All Episodes

December 5, 2025 65 mins

Episode 3: “The Breaking Point — Arrests & Confessions”

When Chicago police arrested Robin Gecht on October 20, 1982, they didn’t yet realize they were dismantling one of the most sadistic cults in American history. From Beverly Washington’s miraculous survival to the chain of interrogations, confessions, and forensic discoveries that followed, this episode chronicles the pivotal week when the façade of normalcy collapsed — revealing the full depravity of the Chicago Ripper Crew.

Over the next twelve days, detectives arrested Edward Spreitzer, Andrew Kokoraleis, and Thomas Kokoraleis, unraveling a ritual network that turned murder into ceremony. Through firsthand statements, investigative records, and survivor accounts, John and Angela take you inside the interrogation rooms, the forensic evidence, and the confessions that finally broke the case wide open.

This episode exposes the moment when police, prosecutors, and the public first faced the unthinkable truth — and the women who refused to be erased by it.

🔦 Calls to Action

If this story mattered to you, help keep the dialogue alive:

  • Like, follow, and leave a review wherever you listen — it helps other true-crime listeners find us.
  • Tap the bell or thumbs-up if you’re watching on YouTube to get notified when new episodes drop.
  • Join the Dark Dialogue Collective, our boots-on-the-ground network providing real-time support through searches, logistics, and family advocacy.
  • Adopt a Victim through our research initiative — take on an unsolved case, help find answers, and bring awareness to forgotten victims.
  • Support our work on Patreon or Ko-fi to fund research, travel, and field operations.
  • Get exclusive behind-the-scenes reports, early access, and expanded case notes on Substack.
  • Visit www.darkdialogue.com for all links, victim tributes, and full episode archives.
  • Questions, case suggestions, or feedback? Email info@darkdialogue.com — we read every message.

🔚 Closing Line

Because every story deserves to be told, every victim deserves to be remembered… and above all — keep the dialogue alive.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John (00:06):
A late 1982 Chicago's nightmare had a face, a name, and finally a
survivor who could speak it aloud.
Beverly Washington's courage cracked opena case that had swallowed women whole.
Her description of a red van and aman with a. Feather hanging from the
mirror, gave detectives somethingthey hadn't had in two years.

(00:27):
A direction the city'spredators had ruled long enough.
Now the hunt was turning inward.
What followed wasn't a single arrest.
It was a chain reaction.
Edward Spritzer nerves snapped.
First spilling pieces of horror hecould barely understand himself.
Then came the Coco EZBrothers, Andrew and Thomas.

(00:50):
Each confession twisting againstthe other, contradicting,
amplifying, and exposing howdeep Robin G's control had gone.
The interrogation rooms ofVilla Park and DuPage County
became confessionals of madness.
Four men revealing their ownmythology under fluorescent lights,

(01:11):
what they revealed shocked, evenveteran homicide detectives rituals
carried out in a suburban attic.
Trophies of flesh preserved inboxes, and a hierarchy of fear where
obedience mattered more than life.
But those same confessions alsoraised impossible questions.
Who was telling the truth?

(01:32):
How could every man describe thesame rituals differently, and if
yet truly commanded the violence?
Why did the legal system bendjust enough to spare him?
Tonight we step into that fracture.
The moment when investigation metinsanity, we'll trace how one woman's
survival brought the crew down.

(01:52):
How forensics finally alignedwith rumor and how prosecutors
tried to map order into chaos.
Because once the talking began,the line between guilt manipulation
and self-preservation blurred intostatic, a noise that still echoes
through Chicago's case files.
This is dark dialogue.

(02:14):
The breaking point, the night thekillers started confessing and the
truth became another kind of nightmare.

Angela (02:25):
Hey, Angela,

John (02:26):
how's it going tonight?

Angela (02:26):
Hi John.
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm

John (02:28):
good.
Really good.

Angela (02:30):
Yeah, I'm interested in the confessions.

John (02:33):
Yeah.
You're interested to hear how that went?

Angela (02:34):
Yeah, let's, let's hear how that went.

John (02:37):
Pretty freaking jacked up story.
That's far, isn't it?

Angela (02:40):
Yeah.

John (02:40):
Yeah.

Angela (02:41):
And they all told a different story.

John (02:43):
Yes.

Angela (02:44):
Wow.
How is that?
Okay.

John (02:46):
Well, welcome listeners.
You're listening to Dark Dialoguewhere we dive into the crimes that
haunt small towns and big cities alike.
I'm your host John,

Angela (02:55):
and I'm Angela and John.
You know, October is one ofmy favorite times of the year.
The nights get darker, the storiesget creepier, and it just feels
right to lean into these hauntingcases, even though it's now November.
We're continuing our October specialepisodes because a family emergency
kept us from posting on schedule.
It happens, and wemissed most of the month.

John (03:18):
Yes, we did.
And if there was ever a case darkenough to carry that Halloween energy
straight through November, it's this one.
Tonight we're stepping into the breakingpoint of the Chicago Ripper crew.
The moment when their reign of ritualand blood finally collided with justice,

Angela (03:35):
this is where everything starts to unravel.
The red van is no longer a mystery.
The survivors are finally being heard,and the city is beginning to realize
just how close it came to hell.
Detectives are piecing togetherconfessions, contradictions, and
pure madness, all from men who oncefollowed Robin Geck like a God.

John (03:56):
Exactly.
We'll cover how Edward Spreitzercapture set off a chain reaction of
arrests, how the Coco Relays brotherscracked under interrogation, and how
those confessions revealed the truescope of their crimes in their lies
will also break down the forensicbreakthroughs that tied it all together,
and the critical role of survivorslike Beverly Washington, whose courage

(04:17):
forced this nightmare into the light.

Angela (04:20):
And like always, listener discretion is strongly advised.
These next chapters involve graphicviolence and assault, but they also show
how survivors and investigators foughtto bring justice to the forgotten.

John (04:33):
Before we dive in, take a second to support the show.
It helps us keep these stories alive.
If you're watching on YouTube, getthat thumbs up, subscribe and ring the
bell so you'll never miss an episode.

Angela (04:45):
And if you're listening on Spotify, apple Podcasts or Podbean, follow
the show, leave us a review and share theepisode with your fellow True Crime fans.
It takes just a second andit makes a huge difference.

John (04:57):
You can also follow us on show social media for case photos,
updates, and bonus content from everyshow in the Dark Dialogue Network.

Angela (05:05):
Alright, the streets of Chicago, were quiet for now, but in 1982, they were
filled with fear flashing lights, and thesound of had handcuffs finally closing.

John (05:15):
The killers are caught.
The confessions are coming and thetruth is about to get even darker.
I'm your host John.

Angela (05:23):
And I'm Angela.

John (05:24):
And this is dark dialogue because the past doesn't stay buried,
not in Chicago and not in the voicesthat finally decided to talk before
the arrests, before the confessions,before Chicago even realized that cult
of killers was hunting in streets.
It all began here, themurder of Linda Sutton.
May 23rd, 1981, June 1st, the discovery ofSutton's body behind the Bre Rabbit Motel.

(05:49):
February 12th of 82, the unnamedvictim, May 15th, Lorraine Lorianne
Burki was abducted and murdered.
May 29th of 82 Shui mockwas abducted June 13th.
Angel York was attacked,and remember she survived.
August 28th of 82, SandraDelaware was found murdered.

(06:10):
September 8th, 82.
Rose Davis was found murdered.
September 11th, Carol Poppas disappears.
September the 30th, Shui MO'Sbody was finally recovered.
October 6th, Raphael Todo was killed,and Alberto Rosario was wounded again
on October 6th, Beverly Washingtonwas attacked and she survived.

(06:34):
October 10th of 82, LorraineBorowski body was finally found.
So from 1981 to 19 82, 13 monthsof terror left Chicago scarred.
But the survivors Angel York and BeverlyWashington refused to stay silent.
Their words would lead detectivesstraight to the men behind the ritual.

(06:54):
And that's where we pick up next,the capture of Edward Spreitzer and
the van that finally stopped rolling.
When police found Beverly Washingtonlying beside the railroad shacks in
early October, 1982, they weren'tsure she'd survived the night.
Her injuries were catastrophic.
Mutilation inflicted with a knife,massive blood loss shock, and yet

(07:17):
she was still conscious, barely.
Though through that pain she spoke andwhat she said would change everything.
Her attacker, she told detectives was awhite man in his mid twenties, slender
with greasy brown hair, a mustache, aflannel shirt and square toed boots.
He drove a red van, not just any van,but one with tinted windows, a wooden

(07:41):
divider and hanging from the rearview mirror feathers in a roach cliff.
It was a description, so specific,so vivid that detectives immediately
knew they finally had a real lead.
While surgeons worked to save her life.
Investigators stood at her bedside,recording every detail She remembered
pills forced down her throat, rape,and the moment the knife came out.

(08:04):
When he removed her left breast andleft her bleeding in the dur, the
hospital interview produced a compositesketch and the first solid description
of the of the suspect vehicle.
For the first time, police hadsomething to chase besides the ghosts.
Detectives spread out across Chicago'sneighborhoods, canvassing motels, truck

(08:25):
stops, industrial corridors, and the sextrade routes where the van had been seen.
They spoke to other women workingthose streets and what they
heard echoed Beverly's nightmare.
Angel York, another survivordescribed the same type of vehicle.
Cynthia Cynthia Smith had foughther way out of it months earlier.
Different attacks.

(08:46):
Same red van piece by piece.
Detectives built in meth sightings,license plate fragments, witness
statements, all circling the same idea.
This wasn't one man acting alone.
It was organized, systematic,A group operating with ritual
precision across the city.
Within weeks of Beverly Washington'sattack, the investigation zeroed in

(09:08):
on the western suburbs, Villa Park,and the surrounding areas where that
distinctive van had been spotted.
Again, detectives traced the vehicle'sregistration following a paper
trail that led straight to Robin gt,an unemployed carpenter, husband,
electrician, father, and a man alreadyknown to police for sexual violence.

(09:30):
Armed with warrants, policesearched both the van and Gex home.
Inside the vehicle, they found bloodstainstrace evidence and marks that suggested
a woman had been restrained inside.
What they discovered in that housestopped even veteran investigators.
Cold in the attic, stood makeshift,alter, adorned with candles and
objects arranged in a way thatmatched the ritual detail survivors.

(09:52):
It described.
It was the physical confirmationof what everyone feared.
The rituals were real, and theyhad been happening here inside
an ordinary suburban home.
From that moment, the chase was over.
The hunt had found its face,robin get, and the red van that
carried Chicago's darkest secrets.

(10:13):
On October 20th, 1982, Chicago Policemade their first major breakthrough
in the River Crew investigation.
That morning, detectivesarrested Robin Geck in connection
with the attempted murder andmutilation of Beverly Washington.
The woman who had survived totell about the red van, the
moon, the move wasn't impulsive.

(10:33):
Detectives had methodically linkedgeck to that distinctive van through
Washington's detailed hospitalbed statement and a glowing and a
growing list of witness sightings.
When the warrant came down,officers executed it cleanly.
Geck was taken into custody at hisElmhurst home without incident.
While other units simultaneouslysearched his property for evidence,

(10:56):
Y's arrest represented morethan just one man in handcuffs.
It was the public space of monthsof quiet, relentless police work.
Behind the scenes invest investigatorshad been assembling the pieces, survivors
sketches, canvases of known sex workareas, and overlapping descriptions from
women attacked in different neighborhoods.

(11:18):
Every lead kept circling back tothat van and to get at the house.
Evidence teams inspected boththe vehicle and the attic.
Rumors had already begun calling thespace a Satanic Chapel, but to those
first officers inside, it was only a clue.
Something they didn'tyet fully understand.

(11:38):
They'd boxed what they could, loggedevery item and waited for their
forensic results that would follow.
From the start, Geck was unreadable.
During questioning between October20th and 26th, detectives applied
steady, but careful pressure.
He sat there, calm, cold, deflectivedenying any link to Washington or to

(12:02):
other mutilation, murders that were stillsplashed across Chicago's headlines.
When they presented Washington's detaileddescription of the van's interior,
the feathers, the roach clip, thewooden divider, he dismissed it all.
He claimed ignorance said hewas being framed and refused
to waiver from that lying.
As, as forensic teams combed through hisvan, they started finding what they'd

(12:24):
been waiting for, bloodstains possiblefibers from victim's, clothing and
objects matching survivor testimony.
Meanwhile, detectives began mapping G'smovements cross-referencing his locations
with dump sites and abduction zones.
The overlap was undeniable.
The timeline was closing in.
Word of GS arrest spread fast acrossChicago's law enforcement community

(12:49):
Departments that had spent a year chasingrumors now had a name more survivors
and witnesses began stepping forward.
People who had seen the van, recognizedthe driver, or remembered other men
who sometimes rode with him at night.
Each new statement added anotherthread to the web connecting
the small ring of suspects.
Now living around Villa Park, betweenOctober 20th and the 26th, Geck

(13:14):
remained in custody under tight watch.
Detectives were cautious.
They didn't want the file.
They didn't want to file chargesuntil the evidence was airtight.
They built their case quietly matchingforensics to to survivor statements.
Drawing timelines, cross-checkingGex alibis and drafting warrants
for the men, for the men,believed to be his accomplices.

(13:37):
Still.
One thing alluded though a confession.
G never cracked.
He was confident, almost mockingat times, insisting that the
police had the wrong man.
He smoked with calm outrage for thetape recorders even asking to see
the evidence himself to, as he putit, clear up this misunderstanding.

(13:59):
It was a performance that onlydeepened investigators resolve.
Behind closed doors,detectives pushed forward.
They reviewed old missing personsreports, reopened unsolved homicides,
showing ritualistic similarities,and dug into anyone tied to get the
case was expanding, not shrinking.
By the end of October 26th, theystill didn't have a confession,

(14:23):
but they didn't need one to seewhere the trail was heading.
The evidence, the witness accounts, andthe survivor testimony were all pointing
the same direction toward Gex closestassociates, the men who worked beside
him, the ones who rode in that van.
The next phase of theinvestigation was already underway.

(14:44):
Interrogation, searches and surveillanceaimed at exposing the rest of the network.
The quiet was almost over.
Next, the walls start closing in onEdwards Spreitzer and the story of
the Ripper crew begins to unravel.
After Robin G's arrest on October20th of 82, detectives kept him under
heavy questioning why they built theircase and widened the investigation

(15:09):
to include his suspected associates.
But by October 26th with prosecutorsunable to hold him on the single
attempted murder charge of BeverlyWashington, get posted bail and
walked free, an outcome that leftinvestigators furious and uneasy.
Did you have a thought over there just

Angela (15:30):
silently cussing to myself?

John (15:32):
Yeah.
The moment he was released, lawenforcement switched to high alert.
Everyone knew GT understood exactlyhow close the investigation had come.
Detectives feared he mightintimidate witnesses, destroy
evidence, or disappear altogether.
Plain clothes officers began tailinghim through the Villa Park area.

(15:53):
24 hour surveillance every stop, everycontact log and photographed what had been
an interrogation now became a containment.
Operation Gex release onlysharpened the mission.
The task force dividedits focus three ways.
First, keep constant tabs on G'Smovements and his companions.

(16:16):
Two, gather more direct evidence,linking him to other as to other
assaults and homicides thatmatch the crew's ritual pattern.
And three, press survivors andwitnesses for stronger testimony before
fear or fatigue could silence them.
Detectives re-interviewed victimscombed hospital and police records

(16:36):
for similar cases and coordinatedwith suburban departments to cross
reference every report involvinga red van, ritual mutilation, or
a group of white male suspects.
For the first time, dozens ofscattered investigations began
to merge into a single picture.
While the surveillance team shadowed Geck,prosecutors and detectives quietly built

(17:00):
the next phase of the case, they drew upwarrants in refined case files for his
suspected accomplices, making certain nopiece of evidence could be dismantled.
As circumstantial forensic labsaccelerated testing on blood fibers and
materials recovered from GIS, van andproperty, hoping the results would fill

(17:21):
the gaps left by his refusal to confess.
At the same time, police reachedout to informants around Villa Park
bartenders, motel clerks, anyonewho might notice changes in the
behavior of men connected to get.
They were watching for panic,cleanup or flight as rumors of
arrest and the release spread.

(17:43):
The press began circling reporters campoutside G'S home trying to photograph
the suspect with the Satanic ga.
The pressure on police wassuffocating inside the department.
Detectives worried about BeverlyWashington safety and the
safety of other survivors whohad risked everything to talk.
Every passing hour felt likea countdown to something none

(18:06):
of them could, could predict.
By November 4th, 1982, theinvestigation reached its tipping point.
Geck was free, but only on paper.
Surveillance teams never let himout of their site, and evidence
against him was multiplying.
By the day, detectives began planninga coordinated strike, new warrants,

(18:26):
simultaneous arrests, and a sweepthat would finally bring in Edwards
Spreitzer and the Coco Es Brothersmotels were staked out Phone records
pulled schedule synchronized.
The objective was simplemove before any member of the
crew could vanish or destroy.
What little proof remained.
Every lead, every lab result,every sleepless night had

(18:49):
brought them to this point.
The city's perpetrators were stillwalking free, but not for much longer.
Next arrests would tear openthe Ripper crew for good.
November 5th, 1982.
After months of blood fear andpursuit, the Chicago Ripper Crew
case finally hit its breaking point.

(19:10):
That morning began with a coordinatedseries of arrests, the culmination of
weeks of survivor testimony, forensicanalysis, and relentless surveillance.
Less than two weeks afterwalking free on bail.
Robin Geck once again found himselfstaring down the loft in the early hours.
Detectives who had shadowedhim since his release moved in

(19:32):
fast, armed with fresh warrants.
They entered his Elmhurstresident and residence and took
him into custody before Don.
The timing was deliberate, designedto stop him from destroying
evidence, intimidating witnesses,or fleeing as he began to sense
how close the investigators were.
This time, Geck was booked downtown,not only for the attempted murder

(19:55):
of Beverly Washington, but undersuspicion for multiple homicides
and ritualized assaults that hadhaunted the city for nearly two years.
While GT was being driven towardthe precinct, other teams were
already in motion In Villa Park.
Officers closed down on Edward Spritzer,who was staying at a modest roadside

(20:16):
motel, a familiar setting for the crew's.
Late night meetings, he wastaken without resistance.
According to reports.
He looked confused and evenasked officers if they quote,
needed help with the gift thing.
The si that single line told detectiveseverything they needed to know
about his place in the hierarchy.

(20:36):
A follower still orbitingits leader across town.
Another unit swept in on Andrew Coco Riis.
Detectives had watched himcarefully waiting until he was
alone and away from his family.
They didn't want resistanceand they didn't want warning
calls going out to the others.
Within minutes, he two wasin custody, quiet, contained,

(20:59):
and cut off from contact.
Both men were quickly separatedand interrogated in isolation.
Each was faced with survivor statements,crime scene photos, and forensic
evidence pulled from the red van,and for the first time, investigators
could look each to, could look eachsuspected accomplice in the eye.

(21:19):
None of this happened by chance.
The November 5th raids representeda carefully choreographed alliance.
The November 5th raid representeda carefully choreographed alliance
between city homicide detectives,DuPage, county investigators, and
a network of informants seatedthroughout suburban motels and bars.
The goal was simple.

(21:40):
No one warns anyone.
Each arrest hit withinminutes of the others.
No phone calls, no tip-offs,no time to rehearse alibis.
Surveillance logs from the Pfrom the previous 24 hours showed
growing paranoia among the suspects.
Their movements had become erratic.
Conversations overheard byinformants suggested they were

(22:03):
afraid, even considering flightdetectives chose that moment to St.
Strike before panic could become escapeby nightfall on November 5th, three men.
Robin Geck, Edward Spreitzer and AndrewCoco Reis sat behind locked, locked doors.
The cruise secrecy was broken.

(22:24):
The investigators finally had the coreof the group responsible for a string
of ritualistic murders and mutilationsthat had paralyzed Chicago since 1981.
It was the turning point, born of tirelessdetective work and the unbreakable courage
of survivors like Beverly Washington,whose testimony had led them here.
What followed could test everycourtroom, every confession room,

(22:47):
and every definition of justicethe the city still believed in.
With the arrest complete, theinterrogation room rooms filled
with silence, a silence waitingto break, and when it did.
The truth that came out wouldbe darker than anyone imagined.
It all broke on November 5th, the sameday the coordinated arrest brought

(23:10):
down the, the Chicago Ripper crew.
Inside an interview room, barely 10feet wide detectives sat across from
Edwards Spreitzer, a man whose fear ofRobin Geck still held him like a chain.
What began as another round ofdenials would soon become the
confession that changed everything.
Detectives came prepared, armedwith survivor testimony, forensic

(23:33):
links and psychological profilesbuilt from weeks of groundwork.
They knew spritzer weaknesses,his dependence on G Isness to
please, and the fear that itkept him compliant for so long.
At first, he denied everything he said.
He didn't know about the van,the women, or the mutilations.

(23:53):
But hour after hour, the walls closed in.
Detectives reminded him of theevidence, the blood in the van,
the survivor identifications, thefact that G hadn't lifted a finger
to help him since the arrest.
Slowly Spreitzer defiance began to fade.
His voice softened.
He admitted to quote, doing badthings, and then he started to talk,

(24:20):
not just in fragments or hints,but in full horrifying detail.
What came next?
Filled 78 pages of transcript,the most chilling account
detectives had ever heard.
Spritzer described the structureof the crew, the rituals,
and the murders themselves.

(24:40):
He laid out the patterns,step by step, abduction, rape,
mutilation, and the ceremoniesthat get orchestrated afterwards.
He told investigators how the men luredwomen into the red van, how Geck acted
as leader and priest, and how he andthe Coco Ez Brothers followed orders.
He described the use of knives, cords,and makeshift and makeshift restraints,

(25:03):
details that aligned with the forensicfindings from the vehicle and the crime
scenes spritzer named victims, one by one,Linda Sutton, Lorraine Borowski, sway Mo,
Sandra Delaware, Rose Davis, and others.
He spoke of survivors like BeverlyWashington and Angel York, whose
accounts now mirrored his own admissions.

(25:25):
Every description, the bindings,the method of mutilation, the ritual
removal of breast of breasts matchedwhat investigators had seen, but never
fully understood until that moment.
Within hours.
Andrew Coco relays also began to talkbetween his and Spreitzer statements.
The number of murders balloonfar beyond anything police had

(25:48):
imagined up to 17, possibly more.
While some details would later proveinconsistent in timeline or location, the
overarch, the overarching pattern, heldthe red van, the ritualistic violence,
the group acting under gex direction.
Spritzer painted a portrait ofnightly hunts through Chicago's

(26:08):
industrial corridors, a routine ofcruising, selecting and sacrificing.
To him, it was obedience to the city.
It was terror given structure.
That single confession changed theentire investigation from, for the
first time, detectives had a detailedmap of what had happened, names, dates,

(26:29):
roles, and methods that tied togethernearly two years of unsolved murders.
The case against the crew no longerrelied on rumor or fragments.
It was now anchored in thewords of one of its own.
Prosecutors immediately began draftingformal indictments, issuing follow-up
warrants, and chasing down every location.

(26:50):
Sprites had described the rituals,the forensic matches, and the explicit
admission of intent would soon formthe backbone of every charge that
followed Edwards Frazer's wordspulled back the curtain on the Chicago
Ripper Group, and once the truth wasspoken, it couldn't be buried again.
The next question was whether themen who followed Geck would survive

(27:13):
the weight of what they'd confess to.
When Andrew Coco relay is sat downin the interrogation room on November
5th, it didn't take long for thefacade to break his confession.
Rapid, detailed, and Disturbingly,matter of fact, would confirm everything
detectives feared about the Chicago Rippercrew and the ritual system that drove it.

(27:34):
Andrew was swept up in the samecoordinated arrest that captured
Robin Geck and Edwards Spreitzerinvestigators described him as socially
isolated, intellectually limited,and deeply dependent on G'S control.
The illusion of protection vanishedthe moment GT was taken away.
Within hours, both Andrewand Spreitzer began to tough.

(27:55):
Two followers whose loyaltyevaporated when their leader
could no longer shield them.
Andrew's statement mirrored spreitzerin structure, but widened the lens.
He implicated himself, him, hisbrother, Thomas Spritzer and gt
in a campaign of ritual murder,bound by what he called obedience.

(28:16):
He confessed to taking part in orwitnessing up to 17 murders, sometimes
saying 18, and described a hierarchyof command where dictated every act.
He told investigators how the crewcruise Chicago's red light in industrial
districts looking for women to abduct.
Victims were lured into the red van,restrained, raped, stabbed, and mutilated.

(28:41):
The weapons changed knives, razors evencan openers, but the pattern never did.
Each attack followed Dick's script carriedout as a ritual rather than a random
crime and the murder of Rosebeck Davis.
Andrew admitted rioting with Geck andSpreitzer helping drag Davis into the
van and stabbing her multiple times.

(29:03):
At at G'S command, he recounted herrave and mutilation in detail that
later matched autopsy findings andsurvivor accounts, almost word for word.
We'd show up photographsof Lorraine Borowski.
Andrew didn't hesitate.
He pointed to her picture andsaid, that's the girl Eddie Seitzer
and I killed in the cemetery.
End quote.

(29:24):
He described the location, thewounds, the mutilation, all
aligning precisely with forensicevidence in the crew's unmistakable
signature, Andrew's confession.
Andrew's confession came not asone statement, but as a series of
overlapping interviews, each addingnew names, tools, and places.
His tone stayed subdued, even submissive.

(29:47):
At moments he sounded remorsefulmore often simply resigned.
He spoke of obeying Geck as though it werelaw describing the murders as required.
The violence as ritual dutywhere spritzer offered volume.
Andrew supplied precision the smallverifiable details that that allowed

(30:08):
detectives to stitch the case together.
By November the 14th, prosecutors filedformal charges against Andrew Coco re
relays in Edward Spreitzer for the murdersof Rose Davis and Lorraine Burrows.
Their confessions interlockedperfectly each cooperating the
other and both placing Robin Geckat the center of the killings.

(30:29):
Andrew's early cooperation gaveinvestigators their clearest
inside yet inside view yet.
How the crew function, how fearand devotion kept it alive,
and why it had taken nearlytwo years for anyone to speak.
What began as a string of missingwomen had now been exposed for what?
It was a ritual enterprise of murderhidden in plain sight with Andrew

(30:52):
Coco relays his confession on record.
The ritual was no longer rumor.
It was evidence.
And for the first time, the story ofChicago's ripper crew had a beginning, a
middle, and the promise of a reckoning.
Between November 5th and November12th, while detectives processed
confessions from Edwards Spreitzerand Andrew Coco Reis, the man they

(31:15):
believe sat at the center of it all.
Robin Geck was back inthe interrogation room.
The pressure was relentless.
Detectives hoped the domino effect of theother's breaking would finally bring down
the one that they all called the leader.
The odds seemed insurmountablefor GT investigators had survivor
identifications, forensic evidence,and and a 78 page confession from

(31:40):
Spreitzer that placed him at thetop of the river cruise hierarchy.
GT didn't flinch.
He looked at the photographs ofthe victims and said nothing.
Detectives described him as showing nointerest, no recognition, zero emotion.
He denied knowing any of the women.
He denied knowing about the van.

(32:00):
He denied the killings, the mutilations,and the rituals described in
excruciating detail by his accomplices.
Even when detectives laid out evidencepiece by piece, G's answer never changed.
I don't know anything about that.
He sat calmly, sometimes with afaint smurf as detectives threw

(32:20):
everything they had at him each time.
The words hit the wall of his composureand slid off without leaving a mark.
G'S demeanor unnerved.
Even the most experiencedinterrogators, he wasn't shaken,
wasn't angry, just detached.
One investigator later saidit felt like he enjoyed the
power of withholding the truth.

(32:41):
They tried confrontation, empathy,long silences, nothing worked.
At one point, detectives placed him wherehe could see spritzer being questioned,
hoping that the sight of his followerconfessing would break his control.
It didn't.
Get sat still cold and unmoved.
His indifference had an almosthypnotic effect on those around him.

(33:05):
The reaction was immediate and unexpected.
When Spreitzer caught a glimpse of Ghet,the man who had already given them 78
pages of confession began to unravel.
His tone changed, hisconfidence evaporated.
He started recantingportions of what he'd said.
Shifting blame toward Andrew Coco Esand softening his accusations against

(33:29):
G. Even in custody, separated byconcrete walls, Gex controls still
held that strange cult-like dynamic.
His dominance and their obediencehadn't broken with the arrests.
It lingered in every room, in everyinterview, in every attempt to pull the
truth from the men who followed him.

(33:50):
Detectives had torn apart.
Every alibi, every lie, everylight, every inch of Gex world.
They couldn't tear apart his silence.
He never confessed not once.
And as the investigations pressedforward, that silence became its
own kind of weapon, shielding him,manipulating others, and turning
the case into one of the mostchilling displays of psychological

(34:13):
control Chicago has ever seen.
By November 12th, 82, 1 week afterthe coordinated arrest that brought
down Robin Geck, Edward Spreitzerand Andrew Coco Riis investigators
were ready for the final move.
The search now centered on Thomas CocoRieu, the last name on the list, and
the last link in the chain that hadterrorized Chicago for nearly two years.

(34:38):
Detectives track the Coco release brothersthrough a forwarding address left at the
Rip Van Winkle Motel, a place Chillinglyclose to where Linda Sutton, the crew's
earliest known victim had been found.
The connection wasn'tlost on investigators.
They watched the brothers quietlytaking note of their patterns, their
contacts, and their daily routines.

(34:59):
Every moment was logged,every sighting time.
The goal was simple.
Bring Thomas in after the otherswere secured when the full weight
of the evidence and his brother'sarrest couldn't be ignored.
Detectives located ThomasCoco relays at his home.
When they approached and started askingquestions, his answers didn't add up.

(35:20):
He hesitated, contradicted himselfand stumbled through details.
He should have known theinconsistencies were enough.
Following standard procedure for ahomicide investigation, officers escorted
him downtown for further questioning.
He didn't resist.
He didn't demand a lawyer orask what it was all about.
He just went with them quiet,uncertain, and unaware that the

(35:44):
net had already closed around him.
At just 23, Thomas Coco Reis seemedan unlikely figure in a case.
This depraved, he had no priorrecord, worked as a house painter
and was described by both familyand later attorneys as slow witted.
Psychological eval.
Evaluations would put hisIQ at 75, placing him in the

(36:06):
borderline range of intell.
Those who knew him, called himnaive, a man easily led traits that
would become central to his defensein the years ahead to police.
That night, though, he wassimply the missing piece.
The quiet brother, whose namekept, kept surfacing in statements,
the man who might finally connectevery thread of the investigation.

(36:28):
With Thomas Coco Relay in custody,the map of the Chicago Ripper crew
was complete, four men, one van,and a ritual of murder that had
stalked Chicago Street since 1981.
The next step would come under Foresof life when the final interviews
began and the last story was told.

(36:48):
After his arrest on November 12th, ThomasCoco relays unraveled almost instantly.
He was nervous from the start.
His hands shaky, his eyesdarting across the interview
room as detectives settled in.
He already failed a polygraph, andnow the questions were coming fast,
layered with the evidence and thenames of the men that he once trusted.

(37:09):
At first, he said he just wanted tohelp his brother, Andrew, but soon
the truth spilled out like somethinghe couldn't hold back anymore.
Within hours, the mask fell away.
Thomas Coco Relaiswasn't defiant or angry.
He was frightened and lost.
Detectives reminded him ofthe survivor testimonies.
The confessions already on recordand the evidence pulled from the van.

(37:34):
The pressure wasn't juststrategic, it was psychological.
Every mention of his brother, everyreminder of Gex betrayal pushed him closer
to collapse, and then he began to talk.
He spoke about things.
No one in the room would forget actsthat even the most seasoned investigators
would later say made their stomachs turn.

(37:55):
When asked why he went alongwith it, Thomas didn't hesitate
quote, you just have to do it.
He told them he believed Robin Geckhad powers that refusing him, wasn't
just dangerous, it was impossible.
That belief wasn't new.
It matched what his brother andSprites are at already confessed,
gets control, was total psychological,emotional, and spiritual.

(38:21):
Thomas wasn't the mastermind.
He was the follower.
A 20, a 23-year-old man with an IQ of 75,described by psychologist as profoundly
suggestible, but suggestible or not.
What he described nextwas unmistakably real.
He told detectives about gexadding the one that others called

(38:41):
the Satanic chapel, candles andaltar, the smell of wax and rot.
He described women being torturedwith knives and ice picks how
Geck used a wire garot or a pianowire to remove their breasts.
Reading from the Satanic Bible as he were,he said the severed flesh was sometimes
cut into small pieces and eaten partof what Geck called their communion.

(39:07):
He said they were ordered to masturbateinto the tissue afterwards and at
get demanded as proof of loyalty.
And when asked about the aftermath,Thomas told them about a wooden box, get
kept a trophy chest that once held whathe estimated were around 15 breasts.

(39:28):
The detectives who heard it said theroom felt colder after he finished.
The horror was no longer abstract.
It had structure steps, a ritualprocess they could finally trace when
showing photographs of the victims.
Thomas didn't hesitate.
He pointed to Lorraine Browski and saidshe was one of the women that he and

(39:48):
Andrew had inducted, raped and killed.
He recognized Linda Suttonas well, identifying her as
one of the earliest victims.
His recollections matched theforensic evidence, the wounds,
the mutilations, even the order ofevents, everything aligned with what
the others had already described.
Thomas Coco relay.

(40:08):
His confession didn't just echowhat detectives already knew.
It filled in the blanks.
It explained the rituals, the hierarchy,and the belief system that turned
four men into instruments of terror.
It was the moment the investigations finalcurtain lifted, revealing not just the
crimes, but the darkness that drove them.

(40:29):
By mid, by mid-November 1982,the walls had finally closed
around the Chicago Ripper crew.
The confessions were on tape, theevidence was cataloged, and now.
After two years of terror, the lawwas ready to speak, but even here at
the moment when justice should havebeen simple, the truth fractured
into four very different paths.

(40:53):
Thomas Coco Rele, Dean ofArrest, November 12th, 1982.
Initial charge.
The murder of LorraineBorowski filed the same day.
He was taken into custodyindictment formally indicted by
grand jury on November 16th, 1982.
Thomas's confession had beenimmediate and devastating.

(41:13):
He described the crew's ritual mutilationsand so-called satanic chapel, and the
acts of cannibalism and sexual desecrationthat form the backbone of the group's
ceremonies, his testimony gave prosecutorsthe connective tissue they needed linking
names, places, and methods into a singleprosecutable form of ritual murder.

(41:34):
Andrew Coco relays date of arrest betweenNovember 5th and November 7th of 82.
Initial charges jointly chargedwith Ed Edward Spreitzer for the
murder and rape of Rose Davis.
On November the 14th, 82.
Bond status indicted andordered held without bond.
Within three days of arrest, Andrew'sconfession expanded the body count,

(41:57):
describing his role in up to 17murders, including the killings of
Rosebeck Davis and Lorraine Borowski.
His words provided bothvalidation and horror.
The timeline of two years ofmethodical ritualistic killings
carried out under G's influence.
Edward Spritzer Date ofarrest, November 5th, 1982.

(42:19):
Initial charges with Andrew Coco Riisfor the murder and rape of Rose Davis
filed on November the 14th, 1982.
Further indictments later named ina separate indictment for the murder
of Lorraine Borowski Spritzer.
78, page confession remained thecornerstone of the prosecution.

(42:39):
Seven murders, one aggravated battery.
Each crime explained in sequence.
Each scene detailed with precision.
His testimony not only condemnedhimself, but built the case against
every other man in the crew.
Robin G, the ringleader date ofsecond arrest, November 5th, 1982.

(43:01):
Initial charges none forhomicide, for all the accusations.
No direct physical evidenceever tied geck to the murders.
Even with three men naming him asthe leader, prosecutors couldn't
link him to the killings beyondthe confession testimony, and that
wasn't enough for a murder charge.

(43:21):
Instead, they built their caseon the one survivor who had lived
to face him Beverly Washington.
Geck was indicted for a series of feloniesconnected to her assault, attempted
murder, rape, deviant sexual assault,aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery.
He never confessed notto police, not in court.

(43:44):
In every interview, he maintainedhis innocence called detached,
and utterly consistent.
By the end of November, thedividing lines were clear.
Three men confessed to murder one man.
The one they called the leader did not.
For prosecutors, the goal wasno longer just conviction.

(44:04):
It was survival in court.
Every confession would be tested, everystatement dissected, and every gap
in the physical evidence would matterbecause in the months ahead, the ritual
of justice would begin, one just asdeliberate and far more enduring than
the horrors that brought them here.
The case against the Chicago Ripper crewwasn't built on DNA or fingerprints.

(44:27):
There were no clean ballistic hits,no single piece of forensic gold.
What prosecutors had insteadwas something darker.
A web of confessions,ritual, and corroboration.
Every survivor's account, everyautopsy note, every detailed kept
secret from the press formed apattern too precise to ignore.

(44:48):
The pattern was ritual, and itbecame the foundation of the case.
The crew signature was unmistakable theamputation of a woman's left breast.
That single detail appeared againand again across victims, Linda
Sutton, Lorraine Borowski, SandraDelaware, Rose Davis, and each

(45:09):
one bore the same wound pattern.
Forensic, ex forensic examinersconfirmed that the cuts were
deliberate, measured, and unique.
It was a detailed police neverreleased to the public yet
every confession repeated it.
Confessions described piano wireor garrot wire used to perform
the amputations matching woundmorphology across several victims.

(45:33):
Autopsy findings alignedperfectly with what the suspects
had said under interrogation.
The individual scenes toldthe rest of the story.
Lorraine Bari.
Lorraine Borowski stabbed over 80 timesher wounds consistent with the suspect's
claims, including the use of a glass ax.

(45:54):
Linda Sutton bound with handcuffsgay, both breasts removed her body
decomposed and an unnatural ratebecause of the massive chest wounds.
Sandra Delaware wrist tied behindher back with a shoelace brought
twisted around her neck, matchingthe confession details exactly.
Rose Davis beaten to death with blunttrauma to the face wounds from a hatchet

(46:19):
lined up with what the suspects described.
A rifle recovered from Robin G'sapartment matched ballistics from the
drive-by murder of of Raphael todo.
The crew's only known male victim.
Each forensic link was circumstantialon its own, but together
the mosaic was unmistakable.
The prosecution's backbone wasn'tjust blood or wounds, it was people

(46:43):
Beverly Washington left for deadbeside the tracks had survived.
To describe her attacker and hisvan, her account gave detectives the
blueprint, a red van with tinted windows,a wooden divider, a small person and
small personal details, a feather anda roach cliff hanging from the mirror.
Those same features wereconfirmed by multiple witnesses.

(47:05):
Once police seized thevehicle, the vehicle.
York, another survivor described beinghandcuffed, assaulted, and thrown
from the same red van months earlier.
Her details right down to how she'dbeen restrained matched Beverly's
story and confirmed the crew'sThe crew operated as a group.
Detectives also traced them mento the Rip Van Winkle Motel, where

(47:29):
they had rented side-by-side rooms.
The motel stood just a few hundredyards from Linda Sutton's dump
site managers recalled strangerituals and late night gatherings.
It was here that the first whispers ofthe of the cult connection began to sound
less like rumor and more like evidence.
Lorraine Borowski workplace Investigatorsfound her scattered personal effects,

(47:53):
shoes, keys, and purse contents.
Just as the suspect, just asthe suspects described in their
confessions, the placement provedabduction confirming their version
of events with chilling accuracy.
The investigation's most disturbingconfirmations came not from the streets,
but from the suspect's own homes.

(48:13):
When police search Gex at a,they found what the man had
called the Satanic Chapel.
The room was outfittedexactly as described.
Red and black crosses paintedon the walls, candles, and
an alter draped in red cloth.
Detectives also found a wooden boxconsistent with the one Thomas Coco
relay is described consistent with theone Thomas Coco Relay is described.

(48:38):
A trophy chest thatonce held severed rests.
It contained suspiciousstains and fatty residue.
Though no viable DNA could be recovered,and it was long before DNA was a thing.

Angela (48:51):
Mm.

John (48:52):
Even without biological proof, is discovery aligned too precisely with
the ritual accounts to be coincidence.
Other confessions describe specificacts force, cannibal force cannibalism,
masturbation into the wounds andthe insertion of foreign objects,
including the rock and the wine bottlefound in Sarah Delaware's autopsy.

(49:15):
Each grizzly element matchedforensic reports point for point.
Investigators also see satanic books,ritual objects, and occult paraphernalia
from the defendant's apartments.
Together these items gave physical shapeto the crew's psychological landscape.
A landscape where murder withceremony and obedience was faith.

(49:37):
The evidence room couldn't holdwhat this case represented.
Every photograph, every labreport, every confession lined
up to reveal the same thing.
A pattern of cruelty so deliberate,it blurred the line between
homicide and ritual sacrifice.
And in the courtroom waiting ahead, thechallenge for prosecutors would be clear.

(49:58):
To take the tangible horrors ofbelief and fear and translate them
into the tangible language of law.
By late 1982 and into 1983, the ChicagoRipper Crew case had shifted from
interrogation rooms to courtrooms.
The confessions were explosive.
The press coverage was relentless, andnow both sides were racing to define

(50:21):
the story that jurors would would hear.
It wasn't just a fightfor justice anymore.
It was a war of strategy.
The prosecution's firstpriority was corroboration.
The trio of confessions from EdwardsFright and the Coco Relays brothers had
to hold up under the weight of scrutiny.
Detectives revisited every autopsy, everycrime scene, and every ritual detail,

(50:46):
matching statements and physical reality.
The breast amputations, chest wounds,findings, and the recovered ritual
paraphernalia, every verifiable overlapbecame another thread in the State's case.
Their strongest human evidence wasBeverly Washington, the woman who had
survived what so many others hadn't.

(51:06):
Her identification of Robin Gett theRed Man and the precise details of its
interior gave the prosecution somethingno confession could living proof.
Investigators backedthat with hard context.
They documented that all four suspectshad rented adjoining rooms at the Rip
Van Winkle Motel, not far from LindaSutton's dumpsite, they photographed

(51:29):
G'S attic, the so-called SatanicChapel, and cataloged its ritual layout.
Inside they logged the trophy box,the rifle tied to Raphael El Dorado's
murder, and Satanic books and symbols.
Each piece bouldering the narrativeof organized ritual violence.
Each man faced separate indictments, butthe prosecution structure was clear, ev

(51:52):
if every confession could stand, eachdefendant could reinforce the others, and
together they could prove the pattern.
The defense struck back hard and fast.
Their target, the confessions themselvesfor Thomas and Andrew Coco EZ.
Attorneys filed motions claimingpolice coercion and false promises
of leniency, arguing that detectiveshad manipulated their clients into

(52:16):
confessing by suggesting that they betreated as witnesses and not as killers.
They pointed to theirclient's borderline iq.
IQ scores 74 to 76 and claimvulnerability, confusion and intimidation.
Boltman underwent competency evaluationsbut were ruled fit to stand trial.

(52:37):
Robin G's defense tried a different route.
Insanity.
His attorneys argued that he wasdelusional, detached from reality
and unfit to understand his actions,but afters after psychiatric exams.
On March 2nd, the court ruledthat he was saying and fully
aware at the time of the crimes.
Some defense strategies leaned towardsdismantling the ritual motive itself.

(53:01):
They called the Satanic details Fantasy.
A collective hallucination among weakminds, desperate to please interrogators.
Others shifted the blame entirely toga, describing him as a manipulative
cult leader whose supernatural holdover his followers, turned them into
unwillingness accomplices in hearing.

(53:23):
After hearing, judges weighed theadmissibility of the confessions.
Defense attorneys arguedcoercion, exhaustion, and deceit.
Prosecutors countered with transcripts,consistency and cooperation.
Ultimately, the rulings favored the state.
The confessions would stand.
Psychiatric defenses roseand fell G'S insanity.

(53:44):
Plea was denied after multipleevaluations, and the courts declared
all four men mentally competent.
No matter how diminished theirintellect or their strange
beliefs, bond hearings came next.
All three confessed participants wereheld on $1 million bond or none at all.
While media attention surged to thepoint of threatening jury integrity,

(54:07):
judges issued partial gig orderslimiting what prosecutors and attorneys
could say outside the courtroom.
Inside those walls, thegroundwork was clear.
The prosecution would tell a story ofritual murder and coordinated sadism
while the defense would paint a pictureof manipulation, delusion, and coercion.

(54:28):
When the prosecutors stepped into thecourtroom, they leaned into the cult.
The Satanic chapel, the ritual objectsand the eerie uniformity of the
wounds became their unifying theory.
A psychological and physical signaturethat no jury could dismiss is coincidence.
It wasn't just murder.
They argued it was worship.

(54:50):
A system of ritualized violencecarried out in service of one man's
depravity and sustained by fear.
By the start of 1983, the stage was set.
The confessions were admissible.
The sanity hearings were over,and the city that had watched
the crew arrest would now watchthe system try to explain them.

(55:11):
The next battle would decide what justicelooked like for the women they left
behind, and whether the courts couldconvict a man who led a cult without
ever confessing to a single murder.
By the close of 1982, the men whocalled themselves the ripper crew were
finally in custody, broken apart bytheir own words, their own fear, and

(55:33):
the sheer gravity of what they'd done.
Chicago police had theconfessions, the ritual evidence,
and the survivor's testimony.
What they didn't have was closurebecause the more the case unfolded, the
clearer it became that this wasn't justabout murder, it was about control,
psychological, sexual, and spiritual.

(55:54):
A system built around one man'sdominance and three other submission.
They didn't just kill tosilence their victims.
They killed to obey.
Detectives had seen serial killers before.
They'd seen greed,lust, revenge, and rage.
But the river crew was different.
There was no money, no feud, no profit.

(56:16):
Just ritual and obedience.
Every crime had choreography,every mutilation, meaning.
At the center set, Robin gt, a manwho never confessed, never flinched,
and never let go of the control.
He built the coco relays brothersand Edward Spreitzer told
investigators everything, everyritual, every screen, every weapon.

(56:41):
Their stories lined up toperfectly to be coincidence.
Yet still the question linger.
Were they puppets or were they willing?
Participants in a cult built on Dick'sdelusion of power as the charges
rolled in Chicago tried to makesense of what it had just witnessed.
Four ordinary men, construction workers,husbands, neighbors, had spent two

(57:04):
years terrorizing women in a city thatnever even knew a pattern existed.
At least 15 victims, two survivors,and a trail of evidence that looked
more like a satanic ritual thana conventional homicide case.
A. Behind the headlines, prosecutorsand detectives knew this case
would test the system itself.

(57:24):
How do you prove evilwhen the leader leaves?
No fingerprints, no DNA and no confession.
Just a trail of broken followers andunspeakable acts carried out in his name.
The arrests had stopped the killings, butjustice that was just beginning because
when the trials came, the truth wouldn'tjust be about who committed the murders.

(57:47):
It would be about who controlled them.
Before the courtrooms, before thesentences, there were the women
names that barely made the eveningnews faces that disappeared between
city lights and alley shadows.
They were daughters, mothers,friends and survivors.

(58:11):
Each one pulled into a nightmarethat most of Chicago never knew was
happening until it was far too late.
The first was Linda Su 28 yearsold, abducted in May of 9, 19 81.
Her body was found behind a motel.
10 days later mutilated her lifereduced to evidence tags and

(58:31):
autopsy photographs for detectives.
She became the blueprintfor the rest of us.
She was the beginning ofsomething no one could yet name.
Then came the unnamed cocktail waitress35 stranded after a car, ran outta gas.
No name, no headlines, justthe same brutal signature.

(58:51):
She reminds us that anonymitycan be the cruelest wound of all.
Lorraine Lori Borowski 21 Walk to workone spring morning and never arrive.
Her body was found months laterin a cemetery, stabbed, tortured,
left beneath the same ground wherethe others would one day mourn her.

(59:11):
Her death would anchor thecase her name whispered.
In every courtroom that followedSway Ma, 30 years old, a woman
on her way home in Hanover Park.
She never made it back.
Her remains surfaced monthslater at a construction site.
Bones and Silence found together.
Sandra Delaware, barely 18.

(59:32):
Her body lay along the Chicago river.
Wrist tied.
Bra nodded under her throat.
She was still a teenager, but her storywas told in evidence, photographs labeled
adult female Rosebeck Davis, 31 killedonly weeks later, her face crushed.
Her body left in an alley.
The details of her death would echothrough every confession that followed.

(59:56):
And then there was Raphael Todo.
28. The crews only known one male victim.
A man shot in cold blood.
His life ended because violencehad become casual to his killers.
Not everyone died.
Some lived scarred, silenced, but alive.
Angel York survived.
A night inside the red van handcuffed,cut and thrown into the dark.

(01:00:20):
She somehow found the will to crawlback into the world and tell her story.
Beverly Washington, hercourage changed everything.
Left for dead by the railroad tracks,her breast amputated, her body butchered.
She lived and she spoke.
Her testimony broke the case wide open.
Because of Beverly, themonsters were named Alberto.

(01:00:44):
Rosario wounded, but breathing became theonly man to walk away from their gunfire.
And then there was Cynthia Smith andthe unnamed black woman both attacked,
both escaped, both carrying the kindof trauma that never quite ends,
but the list doesn't stop there.
The confession spoke of unnamed women.

(01:01:05):
A black woman chained andthrown into the river.
A Hispanic woman left withbike marks and desecration.
That defied understanding.
Names the police never matched to files.
Women who never made it home andfamilies who never even knew to look.
There was Carol Pappas, the wifeof of the Chicago Cubs pitcher

(01:01:26):
found five years later in her car.
Her death ruled an accident,but her name tangled forever.
In the Cruz confessions thenwas Susan Baker, 22, whose body
was found after the arrest.
Her murder echoing the same ritual patternand arraign by ease, whose name surfaced

(01:01:47):
in a confession only did be dismissedfor details that didn't fit, but whose
absence still lingers in the timeline.
And then there were the others.
The women who were never identified,never found, never even searched for
15 severed breaths, Thomas Coca Relaysaid each one once belonged to someone

(01:02:08):
with a heartbeat, a voice in a story.
When the records list unknown female, wehave to remember she was known to someone,
a friend, a daughter, a name whisperedin a prayer that never got answered.
This case was neverjust about the killers.
It was about the women who enduredthe unendurable and the survivors who

(01:02:31):
turned their trauma into testimonystrong enough to shatter a cult.
So tonight we say their names,and we remember the ones who
never had a chance to tell theirs.
May they all rest in peace, and maythe world never look away again.

(01:02:53):
You've been listening to Dark Dialoguewhere we explore the crimes that haunt
small towns and big cities alike.
Tonight we trace the arrests,the confessions, and the
relentless investigation thatfinally exposed the Ripper crew.
But behind every file, every name andevery confession are the lives they stole
and the voices they couldn't silence.

Angela (01:03:16):
If this episode moved you help us keep those voices heard.
Tap like follow, give it a thumbsup and hit the notification bell
so you never miss an episode.
Leave a review on ourpod, on your podcast app.
Every rating helps these storiesreach someone who might still
be searching for answers.

John (01:03:35):
You can also join the Dark Dialogue collective, our boots on the
ground organization, providing realtime support through search efforts,
family assistance and victim advocacynationwide, or get involved through our
adoptive Victim program where listenersresearch unsolved cases and help bring
answers to families who've waited too long

Angela (01:03:55):
to support our work and keep these episodes coming.
You can become a member of.
On Patreon or buy us a coffee.
On coffee, every contribution goesgoes towards production, research and
field efforts through the collective.
And for in-depth case notes, behindthe scenes, breakdowns and early
releases, follow us on substack.

John (01:04:17):
All links and resources are@www.darkdialogue.com.
Questions, case suggestions,kudos or anything else.
Email us at info@darkdialogue.com.
We read every messagebecause every story matters.

Angela (01:04:32):
Each episode is more than a story.
It's a reminder that truth onlysurvives when we keep talking about it.

John (01:04:40):
Keep searching, keep questioning, keep remembering, and
above all, keep the dialogue alive.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.