A few days after part two of “The kidnapping of Della Stackhouse” was published on Dec. 22, I got a voicemail on my phone.
An elderly voice said, “My name is Linda Stackhouse Bowers. I am the daughter of Della Stackhouse.”
My mouth dropped wide open. Linda Stackhouse was one of Della’s two young daughters who was tied up and left in a closet on that fateful day, Dec. 20, 1946.
The voicemail continued: “I recently received your report of my mother’s kidnapping, and I thought you might be interested in the most important thing that happened that day.”
I immediately returned her call. Linda Stackhouse Bowers is now 85 and still living near Rome, New York, where she moved in 1965. She is the lone surviving member of the household who can testify as to what happened on that day.
Remembering the day
“I remember that day very well,” she said.
She and her little sister, Diana, had just come home from their Christmas party at Dixon’s North Central School (where Heritage Square now stands).
“We were sitting on the living room floor, going through our Christmas treats when a strange man’s voice said, ‘Linda, come up here.’ I’ll never forget that voice.”
When she and Diana got to her mother’s bedroom, they saw Della, in a dress, tied up on the bed and gagged so that she couldn’t speak. But Della’s eyes communicated a clear message to behave themselves and do what he said.
Frank Sickles, the kidnapper, tied up the girls with their father’s neckties, taped their mouths and put them in the closet.
“We were scared. I’d never been around anyone like that. Up to that time, everyone had been loving and caring to us. We didn’t understand what was happening, but we knew we didn’t like it.”
The most important detail
The “most important thing” is what happened next. A neighborhood boy, David Raymond, came into the house to see Linda and Diana. It was strange because David had never let himself in the house before.
But as one newspaper reported, Sickles confronted David and said, “Merry Christmas, my boy, now run along.”
Shortly after David left, the phone rang, which made Sickles worry that the boy had alerted others. Linda said that Sickles had planned to lure Dr. Stackhouse, her father, into the home and get money from him.
“He was then going to kill the family and take the money and disappear,” said Linda. “But because of David Raymond and the phone call, he decided to take my mother and leave the house.”
In addition to this important revelation, Linda shared a few other details.
About her father
Dr. Stirling Stackhouse wasn’t as wealthy as Sickles assumed. Linda explained that her father had served in the Army in World War II and had been in the Battle of the Bulge and in Germany. He had returned to Dixon only a few months before the kidnapping and was restarting his practice.
“Father was very strict,” she said. “Up until I was married, I had to ask permission to go out on a date or go anywhere. But we knew that he loved us.”
About the attempted rape
Newspaper stories in 1946 reported that Sickles thought about raping Della. But Linda said he actually tried to rape her.
Why didn’t he succeed?
“She always wore a girdle very tight, and he was unable to remove it,” she said.
Linda added that the attempted rape took place in the barn, which is the same place where Sickles finally decided to give up, surrender his gun and allow Della to call the police.
About Della
“My mother was in the hospital after the incident, and we stayed with some friends of the family,” she recalled. “But when she came home, we went back to our normal life.”
I wanted to know more about her mother, the remarkable woman who endured the six-hour ordeal and finally persuaded her lawless captor to release her.
“She was a strong woman her whole life,” said Linda. “She was always able to handle anything that came along.”
She said that her mother had been a nurse, which explains some of her resilient personality. Della and Stirling met in Chicago where he was a doctor, and she was a nurse. After marrying in 1931, they moved to Dixon in 1933 when he bought a retiring doctor’s practice.
Della’s final years
Stirling died in 1979, and Della lived her remaining 24 years alone. Authorities notified her when Sickles was finally released from prison.
“She worried about it for the rest of her life,” said Linda. “She had numerous locks on every door.”
In her final years she was sustained by some close friendships and some favorite habits. “Until she was well into her 90s,” said Linda, “she enjoyed her daily scotch and cigarette.”
Linda remembers her mother fondly, and she particularly remembered one lesson that her mother taught her.
“My mother told me to never let somebody tie you up.”
A Dixon native, Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.