Within months of Dennis' arrival, he was rushed to the hospital with first and second-degree burns on his genitalia, which were reported and accepted as accidental. She said she had set Dennis in the sink to wash him after he had wet his diaper, then had gone into another room to get a clean diaper. There was a problem getting your location. They attempted to mind their own business and feared retribution from Lois, who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. Korolchuk wondered: Why wasnt a doctor called to the home in the day before Dennis died, when he must have been extremely and obviously ill? Drag images here or select from your computer for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens memorial. 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. A Mrs. Hansen called to report a lost wallet, which resulted in an officers checking a phone booth at Fourth and Washington streets, next to the Avalon Jewelers. Those looking back now, those who unraveled the case, tend to shrug and shake their heads when Votels name comes up. convicted of murder On the other hand, he could not bring himself to embrace the notion that Lois Jurgens was a murderer. 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. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Three-year-old Dennis Jurgens is murdered by his adoptive mother. Lois Jurgens was sentenced to 25 years in the Shakopee women's correctional facility for third-degree murder. Blankets covered him to the waist. This sort of thing happened back then.. Jurgens' other adopted son, Robert, testified at the trial, at which Lois Jurgens (then in her 60s) was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to prison.[4].
On January 13, 2000, she was initially suspected of poisoning her husband, Harold. Failed to delete memorial. He eats well.
| From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. Did the doctor remember his thoughts on why this child died, his inner feelings that day? 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 . He felt that she needed psychiatric help very badly and, without it, might become psychotic. The only witness to Lois's final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was 5 years old at the time. Some had seen or heard Dennis being beaten. Jurgens who says he still has the yellow legal pad on which he did his quick sketch was the victor. 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. Opens in a new window or tab. 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. She was right. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace. . 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. Innhold. . . he told the grand jury last year. 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. In fact, it appalled and amazed her because she herself thought the baby extremely appealing, very friendly, with very beautiful blue eyes and a very nice smile. Their investments and savings totaled $2,200. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. . Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter and get terrifying tales delivered straight to your inbox. Do I think this happened just here, just this one? |
Dennis had fallen and hit his head on the wet basement floor the day before, the Jurgenses said, and he also had been suffering from a bad cold. Lois Jean Jurgens, the daughter of Lawrence A. and Marjorie V. (Johnson) Jones, was born on May 26, 1929 in Malvern, Iowa. Death 7 May 2013 (aged 87) . Ivan and Gladys Demars, neighbors who had served as references when Dennis was adopted, over the fence had seen the boy with bruises, black eyes, split lips. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? But in 1962, before the developers and high-speed roads came, this was more truly a small town, inbred and insular, with a population just reaching 15,000. Peter Korolchuk yielded a good deal of information. It had always troubled her, more than any she handled before or since. Walter Moore, a co-worker of Harold Jurgens, also came to the funeral. 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. The term is relative. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. View Obituary & Service Information | | [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The lawyers danced around the matter, leaving much unspoken. I didnt look after that; I couldnt, she said. We wanted to tell someone, she said. DC artist Dan Jurgens shares an image of an unused Electric Blue Superman design from 1996, reminiscing about what might have been. When Dennis cried, Lois would force his head under the cold water faucet at the kitchen sink. Lois also was not pleased to learn how active Dennis was. Dennis Craig Jurgens, 3.
Harold's testimony in 1965 showed he was in Wisconsin from the evening of Friday, April 9, until 9 or 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 10. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens was an American convicted murderer. She knew the agencys policy was not to place children with couples who were over 40, an age they were approaching. She would be a poor candidate for adopting a child at this time, the psychiatrist in 1955 had advised St. Pauls Bureau of Catholic Charities, where the Jurgenses for years had vainly sought children. There are a lot of dead babies in the ground who were killed.. updates The next morning, six coroners jurors were asked to view the body of a dead boy, and to remember everything they saw. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. Rekdahl was developing real doubts about this placement, but the Jurgenses decided to go see Dennis that afternoon. There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. He attended Olney Rural Elementary School and graduated from Filley High School in 1959. The policeman did not, so they carried the body to the coroners van. 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. 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. Jurgens was one of 16 children. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. | | Donohue was not inclined to relax such controls. 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. Why was there no disposition of this case? The defense picked the doctor, and set parameters on what questions he could ask. By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed. Nonetheless, when Harold Jurgens called three days later and asked when they could get their boy, Rekdahl and the Scott County officials allowed the Jurgenses to take Dennis for a preplacement visit. They had seen Lois pull Dennis ears so hard that blood flowed. A dead boy, though, was something else. Aside from the incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitals, there were many other incidents of abuse which fell under the category of sexual sadism. . Harold Jurgens had converted a breezeway off the kitchen into a large, open family, dining and cooking area. Building a general history of abusive conduct would not be sufficient. 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. conviction
Doug Thomson, who defended Jurgens, said his client did not get out early. WHAT happened? You do consider social attitudes. Jurgens, now 69, was convicted of third-degree murder in 1987 in what at the time was the oldest homicide to go to trial in Minnesota. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. That this was much more a question for doctors than for the police did not sway Votel. Dan Jurgens on how The Death of Superman has "withstood that test of time" By Grant DeArmitt published 27 July 2022 The creator best known for The Death of Superman explains its impact 30. You can second-guess yourself until you get an ulcer, Lindholm said recently. During the early morning hours of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. . The coroner noted there was evidence of adult human bite marks on his penis, and scarring all over his scrotum; he was also found to be wearing two diapers and a pair of rubber pants at the age of 3+12 years. ``There is no justice. All I could do was shake my head.. Though the name of the adoptive family was not given, many suspected that the story was about Lois Jurgens. Retired now for several years, he suffers from angina and does not go out much, but he recalls the 1965 hearing. He is extremely alert. Harold Jurgens suggested that perhaps they should not go forward with the adoption of Dennis, but Lois refused out of concern that it would discourage the authorities from allowing them to adopt further children. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. I tried to assure her that these things happen in any family.. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head, and scarce chance that he had died from a fall on the flat basement floor. Dennis had been a beautiful baby, Gladys Demars said. My clients have rights, he said. When they cleared land for his basement, theyd found old rolls of amusement park ticketsthree rides for a nickel. The welfare department case work was very limited. The doctors eyes slid to a corner of the room. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said. Most simply remain hidden. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Many years later, at his mother's trial, by then 27-year-old Robert recounted the events of that evening, testifying that his mother had beaten Dennis extensively and had thrown him down the stairs. The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. . cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Yes! 
My deputy reassured me from time to time. 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. . Dennis was adopted by the Jurgens, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul: Harold Robert Jurgens, a former bandleader turned electrician, and Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens, a homemaker. Aided by the testimony of the Jurgens' other adopted son, Robert, Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses.