About the Chicago Strangler

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The Chicago strangler remains one of the biggest clusters of unsolved murders in America.

Chicago, Illinois is known as "The Windy City" for its blustery winters and high winds from Lake Michigan. It is a big city dream. It has close-knit communities, hardworking citizens, The Willis Tower, Lake Michigan, grand architecture, museums, bustling nightlife, deep-dish pizza, art, music, and culture. This is often overlooked when put against the crime ratio in minority communities. Chicago is broken into four sections, the Southside, the Westside, the Eastside, and the Northside. This sectional difference is magnified when you choose between the two professional baseball teams the city proudly has. In 2017, the Murder Accountability Project's statistical data picked up on the biggest clusters of unsolved women strangulations in America, from 2001–2018.

The Murder Accountability Project has a statistical method that can identify a serial killer pattern. Their mission is to have technology that will link similar murders together for possible investigation using data. It spots murder patterns that go unnoticed. It alerted on the 51 women throughout Chicago that have been strangled, murdered, and/or dumped. Most of the crimes in Chicago are handgun-related, and having a large number of strangulations is concerning to law enforcement. Strangulation is a personal crime because of the closeness of the act. The women were found in abandoned buildings, alleyways, vacant lots, and trashcans, and almost all of them are found throughout the Southside and Westside of Chicago. In the beginning, very little was reported in the press and it seemed like an urban myth in these communities. Word of mouth served as a warning to each other when another body was discovered.

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What makes the Chicago strangulations unusual is the selection process. The victims were of different lifestyles and ages-all women. The murders were committed outside and some were found nude, semi-nude, and raped. In one case, a woman was found strangled and dismembered. Two were found murdered and set on fire. When analyzing data, they found ¾ of the victims were African-American, ¼ are White or Hispanic. Per the Murder Accountability Project, there could be at least three separate serial killers roaming the streets of Chicago. One of them is White and at least two are African-American. The murder pattern went from 2001, stopped in 2014 and picked back up in 2017, and ended in 2018. When the strangulations resumed in 2017, it clearly appeared to follow the previous pattern of murders. Strangulations by year in Chicago: 2001-(6), 2002-(6), 2003-(8), 2004-(3), 2005-(5), 2006-(3), 2007-(4), 2008-(1), 2009-(4), 2010-(2), 2011-(1), 2012-(1), 2014-(1), 2017-(2), 2018-(4) totaling 51 women. 

The Chicago Tribune picked up the full story of these strangulations and discovered 75 cases over a 20-year period. In 2017, (Hilliard) was charged with killing a woman he dated, 21-year-old Diamond Turner. She was found strangled and dumped which was the first murder after the three-year gap. His DNA was a match and was checked against other victims and currently, there is no word on whether it is a match to other women. There is hardly any DNA recovered from the scenes. The citizens of the South/West sides feel much isn't being done to bring light to these strangulation cases. They feel there are too many murders in the same area for them not to be related.

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The murder pattern was seen before in Gary, IN, 30 miles East of Chicago. In 2010, there was a cluster of 15 strangulations of women. Most were also found in abandoned buildings and empty alleyways. In 2014, 43-year-old (Vann), a suspected serial killer was arrested. In his interrogation, he confessed to keeping a wire on him at all times, having murder urges and his victims were random. He confessed to killing and strangling many women and offered to take them to six bodies right then and there. He took them to his recent six victims' bodies who were hidden in abandoned properties. Police had no contact with him before he was arrested and believed the arrest will lead to more victims. None of the victims were known to the police until he showed them. When asked about the Chicago murders, he said there are a lot more victims there and he was not going to provide much information. He said he has killed more people in IL than in IN. To date, he is not connected to the strangled women.

A special task force has been assigned of homicide detectives working with the FBI violent crimes task force to look at the cases that are not yet closed. The Chicago strangulations remain one of the biggest clusters of unsolved murders in America. As of current, no connection has been made between any of them.

If you have any information, please contact the Chicago Police Department.

Sources and Links

FOX32 Chicago

WGN

Chicago Tribune

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15867826/