Image via Murderpedia
Lawrencia Bembenek
“I’m breaking rocks in the hot sun,
I fought the law and the law won,
I fought the law and the law won”.
-The Bobby Fuller Four, 1966
“This is the most circumstantial trial case I’ve ever seen.”-Judge Michael Skwierawski, 1982
No one ever looked more like a deer in the headlights than Lawrencia Bembenek, a 22-year-old Bay View native who became caught in the jaws of a corrupt police department and a justice system full of greedy lawyers and judges who made odd rulings. In March 1982, Bembenek was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury of five men and seven women. She was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac.
Twenty-year-old Laurie Bembenek appears to have the world by the tail. Before she graduates from high school, the tall, slender blonde finds work as a professional model. A photograph from the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company’s 1978 calendar will come back to haunt her a few years later. Although she earns an associate degree in fashion merchandising, Bembenek has always wanted to be a police officer. Her academy training begins in March 1980, and before she graduates, Bembenek is at the center of a department scandal that may go all the way to the top.
Her troubles began when an anonymous caller, likely an officer’s jealous wife, claimed Bembenek was smoking marijuana at a party. A few weeks later Bembenek went to a concert by Rufus and Chaka Khan at the Auditorium where two of her friends were arrested for possessing a bag of marijuana. She was subsequently informed that a confidential investigation of any part she may have played in the incident was in progress.
Bembenek graduated from the academy in the summer of 1980 and was assigned to a south side district. Almost immediately she was called “queer,” “a dyke,” “the cunt” and a “pussy cop” by fellow officers when she rebuffed their crude sexual advances. In her autobiography, Woman on the Run, Bembenek said male officers often went unpunished for serious offenses while female and minority officers were written up or fired for minor infractions during their probationary period.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
On August 25, Bembenek was dismissed from Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) when the investigation of the concert arrests concluded. After being fired, a friend in the department showed her photos of off-duty officers dancing naked in Gordon Park on East Locust Street. The pictures also depicted naked women engaged in sexual activities with officers. Bembenek took the pictures to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claiming she was fired for an unproven minor allegation. The EEOC encouraged her to file a grievance with the MPD’s internal affairs division.
With no steady income, Bembenek begins drinking too much and hangs out with friends who have problems of their own. One of them is sleeping with “Fritz,” a detective has been spreading vicious gossip about Bembenek. With her bills mounting, Bembenek works as a waitress at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva. After a month of being pawed by the customers, she quits. Her claim for reinstatement as a police officer is denied and the MPD unofficially blacklists her, making it difficult to find a job. She meets “Fritz,” a married man who’s sleeping with one of her girlfriends. He’s Elfred O. Schultz Jr., a 13-year veteran with the department and legend among fellow officers for his ability to juggle several girlfriends at once. Much later, Bembenek says meeting Fred Schultz was the worst day of her life.
With his immaculately tailored three-piece suits and blond blow-dried hair, Schultz carried himself like a Hollywood star. Women threw themselves at him and he loved the attention. Schultz had a reputation as a smooth liar who told each of his conquests “you’re the one I really love.” He swept Bembenek off her feet, and they married in Waukegan, Illinois just three months after his divorce from his wife, Christine. At the time, Bembenek was unaware that Schultz was one of the naked officers pictured in the park photos. Soon after their marriage, Schultz dropped the charming side of himself to display a violent temper and an obsession with his ex-wife. He seethed about paying Christine alimony and child support and convinced Bembenek to move in with her parents, Joe, and Virginia.
In the middle of the night on May 28, 1981, Elfred Schultz’s ex-wife, Christine, was murdered with a .38 caliber pistol. Fred Schultz was the initial suspect, but he managed to extricate himself from the investigation. Because Bembenek had access to a gun, suspicions of guilt fell on her. In her book, Bembenek said Schultz admitted he had an unauthorized set of keys to Christine’s home. She was scared to death when blood was discovered on her husband’s off-duty revolver.
Bembenek works as a security officer at Marquette University when she’s arrested for first-degree murder in front of her supervisor. Unbeknownst to Bembenek, the officers Illegally search her locker prior to the arrest. Bembenek is placed in a City Jail holding cell where she is not allowed to shower, wash her hair, or perform basic personal hygiene functions. “The cellblock was filthy, with garbage strewn haphazardly in the corners—cigarette butts, moldy bread crusts, and dried vomit,” she later writes. “An obviously insane woman sat in a corner and sang continuously.” Bembenek is still in her Marquette University uniform when she appears before a judge three days later.
Thar’s when things went from bad to worse.
(To be continued)
