Lawrence Dalton

Serial Killer

Lawrence Dalton

Lawrence N. Dalton, born April 12, 1945, is an American murderer and sexual offender whose crimes were committed in Wisconsin and Illinois during the late 1970s. He has frequently been described as a serial killer, although later retellings of his case have created considerable confusion about how many murders can actually be attributed to him. Some older crime references list four victims, but court records conclusively establish Dalton's responsibility for two separate murders: the August 1977 killing of Blanchie "Blanche" Penna in Wisconsin and the May 1978 rape and murder of Debra Sue Baker in Illinois. Other killings once investigated in connection with Dalton were either subsequently solved with another offender or cannot be reliably connected to him.

The Murder of Blanchie Penna

Blanchie Penna, whose first name also appears as Blanche in court documents, was a 23-year-old woman from Racine, Wisconsin. Records concerning Dalton's later Illinois case identify Penna's murder as occurring in August 1977. The surviving Wisconsin appellate decision does not state the precise day in August, so a more exact date should not be assigned to her death without additional documentation. Penna knew Dalton and people within his complicated household. On the day she was killed, Dalton and his wife Karen arrived at the Penna family's Racine home. Karen had arranged for Dalton to take Blanchie to an unemployment compensation office. Instead of taking her directly there, Dalton eventually brought Penna to the Kenosha-area residence he shared with Barbara Filipski. The circumstances described during Dalton's trial showed that his actions were planned around isolating Penna. An adjoining trailer had previously been modified with particle board in an apparent effort to reduce the amount of sound that could be heard from outside. Dalton had even tested the structure by having Filipski scream from inside while he listened from outdoors. He had also told Filipski that he intended to keep a girl confined in the trailer bathroom. Once Penna was at the residence, Dalton called her into a bedroom. He placed handcuffs on her, put a sock in her mouth and wrapped duct tape around her head and mouth. Dalton later attempted to characterize some of these actions as a joke, but medical evidence showed that the tape had been applied tightly. Dalton then sexually assaulted Penna. Afterward, Dalton told Filipski that because he had assaulted Penna, he could not simply release her and allow her to tell authorities what had happened. Filipski entered the bedroom and saw Penna still alive, restrained and gagged. Shortly afterward, Filipski heard sounds of a struggle coming from the room. Dalton emerged and indicated that he believed Penna was dead. He subsequently admitted that he had choked and killed her. Dalton wrapped Penna's body in a sheet, placed it in the trunk of his automobile and eventually buried her near the property. Her remains remained concealed until investigators unearthed them in 1979. The discovery transformed what had been a disappearance into a homicide investigation and placed Dalton at the center of a widening inquiry involving crimes in both Wisconsin and Illinois.

The Murder of Debra Sue Baker

The second murder conclusively tied to Dalton occurred in Chicago in May 1978. The victim was Debra Sue Baker. Court records do not establish a precise day on which Baker was killed, but they clearly place the homicide in May 1978 and establish that her body was discovered on May 24, 1978. Baker was sexually assaulted and murdered by Dalton inside an apartment at 1067 West Argyle Street in Chicago. After killing her, Dalton concealed her body inside a trunk and hid the trunk behind a false wall in the apartment. He later removed the trunk and disposed of it in the Fox River. The trunk containing Baker's body was discovered on May 24, 1978. Investigators initially did not know the victim's identity. Her remains went unidentified for nearly a year, leaving police with a murdered young woman but no name and therefore few obvious connections through which to reconstruct her final movements. The investigation eventually connected the unidentified victim to Dalton. She was identified as Debra Sue Baker, and Dalton was formally prosecuted in Cook County for her rape and murder. The Baker homicide was also the Chicago killing that had surfaced during proceedings surrounding Dalton's Wisconsin prosecution. ...

Confirmed Victims: (2)

Blanchie Penna Age: (23), Date of Death: 1977-08

Suspected Victims:

Lisa Slusser Age: (12), Date of Death: 1977-08

Lawrence Dalton–True Crime All The Time - Apple Podcasts