lois jurgens' deathlois jurgens' death

In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens. I want photos of this, he thought. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. 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. My deputy reassured me from time to time. When Dennis messed his bed, she said, she forced the boy to eat his feces. It had always troubled her, more than any she handled before or since. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. 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. . They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. If you throw up, you are going to eat it. In the 1960s, the term child abuse had not yet been coined and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers, was required to report suspicions. This is a carousel with slides. Harold and Lois Jurgensa middle-class, churchgoing couple who had been unable to have children of their ownhad adopted Sherwood's son, Dennis, in 1962. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. If Votel had called it a homicide, at least that prospect would have been removed. On the night of his death, Lois was in an extremely bad mood due to flooding which was filling up the basement with water. According to sworn testimony by both Korolchuk and VanderWyst before a grand jury last year, Zerwas at the time warned the investigating officers that he would do everything in his power to keep his sisters name clear. On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis. They were informed they would not be allowed to foster or adopt any additional children. Stanley Wiatros was one of them. Now VanderWyst was looking at him, asking a question: What was the cause of death?. No prosecution was taken at that time. Please reset your password. Why werent his hands burned--wouldnt he have instinctively reached down to protect himself? Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. . If hes notified there would be fifty people at her house, and she didnt want that many people around. She believed that Lois had opened up a great deal and tried to be as truthful as possible. . In 1984, Jurgens was the artist for the Sun Devils limited series (July 1984 - June 1985), with writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. This sort of thing happened back then.. After all, Dorothy Engfer more than once had seen Lois smack Dennis so hard the blood flowed from his nose, and Gladys DeMars had watched Dennis over two summers wither from a husky, jolly baby to a wan little boy covered with bruises and black eyes and split lips. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. During her several postplacement visits to the Jurgens home in the following, probationary year, Rekdahl increasingly came to judge the placement a success. I did my best.. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. of Lois Jurgens are considered landmarks in the history of She grew up and attended school in Malvern, graduating in 1947. 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. I just examined him to see that he was in fact dead. They beat my baby to death. It is fair to say that this finding raised considerable questions. Initial placement was with a licensed, unrelated foster family, but Robert was then moved to his paternal grandparents at his parents' request. Petersons house sat precisely on the site of the old Wildwood Amusement Park. The night of his death, a great flood had hit the Saint Paul area and the Mississippi River's waters were rising to record levels, causing flooding in the region and inside the Jurgens' home. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? Its so expensive.My friend, after twenty thousand years murder is still a business thats mainly in the hands of amateurs.Orson Welles (19151985), Its almost as if they were saying, You live your life, and well live ours.Richard Fielding, and Lee Sholem. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . A few wondered how the Jurgenses had ever been allowed to adopt children. 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. Jurgens was one of 16 children. 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. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. Still, she had never forgotten the case. Retrieved 12 February 2015. She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Verify and try again. Active children that bruise easily . That will make you swallow, Lois had said. At first, that seemed to be the conclusion that the official inquiry would also reach.

the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens
In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. Lois and Harold Jurgens lived in a comfortable . Lois Jurgens had been sentenced to up to 25 years for the 1965 slaying of 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens. No one here is being punitive, Gingold told the Jurgenses and their attorney from the bench. They attempted to mind their own business and feared retribution from Lois, who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. That isnt an issue at all. This story changed a lot about the Superman line of booksincluding introducing iconic '90s heroes like Superboy and Steeland DC Comics writ large. Lois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. How could a kid fall down the steps and die? Much of the testimony related to Dennis, not Robert. The victim 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. He is extremely alert. Years later, Peterson would say much the same to the police who were reopening the case, but he did not do so in 1965. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. No, she explained. The way Lindholm figured it, instead of prosecuting Lois Jurgens for murder, lets move to take Robert away. Her secret was revealed after Sherwood began searching for the son she gave up for adoption and learned in 1983 that he had died of a bowel injury.

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? Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates). He liked them. I would also like to receive the Early Bird Books newsletter which features great deals on FREE and discounted ebooks. To keep creating There were at least a dozen bruises on the face alone, some large and others small. Youve got to worry about tomorrow. 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. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? On the other hand, he could not bring himself to embrace the notion that Lois Jurgens was a murderer. 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. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. They are good people. By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child"; she made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. convicted of murder There are a lot of dead babies in the ground who were killed.. Peter Korolchuk yielded a good deal of information. Homicide was not the issue at the hearing. . Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. It would be no use. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. The hole had allowed a fifth of a quart of infectious, purulent fecal material to flow into the abdominal cavity. When Harold took him to the bathroom at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, Dennis had seemed fine. About 50 witnesses provided a mixed story. She was cleared of second-degree . 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. 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. Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. ?Tadeusz: I never remember pretty women. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. English Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. The Jurgenses were delighted. They talked with more than a dozen relatives and neighbors of the Jurgenses. From behind their curtains and blinds, the Jurgenses neighbors on Gardenette Drive had been watching the comings and goings all morning with mounting interest. Dennis was adopted by the Jurgens, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul: Harold Robert Jurgens, a former bandleader turned electrician, and Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens, a homemaker. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. 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 . Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. 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. They had just buried the body, and that was all. We would like to have done something, but it was none of our business. 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.

 

There was a problem getting your location. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. The cause of death was peritonitis, but the autopsy photos showed him covered in bruises with an anguished expression on his face and the coroner had not determined a mode of death, accident, natural causes, or homicide. Peritonitis is a horribly painful illness involving shock, collapse of the blood vessel system, high fever and breathing difficulties. . Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. They had only two requests. I was young then, just out of college, the social worker said recently in an interview. in the third degree and sent to prison. Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. A parade of neighbors and relatives called to the stand by the Jurgenses attorney, Edward Donohue, all denied seeing any evidence of abuse. When Dennis Jurgens died at the age of 3 in 1965, authorities here never ruled whether his death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. .

 

undefined Notes ^ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/child43.htm. Doug Thomson, who defended Jurgens, said his client did not get out early. Try again. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Many years later, Dr. Peterson would tell a grand jury that he had harbored suspicions about the burns, and also about several bruises that nurses noticed on Dennis while he was in the hospital for a full month. By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed. Lets not build up some fiction that now we have done everything we should do.. He would wait until the police investigation could resolve the matter. They were of varying colors--black and blue, yellowish green, reddish--which meant that some were fresh, some old. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens was an American convicted murderer. Lois Jurgens was convicted in May 1987 of murder (by abuse) in the death 22 years earlier of her adopted son, Dennis. We thought it would be no use.. The term is relative. As he read, he stiffened in his chair. By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child," and made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. A Mrs. Charles reported a car blocking a driveway at 823 5th St. A Mrs. Krugger reported that children were damming the street at Elm and Ebba (there had been heavy rain the night before). For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). Father Bernard Riser of the St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church had known the Jurgenses for years and considered them to be among his parishs best families. The foster mother thinks him a little wild one, but she means this appreciatively and derives pleasure from his antics. Dan Jurgens, one of the chief minds at DC who spearheaded the Man of Steel's death and rebirth in the '90s, took to Twitter to share an unused design of Electric Superman -- sometimes called . The boy was dead by the time the doctor arrived at 9:35. Oops, we were unable to send the email. The neighbors talked among themselves that afternoon. Problems arose within the police department as well. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. 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. Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising.
Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem.

 

She had not noticed anything was wrong until sometime later, when Dennis began holding himself and saying, Owie! It was then she saw that his genitals were burned and called the doctor. VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. 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. Basically, she thought that Lois was content and happy, especially with Robert. And her release from the states prison for women in Shakopee only angered the biological mother whose search for her child led to the discovery of the crime. Dennis had died of peritonitis. There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. On or around the night of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. Yes! Our kids have fallen down steps and not died. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace.

 

The welfare department case work was very limited. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. Dennis was now fully accepted and loved in the family, she decided. Camille Brass knew the blue convertible belonged to Dr. Peterson. It was awful. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. The adoption should be approved. 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. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Years later, the attorney representing Roberts interests at the 1965 custody hearing would still remember those photos. Why was there no disposition of this case?

Brand New.

 

Nor had his arrival two hours before. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. After Dennis' death, an older adopted son, Robert, was removed from the Jurgens home. Blankets covered him to the waist. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently.
 
``I prayed for eight years that shed die in there. He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. The policeman did not, so they carried the body to the coroners van. That was all Gingold had to concern himself with. Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. And a Dr. Peterson called at 10:09 a.m. to report a DOA--dead on arrival--at 2148 Gardenette Drive. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens I found on Findagrave.com. 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.


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