51 Unsolved Murders on the South and West Sides
May 4, 2019 1:40 PM Subscribe
The Murder Accountability Project algorithm has identified a pattern in Chicago: over the last 20 years women, primarily black, were being strangled, with evidence of sexual component, and their bodies dumped.
Mikki Kendall began noticing a pattern a lot earlier and, after a report with Viceland, was called irresponsible by CPD.
Chicago Police and FBI are now investigating.
Mikki Kendall began noticing a pattern a lot earlier and, after a report with Viceland, was called irresponsible by CPD.
Chicago Police and FBI are now investigating.
The Chicago Police Department was established in 1855, they've had time to work out the bugs.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 3:14 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by The Hamms Bear at 3:14 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
Somehow I don’t think the CPD would have just shrugged if 51 white women turned up in fucking trash cans.
Does the algorithm predict how many people of a given identity have to die in a pattern before anyone gives a shit? Like two cops to three white men to ten white women to fifty-fucking-one black women?
Christ I’m so angry.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:19 PM on May 4, 2019 [60 favorites]
Does the algorithm predict how many people of a given identity have to die in a pattern before anyone gives a shit? Like two cops to three white men to ten white women to fifty-fucking-one black women?
Christ I’m so angry.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:19 PM on May 4, 2019 [60 favorites]
For real, lawyers among us: how is this shit not an equal protection issue? Like in general, the way the police blow off assaults on women or on POC (and god forbid you’re both), let alone the presence of domestic abusers and literal white supremacists on the police force — how the fuck does this allow for equal protection under the law?
posted by schadenfrau at 3:21 PM on May 4, 2019 [17 favorites]
posted by schadenfrau at 3:21 PM on May 4, 2019 [17 favorites]
3) a kind of interesting story about how data analysis can be used to discover things that humans wouldn't notice.
Or would simply overlook or ignore due to racism, classism, political pressure on police depts, etc. For years, I've seen academic(ish) claims (e.g. from Thomas Hargrove) that there are anywhere from several hundred to several thousand serial killers active in the US at any given time. I suspect there are a lot of serial murders that have never been recognized for what they were.
posted by ryanshepard at 3:27 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
Or would simply overlook or ignore due to racism, classism, political pressure on police depts, etc. For years, I've seen academic(ish) claims (e.g. from Thomas Hargrove) that there are anywhere from several hundred to several thousand serial killers active in the US at any given time. I suspect there are a lot of serial murders that have never been recognized for what they were.
posted by ryanshepard at 3:27 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
I remember hearing about this in 2016/2017 as warnings from black women to other black women. I don't think I even have it in me to be angry anymore. I don't even know what to call this bolus of emotion that's left.
Good work on the part of Kendall and the Murder Accountability Project. There are people doing good in Chicago.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:36 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
Good work on the part of Kendall and the Murder Accountability Project. There are people doing good in Chicago.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:36 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
how is this shit not an equal protection issue?
Courts have ruled that governments have no obligation to protect citizens. In fact this came up as an issue in Chicago's recent mayoral race because the mayor-elect, Lori Lightfoot, was part of the investigation of a case where the Chicago Fire Department didn't respond in a timely fashion to a 911 call and people died in the fire.
posted by srboisvert at 4:23 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Courts have ruled that governments have no obligation to protect citizens. In fact this came up as an issue in Chicago's recent mayoral race because the mayor-elect, Lori Lightfoot, was part of the investigation of a case where the Chicago Fire Department didn't respond in a timely fashion to a 911 call and people died in the fire.
posted by srboisvert at 4:23 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Courts have ruled that governments have no obligation to protect citizens
Do they have an obligation to enforce the law in an equal manner?
Also, what the fuck
posted by schadenfrau at 4:30 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
Do they have an obligation to enforce the law in an equal manner?
Also, what the fuck
posted by schadenfrau at 4:30 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
Also, what the fuck
It was also the courts ruling re: the Parkland School shooting's school police officer not responding. The social contract is full of loopholes.
posted by srboisvert at 5:46 PM on May 4, 2019 [6 favorites]
It was also the courts ruling re: the Parkland School shooting's school police officer not responding. The social contract is full of loopholes.
posted by srboisvert at 5:46 PM on May 4, 2019 [6 favorites]
"Equal protection" isn't actually referring to physical protection, and you don't have a constitutional right to physical protection by the police, much less a competent investigation after your death. (People struggled with this concept last time to a surprising degree, so let me stress that telling you what the law is is not the same as endorsing it.)
I...still have some doubts. "A serial killer ignored by the cops and discovered by SCIENCE!" is just such an easier narrative than "people in vulnerable and marginalized groups are sexually abused and murdered at terribly high rates, which adds up to an appalling number of deaths over the years." But anything that draws attention to the problem is probably good.
posted by praemunire at 5:48 PM on May 4, 2019 [13 favorites]
I...still have some doubts. "A serial killer ignored by the cops and discovered by SCIENCE!" is just such an easier narrative than "people in vulnerable and marginalized groups are sexually abused and murdered at terribly high rates, which adds up to an appalling number of deaths over the years." But anything that draws attention to the problem is probably good.
posted by praemunire at 5:48 PM on May 4, 2019 [13 favorites]
Premeunire, I think the way the crimes are described certainly seems like a particular mode of operation. There are many creative ways that women have been murdered and many creative ways to dispose of a body but these cases, on the merits of their similarity certainly should be explored as a pattern.
There’s a lot of very interesting “citizen sleuthing” going on right now. With the aid of internet and more data and DNA, people can more easily join forces and make headway in cold cases like never before. Police and investigators are constantly getting new crimes, new work on their plate so old cases quickly get buried.
It would not surprise me if there are serial killers spanning decades and getting away with it. One of the things that comes up when discussing serial sexual harassers is how much ground they cover. So it’s truly #notallmen but a motivated dude like Weinstein or your everyday dude in an office can make a lot of hits. And our culture creates complicity.
posted by amanda at 6:03 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
There’s a lot of very interesting “citizen sleuthing” going on right now. With the aid of internet and more data and DNA, people can more easily join forces and make headway in cold cases like never before. Police and investigators are constantly getting new crimes, new work on their plate so old cases quickly get buried.
It would not surprise me if there are serial killers spanning decades and getting away with it. One of the things that comes up when discussing serial sexual harassers is how much ground they cover. So it’s truly #notallmen but a motivated dude like Weinstein or your everyday dude in an office can make a lot of hits. And our culture creates complicity.
posted by amanda at 6:03 PM on May 4, 2019 [11 favorites]
Police departments have wound up under consent decrees due to differential treatment under the equal protection clause. But a US Attorney under the current DoJ would have to lead that effort. Whereas the current administration prefers to just point at crime in Chicago for cynical purposes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:54 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:54 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
Here’s one from Puerto Rico in 2013 and another from Newark.
It’s settled law (settled enough to be taught in law school) that you don’t have a right to police protection or to have your crime solved, but they can’t engage in systemic differential treatment based on race and sex or gender.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:57 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
It’s settled law (settled enough to be taught in law school) that you don’t have a right to police protection or to have your crime solved, but they can’t engage in systemic differential treatment based on race and sex or gender.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:57 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
> Here’s one from Puerto Rico in 2013 and another from Newark.
Not disputing that there's a serious issue here, but after skimming over the combined 183 pages of consent decrees that these blind PDF links go to, I'm sure not seeing anything that relates to the problem of (arguendo unintentionally) racially disparate non-enforcement. (And I'm a little unclear on how consent decrees could count as legal authority on this question.) A pincite would be nice.
A motivated DOJ can push the boundaries of the law to get consent decrees for all sorts of things without having to have an ironclad argument based on existing authority. But that's a separate question from whether there is any authority that actual human beings could use to bring the racist, misogynist CPD to heel in a court of law for just not trying very hard to pursue any given number of murder cases.
posted by shenderson at 8:05 PM on May 4, 2019
Not disputing that there's a serious issue here, but after skimming over the combined 183 pages of consent decrees that these blind PDF links go to, I'm sure not seeing anything that relates to the problem of (arguendo unintentionally) racially disparate non-enforcement. (And I'm a little unclear on how consent decrees could count as legal authority on this question.) A pincite would be nice.
A motivated DOJ can push the boundaries of the law to get consent decrees for all sorts of things without having to have an ironclad argument based on existing authority. But that's a separate question from whether there is any authority that actual human beings could use to bring the racist, misogynist CPD to heel in a court of law for just not trying very hard to pursue any given number of murder cases.
posted by shenderson at 8:05 PM on May 4, 2019
shenderson: it might be worth talking to the ACLU about your legal theory. it's possible it's a path that hasn't been pursued before.
It's also possible it isn't a path because of lack of any stepping stones to follow.
But I think your reasons bears merit of at least proposing to the ACLU because they are the most likely to be able to pursue this kind of legal reasoning.
posted by hippybear at 8:18 PM on May 4, 2019
It's also possible it isn't a path because of lack of any stepping stones to follow.
But I think your reasons bears merit of at least proposing to the ACLU because they are the most likely to be able to pursue this kind of legal reasoning.
posted by hippybear at 8:18 PM on May 4, 2019
CPD was like
Somehow I don’t think the CPD would have
easier narrative
CPD ran an organized torture ring for two decades. When they had significant interest in appearing to solve a particular crime, they beat and electrocuted a confession out of somebody. they had a system.
this is to suggest that there is no point in speculation about "narratives" that does not take into account the well-documented nature of the Chicago PD over the relevant time period.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:09 PM on May 4, 2019 [26 favorites]
Somehow I don’t think the CPD would have
easier narrative
CPD ran an organized torture ring for two decades. When they had significant interest in appearing to solve a particular crime, they beat and electrocuted a confession out of somebody. they had a system.
this is to suggest that there is no point in speculation about "narratives" that does not take into account the well-documented nature of the Chicago PD over the relevant time period.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:09 PM on May 4, 2019 [26 favorites]
When I lived on the South Side through 2011 we noticed a pattern of women being strangled, dumped in trash cans, and set on fire. I don’t remember if there was a racial component (apparently there was) but I was real spooked.
I guess the CPD was too busy doing things like... arresting the innocent 12-year-old who volunteered at the bike shop when he called in that his bike had been stolen by gangbangers. Seriously. The kid was Black, and he was smart enough to call the University Police (which is sad/telling in itself) but they kicked it to the CPD because it was gang activity, and *the CPD arrested the same child who had reported his bike stolen*.
posted by cnidaria at 9:32 PM on May 4, 2019 [18 favorites]
I guess the CPD was too busy doing things like... arresting the innocent 12-year-old who volunteered at the bike shop when he called in that his bike had been stolen by gangbangers. Seriously. The kid was Black, and he was smart enough to call the University Police (which is sad/telling in itself) but they kicked it to the CPD because it was gang activity, and *the CPD arrested the same child who had reported his bike stolen*.
posted by cnidaria at 9:32 PM on May 4, 2019 [18 favorites]
there is no point in speculation about "narratives" that does not take into account the well-documented nature of the Chicago PD over the relevant time period
I'm not sure what there is in what I said that made you think I have any respect whatsoever for the Chicago PD. Failure to solve so many murders is equally appalling whether it's a serial killer or not.
Premeunire, I think the way the crimes are described certainly seems like a particular mode of operation.
At least from the detail the article gave, which may not have been complete, the similarities were at a very high level of generality. Victims were found outside. There was a "sexual component"--which appears to have meant anything from a piece of clothing being askew exposing skin to having been raped. They're in clusters on a north-south line, which, well, any two points make a line.
I'm certainly not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it's the kind of narrative we're trained to find "appealing" and so I'm automatically suspicious of it. Cf. the Highway of Tears, where three serial killers appear to have picked up one or two victims each, but most of the murders and disappearances are probably unrelated except in the sense of all being facilitated, before and after the fact, by the intense marginalization of First Nations women in that area.
posted by praemunire at 9:40 PM on May 4, 2019
I'm not sure what there is in what I said that made you think I have any respect whatsoever for the Chicago PD. Failure to solve so many murders is equally appalling whether it's a serial killer or not.
Premeunire, I think the way the crimes are described certainly seems like a particular mode of operation.
At least from the detail the article gave, which may not have been complete, the similarities were at a very high level of generality. Victims were found outside. There was a "sexual component"--which appears to have meant anything from a piece of clothing being askew exposing skin to having been raped. They're in clusters on a north-south line, which, well, any two points make a line.
I'm certainly not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it's the kind of narrative we're trained to find "appealing" and so I'm automatically suspicious of it. Cf. the Highway of Tears, where three serial killers appear to have picked up one or two victims each, but most of the murders and disappearances are probably unrelated except in the sense of all being facilitated, before and after the fact, by the intense marginalization of First Nations women in that area.
posted by praemunire at 9:40 PM on May 4, 2019
Not disputing that there's a serious issue here, but after skimming over the combined 183 pages of consent decrees that these blind PDF links go to, I'm sure not seeing anything that relates to the problem of (arguendo unintentionally) racially disparate non-enforcement. (And I'm a little unclear on how consent decrees could count as legal authority on this question.) A pincite would be nice.
They're examples of such an outcome, not citable authority (although they would be judicially noticeable). Presumably the pleadings and rulings in the underlying litigation contain the authorities.
Check out Section VI of the PR decree. Pg.s 36 forward (as numbered in the footer, not by PACER). For instance, p.40:
PRPD shall respond to and investigate reports of sexual assault and domestic violence professionally, effectively, and in a manner free of gender-based bias. PRPD shall appropriately classify and investigate reports of sexual assault and domestic violence, collaborate closely with community stakeholders, and apply a victim-centered approach at every stage of its response. PRPD shall develop policies and procedures on responding to sexual assault and domestic violence, including incidents involving PRPD officers, that comply with applicable law and comport with generally accepted policing practices.
Substitute "homicides or assaults with a sexual component" for DV and add "or race-based."
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:14 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
They're examples of such an outcome, not citable authority (although they would be judicially noticeable). Presumably the pleadings and rulings in the underlying litigation contain the authorities.
Check out Section VI of the PR decree. Pg.s 36 forward (as numbered in the footer, not by PACER). For instance, p.40:
PRPD shall respond to and investigate reports of sexual assault and domestic violence professionally, effectively, and in a manner free of gender-based bias. PRPD shall appropriately classify and investigate reports of sexual assault and domestic violence, collaborate closely with community stakeholders, and apply a victim-centered approach at every stage of its response. PRPD shall develop policies and procedures on responding to sexual assault and domestic violence, including incidents involving PRPD officers, that comply with applicable law and comport with generally accepted policing practices.
Substitute "homicides or assaults with a sexual component" for DV and add "or race-based."
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:14 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Looking more closely at the introductory material in the PR decree, the investigation may have prompted the agreement without any actual litigation, so, yeah. The language from the remedy is still instructive if vague, but that specific case may not have much of a trail to follow.
The point stands, though. The police can suck, fail to prevent crime, and fail to investigate crime. Their shittiness just can't vary according to a victim's identity in a way that results in differential treatment across protected classes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:46 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
The point stands, though. The police can suck, fail to prevent crime, and fail to investigate crime. Their shittiness just can't vary according to a victim's identity in a way that results in differential treatment across protected classes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:46 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I...still have some doubts. "A serial killer ignored by the cops and discovered by SCIENCE!" is just such an easier narrative than "people in vulnerable and marginalized groups are sexually abused and murdered at terribly high rates, which adds up to an appalling number of deaths over the years." But anything that draws attention to the problem is probably good.
I have been saying for years that is extremely unlikely that there is A serial killer in Chicago. Given that there are something in the area of 400+ unsolved murders every year for the past decade there are probably SEVERAL or even DOZENS of serial killers active in Chicago. The difference in this case is that there is sexual assault and body disposal involved as well while most murders in Chicago are just killings.
posted by srboisvert at 1:49 AM on May 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I have been saying for years that is extremely unlikely that there is A serial killer in Chicago. Given that there are something in the area of 400+ unsolved murders every year for the past decade there are probably SEVERAL or even DOZENS of serial killers active in Chicago. The difference in this case is that there is sexual assault and body disposal involved as well while most murders in Chicago are just killings.
posted by srboisvert at 1:49 AM on May 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I'm certainly not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying
The Devil has enough advocates already and doesn’t need your pro bono work on this case, thanks.
posted by Etrigan at 3:58 AM on May 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
The Devil has enough advocates already and doesn’t need your pro bono work on this case, thanks.
posted by Etrigan at 3:58 AM on May 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
This brings to mind the case of Samuel Little.
He was convicted of 3 murders in 2014, and in 2018 confessed to a total of 90 murders committed over 30+ years. As of November 2018 the FBI has confirmed 34 of those claims; if all of them are true, he would easily be the most prolific known serial killer in American history (even just his current confirmed total puts him just shy of Ted Bundy).
How did he get away with so many murders for so long? He was a poor black man who killed mostly poor black women, often drug addicts, prostitutes, the kind of people society doesn't care about if they go missing.
Or, as Little himself put it:
He was convicted of 3 murders in 2014, and in 2018 confessed to a total of 90 murders committed over 30+ years. As of November 2018 the FBI has confirmed 34 of those claims; if all of them are true, he would easily be the most prolific known serial killer in American history (even just his current confirmed total puts him just shy of Ted Bundy).
How did he get away with so many murders for so long? He was a poor black man who killed mostly poor black women, often drug addicts, prostitutes, the kind of people society doesn't care about if they go missing.
Or, as Little himself put it:
“I can go into my world and do what I want to do,” Mr. Little said, according to Sergeant Mongeluzzo, describing neighborhoods around the nation where poverty, drug addiction and unsolved murders are common. “I won’t go into your world.”posted by Sangermaine at 8:14 AM on May 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
« Older Rachel Held Evans, 1981-2019 | "I'm not writing at the moment because I'm talking... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
One of the things in the story I heard was saying that part of the problem is how cases are handled in a lot of departments. A murder happens, a team gets assigned to the case. Another murder (similar, but not obviously connected) occurs, a different team gets assigned. And so on. There isn't much cross pollination of information across the investigation department, and so patterns which do exist don't ever come to the surface.
I do hope they find the bastard.
posted by hippybear at 2:59 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]