Latest / Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained / The Most Sadistic Cult in American History

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The Most Sadistic Cult in American History · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

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  Speaker 1: In the early 1980s, the city of Chicago was plagued
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  Speaker 1: by a nightmarish series of horrific serial murders. After being
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  Speaker 1: chosen at random, the victims were kidnapped, mutilated, often murdered,
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  Speaker 1: then dumped in various locations around the city. What you're
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  Speaker 1: about to hear is extremely disturbing and is most certainly
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  Speaker 1: not for the faint of heart. This is the story
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  Speaker 1: of The Ripper Crew. On May 23rd of 1981, 28-year-old
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  Speaker 1: Linda Sutton was declared missing by deeply concerned relatives. Just
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  Speaker 1: ten days later, her mutilated corpse was found in a
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  Speaker 1: field in the Chicago suburb of Villa Park. Whoever had
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  Speaker 1: killed her had taken the time to slice off her
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  Speaker 1: left breast as a trophy of their grisly endeavor. The
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  Speaker 1: following year, during the early morning of May 15th of 1982,
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  Speaker 1: Lorraine Borowski was opening up her realtor's office when she
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  Speaker 1: was snatched right off the street. Five months later, her
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  Speaker 1: body was found lying on top of a grave in
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  Speaker 1: a Clarendon Hills cemetery, also with the left breast removed.
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  Speaker 1: Two weeks later, a woman by the name of Shwee
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  Speaker 1: Mack was abducted from Hanover Park, and when her body
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  Speaker 1: was found four months later, police were forced to accept
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  Speaker 1: that they had a serial killer on their hands when
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  Speaker 1: they found that the same gruesome amputation had been performed.
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  Speaker 1: Just a few weeks later, the killer struck again, dragging
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  Speaker 1: a young woman named Angel York into his van before
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  Speaker 1: he handcuffed her. Miraculously, Angel wasn't murdered, but suffered horrific
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  Speaker 1: injuries when the killer slashed at her left breast with
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  Speaker 1: a knife before tossing her out of the moving van.
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  Speaker 1: Angel was in the hospital when she was interviewed by
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  Speaker 1: the Chicago police detectives who were assigned to the murders,
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  Speaker 1: and it was then that she told them something truly chilling.
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  Speaker 1: the killer wasn't just some lone maniac targeting vulnerable females.
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  Speaker 1: He was being assisted by up to three additional accomplices.
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  Speaker 1: Angel was able to provide detailed descriptions of each of
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  Speaker 1: the suspects, but while detectives were scouring the profiles of
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  Speaker 1: known criminals, they were able to kill again. On August
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  Speaker 1: 28th of 1982, the body of Sondra Delaware was discovered
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  Speaker 1: on the bank of the Chicago River. She had been
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  Speaker 1: strangled and stabbed to death, and just like the other victims,
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  Speaker 1: her left breast was amputated. This was followed by the
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  Speaker 1: discovery of 31-year-old Rose Davis' body on September 8th. She
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  Speaker 1: had suffered identical injuries to the other victims, with the
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  Speaker 1: same signature amputation having been performed. There wasn't a break
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  Speaker 1: in the investigation until December 6th of 1982, when a
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  Speaker 1: woman named Beverly Washington was found lying unconscious by a
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  Speaker 1: railroad track. She had multiple stab wounds and her left
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  Speaker 1: breast had been cut off. But somehow, She was still alive.
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  Speaker 1: Once she regained consciousness, she was able to give highly
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  Speaker 1: detailed descriptions, not just of the suspects, but also of
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle they were using to abduct their victims. The
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  Speaker 1: van was traced to a man named David Gecht, who
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  Speaker 1: was promptly arrested on suspicion of murder. Police believed they'd
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  Speaker 1: be able to collate sufficient evidence to convict him during
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  Speaker 1: his initial period of detention. Yet to their frustration, they
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  Speaker 1: fell short. and were forced to release Gecht after just
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  Speaker 1: a few days. Following his release, detectives worked night and
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  Speaker 1: day in order to compile more evidence, and Gecht's undoing
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  Speaker 1: finally came in the form of a motel receipt. Police
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  Speaker 1: were able to track down the motel's owner, who gave
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  Speaker 1: a lengthy testimony detailing Gecht's stay at his establishment. He
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  Speaker 1: had rented three adjoining rooms with two friends of his,
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  Speaker 1: holding a loud, raucous party late into the night. But
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  Speaker 1: that wasn't all. and the detectives were deeply unsettled to
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  Speaker 1: hear that the motel owner believed Gecht to be involved
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  Speaker 1: in some type of cult. After hearing that Gecht was
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  Speaker 1: the main suspect in a murder case, the motel owner
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  Speaker 1: happily provided police with the names of his friends, those
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  Speaker 1: being Edward Spreitzer and two brothers named Andrew and Thomas Kokorelis.
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  Speaker 1: After the police picked up Thomas Kokorelis, they forced him
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  Speaker 1: to confess that he and the others had taken women
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  Speaker 1: back to Gecht's motel room, Hell, the man himself referred
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  Speaker 1: to the motel as a satanic chapel. It was there
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  Speaker 1: that they drove their kidnapped victims after snatching them from
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  Speaker 1: off the street, and although the motel owner had heard
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  Speaker 1: loud music coming from the men's rooms, it was merely
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  Speaker 1: a way of drowning out the woman's screams as they
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  Speaker 1: were beaten. violated, and murdered and mutilated. Thomas Kokorelis claimed
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  Speaker 1: that David Gecht was the one responsible for the breast amputation.
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  Speaker 1: After removing them from his deceased victims, Gecht would slice
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  Speaker 1: off pieces of the amputated breasts before eating them raw,
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  Speaker 1: telling the others it was a kind of satanic ritual
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  Speaker 1: that they should also partake of. Following this, he would
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  Speaker 1: place the severed breasts in a sealed box. Thomas Kokorelis
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  Speaker 1: claimed to have personally witnessed the contents of this box
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  Speaker 1: and claimed that there were no less than 15 severed
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  Speaker 1: breasts in it. He also claimed that Goethe would have
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  Speaker 1: his way with the dead bodies of his deceased victims.
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  Speaker 1: Goethe was clearly a maniac, but he was also highly
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  Speaker 1: intelligent and managed to conceal enough evidence that it was
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  Speaker 1: impossible to directly charge him with murder. Instead, he was
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  Speaker 1: charged with attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, and deviant assaults for
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  Speaker 1: the attack of Beverly, Washington and and was convicted in 1983.
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  Speaker 1: Before sentencing him to 120 years in prison, Judge Francis J.
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  Speaker 1: Mahone told Goeck, not even an animal would do these things,
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  Speaker 1: only a devil or a monster would. Next came the
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  Speaker 1: trials of Goeck's three accomplices, starting with Edward Spreitzer in 1984.
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  Speaker 1: Spreitzer admitted that on October 6th of 1982, the gang
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  Speaker 1: shot 28-year-old Rafael Torado, and his friend Alberto Rosario at
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  Speaker 1: a phone booth in a random drive-by shooting. According to Spreitzer,
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  Speaker 1: he was driving Gek's van with Gekt in the passenger
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  Speaker 1: seat when he was ordered to slow down. Gek then
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  Speaker 1: took two guns from a rear seat, told Spreitzer to
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  Speaker 1: stop the van, then opened fire on Torado and Rosario.
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  Speaker 1: Rosario survived being shot, but tragically, Torado succumbed to his
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  Speaker 1: wounds at the hospital in the hours that followed. In
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  Speaker 1: a bid to avoid the death penalty, Spreitzer pled guilty
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  Speaker 1: to the murders of four of the gang's victims, as
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  Speaker 1: well as on the lesser charges of attempted murder and
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  Speaker 1: aggravated kidnapping. During the sentencing phase, Spreitzer's attorney argued that
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  Speaker 1: he was a junior member of the Ripper crew and
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  Speaker 1: was acting purely on the orders of David Gecht. She
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  Speaker 1: claimed Spreitzer was immature, impulsive, and simplistic, a man who
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  Speaker 1: would do almost anything to please his friend. The prosecution,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, called Spreitzer... Every Woman's Worst Nightmare,
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  Speaker 1: and labeled his accomplices cowardly weasels who roamed in packs
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  Speaker 1: to prey on women. His attempt was successful, and the
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  Speaker 1: judicial system took mercy on him, sentencing him to life
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  Speaker 1: in prison without the possibility of parole as opposed to
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  Speaker 1: the death penalty. In 1985, it was Andrew Kokoralis' turn
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  Speaker 1: to be convicted of murder, assault, and aggravated kidnapping. The
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  Speaker 1: prosecution once again sought a death sentence, yet During the
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  Speaker 1: sentencing phase, Kokoralis' defense attorney took a similar approach as Spreitzer's,
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  Speaker 1: claiming that his client had been a follower, not an organizer.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, the tactic worked, and the jury spared Andrew's
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  Speaker 1: life after deliberating for just an hour and a half.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of receiving the death penalty, he too was sentenced
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  Speaker 1: to life in prison without parole. However, two years later,
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  Speaker 1: Andrew was tried for the death of Lorraine Borowski, and
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  Speaker 1: the details of her kidnapping... violation and murder were too
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  Speaker 1: much for the court to hear. It was convincingly argued
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  Speaker 1: that Andrew had engaged in inappropriate actions with a dead body,
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  Speaker 1: and in light of this and many other perverse details,
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  Speaker 1: he was sentenced to death. On the day that he
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  Speaker 1: was due to be executed, Andrew declined the offer of
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  Speaker 1: a last meal, with his last words being, to the
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  Speaker 1: Borofsky family, I am truly sorry for your loss. I
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  Speaker 1: mean this sincerely. He then recited a verse from the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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  Speaker 1: As a reward for his detailed confession, Thomas Cocoralis also
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  Speaker 1: managed to avoid the death penalty. At the time of
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  Speaker 1: his arrest, Thomas Cocoralis was a painter with no criminal record,
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  Speaker 1: meaning his trial judge took a degree of mercy on
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  Speaker 1: him that his accomplices did not receive. With an IQ
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  Speaker 1: of 75, he was described as having a borderline range
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  Speaker 1: of intellect. and was said to be more motivated by
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  Speaker 1: fear than any kind of perverted desire. Thomas pled guilty
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  Speaker 1: to Borowski's murder, taking the death penalty off the table
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  Speaker 1: in exchange for a 70-year jail sentence. But following good
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  Speaker 1: behavior and a successful parole, he was released from prison
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  Speaker 1: on March 29, 2019. As of June 30, 2019, Thomas
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  Speaker 1: resides in Aurora, Illinois. In an interview with the local
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  Speaker 1: news station, Thomas begged the public to change the perception
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  Speaker 1: of him, stating, Everybody thinks I'm a monster, but I'm
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  Speaker 1: not a monster. Despite his pleas, it's both perfectly reasonable
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  Speaker 1: and understandable to view Thomas Kokoralis as a profane and
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  Speaker 1: predatory monster. After all, he was a willing participant in
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  Speaker 1: some of the most heinous and horrific murders the city
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  Speaker 1: of Chicago has ever known. Thomas was well aware that
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  Speaker 1: David Gecht was practicing cannibalism and inappropriate actions with dead bodies,
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  Speaker 1: all in the name of Satan, and he didn't do
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  Speaker 1: a thing to stop it. His moral grandstanding means nothing
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  Speaker 1: when he allowed dozens of innocent women to be subjected
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  Speaker 1: to some of the most despicable treatment imaginable. The legacy
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  Speaker 1: of the Ripper crew is the stuff of nightmares, something
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  Speaker 1: that none of us are sure to forget in a hurry.
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  Speaker 1: But unlike similar cases, there is no comfort to be
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  Speaker 1: taken in knowing that the perpetrators are all behind bars
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  Speaker 1: or six feet under. And that's because a member of
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  Speaker 1: one of the world's most horrific snuff gangs is free
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  Speaker 1: to walk among us, having caused untold agony having taken
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  Speaker 1: the lives of the innocent, and potentially having tasted human flesh.
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  Speaker 1: Hey friends, thanks so much for watching. Just a quick
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  Speaker 1: heads up, I release new videos every second Tuesday at
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  Speaker 1: 7pm EST. Also check out my main channel, Let's Read,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: where you can hear longer compilations of interesting scary stories
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: just like these. And if you prefer audio only, feel
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: free to check out the Let's Read podcast located anywhere
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. All linked in the description below.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, friends. And I'll see you in the
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  Speaker 1: next one.