People often ask me...
What are the "10 Best Ways To Keep Children Safe"?
1. Stop believing it can't happen to a child you love.
2. Educate your children when they are young. It is important that even small children understand the dangers, particularly the threat of dual-role offenders.
3. Believe your children. Children should know that they should not be afraid or embarrassed to tell their parents that someone touched them in a sexual manner.
4. Work with your child on issues of self-esteem and loneliness. Children who have low self-esteem are more likely to become targets for dual-role and known offenders.
5. Do not ignore the reality that teenagers are sexually curious.
6. Do not assume your child will follow your instructions if a stranger approaches them.
7. Be alert to changes in the behavior of your child.
8. Be alert to signs and undeterred in your willingness to act on and bring attention to situations where a child, any child, might be in harm's way.
9. Learn to use the tools available to keep your child safe on the Internet.
10. The goal should be keeping all children safe, not just your own.
What can we learn from the Peterson-Schuessler case?
“Unknown” sexual predators pose a significant threat to the safety of children that should not be underestimated. It is a fact that within any square mile, within any city, there is someone looking to have sex with a child. Couple that with the fact that people who have been molested become molesters, and you have a situation that should give us all pause. Many parents hear the sensational child molestation-murder cases in the news and think: “Oh, that’s sad. That will never happen to my child.” What parents aren’t getting is that those cases are a very small proportion of the number of child molestation situations. The vast majority of cases go unreported. Why? Because they are situations where the predator has a created a dual-role of trust, covered his activities well, interviewed and selected his victims, and significantly reduced the possibility that he/she will be found out, just as the Peterson-Schuessler murderer did.
Has society fully come to terms with the reality of the dangers of this unspeakable evil?
No, we haven’t. We have come a long way in understanding the dangers of known sexual predators, but we have much work to do in the area of Internet sexual predators and unknown sexual predators. Both pose significant challenges for detection and apprehension.
When I resigned from the force in 1968, the murderer was still unidentified and not caught. How frustrating was it to see justice eluded?
It was very frustrating, but I kept telling myself: “There is no way in the world this guy is going to walk. I knew deep in my heart that one day somebody was going to turn him in.”
How did it feel years later to find the murderer had been found and convicted?
When I heard the news flash, I was so happy. I reached out to many of the Special Investigating Unit members that worked with me to share the news with the few of them who were still alive. I also immediately contacted Pat Quinn, the State’s Attorney. Although closure set in after a few days, I still felt deeply saddened. I was saddened by the fact that the only way I got to know the boys was through the investigation of their murder. From everything I learned about them, they were great kids, and I wish I had known them.
The Internet shows just how big a problem pedophiles pose to our children. But this case shows that the problem’s been around for a long time and has always posed a grave danger. What can we teach kids so they will not fall victim to predators?
Educate your children when they are young. Help them understand the dangers. Work with your child on issues of self-esteem and loneliness, so they are less susceptible to becoming targets. Importantly for teenagers, do not ignore the reality that they are naturally sexually curious. Be open and honest with them. Do not assume that just because you tell your child what to do, that if a stranger approaches them, they will follow these instructions. Studies have shown that some children will and others will not. As parents, the onus is on us to understand that these situations can happen in the blink of an eye and right under our noses. We must be alert to the signs and undeterred in our willingness to act on and bring attention to situations where a child, any child, might be in harm’s way of a predator. The goal should be keeping all children safe, not just our own.
Was it unusual that such a high-profile case that made headlines for a long time, that utilized hundred of police officers, and involved over 41,000 interviews, didn’t yield a prime suspect?
In those days, unfortunately, no it wasn’t. In fact there were other equally heinous crimes, such as the case of Judith Mae Anderson and the Grimes sisters, which we were also not able to solve. In more recent times, of course, the most famous situation is that of Adam Walsh, the son of John Walsh, whose abduction and murder twenty-five years after the three boys spurred much of awareness of the problem. In 1996, of course, JonBenet Ramsey was abducted and found murdered. Again, the perpetrators have never been apprehended.
Why write the book?
This book was growing in me for 50 years. I have had an opportunity to see how we have evolved and dealt with the problem of pedophilia and child murder over the past fifty years. Every new case of kidnapping and murder of a child reminded me how little we as a society do to prevent pedophiles from committing these gruesome crimes. Writing this book was my way of making the public more aware of how the underworld of pedophilia has been ever present in our reality. The media sometimes took an impersonal approach to this tragedy. By explaining this tragic event on a human level through my experience as a detective on the case. I hope to help people better understand the problem we face. I had the unfortunate advantage of seeing firsthand the reactions of the families, police department, and citizens of Chicago. Those reactions are profound in my memory.
What bothers me most about the case?
What saddens me most is that through all these years, few solutions until very recently have been put in place to prevent these types of crimes. If this book inspires only one reader to come up with an idea that in the future leads to saving the life of just one child, I will consider myself a very successful writer.
How did this experience affect my life personally?
Being a father and watching my children grow strong, happy, and healthy was always the greatest joy of my life. For the families of the Peterson and Schuessler’s, this joy was taken away. One act by a cruel individual to satisfy his immediate perverted needs brought a tragic end to the happiness of so many. Having my own kids helped me feel for the Peterson-Schuesslers and all the parents of missing children, so in a way it has become my personal mission to help other families learn through this tragedy.
Why did it take so long to write the book?
Until the murderer was caught, I did not feel that we could have closure. We did not have enough information to understand why someone would senselessly take the lives of three young individuals. There were far more questions than there were answers. Over the years as I watched other crimes against children being committed, my desire for the capture of the perpetrator(s) grew. I continued to be hopeful that one day we would understand why. That time came more than forty years later when the killer was convicted of the crime. At that point, I began to think in earnest about how I could create closure for the families and myself. That is when I began writing the book.