On the morning of March 31, 1937, John Albin Theander, a 47-year-old tailor from Stillman Valley, Illinois, left home for his job at the Mason Inc. Clothing Store in nearby Rockford. A hardworking and devoted father of five children, he was a man of routine and responsibility. But on this day, Mr. Theander never arrived at work. His sudden disappearance began a period of agonizing uncertainty for his wife, Minnie, and their children, who spent the next ten days searching and praying for his
safe return.
The family's worst fears were realized on April 10, 1937. Two boys riding their bicycles from Rockford to Cherry Valley discovered a body in a wooded ditch near the intersection of Charles Street and Mulford Road. Police found identification in the man's pockets, and the victim was soon confirmed to be John Theander. The coroner determined he had been killed on the morning he went missing, the victim of a single, fatal gunshot to the back of his head. His car and wallet were gone.
The investigation into the quiet tailor's murder quickly took a turn that no one in Winnebago County could have anticipated. The case broke open when the parents of an 18-year-old girl named Bernice Felton reported her missing. They told police a complex story about their daughter and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Lester Warfel Brockelhurst. The young couple, who had met as Sunday school teachers, had disappeared on the same day as John Theander.
Brockelhurst, a man once seen as a model youth and president of his Mormon church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, had embarked on a violent, multi-state crime spree with Felton. Their journey of robbery and murder began when they hitchhiked near Rockford and Theander, in a fatal act of kindness, stopped to offer them a ride. Brockelhurst shot Theander, stole his car and money, and left his body on the outskirts of town. This was the first of three murders Brockelhurst would confess to committing during a six-week rampage that spanned 18 states and included some 40 robberies. The press dubbed him "The Crime Tourist" and "The Touring Slayer."
The cross-country manhunt for the couple involved the FBI and law enforcement from several states. The crime spree came to an end on May 13, 1937, in Dover, New York, when a state trooper pulled them over for a missing license plate on what was later identified as another victim's car. Brockelhurst immediately confessed to the trooper, admitting to the murders of John Theander in Illinois, Jack Griffith in Fort Worth, Texas, and Victor A. Gates, a landowner from Little Rock, Arkansas. He claimed he committed the crimes to fund their travels and to thrill his girlfriend.
Though authorities in Illinois wished to try Brockelhurst for Theander's murder, he was extradited to Arkansas, which was believed to have the strongest case against him. In a trial that lasted only a day, he was found guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Victor Gates. Upon hearing the jury's sentence of death by electrocution, both Brockelhurst and his father, who was present in the courtroom, collapsed.
Bernice Felton was tried separately the following day and, to the dismay of many, was acquitted after the jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes. She claimed she only participated out of fear. Lester Brockelhurst was executed in Arkansas on March 18, 1938. Before his execution, he lamented his affair with Felton, stating, "The only thing that brought me down to this was a slight love affair with a girl. I don't want her to get the chair, but she is just as guilty as I." The charges against him for the murder of John Albin Theander were ultimately dropped following his execution.
