The Illinois House of Representatives has adopted a House Joint Resolution sponsored by State Representative CD Davidsmeyer (R-Murrayville) which honors an Illinois Bureau of Investigation agent who died in the line of duty on November 27, 1972. HJR42 designates Old U.S. Route 36 from Jacksonville to Alexander as the “Special Agent Pete Lackey Memorial Highway.”
Special Agent Pete Lackey’s throat was slashed in Morgan County as he was on his way to work in Springfield. Agent Lackey, of Winchester, was to testify at a drug trial that morning.
The defendant in the case, 26 year old Barry Fonner of Jerseyville, spotted him driving toward the city and ambushed him. To get Agent Lackey to stop, the man rammed his car into the rear of the agent’s automobile. Agent Lackey pulled over to the shoulder of the road and the attacker jumped through the passenger side window with a large hunting knife in his hand. As Agent Lackey attempted to reach for his weapon his assailant slit his throat.
A group of nurses saw the beginning of the struggle as they were driving past the scene. They turned their car around and went back to see if they could help. In the brief time it took them to return the killer fled and Special Agent Lackey had died.
Fonner was later arrested and brought to trial in Decatur but was acquitted. Fonner was later sentenced to a psychiatric facility where in an interview with the State Journal Register, admitted to killing Lackey while under the influence of narcotics. He later died in prison in 1992.
Special Agent Lackey had served with the Illinois Bureau of Investigation for two years. He was survived by his wife and two children.