Post by Jimmy C on Feb 11, 2015 18:27:22 GMT -6
Patricia and Barbara Grimes left their house at 3624 S Damen on the evening of December 28, 1956, and headed off to catch the Elvis Presley flick “Love Me Tender” at the Brighton Theater. Patricia was 13; Barbara, 15. They were big fans of “The King.” It was allegedly the eleventh time they had gone to see the movie. This time, however, they did not return home.
One of their classmates noticed them buying popcorn at about 9:30 p.m., which means they made it to the theater. The film ended at about 11:45 p.m., but the girls were late getting home and their mother began to worry. She sent her daughter Theresa (age 17) and her son Joey (age 14) to the bus stop at the six-corner intersection of Archer Avenue, 35th Street, and Hoyne Avenue, but Theresa and Joey returned home after their sisters failed to get off any of the next three buses. At 2:15 a.m., their mother reported them missing to police.
Clues poured in over the next several weeks. Witnesses reported seeing the girls in various places around town, which left both their mother and the police scratching their heads. An aggressive, city-wide manhunt and sensational media coverage generated hundreds more leads. Citizens were fearful. The girls didn’t live all that far from Mayor Daley. Worse yet, they disappeared about 14 months after the notorious Scheussler-Peterson murders, in which three young boys had been strangled and discarded in a Cook County Forest Preserve. Their killer had not yet been apprehended. The police were under intense pressure to make an arrest.
All hope was lost on January 22, 1957 when a man by the name of Leonard Prescott was driving east along German Church Road on his way to the grocery store when he noticed what he thought were two mannequins on the north side of the road just east of County Line Road. He went back to get his wife and returned to the scene to find what turned out to be the bodies of Patricia and her sister Barbara. They reported their findings to the Willow Springs Police Department at 1:30pm that day.
The bodies were unclothed with Barbara, the older but smaller girl, lying face down and Patricia lying face up on top of Barbara and perpendicular. There was no obvious cause of death although it appeared as though their faces had been damaged.
One of their classmates noticed them buying popcorn at about 9:30 p.m., which means they made it to the theater. The film ended at about 11:45 p.m., but the girls were late getting home and their mother began to worry. She sent her daughter Theresa (age 17) and her son Joey (age 14) to the bus stop at the six-corner intersection of Archer Avenue, 35th Street, and Hoyne Avenue, but Theresa and Joey returned home after their sisters failed to get off any of the next three buses. At 2:15 a.m., their mother reported them missing to police.
Clues poured in over the next several weeks. Witnesses reported seeing the girls in various places around town, which left both their mother and the police scratching their heads. An aggressive, city-wide manhunt and sensational media coverage generated hundreds more leads. Citizens were fearful. The girls didn’t live all that far from Mayor Daley. Worse yet, they disappeared about 14 months after the notorious Scheussler-Peterson murders, in which three young boys had been strangled and discarded in a Cook County Forest Preserve. Their killer had not yet been apprehended. The police were under intense pressure to make an arrest.
All hope was lost on January 22, 1957 when a man by the name of Leonard Prescott was driving east along German Church Road on his way to the grocery store when he noticed what he thought were two mannequins on the north side of the road just east of County Line Road. He went back to get his wife and returned to the scene to find what turned out to be the bodies of Patricia and her sister Barbara. They reported their findings to the Willow Springs Police Department at 1:30pm that day.
The bodies were unclothed with Barbara, the older but smaller girl, lying face down and Patricia lying face up on top of Barbara and perpendicular. There was no obvious cause of death although it appeared as though their faces had been damaged.