BROWSE THE ARCHIVE
Stories in this collection: 15
Elsie Paroubek (1906 – 1911)In April 1911, a small girl left her family's home on Chicago's West Side to visit an aunt around the corner and was never seen alive again. Her body was found a month later in a drainage canal near Lockport. The search for Elsie Paroubek drew in police, politicians, immigrant societies and thousands of schoolchildren, and the Chicago newspapers followed it daily. No ..
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Ioan Petru Culianu or Couliano (5 January 1950 – 21 May 1991)On May 21, 1991, Ioan Petru Culianu, a 41-year-old Romanian-born historian of religions, was shot dead in a restroom at the University of Chicago Divinity School. More than three decades later, no one has been identified as the killer and no motive has been established. The case has drawn theories involving Romanian security services, ..
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Caitlin Walch Tracey (1988–2024)Case at a GlancePersonCaitlin Tracey, 36Discovery dateOctober 27, 2024LocationSouth Loop high-rise, 1200 block of South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IllinoisCase statusAdam Beckerink has pleaded not guilty; the murder case remains pending.Latest reported developmentA dispute over proposed DNA testing was reported September 30, 2026; Beckerink was due back in court in ..
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Linda Goldstone (1948–1978)Case at a GlancePersonLinda GoldstoneIncidentAbduction, rape, and murder after approximately 36 hours of captivityDateMarch 30–April 1, 1978LocationChicago, IllinoisLegal outcomeHernando Williams pleaded guilty, received a death sentence, and was executed in 1995CategoryChicago Crime HistoryIn the spring of 1978, Linda Goldstone left home to teach a childbirth class in..
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Illustrative depiction of a Chicago residential street. This is not an actual photograph of Carol Novak's home or the crime scene. Carol Novak, 35, was killed in her North Side Chicago home in October 1981. The case went cold, and it was not solved until DNA from evidence the police had kept for three decades pointed to a man already in prison. That man, Eugene Booker, was convicted of first-deg..
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Darnell Donerson, 57; Jason Hudson, 29; and Julian King, 7 — victims of the 2008 Chicago case.Case at a GlanceDateOctober 24–27, 2008LocationEnglewood, Chicago, IllinoisVictimsDarnell Donerson, Jason Hudson, and Julian KingCase outcomeWilliam Balfour was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder on May 11, 2012Jennifer Hudson Family Murders: The 2008 Chicago CaseOn the morning of October ..
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Joe Aiello — 1930On the evening of October 23, 1930, Joe Aiello walked out of a West Side apartment building in Chicago and into a planned crossfire. He was a Sicilian-born bootlegger and one of Al Capone's most persistent enemies. Police and newspapers immediately suspected Capone's organization. No one was ever convicted, and the documented record does not establish who fired the guns or who g..
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Ranko Carol Yamada (left) and Evelyn Okubo.In July 1970, two young women from Stockton, California, went to Chicago for a Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) convention. One of them, 18-year-old Evelyn Okubo, did not leave the Palmer House hotel alive. Her roommate, 17-year-old Ranko Carol Yamada, survived with a slashed throat.More than half a century later, no one has been convicted of th..
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On July 6, 2001, two sisters, 10-year-old Tionda Bradley and 3-year-old Diamond Bradley, were reported missing in Chicago. More than two decades later, no public record explains what happened to them. Their mother reported that a note in Tionda's handwriting said the girls had gone to the store and the school playground, and an enormous search found nothing. No one has been publicly charged. Pol..
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Image of Clem Graver from newspaperOn the night of June 11, 1953, an Illinois state representative pulled his car toward a garage on Chicago's West Side. A sedan stopped in front of it. Moments later he was gone. More than seven decades later, no one has been charged and his body has never been found. The abduction itself is the best-documented part of the story. Almost everything else is disput..
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