Du Page County prosecutors will seek the death penalty in a series of murder trials beginning Tuesday of men who allegedly belonged to a gang of devil worshipers who raped, mutilated and killed young women in 1981 and 1982. Edward Spreitzer, 25, will be the first to stand trial in the murder of Linda Sutton, 26, a Chicago woman whose body was found in a grassy area near a Villa Park motel in June, 1981. Spreitzer has confessed to participating in eight murders connected with the so-called ”latter-day Jack the Ripper”
killings, including the Sutton slaying, but his defense attorneys are expected to argue that the confessions were obtained under duress.
Thomas Kokoraleis, 25, and his brother, Andrew Kokoraleis, 22, also are charged with murder in the Sutton case and will be tried separately at the conclusion of the Spreitzer trial. All three men are serving life sentences with no chance of parole for other killings.
Spreitzer appeared in front of Judge Edward Kowal in a Wheaton courtroom Monday afternoon. He waived his right to a trial by jury, and Kowal scheduled opening arguments for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
In an earlier effort to avoid the death penalty, Spreitzer pleaded guilty in April, 1984, in Cook County Criminal Court to four murders, including the May, 1982, killing of a 30-year-old Lombard woman.
Thomas Kokoraleis was convicted in Du Page County in September, 1984, for his role in the May, 1982, murder of a 21-year-old Elmhurst woman. Andrew Kokoraleis was convicted in Cook County in February, 1985, for his role in the slaying of a 30-year-old Broadview woman. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in both cases but were denied.
Linda Sutton is thought by investigators to be one of the first victims in a grisly, 18-month series of mutilations and murders allegedly committed by the Kokoraleis brothers, Spreitzer and Robin Gecht, 32, whom investigators believe was the leader of the gang.
Police apprehended Gecht and Spreitzer in October, 1982, after a prostitute identified Gecht as the man who picked her up on the North Side, handcuffed her, raped her, cut off one of her breasts and left her for dead in an alley. At the time of his arrest, Spreitzer was driving Gecht`s red, 1975 Chevrolet van, in which many of the crimes allegedly occurred.
Spreitzer confessed his role in numerous slayings to Cook County state`s attorneys and implicated the Kokoraleis brothers, who subsequently were arrested. Spreitzer was not charged in the incident involving the prostitute. Investigators piecing together stories told by the three men said that Gecht, a self-employed carpenter and electrician, led Satanic rites in the attic of his house at 2163 N. McVicker Ave. Spreitzer lived for a time with Gecht and his wife; the Kokoraleis brothers, who lived in Villa Park, worked for Gecht.
Police said the men allegedly would abduct young women and sexually abuse and mutilate them before using parts of their bodies in Satanic rituals.
Gecht is the only one of the four who has never confessed to any killings. He was convicted in September, 1983, of the rape and mutilation of the prostitute who identified him as her assailant, and is serving a 120-year prison sentence. He was not charged in the Sutton case.
Prosecutor Brian Telander, chief of the criminal division for the Du Page County state`s attorney`s office, said he expects to call fewer than 10 witnesses in the Spreitzer trial and to establish that the confession statements contained details that only the murderers could have known.
Public defender Carol Anfinson, Spreitzer`s attorney, said in court Monday that her client is reserving the right to have a jury decide his sentence at the conclusion of the trial.
Officials in Du Page and Cook Counties have said that the four men may be responsible for up to 18 unsolved murders and disappearances in 1981 and 1982, including the disappearance of Carole Pappas, 42, the wife of former Chicago Cubs pitcher Milt Pappas.
No other charges, except for the charges against Spreitzer and the two brothers in the Sutton case, are pending against the men.
