A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town

by Barry Siegel

A mother's search for the son she gave up uncovers terrifying secrets in a Minnesota town in this "masterfully depicted true-crime tale" (Publishers Weekly).

In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him-only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. The immediate cause was peritonitis, but the coroner had never decided the mode of death, writing "deferred" rather than indicate accident, natural causes, or homicide. This he did even though the autopsy photos showed Dennis covered from head to toe in ugly bruises, his clenched fists and twisted facial expression suggesting he had died writhing in pain.

Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.

Why did authorities dismiss evidence that marked Dennis as an endangered child? Could Lois Jurgens's brother, a local police lieutenant, have interfered in the investigation? And most disturbing of all, why had so many people who'd witnessed Lois's brutal treatment of her children stay silent for so long? Determined to find answers, local detectives and prosecutors rebuilt the case brick by brick, finally exposing the shocking truth behind a nightmare in suburbia.

A finalist for the Edgar Award, A Death in White Bear Lake is "a distinguished entry in the annals of crime documentary," and a vivid portrait of the all-American town that harbored a sadistic killer (The Washington Post).

• ISBN10: 0345432991
• ISBN13: 9780345432995
• Publish Date: 28 November 2000 (first published 7 June 1990)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ballantine Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 544
• Language: English

Reviews

[dpfaef]

Interesting book that encapsulates a national tragedy, child abuse was pretty well neglected by both the medical profession and law enforcement up until the 1960's.  The attitude was who would do something like that and it's really none of our business.  Once the scope of the abuse of children began to come to light both the medical profession and law enforcement stepped up to face the challenge.

What is so very sad about this book is that it is not about an isolated instance but rather it is just an example of what was going on through out the country.  Even in today's world abuse of children continues, unabated.  The year Dennis Jurgen died, White Bear Lake became the All-American city of 1965.  The irony of this, is what makes this story so compelling.

 This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal