But Siegel's book, A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town, explores more than just another killing. This is the case of Dennis Jurgens, a 3 ½-year-old boy who was brutally abused to death by his adoptive mother.
Here's the story in a nutshell:
Jerry Sherwood, a 17-year-old living in a juvenile home, was convinced to give up her newborn son for adoption in December 1961. She regretted that decision and waited until he was an adult to track him down. She discovered that the boy had died in April 1965 of peritonitis from a ruptured bowel - and that the cause of death had been marked "deferred."
Suspicious and angry, Sherwood badgered investigators to look into her son's death. What they found was disturbing.
Harold and Lois Jurgens wanted a baby desperately. They adopted a quiet little boy named Robert and soon longed for another boy so Robert could have a brother. They got Dennis.
The book details the atrocities Dennis suffered at Lois's hands. It also describes the social mentality towards child abuse in the mid-'60s. People looked the other way; it was a private, family matter. This case rocked that attitude when pediatricians and psychiatrists put their heads together to identify battered child syndrome. The chapter titled "Revolution" looks into how doctors began recognizing distinct signs of child abuse. In 1965, Minnesota was the first state to enact legislation requiring certain caregivers to report signs of abuse to police.
In the time between Dennis's death and Sherwood's demands for justice, the Jurgens adopted four more children, who also experienced abuse from Lois.
It took 21 years for the medical examiner to come up with the cause of Dennis Jurgens's death. It was ruled a homicide in the end. Lois Jurgens went to trial under the laws governing homicide in 1965 and was convicted of third-degree murder, an unintentional killing. She received a 25-year sentence of which she would serve eight years.
Unfortunately, Siegel worked in a complete history of White Bear Lake, a township located northeast of the Twin Cities. It seems out of place and unimportant in contrast to the truly horrifying treatment of a little boy and the slow response by lawmakers to protect children.
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