Sheriff Links “Macho Man” To 13 Stabbings – $1 Million Bond Upheld for Suspect in Gay Murder
by Edward McKinley
A judge Saturday in Waukegan, Illinois, refused to lower the $1 million bond for a man accused of one of a string of homosexual related killings that a sheriff compared with the 33 murders in the case of John Wayne Gacy. Larry W. Eyler, a 30-year-old house painter, remained in custody in Lake County on a charge of murdering a 28-year-old Chicago man believed to be one of up to 19 homosexual related fatal stabbing victims. “This type of sordid crime can be compared with the sadistic gratification that John Wayne Gacy must have enjoyed in his vicious crimes, which I believe are unsurpassed in the annals of recorded sexual murders and degradation,” Lake County Sheriff Robert H. Babcox said in a news conference after the bond hearing in this community about 45 miles north of Chicago.
Gacy is awaiting execution for the murders of 33 teenage boys and young men, most of whose bodies were found buried in shallow graves under or close to his home near O’Hare International Airport. “He (Eyler) fits the typical profile of the macho beer-drinking individual who can’t stand himself because he’s homosexual,” Babcox said. Meanwhile, Eyler’s attorney, Kenneth K. Ditkowsky, described him as “one of the kids of the ’60s, still trying to find roots. He’s a lost soul, the type of individual who’s particularly vulnerable to one with a “hunter’s instinct.” Ditkowsky also said Saturday he believes a Lake County grand jury has been called to investigate other charges against Eyler.
The defense attorney said he knows two people were subpoenaed to testify Tuesday before the grand jury, an Indianapolis friend of Eyler’s and Eyler’s Chicago landlord. Eyler was not called. Indiana State Police Capt. Larry D. Carmichael, spokesman for the Central Indiana Multi-Agency Task Force, said local detectives would like to question Eyler. “I’m sure there will be communication with that department. There will be an attempt to interview him. Just exactly when, I don’t know,” he said. Of the recent killings, Babcox said: “All the victims have been stabbed numerous times 17,18,19 times, their pants have been pulled down around their ankles, their shirts have been pulled up and they’ve been trussed up bound up.”
The sheriff said he believes Eyler is involved in 13 of the murders because of the similarities. He expects additional charges will be filed against him. After Assistant State’s Attorney Ray McKoski argued against lowered bond because Eyler represents a “very serious concern for society and other people he may come in contact with,” Associate District Judge Alvin Ira Singer said the suspect’s bond would remain at $1 million. Eyler’s parents and sister were present during the bond hearing where Ditkowsky asked that Eyler be released on his own recognizance. Eyler was arrested Friday on a charge of killing Ralph E. Calise, whose body was found in Lake County on August 31, two weeks after the discovery of the body of another man, 28-year-old Gustavo Herrera, several miles away.
Another body uncovered earlier this year in Lake County has not been identified. Police said they found a blood-stained knife, handcuffs, lengths of clothesline and other items that led them to suspect Eyler, who has addresses in Terre Haute and Chicago. The defense attorney said Eyler does not live in high style, despite having two addresses. His Chicago apartment costs $81 a month, and the home in Terre Haute belongs to a longtime friend. Eyler was picked up Friday while he was leaving federal court in Chicago, where he was attending hearings on $250,000 federal civil rights suit, he had filed against 11 police officers in Illinois and Indiana for alleged harassment.
Testimony during Saturday’s hearing linked Eyler to two homosexual related stabbings in which victims survived. The first occurred August 3, 1978, and the latter October 13, 1982. Three victims were found in Lake County, one in Kankakee County; one in Cook County; two in Marion County; and two in Danville, Illinois, he said. The task force coordinator for Indiana, Lt. Jerry Campbell of the Indianapolis Police Department, said during the news conference that Eyler may also be connected with the following Indiana slayings:
John L. Roach, found in Putnam County last December, Steven Agan, found in Vermillion County last December and Daniel S. McNieve, found in Hendricks County in May. Babcox said this department worked “very closely” with the task force and he credited those detectives with aiding in the arrest. “The arrest wouldn’t have been culminated without the cooperation of the different agencies.” When asked whether police were counting the four bodies recently found in shallow graves in Newton County, Indiana, as among the 19 killings, Babcox said: “How can’t we?”.
