Petersons house sat precisely on the site of the old Wildwood Amusement Park. The night Dennis died, Robert was riding his trike in the basement, and all the sudden he heard Dennis screaming. This was the first child-abuse case he had handled. 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. 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". Its kind of hard to believe., ``How can you take a babys life like that and beat it for two years and then walk free? she said. The childs death occurred before there were state-mandated sentencing guidelines, and Thomson argued that she should have served less time. 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. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? Dennis had fallen and hit his head on the wet basement floor the day before, the Jurgenses said, and he also had been suffering from a bad cold. Top Rated Seller. Superman: Lois and Clark by Dan Jurgens | Goodreads There was a large, swollen scrape on the forehead. At that time, the battered-child syndrome was just beginning to be recognized. Man held is death of retarded foster child, Minneapolis Star, May 21, 1971. Peterson did not give us any conclusive answers about the condition of Dennis or about his death, VanderWyst wrote in his report for that night. Rekdahl did know that Lois had a history of psychiatric problems involving a nervous breakdown in the early 1950s. But neither the judge nor anyone else was willing to face the implications of such findings. None.. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. 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. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, three-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. From behind their curtains and blinds, the Jurgenses neighbors on Gardenette Drive had been watching the comings and goings all morning with mounting interest. I can recall seeing some, but its not very clear. The coroner noted there was evidence of adult human bite marks on his penis, and scarring all over his scrotum; he was also found to be wearing two diapers and a pair of rubber pants at the age of 3+12 years. It was as if the authorities had found a way to try Lois Jurgens for Dennis death without calling it a murder. White Bear Lake, a picturesque American town where kids freely ride bikes, play two-square and parents throw neighborhood BBQsand where 3 year old Dennis Jurgens died on Palm Sunday 1965. Lois had talked to them all about her toilet training methods. To the casual observer, the Jurgens seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. They just buried the body in St.. Ivey's Lois Jurgens is a woman so proud and righteous, her sense of morality . 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. In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head, and scarce chance that he had died from a fall on the flat basement floor. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later. . For that reason, Dennis, a week after his birth, was baptized a Catholic. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. The next day, Rekdahl phoned the Jurgenses family physician, Dr. Roy Peterson, who was treating Dennis. 'Convergence' makes Superman a super-dad - USA TODAY 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. People were not then inclined to believe that middle-class families in suburban homes killed their children. The boy was dead by the time the doctor arrived at 9:35. We thought it would be no use.. Lois Jurgens Obituary (2019) - Petersburg, IL - Legacy.com The only witness to Lois's final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was 5 years old at the time. Dennis lay in the ground at St. Marys Cemetery, no name given to his death. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. Even so, doctors do not usually see third-degree burns in an area that isnt covered by clothing. Judge Archie Gingold, in his findings at the close of the hearing, ruled that Dennis had been subjected to many incidences of cruel and severe abuse. Lois attended cosmetology school in Des Moines, Iowa. ?Tadeusz: I never remember pretty women. There was a deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip. Late in August, Lois had called Rekdahl to report the matter. .. So it was that Dennis Jurgens death resulted not in a murder prosecution but, rather, in a juvenile court hearing over custody of his brother, Robert.

 

VanderWyst climbed into his patrol car and backed down the Jurgens driveway at 11:48 A.M. VanderWysts departure did not go unnoticed. Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. Drag images here or select from your computer for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens memorial. 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. Thank you very much in advance. Whod listen? They had checked on him throughout the night. But this death didnt look as though it was from natural causes. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses.

 

Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst. Peter Korolchuk yielded a good deal of information. On bare skin, the heat just flashes off. . Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens was an American convicted murderer. There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. HH She always proclaimed her innocence. Harold (Harry) Jurgens, 76 of Filley passed away at Gold Crest Retirement Center in Adams on January 7, 2018. It was highly unlikely that a fall on a flat surface could have caused this. In the 1960s, the term child abuse had not yet been coined[citation needed][2] and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers, was required to report suspicions. The prosecutor wasnt getting help from the White Bear Lake police--her brother was on the force. They carried assorted life insurance polices worth $10,000. all about me: Murder of Dennis Jurgens - Blogger VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. The word homicide remained unspoken. Try again later. Then there were the neighbors and relatives who had seen incidents and evidence of abuse. But, at a hearing just one month after Dennis death, Peterson, when asked if there was anything unusual about the burn accident, said: No, not in particular.. The hearing would prove to be a curious affair. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head. She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens Obituary We are sad to announce that on June 13, 2022 we had to say goodbye to Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens of Arvada, Colorado. Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast | a podcast by murdershelfbookclub When it froze, hed hang lights on the seven surrounding elm trees, put out snow sculptures of bears and seals tinted with food coloring, and invite all the neighborhood kids to join his own two children in skating and hockey games. She was 61 when she went to prison and served eight years before being paroled.. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. The welfare department case work was very limited. Dr. Peterson said he saw nothing unusual in Dennis life or death. . He wanted others to go first. This, coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois Jurgens. No, she explained. In the early 1980s, Jerry Sherwood went looking for the newborn son she gave up for adoption 20 years prior. When Dennis messed his bed, she said, she forced the boy to eat his feces. 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. DC artist Dan Jurgens shares an image of an unused Electric Blue Superman design from 1996, reminiscing about what might have been. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota More Alchetron Topics References Lois Jurgens Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA Topics The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Toz (film) Steve McAnespie Donna Mae Zerwas, Lois sister-in-law, had seen all that and more. Unused Superman Art Reveals a Rejected Electric Costume Design The official cause of death was Peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel. Lois is survived by her. . he told the grand jury last year. Ive been doing this job too long. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. conviction
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. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). View Obituary & Service Information When he arrived at the Jurgens home, though, hed realized all that was pointless. Weve updated the security on the site. Lois Jurgens, it turns out, was from the start a poor parental bet. The next day, Dennis brother, Robert, was picked up and taken to a local hospital, on order of Juvenile Court Judge Archie Gingold. 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. How a Group of Desperate Comics Creators Hatched Doomsday - Vulture I have never seen anything like that done.. They saw the hearse sitting in the Jurgenses driveway, and a big blue convertible, and the police car parked awkwardly, askew, as if the officer had been in a hurry. She had a story to tell. Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. ``I prayed for eight years that shed die in there. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. 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. She committed one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. Arnold L Jurgens Obituary Visitation Funeral Information A Mrs. Charles reported a car blocking a driveway at 823 5th St. A Mrs. Krugger reported that children were damming the street at Elm and Ebba (there had been heavy rain the night before). Jerry took her case to the White Bear Lake police department and then to the local media. 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. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said.

I think my son is dying, Harold Jurgens had told the doctor on the phone that morning. Throughout the years of frequent abuse, it has been reported that while Harold Jurgens made little effort to curb his wife's abuse of young Dennis, he personally never mistreated the boy. They had a son--a 2-year-old named Robert, whom they had adopted at birth through private channels. 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.

The victim

The psychiatrist also observed that Lois had an obsession about order and cleanliness. Sherwood eventually located Dennis's death certificate; because the death was categorized as "deferred", the case was still technically open. At the funeral home, Lois Jurgens brother, Lloyd Zerwas, came to pay his respects. The defense picked the doctor, and set parameters on what questions he could ask. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis. . Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 - May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. She was right. convicted of murder Los Angeles, ICE detainees allege retaliation for speaking about medical conditions at Otay Mesa center, Downtown L.A stabbing sends six to hospital; 1 arrested, San Diego Roman Catholic diocese facing yet another lawsuit from its insurance company, K-Pop isnt the only hot ticket in Koreatown how trot is captivating immigrants, Los Angeles is suddenly awash in waterfalls. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965.

they figured. Dennis & Robert All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Due to this frequent starvation, Dennis gained only three pounds in a two and a half-year period as he aged from one year old to three and a half years old.

 

The two also teased what's in store for readers . The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. That doctor (Peterson) also presented problems--he was a typical doctor, couldnt believe his patient was killed.. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis.

Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. . Why werent his hands burned--wouldnt he have instinctively reached down to protect himself? Forever' w/ the Innhold. In 1984, Jurgens was the artist for the Sun Devils limited series (July 1984 - June 1985), with writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. The process of adopting Dennis was completed. He knew that parents otherwise free of major symptoms of psychotic illness could abuse children. Dennis was now fully accepted and loved in the family, she decided. Robert lived with other relatives, ultimately settling for two years with a distant cousin before he returned home. 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. And her release from the states prison for women in Shakopee only angered the biological mother whose search for her child led to the discovery of the crime. Woodburn could find no subcutaneous fat at all, something everyone normally has in varying degrees. Four days after he drafted this analysis, on April 30, he and VanderWyst were pulled off the case. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death. Youve got to worry about tomorrow. They had been able to discuss Lois weaknesses, even her past mental depression, without Lois becoming too nervous or upset or defensive. Family members linked to this person will appear here. ). Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens. home Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. Lois JURGENS - Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers Dennis nose was blood-red--VanderWyst thought it looked as if you just wiped it once more youd probably take the rest of the skin away. The same day that she spoke to the priest--Aug. 30, 1962--Rekdahl informed the Jurgenses that they were going to be approved for a second adoption. Lois Jurgens had not one good thing to say about Dennis. [citation needed][3]. Votel could not take the first step. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. Murder of Dennis Jurgens Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org The autopsy report mentioned bruises head to toe. In fact, they remain strangely forgotten. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He is able to turn himself over and is extremely strong, almost ready to stand by himself. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Almost immediately, Lois felt a severe, obsessive dislike of the child, who was a normal, rambunctious, and spirited toddlerunlike Robert, who in Lois' eyes, was the "good son." In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood.

She was cleared of second-degree . 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. The term is relative. During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility. Other than that, nothing remarkable.. Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising. . Rekdahl, who graduated from St. Pauls Hamline University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in social work, had been in adoption services for less than one year. Its not unusual, the doctor said. If you throw up, you are going to eat it. Heroes abound now in White Bear Lake, visible and proud of their roles in unraveling the mystery of Dennis death. Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. The neighbors talked among themselves that afternoon. 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. His vision was a hulking humanoid creature with massive muscles and chunks of bone . A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. 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 .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3+12 years of age. The psychiatrist thought it fortunate that Lois Jurgens could not get pregnant because a child would only compound and complicate her emotional disturbances. Lois walks past the TV cameras on her way to the courtroom on January 30, 1987, to plead not guilty to three counts of murder. Lois was mean to DennisCam Brass and Donna Neely and the othersCam Brass and Donna Neely and the others understood that much.

Star Tribune photo by Donald Black. Lois Jurgens, 62, of Stillwater, chewed gum impassively as the jury announced its verdict, finding her guilty of third-degree murder in the 1965 death of her adopted son, Dennis. They said it was from a fall down the basement stairs. Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens Obituary (2022) | Arvada, Colorado It was not his job to do anything other than pronounce the boy dead. The way Lindholm figured it, instead of prosecuting Lois Jurgens for murder, lets move to take Robert away. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens to show support. This post is sponsored by Open Road Media. There is no evidence we are dealing with any people here who have any demon-like motives. Obituary. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. Homicide was not the issue at the hearing. Opens in a new window or tab. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. We wanted to tell someone, she said. 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. . Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. The victim There was obviously going to be trouble, and he didnt want to get involved. . Dennis had thrown up then.

Though autopsy photos showed Dennis body was covered in bruises at the time of his death, the coroner never declared it an accidentor rather, what it really was: murder. Clayton Robinson Jr., a former prosecutor in the case, said Jurgens should not have been released yet. Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, escalated to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement. Harold was infertile and the Jurgenses desperately wanted to adopt another child.

 

Please try again later. He had lived in this home since 1953, and it gave him much pleasure. Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks Break Down Young Jon Kent's Return in Lois My biggest feeling was that it was a sad situation and I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. When you judge a case, you dont do so in a vacuum, Lindholm would explain years later in an interview. Its so expensive.My friend, after twenty thousand years murder is still a business thats mainly in the hands of amateurs.Orson Welles (19151985), Its almost as if they were saying, You live your life, and well live ours.Richard Fielding, and Lee Sholem. 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. Eventually Lois Jurgens was arraigned, and her identity released by the media. Lois Jurgens.

They felt sad, and also naggingly disturbed. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. How in the heck could that happen? Nonetheless, when Harold Jurgens called three days later and asked when they could get their boy, Rekdahl and the Scott County officials allowed the Jurgenses to take Dennis for a preplacement visit. 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. Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. This was the situation that Gerane Rekdahl, a Ramsey County welfare case worker, found when she visited the Jurgens home on March 1, 1962. Lois Jurgens Biography | HowOld.co 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. . Learn how and when to remove this template message, "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jurgens&oldid=1133446799, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 21:13. Oops, something didn't work. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. All I could do was shake my head.. Published Jan 18, 2023. There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. The coroner noted there was evidence of adult, human bite marks on his penis and scarring all over his scrotum; he was also found to be wearing two diapers and a pair of rubber pants at the age of three and one-half years. . . Verify and try again. Murder of Dennis Jurgens - Wikipedia He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child," and made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. The Jurgens' adoption of Robert seemed successful in the eyes of authorities, who began to consider the possibility that they might adopt more children through official channels.
Hobart High School Football Coach, Land For Sale In Costa Rica By Owner, Articles L