Dennis Jurgens
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Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6th, 1961 – April 11, 1965) was the most famous and only fatal victim of prolific child abuser Lois Jurgens, who abused a total of six adopted children during a period spanning the 1950’s to 1970’s. The eventual trial of Lois Jurgens for his murder made national headlines and was the top news story for the state of Minnesota in 1987.
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[edit] Early history/ Pre-adoption
Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Center Minnesota, a child of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who herself was a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. Coerced by the authorities into she did not have the proper life skills or resources to care for her child, Jerry gave up her young son for adoption with the promise that he would be given a good home.
Dennis was adopted by The Jurgens of White Bear Lake Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul; Harold Jurgens, a former bandleader turned electrician and Lois Jurgens, a homemaker. Lois had grown up in an impoverished family of sixteen siblings and used her marriage to the middle-class Harold Jurgens as means to bring herself up to higher social standing. She had a pathological need for control over her home environment and obsessively cleaned and tended to her home and garden, desperate to appear the picture of the perfect housewife in 1950’s suburban America.
In the decade preceding the adoption of Dennis, Lois Jurgens had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, including an extended stay at a psychiatric institution where shock treatments were administered. She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis, and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. This drove Lois further into madness, as she felt she needed children to complete the “perfect picture” of housekeeping.
Forbidden by official channels from adopting children due to Lois’ history of mental illness, the Jurgens managed to adopt a baby named Robert from private channels. Robert fit in well at the Jurgens household, as he learned from a young age not to get in his mother’s way or cause an undue mess that would likely send Lois Jurgens into a rage. The Jurgens adoption of Robert seemed successful to the eyes of authorities and they began to consider the possibility of the Jurgens adopting more children through official channels.
[edit] Dennis arrives in the Jurgens’ home
Just past one year of age, Dennis was given a placement at the Jurgens home in anticipation of an adoption after spending much of his first year in foster care where he was well-loved and taken care of by an elderly woman. Almost immediately Lois took a severe, obsessive dislike of Dennis who was a normal, rambunctious and spirited toddler-unlike Robert who in Lois’s eyes was the “good son.” 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. Within months of Dennis’ arrival he was rushed to the hospital with first and second-degree burns on his genitalia, which was reported and accepted as being an accident. The process of adopting of Dennis was completed.
[edit] Abuse at the hands of Lois Jurgens
Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors for being an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis’ arrival in her home made her go into obsessive, sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three and a half-years of age. 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 him.
In her effort to make Dennis “right” in her eyes, Lois embarked on a series of sadistic and corporal punishment:
Caution to reader: Graphic details to follow.
Angered at Dennis for rejecting certain foods, she would respond by placing horseradish on the refused foodstuff and then force-feeding it to him. According to reports from family members that eventually testified at the murder trial, Dennis would turn purple from being force-fed the bitter and spicy horseradish while also having his oxygen supply cut off as Lois Jurgens would cover his mouth and nose; this along with the exertion from struggling would sicken Dennis to the point of vomiting, which would enrage Lois further, who would then force him to eat his own vomit.
Lois obsessed about Dennis’ weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. He would frequently be starved, to rid him of “sloppy fat,” as Lois called it (she also called him “Sloppy Fat” as a nickname). Due to the frequent starvation, Dennis only gained a total of three pounds in a two and a half-year period where he aged from one year-old to three and a half-years old, the coroner also noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation.
Aside from the aforementioned incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitalia, there were many other incidents of abuse which fell under the category of sexual sadism. Lois’ remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. 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 three and one-half years.
Testimony from neighbors and family members told of young Dennis showing up to public events wearing sunglasses at the age of two, to cover up his frequent black eyes. Also, Lois would take to tying Dennis’ limbs to the bedposts to keep him in bed and tie him to the toilet to force a bowel movement.
By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with Dennis, wanting the world to know he was a “bad kid” and making no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing “God’s work” making Dennis “perfect” in her eyes. To this end, she would force non age-appropriate religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at two years old. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods until he did it correctly.
To the casual observer, the Jurgens seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois’ maltreatment of Dennis, but did nothing to prevent it due to attempting to “mind one’s own business” and out of fear of retribution from Lois who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. Also, in the 1960’s the term “child abuse” was not yet coined and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers were required to report suspicions.
[edit] The murder of Dennis Jurgens
On or around the night of April 16th 1965 Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. The official cause of death was Peritonitis Due to Perforation of the Small Bowel, but it is not known specifically what caused the fatal blow, though the injury was found to be beyond a reasonable doubt inflicted by Lois Jurgens due to evidence of her constant abuse. Along with the aforementioned evidence of starvation, and scarring and bite-marks on his genitalia, the coroner discovered multiple lacerations and multiple generations of bruises covering most of his body.
The night of his death, a great flood had hit the Saint Paul area and the Mississippi River’s waters were rising to record levels, causing flooding in the region and specifically, inside the Jurgens home. Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, was pushed to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement.
The only witness to Lois’ final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was five years old at the time. Many years later at his mother’s trial, a now twenty-seven year-old Robert recounted the events of that evening; including Lois beating Dennis extensively and throwing him down the stairs.
[edit] After the murder
Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960’s did not accept the concept that a child from a middle-class home could be the target of abuse, it would have been difficult at the time to prove Lois Jurgens committed murder. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe abuse, the medical examiner classified did not classify the death under the classifications of accident, suicide or murder-he simply marked it “deferred”.
There was also a great deal of suspicion surrounding Jerome Zerwas, the brother of Lois Jurgens who was a police lieutenant in the town of White Bear Lake. Common belief amongst witness and neighbors at the time of the murder and the investigators who eventually re-opened the case is that he interfered with the investigation and destroyed incriminating evidence.
Although Lois was not charged with Dennis’ murder, the death caused sufficient suspicions for the authorities to remove Robert from the home; he was placed with his paternal grandmother for a period of just over five years, during which the Jurgens spent a great deal of effort and money attempting to regain custody. Eventually, while Robert was hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia his grandmother burned to death in a house fire. There is some suspicion that Lois Jurgens herself set the fire; as not only was the timing suspicious with Robert hospitalized, she had made threats of committing arson to the homes to several neighbors and family members who had spoken to authorities.
Robert was returned to the Jurgens home, and (going through new channels) eventually they were able to adopt four, school-aged siblings from Kentucky. By this point, Lois’ rage and mania had gone beyond the point of being able to keep up the 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.
As the new adopted children were older, there are many first-hand histories (recounted to the media during the 1987 trial of Lois Jurgens) describing the severe abuse they suffered under the control of Lois Jurgens. Beatings and being subjected to intense displays of Lois’ explosive temper were a daily occurrence, especially bad days could include her slamming a child’s forehead into a nail protruding in a wall, being forced to stand barefoot in snow, and having a used sanitary napkin shoved in the face. During this period Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility.
Eventually, all four of the siblings from Kentucky and Robert escaped the home via running away and getting help from concerned neighbors. This, coupled with the lingering suspicions surrounding the death of Dennis, the parental rights of Lois and Harold Jurgens on all five of the children were terminated and were informed they would not be allowed to foster or adopt any additional children.
[edit] The 1986 investigation and 1987 trial of Lois Jurgens
Now in her late thirties, Dennis’ birth mother Jerry Sherwood sought out Dennis in the early 1980’s; assuming he would now be a young adult and (as she had given birth to four more children with Dennis’ birth father) he might want to meet his siblings. Her search led her eventually to his early grave, and her continued investigation led to a phone call to Lois Jurgens enquiring as to what had happened. Lois was cordial to Jerry, and even offered to mail her some mementos of Dennis. When these mementos never arrived, Jerry made a second call only to discover the Jurgens had switched to an unlisted phone number. This only raised Jerry’s suspicions further.
Jerry Sherwood eventually found Dennis’ death certificate, which was still classified as “deferred,” classifying the case as technically open, which coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois Jurgens. Jerry took her case to the White Bear Lake police department and then to the local media.
On October 12th 1986 the Sunday edition of The Saint Paul Pioneer Press had a cover story about the investigation. Though the name of Dennis’ adopted family was not listed, many people who had witnessed the abuse and murder years before suspected that Lois Jurgens was the unnamed murderess. The tenacity of Jerry Sherwood coupled with the tragedy of her personal loss kept the story firmly in the public eye until the arraignment of Lois Jurgens, when she first became identified in the media.
Aided by the testimony of the Jurgens other adopted son Robert, the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens (now in her sixties), convicted of murder in the third degree and sent to prison. The investigation, trial and conviction of Lois Jurgens is considered a landmark in the history of child abuse law.
[edit] Aftermath
Lois Jurgens only served eight years of her sentence (released early for good behavior) and is now living out a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater Minnesota. To this day, she proclaims innocence in the abuse and murder of Dennis Jurgens. Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out.
Barry Siegal's true crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake recounts the story via extensive research and oral history .There was a television movie written by Stephanie Liss and Judith Parker broadcast in 1992 on NBC entitled A Child Lost Forever that told the story from the perspective of Jerry Sherwood (played by Beverly D'Angelo), and a theatre piece The Jurgens File by playwright Brian Vinero that told the story from the persepctive of the community was developed at New York City's 78th Street Theatre Lab in 2005.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- A Death in White Bear Lake, by Barry Siegel. Published by Bantam Books, (c) 1990.
- Minneapolis Star/ Tribune article "Jurgens Seeks Seclusion After Release From Prison," published June 7th 1995, Metro Section Page 1B.
- Twin Cities Magazine article "A Mother's Love, Jerry Sherwood in Her Own Words" February 1988 edition.
- Los Angeles Times article "Child Murder: A Town Confronts It's Past" part of a series entitled "Death of a Child, Justice Delayed" by Barry Siegel.
- Various articles from The Minneapolis Star/ Tribune running between May and June 1987, including "Jurgens Found Sane, Sent to Prison" "Brother Tells of Dennis Jurgens' Beatings" "Jurgens Trial Inspires Birth Mother's Mission" "Jurgens Relatives Testify She Abused Adopted Son."
- 1988 60 Minutes piece "No One Saved Dennis" reported by Diane Sawyer.
