Andre Crawford

There is conflicting information about Andre Crawford's early life. It is known that he was born on March 20, 1962 in Chicago, has a sister and his father left the family shortly after his birth. His mother paid little attention to him, leading to her being prosecuted in the late 1960s for inappropriate parenting, leading to both Andre and his sister being placed in a foster family with four other children.[3] According to Andre himself, he was subjected to beatings by his foster parents and was sexually abused by other members of the family. He also claimed that, as a teenager, he ran away from home and sought out his biological mother's relatives, who later went on to sexually abuse him and forced him to prostitute himself. However, this hasn't been proven, and his sister, adoptive parents and other relatives denied the claims. Crawford's adoptive father said that Andre was a nice kid, a good student and church-goer, but in the mid-1970s, he became addicted to drugs. As a result, he dropped out of school at the age of 17 due to his addiction, something which Andre himself confirmed.[4][5]

In the early 1980s, Crawford enlisted in the Army and later the Navy, but continued to use drugs during his further military service. Due to this, he couldn't perform his duties adequately, was constantly disciplined and eventually forced to leave with an dishonorable discharge. After this, he returned to Chicago, where over the next few years he lived in squalor, using drugs and drinking large quantities of alcohol. During this period, Andre changed several professions, mainly requiring low-skilled labor, and because of problems with housing, he lived in abandoned houses, homeless shelters and stayed over at friends' residences.[2] When he had free time, Crawford stayed in the red-light district, in the company of prostitutes and pimps. While most of his acquaintances spoke only positively of him, between March 1993 and November 1999, Crawford was repeatedly arrested and prosecuted on charges of theft and drug possession. In 1999, he was found guilty, but received a suspended sentence with probation, during which a blood sample was taken. During this time, it became clear that he was aggressive towards women. On May 3, 1995, he was arrested yet again for assault and rape, spending over a year in the Cook County Jail awaiting the end of the investigation, but ultimately, the charges were dropped and he was released, as the victim refused to cooperate with the investigators and her testimony was questioned due to her drug addiction.[6]

As victims, Crawford chose black girls and women who engaged in prostitution or were drug addicts, most of them being casual acquaintances whom he lured to abandoned houses or wastelands, ostensibly to share crack cocaine or have sex in exchange for cash. All victims were either strangled or stabbed with a knife. After committing the murders, Crawford left the corpses at the crime scenes, returning later in the day to perform sexual acts on them. All of the killings occurred in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, which is known for its high percentage for violent crime.[7]

The murders began in September 1993, when 32-year-old Patricia Dunn was killed. In early December 1994, Crawford lured 24-year-old Rhonda King into an empty, abandoned building by offering her crack cocaine in exchange for sexual favors. According to him, once they were there, Rhonda refused to have sex with him and demanded she was given the cocaine first, after which a quarrel arose between them, during which Andre stabbed her to death with a knife and raped the body. He then left the crime scene, but returned an hour later, raping the dead woman's corpse. King's skeletonized remains were discovered on December 21st of that year, with no clothes present, except for a coat and a pillow over her face. Due to the state of decomposition, the cause of death couldn't be determined.

In July 1995, Crawford killed 27-year-old Shaquanta Langley, strangling her and then raping the corpse. In early April, he offered to meet up with 38-year-old Angel Shatteen, a prostitute whom he had known for several years. Andre lured her to an abandoned house, promising her drugs and sex in return. While the pair were having oral sex, Angel interrupted and demanded that she be given a dose, resulting in Crawford attacking and subsequently strangling her with his hands and an electric wire. He claimed that Shatteen resisted fiercely, losing consciousness after ten minutes. After making sure she was dead, Andre had sex with the corpse for the next few hours, leaving semen traces on it.

The murderer's next victims were Tommie Dennis, who he killed in June 1998, and 31-year-old Sonja Brandon, who he strangled the next month. After killing Brandon, Crawford took her expensive shoes, which he later sold. In early August, he met with another friend, 31-year-old Nicole Townsend. As with the previous victims, he offered her drugs in exchange for sex, lured her to an abandoned house, where, after haxing sex together, Townsend interrupted the coitus to demand cocaine. Aggravated by this, Andre proceeded to strangle her as well. After killing her, he committed several necrophilic acts on the body, including sodomizing it, leaving his semen on the clothing. The victim's skeletonized remains were found two weeks later, in a state of severe decomposition.

A week after, Crawford crossed paths with 42-year-old Evandry Harris, and exactly like Townsend, she interrupted during sex to demand payment, causing Crawford to lash out and beat her up, before strangling her with a telephone wire. He then raped the corpse twice and left, but a few hours later, while under the influence of drugs, her returned and raped it again, leaving his biological traces all over the room.

In the first week of December 1998, Crawford invited a friend, 38-year-old prostitute Cheryl Cross, to have sex. Agreeing to his proposal, both of them went to an abandoned house, where Andre accused her of stealing $13, something she had done on previous occasions. Both of them began arguing, and when Cheryl attempted to leave, Crawford stabbed her in the back and hit her on the head with a pipe, before finally strangling her. After the murder, like with the previous victims, Crawford raped the woman's corpse, and over the next days, he returned several times, engaging in intercourse with Cross' body on each visit. In mid-April 1999, he killed 44-year-old prostitute Sheryl Johnson, whom he strangled and her corpse raped several times. His last victim was 41-year-old Constance Bailey.[8] A 12th woman was attacked and left for dead on Thanksgiving 1997, but survived.

Crawford was arrested on January 28, 2000 following a DNA test, establishing his involvement in seven murders. After his arrest, during the initial interrogations, Andre admitted his guilt and told the investigators that he was responsible for an additional three killings, as well as several other attacks, the victims of whom survived. This was confirmed by the surviving victims, who identified him as their assailant. Crawford expressed no remorse and stated that he wouldn't stop killing, noting that it had become like an addiction to him.[7]

After his capture, it was revealed that Crawford was involved in a police operation to capture the elusive serial killer, participating in surveillance activities around the area and even helping police distribube leaflets with composites of the suspect and about what precautions should be taken to avoid becoming a victim of violent crimes.[9]

In the end, Andre Crawford was charged with 11 counts of murder and sexual offenses with aggravating circumstances, including one count of attempted murder.[10] During his confessions, Crawford admitted to killing Rhonda King, but another serial killer, Hubert Geralds, had already been convicted of that crime. In response, the Cook County Prosecutor's Office announced that they would overturn Geralds' conviction, as his testimony was considered questionable from the start. Subsequently, Geralds was exonerated of the King murder, but remained incarcerated, as the DNA test established his guilt in the other five murders he was convicted of.[11]

Due to various circumstances, including numerous judicial errors in both detainees' convictions, the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty in the state and numerous court motions from both defense and prosecution, Crawford's trial was delayed until mid-November 2009. Because of this, he spent a total of nine years and ten months detained at the Cook County Jail, more than any other inmate in the history of Illinois.[12]

On December 10, 2009, by jury verdict, he was found guilty on all counts and given a life imprisonment sentence without the chance of parole.[13] At the time of the verdict, Andre expressed neither remorse nor emotion.[2] To this day, he remains incarcerated at the Menard Correctional Center.

• Hubert Geralds
• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of serial killers by number of victims

• The People v. Andre Crawford
• The National Registry of Exonerations