Cop Named In 1960 Child Murder

Judge's gavel on a law book beside a stamped document — Photo: max.ku / Shutterstock

Chicago police say a preserved fingerprint and modern DNA identified a fellow officer as the 1960 child killer.

Story Snapshot

Investigators matched a fingerprint from the victim’s purse strap to a 1959 police job application.
DNA technology was unavailable in 1960, but it supported the identification alongside other forensic work.
The suspect, Thomas Francis McInerney, joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959 and later became a homicide detective.
McInerney died in 2006; no charges or trial are possible.

A purse strap, a print, and a name after 65 years

Chicago Police Department investigators said they solved the murder of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz, killed on November 12, 1960, by pulling a clear thread through time: a fingerprint on her purse strap. Detectives reported that the latent print, preserved for decades, matched fingerprints that Thomas Francis McInerney submitted with his 1959 Chicago Police Department application. That match gave the case a concrete link to a specific person and to a specific moment before the crime.

Forensic teams then added modern DNA analysis to the case file. Police reported that advances in genetic testing, not available when Gloria was killed, supported the identification of McInerney as the offender. Chicago authorities credited the Chicago Police Department Forensic Services Division, the Illinois State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the scientific work that helped close the loop. The result was a rare convergence of separate tools pointing at the same name.

The officer, the timeline, and the badge

Reports named McInerney as a 24-year-old Chicago police officer at the time of the murder. He had joined the department in 1959, placing him inside the city’s law enforcement ranks when Gloria was abducted and shot. Later accounts say he even served as a homicide detective. That detail stings because it means the killer, if these findings are right, stood inside the very system meant to catch him. The badge is supposed to protect the innocent, not hide a predator.

Police also cited additional forensic categories beyond prints and DNA, including firearm or ballistics analysis, to explain why they named McInerney now rather than in past decades. While public summaries do not list a specific gun or serial number, the inclusion of ballistics indicates investigators did not lean on a single thread. They worked to stack independent lines of evidence, which aligns with common sense and how difficult cold cases finally break open.

What solved old cases now solves this one

The tools that brought down the Golden State Killer set the stage here, too. Genetic genealogy turned a dusty clue into a live lead by tracing unknown DNA to a known identity. That approach gained wide attention in 2018 with the identification of Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, who later pleaded guilty to 13 murders. The method is not a magic wand, but when combined with fingerprints and other evidence, it can direct investigators to the right door.

Fingerprint comparison still matters because it turns abstract probability into a human pattern on a surface. Research over the last decade shows trained examiners can reach high accuracy, especially when prints are of good quality and protocols are strong. When a latent print from a victim’s purse aligns with a known print from a job application, it links person to object in a way juries and families can grasp. That contact is simple to picture, and that clarity can carry persuasive weight.

The final word without a trial

McInerney died in 2006, which means there will be no arrest, no defense cross-examination, and no jury verdict. Chicago Police Department leaders still chose to name the case. That decision reflects a value that resonates with many Americans: truth matters even when court is not an option. A murdered child deserves an answer. A city deserves to know if one of its guardians became a threat from within.

🇺🇲 HOMICIDE DETECTIVE linked to COLD-CASE MURDER of 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL

Gloria Kowalewicz was abducted while walking to church on Chicago’s South Side in 1960.

She was fatally shot twice in the head and left in a ditch in a forest southwest of Chicago.

Her murder went unsolved… pic.twitter.com/UpQZTdJitC

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 13, 2026

Families of victims often say that facts, not process, bring the first breath of peace. Here, the reported facts line up. A preserved fingerprint from 1960 meets a fingerprint card from 1959. Modern DNA backs the call. Other forensic work adds support. Together, they form a clean, conservative case theory: independent methods that point to the same man. Chicago closed a wound by naming him and, in doing so, affirmed that justice should reach as far as science can carry it.