Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
BY:
Christianna. A
Miracle. E
Emily. Hodge
Damali
Introduction & Context
Four men who became known as the "Ford Heights Four" were wrongly convicted of the 1978 rape and murders of a young, newly engaged couple in the south suburbs. Both had been shot, and Schmal had been gang raped.
- Dennis Williams
- Verneal Jimmerson
- Willie Rainge
- Kenneth Adams
The crime occurred in the early morning of May 11, 1978. A recently engaged young white couple, Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal, were abducted from a Clark Oil Company filling station in the mostly white Chicago suburb of Homewood where Lionberg worked as the overnight attendant.
A false tip from a man named Charles who lived near the murder scene caused two of the suspects to be arrested. Due to this the police and investigators picked up a woman named Paula Gray. On May 16, after being held questioned intermittently for two days, Gray testified before a grand jury that she held a disposable cigarette lighter burning while Adams, Rainge, Jimmerson and Williams raped Schmal 7 times, after which Williams shoot both victims with a .38 caliber pistol
Evidence
True False
DNA Testing
False anonymous phone tip
Unreliable Police
Street File
Confession Tape
Testimony From False Witness
After spending only a month on the investigation, the students (student detectives) found the key pieces of evidence at the bottom of the box. They uncovered a street file showing that within one week of the crime, police knew who the real killers were and buried it.
It is presumed to be a bias reason as for why there were mistakes in the collection of evidence. Bias policemen are one factor but one major flaw was not having a evaluation of the people who testified. This caused one of the men to be sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit.
Reason for committing The Crime
Although it is unknown as to why this crime was committed i can presume that is was jealously or even race based hate.
Paula Gray confessed to a role in a crime she knew nothing about sending herself and four innocent men to prison, two of them to death row. But it is also known that Paula Gray was wrongly convicted of Rape, murder and robbery because of her false confession.
One Rapist had type A secretor blood which only 25% of the population owned
Arthur. R , Juan. R , Ira. J and Dennis. J were the real killers.
Paula Gray was offered a deal to get out of jail if she testified against the four men.
The Ford Heights Four received $36 million in 1999 in civil rights damages from cook county
Each member of the Ford Heights Four spent approximately 65 years in jail.
Many of the people who testified against the man were coerced by the police