SANDWICH – Two children of a Yorkville man who was one of five people murdered by Carl Reimann in 1972 have spoken out against the Illinois Prisoner Review Board’s decision to grant Reimann parole in April and are pushing for the board to not rerelease the mass murderer.
A daughter and a son of David M. Gardner, who was killed at age 35 in the Dec. 29, 1972, robbery at the Pine Village Steak House in Yorkville, for which Reimann was convicted and sentenced to between 50 and 150 years in prison for each murder victim, have expressed criticism of the board members who voted in favor of Reimann’s parole.
Reimann, 77, of Sandwich, who was granted parole in an 8-4 decision by the board April 26, was first moved to the La Grange home of a couple who advocated for his release. However, the home was directly across from an elementary school. Reimann then was moved to a structured living house in Calumet City. Once again, officials objected to his location – this time, he was a block west of an elementary school and near a park.
The Illinois Department of Corrections removed Reimann from the Calumet City home May 16 and returned him temporarily to the Dixon Correctional Center. A panel of Prisoner Review Board members ruled Tuesday that Reimann can be released back to the community, but needs to have a specific place to live upon his rerelease that is approved by the Department of Corrections.
Michelle Gardner-Morkert, daughter of David M. Gardner and Cheryl Gardner, wrote that with their April 26 decision, members of the Prisoner Review Board “perpetuated unspeakable violence against us with each vote in favor of parole.”
“The Illinois Prisoner Review Board sent a dangerous message to citizens of Illinois on April 26 when they decided to parole a mass murderer. In a climate of increasing gun violence in communities across the country contributing to the epidemic of school shootings, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board prioritized the economics of reducing the prison population over the concerns of citizens whose families were murdered and whose community was torn,” Gardner-Morkert’s statement reads.
David J. Gardner, Gardner’s son from his first marriage, described his memories of his father and when he learned of his death. Gardner explained that his parents moved from Yorkville to Lynwood, Washington, when he was a child. His father worked at a grocery store at the time, he said.
“Dad worked at QFC a couple miles down the road,” he wrote. “Dad didn’t seem particularly happy. Looking back, I’d call it ‘conflicted.’ I don’t recall ever playing with him as I did with my kids. One day, dad didn’t come home. I later learned of the divorce and that dad was not coming back. I didn’t know at the time why. That was the first time I lost my dad. A few years later during our summer vacation to Illinois, my sisters and I got to have dinner with dad and Cheryl at their home in Yorkville. We all received a gift from dad; mine was a red, white and blue football. The best gift, however, was the ‘hope’ of having a dad again. Sadly, I would never see him again after that dinner.”
Gardner recalled finding out about his father’s murder.
“I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons on Dec. 30, 1972, when the phone call came that dad had been shot dead,” he wrote. “We watched the Vietnam reports on television so I knew meaning of ‘shot dead.’ That was the second time I lost my dad. Carl Reimann took from me dad and his ‘best gift’ to me. He did something for which there is no forgiveness.”
“Until five years ago, I thought [Reimann] was in [a] hole from which there was no escape,” he wrote. “I was OK with that as dad was never coming back from his hole of no escape. I never felt so victimized until the day I learned [Reimann] was to be paroled after 45 years served for killing without remorse or emotion, five unarmed and submitted people. The parole board has not acknowledged David M. Gardner’s eldest child nor asked for his forgiveness or opinion. If their experiment in restorative justice is going to be valid, this stakeholder needs to be consulted.
“Now, I feel like a victim ... of the parole board’s injustice.”