Ex-Cop, Acquitted In First Wife’s Death, Is Accused Of Killing Second

A former Illinois police officer acquitted 10 years ago of killing his wife has been charged with pushing his latest spouse from the rooftop of a Caribbean resort.

John Earl Baughman, 53, was charged with murder Thursday by Antigua and Barbuda police in the death of Valerie Joyce Baughman, 55.

Baughman, of Orland Park, a Chicago suburb, told police he was alone with his wife May 29 when she fell backward off the roof of the eight-story Royal Antiguan Resort hotel. The resort is three miles southwest of the capital on the island’s west coast.

Denied bail, he was being held at Her Majesty’s Prison in St. John’s. A hearing was set for Wednesday.

In 1984, Baughman was charged with killing his first wife, Gertrude Baughman, 36. Her body was found severely burned in the couple’s garage in the Chicago suburb of Matteson.

Baughman was acquitted after claiming his wife burned to death when a stove tipped over. The Cook County medical examiner found she had been strangled and set afire.

In 1970, Baughman was charged with fatally shooting police Sgt. Dean Pence, 32, whose bullet-riddled body was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Chicago.

Authorities said Baughman suspected Pence, a close friend, was having an affair with Gertrude Baughman. A grand jury refused to indict Baughman and the case never went to trial.

Baughman once served as a Homewood, Ill., policeman.