Publisher's Synopsis
She was the daughter of a rising senator. She died before sunrise. The killer vanished.
On a quiet September morning in 1966, 21-year-old Valerie Percy was brutally attacked in her bedroom along the shores of Lake Michigan. Within hours, the media descended on Kenilworth-an exclusive enclave unaccustomed to violence-and America watched as a grieving father campaigned for the U.S. Senate with his daughter's blood barely dry on the floor.
The Unsolved Murder of Valerie Percy: The Kenilworth Case That Haunted an American Political Dynasty is a haunting, immersive investigation into one of the most chilling and forgotten homicides of the twentieth century. With cinematic detail, rare archival materials, and a focus on forensic evidence, this book retraces the steps of investigators, unearths long-buried leads, and examines how power, grief, and silence intersected in a single moment of irreversible violence.
Why did no one see the intruder?
Why was the murder weapon never found?
And what truths still lie hidden beneath layers of politics, legacy, and privilege?
Through five deeply reported parts, readers become investigators-sorting fact from speculation, revisiting original witness statements, and confronting a justice system that failed to bring closure.
Valerie Percy was more than a name in a headline. She was a twin, a scholar, a daughter. This is her story-and the story of everything we still don't know.
Perfect for readers of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, The Cases That Haunt Us, and We Keep the Dead Close, this is true crime written with precision, empathy, and a relentless pursuit of truth.
