Killer Confessed to 21 Slayings

Attorney Reports What Everyone Had Suspected
by Napperville (AP)
The clues pointed toward Larry Eyler for nearly a decade. Blood from a slain man was found on Eyler’s boots, but the evidence was thrown out because it was seized illegally. The day after a body was found in Lake County, Indiana. Eyler had gone to an Illinois hospital to seek treatment for a knife wound. Later that day, he drove back to an Indiana pawn shop and purchased handcuffs and a knife. So, prosecutors across Illinois and Indiana expressed little surprise at what an attorney for the Death Row inmate announced Tuesday: Larry Eyler, convicted in two murders, before his death had confessed to 21 slayings during a two-year murder spree in the early 1980s. “He was our prime suspect,” said Tim Bukowski, a spokesman for the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Department- Bukowski was referring to Steven Crockett, who was found stabbed to death in the northern Illinois county in October 1982. Bukowski’s comments were echoed by prosecutors in both states after attorney Kathleen Zellner on Tuesday released a list of 21 slayings, she said Eyler had confessed to. The suspected serial killer, who died in prison Sunday of AIDS, told his attorney during the past three years that he killed the men in a methodical murder spree in which he lured victims with drugs, alcohol and money, Zellner said. He was convicted in only two slayings, and one of those he denied committing until his own death, Zellner said. The confessions were not enough evidence by themselves to prove Eyler was responsible for the slayings, prosecutors said. “I don’t think that anyone’s any closer to determining that Eyler committed these crimes. His word is not going to get a conviction,” Cook County State’s Attorney’s spokesman Andy Knott said. Yet the confessions brought a sense of relief to relatives of the victims. “We thought for a long time that Larry did it. Now we know for a fact that he admitted to doing it, and we can maybe go on with our lives now,” said Charles McNeive, whose brother Danny, was found slain in Indiana in May 1983. “It’s not for the police, it’s for the families. When your son, your brother has been dead for years, you want some sort of finality to it: “Just tell me the truth, no matter how grotesque it is,” said Indianapolis police Lt. Steven Garner. “All of these families can now put their children to rest.” Zellner said an accomplice helped Eyler commit four of the killings. She would not name the alleged accomplice because he or she has not been charged, but said she knew the person’s identity and would give her information to authorities. Zellner also said some people, including one she described as a prominent Indiana businessman, had survived attacks by Eyler and the accomplice and urged them to come forward. Zellner described Eyler as a brilliant, manipulative man whose urge to kill was sparked by fights with his lover and fueled by drugs and alcohol.

List of victims
A list released by defense attorney Kathleen Zellner of the victims who convicted killer Larry Eyler confessed to killing.

Victims who Eyler said he killed alone:

John R. Johnston, 25 of Lake County, Indiana, December 25, 1982.
John L. Roach, 21 of Putnam County, Indiana, December 28, 1982.
Edgar Underkofler, 27 of Danville, Illinois, March 4, 1983.
Gustavo Herrara, 28 of Lake County, Illinois, April 8, 1983.
Ervin Dwayne Gibson, 16 of Lake County, Illinois, April 15, 1983.
Jimmie T. Roberts, 18 of Cook County, Illinois, May 9, 1983.
Daniel Scott McNeive, 21 of Belleville, Indiana, May 9, 1983.
Unidentified male of Ford County, Illinois, July 1, 1983.
Ralph Calise, 28 of Lake County, Illinois, August 31, 1983.
Unidentified male of Rensselaer, Indiana, October 15, 1983.
Michael Bauer, 22 of Newton County, Indiana, October 19, 1983.
John Bartlett, 19 of Newton County, Indiana, October 19, 1983.
Unidentified male of Newton County, Indiana, October 19, 1983.
Unidentified male of Effingham, Illinois, December 5, 1983.
David M. Block, 22 of Lake County, Illinois, May 7, 1984.
Richard Wayne, 21 of Belleville, Indiana, December 7, 1984.
Unidentified male of Belleville, Indiana, Dec. 7, 1984.

Killings that Eyler and Unidentified Accomplice:

Steven Crockett, 19 of Kankakee, Illinois, October 23, 1982.
Steven Agan, 23 of Newport, Indiana, December 28, 1982.
Unidentified male of Newton County, Indiana, October 19, 1983.
Unidentified male, Chicago, June 1984.