A piece of Dixon history: The kidnapping of Della Stackhouse made national headlines in 1946

Throughout its history, Dixon has made national headlines only a few times, such as the Truesdell Bridge collapse of 1873, Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 and 1984, the Rita Crundwell scandal of 2012, and the kidnapping of Della Stackhouse in 1946.

The kidnapping of Della Stackhouse?

Della Stackhouse was “the attractive” wife of a prominent Dixon physician, Dr. Stirling Stackhouse. And yes, her 1946 kidnapping is one of those riveting stories that made headlines from coast to coast. Here’s why.

The third Friday in December

It all happened at this time of year on the third Friday of December. On the afternoon of Dec. 20, 1946, 27-year-old Frank L. Sickles of Wyoming, Illinois, went to the Dixon home of Dr. Stirling Stackhouse. The physician’s upscale residence was at 808 N. Galena, near the later site of C. Marshall Oldsmobile and the present-day site of Angelo’s III.

To be sure that the doctor was not at home, Sickles called Dr. Stackhouse’s downtown office and arranged a 3:30 p.m. appointment under a false name. While the doctor was waiting for this new patient downtown, Sickles knocked on the door of Stackhouse’s North Galena residence.

When Della Stackhouse, 40, answered the door, Sickles said he was a reporter for the Rockford Morning Star, writing a story about her husband. After she let him in, he brandished a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver and demanded money.

Described as “gaunt,” “rangy” and “pimply faced,” Sickles ordered Della on the floor as he bound and gagged her with tape and clothesline he had just bought from the Montgomery Ward store in downtown Dixon.

Sickles’ plan was to hold Della for a ransom. But a few minutes later he was surprised when Della’s two daughters, Linda, 8, and Diana, 7, arrived home from school. Sickles then bound and gagged them and locked them in an upstairs bedroom closet.

Into the cold countryside

He told Della to put on a coat and ordered her – at gunpoint – to walk in front of him out of the house. Even though Della was terrified at leaving the home with this desperado, she had to be relieved that her children were out of danger.

In 1946, that area of Dixon was at the north edge of the city. To avoid detection from the street, the kidnapper directed Della through a tunnel under North Galena, emerging on the west side and proceeding northwest into the countryside.

The city reacts

Shortly after they left the home, Della’s 14-year-old son, Stirling Jr., came home from high school. When he found his sisters crying in the closet, he called his father’s office.

As the city entered the evening hours, word of the kidnapping quickly spread. Authorities notified the FBI, state police blockaded highways around Dixon, and a sheriff’s posse of 50 to 100 men searched the residential district for Mrs. Stackhouse.

The shocking news also reached the Friday night Dixon-Hall Township basketball game at the Dixon High School (old) gym. A swarm of men spilled out of the gym and marched to the nearby armory, where they formed “dozens of armed searching parties.”

Conflicting rumors spread rapidly. One story claimed that “the abductor was an escapee from the Dixon State hospital and a Negro.”

Throughout town, frightened people bolted their doors and notified their neighbors.

Into the night

Now in darkness with light snow and temperatures dropping into the 20s, Sickles and Della continued trudging through snow, brambles, ravines and mud, climbing over fences along the way. At one point, Sickles decided to cut the tape around Della’s wrists, but he accidentally sliced her arm.

Although bleeding, frightened and weary, Della persistently tried to reason with her captor. After trekking 5 miles almost to Woosung, Sickles forced Della into the hay mow of a vacant barn on the Charles Russell farm.

Sickles gives up

In the hay mow, Della continued her pleas and asked Sickles what his parents would think if he went through with the crime. Her cool-headed reasoning finally broke down the hardened criminal mind of Frank Sickles.

He agreed to release her, and he demonstrated his sincerity by emptying the bullets out of his revolver onto the dusty barn floor.

About 8:30 p.m., they left the barn and entered the nearby John Mensch farmhouse a mile west of Route 26 at the intersection of Penrose and Swarts roads. Sickles put down his gun and allowed the mother of three to use the Mensch telephone to call home.

The line was busy. The Stackhouse home was full of people. She tried again in five minutes and finally got through.

‘Electrified’

Police Chief Harry Fischer answered the Stackhouse phone. When he announced to the crowded room that it was Della, the room was “electrified” and hushed into wide-eyed silence.

Authorities then piled into cars and rushed north to the farmhouse. Arriving in mass, police drew their revolvers and charged the door. Sickles offered no resistance and was taken into custody.

The angry mob

Ever since Della’s phone call, word quickly spread that the kidnapper was giving up. About 9 p.m. that evening, “a mob estimated at several hundred” gathered at the city jail.

Fischer came out and calmed the angry residents, informing them that the kidnapper was in custody and that Della had not been seriously harmed.

Della suffered from shock and from cuts and bruises incurred during the overland trek. The cut on her arm required 10 stitches. Her clothing was torn and disheveled.

When she was finally free from her captor, she broke into tears. Her strength and composure during the ordeal were described as “truly remarkable and courageous.”

Who was Frank Sickles? Why did he do it? Was he convicted … or even sentenced? Whatever happened to the Stackhouse family? All the answers will become clear in part two, which will be published Dec. 22.

A Dixon native, Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.