murders in the late 70's maybe early 80's

Used to live in Pekin Il. We were trying to remember 2 unrelated murders. One was a highschool kid who murdered his entire family. He was upset with them not permitting him to be with some girl or something. Tried to act like he discovered them all shot.

The other was a kid found dead and I think dismembered in a railroad car in Pekin.
Really shook everybody up considering Pekin being so small.

I also lived in Pekin at the time,cant place the name of streets just now. Think Derby St and ?? It was on the same st as the old Stop-N- Go going towards down town. It was one of the nice homes not to far from Derby St. The kid was dating a black girl a lot older than him and his parents were upset over that.He also killed is younger brother. The younger brother was to have spent the night with a freind but something came up and he couldnt go, otherwise he would be alive today. I know they had a hard time trying to sell that place, because it was so brutal of a crime and blood was all over the house. That kid got out of the place he was in a long time ago, he could be anywhere. Sad thing is I think he was on the swim team and had a great future ahead of him before this all happened. Dont remember the 2nd one. Hadnt thought of this in a long time. Everytime I think of Pekin I like to remember the good times I had there. P.S. Cant remember which magazine but this story made it into one of the top crime magazines.

The guys name is Jimmy Childers. He is serving a life sentence in Menard. To this day he has no memory of committing the crime. He was into baseball and had a great future in front of him. His confession was after a 8 hour interogattion.They promised if he admitted to it that they would be leinent since he was only 17. He confessed because he had to . It could have been his brother that committed the crime of the parents being murdered then Jim comming into the situation and faced with the brother who was killed with a knife. The parents were killed by gun shot. I have no confidence that this story was ever true that Jim did all of the murders. I will never beleive he did.
The sencond murder was Mark Helmig. Murdered by William J "freight train" Guatney. Think he killed Jon Simpson and Jacob Serby from Nebraska. Maybe that is where Richard Griner disappeard to. He got out of it since he was crazy.
There is a book you may be interested in written by Jim Conover called Slayer of Innoncence.
Back to Childers, Umholtz prevented him from ever being parolled. I beleive strongly that they are wrong and that there is more to the story than what was ever revealed. The brother was a mean mean kid. Jimmy on the other hand was not. I knew him from our neighborhood. He was too nice to hang out with us.

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/searc...

Sorry that link did not work exactly right. But it is James Childers born in 1961.

tim wrote:

Used to live in Pekin Il. We were trying to remember 2 unrelated murders. One was a highschool kid who murdered his entire family. He was upset with them not permitting him to be with some girl or something. Tried to act like he discovered them all shot.
The other was a kid found dead and I think dismembered in a railroad car in Pekin.
Really shook everybody up considering Pekin being so small.

I still live in Pekin. I remember the triple murder real well. I didn't live to far from where it happened. It happened in a house right of Derby St. on 5th Street. It was over his parents not liking a girlfriend of his and not letting him bring her along on a family trip. I don't remember him saying he found them murdered...I do remember he admitted to it. In the trial it came out that him and his brother were physically abuse by their step father horribly. A few years ago there was a article about him , the murder, and all the years that have passed. It discussed about how laws have changed when abuse has occured and how Jimmy Childers may not have gotten life for these crimes if it had taken place now.

Mr umholtz made certain that jimmy will never ever have any chance at parole

I live in Pekin. My dad actually brought Jimmy Childers into court for the trial. My dad was a rookie at the time. About Mark Helmig, he was not dismembered, but he was badly decomposed. My parents were actually living in an apartment right next to the train yard where his body was found.

Don't forget the disappearence of the Greiner boy...God only knows what happened to him...Ritchie Nevear (sp?)...murdered (supposedly) by a friend, yet it can't be proven. It seems to me that every few years, something bad happens in Pekin. Sounds crazy, but for such a small town, it seems like there are a lot of bad things that happen.

I am working on an article about James Childers and the murders, but I am not having much luck finding any articles or information on the internet. Does anyone know of anything in print either online, or a magazine / newspaper?

i grew up with mark helmig .me and my bestfreind david kessler were with him the day he come up missing . the police didnt even ask us anything. thats the pekin police force for ya! my uncle was a police officer in east peoria at the time and just couldnt stand the way they handled the hole thing .he said it was like watching the three stooges .we still miss mark he was are best freind

Im the original poster of this topic and Iv gotten more info from you people than any where else on the net (thanks). In fact there is really not any info at all on the net about Chulders. A lot of un-answered questions. I was on the swim team with Stu Umholtz the states attorney who made sure he coud never get out.... A couple posts up "lioness" was trying to do a paper on the case. Im sure you could contact Pekin Daily times and get archives on it. Also The transcripts Im sure are public record at the court house.

Why are you looking for information on Jimmy Childers? I looked a few times but have not found much. Please contact me.

Lioness wrote:

I am working on an article about James Childers and the murders, but I am not having much luck finding any articles or information on the internet. Does anyone know of anything in print either online, or a magazine / newspaper?

If Im not mistaken there was an article written in one of the major crime magazines a few years after he killed his parents, I remember reading it. Its been such a long time and hard to remember what the name of magazine was. Hope you find what your looking for.

I lived in Pekin at the time the murders happened. I worked at the local telephone company. Believe, me he did it.

Does anyone remember the homicide/suicide of that family...I believe on Willow St.? I went to school with the son, Brian...I was in 5th maybe 6th grade so around '92-'93? I can't recall much about it.

My mom was also telling me the other day about a guy who was found in a dryer and the police ruled it a suicide? Curious....

I knew Jimmy pretty well, and played baseball with him. I've never heard until now that there was ANY dispute about whether he did it or not. My sister is a journalist at the Peoria Journal Star, and she visited Jimmy in prison and wrote an article for the Star about a dozen years ago. You can proably get info from their archives but don't ask me how.

I do some work as a freelance true crime blogger, and I grew up in Pekin, that's why the story is of interest to me. I thought that if I could find something factual online it would be a good place to start on some research. All I know about the case is what I have read on this forum, which is not much to base an article on!! Thanks for all your help!

Anonymous wrote:

I live in Pekin. My dad actually brought Jimmy Childers into court for the trial. My dad was a rookie at the time. About Mark Helmig, he was not dismembered, but he was badly decomposed. My parents were actually living in an apartment right next to the train yard where his body was found.

Jim Childers was in my math class. He was quiet, not popular, but almost. He killed his mom, stepfather, and little brother over the summer. I don't think there was any conspiracy. An old friend of mine was a prison guard for awhile. She told me he was still in prison and probably would be for the rest of his life.

I have also live in Pekin and Have been doing research on the childers case. My grate grandmother was on the jury but still to this day will not talk about it. I heard that he was on drugs the night that it happened and that it had a lot to do with his stepfather? Does any of this ring true? All I have found out about it was from some one that sat right next to him in some of his classes. Also does anyone know the address of where it took place?