48 Hours - Cold as Ice

Episode Date: June 4, 2017

Can a childhood memory of a friend's murder solve a 1957 cold case?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama.

December 3, 1957, it had just started snowing. Maria and I wanted to go outside. Sycamore in 1957 was a town of about 7,000 people. Maria and I were playing on the corner of Center Cross and Archie Place. The town was your ideal small town that you see in the 1950s Christmas movies. There was a person that came up to both of us and told us his name was Johnny and would

we like a piggyback ride? My name is Kathy Chapman. I was the last one to see Maria Rudolph alive. I was eight years old. After Maria disappeared, my parents always said, you are the only one that can recognize this man. You have to remember what he looks like till we find him. How seriously did the FBI take this case? Extremely seriously.

The actions of the special agent in charge were directed personally by Hoover. Everybody looked for Maria. She just disappeared off the face of the earth. She was found five months later. A lot of towns have their boogeymen of legend, but we had a real boogeyman

who had snatched his child and killed her. And we've lived all this time not knowing who had taken her until now. It's a mystery that has haunted a Chicago suburb for more than a half a century until now. Early this month, police in Washington arrested Jack Daniel McCullough. Mr. McCullough has been charged with the offenses of murder, kidnapping, and abduction

of an infant. This isn't just a cold case. This is an ice cold case. This is a 55-year-old case. It's probably one of the most challenging murder prosecutions in American history, but he is the perfect suspect. He just kind of flew right under the radar. I knew he was capable of doing evil things. I even suspected he may have done some really evil things. When the mask comes off, it's like facing a serial killer. They're describing a man I've never met. My father didn't do this.

I know him. I love him, and I trust him. And he couldn't do this. I know him. I love him and I trust him. And he couldn't do this. She's not the first person he's brainwashed into believing he's all that and a bag of chips. Forgive me my skepticism, but leopards don't change their spots. Who kidnapped and killed Maria Ridoff? Jack Daniel McCullough, my half-brother. I'm Erin Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours. Cold as ice. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney,

I've seen some crazy cases. And this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party.

So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. That day, December 3rd, 1957, would you say your life was changed forever? Forever. Kathy Sigmund was just eight years old in December 1957, and like nearly every child in Sycamore, Illinois,

she couldn't wait for the first snowfall. Chuck Ridoff, then 11 years old, remembers his little seven-year-old sister Maria rushing out to play with Kathy around 6 p.m., just as flurries in the dark night settled over the idyllic Midwestern town. Today, I'm sure a lot of parents are saying, how could that young girl have been out after dark on that corner? Well, this was a norm. No one ever locked doors in Sycamore or thought twice about letting little girls out to play a game they called Duck the Cars.

We would go around the pole until a car would come up the street, and then you had to get behind that tree before the car lights hit you. Retired Sycamore police lieutenant Patrick Solar has studied the cold case extensively. The unknown subject would have approached from south on Center Cross Street, probably had a vehicle parked down the road. He may have gone by and seen the girls playing. Had you ever seen him? I had never seen him

before. Not at all? Not at all. And were you nervous with someone walking up toward you? No. We didn't even think twice about it. He stopped to talk to us, told us his name. His name was Johnny. Maria took the piggyback ride, and he went maybe 20 feet away with her and then came back and asked if we like dolls and Maria went home to get a doll she went home and brought her doll back I was said I was gonna go home and get my mittens I was cold and I left both of them

standing there in the corner and when I got back they they were gone. No sign of her doll, no sign of her, no sign of anybody. Kathy came to the door 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 minutes later, she came back, I can't find Maria. When Chuck searched for Maria and couldn't find her, he finally told his parents. According to public records, it was another hour before the Redoffs called the police,

who joined an already frantic search for Maria and the man who called himself Johnny. If you can imagine armed citizens walking the streets with shotguns and rifles and handguns tucked in their waistband, knocking on your door, we need to search your home. There's a girl missing. They set up roadblocks and rural roads in cooperation with the state police at the time. They stopped every car, searched every trunk. Some men came to the back door of our house and knocked and asked for dad. Jean Tessier, then 10 years old, lived with her large family just down the street from the Riddoffs.

Her baby sister, Jam, was just a year old. Their father ran the hardware store and was asked to open it up so that they could get flashlights and lanterns. We didn't have a lock on our back door. Dad cut a 2x4 and jammed it into the door so that it wouldn't open. Were you scared? Yeah, I was scared.

The thought of having to lock a door against an intruder was new. No one knows exactly when Maria was taken, but two neighbors reported hearing a scream around 7 p.m. In an alley not far from where Maria disappeared, her doll was found. The doll was found between the fence and a garage, which is set back on Center Cross Street. Within days, the FBI took over. Dozens of G-men descended on Sycamore and turned a small motel into their local headquarters. But there was little to go on. The crime scene had been trampled before any physical evidence could be gathered.

All that investigators had was one eyewitness, who was eight years old. I did have to go to the police station and view lineups of different individuals. I had to go through mugshot books. Yeah, do you know how many pictures you looked at? Do you have any idea? Lots and lots and lots. Hundreds? Yes.

Thousands? Yes, thousands. There were a lot of suspects in that little town of Sycamore. It's surprising how many people were on lists of sexual predators. Three weeks later, when Christmas came around, Maria was still missing. I remember Maria's wrapped gifts still under the tree. And your mom hoping she was still somehow alive. That's right. Hoping she would be

home for Christmas. How long did it take before you found out what had happened to Maria? Five months. She was found five months later. On April 26, 1958, the case went from a kidnapping to a murder when Maria's tiny body was found partially clothed 90 miles away near Galena, Illinois.

A farmer and his wife wound up finding the body partially concealed under a downed tree. Because Maria had not been taken across state lines, the FBI handed the investigation over to the Illinois State Police. Two years later, the ISP ran out of new leads and the case went cold. But Kathy Sigmund never stopped looking for the face that only she had seen. I never stopped looking for him. Never. It's still hard for you, isn't it, Kathy? Yeah, it is. It's been a long struggle. But Kathy hasn't been alone. Jean Tessier has also been haunted by the night Maria disappeared, but for a very different reason. Days later, her brother John Tessier became a suspect in Maria's murder

after investigators received an anonymous phone call. At some point, the FBI came to your home. They did. They were scary men in suits. They asked my mom whether John had come home that night, and she said yes. But according to Jean, that was a lie. Why do you think your mom lied about your brother being home when you knew he wasn't. I thought she must be protecting him because she had, to my knowledge, lied to protect him before. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin.

It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. As years turned to decades and there was still no arrests in the kidnapping and murder of little Maria rid of it seemed the mystery of her death would haunt the town of sycamore forever I think a lot of people look at sycamore illinois and they say oh the perfect American town the great place to raise kids there were a lot of dark secrets in that town too weren weren't there? Well, there certainly were in my family.

Fifty years after Maria's mysterious murder, one of those dark Tessier family secrets would shock their tiny town. Stirred up many old wounds and dragged me against my will back into a past that I was glad to have survived. The year was 1994, and Jean's mom was on her deathbed, about to make a stunning confession about her son. Tessier's sisters, Jan and Mary, were at their mother's bedside. I knew she was taking to her grave so many demons. She seemed like she was fighting dying.

And all of a sudden I hear, Janet! She grabbed my wrist in the strongest grip. She said, those two little girls and the one disappeared. John did it. 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? Yeah, very clear. She was frantically adamant that I do something. Jan says she was so focused on calming her dying mother that she never asked why Eileen Tessier suspected her own son of snatching and killing Maria Ridoff.

So I promised her I would take care of it. I said, Mom, don't worry, I'll take care of it. And finally she just kind of put her head back on the pillow and said, you know, and closed her eyes. Eileen Tessier died weeks later. Jan says she didn't trust her father to be honest about this. So she made it her mission to find the truth. In a way, it was me fulfilling an obligation finally, you know, living up to my promise. While Jan's siblings had their doubts,

they all decided to support her in her quest for justice and risk revealing even more painful family secrets. We all realized that this is what we had to do. This is the direction we're at. We had to open up all the secrets and this nightmare of a past and put it out for the world to see. Jan called the FBI and the Sycamore Police Department, but her brother appeared to have an alibi, placing him miles away from the crime.

And Tessier even passed a polygraph. So both agencies chose not to investigate, and Jan gave up. Then, ten years later, a friend got Jan thinking again about the promise she made to her mother. But he says, you never know, you may find a real bulldog of an investigator. And for some reason, those words hung in my head. The one law enforcement agency that Jan hadn't contacted yet, the Illinois State Police, was about to get an email.

I hit send, and then I went outside to have a cigarette and I looked up at this guy and I said, Mom, listen, you and God better get something rolling here because I can't keep doing this. Two days later, I get a phone call. Special Agent Brian Hanley wanted to hear more. What was so significant about what Jan had to tell you about this case? She came to us and basically told us that her brother committed this murder. And that this is going to be something that drags the whole family into the spotlight. Correct. I knew that it would be like ripping the scab off of this very deep wound. Jean Tessier didn't hold back when Hanley interviewed her. this very deep wound.

Jean Tessier didn't hold back when Hanley interviewed her. Starting with the lies she says her mother told the FBI about her brother. All I knew was that John didn't come home that night, that Maria disappeared, and that Mom lied to the FBI and said he had. Jean says she also wanted Hanley to know just how evil her brother could be. So for the first time ever, she revealed what she says is a long-buried family secret. He asked me something about what I knew about John's sexual proclivities. And I told him that John had abused me.

Throughout her childhood, Jean says, her brother sexually abused her. And so did her father. She says her own mother knew, but kept it secret. I love my mother. I love my father I love John but they all did great harm to me by this time Jean's father had also died there was only one person who could say for sure if John Tessier was the Johnny who kidnapped and killed Maria. And boy, my eyes lit up.

I suspect after all these years, I thought the case was closed. Maria's playmate, Kathy, was by then a 61-year-old grandmother when Hanley showed her this photo lineup seen here in photocopies. Six pictures that Hanley put together of young men who lived in Sycamore back in 1957. One of them was John Tessier. She picks this one and says no

and points to this one. That was Johnny. Immediately you knew it? Immediately. And so in the back of your mind, what are you thinking? I'm thinking we've got the right guy. Agent Hanley tracked John Tessier to Seattle, Washington, but his name was now Jack McCullough. He says he took his late mother's maiden name to honor her family and then married Janie O'Connor's mother. When my mother called me to tell me that Jack had been arrested, I laughed.

It was unbelievable. I mean, those aren't words I ever expected to hear. I've known Jack since I was eight years old. I grew up with him. I can't, I can't see that. But Hanley and two veteran Washington State cold case detectives saw something different in Janie's stepfather, especially when they showed him the photo lineup that Kathy Chapman saw. I don't know any of these guys, and I don't think any of these guys are from Sycamore.

guys and I don't think any of these guys are from Sycamore. Like it or not, Jack McCullough was about to come face to face with John Tessier and his alleged dark past. At a police station 2,000 miles away from Sycamore, in Seattle, Washington, the main suspect in Maria Ridoff's kidnapping and murder is taken in for questioning. Back in December 3rd, 1957. Maria. Maria, exactly. The suspect, John Tessier, was a 72-year-old former police officer living in Seattle under a new name.

McCullough, correct? Correct. When investigators make it clear they suspect McCullough of being Maria Ridoff's killer... I did not kidnap that little girl. He goes on the defensive. Look at my eyes. She was loved in the neighborhood. She was a little girl with big brown eyes and she was sweet as could be,

hardly said a word to anybody, and everyone loved her. To state's attorney Clay Campbell, McCullough's clear and detailed memory of the child was a red flag. It appeared to us that he was describing somebody that he was obsessed with, that he had thought a lot about. Even more troubling to investigators, McCullough makes an astounding claim. He knows the identity of the killer, someone from the old neighborhood. I want to talk to you about who I think did it. Okay. Seattle cold case detectives,

Cloyd Steiger and Mike Sosinski, assisted in McCullough's interrogation. That's a classic, like a lot of serial murderers, actually, that I've interviewed. It's the same thing. They're going to help you find the real murderer. This guy would have been perfect. He was about my height.

He looked something like me. But he didn't say he looks like the description given. He said he looks like me. And what does that say to you? It says to me that it is me. And I'm just trying to push your attention over here. Jack McCullough, a.k.a. John Tessier, chose to sit down with 48 Hours to tell his story. Are you the Johnny who kidnapped and killed Maria Riddle? Absolutely not. McCullough does admit to sex play with his sister,

Jean, when they were younger. You said you had a sexual encounter with your sister. Did you abuse your sister as she was growing up? You did, didn't you? My sister and I were very close. What do you mean that you were very close with your sister? We're done with this. This has nothing to do with Maria.

It has nothing to do with murder. You weren't... We're done. So you're not going to answer anything more on this? Correct. As you got older, there could have been other times. Yeah. Okay.

But this doesn't make me a suspect in a murder. Still, when Clay Campbell watched the interrogation, he was convinced they had Maria's killer. I thought to myself, time should not allow you to get away with murder. I thought I had an obligation to go after him. Mr. McCullough has been charged with the offenses of murder, kidnapping, and abduction of an infant. If they had tiny bit of evidence, maybe I'd think, could it be? But they have no evidence. They have no proof. Maybe I'd think, could it be? But they have no evidence. They have no proof.

McCullough's stepdaughter, Janie, says Campbell has the wrong man. But why would his own siblings say that he killed that little girl? I have no idea, but to wait 54 years to sit on him for, I mean, I can't imagine waiting a day. If you believed you knew who killed a little girl. Janie says her stepfather was a decorated Air Force captain and police officer, but she had never heard this woman's story. This man is not what he claims to be. He's a monster.

Six dollars. When detectives in Seattle started looking into McCullough's background, they found bartender Michelle Weinman in Tacoma. And I said, yeah, I know him. Do you know he molested me? Weinman told detectives that back in 1982, when McCullough was Officer Tessier, she was a 14-year-old runaway seeking refuge from an abusive home. Michelle says he took her in and then made a move. I was on the couch and he just started to touch me and try to kiss me and he assaulted me. When you say assault, did he rape you, Michelle? You know...

Tessier was charged with statutory rape, but eventually pled guilty to communication with a minor for immoral purposes, a misdemeanor, and was fired from the force. It didn't happen. If nothing happened, why would you plead guilty? I didn't have money to fight it. So you're saying you never touched Michelle Wyman? I'm saying I never raped her. I never attempted to rape her.

I never had sex with her. But state's attorney Campbell still had to prove that McCullough was a killer. In search of DNA evidence, the state had Maria Ridoff's body exhumed. But after half a century, they found nothing. There's no physical evidence at all to tie Jack McCullough to this murder. That is correct. It's all circumstantial. That's correct.

So Campbell made a surprising move, charging Jack McCullough with a different decades-old crime. During the investigation, Jean Tessier had revealed a specific incident that she says happened when she was 14, and her brother was home on a military leave. He drove me to a home I didn't know in another part of town and raped me with great cold anger and then shared me with his friends. Normally, a 55-year-old rape case would be barred by the statute of limitations. But because Jack returned to the military

and never came back to the jurisdiction, the statute didn't apply. So Campbell made a controversial and risky decision to try Jack McCullough 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 lot of pressure off us in this next case. Prosecution has really nothing on murder.

They've ripped this man from his family, destroyed his life, extradited him to another state, and they have not a shred of evidence. So now we're going to do this. But Campbell had one problem. He had promised Jean Tessier, now the mother of two grown children and a chaplain being considered for an Episcopal priesthood, that he would never pursue a rape trial without her consent. He said, well, I know I told you I wouldn't go forward without your blessing, but I am. And I felt as powerless as I'd felt that day.

I felt like I was being raped again by this legal process. I made myself look at him as soon as I sat in the witness stand because I had to have done that already before I could even speak. On April 10, 2012, Jean Tessier took the stand in a Sycamore courtroom and accused her brother of raping her when she was just 14 years old. I had never said that story out loud to anyone except Brian Hanley. And they were asking me to go in this very public forum and talk about the most painful day of my life.

But state's attorney, Clay Campbell, felt he had a better chance of convicting Jack McCullough of rape than murder and was determined to put the 72-year-old former cop away for life. What was it like on the witness stand telling your story? It was terrible because I had no control over the story. I had to only answer the questions that I was given in this room full of strangers except for the man who had done this to me. Of course he says he's innocent. Of course he says he's innocent. Michelle Wyman was allowed to testify about what she says McCullough did to her when she was also a teen. I'm here to tell you, right along with his sister, this man is not what he claims to be.

He wears a mask and it's scary. McCullough, concerned he could never get an impartial jury in Sycamore, chose to let a judge decide his fate. The trial lasted four days. Two men who lived in the house where Jean says the assault took place denied any knowledge of the event. With no evidence to back her story, Jean feared that her word wouldn't be enough for the judge and left before the verdict was in. I was several hours towards home, driving home.

I didn't want to be there to hear it. Why were you so sure he wouldn't be convicted? Because he'd gotten away with everything he'd done his whole life, including what he did to Michelle. away with everything he'd done his whole life, including what he did to Michelle. Gene was right. The man accused of raping a Sycamore teenager 50 years ago has been found not guilty. Jack McCullough was found not guilty of rape and not guilty of indecent liberties with a child. Jean says she was publicly humiliated for nothing. The judge said, why had I waited so long to come forward? And why was I telling this story now? Jean says she wasn't allowed to tell the judge she felt pressure to take the stand.

It felt like another violation. Did you think when you were acquitted on rape then that you might not even go on trial for the murder? No, I was never worried about the murder trial because I had FBI evidence that I couldn't have done it. Five months later, Campbell went ahead with the murder trial. The talk around Sycamore was that with an election coming up, Campbell was grandstanding for votes. But he says, if anything, he was risking his re-election. I consulted with an awful lot of people and almost every single one of them told me, Clay, you cannot do this. It's a political disaster, and there's no way you can find him guilty. With no physical evidence, Campbell's case relied on an eyewitness and two sisters testifying against their brother more than 50 years after the fact.

Do you think your mother thought you had something to do with Maria Radoff's death? I don't know. She was not all there. She was under the influence of drugs and psychotic. Nobody knows what she was talking about. It was all in her head. Did you worry that your mom might be confused? I did not at the time. I don't know why, but I knew she was speaking the truth.

We knew it was a long shot trying to get that evidence in. The mother isn't here to be interviewed. McCullough was certain the judge would never allow the testimony of the deathbed confession. But the judge did allow it. And still, Campbell was worried. Would the judge believe his eyewitness, Kathy Chapman's positive ID of the defendant, so many decades after the crime.

Small town, down the street. And you don't recognize him as the guy who lives down the street. But I didn't know him. He was 10 years older. Now that I know who he is. But the state's credibility problems didn't end there. Three jailhouse informants would testify that McCullough confessed to them behind bars. One of the snitches, serving 33 years for murder,

claimed that McCullough told him he killed Maria by accident. The rules were very clear up front. There was absolutely nothing we were offering in exchange for their testimony 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 not know and say, oh, you look like an honest person. Why don't you listen to my story? I murdered a little girl and I want to stay in prison forever.

Stupid. But the biggest obstacle for Campbell was in the original FBI case file. Remember, according to statements made by witnesses at the time, McCullough has an alibi, something he tried to tell police when they arrested him. The day Maria was kidnapped, I was in the induction center joining the Air Force. The only thing that 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 even invented.

As his murder trial approached, Jack McCullough felt confident. I have an alibi. We're talking about the FBI here, okay? J. Edgar Hoover's signature is on some of my documents. We couldn't find Hoover's signature, but the FBI files still made McCullough feel confident. And that's not all. McCullough also points out that he isn't the only credible suspect to have surfaced over the years.

Before him, there was William Henry Redman. You remember the newspaper articles written at the time? Yes. And what were the headlines? Case closed. Yes. And what were the headlines? Case closed.

Back in 1997, Sycamore Police Lieutenant Patrick Solar was sure he had identified the man who likely killed Maria. He was a carnival worker and a truck driver and a day laborer. Redmond had been arrested for the 1951 rape and murder of another little girl. But there's a twist. By the time you heard about him? He had died. He had died in 1995. If you're Jack's defense attorney, Pat Soler is your dream witness because he pointed the finger at a totally different suspect

and said, case closed. Yes. But before McCullough's trial even began, the judge ruled out any testimony about Redman, stating he was not a credible suspect. But the defense still had McCullough's alibi. FBI documents had indicated he made a collect call, which placed him miles away in another town when Maria was snatched. At 6.57, I made the call. I had proof of where I was. Three people, a telephone operator and her supervisor,

an Air Force colonel and an 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? Because she was kidnapped at seven. But the state's attorney believes that other reports in the case file indicate Maria might actually have been abducted an hour earlier. It was easy for us to imagine him killing her, or at least kidnapping her, getting her in the car and then driving up there and stopping at a pay phone or making a phone call from somewhere. You think he was setting up an alibi by calling? There's no question. That alibi was McCullough's best hope. But court-appointed defense attorney Tom McCullough and investigator

Crystal Harrell were worried they wouldn't be allowed to use these now more than half-a-century-old documents at trial. It's not standard in any trial that you ever allow reports in. That's why you call witnesses to testify to the police. But in this case, all of our witnesses were dead or senile. And so, just like the police reports of other suspects, the judge kept the FBI file out. You understand why a judge would keep out these documents. These documents were written 55 years ago,

and the people who wrote them are dead. There's no way to verify how credible they are. But it's okay for him to use hearsay in the case of my mother, isn't it? She was dead. You could have given your alibi if you took the stand. Why didn't you take the stand? That's what you got attorneys for. My attorneys told me they didn't want me to take the stand. When both sides rested, the judge announced he would take the night to review the evidence, but that he had already made his decision. On September 14, 2012, the Ridhoff and Tessier families gathered at the courthouse to hear the verdict.

I want to hear the word guilty. That's all I want. We filed into the courtroom and then the judge started to speak. And at first I went, oh no, because it sounded like he was going to say not guilty. And then he said, therefore I define the defendant guilty. And the place exploded. In his decision, the judge said he found credible all of the prosecution's witnesses, even the jailhouse informants.

I had found Johnny. But it was Kathy Chapman's identification of the man she encountered as a little girl one winter evening 55 years ago that made the crucial difference this time the long arm of the law reached out and got him I think the reason there's not a statute of limitations on on murder is because 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 of law and prove that that person did it, then that person ought to suffer the consequences of having taken a human life.

McCullough was sentenced to life in prison. Did you get a fair trial, Jack? I did not. Where is the proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Can anybody get a fair trial after 55 years? No. There's nobody to testify on my behalf. They're all dead. That's the problem with getting old. Is the mystery finally solved? Yes, absolutely. It's a done deal.

Earlier in this interview, you told me that these accusations of rape and the sex allegations are irrelevant to this murder. But in fact, whoever killed Maria Ridoff was a pedophile somebody who abused little girls you don't know that nobody knows that that's a supposition but why are you unwilling to talk about these accusations of rape it has nothing to do with murder but it has something to do with your character it says a lot about you

I may have been a sinner but I'm not a murderer is it possible then that you were acquitted of what you did do and convicted of what you didn't? That could be. Is that what happened? I don't know. As a convicted child killer, as well as an ex-cop, prison life was particularly hard on Jack McCullough. For his own safety, he was kept in protective custody, locked up in a tiny cell 23 hours a day. But all that would change on April 15, 2016, at a hearing inside

a packed Illinois courtroom. After serving five years of his life sentence, the defendant has met his burden. Jack McCullough heard the words that would set him free. I will order, sign an order vacating the judgment of conviction. This remarkable turn in the case came after the state's attorney, Richard Smock, had conducted his own review and found there was no way McCullough could have killed Maria Ridoff. The investigation was prompted by McCullough's motion for a new trial. After reviewing thousands of documents ruled inadmissible at trial, Prosecutor Smock found himself in the unusual position of siding with the defense. The prosecutor in this county has made very clear that he believes Mr. McCulloch is actually innocent

and that the facts demonstrated that. and that the facts demonstrated that. Those facts included newly discovered phone records that confirmed that McCullough was miles away when Maria was kidnapped. A week after he was released, McCullough was back in court to hear his case dismissed. I will grant that motion to dismiss. Coming from an environment of you can't do anything

to where you can do anything, I mean, you kind of know what freedom is. And it's just plain wonderful. And there was even more stunning news to come. And thus, Mr. McCullough's petition is granted. In April 2017, Judge Bradley officially declared Jack McCullough innocent of Maria's murder. But McCullough will be tied up in court for years because he has filed a federal lawsuit against numerous Illinois state and local authorities for wrongful conviction.

While sadly, one of the nation's oldest cold cases is cold again. The case is now a reopened and active investigation being conducted by the Illinois State Police. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.