September 24th, 1997 to September 30th, 1997

Did homophobia play a role in conviction of gay man in the 1955 killing of 3 boys? Attorney says yes.

by Lori Weiner

"[In] late October of 1955 he (Herb Hollatz) runs into the defendant (Kenneth Hansen) and again (Hansen), as he wants to do, almost in exchange for letting (Hollatz) stay (in Hansen's stables), a roof over his head, (Hansen) began to have oral sex with (Hollatz). He did it in 1953 and he did it again October 1955 ... and while it can be argued that it was consensual in the sense that Herb didn't beat him up or pull a gun on him or call the police (sic), what kind of places do you think that Herb Hollatz have to train in, the rain or go in the stables (sic). That's a hell of a choice ... as I mentioned in my opening argument, what did he (Hollatz) gain as a result of coming in telling not just you but the whole world that he had a homosexual affair with a child molesting murderer, what did he gain? ... Why would he do that? ... Because it is true. That is why he did that and that is why you must believe what he has to say." - Excerpts from prosecutor's closing argument in the murder trial of Kenneth Hansen, Sept. 1995
New evidence suggests that a man convicted in 1995 of a triple homicide 40 years earlier may have been condemned on the basis of fraudulent testimony, much of it virulently anti-gay.

In September 1995, Kenneth Hansen, now 65 and incarcerated at Illinois' Pontiac Correctional Institution, was convicted after a jury trial of murdering brothers Tony and John Schuessler and their friend, Robert Peterson. The boys' unclothed bodies were found Oct. 18, 1955 in Robinson's Woods, a forest preserve at Lawrence Avenue and the Des Plaines River just outside of Chicago. The cause of death for each youth was strangulation. The bodies bore no physical evidence of sexual abuse.

The Peterson-Schuessler murders made headlines, but nobody was ever apprehended for the crime. Then, on Aug. 11, 1994, 40 years after the slayings, Kenneth Hansen was arrested and charged with the crime.

Prosecutors possessed no physical evidence or witnesses linking Hansen to the murders. The case was built entirely on the claims of four men who said Hansen confessed the killings to them individually, at different times over a 21-year period, from 1955 to 1976. None of the four ever went to police with the alleged confessions until 1993-4, when one of the men, a paid government informant using several aliases, allegedly told his contacts at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that he could "solve the Peterson-Schuessler murders."

Three of the four witnesses used to impeach Hansen were under obligation to the prosecution. One revealed his claim to have heard Hansen's confession to the killings only after being arrested for arson. In exchange for his testimony, this witness' case was reduced to a misdemeanor charge of criminal damage to property, with no jail time. According to court documents, the government also agreed to relocate the witness and his then-girlfriend, assist them in finding employment, and pay the witness a reward of nearly $8,000.

A second witness decided to become a government informant after being convicted of fraud. After his testimony in the Hansen case, the witness' sentence was reduced from 36 to 17 months. This same witness admits to "(having) a bad reputation for telling the truth."

The man who told the ATF that he could "solve the murders" received more than $14,000 for testifying against Kenneth Hansen.

The fourth witness was Herb Hollatz. Hollatz, 65, also claimed that Hansen confessed to killing the three boys in 1955. Hollatz testified that while Hansen was "performing oral sex" on him, Hansen interrupted the act to tell Hollatz he had committed the triple homicide. He further testified that Hansen told him never to tell anybody, explaining that he was "afraid or embarrassed of having a homosexual affair with Ken." While Hollatz claimed that he had never told anybody about his homosexuality until testifying against Hansen in 1994, Hollatz's family in Arizona confirms that he has lived an openly gay lifestyle for at least 20 years, and that Hollatz's relationships with men are "open and notorious."

Under questioning, Hollatz admitted that he had been drinking "off and on" the morning of his testimony and had been treated for alcoholism. Subsequent to the trial and Hansen's conviction, Hollatz' ex wife Arlene Zielke and son Herb Jr. Came forward with sworn affidavits chastizing the elder Hollatz as a "habitual liar." Zielke claims she attempted to tell the government agents investigating Ken Hansen about "Herb's bad reputation for truthfulness and how Herb is a compulsive liar ... but the agents were not interested."

In a February 1997 telephone conversation between Zielke and Hollatz, Hollatz stated that "(I) never thought Kenny had anything to do with those murders until (Hollatz's brother) called and told (me) that he saw on TV that Kenny had been arrested for the murders." When Herb Jr. castigated his father for lying during Hansen's trial, the elder Hollatz did not refute the allegation but responded, "Well, you don't know what I've been through in my life."

Each of the four witnesses called by the state in Hansen's 1995 trial was questioned extensively about their knowledge of Hansen's sexual proclivities, suggesting that without physical evidence or eyewitness accounts, the road to conviction was instead to be paved with anti-gay innuendo. According to documents filed by Hansen's attorney, Leonard C. Goodman, "the prosecution (in the 1995 trial) portrayed Hollatz to the jury as a man of high morals who was victimized as a young man by the degenerate Kenneth Hansen ... although Hollatz admitted on cross examination that his affair with Hansen was 'consensual,' the prosecutor nevertheless argued that Hansen surely pressured Hollatz to get him to submit to his perverse demands." Goodman's affidavit also states that "no witness at trial had ever seen Ken Hansen act violently toward another living being during his 65 years on this earth.

"Instead, witnesses were called to testify about Hansen's homosexuality and deviate lifestyle. Several witnesses testified that Hansen admitted to them that he liked to have sex with boys or stable hands. Other witnesses claimed they picked up male hitchhikers for Hansen to have sexual relations with."

In early 1996, after Hansen had been handed a 200-300-year sentence for the Peterson-Schuessler murders, a 69-year-old widow made public information she had kept silent for more than 40 years: that her deceased husband, Jack Reiling, had confessed to her that he was the killer of the three boys.

Reiling, who died in 1980, is described as "violent and abusive" and at least once attempted to attack young boys as they passed him on the sidewalk.

After becoming estranged from his wife, Reiling visited her and the couple's young daughter every Sunday at their home. To get there, he drove down Milwaukee Avenue past the intersection where the three youths were last seen alive. The murders occurred on a Sunday; a Sunday when Jack Reiling failed to appear for his weekly visit or place a call. On the following Sunday, Reiling reappeared for his weekly visit but would not say why he failed to appear the previous week. When his estranged wife brought up the murders, Reiling became agitated and "acted nervous about his car." Physical evidence, including impressions from car mats left on the bodies, raises suspicion as to Reiling's possible involvement in the killings.

On Sept. 12, Attorney Goodman filed a petition on behalf of his client, Kenneth Hansen, for "post-conviction relief" to consider the new evidence concerning both the allegedly tainted testimony against him in his trial, and the new information regarding Jack Reiling. No hearing date has been set.

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