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LakeForestLeaderDaily.com NEWS
the lake forest leader | February 27, 2020 | 9
Posted to LakeForestLeaderDaily.com 3 days ago
‘History Cop’ shares his work with History Center audience
Peter Kaspari, Editor
He calls himself the
“History Cop.”
For years, Ray Johnson
was an investigator,
working criminal cases in
DuPage County, including
murder investigations that
woke him up at 3 a.m.
But ever since his retirement,
Johnson has put
his investigative skills to
another use; finding out
the truth behind some of
Chicago’s most infamous
faces and urban legends.
He shared his story to
an audience at the History
Center of Lake Forest-
Lake Bluff on Thursday,
Feb. 20.
The primary focus of
his presentation was using
research available to find
out information about your
family history. And, as an
example, he used the case
of infamous Chicago murderer
H.H. Holmes, the
subject of the best-selling
book, “The Devil in the
White City.”
Johnson said a lot of
information he found on
Holmes involved publiclyavailable
records, including
looking up lawsuits
through the Cook County
court system.
On a whim, Johnson said
he once did some research
to see if Holmes himself
had ever sued someone,
and he came up with one
small case file.
“When I looked at it, it
says here (it’s a) promissory
note made out to H.H.
Holmes from Englewood
Bank, signed by J.L. Connor,”
Johnson said. “So
basically, a person named
J.L. Connor promises to
pay H.H. Holmes.”
Curious as to who J.L.
Connor was, Johnson said
he continued to do some
more research and discovered
that J.L. Connor was
actually Julia Connor, a
woman who disappeared
and who is believed to
have been one of Holmes’
victims.
Johnson’s research
also helped confirm that
Holmes’ body is actually
buried where it is. He said
some of Holmes’ ancestors
believed that Holmes
faked his own death, escaped
from prison, and
died a free man, but Johnson’s
research was able to
confirm that was not true.
Early in his research,
he had found a photo of
a mold that was taken of
Holmes’ teeth when he
was in prison. With the
help of a surviving relative
of Holmes’, the killer’s
body was exhumed and a
comparison was done with
the teeth.
They were a perfect
match.
Holmes is just one of the
many Chicago mysteries
that Johnson has looked
into, and he said it’s actually
a lifelong interest of
his that dates back to even
before he ever became a
criminal investigator.
“What got me interested
initially was the fact that
I found out my mom was
adopted,” Johnson said.
“Just finding that out made
me wonder, ‘Wow. What
was her real mom and dad
like?’”
Using public records,
Johnson said he was not
only able to figure out
who his mom’s biological
mother was, but he was
also able to track her down
and the two eventually reunited
with each other.
A lifelong interest in history
also fueled Johnson’s
passion for research, as
well as a love of mysteries
Ray Johnson, a retired criminal investigator, speaks to a crowd at the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff
on Thursday, Feb. 20, during a presentation on conducting genealogy research and all the mysteries it can help
uncover. Peter Kaspari/22nd Century Media
and puzzles.
“I just kind of gravitated
toward police work because
of the investigative
nature of that,” he said.
“And then when I left that
I was like, ‘Well, I still
want to do something like
that.’”
He believes that his
work as an investigator
also helped him develop
important skills when it
comes to research, especially
when it comes to
family history.
When he was a police
officer, he said he was
known for his “never give
up” attitude.
He used a personal story
to highlight that. He had,
for years, been trying to
get his grandfather’s Army
records from when he
served in World War II.
Johnson was skeptical
that he’d find anything,
since many of the
Army’s records had been
destroyed in a 1973 fire at
the St. Louis facility where
that information had been
kept.
But he kept going.
“I applied for those records
four times for my
grandfather,” he said.
“Each time I was saying,
‘The records burned. The
records burned.’”
Finally, he applied for a
fifth time, which is when
he ended up finding exactly
what he was looking for.
“Someone actually
found the original files,”
Johnson said.
He quickly obtained
copies of them, and was
surprised to find burn
marks on the original documents,
showing that his
grandfather’s records were
able to survive the fire,
though not completely unscathed.
Another one of his passions
is solving old Chicago
mysteries. He even
wrote a book about it,
“Chicago’s Haunt Detective,”
where he looked
into some of the city’s
most infamous ghost stories.
“I took five very popular
Chicago legends, ghost
stories, and digging into
what the facts of the different
stories were,” he
said. “How much of it
was based on historic facts
versus what was based on
a good story, and did this
person actually exist?”
During his presentation,
Johnson stressed that
what he does is not unique.
Anybody can dig into their
family’s history using public
record information.
He highlighted some
resources, including the
Cook County court records
at the Daley Center in
downtown Chicago; websites
such as newspapers.
com and Google Books;
and countless others.
Johnson ended by saying
you never know what
you’re going to find when
you start doing research.
“A lot of weird, serendipitous
things happen.”