Jesse Donald Sumner (January 9, 1937 – December 4, 2005) was an American criminal, serial killer, and repeat prison escapee. Originally convicted for the murder of his accomplice, his long prison term was later reduced and he was paroled, after which he murdered three women in the vicinity of the Illinois State University. For the latter crimes, he was given additional long sentences, which he served until his death in 2005.
Crimes and murder of Herschel Williams
In the early 1960s, Sumner and his alleged accomplice, 40-year-old Herschel Williams Jr., participated in several robberies and hold-ups of various establishments, most notable of which were the Farmers State Bank in Heyworth and a credit union in Bloomington. The two supposedly had a falling out, which Sumner claimed was because Williams was threatening his wife and children.
On March 25, 1963, Williams visited Sumner at his barber shop in Danville, asking him to accompany him on another robbery. After refusing and having an argument about it, he then asked for a haircut. Sumner accepted, but at one point while he was cutting Williams' hair, he slashed his throat with the razor. After cleaning up the crime scene, he stuffed the body in a 55-gallon barrel and encased it in concrete, then buried it in a landfill in Bloomington. While it initially remained undiscovered, Sumner would later be arrested and convicted for robbing the credit union and sentenced to a 2-to-5 year sentence.
After finally locating the barrels on June 1, 1964, local authorities eventually charged Sumner with Williams' murder. While being escorted out of the jail in Springfield, he attempted to escape but was caught after mere minutes.
Prosecution and sentence
While Sumner denied having anything to do with the murder, the prosecution provided a plethora of evidence that contradicted his claims. Chief among them was the fact that he had bought two barrels and that the body was later found in one of them; that the body was positively identified as Williams' by his wife, who recognized a wallet found on it; and the testimony of two inmates at the Pontiac Correctional Center, Larry F. Myers and John Curtis, who claimed that Sumner had repeatedly told them that he had killed Williams. In response, Sumner's attorney accused Myers and Curtis of providing contradicting statements as to when they started believing Sumner's claims and that they had been offered lax treatment by prison guards in exchange for testifying against his client.
In the end, a circuit court judge found Sumner to be guilty of the murder charge. Three months later, at his sentencing hearing, Sumner was given a sentence of 35-to-75 years imprisonment.
Parole and new murders
Parole and supervision
Sumner appealed his conviction after his incarceration, and in 1969, the Supreme Court of Illinois ruled in favor of him and overturned the conviction. Unwilling to proceed with a new trial, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, with his sentence being reduced to 10-to-15 years. However, due to his good behavior in prison, he was eligible for parole after serving 6.5 years.
In January 1972, Sumner was finally paroled, on the condition that he be closely monitored. By the end of the month, he had found employment and was considered a helpful worker by his employer, in addition to enrolling as a junior at the Illinois State University. From February to July of that year, his state parole officer, Robert Drucker, stated that Sumner regularly reported all the necessary activities he had to and was seemingly forthcoming with his issues, including that he had gone on a vacation to Casper, Wyoming and planned to visit Decatur.
On the other hand, federal parole officers were slightly more concerned with how he was handled, as the head of the Federal Parole Office in the Southern District of Illinois, Gilbert Scheller, noted that two months was not long enough for Drucker to deem Sumner as "rehabilitated". Despite this, Jack Watters, the federal parole officer assigned to Sumner, also said that he had no major issues with him and that Sumner wrote reports about his activities on a regular basis.
Murders
Unbeknownst to his parole officers, Sumner had begun to predate on co-eds that attended the Illinois State University. First among them as 19-year-old Doreen Marie Burchie, who disappeared on April 19, 1972. Her body was found in a shallow grave near Maroa on the following day, having apparently been strangled to death.