Who Killed Molly Zelko? Podcast Explores Enduring Mystery

JOLIET, IL — The most famous murder mystery in Joliet's history is coming back to life as a podcast, and a new generation of true-crime fans will be learning about the Molly Zelko story for the first time. On Sunday, after years in the making, "The Spectator: Who Killed Molly Zelko?" was finally released.

In July 2018, Patch produced an in-depth article about Molly Zelko and the podcast that was nearing completion.

"I'm really excited about it," Joliet Area Historical Museum director Greg Peerbolte told Joliet Patch Sunday night. "The production value is very high. It's very heavily researched. It's professionally sounding. It was just exhaustive.

"We really wanted to get this right, not just Molly's story, but putting it in the larger context of the mafia and some of these political factions. I think we do a good job of exploring and unpacking that as well."

Peerbolte is featured in the podcast along with retired newspaper editor Lonny Cain; Lynne Lichtenauer, a former Spectator reporter who came on board after Zelko's 1957 disappearance; and Dennis Enrietta, an independent researcher from Coal City.

All four had major roles in the podcast production.

The podcast will have eight episodes. The first three are about 30 minutes each and went live Sunday:

• Episode 1: "Hell A Poppin." On the morning of Sept. 26, 1957, Joliet newspaper editor Molly Zelko disappears.
• Episode 2: "Speculation." Perhaps no one held more influence over Molly Zelko than the Spectator’s owner and her longtime mentor, Bill McCabe.
• Episode 3: "We Knew Them Well." Francis "The Thin Man" Curry was the syndicate’s manager of gambling operations in Joliet and Will County. His path to leadership was a bloody one.

The final five episodes will be released in the coming weeks, Peerbolte said Sunday.

"Who Killed Molly Zelko?" examines whether she was killed by the mafia.

Back in the 1950s, Joliet and Chicago had strong ties to organized crime, and Zelko was known as staunch crusader against gambling, political corruption and unsavory businesses.

On Sept. 25, 1957, the 47-year-old Joliet Spectator part-owner and business manager parked her car near her house on Buell Avenue after putting the newspaper to bed. Some neighbors heard a scream. Authorities located her shoes, but her body was never found.

Many people in Joliet have long suspected the mob buried her body on Stryker Avenue.

"We're basically rehashing the journalism in 1957 and what got reported by Lonny Cain and John Whiteside in 1978," Peerbolte told Joliet Patch on Sunday. "We're leaving it open-ended. True-crime podcasts have solved cold cases, so it feels like the right medium."

Patch asked Peerbolte if people all over the country are going to take an interest in the Molly Zelko case.

"It's very likely she was killed in the line of duty of doing her job," Peerbolte said. "That takes it well beyond a local mystery, a local beef, and it elevates it into something that is very interesting in a broad way."

Are you ready to listen to the fascinating new true-crime podcast?

If so, you can start listening by visiting the website for The Spectator Podcast.