St. Charles author talks about Sycamore cold case during library discussion

St. Charles resident and author Jeffrey Doty has made it his mission in life to shine a spotlight on wrongful convictions.

Doty is the co-author of “A Convenient Man,” which tells the story of Jack McCullough, who spent almost five years wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. In 1957, 7-year-old Maria Ridulph was kidnapped from Sycamore while playing with her friend.

“I believe the more we can make people aware of wrongful convictions, the more attention, negative attention, will be focused on the procedures that allow wrongful convictions to happen,” Doty said, in talking about the book and the case during a Zoom discussion Tuesday presented by the St. Charles Public Library. He also is a co-host of the “Speaking of Crime” podcast.

McCullough, who under his former name John Tessier had been a neighbor of the Ridulph family, was wrongly convicted for her murder in September 2012. However, in March 2016, the DeKalb County State’s Attorney announced that a post-conviction review of available evidence showed McCullough could not have been present at the place and time of Ridulph’s abduction.

He was released from prison in April 2016 and the charges against him were dismissed. He was declared innocent of the crime by the DeKalb County Circuit Court in 2017.

“A Convenient Man” is Doty’s second book about the case. He previously wrote about the case in his book, “Piggyback.” The title of the book refers to the circumstances of the case.

On Dec. 3, 1957, Ridulph accepted a piggyback ride from a stranger. Five months later, a couple hunting for mushrooms found Ridulph’s body. She was stuffed under a tree trunk in a forest about 100 miles from her home in Sycamore.

During the discussion, Doty talked about the evidence that proved McCullough’s innocence.

Records show that McCullough placed a collect call from the downtown Rockford Post Office at 6:57 p.m. the night Maria was abducted. FBI reports established that Maria was abducted between 6:45 p.m. and 7 p.m.

“Her mom looked at the time on the clock when she left her bedroom,” Doty said. “Maria had gone into the downstairs bedroom looking for a certain doll. Her mom told her to get another doll that was older because it had just snowed that day, which is why the girls were out on the corner to begin with.”

For the book “Piggyback,” Doty interviewed McCullough four times while he was in the Pontiac Correctional Center following his conviction.

“Once I came to the conclusion that Jack was innocent, we began a friendly relationship,” Doty said. “He is a good friend of mine to this day. We talk once or twice a month. At the time of his conviction, he was 72 years old. He was a 72-year-old grandfather. They took away five years of his life.”

During the question and answer portion of the program. Doty was asked if he had a suspect in the case. He talked about an individual who had been investigated by police for his role in the case.

“In 1948, there was a man who was arrested for having molested his daughter,” Doty said. “He was doing time in prison for raping his 6-year-old daughter. When they went and questioned him, he gave them an alibi for that day. He said he had left work around 4 p.m. in Rockford. He drove down to Rochelle to visit his cousin who had a hot lead for him on a new job. He told them that when he left his cousin’s house, he got lost on the way home, wound up in Sycamore and saw two girls on a street corner and asked them for directions back to the highway.”

Police then asked him if he was willing to take a lie detector test.

“He lawyered up and refused the lie detector test,” Doty said. “Kathy Sigman (who was playing with Ridulph the night of her abduction) was brought in to view a lineup and she said that he looked similar, but his voice was wrong.”