RIPPER CREW (GANG MEMBER, ANDREW KOKORALEIS EXECUTED ON MARCH 16, 1999 IN ILLINOIS)

            On this date, March 16, 1999, Andrew Kokoraleis, one of the members of the Ripper Crew was executed by lethal injection in Illinois. He was the last man executed in that State. I will post information about him from Wikipedia and some other news sources before giving my comments.

Mugshots; left to right: Gecht, Spreitzer, Andrew, and Thomas

Background information
Also known as	The Chicago Rippers The Ripper Crew
Born	United States
Penalty	120 years in prison (R.G.) death date penalty (E.S., commuted to life; A.K., executed) life imprisonment (T.K.)
Killings
Number of victims	18
Country	United States
State(s)	Illinois
Date apprehended	November 5, 1982

Andrew Kokoraleis

Ripper Crew or Chicago Rippers was a satanic cult and organized crime group composed of Robin Gecht (who once worked for the serial killer John Wayne Gacy) and three associates (Edward Spreitzer with brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis). They were suspected in the disappearances of 18 women in Chicago, Illinois in 1981 and '82. Gecht and his gang allegedly drove around in a van looking for prostitutes to sacrifice in Gecht's apartment. They claimed to have removed one breast from each victim and eaten it as Gecht read passages of The Satanic Bible. It has also been said that they, after severing the breast, took turns raping the open wound. They then proceeded to each masturbate into the flesh of the breast, chop it into pieces, and devour it.

These men were arrested in 1982 for the stabbing of a teenaged prostitute. Although Gecht's associates and other witnesses implicated him in some of the deaths, investigators never had enough evidence to charge him with murder. Gecht is serving 120 years in Menard Correctional Center for mutilating and raping an 18-year-old prostitute.

Edward Spreitzer and Andrew Kokoraleis were sentenced to death. On March 16, 1999, 35-year-old Kokoraleis was executed by lethal injection at Tamms Correctional Center in Southern Illinois for the 1982 strangulation murder of Lorraine Borowski, a 21-year-old secretary at a real estate office who had been abducted on her way to work. Her mutilated body was found in a cemetery.

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued that Kokoraleis was coerced into confessing. They also argued that new information cast doubt on the credibility of confessions by two co-defendants who accused him. Andrew, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Rose Beck Davis, was the first prisoner executed at a new super-maximum-security prison in southern Illinois.

Thomas Kokoraleis was convicted of Lorraine Borowski's murder and received a life sentence. His life sentence was later commuted and he is now scheduled to be released on September 30, 2017; he is currently in Illinois River Correctional Center.

On March 7, 1999, Robin Gecht's son David and three others were charged with first-degree murder in connection with a shooting death which police believe to be gang-related.

Edward Spreitzer's death sentence was commuted in George H. Ryan's last-minute commutation of all death sentences in Illinois in 2003. Incidentally, Andrew Kokoraleis' was Governor Ryan's only execution, just over two months into his administration. Kokoraleis was also the last inmate executed in Illinois, almost 12 years before Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation to abolish the death penalty on March 9, 2011, and commuted 15 death sentences to life imprisonment without parole.

Robin Getch  

Robin Gecht
Background information
Birth name	Robin Gecht
Born	1953 (age 59–60) Menard, Illinois

Andrew Spreitzer Edward Spreitzer
Background information
Birth name	Edward Spreitzer
Born	1958 (age 54–55) IL

Andrew Kokoraleis Andrew Kokoraleis
Background information
Birth name	Andrew Kokoraleis
Born	1961
Died	March 16, 1999 (aged 37–38)
Cause of death	Execution by lethal injection

Thomas Kokoraleis Thomas Kokoraleis
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Kokoraleis
Born	1958 (age 54–55) IL

LINKS:

1. http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k1/kokoraleis-andrew.htm

2. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/partners/chicago_rippers/9.html

           

I wished that there was a joint enterprise law and most likely, either only one of the gang members will kill (as they will most likely be afraid to all die) or the whole gang might had dispersed.

It was a morbid compassion that Governor George Ryan spared all the death row inmates. Many are glad that the innocent death row inmates were found, but to spare the lives of the guilty was a fatal mistake. Apart from Andrew Kokoraleis, the other three members of the Ripper Crew were allowed to keep their lives. I wonder if those abolitionists will keep silent over the case of the Ripper Crew.

Please go to this blog post to hear from the victim’s father.