Joliet native keeps murdered teen’s memory alive

People who didn’t live in Joliet in 1968 might not remember David Stukel, the 14-year-old murdered by two of his Joliet East classmates.

Then again, many people don’t recall Stukel or the murder, even if they did live in Joliet. That is Bill O’Connell’s point. O’Connell, formerly of Joliet, wrote and self-published the book “Fourteen: The Murder of David Stukel” in 2007 so Stukel wouldn’t be forgotten.

The Joliet Area Historical Museum will host a webinar discussion with O’Connell at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Register at jolietmuseum.org/upcoming-programs. O’Connell’s book is available in the gift shops at the museum and the Old Joliet Prison, as well as Amazon.

“I wrote the book to keep David Stukel’s memory alive,” O’Connell said. “I think it [the webinar] is a good opportunity for it.”

O’Connell said Stukel’s murder on Sept. 16, 1968, didn’t generate much publicity even back in the day.

“I thought it was a forgotten case,” O’Connell said. “And he was a forgotten boy.”

O’Connell said he knew Stukel because they played the same position on Belmont Little League. But they weren’t close friends, he said. O’Connell and Stukel grew up in different neighborhoods and attended different schools, he said.

“He was just a good wholesome kid,” O’Connell said. “He was not a troublemaker in any shape or form. He was the kind of kid who would not go out of the yard without permission. Some of the neighborhood boys said if they wanted to play baseball they’d have to go to David’s house to play. His parents were not strict; I’d say they were protective. But he was just clean-cut kid.”

Although Stukel’s murder “haunted” O’Connell, he never wrote the book until decades later. For one, “talking about it” wasn’t done in the 1960s.

“You just went back to school like nothing happened,” O’Connell said. “It was high school; you just go on with your life … you’ve got a lot to deal with, just going through your teen years.”

Eventually, as a sportswriter for various publications over the years, O’Connell had the skills to research the information and conduct interviews with “both sides,” he said – the victim’s family and the murderers’ families.

“I came face-to-face with both murderers,” O’Connell said. “And one of them was willing to talk.”

O’Connell said he also grew close to Stukel’s parents through the process of writing the book.

“His parents were alive and well and they wanted to talk about their son, It was a beautiful experience,” O’Connell said. “Even though it was a sad subject, it was an opportunity for them to talk about their son and what a great boy he was.”

Still, O’Connell said, writing a book about true crime is far different than writing a sports story. Gathering the information took him three years, he said.

“Going through files that were nearly three decades old by the time I finished was a slow process,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell said he sought a traditional publisher but was told “the subject matter was too dark.” He didn’t mind self-publishing it as the goal was simply to get Stukel’s story “out there,” he said.

“I really didn’t have a desire to write a book, even in 20 years of being a professional sports writer,” O’Connell said. “But I had a passion to write this story.”

During the webinar, O’Connell will share insights into Stukel as a person, details of O’Connell’s research, why O’Connell wrote the book and how being a journalist “came into play with that.”

“As a journalist,” O’Connell said. “I like to get to the bottom of things and find out.”