Millions of Americans tuned in to watch the 39th Annual Academy Awards Ceremonies the evening of April 10, 1967. One of the pictures nominated for Best Screenplay was Blow-Up. The first of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s entirely English language films centers around a photographer who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. In the background of one of his photos, he sees someone lurking in the trees with a gun and what appears to be a body under a bush. Blow-Up is only a movie, but someone in Chicago really was lurking in the trees with a gun on Oscar evening 1967.

Thirty-year-old Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Department Officer Ralph Probst and his wife Marlene were among those who settled on their sofa for an evening with the Oscars. Marlene dozed off sometime during the ceremonies. Shortly after 10:00 she was startled awake by a loud bang. Her first image upon awakening was a cloud of smoke coming from the kitchen; her second image was of seeing her husband lying face down on the kitchen floor.

Ralph Probst had been killed by a single gunshot fired through the kitchen window. Fifty-seven years later, no one has been charged with his murder.

Ralph Probst

Ralph and Marlene had three children, eleven-year-old son Ronald, and daughters Maureen and Sherry, ages seven and two.  (Some sources say the younger daughter’s name is Michelle.)

Father of Three

Ralph graduated from the Police Academy in 1964. He had recently been assigned to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department Special Elite Tactical Squad. His primary responsibilities were investigating organized crime.

The dedicated lawman was respected for treating everyone equally. Ralph’s refusal to grant special privileges earned him at least one powerful enemy.

A By The Book Cop

In January 1967, Ralph and his partner, Bob Borowski, were assigned to guard Sam DeStefano. After having been convicted of conspiracy charges, the powerful Chicago mobster had been transferred from a prison to a local hospital after complaining of stomach trouble.

Ralph and Bob were officially assigned not only to protect DeStefano, but also to see that he did not try to escape. DeStefano became irate at the officers when they refused to allow visitors to his room and for not allowing outside food to be brought to him.

After Ralph handcuffed DeStefano to his bed, the mob boss threatened to kill him. As the prisoner was known for blowing smoke, neither officer took the threat seriously.

When Ralph was shot to death three months later suspicion focused on DeStefano. He was, however, imprisoned at the time and police found no evidence that he had hired anyone to murder Ralph.

Sam DeStefano

Ralph’s colleagues all knew and liked Marlene and none believed she would ever harm her husband. Still, family members had to be investigated, and authorities were confused by some of her contentions.

Marlene insisted she had been asleep and awoke to smoke inside the house. The puff of smoke she said she had seen led police to believe the gunshot had been fired from inside the home. At a time when forensics were not nearly as understood by law enforcement officers as they are today, the finding of broken glass in the outside yard seemed to bolster the belief. Aside from their sleeping young children, Ralph and Marlene were the only people inside the home.

Investigators conducted tests in an effort to verify Marlene’s claims. When a shot was fired outside the home, fifteen feet away from the kitchen window, no puff of smoke appeared inside the home, and the glass fell inside. After a shot was fired from only two inches from the window, however, a puff of smoke arose inside the house and the glass came back onto the test-shooter and fell to the ground outside the house.

The tests proved the shooter fired near the window and confirmed Marlene’s account. She was cleared of any involvement in her husband’s murder.

Marlene Probst

Ralph’s Wife

Several of the Probst’s neighbors heard the gunshot, but no one saw the gunman.

Investigators determined the shooter had to have been at least five-feet-eleven inches tall in order for the projectile to have followed the path to where it struck Ralph in the back of the head. It was an excellent shot, leading investigators to believe the killer may have been either a professional hit man or someone with a law enforcement background.

These beliefs were bolstered after examination of the bullet, which ricocheted off a kitchen cabinet and fell onto the stove, was determined to have been fired from a .41 caliber magnum handgun. Such a weapon was used primarily by police officers and gun enthusiasts and had only recently been manufactured.

Although only 2,000 of these guns were known to be in the United States, police were unable to find the specific gun used to kill Ralph Probst.

Was Ralph Killed By A Fellow Cop?

Authorities were puzzled over how the killer knew Ralph would be standing by the kitchen window. They believe he would have likely been spotted by neighbors had he been outside the Probst home for an extended period of time waiting for Ralph to enter the kitchen.

The kitchen window was the only uncovered window in the house that evening. Even if someone had been watching the house, he would not have known Ralph’s location.

The Shattered Kitchen Window

Ralph’s partner, Bob Borowski, believes the killer knew Ralph was going to be in the kitchen when he was shot. Prior to coming home that evening, Ralph was seen using a payphone at a gas station. Bob believes it was during this call that his partner was set up to be killed as an arrangement was made for him to call a person around 10:00 that evening.

Marlene said the couple’s dog, a German Shepherd, was barking more than normal that evening. In hindsight, she believes it may have been because someone was lurking outside their home.

Bob Borowski

Ralph’s Partner

Bob also believes Ralph may have been working on his own investigation of a vice ring. He recalled Ralph had made references that he was working on something major, believing the work would earn him a promotion to Sergeant.

A couple of weeks before his murder, Ralph went to the home of Frank Calvise. The former convict was not at the residence, but Ralph spoke briefly with his wife, saying he was investigating a series of neighborhood burglaries.

One week later, and a week before Ralph was murdered, a man had looked at a house for sale across the street from the Probst home. As the owner took the prospective buyer through the home, he thought it strange that the man seemed more interested in the Probst home than his. Among the questions asked by the supposed prospective buyer was if the house across the street (Ralph’s home) had the same floor plan as the seller’s home.

Following Ralph’s murder, the neighbor identified Frank Calvise in a police line-up as the man who had toured his home, but he recanted his statement a few days later. Some believe he had learned of Calvise’s past and feared retaliation.

I was unable to find a picture of Frank Calvise, who died in 1974. No charges were ever filed against him in connection with Ralph Probst’s murder.

Some of Ralph’s files from his organized crime unit have not been found.

 

Did Calvise Kill Ralph?

A 1994 Northwest Times of Indiana article states that in their investigation into the 1977 disappearance of Helen Brach, heiress to the Brach Candy Company fortune, authorities uncovered a possible connection to several other unsolved Chicago-area crimes, including the 1967 murder of Ralph Probst.

The article stated authorities refused to elaborate on the nature of the evidence, and I have not been able to find anything more about the possible connection between the murder of the cop and the disappearance of the heiress.

Helen Brach

Officer Ralph Probst was murdered on April 10, 1967. No one has ever been charged with the crime.

If you have any information relating his murder, please contact the Cook County Sheriff’s Office at Search at (708) 865-4700.

Still An Open Case

Ironically, and perhaps fittingly, Sam DeStefano, the notorious gangster originally suspected of involvement in Ralph Probst’s murder, was himself shot to death six years later in 1973. His murder, as well, remains unsolved.

Sammy Slain

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/163423916/ralph-e-probst#

SOURCES:

• Associated Press
• Chicago Tribune
• Cook County Sheriff’s Office
• Northwest Indiana Times
• Unsolved Mysteries