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10 Scariest Illinois Serial Killers You Should Know About

Illinois has had its fair of serial killers who have terrorized society and caused a lot of irreparable impact on the people that live there. The serial killers hailed from different parts of Illinois and some of the serial killers shocked people when their crimes were discovered as they were the proverbial boy next door while others were cruel and vile from the start. Therefore, in this article, we are going to explore the ten scariest Illinois serial killers to give the reader insight into the criminal that comes from this place and why it is considered the state with the most number of serial killers.

1 H.H. Holmes

A picture of H.H. Holmes. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Howard Holmes popularly known as H.H. Holmes is one of America’s first documented serial killer. He was a diabolical killer that was active in the late 19^th century and used a hotel dubbed the Murder Castle which he built as the scene of his crimes. Holmes built the hotel in 1893 and during construction, he incorporated hidden rooms and passageways as well as soundproof chambers so that his victims would not alert anybody of his heinous cries. Holmes would trap his victims in his hotel and then proceed to murder them. Most of his victims were women who went to the hotel after being promised jobs. He was later arrested and charged with murder and his arrest drew a lot of media attention as people were shocked that he was committing such heinous acts under their noses. He was executed by hanging in 1896.

2 John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy also known as Killer Clown was another serial killer from Illinois that operated in the state during the late 1970s. because of his active role in society as a volunteer and community leader, it made it hard for him to be suspected as a serial killer. During the years that he was active, he killed 33 young men and buried them in his house. He would impersonate a police officer and lure them to his house where he would sexually assault them before torturing them and eventually killing them. When he was apprehended, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection in 1994.

3 Richard Speck

Richard Speck was a notorious killer who operated in Chicago, Illinois. He was responsible for the murder of eight student nurses in 1966. The killer committed this crime at a townhouse in Chicago where he broke into the townhouse and held the students hostage during this time, he tortures them and then sexually assaulted them before proceeding to kill them. Speck then fled the scene and hid but he was later found and charged with the murder of the students. He was found guilty and sentenced to death but his sentence was later reviewed to 400 to 1200 years in prison after the supreme court abolished the death penalty temporarily. He died while serving his sentence from a heart attack in 1991.

4 Larry Bright

Larry Bright was a former concrete worker who was responsible for the death of eight women in a span of a year between 2003 and 2004 in the Peoria area. The killer strangled his first seven victims and he overdosed his eighth victim with cocaine which in turn led to her death. Larry Bright targeted black women and after his crimes were discovered, there was a public outcry on the way the police did not devote enough resources to the investigation. Larry was finally arrested in 2004 after the DNA on a cigarette butt that he had smoked matched the DNA that was found on the victims. He pleaded guilty to a life sentence and offered no explanation for his actions.

Check out this article on the 15 infamous women serial killers in history here

5 The Ripper Crew

The ripper crew which was a group of men who were active in the 1980s were linked to the deaths of several women in the Chicago area. The Ripper Crew comprised Edward Spreitzer, Robin Gecht and brothers Thomas and Andrew Kokoraleis. The crew is said to have killed at least 18 women with their first victim being Linda Sutton who was a 28-year-old woman and their last victim being Beverly Washington who tortured and mutilated her body before leaving her at a railroad track. Their last victim was not dead and was able to give an account of what happened to the police which led to their arrest. They were sentenced to several years in prison with Thomas Kokoraleis being released on parole in 2019.

6 Nicholas Sheley

The serial killer was a native of Sterling who was found guilty of murder after he went on a killing spree in Missouri and Illinois in June 2008. Hile on his two-day spree, Nichola Sheley killed four people with the oldest being a 93-year-old man and the youngest being a 2-year-old boy named Dylan. He was finally apprehended on July 1^st 2008 and sentenced to life in prison.

7 William George Heirens

Popularly known as the Lipstick Killer, William George Heirens was a serial killer that operated in the state of Illinois. He started his murder spree when he broke into the apartment of Josaphine Ross who was a 43-year-old lady and killed her. After murdering her he scrolled on the mirror a text that said that they should catch him before he killed again. He further went on and killed Suzzane Degnan a six-year-old girl after kidnapping her from her home. Her body was found dismembered in different places. He was later arrested for a burglary but he confessed to the murders and was found guilty. He died in prison from a heart attack in 2012.

8   Joseph Miller

The serial killer was charged with the murder of two sex workers in the Chicago area in 1978 and he was found guilty. He was later released on parole in Peoria and during this time he proceeded to kill a 88-year-old woman that had employed him to mow the lawn and the local prostitutes. His actions show that he was not reformed and was still the same person as before he was put in prison.

9 Andre Crawford

The serial killer was active in the Englewood neighbourhood of the Chicago area between 1993 and 1999. During this time, Andre killed 11 women comprising of sex workers and drug addicts. He targeted this group as it was not easily noticeable when they went missing. He would lure #his victims to abandoned homes and then proceed to kill them. When questioned by local authorities on why he committed the crimes he said that they were an addiction to him. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison but he died in 2017 behind bars.

10 Andrew Urdiales

Andrew was a serial killer who committed heinous crimes in different states including Illinois and California. He was active in the 1980s up to the 1990s and he would target sex workers as his victims. His modus operandi included stabbing, strangulation, and use of excessive force. He was finally apprehended and sentenced to death. He later committed suicide in his cell in 2018.

Check out this article on the 15 infamous serial killers in Atlanta here