The People v. Williams

In a trial by jury in the circuit court in Winnebago County, John W. Williams, Jr., an 18-year-old defendant, was convicted of the murders of two teenage boys and sentenced to concurrent terms of not less than 90 years and not more than 100 years on each murder.

The murders occurred sometime between 7:15 and 8:00 o’clock in the evening of March 2, 1967, and were brought to the attention of the police by a telephone call at 8:16 P.M. from an unidentified person stating that two persons had been shot and murdered at the pavilion in Levings Park in Rockford. The two 14-year-old cousins, Ronald…