A quiet Saturday in April 1968 ended with five children dead on a Coles County farm. More than five decades […]
A quiet Saturday in April 1968 ended with five children dead on a Coles County farm. More than five decades later, their family is still fighting in courtrooms to keep their killer behind bars.
Some crimes carve themselves so deep into a community that no amount of time fills the wound. The Cox murders in Illinois are one of those cases — not a headline that faded after a news cycle, but a legal and human story still actively unfolding in 2025.
On the evening of April 27, 1968, Thomas Charles Fuller shot and killed five of the twelve children of Bill and Lydia Cox at their rural Mattoon home, eight miles northwest of town. The victims were Louis Cox, age 16; Theresa Cox, age 9; Mary Cox, age 8; Gary Cox, age 7; and Kenneth Cox, age 5. All five had been shot in the head. One child was shot seven times.
Fuller was 18 years old. He was a senior at Mattoon High School — and the boyfriend of Edna Cox, one of Louis’s twin sisters.
What Happened That Evening
As the sun went down at the Cox home, Lydia sent Louise to call for the other children to come inside. The yard was eerily silent. Louise and Billie saw their sisters lying on the corn crib floor and ran back into the house. When William Cox pulled up to the driveway, he found his children cold and lifeless.
Shortly before 7:00 p.m., Samuel Davis and his mother walked into the Mattoon police department and reported that an acquaintance told him five Cox children had been murdered. Within minutes, Coles County Deputy Sheriff David O’Dell was on his way to the Cox residence — triggering a massive manhunt involving over 100 officers and volunteers. Roadblocks stopped traffic at all roads leading into Mattoon, but Thomas Fuller had slipped away. He walked all night along the railroad tracks until he ended up twelve miles away in Charleston.
The Motive Behind the Cox Murders in Illinois
Investigators pieced together a disturbing premeditated picture. In a journal he kept, Fuller indicated he had planned to “dispose of the entire family except Louise, and then flee to Canada with her. He felt that the family was persecuting Louise,” according to a report by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
A classmate, Sammy Lee Davis, said at a closed preliminary hearing that Fuller told him three weeks before the murders that he had planned to kill the entire family, and testified that he had met Fuller in a railroad yard the night of the murders and admitted he had killed the Cox children — with the murder weapon still strapped to his side during the conversation.
Fuller’s case never went to trial. Faced with the weight of evidence, he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. Months later, he was sentenced to 140 to 199 years in prison — escaping the death penalty, which was then legal in Illinois and which prosecutors had sought.
A Family That Never Stopped Showing Up
This case did not end at sentencing. What makes the Cox murders in Illinois legally significant is the decades-long parole battle that followed.
About 20 members of the Cox family made the trip from Mattoon and towns throughout central Illinois to protest Fuller’s release at one hearing. William Cox, the father, sat before the board, his voice shaking as he spoke.
One family member told reporters: “It’s not something we want to pass down from generation to generation.” Yet generation after generation, they have shown up.
As recently as February 2025, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 8–5 to deny Fuller’s parole request. Fuller, now 69, is held at Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro. His projected release date without parole is August 2057.
17+ Parole Hearings — and Counting
The legal persistence surrounding the Cox murders in Illinois is extraordinary by any standard. Fuller has made over 16 requests for parole since being sentenced, and each hearing retraumatizes the surviving Cox family members.
Board member Donetta Harris noted that the killings were “thought out,” as there was evidence that Fuller killed some of the children specifically to prevent them from identifying him for the murders of the others.
At one particularly notable hearing, Fuller declined to meet with a board member to discuss his parole request and did not appear at the hearing at all — a choice that a board member described in writing as evidence of no willingness to demonstrate rehabilitation.
One board member wrote in her official opinion: “It is my opinion that to parole inmate Thomas Charles Fuller II would deprecate the seriousness of the crime committed and promote disrespect for the law.”
Why This Case Matters for Illinois Law
The Cox murders in Illinois sit at a rare intersection of criminal and parole law. Because the crime occurred in 1968, Illinois sentencing laws were different than they are now, when a set sentence is imposed for a conviction. The indeterminate sentence Fuller received — 70 to 99 years on each of two consecutive counts — means the Illinois Prisoner Review Board holds real discretionary power. Each parole cycle is a genuine legal proceeding, not a formality.
The case also tested the limits of parole procedures. Fuller once filed lawsuits against the board alleging that the three-year waiting period between hearings was unconstitutional. The Illinois Supreme Court subsequently ruled the three-year waiting period constitutional.
FAQs — Cox Murders Illinois
Q: Who committed the Cox murders in Illinois? Thomas Charles Fuller II, then 18, committed the murders on April 27, 1968. He was a Mattoon High School senior and the boyfriend of one of the Cox children’s siblings.
Q: How many children were killed in the Cox murders? Five children were killed: Louis (16), Theresa (9), Mary Catherine (8), Gary (7), and Kenneth (5). All were shot in the head. The Cox family had twelve children in total.
Q: Was Thomas Fuller ever tried in court for the Cox murders in Illinois? No. Fuller changed his plea to guilty before trial and was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 70 to 99 years — a total sentence range of 140 to 199 years.
Q: Has Thomas Fuller been released on parole? No. As of 2025, Fuller has been denied parole more than 17 times. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 8–5 to deny his most recent request in February 2025.
Q: Where is Thomas Fuller now? He is incarcerated at Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro, Illinois. Without parole, his projected release date is August 2057.
Q: Can the Cox family stop parole hearings from happening? They can formally oppose each request and testify at protest hearings, but they cannot prevent hearings from occurring. Illinois law governs the timing of parole reviews, which the Illinois Supreme Court upheld when Fuller challenged the schedule.
Final Thought
The Cox family grave at Calvary Cemetery in Mattoon bears a stone that reads simply: “Taken Before Their Time.” Visitors still leave plastic flowers and, at Gary Cox’s grave — the seven-year-old — a small toy car.
That detail alone captures what law reports and court transcripts never quite convey. Behind every parole docket, every board vote, and every legal filing is a family that drove to Springfield, sat in a hearing room, and kept saying: not yet.
The Cox murders in Illinois are a case study in how the criminal justice system handles crimes that predate modern sentencing structures, and how families navigate that system across generations — not as a legal strategy, but simply because they loved someone.
Have questions about Illinois parole law or victim’s rights in long-term incarceration cases? Drop them in the comments below or consult a licensed Illinois criminal defense or victims’ rights attorney in your area.
