Thanks, Seagull for starting this thread and posting the above detective article.

The case in question is the murder of 21 year old Valerie Percy in Kenilworth, Chicago on September 18th 1966. She was the daughter of Charles Percy an industrialist who went on to become the Republican senator from Illinois until 1984. The murder came right in the middle of Percy’s first senatorial election campaign in 1966. No-one was ever caught: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/noto … index.html

Reading the book, Sympathy Vote by Glen Wall, the author does come down heavily on William Thoresen III as the most likely suspect.

Of course, there is no proof after all these years. The following was posted by Winward1 over on Web Sleuths:

1. His family home was a block and a half from Percy’s house

2. His family home stood almost directly between Percy’s home and another house (Pirruccello) cops believe was broken into by the same offender 24 hrs. prior.

3. The murder weapon was a WWII era bayonet, and detectives that investigated thousands of murders in their time couldn’t think of one other case in which a civilian was murdered with a bayonet.

4. Thoresen’s wife was arrested at JFK less than 3 months after the Percy murder while trying to transport 4 bayonets manufactured between 1942-44.

5. The doctor who saw the crime scene said whoever committed the Percy murder was "some deranged person," which describes Thoresen to a T.

6. The crime was committed at 5 a.m. Thoresen’s neighbor told the FBI that Thoresen was very weird and slept all day and was up all night.

7. Thoresen’s description (6 ft. 1 in., dark hair, medium build) matches Mrs. Percy’s eyewitness description. She said he was 5 ft. 8, 180, with dark hair. (When seen "leaning over the bed" at a distance of about ten feet, that would make a difference of 5-6 inches.)

8. Smashing his way into Percy’s home and going ballistic on someone with no apparent connection to the killer and being seen at the scene of the crime was a reckless, senseless act. Thorsen’s police record is full of senseless, reckless acts.

9. Thoresen had a long history of being in area homes without permission.

10. Thoresen was a suspect in the case and refused to discuss it with the FBI.

11. In a letter written by Thoresen’s brother to Thoresen, the brother asks "why do you keep returning to Kenilworth and causing trouble?"

12. Percy’s daughter was bludgeoned. Thoresen’s wife said he admitted to bludgeoning one of his other victims.

13. Thoresen’s wife wrote a detailed memoir of life with her husband. In it, the whereabouts of her husband at the time of the Percy murder and two prior home invasions to which the offender was linked are not accounted for.

14. The home invasion the day before, which police said was committed by the same offender, was committed by someone who pulled himself up from a gutter and up to a balcony. Such an act would require significant strength. A Kenilworth cop who arrested Thoresen numerous times recalls Thoresen as remarkably strong.

15. The glove found outside of Percy’s home was linked to the crime via fiber evidence. Detectives who worked the case said the glove was not a type commonly worn by burglars and home invaders known to work the area, and from Chicago. As a woolen, winter glove it suggests an amateur, if not local. Thoresen was certainly no pro criminal, and definitely had a local connection.

16. Nothing was taken from Percy’s home. Thoresen was rich. He had no need to steal and committed crimes for the thrill and challenge of it.

To me, after reading the book, I’d say it is likely as high as 75% that WT was responsible, 5-10% Malchow, and 15% someone else. I’ve got no reason anymore to believe TK had anything to do with it.

I tend to believe that this was a ‘thrill kill’. I think that the kiler saw Sharon returning home, saw the light go off in Valerie’s room and waited some hours in the dark, possibly going ‘home’ to collect the weapon. He was lucky in that although he made some noise breaking in, the dog didn’t bark and he was able to kill before being discovered by Mrs Percy, easily escaping in the confusion.

It’s worth pointing out that Thoresen was 7 years older than Valerie and Sharon. When the Percys moved into that house in 1950 Thoresen was 13, Valerie and Sharon 6.

There is no real reason to believe that they knew each other despite the proximity, but at age 13 Thoresen was already disturbed, having been caught in neighbours’ houses. The Percy family did have good friends in the area, and I think it’s reasonable to speculate that Mr and Mrs Percy did – at least – know of the Thoresen family given the problems of the 2 Thoresen sons ie. their frequent law-breaking, especially WT.

I’m linking the thread on Websleuths as it really is worth reading from start to finish for anyone interested in the Percy case: http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12874

https://archive.org/stream/foia_Minutem … 0_djvu.txt

This link is very weird and hard to read/understand. You have to scroll down a ways, but it looks like the FBI were looking at Thoresen in the Percy murder back in ’66 or ’67. Unless I am reading this wrong.

Spent a couple hours reading that, and it was all scrambled and made very little sense. All I had to do was click the "see other formats" link hahaha duhhh!!!! So here is what came of doing that. The link is a bunch of stuff with the FBI’s investigation into the Minutemen, so I don’t know how Thoresen being a murder suspect fits in with that.

https://archive.org/details/foia_Minutemen-NYC-10

I’m gonna ready the entire link again, not just the parts pertaining to Thoresen. I’m pretty sure the FBI was thinking that Thoresen was the one selling guns to the Minutemen.

Another FBI report on Thoresen. He was a suspect in the murder in 1966.

http://www.buildingdemocracy.us/archive … -NYC-9.pdf

Great find – I’m more convinced now of Thoresen’s guilt than when I read the book in January.

Please save me some reading, are these files seeming to implicate this guy in the Percy case??

Please save me some reading, are these files seeming to implicate this guy in the Percy case??

The files took me hours to read. A lot of it is about the FBI’s investigation into the Minutemen. They believed that Thoresen was a member of the organization and was the one supplying them with weapons. The Chicago branch of the FBI were asking the NY branch to find him and question him immediately about the Percy murder. It doesn’t really give specific details as to why they found him a good suspect, but it looks like he was their #1 guy in the case right off the bat. They were trying to put him in Chicago on that day but couldn’t. I’m pretty much convinced that he is guilty of the murder.

I know him dying in 1970 does not make him a good Zodiac suspect, but I’m looking at different things to support my "group" or "partnership" theories.

They found Thoresen in a New York City hotel in December 1966 and he refused to answer questions about the Percy murder or anything else.

They found Thoresen in a New York City hotel in December 1966 and he refused to answer questions about the Percy murder or anything else.

Yeah, but his wife was arrested at the same time for possession of weapons. She had the airport hold on to a couple packages and one package somehow was opened and a gun (or guns?) was found. They then opened the other package and found the same thing. She had two other packages in her rental car that the FBI found and had guns as well. The Chicago PD were contacted by Thoresen’s lawyer in San Fran and that’s how he became a suspect in the Percy murder. I did not see anything that stated what the lawyer had told LE, but whatever it was it was enough to put Thoresen at the top of the suspect list.

The weapons of course did not belong to the wife, but to Thoresen. He often made her carry weapons packages for him and was abusive to her. That’s why she beat the murder rap when she smoked his ass!! lol

The FBI reports also said that they had retrieved a bunch of weapons from The Minutemen in NY and NJ and that several of the weapons were stolen from the U.S. government and that they were supplied to The Minutemen by Thoresen. Seagull posted in a thread at Tom’s site that "Defense Department officials are becoming increasingly alarmed by the theft of military weapons that later turn up in the hands of militant groups dedicated to violence"

"the arms- including machine guns, bazookas, hand grenades, and extremely powerful plastic explosives- were ending up in the hands of groups such as the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Panthers."

Over 70 tons of weapons were found in Thoresen’s home including all of the types of weapons mentioned above. Did he steal them himself? I highly doubt that. He probably used his wealth to have someone on the inside obtain the weapons for him, and then he would sell them to The Minutemen and other violent groups.

So here is something to ponder. Thoresen grew up in the same neighborhood as Kaczynski (I’m 98% sure I read that). Suppose that these two knew each other and had some crazy ideas flowing through their heads. Or, Kaczynski at least. He was a nut who hated the government. Perhaps he was rambling to Thoresen about wanting to take the government down or something along those lines. Thoresen, also being a nut, said "I can supply entire arsenals to these violent groups and let them have a field day." Kaczynski sits back and laughs because he really doesn’t have to lift a finger and chaos is breaking out all around.

As far as the Zodiac case goes, if Kaczynski WAS involved, and the insane theory I posted above is possibly true, then maybe Kaczynski and Thoresen were behind Zodiac TOGETHER. I could see Thoresen being the one who shot Stine. I will have to review his timeline to see if he was even in S.F. at the time, of course. Hell, maybe they had a third partner whose last name was Manalli, Sullivan or Kane. Or maybe even Penn. Maybe it was all of them. Ok, that was too far.

I am looking at this from every possible direction. I do think that Kaczynski and Manalli were both involved. Having a hell of a time trying to link them together in any possible way. I have also been trying to link a third person with either of them, Kaczynski being the most likely chance of that being successful.

Take it for what it’s worth I guess.

Both grew up in Chicago, but Evergreen Park and Kenilworth are 35 miles apart. It’s possible, of course, that TK and Thoresen knew each other.

Both grew up in Chicago, but Evergreen Park and Kenilworth are 35 miles apart. It’s possible, of course, that TK and Thoresen knew each other.

Yeah I was wondering that as well. Being that far apart it’s not likely that they did know each other, but I’m looking into it.