Expect a bit more tweaking, Bill Clutter says, after twice changing a proposal for amending the Illinois Constitution through voter initiative. A Democratic candidate for the 48th Senate District, Clutter on Sept. 7 announced a petition drive to institute open primaries – preliminary elections in which voters would not be required to divulge their party […]
Bill Clutter
Posted inNews
Defenders of the innocent
It’s not every day that a serial killer helps a writer solve a crime, so when Diane Fanning, a Texas true-crime author, received a letter from convicted killer Tommy Lynn Sells admitting to a murder in Illinois, she knew she was on to something big. Fanning convinced Sells to give more details about the1997 murder […]
Posted inNews
Pair freed from prison, but still not in the clear
In 1986, newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoades were murdered and their bodies burnt in their Paris, Ill., home. Police arrested Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock for the murders, and the two men each spent many years in prison before their cases were overturned. Now, the DNA evidence in that double murder is being retested, and […]
Posted inNews
Caregiver or killer?
Something wasn’t right when Cynthia Czapski picked up her 10-month-old son, Matthew, from a Bartlett, Ill., day care on Aug. 11, 1994. The child seemed to be sleeping, but she couldn’t wake him up. Matthew was taken to the emergency room and then to another hospital, where doctors worked to relieve bleeding and swelling in […]
