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Menard Correctional Center
Menard Correctional Center, known prior to 1970 as Southern Illinois Penitentiary, is an Illinois state prison located in the town of Chester in Randolph County, Illinois. It houses maximum-security and high medium-security adult males. The average daily population as of 2007 is 3,410.Facts and History of Menard Correctional Center. Illinois Department of Corrections. Menard Correctional Center opened in March 1878; it is the second oldest operating prison in Illinois, and, by a large margin, the state's largest prison. Menard once housed death row; however, on January 10, 2003, the Condemned Unit closed when then Governor George Ryan granted clemency to all Illinois death row inmates. There were two deaths of prisoners who were housed in solitary confinement with other prisoners inside their cells. Circa 2004, 28-year-old Corey Fox, who was serving a life sentence for murder, killed 22-year-old Joshua Daczewitz, a person from a Chicago suburb who was convicted of arson and r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illinois Department Of Corrections
The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the adult state prison system. The IDOC is led by a director appointed by the Governor of Illinois, and its headquarters are in Springfield. The IDOC was established in 1970, combining the state's prisons, juvenile centers, and parole services. The juvenile corrections system was split off into the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice on July 1, 2006. Facilities Crossroads and North Lawndale Adult Transition Centers are operated by the Safer Foundation. Closed prisons * Alton Military Prison: open 1833 through 1857, replaced by Joliet; operated as a military prison during the Civil War * Decatur Adult Transition Center; closed 2012 * Dwight Correctional Center: closed in 2013; maximum security * Hardin County Work Camp; closed 2015; low minimum * Jesse 'Ma' Houston Adult Transition Center: closed 2011; transitional facility * Joliet Prison: closed in 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester, Illinois
Chester is a city in and the county seat of Randolph County, Illinois, United States, on a bluff above the Mississippi River. The population was 6,814 at the 2020 census. It lies south of St. Louis, Missouri. History Founding Samuel Smith is said to be the town's founder because he built the first home in Chester, established a ferry system, and began the construction of a mill in 1829. The town was named after Chester, England, the city from where his wife Jane Smith was from. The first business in Chester was a general store that opened in 1830 along with a castor oil press established by R. B. Servant, who furnished farmers with seed and growing methods to later buy the beans they produced for oil extraction. This was a flourishing business until the petroleum industry made it obsolete. The first wedding in the town of Chester was held on February 4, 1834. Content Walker, the bride and Amzi Andrews, the groom held their wedding in a 16 feet square log cabin. Cole Milling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palatine, Illinois
Palatine () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a northwestern residential suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 67,908. As of the 2010 Census, it was the seventh-largest community in Cook County and the 18th-largest in the state of Illinois. History The first European-American to settle in Palatine is generally thought to be George Ela, who built a log cabin in the area now called Deer Grove. Ela was one of the first of a wave of pioneers to migrate to northern Illinois following the Black Hawk War. A road that passes through the western edge of Palatine is called Ela Road in his honor. Palatine is thought to be named after a town in New York state. The Village of Palatine was founded in 1866. It was built around a station on the new Chicago and North Western Railway. Joel Wood surveyed and laid out the village, earning him the title of Palatine's founder. One of Palatine's original downtown streets is named after Wood. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown's Chicken Massacre
The Brown's Chicken Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on January 8, 1993 in Palatine, Illinois, when two robbers killed seven employees at a Brown's Chicken fast-food restaurant. The case remained unsolved for nearly nine years, until one of the assailants was implicated by his girlfriend in 2002. Police used DNA samples from the murder scene to match one of the suspects, Juan Luna. Luna was put on trial in 2007, found guilty of seven counts of first degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. James Degorski, the other assailant, was found guilty in 2009 on all seven counts of first degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Incident On January 8, 1993, seven people were shot and killed at the Brown's Chicken & Pasta at 168 West Northwest Highway in Palatine. The victims included the owners, Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, and five employees: Guadalupe Maldonado, Michael C. Castro and Rico L. Solis (the latter two were Palatine High School studen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Degorski
The Brown's Chicken Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on January 8, 1993 in Palatine, Illinois, when two robbers killed seven employees at a Brown's Chicken fast-food restaurant. The case remained unsolved for nearly nine years, until one of the assailants was implicated by his girlfriend in 2002. Police used DNA samples from the murder scene to match one of the suspects, Juan Luna. Luna was put on trial in 2007, found guilty of seven counts of first degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. James Degorski, the other assailant, was found guilty in 2009 on all seven counts of first degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Incident On January 8, 1993, seven people were shot and killed at the Brown's Chicken & Pasta at 168 West Northwest Highway in Palatine. The victims included the owners, Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, and five employees: Guadalupe Maldonado, Michael C. Castro and Rico L. Solis (the latter two were Palatine High School studen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starved Rock State Park
Starved Rock State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Illinois, characterized by the many canyons within its . Located just southeast of the village of Utica, in Deer Park Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois River, the park hosts over two million visitors annually, the most for any Illinois state park. A flood from a melting glacier, known as the Kankakee Torrent, which took place approximately 14,000–19,000 years ago led to the topography of the site and its exposed rock canyons. Diverse forest plant life exists in the park and the area supports several wild animal species. Of particular interest has been sport fishing species. Before European contact, the area was home to Native Americans, particularly the Kaskaskia who lived in the Grand Village of the Illinois across the river. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans recorded as exploring the region, and by 1683, the French had established Fort St. Louis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester Weger
Chester Otto Weger (born March 3, 1939) is an American man who was convicted in 1961 of the murder of one of three women found slain at Starved Rock State Park the previous year. He was held at Pinckneyville Correctional Center and at one time was the longest serving inmate incarcerated by the State of Illinois as well as the third longest in state history before his release on February 21, 2020. On November 21, 2019, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board granted parole to Weger by a vote of 9–4. He was released on parole February 21, 2020. Murders In March 1960, three women, Frances Murphy (47), Mildred Lindquist (50), and Lillian Oetting (50), wives of prominent Chicago businessmen, took a four-day trip to Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois, along the banks of the Illinois River. They arrived from the Chicago suburb of Riverside, about 90 miles northeast of the park. On March 14, after checking into the Starved Rock Lodge, the three took an afternoon hike throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Gecht
The Ripper Crew or the Chicago Rippers was a satanic cult and organized crime group composed of serial killers, cannibals, rapists, and necrophiles Robin Gecht and three associates: Edward Spreitzer, and brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis. They were suspected in the disappearances of 17 women in Illinois in 1981 and 1982, as well as the unrelated fatal shooting of a man in a random drive-by shooting. According to one of the detectives who investigated the case, Gecht "made Manson look like a Boy Scout." Murders The gang's first victim was 28-year-old Linda Sutton, who was abducted on May 23, 1981. Ten days later, her body was found in a field in Villa Park, Illinois. Her body had been mutilated and her left breast amputated. It was almost a year before the gang struck again. On May 15, 1982, they abducted Lorraine Borowski, just as she was about to open the realtor's office where she worked. Her body was discovered five months later, in a cemetery in Clarendon Hills. On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised. He became known as the Killer Clown due to his public services as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes. Gacy committed all of his murders inside his ranch-style house near Norridge, a village in Norwood Park Township in suburban Chicago. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe him into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his captive before killing him by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three others were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River. Gacy was convicted of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and escaped twice. He was charged with but not convicted of the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer, who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout; it was the only time Dillinger was charged with homicide. Dillinger courted publicity. The media ran exaggerated accounts of his bravado and colorful personality, and cast him as a Robin Hood. In response, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), used Dillinger as a campaign platform to evolve the BOI into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, developing more sophisticated investigative techniques as weapons against organized crime.Elliott J. Gorn, ''Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One'' (2009), p 101. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homer Van Meter
Homer Virgil Van Meter (December 3, 1905 – August 23, 1934) was an American criminal and bank robber active in the early 20th century, most notably as a criminal associate of John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Biography Early life Van Meter was born to Cary B. Van Meter (1871–1918) and Julia Miller (1872–1924) in 1905 (according to other sources December 3, 1906) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of an alcoholic railroad conductor. During the sixth grade, Van Meter ran away from home, eventually ending up in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a bellhop and a waiter. He was arrested for the first time as a teenager, for drunk and disorderly conduct. In Aurora, Illinois, on June 23, 1923, Van Meter was sentenced to 41 days in jail for larceny. On January 11, 1924, he was sentenced for motor vehicle theft and incarcerated in Menard Correctional Center, Southern Illinois Penitentiary. At the time of his admission, he had a tattoo reading "HOPE" on one forearm. Van Met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
