Convict: Curtis Brownell, born Oct. 19, 1954
Killed: Louise Betts, a 17-year-old Harlem High School student. Louise was hitchhiking on North Second Street in Loves Park when she was picked up by Brownell on or about Sept. 27, 1977. He held a jackknife to her throat and drove her to a Boone County cornfield. He raped her and then strangled her. Her body was found six months later on March 30, 1978. Brownell was in jail at the time Betts' body was found for the Jan. 31, 1978 rape of a Rockford woman, who was seven months pregnant. That woman was abducted from a Rockford Laundromat and then raped about a half-mile from where Betts' body was found. Brownell ran over her with his automobile. Soft snow protected the pregnant woman, and she lived.
Sentence: Courts twice overturned death sentences. According to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Brownell received an aggregated sentence of 200 to 600 years in prison.
Served: 29 years
Resides: Graham Correctional Center
Letters of protest: 6 received before last parole hearing Feb. 15, 2005
Parole denied: 11 times
Parole hearing: Feb. 4, 2008
Early petitions: Jan. 28, 2008
Final petitions: Feb. 13, 2008
Parole decision: Feb. 14, 2008

By signing this petition you understand that your name can become public record. Although the Prisoner Review Board fights the release of names on petitions, and the courts generally have protected the names, those names of those signing the petition may at some point be released publicly.