In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story A few wondered how the Jurgenses had ever been allowed to adopt children. Stanley Wiatros was one of them. 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. 
A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. April 11, 1965. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. He eats well. A piano and bass fiddle occupied the living room. Clayton Robinson Jr., a former prosecutor in the case, said Jurgens should not have been released yet. They had only two requests. Theres nothing worse, Peterson had thought, than seeing a dead child. Her attorney Doug Thomson (left) follows, and Harold Jurgens is behind him. Sorry! in the third degree and sent to prison. Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. The first few days of the police investigation by VanderWyst and Sgt. At the urging of authorities, Jerry placed Dennis for adoption after being told that he would receive good care.[1]. On or around the night of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. Several relatives now told the investigators they would not sign statements. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. . There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. Instead the judge agonized, repeatedly expressing from the bench his sense of conflict and uncertainty. That was not binding on the prosecutor, but the defense attorney would zero in on this. Aided by the testimony of the Jurgens' other adopted son, Robert, I thought you might like to see a memorial for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens I found on Findagrave.com. 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. . 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. He was born on September 29, 1941 in rural Adams, and was later baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church of rural Pickrell. Deferred, Votel had written. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. He returned to the Jurgens home in time to meet the coroners investigator, Saveiro Pitera. Star Tribune photo by Donald Black. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. Family members immediately begin whispering "she killed him" , referring to his adoptive moth To this end, she forced religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at two. 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 . The defense picked the doctor, and set parameters on what questions he could ask. Opens in a new window or tab. Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. Peritonitis is a horribly painful illness involving shock, collapse of the blood vessel system, high fever and breathing difficulties. Judge Gingold would not back down either. The victim 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. Year should not be greater than current year. The body was severely undernourished, nearly emaciated. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. Thirty years after the original Death of Superman storyline, the iconic tale's writer Dan Jurgens has confirmed which alternate Superman villains almost killed the hero. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.
She was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and was paroled in 1995. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. Harold told relatives he was going to be out of town the weekend of April 10 and 11, 1965. We have set your language to In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating. You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police. 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 . They were independent of each other. He had one great friend, his world's Lois, but she died and now he sees another version of her still alive and pregnant. The doctor did not want to be there. 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. Product details Publisher : Ballantine Books (November 28, 2000) Language : English Paperback : 560 pages ISBN-10 : 0345487176 The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. Then he began to look terrible--his face so old, like a little old man. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The Jurgenses were delighted. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. The only part of him that I saw was his chest and his face. She wanted assurances. 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. 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. Robert would remain in county custody for the time being. 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. In 1987, testifying 22 years later, Peterson was questioned again about the bruises. . 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. 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. Harold was infertile and the Jurgenses desperately wanted to adopt another child. 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. But neither the judge nor anyone else was willing to face the implications of such findings. She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. Dennis was now fully accepted and loved in the family, she decided. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. . 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. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. They had shocked James Nelson. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. 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. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. Maybe we can get more evidence from there. There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. Beatings and displays of Lois' explosive temper were daily events; especially bad days could include her slamming a child's forehead into a nail protruding from a wall, forcing a child to stand barefoot in snow, and shoving a used sanitary napkin in a child's face. I can recall seeing some, but its not very clear. Los Angeles, ICE detainees allege retaliation for speaking about medical conditions at Otay Mesa center, Downtown L.A stabbing sends six to hospital; 1 arrested, San Diego Roman Catholic diocese facing yet another lawsuit from its insurance company, K-Pop isnt the only hot ticket in Koreatown how trot is captivating immigrants, Los Angeles is suddenly awash in waterfalls. His intensely angry adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. Due to this frequent starvation, Dennis gained only three pounds in a 2+12-year period as he aged from one year old to 3+12 years old. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. 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. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. . he told the grand jury last year. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. Lois Jurgens had not one good thing to say about Dennis. Korolchuk would never get the chance to answer such questions. At the funeral home, Lois Jurgens brother, Lloyd Zerwas, came to pay his respects. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. He found bruises running the length of the body--50 to 100 of them, he would say later, the exact number hard to judge because many were overlapped. 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. 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. Most simply remain hidden. 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. Jurgens was one of 16 children. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered landmarks in the history of child abuse law. Adopted just after his first birthday, Dennis suffered years of abuse at the hands of his adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens. He was shaken. He very strongly favored the Jurgenses getting another child. The Jurgenses had wanted a younger child and Dennis was almost a year old. You see, Gingold said, I didnt have to go that far. Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. At the funeral, a crown of roses rested on Dennis head. There was a deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip.
This was the first child-abuse case he had handled. Dennis Craig Jurgens, 3.
VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. of Lois Jurgens are considered landmarks in the history of One might get a first impression that Lois was cold and indifferent, but to Rekdahl, this seemed a defense for insecurities.
Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. They talked with more than a dozen relatives and neighbors of the Jurgenses. No. The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel. 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.
. Mrs. He has no teeth yet, but they are coming. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Lois Jurgens released after serving eight years, The Winona Daily News, June, 7, 1995. You can second-guess yourself until you get an ulcer, Lindholm said recently. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. That isnt an issue at all. Now VanderWyst was looking at him, asking a question: What was the cause of death?. 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. Want more true crime books? From a newspaper notice of his death she had learned that the boys body bore multiple injuries and bruises. How could the hot water splashing down on the baby have burned only his penis and scrotum? During her several postplacement visits to the Jurgens home in the following, probationary year, Rekdahl increasingly came to judge the placement a success. 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. She had a story to tell. Lt. Clarence (Buzz) Harvey at first did not know what to make of the blonde 42-year-old woman who appeared at the front desk of this towns solitary police station on the morning of Sept. 18, 1986. This post is sponsored by Open Road Media. .. On January 13, 2000, she was initially suspected of poisoning her husband, Harold. We are sad to announce that on September 25, 2019, at the age of 92, Lois Jurgens (Petersburg, Illinois) passed away. Well, I do, he replied. Rekdahl expressed some concern. He does not sound very well behaved, she said. From the death certificate she had learned that the coroner never ruled whether the death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. 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. 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. Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash. Nine months earlier, on Dec. 6, 1961, Dennis Craig Puckett, 8 1/2 pounds, had been born at St. Michaels Hospital in Sauk Centre, in nearby Scott County. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. At the hearing a month later, Peterson was asked whether he saw anything unusual as he viewed the body in the crib. 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. Failed to delete memorial.
Lois Jean Jurgens, the daughter of Lawrence A. and Marjorie V. (Johnson) Jones, was born on May 26, 1929 in Malvern, Iowa. In 1984, Jurgens was the artist for the Sun Devils limited series (July 1984 - June 1985), with writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. In 1965, Votel said, he thought this was certainly a battered-child case, but the reports indicated that the child had fallen down some stairs. 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. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? This, coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois 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. They had been able to discuss Lois weaknesses, even her past mental depression, without Lois becoming too nervous or upset or defensive. Lois Jurgens was at home alone with the children much of the weekend of Dennis' death. 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. Three-year-old Dennis Craig (Puckett) Jurgens was tortured to death in the wee hours of April 11th, 1965. Harvey had been a rookie cop here in 1965, but Sherwoods story triggered no memories. 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. Published by Bantam Books, 1990. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. The electric streetcar with overhead power lines, running as a spur off the main railroad tracks along Highway 61, would stop just three doors down. 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA.
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