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Ivey's Lois Jurgens is a woman so proud and righteous, her sense of morality . There was an error deleting this problem. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee. This is a story about respectable men and women of the middle class--doctors, lawyers, priests, social workers, policemen, neighbors and relatives--whose behavior, taken as a whole, led not to that milieus promised decency and justice but to a moral outrage, dark and hard to understand. Others promised that they would do so. The policemen were led to understand that an attorney representing the Jurgenses had visited them and threatened them with civil lawsuits if they spoke out. Jurgens who says he still has the yellow legal pad on which he did his quick sketch was the victor. Together they went into Dennis room to inspect the body. The childs death occurred before there were state-mandated sentencing guidelines, and Thomson argued that she should have served less time. Maybe we can get more evidence from there. updates In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. The victim Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. There appeared to be a number of discrepancies in the Jurgenses story, he noted. When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. The prosecutor wasnt getting help from the White Bear Lake police--her brother was on the force. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Rekdahl did not know that a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic had diagnosed Lois Jurgens as having a longstanding psychoneurosis dating to her childhood--a childhood spent in a tension-filled home with an alcoholic, abusive father. He was shaken. Harold Jurgens suggested that perhaps they should not go forward with the adoption of Dennis, but Lois refused out of concern that it would discourage the authorities from allowing them to adopt further children. The testimony from Dr. Woodburn, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Dennis, was unequivocal. They had cited the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. How could a kid fall down the steps and die? The specter of homicide hovered, but would not land in this hearing room in 1965. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. J. was a little nervous today and I felt was probably upset for fear of what we would think of such a thing happening to Dennis, she wrote in her log. . Ivan and Gladys Demars, neighbors who had served as references when Dennis was adopted, over the fence had seen the boy with bruises, black eyes, split lips. How in the heck could that happen? . Eventually Lois Jurgens was arraigned, and her identity released by the media. There was a problem getting your location. In the early 1980s, Jerry Sherwood went looking for the newborn son she gave up for adoption 20 years prior. Lois Jurgens served only eight years of her sentence, released early for good behavior, and lived a secluded life in Stillwater, Minnesota, until her death in 2013. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. Soon the word spread from house to housethered been a death, the younger Jurgens boy had died. The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. Her features were still attractive, although the years had added a certain hardness and fleshiness. Strange, he thought, that she hadnt called her brother, the police lieutenant. According to sworn testimony by both Korolchuk and VanderWyst before a grand jury last year, Zerwas at the time warned the investigating officers that he would do everything in his power to keep his sisters name clear. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Along with the aforementioned evidence of starvation and the scarring and bite-marks on his genitalia, the coroner discovered multiple lacerations and multiple generations of bruises covering most of his body. There was a large, swollen scrape on the forehead. This account has been disabled. It began one month after Dennis death and continued for two days, May 10 and 11, 1965. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown. If I had it to do over again--well, in 1987 I wouldnt approve, but if it were 1965, I dont know what I would do. He would testify that he had been suspicious enough to call the welfare department. Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash. I would also like to receive the Early Bird Books newsletter which features great deals on FREE and discounted ebooks. He is extremely alert.

He had lived in this home since 1953, and it gave him much pleasure. Free shipping for many products! The house at 2148 South Gardenette Drive, White Bear Lake, where the Jurgenses lived from 1957 to 1967. The doctors eyes slid to a corner of the room. HH at the best online prices at eBay! Testimony from neighbors and family members told of young Dennis showing up to public events wearing sunglasses at the age of two, to hide his frequent black eyes. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. From the death certificate she had learned that the coroner never ruled whether the death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. Thirty years after the original Death of Superman storyline, the iconic tale's writer Dan Jurgens has confirmed which alternate Superman villains almost killed the hero. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies.
roger w. tufte sr, 76, resident of lakota, nd died saturday, february 26, 2022 at the lakota good samaritan center. We came very close to trying to do something. She would be a poor candidate for adopting a child at this time, the psychiatrist in 1955 had advised St. Pauls Bureau of Catholic Charities, where the Jurgenses for years had vainly sought children. However, he was in failing health and his autopsy results did not indicate poisoning. When the wind was up, Peterson would take out his sixteen-foot sailboat and glide toward Manitou Island and the town of White Bear. . Years later, the attorney representing Roberts interests at the 1965 custody hearing would still remember those photos. In 2005, playwright Brian Vinero wrote a theatre piece, The Jurgens File, which was developed at New York City's 78th Street Theatre Lab; it told the story from the perspective of the community. Robert would remain in county custody for the time being. Lois Jurgens was convicted in May 1987 of murder (by abuse) in the death 22 years earlier of her adopted son, Dennis. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. How could the hot water splashing down on the baby have burned only his penis and scrotum? Doug Thomson, who defended Jurgens, said his client did not get out early. Lois Jurgens was sentenced to 25 years in the Shakopee women's correctional facility for third-degree murder.

 

During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. There was also a great deal of suspicion surrounding Jerome Zerwas, the brother of Lois Jurgens, who was a police lieutenant in the city of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Weve updated the security on the site. The author's ability to set the scene of a tranquil. A Mrs. Hansen called to report a lost wallet, which resulted in an officers checking a phone booth at Fourth and Washington streets, next to the Avalon Jewelers. What was to be the core of the case against Lois Jurgens 22 years later essentially came out then, albeit in a less detailed, more muted fashion. . When you judge a case, you dont do so in a vacuum, Lindholm would explain years later in an interview. They would have to find out. The body was severely undernourished, nearly emaciated. Instead, Peterson would build an ice rink on his front lawnhed raise a circular wood wall, lay in six inches of leaves gathered from all the neighbors for mulch, then cover that with sheet plastic, one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and fill it with water from the hose. Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. He was born on September 29, 1941 in rural Adams, and was later baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church of rural Pickrell. Novel and Adaptations: Barry Siegel's true-crime novel A Death in White Bear Lake recounts the story via extensive research and oral history. Failed to report flower. conviction
By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed. SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) _ A mother who beat her adopted son to death and then covered up the crime for two decades was released from prison today after serving eight years.  
This month is the 30th anniversary of the release of "A Death in White Bear Lake," a book by then-Los Angeles Times reporter Barry Siegel. They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. I looked down. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. There was also talk years earlier of her having started the fire at her in-laws' home which killed her mother-in-law, with whom she never got along. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. . He was an outgoing child, as happy and adjusted as could be expected under the circumstances. It was as if the authorities had found a way to try Lois Jurgens for Dennis death without calling it a murder. Try again later. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. . Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. That isnt an issue at all. Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three-and-a-half years of age. Peterson departed soon after. Jerry took her case to the White Bear Lake police department and then to the local media. They covered the legs, the arms, the hands, the head, the shoulders, the back of the head, the buttocks, the small of the back, the middle of the back, the back of the left leg. A common belief amongst witnesses and neighbors at the time of the murder, and among the investigators who eventually re-opened the case, is that he interfered with the investigation and destroyed incriminating evidence. [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s).

 

Now VanderWyst was looking at him, asking a question: What was the cause of death?. Forever' w/ the No, she explained. C $186.13. I have never seen anything like that done.. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer[1] responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace. Placement with the paternal grandparents ended due to a house fire that occurred at a time when Robert was hospitalized with pneumonia, and his grandmother burned to death. Problems arose within the police department as well. But in 1962, before the developers and high-speed roads came, this was more truly a small town, inbred and insular, with a population just reaching 15,000. Try again later. Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later.

There is some suspicion that Lois Jurgens herself set the fire, given that it occurred while Robert was hospitalized, and that Lois had been known to threaten burning down the homes of several neighbors and family members who had spoken to authorities. The hole had allowed a fifth of a quart of infectious, purulent fecal material to flow into the abdominal cavity. Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst. No prosecution was taken at that time. They carried assorted life insurance polices worth $10,000. We thought it would be no use.. Lois also was not pleased to learn how active Dennis was. After all, Dorothy Engfer more than once had seen Lois smack Dennis so hard the blood flowed from his nose, and Gladys DeMars had watched Dennis over two summers wither from a husky, jolly baby to a wan little boy covered with bruises and black eyes and split lips. plans and enthusiasm With the exception of the severe burns, his health remained quite good. 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. The prosecutor had a different attitude back then, Votel said recently. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). Search above to list available cemeteries. The adoption should be approved. At first, that seemed to be the conclusion that the official inquiry would also reach. . It is essentially unconceivable to me, without a protruding object above the floor, that he could have been injured in this way, Woodburn said. Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975. He couldnt comprehend anyone torturing a kid, Peterson would explain many years later. He looks like a boy of 10. The process of adopting Dennis was completed. Dennis was lying face up in his crib, his stiffened arms raised eight inches off the bed. As he viewed the body, he thought: This boy has been murdered. Brand New. In her effort to make Dennis "right" in her eyes, Lois embarked on a series of sadistic and corporal punishments: Angered at Dennis for rejecting certain foods, she responded by placing horseradish on the food and then force-fed it to him.

 

 

. VanderWyst didnt push the matter. This is the story of a small boys murder that went undeclared and unprosecuted for 22 years in a community full of people who knew what had happened. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. This case was a drop of water in the river.. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. This woman was no crank. I was not trained in mental illness. It just made me sick. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker.
He very strongly favored the Jurgenses getting another child. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. Votel could not take the first step. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Lois had had a history of mental illnesses including depression and psychosis and was originally deemed . From the patio off his living room and the balcony off his bedroom, he could look across the lake to Manitou Island, and beyond, to the town of White Bear. Aside from the incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitals, there were many other incidents of abuse that fell under the category of sexual sadism. They said it was from a fall down the basement stairs. Donna Mae Zerwas, Lois sister-in-law, had seen all that and more. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. DENNIS JURGENS WAS ONLY 3-YEARS-0LD WHEN HIS LIFE ENDED AT THE CRUEL HANDS OF HIS MOTHER LOIS JURGENS AND SHE WOULD HAVE GOT AWAY WITH IT, BUT HIS BIOLOGICAL MOTHER JERRY SHERWOOD STARTED. . There was obviously going to be trouble, and he didnt want to get involved. Ive been doing this job too long. Martin fritz obituary. She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. Mornings there were wonderful, but the dusk was the doctors favorite time, for the sun set each evening over the water and trees, falling behind Manitou Island, leaving behind a fiery orange sky. Robert fit in well at the Jurgens household, as he learned from a young age not to get in his mother's way or cause an undue mess that would likely send Lois Jurgens into a rage. Lois was accused of murdering and beating her adopted son Dennis Jurgens in 1965 but wasn't convicted until 1987 and only spent 8 years of her sentence before being paroled in 1995. Thank you for supporting our partners, who make it possible for The Lineup to continue publishing the terrifying stories you love. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel.

 

He found bruises running the length of the body--50 to 100 of them, he would say later, the exact number hard to judge because many were overlapped. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. This browser does not support getting your location. . No, nothing struck me, the doctor replied, except for these bruises. Well, I do, he replied. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe abuse, the medical examiner did not classify the death under any of the standard classifications of accident, suicide or murder; he simply marked it "deferred". Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. She thought they had a lovely home. Instead the judge agonized, repeatedly expressing from the bench his sense of conflict and uncertainty. The boys mouth was getting full, he wasnt swallowing, so Lois put horseradish on the fork. He felt that Lois mental breakdown was not extremely serious and that she had completely recovered. . I want photos of this, he thought. The only part of him that I saw was his chest and his face. While visiting one Thanksgiving, she saw Lois force-feed Dennis, in a highchair, by shoving a fork full of food into his mouth. The official records say 1,200 children died of abuse in 1986, but many experts believe the figure would reach 5,000 if closer attention were paid to some deaths attributed to accident or blamed on sudden infant death syndrome. There was a deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. Lois Jurgens had not one good thing to say about Dennis. Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. We would like to have done something, but it was none of our business. He could be a battered child, Votel said he reasoned, and still his death could have been caused by a fall, an accident. The first few days of the police investigation by VanderWyst and Sgt. She had a pathological need for control over her environment and obsessively cleaned and tended to her home and garden, desperate to appear the picture of the perfect housewife. You dont know what to think, Donna Marlene said. At that time, the battered-child syndrome was just beginning to be recognized.

 

He knew Peterson as a man always willing to help others, as a doctor very much for his patients. Whod listen? Learn more about managing a memorial . . We have many There was something wrong here. . After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Youve got to worry about tomorrow. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. With Lois's mental health deteriorating, a hearing explores the question, should Lois and Harold Jurgens keep custody of their 5 year old adopted son, Robert after the death of this brother, Dennis. After The Murder. To this end, she forced religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at two. Many years later, Dr. Peterson would tell a grand jury that he had harbored suspicions about the burns, and also about several bruises that nurses noticed on Dennis while he was in the hospital for a full month.

Most simply remain hidden. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. Rekdahl could not so assure her. Such stories are not rare. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Year should not be greater than current year. He never wanted to say a bad word about anyone. This had required at least two hospitalizations at the Mayo Clinic and at a small psychiatric hospital called Crestview, where she had received electrical shock treatments. The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. In the decade preceding the adoption of Dennis, Lois Jurgens had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, including an extended stay at a psychiatric institution where electroconvulsive therapy was administered. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. A dead boy, though, was something else. Building a general history of abusive conduct would not be sufficient. Because they were Catholic and there were very few Catholic babies on the register, it was likely that they would have to wait quite a long time, she explained. Lois had grown up in an impoverished family of sixteen siblings and used her marriage to the middle-class Harold Jurgens as a means to improve her social standing. No prosecution was taken at that time.
The boy was dead by the time the doctor arrived at 9:35. remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood
PAUL When 3-year-old Dennis Craig Jurgens died on April 11, 1965, there were so many bruises on his body that the coroner said he stopped counting them. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. the Murderpedia project stay alive. [citation needed][3]. The cause of death was peritonitis, but the autopsy photos showed him covered in bruises with an anguished expression on his face and the coroner had not determined a mode of death, accident, natural causes, or homicide.

Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.

In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. That will make you swallow, Lois had said. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death. He wanted others to go first. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6, 1961 - April 11, 1965) was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. child abuse law.

Whod listen? This sort of thing happened back then.. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. The boy was obviously dead. Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, escalated to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement. The volume of business coming down the pipeline doesnt allow for regrets. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. According to reports from family members who eventually testified at the murder trial, Dennis turned purple from being force-fed the bitter and spicy horseradish and also having his oxygen supply cut off when Jurgens covered his mouth and nose. They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Peterson, a slender 6-footer, was a respected local doctor, a University of Minnesota medical graduate who had served in the Marines before opening a private practice in White Bear Lake in 1951. There is in the Scott County records a description of Dennis in the foster home where he lived his first year: He is solidly built, with blue eyes and blond hair. They just buried the body in St.. Oops, we were unable to send the email. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. On the other hand, she realized the improbability of being offered another Catholic baby in the near future. . he told the grand jury last year. . Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Child Abuse and Neglect in the Home | Center for Problem-Oriented Policing", "A woman was convicted Friday of third-degree murder in", Child Murder: The town that lived in silence, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Dennis_Jurgens&oldid=1138138523, This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 06:11. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. Dan Jurgens on how The Death of Superman has "withstood that test of time" By Grant DeArmitt published 27 July 2022 The creator best known for The Death of Superman explains its impact 30. the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens
In summer, Peterson caught little sunfish off his dock or from his motorboatthey had the loveliest taste, the fillet just the size of a half dollar, two good bites each.