German Church Road Investigation

The Ghost Research Society and Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters Society were the first official paranormal to ever professionally investigate this location!

German Church Road was named after the Trinity Lutheran Church that served the original German immigrants in the area; the old German Church. The original church was built around 1865.

Barbara and Patricia Grimes, 15 and 13 years of age, respectively had left home about 7:30 p.m. December 26, 1956 for the Brighton Theater at 4223 Archer Avenue to see an Elvis Presley movie, “Love Me Tender.” The girls never stayed out past midnight so Mrs. Loretta Grimes was frantic around 2:15 a.m. when she telephoned the Brighton Park police station to report that her teenage daughters had not returned home yet.

Barbara, 15, was five feet tall and weighed around 100 pounds. She had brown eyes and hair, a fair complexion and was last seen wearing a gray tweed shirt, a yellow blouse, a gray three-quarter-length coat, gray babushka, white bobby socks and black ballerina shoes.

Patricia, 13, was five feet three inches and weighed 108 pounds. She also had brown eyes with dark brown hair and a fair complexion. She wore blue jeans, a yellow sweater, white babushka, white bobby socks and black ballerina slippers.

The days dragged on with several leads and eyewitnesses all which lead to dead-ends. The girls only had $2.15 between them and a happy home life. There was no reason for them to run away from home. Almost two weeks had now past and the police were exhausting their leads. They began to circulate flyers about the girls hoping that someone had seen them to bring this disappearance to a happy ending.

However that was not to be. On January 23, 1957, nearly a month after the disappearances, a passing motorist, Leonard Prescott of Hinsdale, Illinois was driving on German Church Road when he noticed something unusual in a culvert by Devil’s Creek, a small tributary of the Des Plaines River. He stopped and looked down in the culvert and approximately thirty feet above Devil’s Creek he saw what looked like two nude bodies. He assumed they were discarded clothing-store dummies.

He drove home and told his wife who insisted they go back to the scene to make sure of what he saw. They both made the grisly discovery of the Grimes sisters, unceremoniously thrown into a ditch. They immediately called the Bedford Park police station. The searching was over.

There were some suspects including a Walter Krantz who had made an anonymous phone call day’s earlier saying that he had seen two nude bodies in Santa Fe Park. When questioned by the police he said that psychic powers ran in his family and that he had seen them in his mind’s eye.

Then there was Edward “Bennie” Bedwell who was a skid row derelict and admitted that he had made a tour of skid row with some girls but denied that they were the Grimes sisters. Other witnesses did however place Bedwell and another man with both of the sisters on West Madison Street. Under constant questioning, Bedwell finally admitted that he had been with the sisters one night but that they had left him and his companion, a man known only as Frank.

Bedwell was a native of Paris, Tennessee and had at one time been acquainted with Elvis Presley. Bedwell was 21 at the time of the murders and had only attended the first grade. His parents had divorced in 1937 and his mother came to Chicago in 1940. He worked as a dishwasher but had held other jobs including one at Ajax Consolidated Company in Cicero, Illinois. Records at Ajax indicated that Bedwell was working there at the times of the abductions of the sisters. Then suddenly he said he was ready to confess to his part in the murders of the Grimes sisters!

His first meeting of the girls was on January 7^th in Harold’s Club on West Madison Street and they were with this stranger known as Frank. After refusing to serve the girls liquor, they went to another bar on Madison Street where they had several drinks. Next they frequented yet another tavern at Madison and Loomis where the bartender told them that they had had too much to drink already. All four of them wound up at the D & L Restaurant.

After another bar stop they allegedly paired off in separate rooms at the Crest Hotel. Bedwell claimed to have sleep with Patricia. Throughout the next several days they spent time at bars and various flophouses.

On Sunday, January 13^th, the four went to a bar on Madison Street. Frank left the group and returned with a car in which he proposed a ride and they all agreed. They drove southwest, stopped a gas station to use the washroom and later stopped at a restaurant on Harlem Avenue where they had hot dogs. They ended up in the Forest Preserve where they drank more beer. While attempting to force themselves on the two girls, two separate struggles broke out. Bedwell claimed to have hit Patricia harder than he had wanted and she lost consciousness.

The same apparently happened to Barbara in the front seat. They then decided to get rid of the sisters. They undressed the two and dumped their bodies along German Church Road near Devil’s Creek. They were not sure if the girls were alive or not. The confession was then signed and Bedwell was held without bail and charged with murder.

The police then launched a search for the mysterious stranger, Frank. After a description was circulated, a newspaper reporter found him in the Bridewell, the Chicago city jail. He had been sentenced to 30 days because he couldn’t pay a $50 fine for drunkenness. His real name was William Cole Willingham. He admitted that he had been with the girls and Bedwell on a skid row tour but nothing else had happened.

The police thought they had the case all wrapped up. However, later toxicology reports from Walter Camp indicated that the sisters had died within four to six hours after having finished dinner at 7:30 PM on December 28^th!

When Bedwell took the stand he testified that he had been forced to sign the confession under duress. He was released on $20,000 bail fronted by a downstate bondsman. On March 4, 1957, State’s Attorney Adamowski announced that charges against Bennie Bedwell had been dismissed! Deputies began their investigation again with renewed vigor.

A few days later sheriff’s deputies found an abandoned shack about a half-mile from German Church Road. On a crossbeam on the inside written with a lipstick was, “HELP - P & B - HELP.” Handwriting analysis later determined that either sister didn’t write the scrawl. Authorities decided that it was most likely a hoax.

The bodies were discovered on the Werner property. A mailbox with the name Werner was still visible for some time, although they moved away from the property in 1957. Mrs. Werner became so distraught that she had to be institutionalized for a period. Local legends soon corrupted about the Grimes girls’ house, a place where time stood still in 1957, including an old car in the garage and a calendar on the wall from 1957. Vandals have hit the house a number of times over the years and electronic devices were installed to warn the Cook County Police whenever anyone was trespassing on the property. It was even used by a group of Satan worshippers and strange symbols and decapitated animals were found on the property. Even a live goat was found tied a wall of the old cellar. Today however, a new subdivision directly on the site of the old Werner house and close to where the bodies were found.

The Grimes sisters are buried side by side in a modest grave in Section 37 at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery located in Worth, Illinois.

On December 9, 2018, then 73-year-old, James Grime, younger brother of Barbara and Patricia grimes spoke about his sisters. He was only 11-years-old at the time and wondered if he would ever find out more information. He said probably not but he was still hoping. Retired criminal investigator, Ray Johnson, www.hauntdetective.com was a big part of this interview and said that he believes that there are still people alive today that could shed some light on these cold case murders. He also suspects that long-dead, child killer, Charles Melquist, was the most likely suspect.

Address: The guardrails on the north side of German Church Road just east of County Line Road and just before the Bridal Path Subdivision.

Hauntings: A real ghost has been seen on German Church Road near the guardrails that mark the location where the bodies were found. In fact it is a ghostly reenactment of the dumping of the bodies. For those people living nearby it’s been a common occurrence to hear the sounds of a car screeching to a halt in front of the guardrails in the dead of night. They hear the car open its doors, something landing in the weeds, the doors shut and then the car peeling away.

On several occasions a car was visible as well as the ghostly sounds and a local resident called the Cook County police and stated that she had seen a grisly apparition. Although the vision was hazy and not perfect, she saw what appeared to be a car looking like a black sedan unloading two nude bodies over the side of the guardrails before disappearing. And on rare occasions both the sights and sounds are experienced

“In the early 1970s, teenagers Terry Wido and Jim Waterstrat enjoyed visiting ‘so-called spooky places’ and made several trips to the house with a group of friends. One of the guys had hear that the two girls had been murdered in the house, so to bolster their courage; they took a case of beer. ‘The lights still worked,’ he remembers, ‘and we all posed with our beers’.

“It was great fun until one night they were approached by dark figures, which began running towards them, prompting them to escape to their car. ‘We never did go back there,’ he says, ‘and years later, I found out that the Grimes sisters were dumped on the road near that house.’

“In 1982, Jim and Debbie Serpico, a suburban couple, and a group of their friends parked their cars in a nearby church lot and took a Halloween walking tour of the grounds before the house burned, just for fun. Stepping over the barricade, they headed up the driveway toward the house, with only the moon lighting their way. Just as they were debating whether to go inside, they heard a car approach – a dark car with no headlights – that sped past them and disappeared behind the house. Not sure if someone had reported them to police, as locals often did when people visited the grounds, the group opted for a hasty exit. They reached the road only to find the barricade still in place and a policeman parked nearby, who assured them he had seen no car.

(The above experts were quoted from Murder Gone Cold by Tamara Shaffer; ISBN: 0-9766072-7-1. This book can be purchased directly from the Ghost Research Society website; www.ghostresearch.org/press.html for $14.95 plus shipping.)

Jim Serpico commented that the car made absolutely no noise as it passed them. No sound from the engine or sounds of the car crunching up the driveway. It was a true phantom car!

The Ghost Research Society investigated German Church Road on September 7, 2019 and the team members included: Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Jason Dickerson, Courtney Bowen and Courtney Mendenhall from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Society

Equipment setup: Sony Nightshot camcorders, digital recorders and cameras, Melmeter, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter and the Phasma Box.

Experiments performed: One short old-school EVP session was conducted with any real-time devices at the location where the bodies were discovered in 1957.

Personal experiences: It was a cool evening with nothing as far as any communication with the other side.

We had parked our 15 passenger van at the edge of Bridal Path and walked down the sidewalk to the guardrails. After a few minutes, police were on the scene for a suspicious van parked in the subdivision. Both Courtney’s stayed in the van while Snider, Dickerson and I walked down to try some EVP and conduct a live Facebook video.

We were perfectly legal as it wasn’t resident parking only and we were conducting an investigation on a public sidewalk overlooking the original crime scene. The officer that pulled his patrol car up the guardrails was very nice and asked, “You’re good!” We replied that we were fine and he proceeded to tell us that the police department had received a call about the van. He eventually asked, “Ghost hunting?” which we replied to the affirmative. He said have a good night and drove away.

Our very first visit to this location was August 8, 1992 with members of the GRS. The foundation of the old Werner House was still there along with some cryptic symbols and graffiti.

Evidence collected: nothing, however an interesting interaction with a police officer is documented below.

Cops german.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the sidewalk overlooking the original murder site, several police cars descended on the area. Apparently someone in Bridal Path had called for a suspicious white van, mine, that was parked at the edge of the subdivision. One patrol car pulled up and the following interaction occurred.

Conclusions: A much more thorough investigation must be attempted in the future. Our entire session was just a little over eight and a half minutes and a lot of that was taken up when police officers arrived on the scene. We would need to flood the area with Nightshot camcorders, more recording devices and specialized equipment to pick up EMF fluctuations and a laser grid assembly would also have to be deployed.

Even though it’s been over 62 years since the murder which is still unsolved, there is no reason to believe that some paranormal activity still could be happening here especially since no one was apprehended and charged for this heinous crime. Most often when areas are changed structurally or altering of the original blueprints, much more paranormal activity is usually picked up. However, in this case, since the new subdivision was constructed, it seems to have just the opposite effect. Almost as though a Band-Aid was applied to this area in an attempt to heal the past and move on.

I do sincerely hope that both of the sisters are at rest. There is no evidence to date to dispute otherwise. What has been happening here since the 1960s is a residual haunting with no real intelligence, so there would be no interaction. However, even recording something from the past would be an amazing feat and I look forward to my next trip back to this area, perhaps in the very early spring or late fall where the insect population is at its smallest.