Illinois

39,858 murders reported in Illinois from 1976 to 2025; police reports named an offender in about 59%. Explore the statistics →

Cases that span several states show only their locations in Illinois. Open on the big map

Cases

John Wayne Gacy
1972–1978 · Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois
SerialExecuted28 victims
John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 at his home in Norwood Park Township, just outside Chicago, burying most of them on his property and leaving four in the Des Plaines River.
Murder of Emmett Till
1955 · Money and Sumner, Mississippi
SingleAcquitted1 victim
In August 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago, was visiting relatives near Money, Mississippi.
Harry Powers
1931 · Quiet Dell, West Virginia
SerialExecuted5 victims
Harry Powers, a Dutch-born man living in Clarksburg, West Virginia, used "lonely hearts" correspondence clubs to court women for their money.
Jeffrey Dahmer
1978–1991 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Bath Township, Ohio
SerialConvicted17 victims
Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, one in Ohio and the rest in Milwaukee and its suburb West Allis.
Ted Kaczynski
1978–1995 · Lincoln, Montana
SerialPleaded guilty14 victims
Between 1978 and 1995 Ted Kaczynski, a former mathematics professor living in a remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana, mailed or planted 16 bombs that killed three people and injured more than 20 at universities, an…
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz
1991–1999 · Texas and other states along US rail lines
SerialExecuted13 victims
Angel Maturino Resendiz, a Mexican drifter who rode freight trains across the United States, was linked to at least 15 killings, most of them in homes or along railroad tracks, between the 1980s and 1999.
Anthony Garcia
2008–2013 · Omaha, Nebraska
SerialConvicted4 victims
Anthony Garcia, a physician who had been dismissed from Creighton University's pathology residency in 2001, killed four people in Omaha in revenge against faculty members he blamed.
Brown's Chicken massacre
1993 · Palatine, Illinois
MassConvicted7 victims
On the night of January 8, 1993, seven people were killed at closing time at the Brown's Chicken & Pasta restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Palatine: the owners, Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, and five employees, two of…
Chicago Tylenol murders
1982 · Chicago metropolitan area, Illinois
SerialUnsolved7 victims
Between September 29 and early October 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that someone had laced with cyanide.
Richard Speck
1966 · Chicago, Illinois
MassConvicted8 victims
On the night of July 13-14, 1966, Richard Speck, a 24-year-old drifter, broke into a townhouse on Chicago's Far South Side that served as a dormitory for nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital and killed eight young women.