11-04-2025
The murder of Dick Tebbetts: Child predator strikes Rockford
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – Rockford's history is rich with stories of how the city grew from humble beginnings along the banks of the Rock River to a bustling manufacturing epicenter.
There are also tales of violence and horror, like the all-too-real story about how a child predator abducted and killed a 7-year-old old newsboy more than 120 years ago.
In 1903, a 7-year-old Dick Tebbetts, who went by Dickie and Richie, was a fixture in downtown Rockford. The diminutive boy had a full-time gig peddling the Rockford Daily Republic on the streets and made fast friends with everyone he met.
'Back in 1903, the child labor laws were pretty lax,' said Midway Village Marketing Director Luke Fredrickson. 'And you could probably make a little living as a child if you were really ambitious getting your newspapers sold.'
And Dickie Tebbetts was ambitious. He was one of eight children who lived in a shanty in downtown Rockford. He use most of the money he earned to help his single mother pay bills.
'He was better than the other newsboys because he would sell those papers and come back at lunchtime and get more, which the other newsboys didn't do,' said author Kathi Kresol, who wrote about Dick Tebbetts in her book, 'Murder & Mayhem in Rockford, Illinois.'
Dickie sold papers for two years at Rockford's train stations and busy downtown intersections, interacting with hundreds of people every day. Then, on June 22, 1903, he didn't come home.
'He had picked up the papers in the morning, but he never came back for that noon run,' Kresol said.
Hundreds of Rockford residents searched for the missing newsboy. Sadly, a week later, the community was brought to its knees. Dickie was found dead.
'He was a victim of a homicide,' Kresol said. 'And it was bad.'
The body of little Dickie Tebbetts was found in northwest Rockford, in a field that in 1903 was known as Driving Park. He'd been savagely beaten and slashed to death with a knife.
'When they found his body, they had his bag of papers that he had picked up,' Kresol said. 'He had money left there. And there was a bag of candy.'
Police questioned dozens of people, mostly transients that came to Rockford by train, a process that eventually led to a 40-year-old man named Emil Waltz. Waltz would later arrested for attacking young boys in Beloit and Janesville, Wisconsin, both of whom escaped. But, a little boy in Detroit wasn't so lucky. Waltz confessed to killing him in the same manner Dickie Tebbetts died.
'So, they think Emil Waltz lured [Dick Tebbetts] with candy,' Kresol said.
Emil Waltz was not charged with Dickie's death, but police believe he was the killer. The career criminal was convicted of killing the Detroit boy, and while serving his sentence in Marquette, Michigan, he took his own life.
During a fight with a prison guard, Waltz took a makeshift knife, or shiv, and stabbed himself in the abdomen.
'And he died there on the floor of the prison,' Kresol said.
Kresol added that while the story of Dickie Tebbetts is a tragic one, it has the power to uplift.
'This little boy doesn't need to be remembered as much for the way died as the way he lived,' she said. 'He had all kinds of things going against him. But he maintained his good humor and carried himself with a sense of grace and accomplishment. He was poor, one of the invisible, unfortunately. But even a few pennies made him happy. And when he went missing, Rockford rose up.'
Dickie Tebbetts is buried at Rockford's Greenwood Cemetery, in the same grave as his grandparents. He doesn't have his own grave marker; Kresol hopes to organize an effort to purchase him a tombstone.
'He was one of ours,' Kresol said. 'And that's what I want people to remember about him.'
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