IN IN - Renee Bruhl, Patricia Blough & Ann Miller, Indiana Dunes SP, 2 July 1966

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It seems like the Illinois Horsey scene was seriously "mobbed up" in the 1960's. There was a lot of criminal activity and a lot of killings. A lot of people involved seemed to have been willing to kill to promote/protect their business interests. None of the women seemed to have been involved in the "business" end. They were just Horsey types who hung out at the tracks and stables. Ann Miller worked at a track but it was pretty low level. Attractive young women who "hung out" were bound to have caught the eye of the "players" who were involved in the business. There were rumors that Ann Miller was pregnant. Does anyone know who the father was? Could he have been one of the "players"? (My guess is that Ann didn't date stable boys).

It seems that the women were lured on board a nice cabin crusier before they were abducted and murdered. It would be a very unlikely contract "hit". It was far more likely either a charming sexual preditor or someone one of the women knew. An inconvenient pregnancy is a common motive for murder and the other women could have just been wrong place/wrong time.
 
kemo said:
It seems like the Illinois Horsey scene was seriously "mobbed up" in the 1960's. There was a lot of criminal activity and a lot of killings. A lot of people involved seemed to have been willing to kill to promote/protect their business interests. None of the women seemed to have been involved in the "business" end. They were just Horsey types who hung out at the tracks and stables. Ann Miller worked at a track but it was pretty low level. Attractive young women who "hung out" were bound to have caught the eye of the "players" who were involved in the business. There were rumors that Ann Miller was pregnant. Does anyone know who the father was? Could he have been one of the "players"? (My guess is that Ann didn't date stable boys).

It seems that the women were lured on board a nice cabin crusier before they were abducted and murdered. It would be a very unlikely contract "hit". It was far more likely either a charming sexual preditor or someone one of the women knew. An inconvenient pregnancy is a common motive for murder and the other women could have just been wrong place/wrong time.
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Although the women weren't involved in the business end of the horse trade, being around the stable and having daily contact with the horses is sometimes some of the best information that can be known about a horses potential or flaws. Much of the horse trade at the time, especially concerning participants Richard Bailey and the Jayne brothers, often bought and sold dysfunctional horses on the cheap to unsuspecting buyers who though they were buying a top-bred horse who could compete at the racing meets. Working in the stables, is it possible that these women were aware of the lack of talent or injury these horses had and maybe talked to each other and eventually told the unsuspecting owners about it? Often times, owners make visits to see how the horse is doing, etc. Maybe it wasn't even intentional on the part of the women, but a line to an owner such as "Sir, this horse is broken down" probably wouldn't sit too well with the owner. The owner in turn would confront the buyer. If this did happen, then it can be assumed that the people involved in the trade dealt with this swiftly and methodically.

There was a case in Florida in October 1966 that is quite similar to this case, the disappearance of Pamela Nater and Nancy Leichner. It is presumed that Gerard John Schaefer Jr. is responsible for their presumed homicides: See http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/n/nater_pamela.html

Is anyone here on WS aware if this was ever looked into?
 
Kevmob was pretty quick to dismiss Richard Speck as a "disorganized" killer who was somehow was organized enough managed to murder 8 women only 11 days after these 3 young women went missing but thinks that the Chicago Syndicate would whack 3 innocents who liked to go horsey back riding. Living near the race track makes him as big an expert on the horse industry as living near the the hospital qualifies me as a doctor........ Around 20 years ago , I saw an interview with a retired homicide detective from the Chicago Police who worked on this case and it was his belief that Speck was the killer ..... Richard Bailey was a gigolo who preyed on rich old women. This was not a planned hit by organized crime but likely a disorganized rape/ murder or a fight gone wrong in the middle of the lake or in a remote shoreline location............ Speck surely proved that he had the ability to handle multiple victims with a combination of smooth talk and threats. It was probably dumb luck that the murderer was able to conceal the bodies and the evidence on the boat. Remember that this was a small 14-18 foot boat that was likely trailered to the lake, those girls may have even been towed away in the boat. The fact is that 3 days passed before the investigation began and then once that unmailed letter that Renee Bruhl had written was found , the police thought it was a 3 way runaway. The killer or killers had a big head start to conceal the evidence........... I have talked to many seniors who remember details of all the big cases from the Lipstick Killer to Gacy who simply do not recall this case. This was nearly a cold case before it even began because of that letter. Then it was buried by Speck`s "crime of the century" coverage....... The fact is that this M.O. on this case is completely unique ........ The murder of multiple women at one time is extremely rare too but Richard Speck did it right down the road only 11 days later........ I have no idea where he may have gotten a boat but i think he got one. He cannot be dismissed out of hand and given the likelihood of having 2 killers knocking off women 3 and 8 at a time in this close of a proximity, he should be the odds on favorite as a suspect.
 
Spud said:
Kevmob was pretty quick to dismiss Richard Speck as a "disorganized" killer who was somehow was organized enough managed to murder 8 women only 11 days after these 3 young women went missing but thinks that the Chicago Syndicate would whack 3 innocents who liked to go horsey back riding. Living near the race track makes him as big an expert on the horse industry as living near the the hospital qualifies me as a doctor........ Around 20 years ago , I saw an interview with a retired homicide detective from the Chicago Police who worked on this case and it was his belief that Speck was the killer ..... Richard Bailey was a gigolo who preyed on rich old women. This was not a planned hit by organized crime but likely a disorganized rape/ murder or a fight gone wrong in the middle of the lake or in a remote shoreline location............ Speck surely proved that he had the ability to handle multiple victims with a combination of smooth talk and threats. It was probably dumb luck that the murderer was able to conceal the bodies and the evidence on the boat. Remember that this was a small 14-18 foot boat that was likely trailered to the lake, those girls may have even been towed away in the boat. The fact is that 3 days passed before the investigation began and then once that unmailed letter that Renee Bruhl had written was found , the police thought it was a 3 way runaway. The killer or killers had a big head start to conceal the evidence........... I have talked to many seniors who remember details of all the big cases from the Lipstick Killer to Gacy who simply do not recall this case. This was nearly a cold case before it even began because of that letter. Then it was buried by Speck`s "crime of the century" coverage....... The fact is that this M.O. on this case is completely unique ........ The murder of multiple women at one time is extremely rare too but Richard Speck did it right down the road only 11 days later........ I have no idea where he may have gotten a boat but i think he got one. He cannot be dismissed out of hand and given the likelihood of having 2 killers knocking off women 3 and 8 at a time in this close of a proximity, he should be the odds on favorite as a suspect.
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Thanks Spud for misquoting me as an expert in this case, I am not. Nor are you. But if you get a chance to do some reading sometime, do a little bit on Richard Speck. Your theory on Speck makes no sense. First of a few things I'll mention here: 1.) Speck was a loner who didn't have access to money, yet you think as broke as he was he decided, hey, I'll go rent a boat and go all the way to the Dunes and pull this off, then go all the way back to the Chicago area. His past crimes indicate that he wasn't the type to conceal bodies. He really didn't care. 2.) Do you believe Speck with his charming looks and jailhouse talk could convince 3 young women to go out on a boat with him? Really? A blitz-style attack, sure, but then that begs the question again, where are the bodies? One other thing. Speck couldn't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it, yet he never mentioned a word about this even though he obviously was looked at as a possible suspect. Makes no sense. Again, thank you for taking what I wrote out of context. Keep up the good work.
 
I agree with Kevmob77. There is no way Speck did this. He was seriously creepy looking and no way would these girls be charmed enough by him to go for a boat ride. Speck was able to kill those eight women because he went into their space and had privacy and many of them were submissive foreigners. The criminal who abducted the three women had to be clever. Speck couldn't even keep count of how many he had in the apartment! I had a co-worker who was a guard in the Cook County Jail while Speck was there and said he was about as sharp as a butter knife and sat around all day drawing Disney characters.

Most likely, this had something to do with the horse business. Or was totally random, which would be odd given the girls' connections to horses and the business in Illinois. Silas Jayne was always known to be crooked. This is not something that came up after his death. He would come into my in-laws bar once in a while and was not a very well liked character, but he was seen as a crook, not as dangerous. It was only later that things came out that implied that he and his brother were more ruthless than first thought. I would not doubt the girls' overheard something, saw something or asked the wrong questions of the wrong people. Maybe Ann was pregnant by someone who did not want the responsibility. Either way, I think someone connected with the Jaynes is far more likely to be a suspected than Speck.
 
kevmob77 said:
Thanks Spud for misquoting me as an expert in this case, I am not. Nor are you. But if you get a chance to do some reading sometime, do a little bit on Richard Speck. Your theory on Speck makes no sense. First of a few things I'll mention here: 1.) Speck was a loner who didn't have access to money, yet you think as broke as he was he decided, hey, I'll go rent a boat and go all the way to the Dunes and pull this off, then go all the way back to the Chicago area. His past crimes indicate that he wasn't the type to conceal bodies. He really didn't care. 2.) Do you believe Speck with his charming looks and jailhouse talk could convince 3 young women to go out on a boat with him? Really? A blitz-style attack, sure, but then that begs the question again, where are the bodies? One other thing. Speck couldn't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it, yet he never mentioned a word about this even though he obviously was looked at as a possible suspect. Makes no sense. Again, thank you for taking what I wrote out of context. Keep up the good work.
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( 1) You say that Speck could not keep his mouth shut but the fact is that he never confessed to his murders with the exception of that sex and cocaine prison tape that came out after his death where he said "it just wasn`t their night" in reference to the 8 nurses. This was a crime for which he could not be retried or re-sentenced as his death sentence was commuted to life in prison. However, he remained mum on the other known murders that he committed because he surely would have gotten the death penalty.(2)You say he was a loner and i agree that he acted alone. Speck was in fact an ugly *advertiser censored* but there is strength in numbers and 3 athletic women may well have felt safe in each other`s company and decide to give a thin homely country boy a thrill by going for a boat ride and maybe share a beer or a joint. I have seen it before. (3) This connection to organized crime is a stretch. The Jayne brothers owned stables and these girls rode horses. WOW... In 1966 Chicago , everybody had ties to organized crime. If you were in a union, if you bet the horses, if you had a tavern or restaurant, if you had vending machines , if you were an entertainer and if you were a policeman, you were associated with organized crime.It is almost inconceivable that a 19 year old girl could learn so much about organized crime that it would result in a triple homicide and that that abduction would take place in front of 9000 potential witnesses. (4) Name the crimes in the greater Chicago area over the last 55 years in which there was a multiple female abduction/murder scenario that was not street gang related. I come up with the 2 Grimes sisters, the 3 victims of the Starved Rock murders, Our 3 missing girls,Speck`s nurses and the Lane Bryant murders.I am sure there are more but that is what comes to mind. The fact that these cases are so rare and the timing is such that these girls vanished only 11 days before Speck capped off his self destructive journey with a mass murder and later a failed suicide attempt makes him the most likely suspect in my eyes. Where did he get the boat? He probably stole it.Do you think that he would be too scared to steal a boat? What did he do with the bodies? what did anybody do with the bodies? bury them or chop them up so they wont float up. I think that it was a random crime and whoever did it was lucky to get away with it..... As i said, this case was a mess to begin with, A late start of the investigation with multiple jurisdictions involved and the suspicion that the girls ran away was a perfect storm for an unsolved case. I also realize that you can connect a crooked line between the Schuessler-Peterson murders , the Grimes sisters and the missing Indiana Dunes girls to Silas Jayne but that line is easily erasable. I just cannot buy into this case as being a premeditated hit. These girls were innocent ....... Once more i will remind you that my suspicions were inspired by a seasoned C.P.D. Detective who I saw in a television interview about this case many years ago . Obviously Speck had no solid alibi that could eliminate him or this detective would not have been so adamant in his belief in Speck was guilty. This is a fascinating case and like the J.F.K. murder, there are many theories. I would really love to see this mystery solved .
 
When I read about this I immediately thought of Oba Chandler. Not sure if he has been executed yet but he murdered a mother and her two teenage daughters by throwing them off his boat. He is pure evil and I have a hard time believing that was his first time killing someone.

http://www.andelman.com/ARTICLES/obachandler.html
 
georgiagirl said:
When I read about this I immediately thought of Oba Chandler. Not sure if he has been executed yet but he murdered a mother and her two teenage daughters by throwing them off his boat. He is pure evil and I have a hard time believing that was his first time killing someone.

http://www.andelman.com/ARTICLES/obachandler.html
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Never really thought of Oba Chandler, but he was in Ohio at the time. That dirtbag easily could have pulled something like this off. I agree, that was not the first time he committed a crime like that. The case you mentioned was on TruTv's "The Investigators" last week, in fact. Another person, although known to reside in Florida at the time who I feel could have been a suspect but is now deceased is Gerard Schaefer Jr. See http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/n/nater_pamela.html and http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/leichner_nancy.html along with many other cases he confessed to or is tied to. The MO certainly fits.
 
I do not know if there is a connection between Richard Speck and the disappearance of these three women, but I recall that he was in the Merchant Marine. Which means that he was familiar with the operation of cargo ships. It would be interesting to know exactly what his job specialty was and also where he had been in his travels. Perhaps connections could be made to other murders or disappearances.

If he was experienced in small boat handling, that would be a skill noted in his Merchant Marine records.
 
http://www.carpenoctem.tv/killers/speck.html This article , if accurate puts Speck a scant 20 miles away on the same body of water rand on the same day as the 3 girls.He had a week of work behind him and maybe a paycheck in his pocket . If he wanted to rent or steal a boat, he was in the right place. I think that every crew mate on this ship and former crew mates should be questioned to see if they had a nearby home or a boat that Speck may have borrowed......... In light of this article , which states the fact that that he was already the prime suspect in an April murder and rape, and that 11 days later he would murder 8 women about 20 miles away in the other direction, perhaps Speck should be considered ahead of imported maniacs from Florida and Ohio and be considered as seriously as the horse people theory who hire contract killers to murder innocent girls.
 
Spud said:
http://www.carpenoctem.tv/killers/speck.html This article , if accurate puts Speck a scant 20 miles away on the same body of water rand on the same day as the 3 girls.He had a week of work behind him and maybe a paycheck in his pocket . If he wanted to rent or steal a boat, he was in the right place. I think that every crew mate on this ship and former crew mates should be questioned to see if they had a nearby home or a boat that Speck may have borrowed......... In light of this article , which states the fact that that he was already the prime suspect in an April murder and rape, and that 11 days later he would murder 8 women about 20 miles away in the other direction, perhaps Speck should be considered ahead of imported maniacs from Florida and Ohio and be considered as seriously as the horse people theory who hire contract killers to murder innocent girls.
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To correct your last sentence, these were not girls. They were all women over 18 years old. While no one is deserving of what probably happened to them, in the eyes of the horsemen there may have been information that any one of them could have known, told, seen- among many other possibilities that made someone feel the need to silence them. I would like to emphasize that while it has constantly been minimized or completely ignored by Spud, the importance of these women working at the horse stables is an extremely important factor in this case. On a previous posts I mentioned that how many of the stable-hands at horse ranches know much more about a horses ability (or lack thereof) and problematic injuries than some owners of the horse's themselves. Who knows what happened, what these women saw, heard, or knew. I find it extremely suspicious, considering the circumstances of who these women were technically working for, that at the one time when they decide to make a trip all together to the Dunes they just happen to all go missing- never to be heard from again. A coincidence? If all three of the women were found murdered I could easily buy the Speck connection. The fact that they haven't leads me to believe that this was a more planned and well-thought out type crime. I do not see anything wrong with some of the other posters mentioning Oba Chandler or other possible suspects (would fit his MO by the way) because it keeps the options of other possible suspects open. Regarding Speck, who may very well have been the most notorious criminal in the U.S. at the time of his arrest for the nurses murdering spree he did, wouldn't you think the police from every jurisdiction would have been all over him in relation to other crimes, especially ones against women? The Indiana Dunes case/Speck link probably went at the top of the list investigators looked at. There must be a reason it has been dismissed.
 
To add, these women did not work at Sears Roebuck. They worked with horses that the Jayne family, Richard Bailey, and God only knows what other shady characters ran in the Midwest at the time. Th fact that they were women, innocent, had minimal involvement with the horses, or any other factors would hardly matter if one of the above mentioned names felt even the slightest suspicion that maybe one of them knew something they shouldn't.
 
As a life long Chicagoan who has spent 20 years in the trucking industry working for real outfit guys, i can tell you that your contract killer sent by Silas Jayne theory is idiotic and laughable. I`m sorry but there is no other word. Our company`s owner was sponsored by Marshall Caifano as a young man and pulled down hijacking scores with Rocco Infelice .He got caught and served his time. We had about 15 ex cons working for us at any given time ranging from "chop shop" owners to a burglar from Frank Cullotta`s crew. .Joe "the clown" Lombardo frequently dropped by to pick up his wife who worked there . Jerry Scalise the "Marlborough Diamond" thief and technical adviser on "Public Enemies" dropped by twice to visit the boss when they were filming near by. These guys are all legit now and when they talk about the old scores it can be quite funny. The thing that they have in common is that they have balls and they are in your face guys. If those girls were in danger they would have known it and would have been bought off or scared off long before it came to this. The Chicago Outfit ran best when it avoided public scrutiny and you do that by not killing civilians. You do not use a sledgehammer to kill a fly. ......... Silas Jayne`s crew seems particularly inept at murder. It took him 9 years and a botched hit to finally find somebody to kill his brother after he had threatened him . Several people passed on the offer, all of whom could have nailed him for conspiracy to murder and yet they were not killed. Aside from breeding and boarding horses, He was in the fleecing wealthy horse owners, arson and scamming insurance company business. He had veterinarians and insurance salesmen in his pocket, all of whom knew more than those girls could have known. Patricia Blough was the only employee as i understand it and a low level employee at that. The other girls just rode like plenty of other wealthy male and female riders out there every day but you make a riding stable sound as slimy as a crack house. I repeat that these women were innocent and only significant to the people who loved them.
 
(1)You talked about the coincidence of 3 friends going to the beach together and disappearing. It is no coincidence when friends get together...... but it is a hell of a coincidence that even though in a 55 year period of an area around Chicago, multiple women were abducted and murdered only on 5 occasions by my count and 2 of those occasions happened only 11 days apart from each other and the known perpetrator of one of those crimes was known to have been on the same body of water only 20 miles away on the very same day as when 3 women went missing.... Now that is a F#@*ing coincidence.....(2)You say that there is a reason that Speck was dismissed. He was never dismissed . He just never confessed to the crime and there was no proof to put him on the scene. By the time that police actually thought that there was a crime at the Dunes , Speck was locked away. There is actually still no known proof of a crime. I told you that i saw a news special report in which the lead Chicago Detective always felt sure that it was him but had no proof. (3)Much has been made of Speck being a disorganized killer and i tend to agree. This guy was on an out of control downward spiral of hatred against women and self destruction. The best explanation that i have is that those girls sank to the bottom of the lake and they did not come up. In deeper water the bodies will stay down because of the pressure , stab wounds would help make the bodies less buoyant as it would let gasses escape.In deeper water in Lake Superior the entire 29 man crew of the Edmond Fitzgerald were never found. I have seen where 4 drowned and 2 came up and 2 did not. I contend that he got lucky that the bodies stayed down or they were weighted down .He was lucky again that the boat was never discovered. Sometimes killers get lucky. Remember there was much doubt that a crime was committed at all.
 
Spud, I'm not going to get into a back and forth with you. You have your theories, I have mine. However, the line where you wrote "stab wounds would help make the bodies less buoyant as it would let gasses escape" leading the bodies to sink instead of float is incorrect. Also, NOBODY knows what these women knew. You keep on mentioning that the missing women were too low level and not important enough. That's fine, but is also working on the assumption that something wasn't already said or known. That is not known unfortunately. There are many articles if you do some searching (may have to pay to back date) where people close to the Jayne family and associates are positive they are related to this case.
 
I find it intriguing that Richard Speck was in the area at the time, and Lord knows, he was capable of about anything. But I still can't shake my suspicions of Jayne and his goons being involved in this. Below is the link to a new posting about the three women on ForTheMissing that was just added on January 10th of this year. It really doesn't say anything new, but it combines all the articles that were written, and I found a couple statements I had read a while back that make me believe this was somehow related to the horse syndicate.

Patricia Blough suffered a facial injury in March 1966 and attributed it to "syndicate people." That has never been proven, but it was still an odd statement. Blough, Miller and Bruhl frequently rode at Tri Color Stables in Palatine. It was there, in June 1965, that Cheryl Rude was killed by a car bomb meant for George Jayne. I always thought that maybe one or more of the girls witnessed the explosion and may have been killed for that. Some people wonder why Silas Jayne would wait a full year after Rude's death to get retribution. But from what I've read about Silas Jayne, it sounds exactly like something he would do...to get them when they least expected it.

The other thing is, Speck doesn't match the description of the man on the boat. It said that the man the women were talking too had a tanned complexion with dark, wavy hair. I guess that doesn't mean he wasn't elsewhere on the boat. And there were two boats seen, both with three women on them. One had the dark, wavy haired man with three women but the other, larger boat had three men and three women.

http://forthemissing.blogspot.com/2010/01/renee-bruhl-maiden-name-slunecko.html
 
Does it sound reasonable to anyone that 3 attractive girls would get on a boat with Richard Speck, who fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down? Speck was creepy looking at best and if he had approached me, I would've been too scared to even talk to him, much less go on a boat with him. These girls were not "hard up" for guys and would not have given him the time of day. One girl was married. Saying Speck was responsible for the disapperance of these girls is stretching it. IMHO.
 
Richard Speck is the ugliest man that i have ever seen. His face was the face of the "Boogeyman".As a 10 year old child in Chicago in 1966 the face of Richard Speck was burnished into my mind as the face of evil and the few days that he was on the loose were the most terrifying days of my life ....... Maturity has helped me to understand that while Speck was indeed an unfortunate looking man ,that i have seen hundreds of equally unfortunate looking men who did not murder 8 young women in cold blood. The ugly bastards that i know were on my baseball team or fixed my car or delivered my mail and once i got to know them they were not ugly at all.My point is that Richard Speck was not nearly as ugly on July 2 as he was on july 14. As i mentioned in an earlier post i don`t think that it would be unusual for 3 healthy women to be confident in their strength in numbers or to give a country boy the thrill of their company in exchange for a boat ride , a cigarette or a cold drink......... Speck was able to attract a wife after all and he dated a nice nurse in Michigan who treated him after surgery, so the man was not without his charms altogether........ Despite the fact that he was the ultimate evil.
 
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