HOPE YOU ALL have a safe New Year’s eve tonight and here is to a prosperous new year.
For those of you partying tonight, be safe. Find someone who is not drinking to drive. Law enforcement will be out there watching closely for DUI offenders. Don’t take a chance.
Here is my present for you if you are celebrating the new year tonight — cures for tomorrow morning. You are welcome.
If you had a rough 2010, at least you didn’t get caught with your pants down. Literally.
Happy New Year!
FOR 17 YEARS, Jeff Kennedy held it all inside. Click here for an update story about his murder plea Wednesday.
He was a suspect in a murder investigation. He was interviewed by police right after Susan Bonser was found murdered in her Rushville apartment in October of 1993. Authorities say Kennedy was the last to leave her apartment the night she was killed. He was a suspect from the start. But he always denied he had anything to do with it.
A few years back, Schuyler County Sheriff Don Schieferdecker said his department was not giving up on the cold case murder, and they were in the process of unveiling, in his words, “startling” DNA evidence.
Turns out that evidence was Jeff Kennedy’s DNA, found on the clothing of Susan Bonser.
Kennedy lived in Quincy for several years and worked at a local car dealership. Friends say he was good at this job but he struggled at times with substance abuse issues, and he got into trouble in Adams County in 1995 for a misdemeanor domestic battery. Nine years later he was convicted of a driving under the influence charge in Adams County.
Why it took so long for authorities to connect DNA evidence to Kennedy is the subject of much speculation, but it finally happened earlier this year. The following information came from Schuyler County State’s Attorney Teena Griffin’s factual basis statement given in court Tuesday.
Kennedy was contacted on July 1 of this year by Illinois State Police troopers and asked how his DNA evidence was recovered from Bonser’s clothing. Kennedy could not explain how it got there.
Kennedy did not show up the next day for his job at the Quincy car dealership. On July 5, authorities say he was driving a work truck when it got stuck in a ditch in rural Camden, in Schuyler County.
Kennedy, investigators say, then went to a barn and stole a truck. Police saw him in Hancock and Adams counties, and he finally crashed the stolen vehicle on Ill. 61 near Ill. 336.
Inside the truck, police say they found alcohol and a loaded gun.
That day at Blessing Hospital, Kennedy told an ISP investigator that he was “tired of keeping secrets” and he intended to kill himself. He told the investigator he knew who killed Bonser and he was present when she was killed, but he did not stab her.
Later, Kennedy told investigators to not bother looking for the other person, because that person was not involved. And he asked for time to get his affairs in order and tell his family.
When Kennedy promised to contact police but did not, Griffin convened a grand jury and subpoenaed Kennedy to testify on Nov. 30.
The next day, with his attorney present, Jeff Kennedy admitted to the grand jury that he killed Susan Bonser, and that he alone was responsible for her death. He was arrested a few days later.
Wednesday, in a Schuyler County Courthouse courtroom, Susan Bonser’s family finally heard the man who killed her say he was sorry.
As Schieferdecker put it, “It’s time for this to be over.”
VERY INTERESTING STORY here about a Michigan guy who read his wife’s e-mails because he suspected she was having an affair. Turns out his suspicions were correct. Now he’s in legal trouble.
Should it be legal to snoop around on your spouse’s e-mail account? Some suggest authorities will have trouble proving their case because it’s still a gray area. Give our lawmakers time and I’m sure they’ll come up with some sort of convoluted and hard to read statute to address the issue.
HOPE YOU HAD a great Christmas and will have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve weekend.
Santa was good to me as usual. Wireless speakers and a beverage holder for the microphone stand were much appreciated! If you are a friend on Facebook, you can check out my other “Awesome” gift here.
Great article from Esquire about Christmas gifts here.
In the end, Christmas is not about giving or receiving gifts, it’s all about the season. For that, I am most grateful.
HOPE YOU GOT a chance to read our story Sunday about taking care of pets in cold weather. The happy guy pictured above is Buddy, a Lab mix who was only too happy to be photographed on a snowy Christmas Eve morning.
Buddy was abandoned and found by owner Bob Nebe about three years ago. Dumping off a helpless puppy is about as cruel as it gets — you can’t even take it to a shelter? 
Buddy is happy and healthy, and Bob says he’s a great hunting dog. Buddy has a nice doghouse with lots of fresh straw and a heated water bowl so it doesn’t freeze. He was playful and clowned around for the photos, and when I left he went back into his doghouse and resumed his Christmas Eve morning nap.
Take care of you pets. It’s not that hard, it just requires a little common sense. Dogs especially provide unconditional love. Be good to them!
YOU CAN’T DENY The Boss is one of the great live performers of our time.
Christmas can be a tough time of the year. For those mourning the loss of a loved one, peace. Better days are ahead, and honoring a memory is never a bad thing.
Merry Christmas, Q-town!
HOPE YOU ARE having a safe Christmas. It doesn’t take much to turn merry into tragedy, and we have some common sense tips in The Whig today to help stay safe.
Check out the video below to see how quickly a dry Christmas tree can ignite and wreak havoc in your house. When I was in college I worked for a produce store and we sold trees at Christmas. After Dec. 25, the owner gave us a bunch of unsold trees, and we took them into a field for a bonfire. They would literally roar to life after being ignited.
Be merry, but be safe!
The past few months I’ve been appearing, more or less on a weekly basis, on WGEM News Talk Live 105.1 FM. We talk about the latest YCMIU (You Can’t Make It Up) crimes and the dumb things people do. Click here for an archive link.
Thursday morning at 7:50, the Good Lord willing, we’ll do something a little different. We will unveil the Christmas Carols of Doom with a live acoustic performance. In the studio. Without autotune or Milli Vanilli effects. Promise.
It’s live radio. And anything can happen!
THE RECENT REPORTED theft of the Staff of Asclepius, a medical symbol, off the wall outside of the Rapp Clinic at 921 N. 24th is certainly perplexing.
The staff, about 8 or 9 feet tall and made of aluminum, was specially designed for the building and attached to the wall with iron bolts. It’s estimated to be worth more than $10,000, and it took quite an effort to unscrew bolts from the wall to steal it.
The clinic was operated for many years by Dr. Roy Rapp, who died in May. Several employees are still working at the clinic and are in the process of winding the practice down.
Dr. Rapp’s son, Quincy attorney Jim Rapp, said the staff has been on the wall since the 1960s. His father had it specially designed and hand sculpted by the late Mary Ann Lohman, who also designed the busts of Mary Lou Kent and Elmo McClain inside the Oakley-Lindsay Center.
Two schools of thought when it comes to the crime: It was either done by stupid and desperate people who wanted it for scrap, or it was done by stupid and desperate people because it’s a prized art object.
Actually, the third idea is that it was just done by stupid people as a prank. Lips loosen, you know. Sooner or later, somebody will talk.
If you know anything, Quincy Regional Crime Stoppers’ phone number is (217) 228-4474.
