Last week I talked about the Dardeen family murders. This week I will be talking about the murders of the Grimes sisters.

On December 28, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois two sisters by the names of Barbara and Patricia Grimes age 15 and 12 went to see an Elvis Presley film Love Me Tender at the Brighton Park theater at around 7:30 p.m. They stayed for the second screening of Love Me Tender which meant that they would be getting back home at around 11:45 p.m. They disappeared while traveling from the Brighton park movie theater to their home at McKinley park which was about a mile and a half in distance. Their disappearance initiated one of the largest missing persons investigations in the history of Chicago.

A city wide search was in place for these 2 girls. Rivers and canals were searched, door-to-door searches, and flyers were being put out looking for these young girls. Many teenagers said that they say the 2 girls get in a car driven by a young man that looked like Elvis Presley.

Their bodies were discovered naked along side a deserted road in Willow Springs on January 22, 1957. A man by the name of Leonard Prescott was driving along side the road when he saw some “flesh-colored things.” Unsure of what he saw, Prescott went back to the site with his wife and what they saw was very disturbing, the 2 frozen dead bodies of Barbara and Patricia Grimes. The bodies were most likely thrown over the guard rail and left there. There had been wounds found from ice picks and signs of blunt force trauma on both of the girls. The discovery of the bodies didn’t really give any further clues to help police find out who murdered the Grimes sisters.

The main suspect was Edward Bedwell. He resembled Elvis Presley and the owner of the restaurant he worked at said that he and another male had been at her premises in the company of 2 girls who physically resembled the Grimes sisters in the early morning of December 30th. He was arrested shortly after. He signed a confession that he was in the company of the girls from December 30th to January 7th, taking them drinking, feeding them hot dogs and then beating them, before throwing their bodies over the guard rail. The autopsy report showed no signs of alcohol or hot dogs in his system. There was also evidence that he was at work during the time of the abduction. Bedwell was freed on bond for $20,000 later in February.

There is still question as to what happened to the girls during the time of their disappearance and who actually murdered them.