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Grimes Sisters' Murder Re-Opened


Kowalski

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Grimes Sisters' Murder: Ray Johnson Wants To Solve Unsolved Deaths Of Barbara, Patricia Grimes

The unsolved disappearance of two Chicago teens in 1956 is generating new interest, thanks to a retired police officer and a cohort of amateur detectives, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Barbara Grimes, 15, and her 13-year-old sister, Patricia, disappeared in December 1956 after leaving their Chicago home to attend a movie. On Jan. 22, their frozen, naked bodies were discovered on a rural road southwest of the city, according to the Miami News.

A 21-year-old drifter named Bennie Bedwell told investigators that he and another man beat the girls and dumped their bodies by the roadside, the Associated Press reported, but later recanted the confession, saying he only said it so that the cops would let him go.

Bedwell then signed a statement saying he spent several days with the Grimes sisters, but they parted ways days before the girls' deaths.

Other suspects included Walter Krantz, who called police on Jan. 15 to report he had a dream about where the bodies were. When his "dream" turned out to be accurate within a mile and a half, Kranz was held for questioning, but was never charged.

Many other suspects were also interviewed, but no charges stuck, according to ChicagoNow.com.

A pathological report attributed their deaths to exposure, though one of the doctors still referred to the deaths as "brutal homicides" and told The News and Courier, "Those girls could not have died naturally."

Investigators were never able to determine exactly what happened to the Grimes sisters.

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/grimes-sisters-murder-ray-johnson-solve_n_3366069.html

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Do not know enough about this case, but this is very suspicious:

"saying he only said it so that the cops would let him go." really? A 21 year old streetwise drifter would actually believe the cops would let him go? I think his lawyers maybe told him to change his story.

he then admits this"

Bedwell then signed a statement saying he spent several days with the Grimes sisters, but they parted ways days before the girls' deaths.

A 15 and 13 year old are going to spend several days with a drifter without contacting their parents to let them know where they are? it seems from the funeral pictures there were many who mourned the loss of the girls, there is no indications of the girls running away for days before without contacting their families, so it does seem strange they would willingly spend days with a drifter.

And he said they parted ways days before the girls deaths???? how did he know when the girls died, it could have been hours ofter they parted!

This seems it could be aretiredpolice officer who had suspicions at the time, which .....at the time would have been the right time to keep investigating, but takes it on while he now has time on his hands and misses his job.

Edited by freetoroam
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Do not know enough about this case, but this is very suspicious:

"saying he only said it so that the cops would let him go." really? A 21 year old streetwise drifter would actually believe the cops would let him go? I think his lawyers maybe told him to change his story.

he then admits this"

Bedwell then signed a statement saying he spent several days with the Grimes sisters, but they parted ways days before the girls' deaths.

A 15 and 13 year old are going to spend several days with a drifter without contacting their parents to let them know where they are? it seems from the funeral pictures there were many who mourned the loss of the girls, there is no indications of the girls running away for days before without contacting their families, so it does seem strange they would willingly spend days with a drifter.

And he said they parted ways days before the girls deaths???? how did he know when the girls died, it could have been hours ofter they parted!

This seems it could be aretiredpolice officer who had suspicions at the time, which .....at the time would have been the right time to keep investigating, but takes it on while he now has time on his hands and misses his job.

I don't know, but this is definitely one of the stranger murder cases out there.....

There is a good article here, with more info about the case:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/grimes.html

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They died of exposure? Why would they even be outside naked in the cold to begin with? Had to be very cold to be frozen. That's suspicious right there to me.

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They died of exposure? Why would they even be outside naked in the cold to begin with? Had to be very cold to be frozen. That's suspicious right there to me.

It basically means they were not dead when thrown over the guardrail in the middle of nowhere off the road, but does mean they could have survived if they had been discovered in time.

from the article:

The officials in charge, Cook County Sheriff Joseph D. Lohman and Harry Glos, an aggressive investigator for Coroner Walter E. McCarron, surmised that the bodies had been lying there for several days, perhaps as far back as January 9. This had been the date of the last heavy snowfall and the frigid temperatures that followed the storm had preserved the bodies to a state that resembled how they looked at the moment of death.

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Wow, I haven't thought about this case in a while... Glad to know someone is trying to solve it.

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  • 2 months later...

I thought about this case while reading about the case of Maria Ridulph.

This crime occurred in Chicago three weeks after Ridulph's disappearance. In both cases, the victims were stabbed.

I know it's a natural inclination to try and link cases, but regardless, it's interesting to recognize similarities, especially when there's nothing else known to go on.

Apparently, Ridulph's killer had access to private transportation in order for her body to have been found over a hundred miles away from where she was missing, and McCullough- who was recently convicted for her murder- was known to travel to Chicago.

I don't recall when McCullough (in 1957, his last name was Tessier) was seriously looked at as a suspect in Ridulph's disappearance, but I find it hard to imagine that he'd kill two others a mere three weeks later if he knew he was already a suspect, but...

In one article about the trial, it was reported that McCullough's mother was said to have stated on her deathbed to her daughter, Janet: "Those two little girls, and the one that disappeared, John did it."

If that statement is true and precise, what circumstances- and who- could she have been referring to when she said "those two little girls"? The language (to me) seems to suggest that the circumstances were shared and that "those two little girls" were together.

I want to add that I realize that there were initially "two little girls" in the Ridulph case- and that appears likely what she meant- but I wouldn't necessarily take it for granted that that's what she meant.

Edited by regi
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I thought about this case while reading about the case of Maria Ridulph.

This crime occurred in Chicago three weeks after Ridulph's disappearance. In both cases, the victims were stabbed.

I know it's a natural inclination to try and link cases, but regardless, it's interesting to recognize similarities, especially when there's nothing else known to go on.

Apparently, Ridulph's killer had access to private transportation in order for her body to have been found over a hundred miles away from where she was missing, and McCullough- who was recently convicted for her murder- was known to travel to Chicago.

I don't recall when McCullough (in 1957, his last name was Tessier) was seriously looked at as a suspect in Ridulph's disappearance, but I find it hard to imagine that he'd kill two others a mere three weeks later if he knew he was already a suspect, but...

In one article about the trial, it was reported that McCullough's mother was said to have stated on her deathbed to her daughter, Janet: "Those two little girls, and the one that disappeared, John did it."

If that statement is true and precise, what circumstances- and who- could she have been referring to when she said "those two little girls"? The language (to me) seems to suggest that the circumstances were shared and that "those two little girls" were together.

I want to add that I realize that there were initially "two little girls" in the Ridulph case- and that appears likely what she meant- but I wouldn't necessarily take it for granted that that's what she meant.

That's definitely an interesting theory I have to say.

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That's definitely an interesting theory I have to say.

Well, I was simply noting observations; that there's a perp who committed a previous murder, continued to victimize females of all ages throughout his lifetime, and who might have had opportunity to have committed these or other murders.

I often find that one case leads to another because of the similarities.

I learned about the Grimes case some time ago while researching another one. The cases are sometimes referenced together because they occurred two years apart, there were multiple victims, the bodies were nude, and the cases remained unsolved for decades. Also, the victims went missing after having gone to see a movie in Chicago.

There was a conviction in that case in the '90's, and until the Ridulph case, it might have stood as the oldest case considered solved.

Edited by regi
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Correction. The Grimes case was in '56, so it occurred a year before the Ridulph case.

I found that Johnson actually has a suspect, Charles Melquist, who was convicted in the '58 murder of Bonnie Leigh Scott,15.

Melquist was questioned at the time about the Grimes case (and about that other case I mentioned which had occurred in '55) and I don't know if he was completely ruled out, and if so, why.

I'm skeptical of the new info., and I wonder how or if it supports Melquist as a suspect.

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