Fletcher Family History & Genealogy

Despite his pleas that he now knows the value of life, the man who strangled a Hillside police officer in 1972 has been denied his request for parole.

The 11-member Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted unanimously Thursday to deny the parole request of Silas Fletcher, serving a 200-year sentence for the 1972 death of Hillside Police Officer Anthony Raymond.

At a parole hearing last week at the Dixon Correctional Center where he is an inmate, Fletcher gave his strongest argument ever in his quest for freedom from prison.
He told the state board that a heart attack and bypass surgery last year "caused me to become acutely aware of how precious life "I am now aware of what I deprived Officer Raymond and his family of. I have seen my grand-children. He never will," said a tearful Fletcher during an hourlong plea for his release.

"I don't believe Fletcher," said Hillside Police Chief George Kudrna, a detective at the time of the crime who helped, with hundreds of other officers, to solve the Raymond murder, one of the most notorious crimes in Chicago suburban history. "As long as I live and as long as there is a Hillside Police Department we will be there to protest Mr. Fletcher," Kudrna said.

Fletcher killed Raymond, 25, the father of two young children, after the officer stopped him on an expressway ramp on the Eisenhower Expressway for a traffic violation.
Because Fletcher and his two accomplices had just robbed a local restaurant, they took Raymond hostage at gunpoint. They took him back to Fletcher's Hanover Park home and strangled and stabbed him.

There was a yearlong nationwide search for Raymond before his body was found in a shallow grave in a northern Wisconsin resort community. Last week, Fletcher said, I am asking his family to forgive me." But Raymond's family have been the strongest opponents of his ever being released.

Mary Ann Blair, Raymond's sister, and Charles and Anne Raymond, his parents, travel annually to state prison to oppose Fletcher's release.

"He is an evil person and no one should ever believe that he should be released," Blair said. "We will be here every time he is asking for parole."

The annual parole hearings are accompanied by annual petition gatherings in the western suburbs, which this year produced 18,000 signatures opposing his re lease. One of Fletcher's accomplices,. Robert Martinez, is also serving a 200-year term at Dixon and his parole hearing is scheduled for next month. A third alleged accomplice was shot to death in Indiana by police in connection with another crime before he could be charged in the Raymond murder.

The state parole board also on Thursday unanimously denied the parole request made by Paul Fontani, 37, convicted of shooting to death Downers Grove Police Officer Richard Barth in 1974.

Fontani had been involved in a home burglary and was hiding' with another youth in a wooded: area of a village park when Barth' approached them. Fontani had a, gun and shot Barth.

He was sentenced to 100 years in state prison.

By Art Barnum Tribune Staff Writer: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Fri, Feb 17, 1995 ·Page 179

THE FORMER brother in law of Silas Fletcher, 39, accused slayer of a Hillside policeman, testified Tuesday that Fletcher told him of having disposed of the body "where they'll never find the s.o.b." James Ehmann of Rhinelander, Wis., said when he saw Fletcher washing what appeared to be blood stains from the floorboard of a van, he asked, "Did you do away with another squeaker?"

Ehmann said after Fletcber answered. "Yeah, yeah I stabbed him in the ribs," he then inquired, "Where did you put the body? In a well down South?"' That was when Fletcher said the body would never be found, Ehmann told a Criminal Court jury In Judge Richard
Fitzgerald's courtroom.

Fletcher is on trial there for the kidnaping and murder on Oct. 1, 1972, of Hillside Policeman Anthony Raymond.

Ehman said that about 6:15 a.m. Oct. 2, 1972, approximately eight hours after Raymond was
kidnaped when he stopped a suspicious car on the Mannheim Road
entry ramp to the Eisenhower Expressway, he was awakened at his Rhinelander farm home by a knock on the door.

"Silas was there and two other men were in his Jeep. 1 told them to come and make themselves at home and Silas introduced them as Martinez and Millar," Ehmann said.

Police believe Robert Martinez and Jesse Millard also took part in the kidnaping and murder of the policeman. Martinez is in Nevada, fighting extradition to Illinois. Millard was killed in an attempted holdup.

Raymond's body was found Aug. 18, 1973, in a shallow grave on a farm owned by the Ehmanns four miles south of Rhinelander.

By Charles Mount Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Wed, Nov 13, 1974 ·Page 61

SILAS FLETCHER, 39-year-old leader of a robbery gang, was sentenced to 100 to 200 years in prison Thursday for the murder of Hillside Policeman Anthony Raymond on Oct. 1, 1972.

In sentencing Fletcher, Circuit Court Judge Richard Fitzgerald observed that the crime -killing a policeman in the line of duty-currently permits the death penalty to be imposed.

But because the crime was committed before the present Illinois death penalty law was enacted, the maximum sentence is a very long prison term.

"THE MOST serious sentence I can impose is too lenient because your fate will be determined by what the pardon and parole board will decide at a later date," the judge said. Fletcher automatically will become eligible for parole after 11 years and 3 months behind bars.

"But the defendant should not be furloughed," Fitzgerald added, referring to an Illinois prison policy of granting brief furloughs from prison to some inmates.

Fletcher was found guilty of the kidnap-murder of Raymond after a jury deliberated on the case for four hours last Nov. 27.

RAYMOND, 25, THE father of two, was last heard from at 10 p.m. Oct. 1, 1972 when he radioed to the Hillside police station that he had stopped a suspicious car at the ramp leading from Mannheim Road and the Eisenhower Express-way.
Because of heavy radio traffic that night, all further radio contact was lost.

Raymond's body was recovered by authorities on Aug. 18, 1973. It was in a shallow grave a few feet from the edge of a farm where Fletcher's sister had lived in October, 1972.

Fletcher's sister, her then-husband, James Ehmann, and several other relatives all testified against Fletcher at the trial, describing how he arrived at the farm early on Oct. 2, 1972. Ehmann testified that Fletcher told him be had killed a man.

Fletcher's accused accomplice, Robert Martinez, is scheduled to be tried soon.

By Charles Mount Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Fri, Jan 10, 1975 ·Page 3

THE BODY of Hillside Patrolman Anthony Raymond has been positively identified thru fingerprint charts and the cause of death attributed to multiple stab wounds, Wisconsin Atty. Gen. Robert W. Warren said yesterday.

Raymond's body was unearthed last Saturday from a shallow grave on a deserted farm near Rhinelander, Wis., after dozens of investigators combed the 128-acre tract following an informant's tip.

Raymond had been missing since last Oct. 1 when he stopped a car police believe contained several members of a gang which had just robbed a Hillside restaurant.
Warren's statement was made after a long and meticulous autopsy which began Sunday.

RAYMOND, 24, was last heard from on the night of Oct. 1, 1972, when he stopped a suspicious looking car on the westbound ramp of the Eisenhower Expressway at Mannheim Road.

"I don't like the way this looks," Raymond had radioed just before getting out of his car.
Just 2½ minutes later another Hillside patrol car arrived at the scene to assist Ray-mond. All the second car found, however, was Raymonds' patrol car, its lights flashing and doors open.

Police have theorized that his assailants drove Raymond to Wisconsin where they murdered him and then buried his body, which was discovered Saturday.

The farm on which Raymond's body was found was owned by relatives of Silas C. Fletcher, 38, of 6899 Orchard Lane, Hanover Park, who police consider a prime suspect in Raymond's abduction.

"THEY [the Raymond family] are taking it real hard-they've been hoping and praying that he would be found alive," a neighbor said.

Raymond's body will be returned to Hillside today and services will be held at 1 p. m. Thursday in the chapel at Mannheim and Roosevelt Roads, Hillside. Visitation will be from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow.

By Ronald Yates: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Tue, Aug 21, 1973 ·Page 37

I have an old studio photograph of Belle ST. CYR FLETCHER which was taken at the H. Jarvis Studio in Alton, IL. The photograph was taken in the 1890's most likely with Belle appearing to be in her 40's or 50's at the time it was taken. Based on limited research and thanks to a family genealogist I was able to gather this information regarding Belle and her family:

Isabella or Isabelle or Isabel “Belle” Amanda ST. CYR was b. 21 Dec 1856 in St. Louis, MO to parents Paschal Hebert ST. CYR (1803-1871) and Maria or Marie Meridith or Meredith TAYLOR (b. 1823) who were married on 24 Jun 1841. Belle was one of 12 children born to this couple including Emilie or Emily “Emma” Melanie or Malenie; Catherine or Katherine Lily; Elizabeth Hughes; Charles Taylor; Belle; Amadee or Amedee Vallee or Valle; Mary C. A.; William Hyacinthe; Taylor; Henry Soulard or Roullard; Thomas F.; Helen or Helene Marie or Maria; William Bissel ST. CYR, all born between 1842 and 1869.

Belle married James Anson FLETCHER (1852-1937) on 27 Mar 1883 in Bunker Hill, IL and they had two sons, James Anson FLETCHER Jr. (1884-1954) and Francis Valle O. FLETCHER (1886-1962). Belle died 11 Feb 1915 in Bunker Hill, IL and is buried in the Bunker Hill Cemetery in Bunker Hill, IL.

I am hoping to get this treasure back to the care of family and would appreciate you contacting me if you are a member of this family or know someone who might be.

Thanks,
Shelley

Wiki

Edith Gertrude Fletcher is a parent of Gerry L. Fletcher, James Jackson Bostic, and Raymond Arnold Bostic.

Wedding day photo of Leann Fletcher

The wedding announcement of Leann D. Misener and Michael J. Fletcher which appeared in The Times Herald in Port Huron Michigan on Sunday December 12th 1993. See Fletcher - Misener Wedding Announcement for more details.

The 1988 Warren High School yearbook photo of Leann Misener.

The 1986 Warren High School yearbook photo of Leann Misener.

The photo of Leann Dawn Fletcher that appeared with her obituary in The Oakland Press on August 19th, 1999. See Leann D Fletcher: Obituary

Grandma Pinkie Fletcher Williams

Gerry L. (Davis) Fletcher is a parent of Ronald L. Davis.

Sandy I’d on the far left, then Cindy, mom, Rose and Loyde Jr.

We had gone to the garden plot on Ft. Richardson, Alaska to check the veges and returned with a bumper crop of root veges.

I loved working in the garden and learned a great deal about vege freezing, canning jellies, and jams. We did not have a canner until we returned to Texas, where mom taught me everything I needed to know about canning safety, as well as cleanliness when canning.

Those 5 plus years were the best years of my childhood and still miss Alaska

We camped in a Comanche tent trailer during the Fall, Winter, Spring and summer. Mom made the BEST sourdough pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup.

Photo of the grave of Donald A Fletcher in the Nicolet Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Green Bay WI

Riley M. Fletcher

Karie Ann (Hatten) Fletcher

Karie Ann (Hatten) Fletcher

Karie Ann (Hatten) Fletcher

Jeremiah Fletcher

A photo of Walter Wiliam Durman and the North Somerset Yeomanry Band.