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Donald Beck and Kenneth Clapp were both 14 years old, enjoying the spring weather as they rode their bicycles along Route 5 from Rockford toward Cherry Valley. Deciding it was time for a break, the two boys got off their bikes and wandered over to explore a bramble thicket 35 feet from the road. What they found there frightened them half to death.

The two boys ran back to the highway and flagged down the first car to come by. F.A. Garrigan, of Rockford, raced back to town to notify the authorities of a grisly find. Officers hurried to the scene. It was, of course, the body of Albin Theander, missing for almost two weeks. Sheriff Paul Johnson discovered $11.26 in Theander’s pockets, so ruled out simple robbery as a motive for the killing. His theory was that Theander had been killed by a hitchhiker, possibly one running from another crime. Police had been on the lookout for Theander’s missing car ever since his wife reported him missing on March 31, so the hitchhiker theory made sense. But the killer had a two-week head start – how would the authorities ever catch him? They would start by sending a description of Theander’s car and its license plate number to police agencies throughout the region, by teletype.

Theander’s car was far beyond regional police agencies, however, and it no longer bore its legitimate Illinois license plates.

—

After killing Theander, Lester drove back to Rockford and found Bernice waiting for him on the corner where they had agreed to meet. If she was surprised to see him behind the wheel of an unfamiliar car, she asked no questions. “She was looking all pretty and nice,” Lester recalled. “She hopped into the car and we started off.”

And where did they head? Well, Lester wanted to marry Bernice, and Bernice wanted to marry Lester. So they headed west, to the place they had heard all their lives was the best place to marry. They headed toward Utah, planning to be married in the Salt Lake Temple.

The couple pooled their money. Lester had $40; Bernice had $42. It didn’t last long, of course, paying for gasoline and groceries and staying in tourist camps along the highways. But Lester had his gun, and with it access to a seemingly endless stream of cash. Lester always ran his stickups alone, while Bernice waited in the car.

It was hard work. He seldom managed to pick a target who was carrying much cash. “Near Salt Lake I held up a gas station guy. He looked like he was going to faint, and I laughed. But I didn’t waste any time. All I got was a measly $2.50.”

When they reached Salt Lake, Lester drove Bernice to the Temple. They were turned away, though – they didn’t have a recommend from Rockford church leaders. So, they headed to Ogden, where they visited friends. Then they rented a room and lived there together for a few days. Lester tried to find work as a store clerk, but nothing opened for him. So, “once in a while I’d pull a stickup to get money to live on.”

After a week or so in Utah – during which time Lester stole a pair of license plates – he was getting pretty good at removing them quickly and fixing them just as quickly to Theander’s car – Lester and Bernice decided to hit the road again. They were enjoying themselves, just a pair of young lovers out for a honeymoon, and the thrills of their bandit lifestyle added spice to their young lives.

Leaving Utah, the couple headed toward Texas. Lester wanted to show Bernice where he had spent his youth, in Dallas. They reached Fort Worth on April 29, penniless. Time to refill the communal coffers. Leaving Bernice somewhere – I haven’t discovered where – Lester cruised around the business district until he chose a small grocery store to rob. It didn’t go particularly well – Lester “earned” only pennies, not enough to get a room for the night.

So he returned to the street and looked around for a new target. He spotted a couple on the street and approached them, demanding the woman’s purse and the man’s wallet. The woman screamed, drawing the attention of Jack Griffith, age 48, owner of a business variously described as a restaurant, a café, or a tavern. Griffith ran to the assistance of the couple, and when Lester ran toward his parked car, Griffith followed, hoping to get the number on the Utah license plates.

Griffith came too close to Lester, who turned and shot Griffith in the abdomen. Griffith fell to the ground, and Lester jumped into Theander’s car and sped away.

Nothing went Lester’s way that night. Fearful that someone would identify and describe the car he was driving, he almost immediately abandoned it – and inadvertently left Bernice’s suitcase behind. Running down the street, Lester saw a car idling at a stoplight. He jerked open the passenger-side door and climbed in, pointing his revolver at A.A. Hayden, its driver, and ordering him to drive to East Dallas. At another stoplight, Hayden managed to jump from his car. Lester slid over behind the wheel and took off. In his haste and upset, Lester collided with another car, jumped out, and began running.

About two hours later, he knocked on a door and asked the housewife who answered if she would call him a cab. She did, but something alerted her to danger, and after the cab, driven by F.B. Sherill, had picked up Lester, she called the police, who had been seeking Griffith’s assailant all over town. The cab driver dropped Lester off at a small hotel, apparently where Lester again contacted Bernice. They stayed there overnight, then early in the morning they set off hitchhiking, heading north. Despite an intensive manhunt, the couple eluded the Dallas dragnet and made their escape.

But now the police knew who Lester Brockelhurst was. Albin Theander’s abandoned car? The police found it, and despite its Utah plates they traced the car to Rockford, where police told them of Theander’s murder. And that suitcase Lester had left in the abandoned car? It held Bernice’s photographs of Lester. Police showed the pictures of the slender young man with curly blond hair to Jack Griffith, in the hospital. Griffith recognized his assailant. Other clues in the suitcase gave the Dallas police Lester’s name. Teletype machines in police departments all through the Midwest began to chatter: The suspect in Albin Theander’s murder was Lester Brockelhurst of Rockford, Illinois.

A few days later, an alert went out again. Lester was now wanted for two murders. Jack Griffith had died of his wounds.

(To be continued)