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Lois Jurgens.

We wanted to tell someone, she said. 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. 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. 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. . Rekdahl could not so assure her. 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. Ivey's Lois Jurgens is a woman so proud and righteous, her sense of morality . This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit. Thank you for supporting our partners, who make it possible for The Lineup to continue publishing the terrifying stories you love. Whod listen? Its kind of hard to believe., ``How can you take a babys life like that and beat it for two years and then walk free? she said. On or around the night of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. Rekdahl decided to call on the Jurgenses. That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. 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. Judge Archie Gingold, in his findings at the close of the hearing, ruled that Dennis had been subjected to many incidences of cruel and severe abuse.
He had lived in this home since 1953, and it gave him much pleasure. The foster mother thinks him a little wild one, but she means this appreciatively and derives pleasure from his antics. They had only two requests. They covered the legs, the arms, the hands, the head, the shoulders, the back of the head, the buttocks, the small of the back, the middle of the back, the back of the left leg. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . 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 was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. They had cited the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. The only part of him that I saw was his chest and his face. You can always change this later in your Account settings. 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. That was not binding on the prosecutor, but the defense attorney would zero in on this. Years later, the attorney representing Roberts interests at the 1965 custody hearing would still remember those photos. There was a time when White Bear Lake was an exclusive watering hole for people from Chicago as well as the Twin Cities. The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. On the night of his death, Lois was in an extremely bad mood due to flooding which was filling up the basement with water. If I had it to do over again--well, in 1987 I wouldnt approve, but if it were 1965, I dont know what I would do. They saw the hearse sitting in the Jurgenses driveway, and a big blue convertible, and the police car parked awkwardly, askew, as if the officer had been in a hurry. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. The welfare department case work was very limited. Most simply remain hidden. Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash. Such stories are not rare. 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. remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood
She saw Harold, then 40, as a tall, rather swarthy man of German and Norwegian extraction, with dark brown hair and eyes. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. . There were at least a dozen bruises on the face alone, some large and others small. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. PAUL When 3-year-old Dennis Craig Jurgens died on April 11, 1965, there were so many bruises on his body that the coroner said he stopped counting them. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown. That will make you swallow, Lois had said. You see, Gingold said, I didnt have to go that far. It was not his job to do anything other than pronounce the boy dead.
They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. He knew Peterson as a man always willing to help others, as a doctor very much for his patients. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. 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. Peterson departed soon after. Lois Jurgens had been sentenced to up to 25 years for the 1965 slaying of 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens. Now VanderWyst was looking at him, asking a question: What was the cause of death?. Soon the word spread from house to housethered been a death, the younger Jurgens boy had died. Learn more about merges. Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens Obituary We are sad to announce that on June 13, 2022 we had to say goodbye to Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens of Arvada, Colorado. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the . 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. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Eventually Lois Jurgens was arraigned, and her identity released by the media. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. 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. Try again later. Although Lois was not charged with Dennis's murder, the death caused sufficient suspicion for the authorities to remove Robert from the home; he was placed with various relatives and one foster family for a period of just over five years, during which the Jurgens spent a great deal of effort and money attempting to regain custody. I felt we actually checked out the concerns quite carefully.. Some had seen or heard Dennis being beaten. conviction
Camille Brass knew the blue convertible belonged to Dr. Peterson. Robert fit in well at the Jurgens household, as he learned from a young age not to get in his mother's way or cause an undue mess that would likely send Lois Jurgens into a rage. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. When Harold took him to the bathroom at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, Dennis had seemed fine. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Several relatives now told the investigators they would not sign statements. Deferred, Votel had written. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating. The psychiatrist thought it fortunate that Lois Jurgens could not get pregnant because a child would only compound and complicate her emotional disturbances. "There was obviously going to be trouble, and he didnt want to get involved.".

 

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. 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. The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. The just announced 80-page Death of Superman 30 th Anniversary Special will find Superman, his friends and his family revisiting his death, while dealing with a destructive new threat known as Doombreaker. Judge Gingold would not back down either. I was not trained in mental illness. I think my son is dying, Harold Jurgens had told the doctor on the phone that morning. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered landmarks in the history of child abuse law. 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. Active children that bruise easily . To receive the type of severe burns he suffered, Dennis would have had to be exposed to steaming-hot water for a significant length of time. Lois had had a history of mental illnesses including depression and psychosis and was originally deemed . Father Riser told her he definitely would. Harold (Harry) Jurgens, 76 of Filley passed away at Gold Crest Retirement Center in Adams on January 7, 2018. . he told the grand jury last year. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. Soon after, Jerry Puckett dropped her plan to convert--but by then Dennis was already registered as Catholic on the adoption rolls. There was something wrong here. As he viewed the body, he thought: This boy has been murdered. 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. They were of varying colors--black and blue, yellowish green, reddish--which meant that some were fresh, some old. The specter of homicide hovered, but would not land in this hearing room in 1965. He knew that parents otherwise free of major symptoms of psychotic illness could abuse children. 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. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. 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 1950 to 1970. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. He couldnt push Votel on this. They had checked on him throughout the night. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? 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. We came very close to trying to do something. Thanks for your help! This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. That was all Gingold had to concern himself with. There was an error deleting this problem. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. #dennisjurgens #jerrysherwood #truecrime Jerry Puckett's mother abandoned her when she was three, she was raised by her father and abused by two stepmothers.. I was young then, just out of college, the social worker said recently in an interview. If you throw up, you are going to eat it. The defense picked the doctor, and set parameters on what questions he could ask. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . The volume of business coming down the pipeline doesnt allow for regrets. Rekdahl, who graduated from St. Pauls Hamline University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in social work, had been in adoption services for less than one year. It would be no use. Many years later, asked in court how this placement was approved, Rekdahl--by then a psychotherapist and psychiatric social worker in Napa, Calif., remarried and using the name Gerane Wharton-Park--said: We finally had really no exacting reasons why we could turn this family down. The way Lindholm figured it, instead of prosecuting Lois Jurgens for murder, lets move to take Robert away. They covered the face, the head, the arms. Do I think this happened just here, just this one? You do consider social attitudes. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota. Dennis had thrown up then. When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134346102/lois-germaine_josephine-jurgens. Well, I do, he replied. they figured. To him, that was close to frightening.
He is able to turn himself over and is extremely strong, almost ready to stand by himself. . . 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. They attempted to mind their own business and feared retribution from Lois, who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer[1] responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. This was a murder. He returned to the Jurgens home in time to meet the coroners investigator, Saveiro Pitera. It was harder to believe that Dennis had been awake and talking normally an hour and a half before he died. There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear.