STORY: "Man wrongly convicted in 1957 Sycamore killing of 7-year-old declared innocent by judge," by reporter Clifford Ward, published by The Chicago Tribune on April 12, 2017.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Jack McCullough was convicted in 2012 of murdering 7-year-old Maria Ridulph, of Sycamore, in 1957. He was declared innocent by a DeKalb County judge on April 12, 2017, after his release from prison the year before.
GIST: "Former Sycamore resident Jack McCullough was granted a
certificate of innocence Wednesday in connection with the 1957 slaying
of a local girl, but the ruling may not have settled questions about
perhaps the most enduring crime story in DeKalb County history. Judge
William Brady ruled that McCullough had presented enough evidence at a
hearing to earn the certificate. McCullough, 77, had been tried and
convicted of the crime, but the conviction later was vacated and the
charges were dropped. The case remains unsolved. McCullough testified last week that the certificate would help
prove he's not the "monster" who abducted 7-year-old Maria Ridulph off a
snowy Sycamore street corner on the night of Dec. 3, 1957, and later
killed her. "We hope this will put a painful chapter behind for
Jack," Aisha Davis, an attorney for the Exoneration Project, said after
the ruling.........He
was a retiree working as a security guard when police arrested him in
2011 and charged him with killing the Ridulph girl more than a
half-century before. He was convicted at a 2012 bench trial, and an
appeals court affirmed the guilty finding. In
2016, he was serving a life sentence when then-State's Attorney.
Richard Schmack said he believed that McCullough had been wrongly
convicted. That sparked a series of court actions that led to
McCullough's conviction being vacated and Schmack dropping the charges
in April 2016. In his ruling, the judge cautioned that he was not
retrying the case, but only deciding whether McCullough had met the
requirements to be issued the innocence certificate. Brady
recounted some of the evidence put forward in last week's hearing: an
expert who cast doubt on the credibility of an eyewitness identification
of McCullough made a half-century after the crime, and old
investigative reports that placed McCullough in Rockford when the girl
disappeared. Reports are generally inadmissible as trial evidence,
and the documents compiled by investigators in 1957 had not been
allowed at McCullough's trial. Maria and a friend had been playing
on a neighborhood street corner when a man walked up and identified
himself as Johnny. Maria's friend left Maria and Johnny for a few
minutes, and when she returned both were gone. The girl's disappearance
was national news and drew the attention of the FBI. Maria's body was
found in April 1958 in Jo Daviess County, but no one was ever charged. After
receiving new information in 2008, the Illinois State Police reopened
the investigation, and Maria's childhood friend identified an old photo
of McCullough as being "Johnny." In 1957, the 18-year-old McCullough
lived with family in Sycamore, and was known as John Tessier. At
least week's hearing, McCullough said that on the day Maria went missing
he had been in Chicago attempting to enlist in the Air Force. He said
he taken a train to Rockford, interacted with three Air Force recruiters
there, and then placed a collect phone call to have his father drive to
Rockford to pick him up. Police in 1957 had corroborated McCullough's account, his attorneys said."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-jack-mccullough-innocent-20170412-story.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-jack-mccullough-innocent-20170412-story.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/
