00:00:10
December 3rd, 1957. It had just started snowing. Maria and I wanted to go outside.
00:00:18
Sycamore 1957 was [music] a town of about 7,000 people. Maria and I were playing on the corner
00:00:25
of Center Cross and Archie Place. The town was your ideal small town that you see in
00:00:33
the 1950s Christmas movies. There was a person that came up to both of us and told us his name was Johnny
00:00:42
and would we like a piggyback ride? My name is Kathy Chapman. I was the last one to see Maria Ridulph alive.
00:00:56
I was 8 years old. After Maria disappeared my parents always said, "You are the only one that can
00:01:06
recognize this man. You have to remember what he looks like till we find him." How seriously [music] did the FBI take
00:01:14
this case? Extremely seriously. The actions of the special agent in charge were directed personally by Hoover.
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Everybody looked for Maria. She just disappeared off the face of the earth. She was found by a month later.
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Lot of towns have their boogeyman of legend, but we had a real boogeyman who had snatched a child and killed her. And
00:01:40
we've lived all this time not knowing who had taken her until now. It's a mystery that has haunted a
00:01:52
Chicago suburb for more than a half a century until now. Early this month, police in Washington arrested Jack
00:02:00
Daniel McCullough. Mr. McCullough has been charged with the offenses of murder, kidnapping, and
00:02:07
abduction of an infant. >> This isn't just a cold case. This is an ice cold case. This is a 55-year-old
00:02:15
case. It's probably one of the most challenging murder prosecutions in American history, but he is the perfect
00:02:22
suspect. He just kind of flew right under the radar. I knew he was capable of doing evil things. I even suspected
00:02:29
he may have [music] done some really evil things. When the mask comes off, it's like facing a serial
00:02:35
killer. They're describing a man I've never met. My father didn't do this. I know him.
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I love him and I trust him. And he couldn't do this. She's not the first person he's
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>> [music] >> brainwashed into believing he's all that in a bag of chips. Forgive me my
00:02:57
skepticism, but leopards don't change their spots. Who kidnapped >> [music] >> and killed Maria Ridulph? Jack Daniel
00:03:04
McCullough, my half-brother. I'm Erin Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours cold as ice.
00:03:47
That day, December 3rd, 1957, would you say your life was changed forever? Forever.
00:03:57
Kathy Sigmund [music] was just 8 years old in December 1957, and like nearly every child in Sycamore,
00:04:04
Illinois, she couldn't wait for the first snowfall. Chuck Ridulph, then 11 years old,
00:04:14
remembers his little 7-year-old sister Maria rushing out to play with Kathy around 6:00 p.m. Just as flurries in the
00:04:22
dark night settled over the idyllic Midwestern town. Today, I'm sure a lot of parents are saying, "How could that
00:04:30
young girl have been out after dark on that corner?" Well, this was a norm. No one ever
00:04:35
locked doors in Sycamore or thought twice about letting little girls out to play a game they called "Duck the Cars".
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We would go around the pole until a car would come up the street and then you had to get behind that tree
00:04:51
before the car lights hit you. Retired Sycamore Police Lieutenant Patrick Solar has studied the cold case
00:05:01
extensively. The unknown subject would have approached from south on Center Cross Street. Probably had a vehicle
00:05:08
parked down the road. He may have gone by and seen the girls playing. Had you ever seen him before?
00:05:14
>> seen him before. Not at all? >> Not at all. And were you nervous with someone walking up toward you? No. We
00:05:21
didn't even think twice about it. He stopped to talk to us, told us his name. His name was Johnny. Maria took
00:05:28
the piggyback ride. And he went maybe 20 ft away with her and then came back and asked if we liked dolls.
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And Maria went home to get a doll. She went home and brought her doll back. I was said I was going to go home and
00:05:47
get my mittens. I was cold. And I left both of them standing there on the corner.
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And when I got back, they were gone. No sign of her doll, no sign of her, no sign of anybody. Kathy came to the door
00:06:03
and asked if Maria was there. I didn't think anything of it. I just said, "No, she's still outside." It was a few
00:06:09
minutes later, she came back, "I can't find Maria." When Chuck searched for Maria and couldn't find her, he finally
00:06:16
told his parents. According to public records, it was another hour before the Ridulphs called the police who joined an
00:06:24
already frantic search for Maria and the man who called himself Johnny. If you can imagine armed citizens
00:06:32
walking the streets with shotguns and rifles and handguns tucked in their waistband knocking on your door, "We
00:06:38
need to search your home. There's a girl missing." They set up roadblocks in rural roads in
00:06:43
cooperation with the state police at the time. They stopped every car, searched every trunk.
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Some men came [music] to the back door of our house and knocked and asked for dad. Jean Tessier, then 10 years old,
00:06:57
lived with her large family just down the street from the Ridulphs. Her baby sister Jan was just a year old.
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Their father ran the hardware store and was asked to open it up. >> So that they could get flashlights and
00:07:11
lanterns. We didn't have a lock on our back door. Dad cut a 2x4 and jammed it into the
00:07:18
door so that it wouldn't open. Were you scared? Yeah, I was scared. The thought of having to lock a door
00:07:26
against an intruder was was new. No one knows exactly when Maria was taken, but two neighbors reported
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hearing a scream around 7:00 p.m. In an alley not far from where Maria disappeared, her doll was found. The
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doll was found between the fence and a garage which is set back on Center Cross Street.
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Within days, the FBI [music] took over. Dozens of G-men descended on Sycamore and turned a small motel into their
00:08:00
local headquarters. But there was little to go on. The crime scene had been trampled before any
00:08:08
physical evidence could be gathered. All that investigators had was one eyewitness who was 8 years old. I did
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have to go to the police station and view lineups of different individuals. I had to go
00:08:23
through mugshot books. Do you know how many pictures you looked at? Do you have any idea?
00:08:30
Lots and lots and lots. Hundreds? Yes. Thousands? >> Yes, thousands. There were a lot of
00:08:35
suspects >> [music] >> in that little town of Sycamore. It's surprising how many people were on lists
00:08:42
of sexual predators. Three weeks later, when Christmas came around, Maria was still missing.
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I remember Maria's wrapped gifts still under the tree. And your mom hoping she was still
00:08:57
somehow alive? That's right. Hoping she would be home for Christmas. How long did it take before you found
00:09:06
out what had happened to Maria? 5 months. She was found 5 months later. On April 26th, 1958,
00:09:16
the case went from a kidnapping to a murder when Maria's tiny body was found partially clothed 90 miles away near
00:09:25
Galena, Illinois. A farmer and his wife wound up finding the body partially concealed under a
00:09:31
downed tree. Because Maria had not been taken [music] across state lines, the FBI handed the investigation over to the
00:09:38
Illinois State Police. Two years later, the ISP ran out of new leads >> [music] >> and the case went cold. But Kathy
00:09:49
Sigmund never stopped looking for the face that only she had seen. I never stopped looking for him.
00:09:57
Never. This is still hard for you, isn't it, Kathy? Yeah, it is. It's been a long struggle.
00:10:11
But Kathy hasn't been alone. Jean Tessier has also been haunted by the night Maria disappeared, but for a very
00:10:20
different reason. Days later, her brother John Tessier became a suspect in Maria's murder after
00:10:28
investigators received an anonymous phone call. At some point, the FBI came to your
00:10:34
home. They did. They were scary men in suits. They asked my mom whether John had come
00:10:41
home that night. And she said, "Yes." But according to Jean, that was a lie. Why do you think your mom lied about
00:10:52
your brother being home when you knew he wasn't? I I thought she she must be protecting him because she had
00:11:01
to my knowledge lied to protect him before. As years turned to decades and [music]
00:11:17
there was still no arrest in the kidnapping and murder of little Maria Ridulph, it seemed the mystery of her
00:11:24
death would haunt the town of Sycamore forever. I think a lot of [music] people look at
00:11:30
Sycamore, Illinois and they say, "Oh, the perfect American town, the great place to raise kids."
00:11:36
>> Yeah. There were a lot of dark secrets in that town, too, weren't there? >> well, there certainly were in my family.
00:11:43
50 years after Maria's mysterious murder, one of those dark Tessier family secrets would shock their tiny town.
00:11:53
Stirred up many old wounds and dragged me against my will back into a past that I was glad to have survived.
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The year was 1994 and Jean's mom was on her deathbed about to make a [music] stunning confession
00:12:14
about her son. Tessier's sisters, Jan and Mary, were at their mother's bedside. I knew she was
00:12:22
taking to her grave so many demons. She seemed like she was fighting dying and all of a sudden I hear, "Janet!" She
00:12:29
grabbed my wrist in in the strongest grip. She said, "Those two little girls and the one disappeared. John did it.
00:12:37
John did it and you have to tell someone." Was what she said to you that clear? John did it. I mean, was that clear?
00:12:45
Yeah, very clear. She was frantically adamant that I do something. Jan says she was so focused [music] on
00:12:52
calming her dying mother that she never asked why Eileen Tessier suspected her own son of snatching and killing Maria
00:13:01
Ridulph. So, I promised her I would take care of it. I said, "Mom, don't worry. I'll take
00:13:06
care of it." And finally, she just kind of put her head back on the pillow and said, "Oh," you know, and closed her
00:13:11
eyes. Eileen Tessier died weeks later. Jan says she didn't trust her father to be
00:13:18
honest about this, so she made it her mission to find the truth. In a way, it was me fulfilling an obligation finally,
00:13:27
you know, living up to my promise. While Jan's siblings had their doubts, they all decided to support her in her quest
00:13:36
for justice and risk revealing even more painful family secrets. >> We all realized that this is what we had
00:13:44
to do. >> the direction we had to Yeah, like >> We had to open up all of them. >> all the secrets and this nightmare of a
00:13:52
past and put it out for the world to see. Jan called the FBI and the Sycamore Police Department, but her brother
00:13:59
appeared to have an alibi placing him miles away from the crime. And Tessier even passed a polygraph, so
00:14:07
both agencies chose not to investigate and Jan gave up. Then, 10 years later, a friend got Jan
00:14:18
thinking again about the promise she made to her mother. But he says, "You never know, you may
00:14:25
find a real bulldog of an investigator." And for some reason, those words hung in
00:14:30
my head. The one law enforcement agency that Jan hadn't contacted yet, the Illinois State
00:14:36
Police, was about to get an email. I hit send and then I went outside to have a cigarette and I looked up at the sky
00:14:43
and I said, "Mom, listen, you and God better get something rolling here because I can't keep doing this."
00:14:49
Two days later, I get a phone call. Special Agent Brian Hanley wanted to hear more.
00:14:56
What was so significant about what Jan had to tell you about this case? She came to us and basically told us that
00:15:03
her brother committed this murder. And that this is going to be something that drags the whole family into the
00:15:11
spotlight. >> Correct. I knew that it would be like ripping the scab off of this um very
00:15:19
deep wound. Jean Tessier didn't hold back when Hanley interviewed her, starting with the lie she says her
00:15:27
mother told the FBI about her brother. [music] All I knew was that John didn't come
00:15:34
home that night that Maria disappeared and that mom lied to the FBI and said he had. Jean says she also wanted Hanley to
00:15:43
know just how evil her brother could be. So, for the first time ever, she revealed what she says is a long-buried
00:15:52
family secret. He asked me something about what I knew about John's sexual proclivities.
00:16:02
And um and I told him that John had abused me. Throughout her childhood, Jean says her
00:16:10
brother sexually abused her and so did her father. She says her own mother knew but kept it secret. I love my mother. I
00:16:20
love my father. I love John. Um but they all did great harm to me. By this time, Jean's father had also
00:16:31
died. There was only one person who could say for sure if John [music] Tessier was the Johnny who kidnapped and
00:16:39
killed Maria. And boy, my eyes lit up. A suspect after all these years? I thought the case was
00:16:47
closed. Maria's playmate, Kathy, was by then a 61-year-old grandmother when Hanley
00:16:54
showed her this photo lineup seen here in photocopies. Six pictures that Hanley put together of
00:17:02
young men who lived in Sycamore back in 1957. One of them was John Tessier. She picks this one and says, "No."
00:17:12
And points to this one. That was That was Johnny. Immediately you knew it? Immediately.
00:17:21
And so, in the back of your mind, what are you thinking? I'm thinking we've got the right guy.
00:17:27
Agent Hanley tracked John Tessier to Seattle, Washington, but his name was now Jack McCullough.
00:17:34
He says he took his late mother's maiden name to honor her family and then married Janie O'Connor's
00:17:41
mother. When my mother called me to tell me that Jack had have been arrested, I laughed. It was unbelievable. I mean, it
00:17:49
Those are not words I ever expected to hear. I've known Jack since I was 8 years old.
00:17:54
I grew up with him. I can't I can't see that. And then when we told >> But Hanley
00:18:06
and two veteran Washington State cold case detectives saw something different in Janie's
00:18:13
stepfather, especially when they showed him the photo lineup that Kathy Chapman saw. I don't know any
00:18:21
of these guys and I don't think any of these guys are from Sycamore. Like it or not, Jack McCullough was
00:18:27
about to come face-to-face with John Tessier and his alleged dark past. At a police station 2,000 miles away
00:18:40
from Sycamore in Seattle, [music] Washington, the main suspect in Maria Ridulph's
00:18:46
kidnapping and murder is taken in for questioning. Back in December 3rd, 1957, >> Maria's Maria, exactly. The suspect,
00:18:57
John [music] Tessier, was a 72-year-old former police officer living in Seattle under a new name.
00:19:04
>> McCullough, correct? >> Correct. When investigators make it clear they suspect McCullough of being
00:19:09
Maria Ridulph's killer, I did not kidnap that little girl. he goes on the defensive.
00:19:15
>> You you look at my eyes. She was loved in the neighborhood. She was a little girl with big brown eyes and she was
00:19:21
sweet as could be. Hardly said a word to anybody and everyone loved her. To States Attorney Clay Campbell,
00:19:29
McCullough's clear and detailed memory of the child was a red flag. It appeared to [music] us that he was describing
00:19:37
somebody that he was obsessed with, uh that he had thought a lot about. Even more troubling to investigators,
00:19:45
McCullough makes an astounding claim. He knows the identity of the killer, someone from the old neighborhood. I'm
00:19:54
going to talk to you about what's who I think this Okay. Seattle cold case detectives Floyd
00:20:02
Steiger and Mike Szczesinski assisted in McCullough's interrogation. That's a you
00:20:07
know classic like a lot of serial murderers actually that I've interviewed is the same thing. They're going to help
00:20:13
you find the real murderer. This guy would have been perfect. He was about my height. He looked something like me. But
00:20:20
he didn't say he looks like the description given. He said he looks like me. And what does that say to you?
00:20:26
>> to me that it is me. And I'm just trying to push your attention over here. Jack McCullough aka
00:20:32
John Tessier chose to sit down with 48 Hours to tell his story. Are you the Johnny who kidnapped and killed Maria
00:20:41
Ridulph? >> Absolutely not. McCullough does admit [music] to sex play with his sister Jean when they were
00:20:48
younger. >> You said >> [music] >> you had a sexual encounter with your sister. Did you abuse your sister as she
00:20:55
was growing up? You did, didn't you? My sister and I were very close. What do you mean that you were very
00:21:09
close with your sister? >> We're done with this. This is has nothing to do with Maria,
00:21:14
has nothing to do with murder. You weren't >> We're done. So you're not going to answer anything
00:21:20
more on this? Correct. And as you got older there could have been other times. Yeah. Okay. But this
00:21:27
this doesn't make me a suspect in a murder. Still when Clay Campbell watched the interrogation
00:21:34
he was convinced they had Maria's killer. I thought to myself time should not allow you to get away with murder.
00:21:43
I thought I had an obligation to go after him. Mr. McCullough has been charged with the
00:21:49
offenses of murder kidnapping and abduction of an infant. If they had tiny bit of evidence,
00:21:56
maybe I'd think could it be? But they have no evidence. They have no proof. McCullough's stepdaughter Janie says
00:22:04
Campbell has the wrong man. >> But why would his own siblings say that he killed that little girl? I have no
00:22:10
idea, but to wait 54 years to sit on in for I mean I can't imagine waiting a day
00:22:16
if you believed you knew who killed a little girl. Janie says her stepfather was a
00:22:22
decorated Air Force captain and police officer. But she had never heard this woman's story. This man is not what he
00:22:31
claims to be. He's he's a monster. $6 When detectives in Seattle started looking into McCullough's background
00:22:40
they found bartender Michelle Weinman in Tacoma. And I said yeah, I know him. Do
00:22:45
you know he molested me? Weinman told detectives that back in 1982 when McCullough was officer Tessier
00:22:55
she was a 14-year-old runaway seeking refuge from an abusive home. Michelle says he took her in and then made a
00:23:04
move. I was on the couch and he just started to um touch me and try to kiss me and um
00:23:21
he assaulted me. When you say assault did he rape you, Michelle? You know Tessier was charged with statutory rape
00:23:41
but eventually pled guilty to communication with a minor for immoral purposes a misdemeanor and was fired
00:23:49
from the force. It didn't happen. If nothing happened why would you plead guilty?
00:23:55
>> have money to fight it. So you're saying you never touched Michelle Weinman? I'm I'm saying I never
00:24:02
raped her. I never attempted to rape her. I never had sex with her. But States Attorney Campbell still had
00:24:11
to prove that McCullough was a killer. In search of DNA evidence the state had Maria Ridulph's body exhumed. But after
00:24:20
half a century they found nothing. There's no physical evidence at all to tie Jack McCullough to this murder.
00:24:29
>> That is correct. >> It's all circumstantial. So Campbell made a surprising move
00:24:35
charging Jack McCullough with a different decades-old crime. During the investigation Jean Tessier
00:24:43
had revealed a specific incident that she says happened when she was 14 and her brother was home on a military
00:24:51
leave. He drove me to a home I didn't know in another part of town and raped me with great um
00:25:04
cold anger. And then shared me with his friends. Normally a 55-year-old rape case would
00:25:16
be barred by the statute of limitations. But because Jack returned to the military and never came back to the
00:25:23
jurisdiction the statute didn't apply. So Campbell made a controversial and risky decision to try Jack McCullough
00:25:32
for the rape of his sister. My thinking was let's try that one first and if he's convicted on that it takes a
00:25:40
lot of pressure off us in this next case. Prosecution has really nothing on murder. They've
00:25:47
ripped this man from his family, destroyed his life extradited him to another state and they
00:25:54
have not a shred of evidence. So now we're going to do this. But Campbell had one problem.
00:26:02
He had promised Jean Tessier now the mother of two grown children and a chaplain being considered for an
00:26:09
Episcopal priesthood that he would never pursue a rape trial without her consent.
00:26:15
He said well I know I told you I wouldn't go forward without your blessing but I am.
00:26:22
And I felt as powerless as I'd felt that day. I felt like I was being raped again
00:26:27
>> [music] >> by this legal process. I made myself [music] look at him as soon as I sat in the
00:26:51
witness stand because I had to have done that already before I could even speak. On April 10th, [music]
00:26:59
2012 Jean Tessier took the stand in a Sycamore courtroom [music] and accused her brother of raping her when she was
00:27:07
just 14 years old. I had never said that story out loud to anyone except Brian Hanley.
00:27:17
And they were asking me to go in this very public forum and talk about the most painful day of
00:27:24
my life. But States Attorney Clay Campbell felt he had a better chance of convicting
00:27:30
Jack McCullough of rape than murder and was determined to put the 72-year-old former cop away for life.
00:27:40
What was it like on the witness stand telling your story? It was terrible >> [snorts]
00:27:48
>> because I had no control over the story. I had to only answer the questions that
00:27:54
I was given in [snorts] this room full of strangers except for the man who had done this to
00:28:00
me. >> [snorts] >> Of course he says he's innocent. Michelle Weinman was allowed to testify
00:28:07
about what she says McCullough did to her when she was also a teen. And I'm here to tell you
00:28:14
right along with his sister this man is not what he claims to be. He wears a mask and
00:28:23
it's it's scary. McCullough concerned he could never get an impartial jury in Sycamore chose to
00:28:30
let a judge decide his fate. The trial lasted four days. Two men who lived in the house where Jean says the
00:28:38
assault took place denied any knowledge of the event. With no evidence to back her story Jean
00:28:46
feared that her word wouldn't be enough for the judge and left before the verdict was in. I was several hours
00:28:53
towards home driving home. I didn't want to be there to hear it. Why were you so
00:28:57
sure he wouldn't be convicted? I because he'd gotten away with everything he'd done his whole life including what he
00:29:05
did to Michelle. Jean was right. The man accused of raping a Sycamore teenager 50 years ago has been found not
00:29:15
guilty. Jack McCullough was found not guilty of rape and not guilty of indecent liberties with a child. Jean
00:29:24
says she was publicly humiliated for nothing. The judge said why had I waited so long to come forward?
00:29:34
And why was I telling this story now? Jean says she wasn't allowed to tell the judge she felt pressured to take the
00:29:42
stand. It felt like another violation. Did you think when you were acquitted on rape then that you might not even go on
00:29:51
trial for the murder? No, I was never worried about the about the murder trial because I had FBI
00:29:57
evidence that I couldn't have done it. Five months later, Campbell went ahead with the murder trial. The talk around
00:30:06
Sycamore was that with an election coming up, Campbell was grandstanding for votes. But he says if anything, he
00:30:15
was risking his re-election. I consulted with an awful lot of people and almost every single one of them told me, "Clay,
00:30:22
you cannot do this. It's a political disaster and there's no way you can find him guilty."
00:30:27
With no physical evidence, >> [music] >> Campbell's case relied on an eyewitness
00:30:32
and two sisters testifying against their brother more than 50 years after the fact. Do you think your mother thought
00:30:42
you had something to do with Maria Ridulph's death? I don't know. She was uh not all there.
00:30:48
She was under the influence of drugs and psychotic. Nobody knows what she was talking about.
00:30:53
It was all in her head. Did you worry that your mom might be confused? I did not at the time.
00:31:01
I don't know why, but I knew she was speaking the truth. We knew it was a long shot trying to get that
00:31:07
evidence in since the mother isn't here to be interviewed. McCullough was certain the judge would never allow the
00:31:13
testimony of the deathbed confession. But the judge did allow it. And still, Campbell was worried. Would the judge
00:31:22
believe his eyewitness Kathy Chapman's positive idea of the defendant so many decades after the crime? Small town,
00:31:30
down the street. And you don't recognize him as the guy who lives down the street. But I didn't
00:31:38
know him. He was 10 years older. Now that I know who he is, but the state's credibility problems
00:31:46
didn't end there. Three jailhouse informants would testify that McCullough confessed to them behind bars. One of
00:31:54
the snitches serving 33 years for murder claimed that McCullough told him he killed Maria by accident.
00:32:02
The rules were were very clear up front. There was absolutely nothing we were offering in exchange for their testimony
00:32:08
because I knew the judge would view it with the same skepticism that you are. Why would I run up to somebody who I did
00:32:16
not know and say, "Oh, you look like an honest person. Why don't you listen to my
00:32:21
story. I murdered a little girl and I want to stay in prison forever." Stupid. But the biggest obstacle for Campbell
00:32:33
was in the original FBI case file. Remember, according to statements made by witnesses at the time, McCullough has
00:32:42
an alibi. Something he tried to tell police when they arrested him. The day Maria was
00:32:48
kidnapped, I was in the induction center joining the Air Force. The only thing that
00:32:55
matters is where I was at the time of kidnap. I was in Rockford, 40 miles away. You can't beam me up, Scotty. He wasn't
00:33:06
even invented. As his murder trial approached, Jack McCullough felt confident. I have an
00:33:33
alibi. We're talking about the FBI here, okay? J. Edgar Hoover's signature is on some
00:33:40
of my documents. Each of the We couldn't find Hoover's signature, but the FBI file still made
00:33:47
McCullough feel confident. And that's not all. McCullough also points out that he isn't the only credible suspect to
00:33:55
have surfaced over the years. Before him, there was William Henry Redman. Do you remember the newspaper articles
00:34:04
written at the time? Yes. And what were the headlines? Case closed. Back in 1997,
00:34:11
Sycamore police lieutenant Patrick Solar was sure he had identified the man who likely killed Maria. He was a carnival
00:34:19
worker and a truck driver and a day laborer. Redman had been arrested for the 1951
00:34:27
rape and murder of another little girl. But there's a twist. By the time you heard about him,
00:34:33
he had he had died. He had died in 1995. If you're Jack's defense attorney, Pat Solar is your dream witness because he
00:34:43
pointed the finger at a totally different suspect and said, "Case closed." Yes. But before McCullough's trial even
00:34:51
began, the judge ruled out any testimony about Redman stating he was not a credible suspect.
00:34:59
But the defense still had McCullough's alibi. FBI documents that indicated he made a collect call [music] which placed
00:35:06
him miles away in another town when Maria was snatched. At 6:57, I made the call.
00:35:14
I had proof of where I was. Three people, a telephone operator and her supervisor, a a Air Force colonel and an
00:35:24
Air Force tech sergeant all had me in Rockford from 6:57 until about 7:30. And why is that so crucial in this case?
00:35:35
>> Because she was kidnapped at 7:00. But the state's attorney believes that other
00:35:40
reports in the case file indicate Maria might actually have been abducted an hour earlier.
00:35:47
It was easy for us to imagine him killing her at least kidnapping her, getting her in the car and then driving
00:35:54
up there and stopping at a payphone or making a phone call from somewhere. So >> You think he was setting up an alibi by
00:35:59
calling? There's no question. That alibi was McCullough's best hope. But court-appointed defense attorney Tom
00:36:07
McCullough and investigator Crystal Harold were worried they wouldn't be allowed to use these now more than half
00:36:14
a century-old documents at trial. It's not standard in any trial that you ever allow reports in. That's why you call
00:36:20
witnesses to testify the police. Um but in this case, all of our witnesses were dead or senile.
00:36:28
And so, just like the police reports of other suspects, the judge kept the FBI [music]
00:36:34
file out. Do you understand why a judge would keep out these documents? These documents were written
00:36:41
55 years ago and the people who wrote them are dead. There's no way to verify how credible they are.
00:36:48
>> okay for him to use hearsay in the case of my mother, isn't it? She was dead.
00:36:53
You could have given your alibi if you took the stand. Why didn't you take the stand? That's
00:36:58
what you got attorneys for. My attorney said told me they didn't want me to take the stand.
00:37:05
When both sides rested, the judge announced he would take the night to review the evidence, but that he had
00:37:12
already made his decision. On September 14th, [music] 2012, the Ridolph and Tessier families
00:37:25
gathered at the courthouse to hear the verdict. I want to hear the word guilty. That's all I want. Yep.
00:37:32
We filed into the courtroom and then the judge started to speak. And at first I went, "Oh, no." because
00:37:40
it sounded like he was going to say not guilty. And then he said, "Therefore, I define
00:37:46
the defendant guilty." And the place exploded. Maria got her justice. In his decision, the judge said he found
00:37:56
credible all of the prosecution's witnesses, [music] even the jailhouse informants. I had
00:38:02
found Johnny. But it was Kathy Chapman's identification of the man she encountered as a little girl one winter
00:38:10
evening 55 years ago that made the crucial difference. We got him. We got him. This time, the long arm of the law
00:38:19
reached out and got him. I think the reason there's not a statute of limitations on on murder is because
00:38:25
we all think that if you take a human life that no matter how much time passes, if you can still come forward in a court
00:38:32
of law and prove that that person did it, then that person ought to suffer the consequences uh of of having taken a
00:38:38
human life. McCullough was sentenced to life in prison. Did you get a fair trial, Jack?
00:38:45
I did not. Where is the proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Can anybody get a fair trial after 55 years? No. There's nobody
00:38:55
to testify on on my behalf. They're all dead. That's the problem with getting old.
00:39:04
Is the mystery finally solved? >> Yes, absolutely. It's a done deal. Earlier in this interview, you told me
00:39:17
that these accusations of rape and the sex allegations are irrelevant to this murder. But in fact, whoever killed
00:39:25
Maria Ridolph was a pedophile, somebody who abused little girls. You don't know that.
00:39:32
Nobody knows that. That's supposition. But why are you unwilling to talk about these accusations of rape? Has nothing
00:39:39
to do with murder. But it has something to do with with your character. It says a lot about you.
00:39:46
I may have I may have been a sinner, but I'm not a murderer. Is it possible then that you were
00:39:53
acquitted of what you did do and convicted of what you didn't? That could be. Is that what happened? I don't know.
00:40:20
As a convicted child killer, as well as an ex-cop, prison life was particularly hard on Jack McCullough. For his own
00:40:28
safety, he was kept in protective custody, locked up in a tiny cell 23 hours a day.
00:40:35
But all that would change on April 15th, 2016, at a hearing inside a packed Illinois
00:40:42
courtroom. After serving 5 years of his life sentence, The defendant has met his
00:40:49
burden Jack McCullough heard the words that would set him free. I will order sign an order vacating the judgment of
00:41:00
conviction. This remarkable turn in the case came after the State's Attorney, Richard
00:41:11
Smock, had conducted his own review and found there was no way McCullough could have killed Maria Ridulph.
00:41:19
The investigation was prompted by McCullough's motion for a new trial. After reviewing thousands of documents
00:41:27
ruled inadmissible at trial, Prosecutor Smock found himself in the unusual position
00:41:35
of siding with the defense. The prosecutor in this county has made very clear that he believes Mr.
00:41:44
McCullough is actually innocent and that the facts demonstrated that. >> [music]
00:41:49
>> Those facts included newly discovered phone records that [music] confirmed that McCullough was miles away when
00:41:56
Maria was kidnapped. A week after he was released, McCullough was back in court to hear his case
00:42:05
dismissed. I will grant that motion to dismiss. Coming from an environment of you can't do anything
00:42:13
to where you can do anything, I mean, you you got to know what freedom is. And it's it's just plain wonderful.
00:42:24
And there was even more stunning news to come. And thus, Mr. McCullough's petition [music]
00:42:29
is granted. In April 2017, Judge Brady officially declared Jack McCullough innocent of Maria's murder. But
00:42:38
McCullough will be tied up in court for years because [music] he has filed a federal lawsuit against numerous
00:42:43
Illinois state and local authorities for wrongful conviction. While sadly, one of the nation's oldest
00:42:52
cold cases is cold again. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]