Murder of the Grimes sisters

Barbara and Patricia Grimes
Barbara (left) and Patricia Grimes
Died	c. December 28, 1956
Cause of death	Murder
Body discovered	January 22, 1957
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Occupation	High school students
Known for	Murder victims

Barbara and Patricia Grimes were teenage sisters who disappeared from the Brighton Park, Chicago, Illinois area on December 28, 1956 and were found dead on January 22, 1957. Despite an official conclusion that they had been murdered on the night of their disappearance, there were numerous alleged sightings of the girls in the weeks between that night and the discovery of their bodies.

The confession of the prime suspect, Bennie Bedwell, was not supported by the forensic evidence, and he later recanted it. The case has never been solved.

On December 28, 1956, sisters Barbara (aged 15) and Patricia (aged 13), students at Thomas Kelly High School and St. Maurice respectively, went to the Brighton Theater to see the Elvis Presley movie Love Me Tender.

The theater was about one-and-a-half miles from the girls' McKinley Park home. They had $2.15 between them. It is not known how they travelled to the theater.

Patricia's friend, Dorothy Weinert, sat behind the girls with her own younger sister during the movie. Weinert and her sister left the theatre at the intermission of the double feature showing that night, about 9:30, and saw the Grimes girls in the popcorn line. They seemed in good spirits and neither the Weinerts nor anyone else noticed anything unusual.

The sisters stayed for the second film, and were expected home around 11:45 p.m. When there was no sign of them by midnight, their mother Loretta sent their older brother and sister to wait by the nearest bus stop for their arrival. After three buses had gone by with no sign of them, the siblings returned. At 2:15 a.m., their mother reported Barbara and Patricia as missing.

The two girls' disappearance launched one of the biggest missing-person cases in Chicago history, producing many reports of sightings but nothing in the way of hard evidence. It was initially thought that they might have simply run away, possibly to Nashville, Tennessee to see Elvis Presley in concert or just to "emulate his lifestyle." On January 19, 1957, a statement was issued from Presley's Graceland estate: "If you are good Presley fans, you'll go home and ease your mother's worries."