CHICAGO, Sept. 13 -- A Chicago jury found former stable owner Kenneth Hansen guilty Wednesday of killing three boys 40 years ago, closing the book on one of the city's most notorious unsolved crimes. After less than two hours of deliberations, Hansen was convicted of three counts of murder in the brutal sex slayings of Robert Peterson, 14, and brothers John and Anton Schuessler, 13 and 11. The naked bodies of the three boys were found in a forest preserve near the Des Plaines River in October 1955. They had been severely beaten and strangled. The crime shocked Chicago at a time when most residents still slept with their doors unlocked at night. Police arrested Hansen, now 62, in August 1994 after they began to suspect him based on information turned up in a state and federal investigation into insurance fraud in the horse industry and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach. The Schuessler boys' aunt, Beatrice Blane, hugged prosecutors following the verdict. She cried as she left the courtroom. 'Forty years is an awfully long time to wait for something like this,' she said. 'Justice was done today.' Hansen faces 14 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month. He is not eligible for the death penalty because there was no capital punishment in Illinois in 1955. 'We're very confident he will be put away forever,' Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Patrick Quinn said. Hansen denied having anything to do with the killings, but admitted to having sex with underage boys on numerous occasions.
He told investigators after his arrest last year that he had picked up more than 1,000 hitchhikers over 40 years. The jury did not look at Hansen as they re-entered the courtroom. Hansen, a small man with piercing, deep-set eyes, showed no emotion as the verdict was read. Defense attorneys said they plan to appeal. Attorney Arthur O'Donnell said the jury was prejudiced by evidence of Hansen's homosexuality that did not relate to the case. Prosecutors in fact had no eyewitnesses or physical evidence linking Hansen to the killings. They relied heavily on testimony from four men -- former lovers and stable hands -- who said Hansen admitted to killing the boys. Defense attorney Jed Stone argued that the men where liars, paid informants and in one case, an alcoholic with a failing memory. However, several jurors said the testimony had a major impact. They were especially impressed by an Arizona man who came forward after seeing a news story on cable television. Herb Hollatz, 63, said Hansen admitted to the killings just weeks after the bodies were found. He said he never told anyone because he was ashamed of his homosexual relationship with Hansen and was afraid of being killed. 'He said if I said anything, his brother Curt would take care of things. His brother would kill me,' Hollatz testified. Hansen's brother was a reputed mob enforcer. Hollatz said he only agreed to testify after prosecutors assured him the man was dead. In closing arguments, Stone said the trial resolved nothing. 'This case is a mystery made no clearer today than in 1955,' Stone said. Prosectors, however, painted a portrait of Hansen as a cold-blooded killer. 'Child molestation takes away a child's sense of self-confidence,' said Quinn. 'Ken Hansen took everything from these kids, their lives, everything.' 'He's not human,' added prosecutor Scott Cassidy. 'There's not one ounce of humanity about Ken Hansen. He's a predator. He preys on the weak.' Prosecutors said Hansen picked up the three boys on Chicago's Northwest Side as they were hitchhiking home from watching a movie. Witnesses quoted Hansen as telling them he took the boys to a stable at which he was working on the pretext of giving them horse rides. Once there, one witness said, Hansen got one of the boys alone and was sexually assaulting him when he was discovered by one of the other boys. When they threatened to go to the police, Hansen allegedly killed all three to keep them silent. Hansen claimed he was taking a belated honeymoon with his late wife at the time of the boys' slayings.
