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"Guilty! Former police officer, 72, convicted of the abduction and murder of 7-year-old 'Pretty Maria' after 55 YEARS . . . the longest cold case in history.
A former police officer was today finally found guilty of the abduction and murder of a seven-year-old girl 55 years ago.
The conviction of Jack McCullough, 72, represents the longest cold case in history after a DNA breakthrough placed him at the scene of the abduction of Maria Ridulph in 1957.
Maria's mother died without seeing justice for her daughter's slaying - a case that caused so much of a national outcry that President Eisenhower and FBI director J Edgar Hoover demanded daily updates.
McCullough, 18 at the time, was initially considered a suspect when the young girl's decomposed remains were found a year after she disappeared. But he had been ruled out thanks to a fabricated alibi, and thought he had got away with the terrible crime for most of his life.
When an old girlfriend of McCullough's provided new evidence a few years ago proving he had not boarded the train he claimed to have been on the day the girl disappeared, the case was re-opened."
A former police officer was today finally found guilty of the abduction and murder of a seven-year-old girl 55 years ago.
The conviction of Jack McCullough, 72, represents the longest cold case in history after a DNA breakthrough placed him at the scene of the abduction of Maria Ridulph in 1957.
Maria's mother died without seeing justice for her daughter's slaying - a case that caused so much of a national outcry that President Eisenhower and FBI director J Edgar Hoover demanded daily updates.
McCullough, 18 at the time, was initially considered a suspect when the young girl's decomposed remains were found a year after she disappeared. But he had been ruled out thanks to a fabricated alibi, and thought he had got away with the terrible crime for most of his life.
When an old girlfriend of McCullough's provided new evidence a few years ago proving he had not boarded the train he claimed to have been on the day the girl disappeared, the case was re-opened."
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