Lincoln’s “conversation piece” – the phone booth perched atop City Hall. The Lincoln Police Department was also located inside the City Hall in 1975 and ’76.
Notable mention in “BURIED TRUTH TRILOGY”:
“The City Hall in Lincoln was located on the corner of McLean and Broadway streets. It sat kitty-corner from the Logan County Courthouse, immediately west of the fire department, and directly across the street from the post office. It was regarded a landmark because a telephone booth was curiously and prominently displayed on its rooftop. The purpose of the phone booth was to provide a convenient means for reporting tornados—a photo of it was once featured in a national magazine. On March 5, 1976, a cunning burglar scaled a ladder to the second floor rear window of the LPD and cut out a section of glass with a glasscutter. He then entered through the window and successfully got away with a pair of handcuffs, some marijuana, and a guitar.”
ADDITIONAL FACTS:
The guitar stolen from the LPD evidence room was the B.C. Rich guitar stolen in the Lincoln College dorm room burglary on September 18, 1975. Also stolen in this burglary were 150 record albums belonging to two female students.
Russell Smrekar, a smarmy and wily thief from Joliet, IL, was also a Lincoln College student. Smrekar showed up at the dorm room of honor student Michael Mansfield the same night of the dorm room burglary; he had an armload of record albums that he wanted to store in Mansfield’s room temporarily. Mansfield reluctantly allowed him to do so, and Smrekar made about 4 trips in and out of Mansfield’s room with more albums. He left Mansfield’s room shortly thereafter and hitchhiked to Joliet with the B.C. Rich guitar. Mansfield figured the records might be stolen, so he dumped them near a stairwell in his dorm.
The next day, another student who’d seen Mansfield unloading the loot the previous evening reported him to the Director of Students. Mansfield was then arrested by Lincoln PD Detective Tom Maurer and charged with theft by possession. When Smrekar returned to campus from Joliet, he was also arrested and charged with Theft Over $150. Mansfield denied any involvement in the burglary and knew nothing about the stolen guitar.
The B.C. Rich was later discovered at the Joliet apartment of Mrs. King, the mother of Melissa Smith. “Missy” lived with her mother and was Russell Smrekar’s Joliet girlfriend. Smrekar had given the guitar to Missy and told Mrs. King it was valued at $600, but he’d gotten a “good deal” on it.
Mrs. King contacted the Joliet PD on Oct. 3, ’75, and Officer M.G. Taylor recovered the guitar from her apartment. On Oct. 6, ’75, the Joliet PD received a phone inquiry from LPD Detective Tom Maurer about the guitar, which he believed to have been stolen in the Lincoln College burglary. The B.C. Rich was then shipped by the JPD to the LPD.
In former Lincoln PD detective William Krueger’s book, “A Force for Evil,” he claims the B.C. Rich guitar was recovered from the trunk of Russell Smrekar’s “white and blue Buick Skylark.” Smrekar didn’t even own the Skylark in October of ’75. Krueger also claims that after the guitar was found in the (nonexistent) Skylark’s trunk, Detective Maurer hauled Smrekar into the LPD and interrogated him. This particular scene in Krueger’s book plays out like an old episode of Dragnet. Krueger claims he WAS THERE when Maurer questioned Smrekar, and that Smrekar “gave a stellar performance.” Krueger wrote that Maurer pointed to the guitar and said, “We found that guitar and the citizen band radio in your car. How’d they get there, Russell? Well, you are in a lot of trouble now and lying to us won’t help your case at all.” Krueger said Smrekar stood his ground and denied having stolen the guitar. Maurer supposedly responded, “That so? I know somebody is lying about the guitar, the citizen band radio and the albums, but it’s not Mansfield.
That’s right, it wasn’t Mansfield or Smrekar who was “lying” because this particular scene portrayed by William Krueger is a complete fabrication. Why would a former detective fabricate information and circumstances relating to evidence and attempt to take credit where credit is not due?
A couple months after the LPD burglary, the Logan County State’s Attorney’s office offered to defer Mansfield’s charges for 6 months if he would agree to turn state’s evidence and testify against Smrekar in the Theft Over case. Mansfield signed the Deferral of Prosecution Agreement on December 18, ’75, and then went home for the holidays, returning to his parents’ home in Rolling Meadows, IL.
On New Year’s Eve ’75, Mansfield got a phone call at his folks’ house at approximately 2 PM. He told his parents he was going out for about an hour and would be back. He walked out the door wearing his buckskin coat, left his wallet behind, and headed down the street on foot – he didn’t have a vehicle. No one has seen 19-year-old Michael since that bone-chilling day. He disappeared 6 days before he was to testify against Smrekar in court.
Smrekar is the suspected killer of Michael Mansfield and 51-year-old Lincoln real estate agent Ruth Martin (both cold cases). He was arrested on October 18, ’76 for the double homicide of Lincoln couple Jay and Robin Fry. Jay Fry and Ruth Martin were both witnesses against defendant Smrekar in a Theft Under case – Russell shoplifted two ribeye steaks from Kroger grocery store. Like Mansfield, Ruth Martin also disappeared 6 days before she was to testify against Smrekar in court.
Jay Fry, who worked at Kroger grocery store, saw Smrekar steal the steaks. On October 9, ’76, Jay and his 3-months pregnant wife, Robin, were shotgunned to death at their home. Smrekar was arrested at the Logan County Courthouse on Oct. 18, ’76 when he was making a court appearance pertaining to the shoplifting case. Following his arrest, Smrekar was taken to the Macon County, IL Jail and placed into the same cell with 21-year-old Lincoln resident Michael Drabing, who was later convicted of the Schneider triple homicide. Macon County Jail inmate James Kennedy was in a cell next to Smrekar and Drabing, and he overheard their conversations. Kennedy became a voluntary informant and began writing letters to Logan County State’s Attorney Roger Thompson (father of Bonnie Thompson) revealing claims made by Smrekar and Drabing. Kennedy also had personal conversations with the two killers. Kennedy stated the following in a November 29, ’76 interview:
“He [Smrekar] says, approximately last March, he broke into the Lincoln Police Department [City Hall] evidence room and took a ladder out of the garage approximately in March, and at one time he called it the evidence room and another time he says Maurer’s office. But he claims he broke into an evidence room in Lincoln because the pigs had a guitar they took from him for evidence, and he claims he got the guitar back, and he claims, he says, ‘I still got it,’ he says, ‘but it’s not at my home or at my house,’ he says, ‘they’re never going to find it.’ He says, ‘I’m going to learn to play that.’ He actually thinks he’s going to get out of this and walk clean, and if he does, he’s got Lincoln plans. I said, ‘what are you going to do in Lincoln?’ He said, ‘I had them as friends before,’ and he says, ‘you just wait until I get out there again,’ he’s going to give that town a bloodbath.”
Russell Smrekar was ultimately convicted of the Fry double homicide and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 100 to 300 years in prison. He died at Menard Penitentiary in October of 2011. Law enforcement reported that Smrekar made a “deathbed confession” to killing Mansfield and Martin, however their remains are still undiscovered.
Important blood evidence was collected in the Ruth Martin case in 1976, but this evidence is now MISSING from the Lincoln PD at the Logan County Safety Complex without explanation. Author Bonnie Thompson questioned former detectives William Krueger and Tom Maurer about this evidence, and the information they provided directly contradicted documented facts relating to this now missing evidence. What both retired detectives relayed was not truthful.
Many facts and evidence pertaining to the cases of Mansfield, Martin and the Schneiders support that killers Drabing and Smrekar used accomplices.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION on Buried Truth Trilogy website calling for the official reinvestigation and DNA testing of all existing evidence in the cold cases of Michael Mansfield and Ruth Martin and also the triple homicide of Lloyd, Phyllis and Terri Schneider. This is a matter of public interest, truth and justice. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Bonnie J. Thompson (Copyright 2013, 2015, 2016)
