Seattle man gets life in prison for 1957 slaying of young girl
SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) - Friends and family who had all but given up on seeing anyone brought to justice for the murder of a young Illinois girl more than 50 years ago said they were at peace Monday after a former police officer was sentenced to life in prison.
Jack McCullough, 73, was convicted in September in one of the oldest unsolved crimes in American history to make it to trial. He was sentenced in a small town courtroom a few blocks from where Maria Ridulph played with a friend on Dec. 3, 1957, before she was grabbed, choked and stabbed to death in an alley. The 7-year-old's body was found months later, dumped in woods more than 100 miles away.
The little girl's friends and relatives didn't utter a sound or betray the slightest emotion as a silver-haired Jack McCullough stood, turned to them and proclaimed his innocence.
"I did not, did not, kill Maria Ridulph," said McCullough, who grew up in Sycamore and was 17 when Ridulph died. "It was a crime I did not, would not, could not have done."
Judge James Hallock admonished McCullough to face him, not the spectators, and a sheriff's deputy stood behind McCullough to block his view of Ridulph's relatives and the childhood friend who was left behind.
"He can say all he wants to say," Kathy Chapman, now 63, said afterward. "This finally puts this part of my life to a resting point."
Chapman had been playing with Ridulph in the snow when she ran home to get her mittens, leaving her friend with a teenager who had been giving them piggyback rides. When she returned, both were gone.
While Chapman and others had waited 55 years for justice for Ridulph, and they made it clear they weren't going to let McCullough hurt or affect them again. When the sentencing was over, they simply left their seats and walked out of court.
"I'm satisfied," said Charles Ridulph, Maria's older brother.
"This is all we could expect," Chapman added, referring to the life sentence. Illinois abolished the death penalty last year. "Now Maria is finally at peace."
Monday's hearing was the latest chapter in a case that started during a more trusting and innocent era, when people across the country and particularly in small towns like Sycamore, left doors unlocked and parents didn't give much thought to their children hopping on bikes and riding off with friends - or playing in their front yard.
No crime like this had ever happened in Sycamore, and the abduction of a child was rare enough anywhere that the before the massive search ended with the girl's body found in a forest the following April it was said President Dwight Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked for daily updates on the investigation.
In asking for the longest possible sentence, DeKalb County Assistant State's Attorney Victor Escarcida tried to capture just what McCullough did to the people in the courtroom, who were children themselves when the girl vanished.
"Jack McCullough left a lifetime of emotional wreckage in his wake," he said. "Jack McCullough made Sycamore a scary place. Now there was a true boogeyman living among them."
But nobody knew it was McCullough. Though he was one of more than 100 people who were briefly suspects, he had what seemed like a solid alibi. On the day Ridulph vanished, he told investigators, he'd been traveling to Chicago for a medical exam before joining the Air Force.
McCulllough spent years in the military, first in the Air Force and then in the Army. He eventually settled in Seattle, working as a Washington state police officer.
McCullough might have lived out his life quietly, but on her deathbed in 1994, his mother told McCullough's half-sister, Janet Tessier, that she'd lied to police when she supported her son's alibi.
Once a new investigation was launched, authorities went to Chapman, Ridulph's childhood friend, and showed her an old photograph if McCullough. A half century later, she identified him as the teenager who came up to them that snowy day and introduced himself as "Johnny."
Chapman and Janet Tessier both testified at trial.
McCullough did not. On Monday, he pointed to a white box that he said contained 4,000 pages of FBI documents that he said would prove he was not in Sycamore when Ridulph disappeared. His attorneys had argued during the trial that the material supported McCullough's alibi, but Hallock ruled it inadmissible because the people in the documents were dead and could not be cross-examined. On Monday, McCullough's attorney said there would be an appeal and that the FBI documents would be part of that appeal.
McCullough, who suffers from heart and blood pressure problems, also was sentenced to five years for kidnapping - the maximum sentence for that crime in 1957. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years, his attorney said.
Jack McCullough, 73, was convicted in September in one of the oldest unsolved crimes in American history to make it to trial. He was sentenced in a small town courtroom a few blocks from where Maria Ridulph played with a friend on Dec. 3, 1957, before she was grabbed, choked and stabbed to death in an alley. The 7-year-old's body was found months later, dumped in woods more than 100 miles away.
The little girl's friends and relatives didn't utter a sound or betray the slightest emotion as a silver-haired Jack McCullough stood, turned to them and proclaimed his innocence.
"I did not, did not, kill Maria Ridulph," said McCullough, who grew up in Sycamore and was 17 when Ridulph died. "It was a crime I did not, would not, could not have done."
Judge James Hallock admonished McCullough to face him, not the spectators, and a sheriff's deputy stood behind McCullough to block his view of Ridulph's relatives and the childhood friend who was left behind.
"He can say all he wants to say," Kathy Chapman, now 63, said afterward. "This finally puts this part of my life to a resting point."
Chapman had been playing with Ridulph in the snow when she ran home to get her mittens, leaving her friend with a teenager who had been giving them piggyback rides. When she returned, both were gone.
While Chapman and others had waited 55 years for justice for Ridulph, and they made it clear they weren't going to let McCullough hurt or affect them again. When the sentencing was over, they simply left their seats and walked out of court.
"I'm satisfied," said Charles Ridulph, Maria's older brother.
"This is all we could expect," Chapman added, referring to the life sentence. Illinois abolished the death penalty last year. "Now Maria is finally at peace."
Monday's hearing was the latest chapter in a case that started during a more trusting and innocent era, when people across the country and particularly in small towns like Sycamore, left doors unlocked and parents didn't give much thought to their children hopping on bikes and riding off with friends - or playing in their front yard.
No crime like this had ever happened in Sycamore, and the abduction of a child was rare enough anywhere that the before the massive search ended with the girl's body found in a forest the following April it was said President Dwight Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked for daily updates on the investigation.
In asking for the longest possible sentence, DeKalb County Assistant State's Attorney Victor Escarcida tried to capture just what McCullough did to the people in the courtroom, who were children themselves when the girl vanished.
"Jack McCullough left a lifetime of emotional wreckage in his wake," he said. "Jack McCullough made Sycamore a scary place. Now there was a true boogeyman living among them."
But nobody knew it was McCullough. Though he was one of more than 100 people who were briefly suspects, he had what seemed like a solid alibi. On the day Ridulph vanished, he told investigators, he'd been traveling to Chicago for a medical exam before joining the Air Force.
McCulllough spent years in the military, first in the Air Force and then in the Army. He eventually settled in Seattle, working as a Washington state police officer.
McCullough might have lived out his life quietly, but on her deathbed in 1994, his mother told McCullough's half-sister, Janet Tessier, that she'd lied to police when she supported her son's alibi.
Once a new investigation was launched, authorities went to Chapman, Ridulph's childhood friend, and showed her an old photograph if McCullough. A half century later, she identified him as the teenager who came up to them that snowy day and introduced himself as "Johnny."
Chapman and Janet Tessier both testified at trial.
McCullough did not. On Monday, he pointed to a white box that he said contained 4,000 pages of FBI documents that he said would prove he was not in Sycamore when Ridulph disappeared. His attorneys had argued during the trial that the material supported McCullough's alibi, but Hallock ruled it inadmissible because the people in the documents were dead and could not be cross-examined. On Monday, McCullough's attorney said there would be an appeal and that the FBI documents would be part of that appeal.
McCullough, who suffers from heart and blood pressure problems, also was sentenced to five years for kidnapping - the maximum sentence for that crime in 1957. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years, his attorney said.
I am thinking that we are not being supplied with all of the evidence here, at least I hope not. If that is all they have I think it seems a little sparse to convict or even arrest him. If they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did in fact commit this horrible crime, then they should fry him.
What on earth was the evidence? This sounds like a mob lynching. They wouldn't let him prove he was not in the town? They charged him based on mom lying about his alibi? I'm sorry, I hope they did catch the guy, but this does NOT sound like a fair trial!
I'm not sure the punishment fits the crime. He made a mistake as a very young man, yet, he lived his life helping others in the community. I don't see where that fact was taken into consideration.
@mylittleknownviews There are plenty of reasons to question this ruling, but are you seriously equating the brutal murder of a 7-year-old little girl to a "mistake"? Whoops, I shoplifted a candy bar. Whoops, I just kidnapped, (raped?), murdered a child and then hid the body. Really?
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If he did it, he deserves to be executed - regardless of what he did with the rest of his life after stealing the life of a child.Â
This one just don't sound kosher to me.  We may not have all the facts that were revealed duing the trial.  Any time that evidence isn't allowed to be submitted has always offended me.  Especially in case where someone can be executed or sentenced to life in prison.  I for one could not put very much credibility in someones testimony on something that happened over 50 years ago and that one giving the testimony was just 7 years old at the time.
I am one of those rare individuals whom possessed nearly total recall.  It  didn't matter whether it was something that I  read or something that may have been presented in a class  It wasn't  uncommon for me to get a perfect score on a test.  Not because I was smart, far it be the case, it was because I had nearly total recall that stayed  with me for quite awhile.  Just 30 years after I finished Grade school (6th Grade) my  wife had gotten into my school photo album and I could only remember  one individual who happened to be a very close friend.  Going all the way back to the first and second grade there there was no one that I could remember or even looked familiar to me.  There are many events that I do recall, all of which were significant events.  HIGH SCHOOL MATES there are many who I am familiar with even up to present that I am still in touch with to this day, but  there are many who I don't recognize when going through the photos in my class books.  I revealed this recall ability that I possess to demonstrate how unlikely it was that a woman could identify someone she only had a short time contact with when she was seven years old. I find that incredible and very unlikely.  From what has been revealed to us, I FEAR AN INNOCENT MAN HAS BEEN CONVICTED HERE ON THE SLIMMEST OF EVIDENCE THAT REALLY DIDN'T WARRANT A TRIAL.  BETTER FOR A GUILTY MAN TO GO FREE THEN AN INNOCENT MAN GO TO PRISON FOR A CRIME HE  DIDN'T COMMIT.
 @c I've followed this case for some time now -- there's a lot that's been left out of this recounting. After all is said and done, McCullough is guilty.For instance, the date that McCullough claimed to be traveling to Chicago is contradicted by a train ticket. And he was identified, at the time of Maria Ridulph's disappearance, as "Johnny". That's why he became a "person of interest" -- although, that isn't what suspects were called at that time.The scariest thing to me? OK, a couple of scary things -- his mother protected him! I totally get protecting your child, but not from murder. How could she let the parents of that little girl live in hell, not knowing who killed their child?The other scary thing is that once a person has killed, they all too often kill again. No doubt Washington State authorities are looking at local unsolved murders.
@c could it be possible...that they gave her a "lineup" of old photos of young boys from that era without giving her any info on the subject and she picked out his photo? The article doesn't state those things but i'm curious if they did that to rule out bias.
It doesn't seem like justice after fifty years of being free. I guess it's better late than never.
Why would a 17 year old known as John "Tessier" later change his last name to "McCullough"?  Men don't usually do that unless they're trying to hide from something. And kg, don't kid yourself. There are lots and lots of documented cases of teens who kill, many just to see what it would feel like to do it.   Â
So what's the motive? I wasn't born anywhere near the 1950s but going a limb to say that 17 year olds weren't as crazy as today's teenagers and all of sudden kill a 7 year old girl. Not saying it's not possible but I really can''t think of a plausible reason for it
As a retired law enforcement officer, I can tell you it most probably was an attempted sex crime. That in cases like this, is almost always the motive.
who's to say that rape was not the motive, the body was not found immediately, and they probably could not determine if she was raped
 @kg That's simply not true. Read up on Mary Bell, she was a British girl who murdered and mutilated two boys when she was between 10 and 11 in the 1960s.  Kids and teenagers and people in general have been savage and done evil things since the beginning of time. Modern day is no different. They didn't just lock down on this guy for no reason for a crime this old, they had to have been sure he committed it.
If he's guilty, then I'd be among the first to call for his execution, but:
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1. FBI documents that support the defendants alibi ruled inadmissible because the witnesses can't be cross-examined
2. Hearsay testimony of an alleged deathbed confession. Can the mother be cross-examined? What does it prove - even if she did lie?
3. An identification from a witness who was approximately 7-yrs old when the crime took place, 54 years ago. I can remember my friend's and family's faces from when I was 7, but someone I met only once and for a short time? Even taking into account the trauma of the event, it is questionable if the identification is accurate.
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Wow. Unless there's more evidence than that, I'm not convinced. It all seems like reasonable doubt to me.
I have a feeling this guy did NOT do it.
I'd like to see a lie-detector test on this guy. Not that it is admissible, but just to see if he twitches. Something is just really off about this case.Â
Hallock ruled it inadmissible because the people in the documents were dead and could not be cross-examined. there reaallly needs to be an exception this case seems biased and it seems that they only wanted an escape goat If He is innocent they will be cursed for accusing an innocent man. If he is truly guilty then why suppress the documents?
 @lee986321 There is a case right now in the neighboring state of Missouri of a 19 year old guy who was changed with murder and is serving a 40 year sentence for a crime he did not commit.  This young man's name is Ryan Ferguson.  All the evidence, everything proves he was no where around, he was not involved in anyway, shape or form.  Yet he still is sitting in prison.  On an appeal, those inadmissible documents would be allowed.  So far for Ryan, everyone has recanted there stories and admitted they lied.  I know I'm jumping around, but there are some interesting circumstances which seem to ring the same.  This man has proof he was not there, that should be enough.  You can't rely on identification of someone who was 7 years old at the time and is now in their 50's, to remember that clearly.  This sounds fishy to me.  I have reasonable doubt on this one, just like so many have reasonable doubt on Ryan.  Even the juror's have admitted if they had seen the evidence that had been covered up by the District Attorney, Ryan would not be in prison today.  Sadly, there are cases like this that happen all the time.  Justice will be served (sooner or later), when the real killer(s) are found of this little girl and in Ryan's case, or when they stand at the Judgement Bar before Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  There will be no lies then.
"The defense argued during the trial that the material supported McCullough's alibi that he was not in Sycamore the day of the crime, but Hallock ruled it inadmissible because the people in the documents were dead and could not be cross-examined"
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I hope this man wasn't just railroaded by a corrupt system.
 @negativerep ~  Yes, that part bothers me, too... somehow, it seems to be just a little too "convenient"... Â
Like you, I hope this wasn't just a "railroad job" in the interests of closing a very old case... Â Â
It's heartbreaking to think of what that poor little 7-year old girl endured. I hope this conviction brings some closure to the remaining friends and family who lost a precious loved one.
@DeaconBugg It is equally as heartbreaking what her friend, Kathy Chapman, has had to live with all these years, as well as the victims family. Just sad all the way around. At least justice has come for little Maria, at last.Â