Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Satanic Ripper Crew Killer Eyed in 20 Slayings to Be Let Out on Parole

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ripper Crews killer Thomas Kokaraleis has served about half of a 70-year sentence

ELMHURST, Illinois —  A member of the satanic Ripper Crew, who kidnapped up to 20 women in the early 1980s and tortured, raped and killed them, will be released from prison on parole at the end of the month, authorities said.

Thomas Kokaraleis, 59, will walk out of the Illinois River Correctional Center on March 29 after serving half of a 70-year sentence for the slaying of 21-year-old Lorry Borowski in 1982.

Police believe he and his brothers and two other men were responsible for the murder of up to 20 women in and around Chicago during the 1980s.

His brother, Andrew Kokoraleis, received the death penalty and was executed by lethal injection in 1999 before it was abolished in Illinois. Two other men connected to the murders are still behind bars, with one eligible for parole in 2042.

The men were part of the satanic cult group known as the “Ripper Crew,” which stalked the streets of Chicago and its suburbs, in a red van looking for women to kidnap, beat, rape, torture and kill. The men would often cut off their victims’ breasts as part of a cannibalistic ritual.

Victim Lorry Borowski

Borowski was kidnapped in May 1982 from outside a real estate office where she worked. She was then tortured, raped and killed. Her body was found five months later and the crew was finally arrested in November of that year.

Florida Man Accused of Chopping Off Rival’s Penis Held on $1M Bond

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Justin Foster is accused of flying halfway across the country to chop off the man’s penis

DES PLAINES, Illinois — A Florida man was held on $1 million bond for allegedly chopping off the penis of his ex-girlfriend’s new beau after brutally beating him with a tire iron.

Prosecutors say Justin Foster, 28, of Tallahassee, travelled halfway across the country to a Chicago suburb to confront his ex’s new paramour and beat him so badly he was left with permanent brain damage.

“We’re talking about a very heinous crime here,” Assistant State’s Attorney Luis Muniz said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Authorities say Foster flew from Atlanta to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in March and then rented a car and drove to Des Plaines, where he approached the 26-year-old  man on the street, hit him in the head with a tire iron, carved initials into his leg and then cut off his penis.

Investigators say Foster then threw the man’s member over a fence and then hid his bleeding body behind a parked car before returning to the airport and catching a flight back to Atlanta.

Somehow, the victim survived, but suffered permanent brain damaged. Authorities didn’t say whether doctor’s were able to reattach his penis.

Foster was arrested in Tallahassee on Aug. 27 and was brought to Illinois on Sept. 20 to face charges.

Foster’s lawyer argued that the case against his client is circumstantial, with no physical evidence tying him to the crime. He also said that the victim might not be able to identify Foster as the men who attacked him.

 

Man Uses Change of Address Form to Get UPS Mail Sent to His House

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Dashaun Spruce managed to get thousands of letters meant for UPS sent to his house instead

CHICAGO — It’s so stupid, it’s brilliant.

A clever con man used a postal service change of address form to redirect mail meant for UPS corporate headquarters in Atlanta to be sent instead to his tiny apartment in Chicago.

Federal prosecutors say Dushaun Spruce managed to deposit $60,000 worth of checks that were meant to go to UPS, during the month the company’s voluminous quantity of mail was arriving at his house late last year.

It was only after the checks went astray that UPS even noticed something was wrong and contacted the postal police.

When authorities raided Spruce’s home, they found 3,000 pieces of mail that was intended to go to UPS. Postal carriers said so much mail had started showing up at Spruce’s house, that it couldn’t fit in his letter box  and they had to leave it in postal tubs outside his door.

Postal officials say they process 37 million change of address forms each year, but only about 1,000 end up being investigated for fraud.

Spruce told the Chicago Tribune that he had started receiving UPS’ mail due to a mix up and that he wasn’t responsible.

Boneheaded Rapper Jailed for 15 Years for Waving Around Illegal Gun in Music Video

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ricardo Burgos thought he’d add some street cred by waving guns around in his video

CHICAGO — Boneheaded bravado isn’t one of the seven sins, but it should be.

A rapper trying to make it big will instead spend the next 15 years behind bars after shooting a video featuring him waving around guns that as a convicted felon are illegal for him to carry.

Ricardo Burgos, who goes by the stage name “Nation,” shot the video in January 2016 in a hotel room just north of Chicago in which he is seen holding two guns — including a .45 caliber pistol — while rapping about selling drugs, committing acts of violence, and dissing cops.

Burgos, 31, who allegedly is a member of the Conservative Vice Lords street gang, had previously been convicted of multiple felonies and so isn’t legally allowed to possess a firearm, prosecutors said.

He was busted a short time later when he brought the gun into Chicago. Investigators determined that the .45-caliber pistol had been stolen from a store in Indiana and had been used in a shooting in Chicago two days before the music video was filmed.

Burgos was additionally hit with a drug charge for multiple illegal narcotic sales he made to undercover officers in 2015.

He pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of distribution of a controlled substance.

 

Serial Stowaway Sneaks Onto Flight Without Ticket for 10th Time

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Marilyn Hartman has snuck onto planes so many times she has been dubbed the “serial stowaway”

CHICAGO — A woman dubbed the “serial stowaway” has been busted for the 10th time for sneaking through security and onto an airplane without a ticket, this time making it all the way from Chicago to London before being caught.

Marilyn Hartman, 66, of Grayslake, Illinois, is a notorious figure in aviation circles for her ability to find ways of getting onto planes unnoticed despite the intense security at airports.

She was busted at least eight times in 2014 for pulling such stunts. The next year, she got nabbed twice in two months at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports. She’s also been arrested in California and Arizona.

Hartman has spent a year in jail for the repeated episodes and was released on probation to a nursing home in December 2015.

But Chicago police say Hartman showed up at O’Hare on Jan. 14, where she managed to sneak past airport security without a boarding pass or passport, and then got on a British Airways flight to London.

She allegedly hid in the airplane bathroom during takeoff and then sat down in an empty seat for the rest of the flight, although airline staff realized she didn’t belong there and notified authorities in the United Kingdom that they had a stowaway onboard.

Hartman was detained at Heathrow Airport and sent back to Chicago where she was place under arrest.

In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration said Hartman had been checked through security even though she had no ticket and that it was investigating what went wrong.

 

Teen Paperboy Raising Cash for Christmas Presents Slain on Route in Chicago

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Paperboy Brian Jasso was trying to save cash to buy his mother (R) headphones for Christmas

CHICAGO — A 15-year-old newspaper delivery boy saving money to buy a Christmas present for his mom, was shot and killed in what police think may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Paperboy Brian Jasso was helping his mother’s boyfriend deliver copies of the Chicago Tribune on the south side of the city Sunday morning when their car was rear-ended at a traffic light, police said.

The occupants of the car behind them then began shooting, firing numerous shots through the rear window of the delivery vehicle, striking Jasso in the back of the head and killing him, cops said.

Investigators said neither the boy nor the mother’s boyfriend had gang ties and it is believed the gunmen may have confused them for someone else.  Another theory is that it was a carjacking gone bad.

“I hope the person who did this sees this so they could know whose life they took,” the boy’s mother Carmen Manzano, told the Tribune. “He was a person who had dreams, he was a person who wasn’t doing wrong like they are doing bad things on the street.”

The family said the teen had been helping out to raise some extra money to buy his mother a present for Christmas and to be able to afford to take his girlfriend out on a date.

Psychic Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud in Bilking Elderly Woman Out of $3.5 Million

By HardBoiledNews Staff

BOSTON —  Surely she should have seen the tax man coming.

A predatory psychic who bilked an elderly Martha’s Vineyard woman out of $3.5 million in order to rid her of demons, has pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

Sally Ann Johnson, 41, swooped into the victim’s life in 2007 and convinced to pay top dollar for repeated spiritual cleansing ceremonies, exorcisms and healing services over the next seven years. At times, Johnson even lived with the victim.

Federal prosecutors say Johnson, who also went by the names Angela Johnson, Angelia Johnson, and Sally Reed operated various psychic businesses in Florida, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.

The businesses, Flatiron Psychic, Psychic Match, Inc., and Psychic Spiritual Salon, Inc., all offered “psychic readings,” “spiritual cleansing & strengthening,” and “meditation & healing.”

But what ultimately landed Johnson in the dock was the lengths she went to in order to obscure the payments the victim made to her so that the IRS wouldn’t pick up on it.

Prosecutors say Johnson used an alias and directed that payments be sent to at least three different bank accounts connected to her, including an account in another person’s name. Johnson would then withdrew large amounts in cash.

She also ran up huge credit card bills on accounts in the victim’s name and had her pay the bill in lieu of paying directly for her services.

Prosecutors say the whole subterfuge was designed to conceal Johnson’s income from the IRS and that, in fact, she never paid a dime in tax on the $3.5 million.

Johnson pleaded guilty to interfering with the administration of the Internal Revenue laws and had agreed to pay $3,567,3000 back to the victim as well as pay back taxes. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 17, 2018.

 

Slow-Speed Runaway Bulldozer Escape Crushes Police Car Like Tin Can

By HardBoiledNews Staff

KANKAKEE, Illinois — He was set on making his getaway no matter how long it took.

An Illinois man led cops on a wild, slow-speed chase after stealing a 20-ton bulldozer, smashing a patrol car beneath its treads and narrowly avoiding crushing an officer.

Austin White, 18, was arrested on August 24 in the bizarre incident but dashcam video of the episode just surfaced this week, following a Freedom of Information Act request by WLS-TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Pq72bO2Zo

Police say White stole the giant vehicle from a construction site in the middle of the night and was goofing around when cops began arriving at the scene. He then bolts, going 12 blocks through city streets, traveling just 5 miles per hour.

In the video, White can be seen driving the multi-ton truck over an approaching patrol car whose driver hopped out just in time.

Officers can be seen throughout the episode giving chase on foot.Eventually they managed to pull White from the vehicle and toss him to the ground. They were forced to use a Taser to subdue before hauling him in.

Austin White after cops had enough to do with him

He is being held on six felony counts of attempted murder and driving under the influence of drugs. Police say White has never had a driver’s license.

YouTube Star Austin Jones Hit With Child Porn Charges

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CHICAGO — Austin Jones, a musician and YouTube star has been hit with child pornography charges for allegedly talking underage fans into sending him sexually explicit videos.

The 24-year-old pop singer, who resides in Bloomingdale, Illinois, has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, most of whom are young girls, and his YouTube videos are routinely watched millions of times.

Federal prosecutors say he is charged with talking two 14-year-old girls he met on Facebook into sending him video of them exposing their private parts while twerking for the camera and talking about how young they are.

“Get super close and say these lines: hey Austin, it’s (name) and this butt is (age) years old and then make it clap for 30 seconds. Got it?” he was quoted in the indictment as telling one of the victims.

To the second victim, Jones was quoted as saying: “Think about how amazing that would be for you!! To have your favorite singer spanking your ass!” He then said, “If you’re lucky, maybe I’d let you suck my d**k.”

Prosecutors said Jones would goad the victims into making more explicit videos by telling them they had to prove they were his biggest fans. If they demurred, he would threaten to break off communication. He admitted to the FBI that he would masturbate to the videos.

After being contacted by the FBI, Facebook deactivated Jones’ account, prosecutors said.

Jones was arrested on Monday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and was set to go before a judge on Wednesday to face two counts of producing child pornography. He faces between 15 and 30 years on each count.

In 2015,  a petition circulated demanding Jones be removed from the Warped Tour for allegedly soliciting underage girls to send him twerking videos. He later apologized to fans, saying in a post on Facebook that he had gone into therapy and that he never “intended to mistreat or humiliate anyone.”

Chicago Gang Leader Faces 70 Years After Instagramming Pics From Gun Range

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CHICAGO — A Chicago gang leader faces up to 70 years in prison for firing a pistol with pals at a gun range and then posting pictures on Instagram that documented the day.

Labar “Bro Man” Spann, 38, is barred from having a gun due to a variety of prior felony convictions including aggravated battery of a police officer, drug offenses, harassment of a witness and armed robbery.

The reputed leader of the Four Corner Hustlers pleaded guilty to going with a gal pal and a friend to Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, Illinois in September 2014 and loading a Glock 19 and opening fire at targets at the range.

Prosecutors alleged that Spann later posted a number of photographs and videos on Instagram showing him at the range and the targets at which he’d fired.

“Ya’ll know I had to go first just to show my b***ch how this s**t works lmao I do this s**t,” Spann wrote below one picture he posted showing a target with holes in the head and chest.

Spann also pleaded guilty to pressuring his girlfriend, Ladonah Hampton, to lie to authorities and say that he had never fired a gun while at the range.

He was also pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to sell after cops found dozens of small bags of the white powder in his home.

Spann faces up to 70 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 5, 2017.

In addition to his various felony offenses, Spann was acquitted of being the mastermind behind the 2003 killing of Rudy Rangel, a notorious high-ranking member of the Latin Kings street gang.