Chicago Police Identify Ex-Officer in 1960 Child Murder After 65 Years
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 17
Chicago Police Identify Ex-Officer in 1960 Child Murder After 65 Years
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 17
Summary
Thomas F. McInerney Jr., a former Chicago police officer who died in 2006, was identified as the man who abducted, shot and killed 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz on Nov. 12, 1960.
A preserved fingerprint on the strap of Gloria’s white communion purse, along with DNA evidence, led investigators to McInerney after technology advanced enough to reexamine the case.
Chicago police said detectives never stopped working the murder, preserving evidence for decades and coordinating with Illinois State Police and the FBI after an earlier task force interviewed more than 1,300 people.
McInerney had joined the department shortly before the killing, later served 28 years, retired to Las Vegas and was never charged, leaving the case unresolved until long after Gloria’s parents had died.
Police said the identification brings some closure in a case that exposed a child’s killer as a man who had worn the CPD star.