Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Chicago Ripper Crew

The Ripper Crew or theChicago Rippers was a satanic cult and organized crime groupcomposed of serial killers, cannibals, rapists, and necrophiles RobinGecht and three associates: Edward Spreitzer, and brothers Andrew andThomas Kokoraleis. They were suspected in the disappearances of 18women in Illinois in 1981 and 1982.

Murders

The first victim of the gang was28-year-old Linda Sutton, who was abducted on May 23, 1981. Ten dayslater, her body was found in a field in Villa Park, Illinois. Herbody had been mutilated and her left breast amputated. It was almosta year before the gang struck again. On May 15, 1982, they abductedLorraine Borowski, just as she was about to open the realtor's officewhere she worked. Her body was discovered five months later, in acemetery in Clarendon Hills.

On May 29, they abducted Shui Mak fromHanover Park, a village northwest of Villa Park. Her body was notfound for four months. Two weeks after they abducted Mak, they pickedup Angel York in their van, handcuffed her and slashed her breastbefore throwing her out of the van, still alive. York's descriptionof her attackers failed to produce any leads.

The gang did not strike again for twomonths. On August 28, 1982, the body of Sandra Delaware wasdiscovered on the bank of the Chicago River. She had been stabbed,strangled, and her left breast was amputated. On September 8,31-year-old Rose Davis was found in an alley, having suffered almostidentical injuries as Delaware.

A month later, the gang committed theirlast crime. Their victim, Beverley Washington, was found by arailroad track on December 6. In addition to other injuries, herleft breast had been amputated and her right breast was severelyslashed. She survived the attack, and was able to give descriptionsof her attackers and the van they had used to abduct her.

The men were suspects in thedisappearance of Carole Pappas, wife of Chicago Cubs pitcher, MiltPappas. She disappeared on September 11, 1982. Her body was recoveredfive years later, and the death was ruled an accident.

Arrest and convictions

When Gecht was first arrested, he hadto be released because the police had little evidence connecting himto the crimes. After further investigation, though, the policediscovered that in 1981, he had rented a room in a motel along withthree friends – each with adjoining rooms. The hotel manager saidthat they had held loud parties and appeared to be involved in somekind of cult. Police then tracked down the other men, EdwardSpreitzer and the Kokoraleis brothers.

When interrogated, Thomas Kokoraleisconfessed that he and the others had taken women back to Gecht'splace – what Gecht called a "satanic chapel." There they had raped and tortured the women, and amputated theirbreasts with a wire garrotte. Kokoraleis went on to say that theywould eat parts of the severed breasts as kind of a sacrament, andthat Gecht would masturbate into the breasts before putting them in abox. Kokoraleis claimed that he once saw 15 breasts in the box.

The Kokoraleis brothers and Spreitzerconfessed to their crimes, but Gecht protested his innocence. After aseries of trials, Thomas Kokoraleis was convicted of murder but onlysentenced to life imprisonment as his reward for his initialconfession. Since then his life sentence has been commuted and he wasscheduled to be released on September 30, 2017, but his parole wasdenied by Illinois officials. He was released on parole the morningof March 29, 2019.

Gecht is serving 120 years in theMenard Correctional Center for the attempted murder and rape ofBeverly Washington and will be eligible for parole in 2042. AndrewKokoraleis was sentenced to death and was executed by lethalinjection on March 17, 1999.

Edward Spreitzer was sentenced to deathbut the sentence was commuted in George H. Ryan's last-minutecommutation of all death sentences in Illinois in 2003. Incidentally,Andrew Kokoraleis' was Governor Ryan's only execution, just over twomonths into his administration. Kokoraleis was also the last inmateexecuted in Illinois, almost 12 years before Governor Pat Quinnsigned legislation to abolish the death penalty on March 9, 2011, andcommuted 15 death sentences to life imprisonment without parole.

The Kokoraleis brothers were raisedGreek Orthodox. The Orthodox Church attempted unsuccessfully to keepAndrew Kokoraleis from being executed. Demetrios Kantzavelos, at thattime a chancellor (later a bishop) of the Greek Orthodox Metropolisof Chicago, became an anti-death-penalty activist as a result of theexecution, and helped lobby in favor of ending the death penalty inthe state.

Thomas Kokoraleis was released fromprison in March 2019 after serving half of his 70-year sentence. Asof June 30, 2019, Kokoraleis lives at Wayside Cross Ministries at 215E. New York St. in Aurora, Illinois.