SAMS
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Luciano: Convicted killer William Reinbold again tries to get out of prison
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.galesburg.com/news/20190128/luciano-convicted-killer-william-reinbold-again-tries-to-get-out-of-prison%3ftemplate=ampart
The prosecutor left a phone message, saying he wanted to talk about William "The Hammer" Reinbold.
It had to be one of two developments. He was either dead or somehow trying again to get out of prison.
As long as Reinbold, 66, still draws a breath, he remains a public danger — such has been his uncanny knack with the law. As one state's attorney said years ago, "William Reinbold is a convicted murderer who needs to die in prison."
For the brutal and fatal 1988 bludgeoning of 21-year-old Mary Clarke in Farmington, Reinbold is serving a murder sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Further, years back, an appellate court ruled that he had run out of appeals.
But guess what? He is appealing again. And though the grounds seem shaky, you can't be too sure when dealing with someone as crafty and evil as Reinbold. Before the Clarke murder, Reinbold was a suspect in the murder of one woman and the disappearance of another, but he sidestepped prosecution. And after the Clarke murder, despite vigorous prosecution, he managed two big legal victories: a retrial and a sentence reduction.
That's why I got the call from the prosecutor. Charles Zalar, who heads the special prosecution unit for the Illinois Office of the State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutor, asked for my help in reaching Clarke's family, to warn them of the appeal. As you might guess, they're livid.
"This is a bunch of bull," said Malinda Gray, 49, Clarke's younger sister. "If he gets out, he'll be right back at it, killing people."
Clarke's older sister, 54-year-old Tina Smith, said, "He can dream. But the lawyers in the Illinois' legal system are smarter than him."
No doubt. But Reinbold does have remarkably good fortune with the legal system.
Not that he is an infallible criminal mastermind. He was convicted in 1970 of aggravated battery and burglary for stabbing a woman in Elgin and burglarizing a cosmetology school. In 1978 and 1980, he was convicted of a series of assaults in California in which he sprayed or doused women with liquid chemicals.
But he has sometimes slipped out of the grasp of the law. He was arrested and charged in connection with the 1977 disappearance of a young woman in the southern Illinois town of Harrisburg, but he later was released. He also was suspected, but not charged, in bludgeoning attacks on young women in Elgin and California. Most infamously, he long has been the suspect in the 1983 murder of Kimberly McClaskey, 17, of Canton.
Why the hate against women? Authorities later discovered that as an adolescent Reinbold, apparently out of frustration with his heavy-handed father, would sneak up behind girls and whack them with boards. Investigators also found out that in high school, he yearned for a petite, brunette cheerleader, a fixation that ended with his trying to strangle her. Luckily, a teacher stepped in and saved her life. Reinbold was kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile home.
Not that he was rehabbed much — certainly not enough to spare Mary Clarke.
Born in 1967, Mary was a sickly baby. Because of severe allergies, she fought for life for over a year. She won that battle. But 20 years later, she couldn't beat William Reinbold.
The day after Christmas 1988, Mary Clarke and her husband, David Clarke, — married about 18 months — drove from their home in Hanna City to Farmington. There, at 5:30 p.m., she dropped him off at his job at Ladd's Food Mart, while she went across the street to wash clothes at the empty Brite Wash laundry.
At 7 p.m., David Clarke walked over to the laundry to visit his wife. There, he found blood on the floor and their clothing in the machine. He alerted police, who seven hours later discovered her lifeless body in a ditch 2 1/2 miles to the north, in Knox County.
There were no signs of rape or robbery. It seemed to be a senseless crime with no answers — even after the early-February arrest of Reinbold, a London Mills lathe operator. A stranger to Clarke, he delivered a dozen pry-bar blows to her head, fracturing her skull and driving bone into her brain. Why? The only theory was his decades-long hate for petite brunettes.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.galesburg.com/news/20190128/luciano-convicted-killer-william-reinbold-again-tries-to-get-out-of-prison%3ftemplate=ampart
The prosecutor left a phone message, saying he wanted to talk about William "The Hammer" Reinbold.
It had to be one of two developments. He was either dead or somehow trying again to get out of prison.
As long as Reinbold, 66, still draws a breath, he remains a public danger — such has been his uncanny knack with the law. As one state's attorney said years ago, "William Reinbold is a convicted murderer who needs to die in prison."
For the brutal and fatal 1988 bludgeoning of 21-year-old Mary Clarke in Farmington, Reinbold is serving a murder sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Further, years back, an appellate court ruled that he had run out of appeals.
But guess what? He is appealing again. And though the grounds seem shaky, you can't be too sure when dealing with someone as crafty and evil as Reinbold. Before the Clarke murder, Reinbold was a suspect in the murder of one woman and the disappearance of another, but he sidestepped prosecution. And after the Clarke murder, despite vigorous prosecution, he managed two big legal victories: a retrial and a sentence reduction.
That's why I got the call from the prosecutor. Charles Zalar, who heads the special prosecution unit for the Illinois Office of the State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutor, asked for my help in reaching Clarke's family, to warn them of the appeal. As you might guess, they're livid.
"This is a bunch of bull," said Malinda Gray, 49, Clarke's younger sister. "If he gets out, he'll be right back at it, killing people."
Clarke's older sister, 54-year-old Tina Smith, said, "He can dream. But the lawyers in the Illinois' legal system are smarter than him."
No doubt. But Reinbold does have remarkably good fortune with the legal system.
Not that he is an infallible criminal mastermind. He was convicted in 1970 of aggravated battery and burglary for stabbing a woman in Elgin and burglarizing a cosmetology school. In 1978 and 1980, he was convicted of a series of assaults in California in which he sprayed or doused women with liquid chemicals.
But he has sometimes slipped out of the grasp of the law. He was arrested and charged in connection with the 1977 disappearance of a young woman in the southern Illinois town of Harrisburg, but he later was released. He also was suspected, but not charged, in bludgeoning attacks on young women in Elgin and California. Most infamously, he long has been the suspect in the 1983 murder of Kimberly McClaskey, 17, of Canton.
Why the hate against women? Authorities later discovered that as an adolescent Reinbold, apparently out of frustration with his heavy-handed father, would sneak up behind girls and whack them with boards. Investigators also found out that in high school, he yearned for a petite, brunette cheerleader, a fixation that ended with his trying to strangle her. Luckily, a teacher stepped in and saved her life. Reinbold was kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile home.
Not that he was rehabbed much — certainly not enough to spare Mary Clarke.
Born in 1967, Mary was a sickly baby. Because of severe allergies, she fought for life for over a year. She won that battle. But 20 years later, she couldn't beat William Reinbold.
The day after Christmas 1988, Mary Clarke and her husband, David Clarke, — married about 18 months — drove from their home in Hanna City to Farmington. There, at 5:30 p.m., she dropped him off at his job at Ladd's Food Mart, while she went across the street to wash clothes at the empty Brite Wash laundry.
At 7 p.m., David Clarke walked over to the laundry to visit his wife. There, he found blood on the floor and their clothing in the machine. He alerted police, who seven hours later discovered her lifeless body in a ditch 2 1/2 miles to the north, in Knox County.
There were no signs of rape or robbery. It seemed to be a senseless crime with no answers — even after the early-February arrest of Reinbold, a London Mills lathe operator. A stranger to Clarke, he delivered a dozen pry-bar blows to her head, fracturing her skull and driving bone into her brain. Why? The only theory was his decades-long hate for petite brunettes.
[URL='https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83352752/carol-ann-rofstad#']
