A memorial of sorts, and something that changed my childhood

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hoover1060

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Apr 9, 2005
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I grew up in Elk Grove Village Illnois, and this is Elk Grove's most famous crime.
I remember all this like it was yesterday. I knew Mike Columbo too, I was in 6th grade, he was in 8th when this happened.
As a 12 year old this was devastating to me, it changed Elk Grove, and each of its residents.
I can still remember kids at school talking about sleeping with baseball bats, and freaking out at sleeping with the windows open for fear that "they" would be able to get in.
For a week, before Patty Columbo was arrested, we feared mad killers roaming the streets.
I am putting this up tonight as a memorial to Mike Columbo. I remember how absolutely sick I felt at hearing his fate. Stuff like this should happen to nobody.
I can't believe its been 30 years...

www.nbc5.com

Mom of Teen Fatally Shot by Police Calls for Federal Probe

The mother of a teenager shot by Chicago Police is asking the United States Justice Department to investigate her son’s case. NBC 5’s Phil Rogers reports.
www.nbc5.com www.nbc5.com
 
Wow....that had to have been a lot for a 12 year old to deal with, especially involving someone you know, and in the suburbs in the 1970s when I think a lot of us thought that type of thing simply didn't happen. That week before the arerst had to have been terrifying for all.
 
Dubious honors...

Elk Grove would make the news two more times in the years following the Columbo murders.
In 1979 American Airlines flight 191 crashed in a field in Elk Grove just after taking off from Ohare, taking 273 lives, and in 1982 the Tylenol/Cyanide poisioning murders happned there.

With regards to the Columbos, I feel sorry for Patti, a young lady who threw her life away. These events impacted alot of people, not just one family or one block or one town. I remember shortly after this my father(and a few others on our block) installed heavy duty deadbolts on the house doors, and our house was also outfitted with 3 additional phones. The original kitchen phone was supplemented with one in the family room, my parents room, and the garage. My mom was not keen about being home alone all day, as were alot of other moms all over Elk Grove. My parents are pretty non-chalant about stuff, for my dad to have installed those deadbolts and phones he must have been totally freaked out. To this day my porch light goes on at dusk, and doors are always locked, period. I'll sleep with the window open now, but only because my bedroom is a 2nd floor one, and someone would have a heck of a time coming in that window. In college in Seward Nebraska I got made fun of because I locked my car and my doors. They'd never heard of Patti Columbo out there.

A side note on the Columbo's house: In high school one of my best friends lived dowm the street from the by then INFAMOUS house. Every time I went by it the hair on the back of my neck stood up! After the murders and trial it stood empty for quite some time, for sale with no takers. I was well into high school when it did finally sell, and that event made the front page of the Daily Herald, the local paper. The buyers knew the history, and were ok with it. Its been some time since I was in that neighborhood(distance-wise about 1.5 miles from my parents house) but the last time I passed by there it looked very much the same as it did when the Columbos lived there. It is Elk Grove's most well known address.

Thanks guys for allowing me to vent this. Seeing it all again really stirred up old memories!
 

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