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Freedom bid by killer of daughter terrifies momBy JOHN KREROWICZ Staff WriterMark Ketterhagen has spent the past seven years in prison for first degree murder, and now he wants out.His father says the young man has changed since he shot his pregnant girlfriend, Cathy Ziebell, 16, four times with a .357 magnum on the Fox River bridge in Wheatland.But the thought of Ketterhagen, 29, roaming free paralyzes Ziebell’s mother with fear because he threatened her during the trial.“He told me, ‘When I get out*of prison, you're next,’” Ruth Ziebell said. “I’ve had seven years of fear, and I’d been trying to get him out ofmy mind, believe me.“Now I guess I’ll have to close my drapes and lock my doors. I’ll be a prisoner in my own house.”Ketterhagen, who was a Burlington resident, plans to ask Gov. Dreyfus to shorten his life-imprison-ment term to 25 years, in effect making him eligible for parole immediately. With a life sentence, he could apply for parole in early 1987.Changing his life sentence to 25 years would also make Ketterhagen eligible for the state’s mandatory release program. The program allows reduced sentences for prisoners showing good behavior. There is no mandatory release for those with life sentences.The convict wrote an Aug. 23 letter to Kenosha County District Attorney Robert Zapf, saying he planned to submit his appeal to the governor on Nov. 18. He asked for Zapf’s positive recommendation.Zapf indicated Ketterhagen should write to Bruce Schroeder, who was district attorney at the time of the trial and is now a county court commissioner. Schroeder said he would not recommend shortening Ketterhagen’s penalty.“He didn’t give a damn whether she lived or died,” Schroeder said.Schroeder’s positive recommendation is not necessary for the governor to shorten the sentence.The Parole Advisory Board could hear the request in December. Gov. Dreyfus usually takes about four weeks to decide, an aide said.Ketterhagen also was required to write to Judge Earl Morton, who responded with a letter saying he did not object to the sentence reduction.Morton's letter, dated July 27, said Ketterhagen “was highly intoxicated and was a very immature young man” at the {jme of the crime. “It is my opinion he has been rehabilitated to such a degree that he will never violate the law again.”Cathy and Ruth Ziebell were watching a television program on Palm Sunday, March 23, 1975, when Ketterhagen came by their Burlington house and said he wanted to talk to the girl. Cathy, three months pregnant, agreed to sit in his car but didn't want to leave because she wanted to see the end of the show, said Mrs. Ziebell.He drove off and “that was the last time I saw her,” she said.Ketterhagen shot the Ziebell girland threw the body off the bridge into the flooded Fox River. The body didn’t surface until three weeks later.After a three-day trial in August 1975, the jury took two hours to find him guilty. Ketterhagen appealed, claiming trial errors, but the state Supreme Court in January 1977 upheld the conviction.Ketterhagen refused tp talk to the Kenosha News on Friday His social services supervisor at the prison refused to comment.Lawrence Ketterhagen, his father, said Saturday morning that Mark had instructed him during a visit several weeks ago not to talk to the press.However, Mr. Ketterhagen did say, “He’s changed, he's completely changed,” but refused to elaborate.A Burlington woman reportedly circulating petitions supporting shortening the sentence said she had no comment on the matter. “I’d rather have you call Mark about that,” she said.Ironically, one person contacting Burlington residents and asking them to sign the petition called Raymond Ziebell — one of the victim’s brothers “My heart just sank” when I heard about it, Mrs. Ziebell said.However, publicity about the matter has brought suggestions for petitions urging the governor to not shorten Ketterhagen’s sentence, said Ziebell on Saturday.People I’ve known but haven’t heard from in years in Kenosha County want to circulate petitions, said Ziebell, who lived for some 10 years near Salem on Highway 50 until moving to Burlington in 1954. “I said they should get as many names as they can and send them to the governor.”Ziebell wrote to Dreyfus on Thursday. “The sentence should be served, and the victim given more consideration than the people found guilty of these terrible deeds,” she wrote.Ketterhagen and Cathy started dating a month after her 16th birthday. She became pregnant in December, and he offered to pay for an abortion. Mrs. Ziebell, however, refused to allow the abortion, saying it was murder. She also refused to sign for their marriage.Ziebell believes trading Ketterhagen’s life in prison for her daughter’s life is only fair“There are people who say he's served his time, that he should be let go But he took a life, so it should be his life” in return, she said.“He’s playing good boy now to get out, but the man is a con artist. The laws are too lenient. They’re more for the criminal than the victim The laws should be changed ”Morton explained his letter by saying:“Nobody is trying to get this young man off,” he said.“All (it) means is that his sentence might be reduced from life to 45 or 50 years, which means he’ll appear before the parole board a year or two sooner. And then he would probably have to appear several times before parole is granted “I don’t know of anyone who has got out on a first degree murder conviction on the first appearance before the parole board, or even the second or third,” said Morton He said the parole board sets standards for release that Ketterhagen must meet, such as behavior in prison, and if there were any changes to those factors considered in the original sentencing “I don’t make those decisions at all,” said Morton “But society is going to have to expect they (convicted criminals) are going to come out if they’re rehabilitated and have behaved.“I haven’t changed my mind. I sentenced him to life in prison He's still sentenced to life in prison. Clemency is only a reduction of time for the opportunity to get before the parole board sooner. He is a young man He’s already served seven years. Who am I to stand in his way if he wants to go before the parole board sooner?” said Morton.He said “the odds are he (Ketterhagen) won’t get any consideration. To be completely left go he would (for example) have to prove he’s terminally ill with cancer and has 30 days to live.”TKenosha News photo by Jonathan KirnRuth Ziebell and a picture of Cathy
Newspaper Details
Kenosha News Courier
Kenosha, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Sep 15, 1982
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Donna C.
USA 12 Jun 2022
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