Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens. Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3+12 years of age. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. Please try again later. from United States. Whod listen? 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. Published by Bantam Books, 1990. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. He was an outgoing child, as happy and adjusted as could be expected under the circumstances. The topic under consideration was the possible placement of Dennis Puckett with the Jurgens family. Those looking back now, those who unraveled the case, tend to shrug and shake their heads when Votels name comes up. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. . There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. The official records say 1,200 children died of abuse in 1986, but many experts believe the figure would reach 5,000 if closer attention were paid to some deaths attributed to accident or blamed on sudden infant death syndrome. There was also the matter of community attitudes. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. Lois Jurgens, 93, of Arvada, Colorado, formerly of Malvern and Glenwood, Iowa, passed away June 13, 2022. The house at 2148 South Gardenette Drive, White Bear Lake, where the Jurgenses lived from 1957 to 1967. It did not occur to him to question Robert. It was full of redwood and log railings, and the lawn and trees ran almost to the waters edge, a good hundred feet of lake frontage in all. As it happened, Peterson at the time was deputy coroner in Ramsey County. This was the situation that Gerane Rekdahl, a Ramsey County welfare case worker, found when she visited the Jurgens home on March 1, 1962. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Lois E. Jurgens, 82, passed away on Friday, September 7, 2012 at Lakeland Health Care Center Elkhorn, WI. A Mrs. Hansen called to report a lost wallet, which resulted in an officers checking a phone booth at Fourth and Washington streets, next to the Avalon Jewelers. Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst.
The autopsy report mentioned bruises head to toe. To this end, she forced religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at two. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? There was something wrong here. I dont think this case is an aberration at all, said Michael McGee, the current Ramsey County medical examiner who finally ruled Dennis death a homicide. I looked down. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). This story changed a lot about the Superman line of booksincluding introducing iconic '90s heroes like Superboy and Steeland DC Comics writ large. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. The process of adopting Dennis was completed. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. How could the hot water splashing down on the baby have burned only his penis and scrotum? Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Retrieved 12 February 2015. Clayton Robinson Jr., a former prosecutor in the case, said Jurgens should not have been released yet. On the other hand, he could not bring himself to embrace the notion that Lois Jurgens was a murderer. 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. Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three-and-a-half years of age. Top Rated Seller. That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. So Robert, on a temporary but semiannually renewed basis, remained in county custody, living in foster homes. Rekdahl found him friendly and talkative--perhaps too much so, for he often strayed widely from the subject at hand. There was an error deleting this problem. Sherwood's tenacity, along with the tragedy of her personal loss, kept the story in the public eye. I think my son is dying, Harold Jurgens had told the doctor on the phone that morning. The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. After Dennis' death, an older adopted son, Robert, was removed from the Jurgens home. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. They wanted to do something, but felt it was none of their business. Dennis was lying face up in his crib, his stiffened arms raised eight inches off the bed. The childs death occurred before there were state-mandated sentencing guidelines, and Thomson argued that she should have served less time. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. The body was severely undernourished, nearly emaciated. He returned to the Jurgens home in time to meet the coroners investigator, Saveiro Pitera. When he wet his pants, she said, she put a clothespin on his penis. Throughout the years of frequent abuse, it has been reported that while Harold Jurgens made little effort to curb his wife's abuse of young Dennis, he personally never mistreated the boy. One might get a first impression that Lois was cold and indifferent, but to Rekdahl, this seemed a defense for insecurities. Lois was accused of murdering and beating her adopted son Dennis Jurgens in 1965 but wasn't convicted until 1987 and only spent 8 years of her sentence before being paroled in 1995. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. He has no teeth yet, but they are coming. They had been able to discuss Lois weaknesses, even her past mental depression, without Lois becoming too nervous or upset or defensive.
There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. Rekdahl could not so assure her. I felt we actually checked out the concerns quite carefully.. It was as if the authorities had found a way to try Lois Jurgens for Dennis death without calling it a murder. Dennis died that evening of Peritonitis due to a perforation of his small bowel. . Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. He would later learn much more, would attend seminars and organize a county task force on the problem, but it cannot be said that Gingold knew nothing in 1965 about the battered-child syndrome. . Such stories are not rare. 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. 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. Petersburg, ILLois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. In 1987, testifying 22 years later, Peterson was questioned again about the bruises. And it was not my position to do anything other than to pronounce him dead.. From the patio off his living room and the balcony off his bedroom, he could look across the lake to Manitou Island, and beyond, to the town of White Bear. I did my best.. Search above to list available cemeteries. In 1965, it was a private general practitioner, Dr. Thomas Votel, who handled the coroners duties on a part-time basis for $6,300 a year. To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. 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. When he arrived at the Jurgens home, though, hed realized all that was pointless. This, coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois Jurgens. There was a television movie broadcast in 1992 on NBC entitled A Child Lost Forever that told the story from the perspective of Jerry Sherwood (played by Beverly D'Angelo). . Peterson departed soon after. With Lois's mental health deteriorating, a hearing explores the question, should Lois and Harold Jurgens keep custody of their 5 year old adopted son, Robert after the death of this brother, Dennis. 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. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. Lois had talked to them all about her toilet training methods. At that time, the battered-child syndrome was just beginning to be recognized. Dennis had thrown up then. Read more about this topic: Murder Of Dennis Jurgens, But Ive heard mankind abuse thee;And perhaps its rather strange,But I thought that I would choose theeFor encomium, as a change.Charles Stuart Calverley (18311884), Mily: You must remember me! How in the heck could that happen? She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful.
There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. . The policemen were led to understand that an attorney representing the Jurgenses had visited them and threatened them with civil lawsuits if they spoke out. Lois obsessed about Dennis' weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. Strange, he thought, that she hadnt called her brother, the police lieutenant. He felt that she needed psychiatric help very badly and, without it, might become psychotic. You do consider social attitudes. He is able to turn himself over and is extremely strong, almost ready to stand by himself. Soon after, Jerry Puckett dropped her plan to convert--but by then Dennis was already registered as Catholic on the adoption rolls. The testimony from Dr. Woodburn, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Dennis, was unequivocal. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. WHAT happened? Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens Want more true crime books? Well, I do, he replied. To perforate a bowel, the doctors agreed, there had to be severe, concentrated trauma applied to the abdomen--the sort of injury that could be expected in a high-speed automobile accident. The adoption should be approved. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Theres nothing worse, Peterson had thought, than seeing a dead child. Lois Jurgens was convicted in May 1987 of murder (by abuse) in the death 22 years earlier of her adopted son, Dennis. On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. The same day that she spoke to the priest--Aug. 30, 1962--Rekdahl informed the Jurgenses that they were going to be approved for a second adoption. Dennis had died of peritonitis. At the urging of authorities, Jerry placed Dennis for adoption after being told that he would receive good care.[1].
To keep creating It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. But, at a hearing just one month after Dennis death, Peterson, when asked if there was anything unusual about the burn accident, said: No, not in particular.. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. Placement with the paternal grandparents ended due to a house fire that occurred at a time when Robert was hospitalized with pneumonia, and his grandmother burned to death.
The way Lindholm figured it, instead of prosecuting Lois Jurgens for murder, lets move to take Robert away. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. A Death in White Bear Lake is a true crime book by journalist Barry Siegel, published in 1990, which recounts the murder of Dennis Jurgens. Jurgens, now 69, was convicted of third-degree murder in 1987 in what at the time was the oldest homicide to go to trial in Minnesota. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. memorial page for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (12 Aug 1925-7 May 2013), Find a Grave Memorial ID 134346102, citing Union Cemetery, Maplewood, Ramsey County . Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. Donna Marlene Norton, Lois sister, was there that day and saw the same thing.
Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.
This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. On January 13, 2000, she was initially suspected of poisoning her husband, Harold. As he read, he stiffened in his chair. The psychiatrist also observed that Lois had an obsession about order and cleanliness. That will require a juvenile hearing on neglect. It was awful. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. Peterson, a slender 6-footer, was a respected local doctor, a University of Minnesota medical graduate who had served in the Marines before opening a private practice in White Bear Lake in 1951. No one proposed handing the investigation to some other body--to, say, the county sheriffs office. Her mother having long ago disappeared, Jerry Puckett had bounced among assorted relatives and county homes for girls. This is the story of a small boys murder that went undeclared and unprosecuted for 22 years in a community full of people who knew what had happened. English Is it quite customary to see a little boy with so many bruises, he was asked. Lois Jurgens released after serving eight years, The Winona Daily News, June, 7, 1995. They beat my baby to death. convicted of murder Testimony from neighbors and family members told of young Dennis showing up to public events wearing sunglasses at the age of two, to hide his frequent black eyes. Lois was mean to DennisCam Brass and Donna Neely and the othersCam Brass and Donna Neely and the others understood that much. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). The suspicious death of Dennis Jurgens wasnt properly investigated for 20 years. 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. 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. 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. Rekdahl did know that Lois had a history of psychiatric problems involving a nervous breakdown in the early 1950s. That doctor (Peterson) also presented problems--he was a typical doctor, couldnt believe his patient was killed.. Yes! ``You have to understand this child is only 3 1/2 years old and virtually every day Lois Jurgens had him he was a victim of some kind of physical or mental abuse, and I dont think eight years was quite enough to compensate society for the act she committed, Robinson said. Why werent his hands burned--wouldnt he have instinctively reached down to protect himself? Initial placement was with a licensed, unrelated foster family, but Robert was then moved to his paternal grandparents at his parents' request. Four days after he drafted this analysis, on April 30, he and VanderWyst were pulled off the case. They had checked on him throughout the night. This sort of thing happened back then.. The psychiatrist thought it fortunate that Lois Jurgens could not get pregnant because a child would only compound and complicate her emotional disturbances. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. 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 deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip. I have several children about that age with this same problem. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . This is a story about respectable men and women of the middle class--doctors, lawyers, priests, social workers, policemen, neighbors and relatives--whose behavior, taken as a whole, led not to that milieus promised decency and justice but to a moral outrage, dark and hard to understand. Obituary. My God, he thought, looking at the body. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. Votel could not take the first step. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. Try again later. Dennis was now fully accepted and loved in the family, she decided. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Basically, she thought that Lois was content and happy, especially with Robert. The county had filed a custody petition, alleging neglect. 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. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. I dont know how to describe it, she said. We did not have enough evidence of any kind to deny them. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 - May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. 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. Learn more about managing a memorial . The next day, Rekdahl phoned the Jurgenses family physician, Dr. Roy Peterson, who was treating Dennis. . Try again later. He attended Olney Rural Elementary School and graduated from Filley High School in 1959. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). This had required at least two hospitalizations at the Mayo Clinic and at a small psychiatric hospital called Crestview, where she had received electrical shock treatments. 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.
He wanted others to go first. The only part of him that I saw was his chest and his face. Together they went into Dennis room to inspect the body. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) _ A mother who beat her adopted son to death and then covered up the crime for two decades was released from prison today after serving eight years. 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. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? He wrote deferred in the box where he was to specify the manner of death, and put the certificate aside. .
We came very close to trying to do something. . Lois Jurgens had been sentenced to up to 25 years for the 1965 slaying of 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens. 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 . They owed $6,000 on the house and $930 on the truck. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later. White Bear Lake, a picturesque American town where kids freely ride bikes, play two-square and parents throw neighborhood BBQsand where 3 year old Dennis Jurgens died on Palm Sunday 1965. Ivey's Lois Jurgens is a woman so proud and righteous, her sense of morality . On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis.
There were at least a dozen bruises on the face alone, some large and others small. Failed to report flower. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Camille Brass knew the blue convertible belonged to Dr. Peterson. The hearing would prove to be a curious affair. Three-year-old Dennis Craig (Puckett) Jurgens was tortured to death in the wee hours of April 11th, 1965. Instead, Peterson would build an ice rink on his front lawnhed raise a circular wood wall, lay in six inches of leaves gathered from all the neighbors for mulch, then cover that with sheet plastic, one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and fill it with water from the hose. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. Mrs. . The coroner noted there was evidence of adult, human bite marks on his penis and scarring all over his scrotum; he was also found to be wearing two diapers and a pair of rubber pants at the age of three and one-half years. Death 7 May 2013 (aged 87) . So it was that Dennis Jurgens death resulted not in a murder prosecution but, rather, in a juvenile court hearing over custody of his brother, Robert. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens to show support. When you judge a case, you dont do so in a vacuum, Lindholm would explain years later in an interview. Lois Jean Jurgens, the daughter of Lawrence A. and Marjorie V. (Johnson) Jones, was born on May 26, 1929 in Malvern, Iowa. . This was a murder.
My biggest feeling was that it was a sad situation and I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could. As he viewed the body, he thought: This boy has been murdered. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head, and scarce chance that he had died from a fall on the flat basement floor. He would testify that he had talked to some lady down there. Building a general history of abusive conduct would not be sufficient. They had just buried the body, and that was all.
Other than that, nothing remarkable.. You can always change this later in your Account settings. When Lois found him gasping and gurgling at 9 a.m., she promptly called Dr. Peterson. The Jurgenses returned to their house on Gardenette Drive, childless but free of any charge. They had seen Lois pull Dennis ears so hard that blood flowed. Jurgens was one of 16 children. 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. They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. 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. Other testimony and evidence was more troubling. She believed that Lois Jurgens was accepting and embracing Dennis, and he seemed healthy and adjusted. He liked them. The sequel spins out of The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1, which transformed construction worker Lloyd Crayton into a new Doomsday-like villain for Superman: Doombreaker.
I want photos of this, he thought.
No prosecution was taken at that time. . This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Robert was returned to the Jurgens home and, going through new channels, the couple was eventually able to adopt four school-aged siblings from Kentucky.
I want photos of this, he thought.