Timeline of the unsolved murder of Valerie Percy in Kenilworth, Illinois, in 1966
Valerie Percy, the 21-year-old daughter of then-U.S. Senate candidate Charles Percy, was brutally murdered in her family's home in the affluent North Shore Chicago suburb of Kenilworth in 1966.
To this day, the case has never been solved.
Jan. 29, 1966: Charles Harting Percy, known to most as Chuck, announces his run for U.S. Senate as a Republican. An alum of New Trier High School and Winnetka and the University of Chicago, Percy had become the president of Lincolnwood-based camera and movie equipment Bell & Howell at the young age of 29. He had run for Illinois governor in 1964, but had lost to Democratic incumbent Otto Kerner.
Sept. 18, 1966: On this warm Sunday morning, Percy's daughter, Valerie, is found brutally beaten and stabbed to death in her bedroom in the family's Kenilworth home. Authorities believe the killer was a home invader looking for cash or valuables. Valerie's stepmother, Lorraine Percy, reported seeing someone standing over Valerie's body with a flashlight. The attacker shined the flashlight at Lorraine Percy, who went on to ring the burglar alarm at the house.
Valerie was a recent graduate of Cornell University at the time, published reports note. She had majored in French literature and had spent a year living in Paris, her twin sister, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, noted in a published report.
Following the murder, Percy and his Democratic opponent, incumbent U.S. Sen. Paul H. Douglas, both suspend campaigning for two weeks.
Nov. 8, 1966: Percy unseats Douglas and wins the election for U.S. Senator from Illinois. He plans a presidential campaign in 1968, but ultimately decides not to go ahead with it.
Dec. 9, 1973: By this date, as published in Time Magazine, Illinois State Police had interviewed more than 14,000 people and pursued 1,317 leads in Valerie Percy's murder. Two persons of interest were identified — Francis Leroy Hohimer, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for armed robbery in Iowa, and Frederick Malchow, a partner in crime of Hohimer's who had died in 1967 after a prison break in Pennsylvania. Time reported that both men were believed to be part of a group of thieves backed by the Mafia. When questioned about the crime, Hohimer had fingered the deceased Malchow. None of this led to any arrests or charges.
Nov. 6, 1984: After serving three terms, Sen. Percy loses his bid for a fourth to Democrat Paul Simon.
July 27, 1991: Diane Davis, 48, is found shot and killed in the bedroom of her Kenilworth home. Her ex-husband, millionaire insurance executive J. Nat Davis, was later convicted and sent to prison for the murder. Diane Davis' murder was only the second homicide in the history of the North Shore suburb, which was founded in 1889. The Valerie Percy murder was the first. There have been none recorded since.
Sept. 17, 2011: One day short of 45 years after his daughter's murder, former Sen. Charles Percy dies in Washington, D.C., at the age of 91. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Nov. 10, 2013: Chicago writer Glenn Wall self-publishes the book "Sympathy Vote: A Reinvestigation of the Valerie Percy Murder." Wall identifies William Thoresen III, described by Cornell Alumni Magazine as the "emotionally disturbed scion" of a wealthy family who lived near the Percys, as a possible killer. Thoresen was shot and killed in self-defense by his wife in 1970.
Sept. 9, 2026: Coming up on 60 years later, Valerie Percy's murder remains unsolved.
