Murders Illinois

Robert Levine knows all the stories. The gray-haired man talking with his wife over in the corner is a mob lawyer from the Midwest. The stout, mustachioed gentleman opposite him is a Mexican drug lord holding court with his extended family, complete with mournful wife, bored-looking daughter and solicitous son-in-law. Scattered about elsewhere in the linoleum-tiled waiting room on visiting day in the U.S.

A convicted murderer in Illinois was charged Wednesday with killing five Southern California women between 1986 and 1995 in Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. Andrew Urdiales, 45, was charged by the Orange County district attorney's office with five felony counts of murder, with special circumstances of committing multiple murders and a sentencing enhancement of using a handgun in three of the killings. The special circumstances charges make him subject to the death penalty.

JOHN SAM FIRST HEARD THE NEWS IN MARCH WHILE HE WAS DRIVING to work in the outskirts of Chicago, listening to the radio. The excited reporter was talking too fast, breathlessly biting off words, but Sam managed to absorb the gist of the story. A young Illinois assistant attorney general named Mary Brigid Kenney had resigned in protest after deciding the wrong men stood convicted of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico's rape and murder over in suburban DuPage County.

A pediatrician stabbed her 10-year-old son to death and wounded his younger brother, then called police to tell them what she had done, police said Friday. Dr. Ellen Feinberg, 43, was charged with murder and attempted murder. She appeared in court via video camera from a mental health facility, and a judge ordered her held without bail.

On the night of Feb. 7, 1994, Ricky Byrdsong was in a Minnesota arena to coach a basketball team . . . or so everyone there thought. It certainly started out like a routine collegiate experience, with Byrdsong's athletes from visiting Northwestern University beside him on the bench, eager not to lose their eighth game in a row. While watching his Wildcats on their way to another defeat, Byrdsong could no longer just sit there.

Police here said Saturday that one of the eight women Chicago security guard Andrew Urdiales confessed to slaying was a prostitute killed in downtown San Diego nearly a decade ago. San Diego Police Lt. Jim Collins said law enforcement officials believe that Urdiales shot and killed Mary Ann Wells, 31, Sept. 25, 1988. Wells' death took place at the same time as a string of dozens of murders of prostitutes, transients and hitchhikers--all women--in San Diego County in the mid-1980s.

Three people were charged Sunday with killing a pregnant woman and two of her children, and slicing open the woman's womb to remove her full-term baby, police said. The infant, named Elijah by relatives, was found with one of the suspects Friday, authorities said. The baby boy was in good health at a hospital. Investigators said they do not know who Elijah's father is, and they would not discuss a motive.

It started with a pre-dawn murder at a drug house. Two men, both wearing masks and wielding pistols, forced their way into the house located 13 blocks from police headquarters. Witnesses said one of the assailants threatened to shoot them all in the head as the other one robbed them of up to 30 bags of cocaine and $100 in cash. Before fading back into the night, one of the men fatally shot Charles Black, 42, in the head.

A jury convicted a 31-year-old man of kidnaping and murder Monday in the death of a prominent businessman who was buried alive in a box and suffocated in a botched $1-million ransom attempt. Daniel Edwards of Bourbonnais had pleaded innocent to three counts of murder and 10 charges of aggravated kidnaping in the death of Stephen Small. The jury took about an hour to convict Edwards on all counts. Edwards stood quietly when the verdict was read, showing no emotion.

Police disclosed Friday that they had arrested an Irvine woman on charges of killing her adopted baby daughter 18 years ago in a case that authorities said only came to light when she told an Orange County social worker about it late last year.

A federal judge in Chicago threw out the conviction of a man who confessed to shooting an 11-year-old to death in 1994, when he himself was 14. U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur ruled that police had improperly obtained Derrick Hardaway's confession after more than 14 hours of interrogation.

The man accused of killing two people and wounding 16 others in a crowded Elgin bar was an ex-con obsessed with guns and the movie "Natural Born Killers," acquaintances and witnesses said. Michael York, who huddled behind the bar during the shooting, said he heard the suspect, Luther "Luke" V. Casteel, 42, shout, "I'm the king--how do you like me now?" Casteel has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and other counts.

A gunman opened fire in an Elgin bar, killing two people, and then was subdued by other customers. At least 21 people were injured. The gunman returned to JB's Pub with several weapons after employees ordered him to leave, police Lt. Mike Turner said. Turner said there were about 200 people in the bar. Most of the injured were shot, but some suffered cuts while fleeing the gunfire. Luther "Luke" V.

Prosecutors filed murder charges Thursday against a police officer who allegedly shot to death a mentally disabled motorist after chasing him down on the highway for failing to pay for a tank of gasoline. State's Atty. Charles Reynard charged Jeffrey Gabor, 23, with first- and second-degree murder in the July 24 killing of Shannon Lee Smith, 27. He refused to provide further information.

Forty-six years after Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in a trial that riveted the nation, 34 years after he was acquitted in a second trial and 30 years after the once-rakish osteopath died a broken man, a civil jury hearing a wrongful imprisonment suit on Wednesday declined to clear him of the crime.

A week after a member of the World Church of the Creator terrorized two states by randomly gunning down minorities, federal authorities have begun investigating the white supremacist church and its self-proclaimed pontifex maximus, or supreme leader, to determine whether they incited members to violence. Authorities also are trying to determine whether the Rev.

Sheriff's officers searching the woods Tuesday found the body of a 10-year-old boy who had allegedly been kidnaped by a paroled child killer. The youngster, Christopher Meyer, vanished Aug. 7 while playing near a boat launch in Aroma Park, a small community 20 miles from the park where the body was found. Two officers discovered the decomposed body in a shallow grave partially covered by a sheet of plywood. Underwear apparently belonging to the boy had been found earlier about 2 1/2 miles away.

A woman was accused of killing her 7-month-old nephew with an electric stun gun because she wanted to quiet him. Francine Knox, 37, was charged with manslaughter Wednesday in the May 28 death of Brandon Jordan. Knox was not charged immediately because authorities were investigating other cases and the effects of stun guns on children, officials said. The infant was the son of Knox's brother, Anthony Jordan Jr., and Carolyn Hollins.

On the night of Feb. 7, 1994, Ricky Byrdsong was in a Minnesota arena to coach a basketball team . . . or so everyone there thought. It certainly started out like a routine collegiate experience, with Byrdsong's athletes from visiting Northwestern University beside him on the bench, eager not to lose their eighth game in a row. While watching his Wildcats on their way to another defeat, Byrdsong could no longer just sit there.

A terrible loss, Matthew Hale said. A sad and terrible loss. He was talking about the white man. The white man, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, shot himself to death Sunday after going on a shooting rampage. He had killed an African American man. And a Korean man too. Among his other victims, he had wounded six Orthodox Jews. But when Hale totaled up the victims, he saw only one: the white man. The others, he explained, didn't count. He sounded exasperated at having to go over this all again.