Andrew Kokoraleis

The Ripper Crew or the Chicago Rippers was an organized crime group of serial killers, cannibals, rapists, and necrophiles.

The group composed of Robin Gecht and three associates: Edward Spreitzer, and brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis.

They were suspected in the murders of 17 women in Illinois in 1981 and 1982, as well as the unrelated fatal shooting of a man in a random drive-by shooting.

According to one of the detectives who investigated the case, Gecht "made Manson look like a Boy Scout."

The gang's first victim was 28-year-old Linda Sutton, who was abducted on May 23, 1981.

Ten days later, her body was found in a field in Villa Park, Illinois.

Her body had been mutilated and her left breast amputated.

It was almost a year before the gang struck again.

After further investigation, though, the police discovered that in 1981, he had rented a room in a motel along with three friends – each with adjoining rooms.

The hotel manager said that they had held loud parties and appeared to be involved in some kind of cult.

Police then tracked down the other men, Edward Spreitzer and the Kokoraleis brothers.

When interrogated, Thomas Kokoraleis confessed that he and the others had taken women back to Gecht's place – what Gecht called a "satanic chapel."

There they had raped and tortured the women, and amputated their breasts with a wire garrote.

Kokoraleis went on to say that they would eat parts of the severed breasts as kind of a sacrament, and that Gecht would masturbate into the breasts before putting them in a box.

Kokoraleis claimed that he once saw 15 breasts in the box.

Gecht, the only member of the gang to maintain his innocence, was never tried for any of the murders due to a lack of evidence.

On May 15, 1982, they abducted Lorraine Borowski, just as she was about to open the realtor's office where she worked.

Her body was discovered five months later, in a cemetery in Clarendon Hills.

On May 29, they abducted Shui Mak from Hanover Park, a village northwest of Villa Park.

Her body was not found for four months.

Two weeks after they abducted Mak, they picked up Angel York in their van, handcuffed her and slashed her breast before throwing her out of the van, still alive.

York's description of her attackers failed to produce any leads.

The gang did not strike again for two months.

On August 28, 1982, the body of Sandra Delaware was discovered 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 almost identical injuries as Delaware.

On October 6, 1982, the gang shot 28-year-old Rafael Tirado, a local drug dealer, and his friend, 18-year-old Alberto Rosario, at a phone booth in a random drive-by shooting.

According to Spreitzer, he was driving with Gecht when the older man told him to slow down.

Gecht took two guns from the back of the car, told Spreitzer to stop the car, and then opened fire on Tirado and Rosario, hitting both of them.

Rosario survived his injuries, while Tirado succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

Tirado was the gang's only male victim.

A month later, the gang committed their last crime.

Their victim, Beverley Washington, was found by a railroad track on December 6.

In addition to other injuries, her left breast had been amputated and her right breast was severely slashed.

She survived the attack, and was able to give descriptions of her attackers and the van they had used to abduct her.

The men were suspects in the disappearance of Carole Pappas, wife of Chicago Cubs pitcher Milt Pappas.

She disappeared on September 11, 1982.

Her body was recovered five years later, and the death was ruled an accident.

When Gecht was first arrested, he had to be released since the police had insufficient evidence to connect him to the crimes.

In 1983, he was convicted of attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, deviate sexual assaults, and rape for the non-fatal rape and assault of Beverly Washington.