some time to kill before he picked up his girlfriend, Mavis Butler from a Christmas Party at the Pere Marquette.  He pulled up to a red light and a guy opened his passenger side door. “Could you take me to the airport” the guy said.  Flavel, a Navy vet saw the man was wearing a Pea Coat so he agreed to take him out there. That was the last anyone ever saw flavel Feuger alive.

 

ROGER:  So, Norm this was like a car jacking?

 

NORM:  In a sense. Although the man did not pull a gun and force his way in the car. I can tell you, Roger, we had car jackings as far back as the 1930’s and off and on in our history.  Once Flavel did not show up to pick up his girlfriend, his friends and family spent the night trying to find him.  The next day the police got into it and the first thing they did was look for the 1947 Pontiac.  Soon, Bob Michel, Jerry Garrot and many, many volunteers started searching the town. It took 3 days to find the car but they did. At that point only the local reporters were writing stories.

 

ROGER:  Was Flavel’s body in the car?

 

NORM:  funny you should ask that, because the truth is after Flavel was shot out in Bartonville, the killer dumped his body in the trunk and drove around in the car with his wife and friends for two days and nights.  Once they found the car the police found a cap inside the glove compartment and inside that cap was the name NORMA WEBER.

 

ROGER:   Did the police think this Norma was the behind Feuger’s disappearance?

 

NORM: Not really, but they went directly to her house and that is when they learned that her husband was Herman Weber.  A few days later the FBI arrested him in Conroy Texas.  Peoria police went there to get him and on the way home they said he talked the entire way.  He also signed three confession, not one of them helped find Feuger’s Body. Weber told them that he tossed it off the Cedar Street Bridge.  Which was a lie also.

 

ROGER: All this time the police are looking for Flavel’s body?

 

NORM:  mostly it was Bradley students and an awful lot of volunteers including boy scouts. They search the county, alleyways, places like that.

 

ROGER:  Was his body ever found?

 

NORM:  Thanks to Weber’s pal, FRED WRIGHT.  The police charged WRIGHT with auto theft and he told them everything he knew about the murder and car theft.  A caravan of Bradley students followed the Sheriff to a place very near DIXON MOUNDS>  a Bradley student spotted Flavel Feuger’s body in a small pond, mostly in ice.

 

ROGER:  Once that news got around did it bring in the out of town reporters?

 

NORM:  Did it ever. As always they were led by this guy named Link from Saint Louis, and I can tell you they did another hatchet…gangster story on Peoria…I can tell you that.

 

ROGER:  Don’t tell me they did another machine gun story.

 

NORM:  No…no mention of any machine guns here and actually very little gangster material. It was clear, pretty early on that Herman Weber was not a machine gun carrying gangsters. They tried to link him to a gangster run Auto theft ring…but when the FBI got into that, they quickly found that Weber and Wright were just small town hoodlums, out to steal cars and sell them.

 

ROGER:  You are saying that the Feuger murder did add to Peoria’s gangster reputation?

 

NORM:  Oh, absolutely. Until facts are really know, reporters of that era loved to go over past murders stories and this was no exception.  Flavel Feuger was shot by two small slugs from a .25 caliber handgun. A “Lady’s gun” as it was called. Weber stole that gun from a lady he forced into a car and raped. He was not a gangster…but he was a very evil, dangerous man.

 

ROGER: Norm, it would seem to me that this type killing here in town would be more frightening to the local folks than the shooting of those other men.

 

NORM:  I agree with you 100%. We had a lot of murders throughout our history that scared the heck out of us. We had a Army Sergeant kill two people in my little subdivision of El Vista, and believe me…it was creepy.

 

ROGER:  So what happened to this Weber character?

 

Norm:  a MERE 90 DAYS   later he was tried for capital murder here in the old Peoria courthouse. It was the hottest ticket in town, I can tell you that. It took five days to try this killer. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed on September 16, 1948 in Joliet, Illinois. I wrote an entire book on this case, but I never published it. I still have it…however.

 

ROGER:  So, Norm Flavel Feuger was  the fifth murder which added to Peoria’s gangster Reputation.  You have one more murder to tell us about?

 

NORM:  I DO.  It was May of 1948.  Remember, gambling has ceased in Peoria, and all we have are slot machines.  In May of 1948 the man that paid off the police and everyone else, according to MYTH, was arrested for beating up a Marine Veteran. He and John Kelly were charged with SEVEN felonyies. Does that sound like a man that had some kind of police immunity?

 

ROGER:   I bet you are talking about BERNIE SHELTON…right?

 

NORM:  Right you are.  Mr. Hunt saw all this and ran across the street only to be forced back to his place by John Kelly. The police, well the county, not only arrested Shelton, they roughed him up a bit as well. I bring that up because there are a lot of myth tellers in this town that tell you Bernie was somehow protected by our police departments.

 

ROGER:   Norm, this took place at the Parkway tavern, it’s out in the county, just across from Hunts, right?

 

NORM:  Right. Shelton did not own that place, remember, he was a convicted felon and could not have a liquor license. But is was the place he operated out of, that and his Shelton Amusement Business.

 

ROGER:  This was Shelton’s first arrest during the seven years he lived here in Peoria?

 

NORM:   Absolutely right. See that is where the MYTH makers get their idea that he paid off the police and was somehow under their protection.  After all, how could a known gangster not get in police trouble during all that time? The fact that Bernie was NOT a gangster here in Peoria, was pretty well-liked and engaged in gambling and his legitimate business just does not sit well with them.

 

ROGER:  Was Bernie and your Uncle John Kelly found guilty of those felonies?

 

NORM:  john was a distant relative, I suppose and the answer is No.  Bernie Shelton was shot and killed, gangland style with a dozen machine guns…rat-a-tat tat.  Just kidding. He was out in his parking lot of his Parkway Tavern when a single shot rang out from the woods behind his tavern

 

ROGER:  So, up until 1946 Peoria’s reputation was that of a wide-open, Sin City, gambling town.  Those 6 murders changed that forever?

 

NORM:  Absolutely.  Those 6 murders branded us as a Gangster Town and Peoria pretty much has that reputation in parts of America to this day.

 

Norm Kelly                                a copyright work…NO COPYING