CHICAGO – More than a half-century after a 7-year-old girl disappeared from a neighborhood street corner in Sycamore, the man convicted of her kidnapping and heinous murder was sentenced Monday to spend the rest of his life in prison.

But before he learned his fate, Jack McCullough, a 73-year-old retiree from Seattle, defiantly maintained his innocence in connection with the death of Maria Ridulph in 1957.

“I have been tried and declared guilty of the crime of the kidnap and murder of Maria Ridulph, a crime I did not, would not and could not have done,” he told Judge James Hallock during part of a 13-minute speech.