They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. This drove Lois further into madness, as she felt she needed children to complete the "perfect picture" of her life. Barry Siegels chilling true crime book, A Death in White Bear Lake, chronicles the chilling case of a family from a picturesque town in Minnesota, and the cover up of a horrific crime that lasted for 20 years. 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. We have set your language to . Korolchuk wondered: Why wasnt a doctor called to the home in the day before Dennis died, when he must have been extremely and obviously ill? 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. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. 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. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134346102/lois-germaine_josephine-jurgens. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? Lois was mean to DennisCam Brass and Donna Neely and the othersCam Brass and Donna Neely and the others understood that much. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens was an American convicted murderer. 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. Lois Jurgens had been sentenced to up to 25 years for the 1965 slaying of 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens to show support. How could a kid fall down the steps and die? When they cleared land for his basement, theyd found old rolls of amusement park ticketsthree rides for a nickel. child abuse law.

the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens
The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel wich even 1965 was treatable if he'd been brought to the hospital . To the casual observer, the Jurgens seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Lois Jurgens was convicted in May 1987 of murder (by abuse) in the death 22 years earlier of her adopted son, Dennis. angelizdsplace.com/. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. Try again later. Instead the judge agonized, repeatedly expressing from the bench his sense of conflict and uncertainty. Stanley Wiatros was one of them. .. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. Lois Jurgens, 93, of Arvada, Colorado, formerly of Malvern and Glenwood, Iowa, passed away June 13, 2022. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. Jurgens and Weeks joined CBR to discuss launching Lois & Clark 2 and spoilers for its first installment. There was a problem getting your location. . Deferred, Votel had written. She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. They were independent of each other. Theres nothing worse, Peterson had thought, than seeing a dead child. Star Tribune photo by Donald Black. During her several postplacement visits to the Jurgens home in the following, probationary year, Rekdahl increasingly came to judge the placement a success. They covered the face, the head, the arms. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered landmarks in the history of child abuse law. Lois had a question: Would Father Riser write a letter in support of their present effort to adopt another child, a third child? Notes References A Death in White Bear Lakeby Barry Siegel. When Lois found him gasping and gurgling at 9 a.m., she promptly called Dr. Peterson. Several relatives now told the investigators they would not sign statements. In addition, Lois took to tying Dennis' limbs to the bedposts to keep him in bed, and tied him to the toilet to force a bowel movement. They had a son--a 2-year-old named Robert, whom they had adopted at birth through private channels. A few wondered how the Jurgenses had ever been allowed to adopt children. . Judge Gingold would not back down either. But this death didnt look as though it was from natural causes. Ive been doing this job too long. People were not then inclined to believe that middle-class families in suburban homes killed their children. He would testify that he had been suspicious enough to call the welfare department. The victim He is extremely alert.

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.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . I just examined him to see that he was in fact dead. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. She was right. Whod listen? . 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. Years later, the attorney representing Roberts interests at the 1965 custody hearing would still remember those photos. The investigation, trial, and Soon after, Jerry Puckett dropped her plan to convert--but by then Dennis was already registered as Catholic on the adoption rolls. No one here is being punitive, Gingold told the Jurgenses and their attorney from the bench. None.. 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. She knew he had high school and one year of college behind him, and that he was an only child with strong bonds to his mother. It just made me sick. With the advent of highways, White Bear Lake has become a suburb of St. Paul, about 12 miles to the south. No prosecution was taken at that time. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. . 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. This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit. There he had been loved and well cared for by an experienced foster mother. Prosecutors contended little Dennis died after numerous beatings and abuse, which including making the child eat food covered with horseradish and tying him spread-eagle in his crib. The volume of business coming down the pipeline doesnt allow for regrets. There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. Jurgens who says he still has the yellow legal pad on which he did his quick sketch was the victor. We reached a point where we could not find any new leads or pick up any new information . When Harold took him to the bathroom at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, Dennis had seemed fine. the Murderpedia project stay alive. Failed to remove flower. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Free shipping for many products! Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. The Jurgenses were delighted. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. A system error has occurred. Problems arose within the police department as well. conviction
Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. . Votel went through living hell, one local judge said. VanderWyst drove the mile to his house in silence, the young boy sitting beside him. Retrieved 12 February 2015. Her features were still attractive, although the years had added a certain hardness and fleshiness. Maybe we can get more evidence from there. I would question him. Lois Jurgens reaction to Dennis during the visit was less than enthusiastic. Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. She was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and was paroled in 1995.

 

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. [2] She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . Try again later. Donna Mae, about 5 feet away, watched in horror as Lois force-fed that vomit to him, made him eat it. This woman was no crank. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. The next morning, six coroners jurors were asked to view the body of a dead boy, and to remember everything they saw. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. Harold told relatives he was going to be out of town the weekend of April 10 and 11, 1965. A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. Meanwhile, Dennis was getting whirlpool baths every day. I was not trained in mental illness. There was a time when White Bear Lake was an exclusive watering hole for people from Chicago as well as the Twin Cities. Years later, Peterson would say much the same to the police who were reopening the case, but he did not do so in 1965.

 

He couldnt comprehend anyone torturing a kid, Peterson would explain many years later. Drag images here or select from your computer for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens memorial. The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. Try again later. The roller coaster had been just to the west of his lot, the water slide just to the east, and the dance pavilion exactly where his house now stood, the old foundation still there below his lawn and patio. From the bench, he said he hoped that they could find something to explain the mistreatment of Dennis. Lois Jurgens was the infamous subject of one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota.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.. Jurgens was one of sixteen children. He could never forget how Lois Jurgens looked at those photos stoically, showing no emotion. 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. He assured that it was going on, that this would be his responsibility to get the information, bring it back to me so I could complete the certificate. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. Lois Jurgens, it turns out, was from the start a poor parental bet. The doctor did not want to be there. They beat my baby to death. Harvey had been a rookie cop here in 1965, but Sherwoods story triggered no memories. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. Her mother having long ago disappeared, Jerry Puckett had bounced among assorted relatives and county homes for girls. She thought Dennis too aggressive, his wild behavior quite unlike Roberts. Failed to delete memorial. His vision was a hulking humanoid creature with massive muscles and chunks of bone . Four days after he drafted this analysis, on April 30, he and VanderWyst were pulled off the case. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police. plans and enthusiasm This, coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois Jurgens. Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising. He never wanted to say a bad word about anyone. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the . 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. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. As Peterson followed Wildwood Avenue west along the lakes shore toward Gardenette Park, hed rehearsed in his mind the resuscitation techniques he knew from the rescue squad. 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. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. 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." At the funeral, a crown of roses rested on Dennis head. Retrieved 12 February 2015. The defense picked the doctor, and set parameters on what questions he could ask. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. The White Bear Lake police log for the morning of April 11, 1965--Palm Sunday--included the sort of events to be expected in such a town. . I remember very clearly the pathologist coming in and saying it had to be a blow, not a fall, but I think the prosecutor felt he couldnt prove it, and I was on the same wavelength as the prosecutor. 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. This story changed a lot about the Superman line of booksincluding introducing iconic '90s heroes like Superboy and Steeland DC Comics writ large. Lois Jurgens. When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Sherwood also told D'Angelo that Dana Ivey's interpretation of Lois Jurgens is eerily accurate. they figured. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later. Late in August, Lois had called Rekdahl to report the matter. We have many There appeared to be a number of discrepancies in the Jurgenses story, he noted. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. When she was 17 and living in a juvenile home, she said, she gave birth to a boy, Dennis, who was quickly taken from her and eventually adopted by a family named Jurgens who lived in White Bear Lake.

 

This was a murder. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. 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. There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. 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. The next day, Dennis brother, Robert, was picked up and taken to a local hospital, on order of Juvenile Court Judge Archie Gingold. Man held is death of retarded foster child, Minneapolis Star, May 21, 1971. 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. 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. Learn more about merges. He knew that parents otherwise free of major symptoms of psychotic illness could abuse children. She saw Harold, then 40, as a tall, rather swarthy man of German and Norwegian extraction, with dark brown hair and eyes. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . Fittingly for a major anniversary like . I have several children about that age with this same problem. They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. Brand New. On April 26, Korolchuk drafted an analysis of the information they had gathered. I have never seen anything like that done.. That was not binding on the prosecutor, but the defense attorney would zero in on this. Basically, she thought that Lois was content and happy, especially with Robert. 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. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter and get terrifying tales delivered straight to your inbox. He returned to the Jurgens home in time to meet the coroners investigator, Saveiro Pitera. Lois Jurgens released after serving eight years, The Winona Daily News, June, 7, 1995. VanderWyst was not close social friends with the Jurgenses, but he knew them well enough to greet them on the street. She was cleared of second-degree . 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. That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. Still, she had never forgotten the case. They are good people. 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. 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. At this time there are a number of persons yet to be contacted who supposedly have information and are relatives of the family, Korolchuk wrote on Thursday, April 15, four days after the death. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Pitera stared at the body. based on information from your browser. During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility. Rekdahl suggested that if she had negative feelings, it would be best for them not to take the child. 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. Well, I do, he replied. Sadly, the mother-son reunion was not meant to be; Jerry's child had died just before his fourth birthday. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. Korolchuk would never get the chance to answer such questions. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. Woman Tortures Adoptive Son To Death Lois Jurgens (40) was variously described as both short-tempered and vindictive by her neighbours and others who encountered her in the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and it was well known that she experienced bouts of severe depression and psychosis. Peter Korolchuk yielded a good deal of information. If Votel had called it a homicide, at least that prospect would have been removed. Why werent his hands burned--wouldnt he have instinctively reached down to protect himself? He was shaken. 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. Thank you for supporting our partners, who make it possible for The Lineup to continue publishing the terrifying stories you love. Active children that bruise easily .