Shattered Sense of Innocence: The 1955 Murders of Three Chicago Children (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology)

By Richard C. Lindberg and Gloria Jean Sykes

Book Overview

In October 1955, three Chicago boys were found murdered, their bodies naked and dumped in a ditch in Robinson Woods on the city's Northwest Side. A community and a nation were shocked. In a time when such crimes against children were rare, the public was transfixed as local television stations aired stark footage of the first hours of the investigation. Life and Newsweek magazines published exclusive stories the following week. When Kenneth Hansen was convicted and sentenced for the murders, the case was considered solved--until questions were raised about Hansen's presumed guilt.

Shattered Sense of Innocence: The 1955 Murders of Three Chicago Children tells the gripping story of the three murdered boys--thirteen-year-old John Schuessler, his eleven-year-old brother, Anton, and thirteen-year-old Bobby Peterson--and the quest to find and bring to justice their killer. Authors Richard C. Lindberg and Gloria Jean Sykes recount the bungled 1955 police investigation, the failures of multiple law enforcement agencies, and the subsequent convictions of Kenneth Hansen, in 1995 and 2002, and present new information concerning two suspects overlooked by police for five decades.

The authors deftly examine all sides of this tragic story, drawing on exclusive interviews with law enforcement agents, with horse trainers affiliated with the so-called horse mafia, and with the man convicted of the murders, Kenneth Hansen. This intensely intimate account offers a rare glimpse into one community and examines how these atrocious crimes altered public perceptions nationwide. Shattered Sense of Innocence, which is also a story of political controversy, a determined federal agent's quest for justice, and a community's loss of innocence, includes fifty illustrations.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809327368
• ISBN13: 9780809327362
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Suffer the children

This book completely held my interest and that of several friends who read it at the same approximate time. We spent hours discussing it. After fifty plus years, the triple homicide described in "Shattered Sense of Innocence: the 1955 Murders of Three Chicago Children" is still chilling and disturbing. The book established a strong sense of time and place. The authors succeeded in recreating the fear and dread that gripped an entire community that will bother you long after you have finished reading. These things were not supposed to happen here, not in a quiet residential district bordering upon the suburbs. As a person who drives through the Jefferson Park/Norwood Park area of Chicago on a regular basis, it is impossible for me to pass certain intersections now without thinking of the three victims: that was the location of the police station where their parents looked for help; that was the bowling alley the boys visited; the three youths were last seen on that corner before accepting a ride from a passing vehicle. Portions of the immediate neighborhood are largely unchanged. The former police station on Gale Street is still standing, but it houses other city offices today as a newer and larger police headquarters has replaced it. The forest preserve opposite East River Road where the three naked bodies were discovered still draws stares from passing motorists who can remember the banner headlines and the startlingly graphic images broadcast on local television during the nightly news (the book contains these photo images). Some older adults can recall being kept inside their homes for several days by parents who were afraid to allow their children to play outside until the unknown criminals were arrested by the police. The initial police investigation was badly botched by the political hacks competing for jurisdiction over the crime scene. The murderer and his accomplices took care to dispose of the bodies in a location where multiple agencies and officials could quarrel over who was in charge of the investigation. For decades afterwards, the murders would remain unsolved. The determined efforts of an arson investigator seeking to determine who the culprits were in a series of fires at various riding stables set in motion the revival of the murder inquiry decades later and resulted in the controversial trial of the one the surviving suspect. The book contains some conjecture as to what transpired on that fatal night. Some facts can only be guessed at, but the authors review several theories and offer plausible interpretations of the possible chain of events. The actions of several of the now deceased accomplices can only be imagined. Be forewarned, this is not a pleasant book to read nor will it be easily forgotten once you have finished it. Readers will be introduced to sexual predators, petty thieves and pornographers who gather in amusement parks and recreation halls where children and teenagers loiter. There is danger to be fo

Fascinating Murder Mystery Set in 1950's--fabulous read!

The book is an amazing murder mystery set against the backdrop of 1950's Northwest side of Chicago. The neighborhood tales and stories tell of a fascinating slice of the 1950's with accurate details, so that even if you are not a murder mystery buff, the book is still extremely interesting. The book carefully relates the bumbling, inept police work which is grossly inadequate due to the lack of forensic science development at the time, and most notably, DNA testing. Although tons of people power and money were thrown at the case, nothing much develops from all this into hard evidence. The only trial that took place was decades later and even that was based upon circumstantial evidence and weak confessions, although the reader was left with a sense at the end that justice was served. Perhaps the book is a bit choppy and many questions are left unanswered, but that is the crux of the entire book--the police work was choppy, fairly uncoordiated, major suspects and clues were not followed up on well, or even at all. So the book style follows the uneasiness of the police work, the uneasiness of a neighborhood left with a triple murder of 12 year old boys found naked, dead, with their lifeless bodies shown on the TV news that evening. But most importantly, the book is reveals stories, tales and legends and a style of life not really known outside the NW side of Chicago, but which can be easily appreciated by anyone. I believe most people would find that they simply cannot put the book down and will feel compelled to read it in a day or two. The writing is an excellent quality, and the investigative work was extremely good and very believable.

Lost

The Schuessler-Peterson murders, the long unsolved deaths of 3 boys in 1955 Chicago, have inspired three books; "Unbridled Rage," "Three Boys Missing," and "Shattered Sense of Innocence." All are highly recommended. This is the one that may keep you awake all night. The authors are brilliant writers and the book is exhaustively researched. Many new questions are raised: Were the victims looking for someone the night they died? Why did two of the boys, Bobby Peterson and John Schuessler, report being afraid of someone? Who was the mysterious "Mr. Potato Head?" Who was the source of screams heard in a remote area that night? What is the meaning of the puzzling forensic evidence? Who is the elusive pedophile Ken Hansen? He was convicted of the murders, but some still have doubts. Did a mystery witness secretly confess to being the real killer? Did missing heiress Helen Brach know too much? Is she the Jane Doe in the unmarked grave? Did the same killer murder Judy Andersen in 1957 and the Grimes sisters in 1956? This book is like film noir in book format. (There a a few graphic photos.) It is unquestionably one of the greatest true crime books ever written. Read it even if you have to leave the lights on all night.