Dennis Jurgens
| Dennis Jurgens | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Dennis Craig Puckett December 6, 1961 Sauk Centre, Minnesota, United States |
| Died |
April 11, 1965 (aged 3) White Bear Lake, Minnesota, United States |
| Cause of death | Homicide by blunt force trauma |
| Known for | Murder victim |
Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6, 1961 – April 11, 1965) was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1950 to 1970. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the state of Minnesota in 1987. It is one of a few crimes that FBI agent Kenneth Lanning argues can legitimately be described as "ritual abuse."
Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. At the urging of authorities, Jerry placed Dennis for adoption after being told that he would receive good care.
Dennis was adopted by the Jurgenses, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul: Harold Robert Jurgens, a former bandleader turned electrician, and Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens, a homemaker. Lois had grown up in an impoverished family of sixteen siblings and used her marriage to the middle-class Harold Jurgens as a means to improve her social standing. She had a pathological need for control over her environment and obsessively cleaned and tended to her home and garden, desperate to appear the picture of the perfect housewife in 1950s suburban America.
In the decade preceding the adoption of Dennis, Lois Jurgens had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, including an extended stay at a psychiatric institution where electroconvulsive therapy was administered. She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. This drove Lois further into madness, as she felt she needed children to complete the "perfect picture" of her life.
...
Wikipedia