ACCUSED MARIA RIDULPH KILLER FACES RAPE BEEF FIRST

PROSECUTORS in Illinois say they're going to try Jack Daniel McCullough for a rape charge before trying him in the 1957 kidnapping sex slaying of Maria Ridulph, 7. The onetime police officer, now 71, will be tried January 9, 2012 on the rape beef. He has pleaded not guilty.

 Pretty Maria vanished from her neighborhood on Dec. 3, 1957, triggering massive searches that focused national attention on the tiny farm town but failed to find the missing girl. Her body was discovered five months later in another county.

Despite the attention the case went cold for decades although McCullough was a person of interest at the time and he lived nearby. Earlier this year he was charged in the heinous crime.

In September, prosecutors charged him with raping and taking indecent liberties with a girl, 14, in 1961 and 1962. McCullough — then known as John Tessier — was 22 when the sex crimes occurred.

MORE ON THE MARIA RIDULPH COLD CASE

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ACCUSED MARIA RIDULPH KILLER FINGERED IN NEW RAPE

RAPIST?

PRETTY MARIA

A FORMER cops accused of the 1957 kidnapping and killing Maria Ridulph has now been charged with sexually assaulting another teenage girl in the same small Illinois town.  
As we reported here in one of America's oldest cold cases of murder Jack McCullogh, 71, was busted earlier this year for the murder of the girl dubbed "Pretty Maria." 
She was last seen in the December of that year by a friend who she'd been playing with outside her Sycamore, IL home.  A young man walked up and introduce himself as "Johnny" and she accepted piggyback rides
from the mysterious stranger and her friend left her.  
Her body was found the following spring in a wooded area about 120 miles away.
McCullogh had been a suspect at the time of Maria’s disappearance, but he told cops that he’d been on a train from Rockford to Chicago on the day Maria was abducted.
After he ran away to join the military and changed his name "the case ran cold" according to court documents.   
But the case was re-opened last year after one of his ex-girlfriends in 2010 came across an unused and unstamped train ticket for the Rockford-to-Chicago trip, ripping apart his alibi. 
Now McCullogh, who denied any role in the murder last year has been charged in a separate case with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl from the same small town.
Illinois State Police announced the grand jury indictment of Jack McCullough on Friday for the
sexual assault which also happened in Sycamore, although they remained tight lipped on when the attack had taken place.
He's now also charged with one count of child sexual assault and four counts of indecent liberties with a child.
Illinois State Police director Hiram Grau said: "Sadly, we have another victim, and for the families of all victims, the pain never goes away,"  

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COPS HAVE SUSPECT IN 1957 DOROTHY THOMAS MURDER

ON SEPTEMBER 6, 1957 Dorothy Thomas was stabbed to death at the dry cleaners where she worked in Tallahassee, Florida--no one has been brought to justice for the crime. The pretty 27-year-old brunette was an employee of Nu Way Cleaners on Tennessee Street at the time. Cops believe that between 9 and 10 a.m. she was murdered. A deliveryman later discovered her body, a bloody mess stashed in a washroom. She was the only employee working at the time and cops say there was evidence a customer was in the business just before she was killed. She was ten dragged from the front area of the business to the bathroom where she was stabbed. Evidence discovered at the scene linked the heinous crime to a particular suspect. He is still alive and today lives free in another state.
Anyone having information on this case is encouraged to contact the Major Case Assessment Team at (850) 891-4462 or (850) 891-4745.

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