Chicago Police Department Solves 65-Year-Old Cold Case: Finds One of Their Own Was the Murderer

The Chicago Police Department has solved a 65-year-old cold case regarding the death of Gloria Kowalewicz, an eight-year-old who was killed was while walking from her house to church on November 12, 1960.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Gloria never made it to church. Rather, her body was found in a wooded area a short time after she left home. Someone had shot and killed her.

According to the Tribune, “Gloria had been shot and had bruises on her neck. Given the amount of blood at the scene, investigators determined Gloria wasn’t killed until she was brought to the woods.”

They added, “Gloria’s coat was found several miles away, and her shoes and purse were collected a few feet from her body. Police found fingerprints on the strap of Gloria’s purse and on her Bible, but investigators did not yet know about traces of semen that would eventually be found on her coat.”

The New York Post noted that “investigators made some progress — deducing that Gloria hadn’t been killed until she was taken to nearby woods and collecting eyewitness reports of a little girl seen with a young man, but they hadn’t been able to identify a suspect.”

Until now…

The Tribune pointed out, “The investigation regained momentum earlier this year after the FBI used DNA submitted to family tree websites for comparison” and the name of a former Chicago PD homicide detective emerged.

The Chicago PD now believes Gloria’s killer was Thomas Francis McInerney, who served 24 years with the department. McInerney worked with the Chicago PD until 1987 and died in Las Vegas in 2006.

Gloria’s brother, Adam, reacted to the news, saying, “The one thing that does play in my mind (is), unfortunately, he lived a decent life and passed on. He never paid his dues. You hope he’s going to pay his dues with the good Lord.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com