This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm Talia, and we are Crimes and Consequences,
a true crime podcast. Hi Talia, Hi Tania. How are you
doing? Oh? Today's great day. How are you? Yeah, it's
a great day, fucking great day. Welcome everyone to another exciting episode of
Crimes and Consequences. And before I get into today's story, I would just
like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button. So before I
tell the story today, I just have to warn everyone. It's a horrible,
horrible, graphic case of child abuse. Girl. Didn't we already go
down this plan with baby lollipops? We did? Yeah? I'm sorry?
What is going out here? I got another one? And I'm really sorry,
man, this one I literally walked out last time depressed. This one's
bad. This one was bad, and I'm not gonna give it away.
But anyway, I was pissed. I was pissed. Okay, I don't
need all the details now, Okay, Anyway, by just looking at her,
you would think Lois Jurgens was the picture perfect housewife in the time of
nineteen fifties suburban America. At the very least, that image was exactly what
she constantly strived for. This is like the I Love Lucy era. Yes,
she strived for this, and that's the expectation that she set for herself.
Lois grew up in an impoverished family with sixteen siblings. Holy Catholic,
Damn, I'm guessing, so she knew exactly what kind of life she wanted
when she eventually left home. She used her marriage to former bandleader turned electrician
Harold Jerkins as a means to improve her social standing. At least with Harold,
she was considered middle class, which was far better than what she grew
up in. Lewis and Harold lived in white Bear Lake, Minnesota, which
is a suburb of Saint Paul, and Lewis took pride in the home that
they made together. Lewis had a pathological need to control her environment like she
was obsessive. She cleaned, and she tended to her home both inside and
out, like she just wanted to have this appearance of everything's perfect. She
was all about the image. Her house was spotless, her garden was always
tended to, and her life was seen as nothing short of perfectly manicured.
Lewis herself was prem and proper, and both her and Harold were devout Catholics.
You knew it. The only thing that left their perfect image tainted was
the fact that Lois could not have children, and they desperately wanted kids.
To add insult to injury, the couple also couldn't adopt, since while the
authorities had barred Lois from pursuing this path to motherhood. The reason for this
sanction was due to Lois's struggle with her mental health over the past decade.
She had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, which included an extended state at
a psychiatric institution as a quote unquote mental patient. Lois was subjected to a
variety of therapy during her stay oh Man in the fifties, and it included
electroshock therapy. She was diagnosed as having psychonaurosis, which is a functional personality
disorder characterized by disturbing emotional symptoms such as morbid fears, obsessive thoughts, or
depressive states, but with out delusions or hallucinations. Yet, despite her history
as well as those who would label her as unfit to raise a child.
Lois yearned for motherhood, but it wasn't so much that she felt a super
strong maternal drive to procreate, but more like an obsessive compulsion that had everything
to do with the image she wanted to put out in the world. After
all, a child would complete the ideal picture that she had in her mind
of having a perfect family. Not being able to bring a child into the
world drove her further into madness. Oh it's shid. She was determined to
rectify the situation, and Lois was an extremely determined woman. When she wanted
something, she always got it, and she felt as though this situation would
be no different. Using the official channels close to her, Lois managed to
arrange for the private adoption of a baby boy named Robert. He was born
on June twenty second, nineteen sixty and four days later, on June twenty
sixth, he was delivered to the Jurgen's home. Robert was the perfect addition
and fitted well at the Jurgen's household. It definitely helped that he learned from
a young age not to get in his mother's way or cause any undue mess
that would most likely send her into a fit of rage. Despite what the
authorities had originally thought of Lois, she appeared to be a devout mom.
Robert grew to be an intelligent, general and obedient child, and his adoption
with the Jurgons seemed to be successful in the eyes of authorities. As time
passed, Lois had managed to change their minds. Now, they began to
read. Lois had managed to change their minds. Yeah, I remember they
said that they didn't want her to adopt, ok, gotcha. Now they
began to rethink the ideas on her capabilities as a parent and reconsidered a next
adoption. Now she's okay to adopt because she's been doing a good job right.
As such, when Lois applied for adoption once again nineteen sixty two,
the authorities were far more lenient this second time around. The second child to
be adopted by Lois and Harold was one year old peddler named Dennis. The
little boy had been born to a seventeen year old teenage mom named Jerry Sherwood.
At the time, Jerry was in a bit of trouble, and when
she gave birth to Dennis, she was still residing in a home for troubled
girls. Because of this, she was convinced by those in charge to put
her baby up for adoption. She didn't want to give up her baby,
but Jerry did as she was told. She was promised that Dennis would go
to a good home. They would take good care of him. Dennis spent
his first year of life in the foster care of an elderly woman who had
adored him with endless amounts of love and the right kind of affection. Now
things would be different, as he would have a family and an older brother.
What could be bad about that? Tanya? I know, I already
know. I mean, I don't know, But what could go wrong?
You're gonna tell me? And I'm just really seriously not going to be able
to handle this. Fucking Everything goes wrong. Almost from the moment Dennis arrived,
there were problems that arose. That is, in Lois's eyes, and
her eyes alone. She took an immediate dislike to the little boy who was
so different from her precious little Robert. After all, Robert had been trained,
whipped into submission, and ultimately molded into Lois's perfect vision of an obedient,
respectful child. She wanted the nuclear family, and she got that with
Robert. Dennis, though not so much. He was quite the opposite,
which she despised. Dennis was spirited, energetic, and a reimbunctious toddler.
Okay, that's normal, yeah exactly. In other words, like, yeah,
he's perfectly normal. I mean, he's a baby. Apparently, this
was just too much for Lois to handle. She was used to the regiment,
had ways of her household and the structure that came along with tidiness and
obedience. In fact, she disliked Dennis so intensely that Harold actually suggested that
maybe they shouldn't go through with the adoption, but Lois disagreed for two reasons.
The first was she was concerned that it would discourage agencies and whatnot for
future adoption, exactly for future adoptions. And her second reason was she decided
to make Dennis her little project. She was going to make him conform.
Plus, it would look bad if she was taking in a kid and then
giving him having a failed adoption. She was just gonna make him into the
perfect child, like just like Robert. As a result, the adoption went,
I had is planned and Dennis was delivered to his new home in December
nineteen sixty two, when he was fourteen months old. He didn't know it
at the time, but he was being introduced to the family that would end
up being responsible for his terrible and faithful demise. It only took a couple
of months after moving into the Jurgen's home before Dennis had to be rushed to
the hospital for first and second degree burns on his lower abdomen, genitalia,
and buttocks. Even though the hospital visit was reported, Lois had somehow managed
to convince the doctors that this was just an accident. She blamed the incident
on Dennis. She claimed that while she was washing him in the scene,
he had turned on the hot water while she left the room only momentarily,
and by some fucked up miracle, they actually believed her, like really sixty
two, yeah, I know. Somehow, the incident was officially deemed accidental
and the world went on per usual. This was just the beginning of what
was going to be a most horrific two and a half year descent into pure
hell. I know, it's bad. Unfortunately, the process of adopting Dennis
was complete, so he was the Organ's son over time, Dennis went from
being a free spirited and outgoing little boy to one who was quit withdrawn and
beaten down. He was frequently seen with bruises which were the direct result of
daily beatings delivered at the hands of Lois herself, like Harold doing during this
Harold's doing jack shit just to let you know he was afraid of Lois too.
So later family members would speak to how the little boy was forced to
wear sunglasses in order to hide black eyes. Imagine a two year old being
made to wear sunglasses. Yeah, mine would never wear them right or pull
them off their face. Right. Robert had been taught to recite the Rosary
at the age of two, and he did it with ease. But when
Dennis struggled to achieve this feat, and he didn't do it so easily,
he was forced to kneel on a broomstick handle for extended periods of time,
leaving him in so much pain that he barely was able to stand. How
I supposed to get a two year old to do the Rosary? I know,
dude, I don't even know of the Rosary. I do, but
I mean, at two, I'm just hoping they don't poop their pants right
exactly like, come on, well, Robert could do it. In her
effort to make Dennis right in her eyes, Lois embarked on a series of
sadistic and corporal punishments. She never made a single excuse for her mistreatment of
him. If anything, she seemed proud of it, claiming she was doing
God's work and making him perfect in the eyes of the Lord. When Dennis
would wet is diaper or wet is bad, Lois's remedy was to place a
spring action clothes pin upon the head of his penis all right, Tanya.
If he couldn't go to the bathroom, he'd be chained to a drain pipe
near the toilet until he could force a bow movement. Often, Dennis was
force fed and made to swallow spicy foods. If he threw up during this
cruel treatment, he'd be forced to eat his own vomit. Fucking hate people,
I hate people. Lois obsessed about Dennis's weight, claiming he was too
big, but according to his medical records at the time of adoption, doctors
noted he was the appropriate weight for a child of his age, and bill
it didn't matter. Though he was frequently starved to rid him of quote unquote
sloppy fat, as Lois called it. She even used the name sloppy fat
as a nickname due to the frequent amount of starvation he endured. Dennis gained
only three pounds during the entire two and a half year period as he aged
from one year old to three and a half years old. This has to
be messing up Robert too, right, I mean Robert's there. When Dennis
was permitted to eat, he would sometimes reject certain foods, just as any
normal child. My kids reject all the food back and cheese and ramanules and
chicken nuggets. Right. However, when this happened, it piste Lois off
to high hell, and she responded by placing horse radish on the food and
then force feeding it to him. According to reports from family members who would
later testify at trial, one told the story of a time when Dennis turned
purple from being force fed a bitter and spicy horse radish whatever and then having
his oxygen supply cut off as Lois covered his mouth and nose. This treatment,
coupled with the exertion as he struggled, made it Dennis sick to the
point of vomiting. Obviously, this enraged her and you know what she did.
I don't have to read, don't have to repeat it. All the
reports claimed Lois would often strike Dennis with her hands, pull and lift him
up by the ears, whip him with a belt or a cedar board,
and frequently kept him tied to his crib. So, as you mentioned,
what was Harold doing? Yeah? Where he was there? And I wondered
about it while I was reading the story, like did he intervene? But
no, The truth was Harold was intimidated by Lois. He was scared of
her. Lois was an extremely disturbed woman who was prone to fly off the
handle at the slightest annoyance, and Harold, just like the children, was
whipped into submission. Well, okay, but he's a grown man. He
did nothing to help curb the abuse. But he did note that he personally
never mistreated Dennis. Okay, just allowed it, just allowed it. Certain
neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois's treatment of Dennis, but
they also did nothing to prevent it. They attempted to mind their own business
and feared retribution from Lois, who wasn't above threatening them of their own lives,
like threatening their lives. Yeah, Lois had quite the reputation amongst those
of newer which was that she was an intense, angry woman with a very
short and volatile temper. Clearly, in other words, you didn't want to
get in her way when she was on a mission to rage. And whatever
the reason was, Dennis's arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that she would
unleash on him. She was literally obsessed with abusing him, and she went
out of her way to make sure he knew he was the bad child and
Robert was the good child. Then one fateful day, Lois took her abuse
a little too far. Oh boy, here it comes, here it comes.
On the night of April tenth, nineteen sixty five, a great flood
hit the Saint Paul area, with the Mississippi River waters rising to record levels
and eventually bursting its banks, causing widespread destruction in the region. Places of
businesses and homes were flooding rapidly, and the Jurgen's home was, unfortunately one
of them. The water soon poured into the home and just flooded the basement.
Lue stood by and watched as the elements started to destroy this home that
she worked so hard to make perfect. The very thing that she was most
proud of was being wiped away right in front of her eyes, and there
was nothing she could do to stop it. So this sent her into a
crazy fit of rage. And as always, it was Dennis who bore the
brunt of her anger. The three year old was punched, slapped, and
slammed against the walls. He would try to make this less sad. I
know, I know. He was throttled, thrown down the stairs into the
flooded basement, and then hurled back up again by his arm. Lois was
on a rage rampage. In the early morning hours of the following day,
April eleventh, which was Palm Sunday. Dennis's frail body couldn't take an ounce
more of the punishment, and he tragically died. Harold and Lois told authorities
pretty much the same story. Dennis had been suffering from a bad cold the
morning before Saturday. He had slipped on the basement floor near the bathroom,
damp from flooding all of that great stuff, and he struck his head on
the tile. At nine am Sunday morning, Lois went into Dennis's bedroom,
only to find him gasping for breath and gurgling. They said they immediately dialed
the doctor and the police. However, by the time they called it was
nine thirty and the police got their ten Dennis had already passed. Once brought
to the morgue, Dennis was undressed and stripped of a pair of pajamas,
an undershirt, rubber pants, and two diapers. I'm thinking they're the cloth
diapers. Got those rubber pants in the arm and Facial bruises continued across virtually
all of Dennis's body, radiating in every direction, varying from the size of
a dime to a half dollar. During the autopsy, the pathologists counted from
fifty to one hundred bruises running the length of Dennis's body. The exact number
was hard to judge because so many of them overlapped. They were varied in
color, so some were fresh, some were black and blue yellow. The
various stages of bruising. They covered his legs, arms, hands, the
front and back of his head, his shoulders, his buttocks, the small
of his back, the middle of his back, everywhere there was I don't
think there was a spot on this poor baby that didn't have a bruise.
There was also a large, swollen abrasion on his forehead. There was a
bluish mark on the right side of his head that started at the temple and
extended to behind his right ear. There was also a deep ulcerous lesion on
the base of his penis and dark bruises on the tip, which looked a
lot like a human bite. I'm sorry. The coroner noted in his report
that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, which put him at the level of
a person who had died of starvation. Subcutaneous fat is the kind of fat
that we call baby fat, and you can pinch I get a lot of
that. It lies just below the first two layers of your skin. None
of this, however, was what killed Dennis. During the intern autopsy,
a quarter inch perforation in the boy's small bowl was found. The whole had
allowed a fifth of a quart of infectious fecal matter to flow into his abdominal
cavity. It was judged that the perforation had occurred one to two days before
his death. During that time, the abdominal cavity's surface tissue normally shiny had
turned all and the pus filled matter had solidified come on, man forming adhesions
matting together pieces of the bowl, which were classic symptoms of period tonitis,
which is a redness and swelling inflammation of the lining of your belly or abdomen.
Dennis most likely had died after an extended period of agonizing pain and needlessly,
as this could have been treated. At the time, it wasn't known
specifically what caused the fatal blow, though the injury was later found to have
been beyond a reasonable doubt inflicted by Lois and the evidence of her constant physical
abuse. While there was some form of an investigation, it wasn't much.
The case definitely didn't receive the attention it's so rightfully deserved when it came down
to it, this was a different time. The society and law enforcement of
the mid sixties didn't accept the concept that a child in a middle class home
could be the target of abuse. It was simply something that just didn't happen.
That being said, it would have been difficult at the time to prove
that Lois had committed murder. I know, it's just it's crazy souls.
In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe abuse. The medical examiner didn't
classify the death under any of the standard classifications of accident, suicide, or
murder. He simply marked it deferred. Okay, deferred. That's like,
I don't want to say that's what. That's what. That's Yeah, well,
we'll tell you later. There was also a great deal's suspicion surrounding Jerome
Zuris, who was the brother of Lois Jurians. He was a police lieutenant
in the town of White Bear Lake. Actually he was the number two of
this case. Oh so he investigated. There was a common belief among witnesses,
neighbors, and the investigators who eventually reopened the case that Jerome interfered with
the investigation and destroyed incriminating evidence. Whether this was true or not, Lois
managed to escape the brunt of any criminal charges. Instead, she would be
faced with the authority's decision to remove Robert from her kids. That is punishment
for her. Yeah, and he was placed in the custody of his paternal
grandmother. As you just said, it drove her nuts. Robert would remain
out of her grasp for five long years. During this time, the Jurgens
spent a small fortune trying to regain custom through the courts. When that failed,
Lois started spewing threats of arson. Whether these threats were held in any
real weight isn't completely certain to the paternal grandparents, Is that who she threatening
arson too? Yeah? Yeah? And one thing that did happen though,
Robert's grandmother would end up dying in a house fire in nineteen seventy while Robert
was in the hospital recovering from about of pneumonia. So coincidented coincidents, I
think not for this reason, Robert, who was now ten, was returned
to the monsters lair. I believe the only reason this was allowed to happen
was because the Jurgens had hired a new lawyer who happened to be good friends
with the judge who presided over the juvenile court custody hearing. Not to mention,
the couple had finally agreed to be examined by a county appointed psychiatrist.
A Ramsay County social worker her name was Marion Dinah. Nord later told police
she had strongly opposed Robert's return. Certain Dennis had been killed, but she
said she had been discouraged by her supervisors and the prosecutor from probing into the
past. She totally. She was left with the impression that she wasn't to
get involved in why Robert was taken in the first place. She was only
to study the question of whether it was okay to return him now, really,
really, really, because that sounds like a great idea. Come on,
it's so ridiculous, I know. In the end, the doctors who
checked out Lois both decided she was okay. Prosecutor in the welfare department were
no longer opposed to Robert's return. Two years later, in nineteen seventy two,
Robert was joined by four more school aged children, three brothers and a
sister from Kentucky. They joined the home. Are you kidding me? You're
what? No? I know. The state of Kentucky wanted to get these
four children off of welfare and keep them together, and placed them in a
Catholic home. The Jurgen's annual salary was now sixty thousand dollars a year.
I think that's really good money for nineteen seventy two. So they hired a
lawyer to press their case once more. Some of the social workers objected to
the adoption, but they were again shut down by their superiors. Lois had
gotten a glowing reference from her pastor father, Bernard Riser, and that seemed
to be all she needed to set things in motion. So the children were
delivered to their new home and introduced to their new evil stepmother will not quite
a stepmother, but it sounded adopted mom. By this point, Lois's rage
in Mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and
people were talking. It didn't take long for them to relocate to rule Stillwater,
Minnesota, possibly in an effort to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood
where Dennis was killed. Despite this, Lois pretty much picked up where she
left off with Dennis, and she began dolling out savage beatings on the regular.
Moreover, she had not lost her active imagination when it came to dreaming
up the cruelest of punishments. One time, she grabbed one of the boys
by his ears and slammed his forehead into a nail protruding from the wahop stop
it I know. Another time, one of the kids was made to stand
barefoot in the snow. On another occasion, and this is just fucked up.
I don't want to say. Yeah. Lois rubbed a used sanitary napkin
in one of the children's faces, like really, like I can't like disgusting,
Like why would she do that? Lois awaked them in the middle of
the night to inspect their rooms, beating them if she found dust or hangers
crossed in the closet. Reminds me of mommy, dear. I was just
gonna say that it reminded me a little bit of mommy, dearist Lois's bedroom
door squeaked loudly when she opened it, and when they heard that noise,
the children couldn't help but be consumed by fear. Coming home from school on
the bus, they could see the Jurgens's driveway from a distance, like from
the top of a hill, and if Lois's gold Buck Skylark was parked there,
they would just be terrified to go home. And before I tell you
more, we're going to take a break. Sometimes Lois would order Harold to
beat the children. I thought he didn't do that. Well, he didn't.
He would take them into the basement and tell them to cry loudly while
he slapped his own leg During this period, Lois was once again placed in
a psychiatric facility. Eventually, the four children couldn't take it any longer because
Robert never got an either. He still didn't get any he still didn't get
eye. They couldn't take it any longer, and they decided to run away,
and they took Robert with that. They escaped the home and ended up
getting help from concerned neighbors, who then got the police involved. Since the
four Kentucky children were older, they were able to vividly recount two authorities the
daily abuse that they suffered from at the hands of their foster mother. Adopted
them, No, she didn't adapt them. They told their sad tale about
their impossible living situation, coupled with their own version of a dictator who ran
it. Their former foster mother and Kentucky visited them after they fled the Jurgenses
home, and she was horrified. The children she had known as loving,
affectionate, and happy were now distrustful and disoriented. One of the boys later
would spend hours on a psychiatrist's couch trying to black out the pain. Afterward,
the decision was quickly made by authorities to remove the children from Kentucky,
but Robert was left to stay with Lois and Harold. Additionally, could that
makes sense? I know? Additionally, Lewis and Harold were to never again
be allowed to adopt or even foster children. Lewis of course lost her goddamn
mine and raged against this to make sure that happened a while ago. Yeah,
she threatened to take the matters to court, but Harold wisely persuaded her
against this course of action. He didn't want to attract any more unnecessary attention.
Where would it lead. Right, So, at this point, Lois
had pretty much gotten off scot free with not only countless acts of cruelty against
children, but also the horrendous murder of poor three year old Dennis. Lucky
for us, karma was about to catch up with Lois armas a bitch yep,
it doesn't forgive, and there was a little bit of justice served.
Do you remember I told you about Dennis's birth mom, Jerry. Yes,
Well, at this point in the story, it's now the early nineteen eighties,
and Jerry wasn't a clueless teenager anymore, but a grown woman in her
late thirties who had since married Dennis, his biological father, and had four
more children by him, you know. But of course she never forgot about
her firstborn. She assumed he would be a young adult by now, and
she wondered if he might like to get to know her and his younger siblings.
So Jerry began making inquiries. She had called the Ramsey County Welfare Department
trying to trace the whereabouts of her son. Six weeks later they had responded
by letter, and that was how Jerry would make the heartbreaking discovery that Dennis
had passed. Oh man, I know. All it said was quote,
sorry to inform you that Dennis Craig died April eleventh, nineteen sixty five,
of paria tenitas, sincerely, and it came from that county. It came
as a shock to her, after all, he was only three Titus.
Jerry began making calls and doing a ton of research on Dennis and what could
have possibly happened to her precious baby boy. She just belt in her bones
that something awful happened to him and she needed to know. From the yellowing
newspaper notice of his death that she found during her search, she learned that
the boy's body bore multiple injuries and bruises. From the death certificate, she
learned that while Donnis had died of periatonitis due to a ruptured bowl, the
coroner had never ruled whether the death was an accident, homicide, or natural
causes. They just buried him and that was it. Jerry had somehow managed
to get a telephone number for Lois Jergins, so she called her. Oh
shit, right. While they were talking, Lois acted taken aback at the
fact that no one ever informed a Jerry of the boy's death. She appeared
very compassionate as she told tales of happy, healthy, cute Dennis. Lois
was kind, polite, and even promised to send Jerry some mementos of Dennis's.
However, the keepsakes never arrived, and when Jerry made a follow up
call to the Jergins residence, she discuss heard that Lois had since switched to
an unlisted phone number. Obviously, this immediately perked her suspicion, Right,
you know, I'd be like m that seems a little weird. So Jerry
took it upon herself and did her due diligence. With Dennis's death certificates still
classified as deferred, the case was technically still open. This factor, grouped
together with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, she
pretty much paved the way toward the prosecution of Lois. Right then, she
decided she was going to take up this matter with the White Bear Lake Police
Department. She was convinced that her son had been beaten to death and demanded
the case be reopened. She asked to see the police report, which read
as follows quote. Dennis was lying on his back in the crib with his
arms totly stretched alongside his body. The hands and forearms reaching upward lifted stiff
eight inches off the mattress, bed covers pulled up mortis Yeah. Bed covers
pulled up to below his armpits obscured the lower part of Dennis's body, but
a good number of black and blue spots could still be seen all over the
boy's face, head, in arms. There were at least a dozen bruises
on the face alone, which ranged in size and shades of color. A
big, harsh abrasion covered the center of his forehead. Dennis's nose was blood
red and peeling, so red it looked like if you wiped it once the
skin would pull away. It just didn't make sense to Jerry. There were
also so many mishaps throughout the case as a whole. For starters, there
were pieces of the case file that had gone missing, such as crime scene
photos. That's where you were saying about the brother. Yeah, witness testimonies
were missing, and there were reports of people coming forward to give their statement
and then being threatened later because they didn't recount their birds man. Also,
authority figures that had originally witnessed something amplified would later recount what they saw as
nothing out of the ordinary. Oh no, it wasn't that big of a
deal. Okay. There were a lot of pieces of the case. It
seemed to be hush hushed or swiped under the rug without a second glance.
No one wanted to get their hands dirty with something we as a society still
didn't fully understand and definitely were not the least bit educated in children from middle
class homes were just not routinely killed by their parents or by those who were
supposed to have loved them the most. Jerry contacted the Medical Examiner's office in
Ramsay County to see if she could get more information. Pathologists by the name
of doctor Michael B. McGee met Jerry there. Doctor McGee found the autopsy
report in Inside the file were pictures of Dennis as he appeared all those years
ago, and doctor McGee wasn't prepared for what he saw. He said,
quote that little boy laying on an autopsy table, completely nude, and he's
just covered with bruises. His face is covered in them. He has a
large bruise on his head, reason his abdomen is descended. I said,
well, this is a homicide and we need to find out what happened.
After seeing the pictures, it was decided that in order to find out what
happened, Dennis would have to be exhumed. The body of Dennis Jurgens was
dressed in a blue outfit with a long sleeved white shirt, and shockingly,
his body was very well preserved, even though Dennis had been buried more than
twenty years. At that point, doctor McGee wanted to find out his exact
cause of death, and he worked hard until he found it. He didn't
give up, and that's when he found out what killed him. And when
he did, he was positive that it wasn't an accident, that he didn't
pass away from an accident to teach use something ractali to him. No,
thank god right, it was the period to nitis. That's why I thought
it was something kid. He said that children do fall down and they get
injured and they do hurt themselves. But the way that he was injured,
there was no way it could be an accident. The force of his injuries
just couldn't have happened just by him slipping and falling. So when Jerry found
this out, she went to the local media with this information, and she
wasn't going to stop until somebody really listened to her. On Sunday, October
twelfth, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press ran a story on the investigation, praising
Jerry for her tenacity and writing about the tragedy of her personal loss. As
luck would have it, one of those who read the story was none other
than Robert Robert Yeah, who as a five year old had been a witness
to the murder. Now a twenty seven year old adult and police officer,
he's a police officer, Robert decided it was time to come forward and tell
what he knew. At his mother's trial, Robert recounted the events of that
evening, including Lois's extensive beating of Dennis and his being thrown down the stairs
by her. He said, quote, Dennis used to cry try to get
away. Later on, Dennis didn't do as much crying, and he didn't
do any running away. I would recall that he more or less submitted and
would just kind of whimper and not get into that heavy crying. He gave
up. Mmmm. I don't know exactly the reason why, but I cherished
my mother. I did everything she said. I ate my food, I
picked up my toys. I kept an eat and Dennis didn't, and as
a result, Dennis received more traumatic rippermands. In the days preceding Dennis's death,
he remembered Lois in the basement, dunking Dennis's head and a laundry tub
full of water. She was holding his head there until Dennis was gasping and
crying, trying to Breathe riding his tricycle in the basement. Soon after that,
Robert remembered hearing several loud thuds, then seeing Dennis rolling very fast and
landing hard at the base of the stairs on his stomach. Then his mother
came down the stairs after him, hollering at Dennis picking him up, shaking
him and hitting him. As for the night Dennis died, Robert remembered it
well. He said, it was storming out, thundering and lightning. Remember
the flood. Yeah, he was afraid to go to bed, but he
did finally. The next thing he heard were screams coming from Dennis's room.
The following morning, he said, quote, I remember waking up hearing loud
screams. I went to Dennis's bedroom. I saw Lois picking Dennis up out
of his crib. She kept yelling his name, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis.
His arms were limp like a dish towel, and he was just swaggering
his arms and his legs. Something was wrong and his head was moving back
and forth uncontrollable due During the trial, when asked if he thought his mother
was responsible for Dennis's death, Robert said yes. Doctor McGee testified also at
the trial, and he went into detail about how hard he would have had
to have fallen for it to injure him like it did. And I'm not
going to describe it any further. Thank you, You're welcome. And nighteen
eighty seven, Lois was convicted of third degree murder of third degree now,
and she was sentenced to a maximum of twenty five years in prison. Okay.
Unfortunately, she would serve only eight years of her sentence before she was
released on good behavior and paroled in nineteen ninety five. It's just I'm just
happy she got some time. She returned to Stillwater, Minnesota, where she
lived with her husband, Harold until Harold Harold you son of a bitch,
seriously, and Harold died in two thousand. At that time, Lois was
initially suspected of poisoning him. Oh However, he was in failing health and
his autopsy results didn't indicate poisoning, so there was really I wouldn't either.
There was also talk years earlier of her having started the fire at her which
killed her mother in law, and she really never got along with her mother
in law, so people were like, m it would make sense. Lois
would live for another thirteen year years. She died on May seventh, twenty
thirteen, at the age of eighty seven. Wow. Until the end,
she insisted she was innocent, of course, of all the accusations against her.
I was a great mom. I was a great mom. I loved
her. All those kids are just lying. Yeah, everybody's lying. During
the years to follow, a much needed evolution unfolded in this country, the
idea of child abuse. It was finally exposed and people do believe it now
and it can happen to anybody. It wasn't until nineteen seventy five that Minnesota
adopted legislation regarding the reporting and mail treatment of miners. In nineteen seventy one,
the term battered child syndrome made its first appearance in a case that reached
the Minnesota State Supreme Court. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered
landmarks in the history of child abuselaw. I didn't know that that concerning Lois
And with that is my that's the end of my horrorfic story for a little
Dennis. And you know, thanks for really putting me in a bad fucking
I'm so sorry. I know this was just why even't I heard of this
woman? But I'm kind of glad I didn't know about her. But you
know what we should do to make it better? Review the review of the
reviewer. Yes, that one that is necessary at this point. Okay,
to Leah, are you going to read it to me? Read it to
you? Do you want to hear the bad review or the good review first?
I don't care. Okay, then I'm gonna start with the bad review.
Oh great, just kick me when I'm down. So we received an
email just yesterday from Kim and this is what Kim had to say. Okay,
ladies, I used to really like your podcast but had to stop.
You don't need to go into all the gory details to get the story across.
The constant oh my god from Tanya is the most annoying thing ever?
Can you say that from me? Oh my god? I think that's beautiful.
God, I don't know. She can fuck off? All that comes
across as a joke with no respect to the victims. Is that it?
And that's it? Well, I'm gonna give her a one motherfucking star because
I love it when you say, oh my god, what should you say?
What should I say? And my reactions are genuine, Yeah you know
what, she can fuck off? Yeah she can fuck off and good riddance.
And how did you like us before? But not like us now?
Because you've been saying, oh my god, I know since day one and
we've been going into the gory details since day one. Exactly. I don't
understand her email. Yeah, so I have not responded, but I plan
to. I just haven't decided what we can just respond this way. Yeah
that's true with ah fuck off. You get a one star. I wanted
to be like, Okay, well then go listen to your crime tongue.
She rated crime. Go for it. I'm sorry you don't appreciate. Oh
my god, god, but that's what bothers her, not like what the
fuck? Yeah that doesn't Yeah, exactly what the fuck is? This ship
doesn't bother her, but the Oh my god. So in the future,
I'm gonna come up with some more some different reactions. Okay, and you're
gonna laugh every single fucking time because they're gonna be stupid. She gets a
one star. What do you think? One star? One star for Kim.
Thank you, Kim for input. We really appreciate it. Go fuck
yourself. Fuck yourself. I love you so much. Yeah, go fuck
yourself. Where gonna that come from? Okay? So this is the good
review and it kind of is like similar topics. That's why it's I'm gonna
laugh right. Okay, So this person is Randy Text and they just left
this review this past Tuesday, it's a five star review. Love These Ladies
one of my favorite podcasts. They keep it real and allow their own disgust
for the criminal of the week. Normally I would rather hear the story without
slant by the host, but the timing of reactions is and doesn't feel scripted.
Keep up the great work. That's because it's not scripted. Yeah,
exactly, it's definitely definitely not scripted. Yeah, not never scripted. Nope.
So you gets five stars. Yeah, and it's funny because like one
person likes that, one person doesn't. You can't make everybody happy, No,
you can't barely make anybody happy. That's why there's just tons of other
podcasts you can listen to if you don't like it. Yeah, you can
go go listen to those fuck off but Randy, that was very very nice
of you, very nice of you. Thank you not scripted like some of
the podcasts I may have just mentioned two minutes ago, exactly. So if
you haven't already, please hit the subscriber follow button on whatever app you're listening
to us on. It really helps us out. Thank you for tuning in
this week. If you love us so much that you want extra episodes and
you haven't subscribed to Patreon or through our Apple channel, you should. You
should because there's just as many Patreon episodes as there are public episodes public,
so check them out sometimes more because there's minis. Yeah, so there's there's
morning yeah. And you can get our public episodes am free and early.
It's released early yeah, yeah, Fridays instead of Monday. You can find
out information about that on our website Crimes and Consequences dot com, or go
to patreon dot com slash t nt crimes. Oh my god, oh my
god, oh my god, I'm my god, oh my god. That's
what you gotta dona change it up a little bit. Then it's gonna see
it sound ridiculous. We're gonna laugh and we're gonna be laughing about child abuse.
No, that's not funny. No it's not funny. No it's not
and my, oh my gods, are not funny. No. I'm like
shocked, genuinely shocked. I told you I'm gonna come up with some new
ones. All right, we'll make a list, so everybody pay attention next
time, Tully. It tells a story. Yes, I can't wait.
I can't wait to see her list. Be like I Corumba. I don't
know what. I don't know. I don't know, he gads, I
don't know what is that? Is that a word? Yes, it's a
word. Is it English? Yeah? Heads, Corumba is not English,
but I understand that. I'm not stupid. I know, but what is
it? Gads? I don't know, he gads. I know it sounds
ridiculous, right, Hannah. That sounds like some Canadians would say, Oh,
I know, everyone, don't kill each other. Bye,