Villa Park, IL is located at the base of the Route 83 "Tylenol Corridor."
ROUTE 83 TYLENOL CORRIDOR
A.) Poisoned Tylenol was delivered to Jewel-Osco in Arlington Heights on Monday Sept. 27, 1982.
B.) Poisoned Tylenol was delivered to Osco Drugs at the Schaumburg Mall on Monday Sept. 27, 1982.
C.) A pile of white powder and hundreds of empty Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules were found in the Howard Johnson parking lot by Lake county Sheriff Deputies on Tuesday Morning, Sept. 28, at 2:32 am.
D.) Poisoned Tylenol was delivered to Jewel Foods in Elk Grove Village on Monday Sept. 27, 1982.
E.) Poisoned Tylenol was delivered to Dominick’s in Villa Park on Monday Sept. 27, 1982.
F.) Poisoned Tylenol was delivered to the "Undisclosed Location" on Monday Sept. 27, 1982.
The Villa Park "Junction"
Located at the epicenter of Villa Park; Jewel-Osco and Walgreens
When Ovaltine Company first opened their factory, they needed a way to make sure their employees could get to and from work safely, no matter the weather, terrain or other issues. Villa Park was built originally for that reason.
Following the construction of a subdivision called Villa Park in 1908 and another called Ardmore in 1910 by the real estate firm Ballard & Pottinger, Villa Park was incorporated in 1914 by uniting the two subdivisions of 300 people. The first village president, William H. Calhoun, was elected on September 12, 1914. The town was originally called Ardmore, but changed its name to Villa Park in 1917.
Villa Park was one of a number of suburbs directly west of downtown Chicago that flourished as a result of the electric interurban line, the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad. The railroad ran from the Chicago Loop directly west to Wheaton, Illinois, where it then split into two lines, one traveling southwest to Aurora and the other northwest to Elgin. Two small commercial areas developed, one around the Villa Avenue station and the other around the Ardmore Avenue station. In 1957, the CA&E ceased to carry passengers resulting from a dramatic drop in ridership due to the loss of a one-seat ride stemming from the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), and the general increase in use of personal automobiles. The right-of-way was eventually cleaned up and developed into a hiking and bicycling trail known as the Illinois Prairie Path. The Ardmore Station is now home to the Chamber of Commerce, and the Villa Avenue Station houses the Villa Park Historical Society.
Villa Park had been home to the Ovaltine chocolate factory until it closed in 1988. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as building #86003781.[1] It has since been converted into loft apartments.[2]
Ovaltine was aquired in the early 1980s by pharmaceutical company, Sandoz, which is now a subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis. Novartis sold the Ovaltine business in 2002 to Associated British Foods plc. ABF currently produces Ovaltine in Switzerland, China, Thailand, and the Philippines. In the United States, Nestlé manufactures Ovaltine under license. In Japan, Ovaltine was sold for a short period in the late 1970s by Calpis Industries (presently Calpis Co., Ltd.), but it was not a commercial success. Ovalteenies are round sweets made of compressed Ovaltine.
Ovaltine Plant 1988
Ovaltine Plant 1991
Ovaltine Plant, Villa Park, IL (circa 1960s)
Ovaltine Products and Promotional items (circa 1960s)
Ovaltine Smokestack Demolition - 2008
1954 ad in the Islamic Review
In 1981 and 1982 Chicago was besieged with a string of gruesome killings that began with Linda Sutton, 28, being raped and stabbed to death on May 23. Her corpse was found ten days later in Villa Park, her left breast missing. In May of 1982 Lorraine Burrowski and Shui Mak were abducted, their bodies not recovered until that fall. Next was Angel York, who survived an attack on June 13. Not as fortunate was Sondra Delaware who was found strangled on a river bank with her left breast missing on August 28. Rose Davis suffered a similar fate and was found in an alleyway on September 8. The slayings continued with Carol Pappas, wife of a Chicago Cubs player, who was abducted on September 11 while shopping and never seen again.
The unknown killers made their telling mistake on October 6 when Beverly Washington, a twenty-year-old prostitute, was found near death alongside some railroad tracks. Despite being raped, slashed, and having her left breast severed, Washington survived to give a fair description of her attacker and the van she was taken in. This info soon led to a group of men who had once lived together at a motel near the dump sites of Sutton and Burrowski. They were Robin Gecht, Ed Spreitzer, and brothers Andrew and Tommy Kokoraleis. Gecht, who had once worked for John Gacy, was identified as Washington's attacker and evidently the leader of the murderous gang.
It wasn't long before the Kokoraleis brothers and Spreitzer made confessions, including the gory revelation that the four had cannibalized their victim's amputated breasts before Gecht placed them in a "trophy case", but Gecht himself has always claimed innocence. All four were eventually convicted at several seperate trials. Gecht's tight-lipped strategy was rewarded when authorities could only manage to give him 120 years for Washington's attack. Thomas Kokoraleis used his helpfulness and a technicality to barter his sentence down to seventy years for his role in Borowski's slaying. Meanwhile his brother Andrew and Spreitzer were both sentenced to death for the roles in the murders. Andrew Kokoraleis was subsequently executed on March 17, 1999. All told the Chicago Rippers are believed to have killed as many as eighteen women.
1/14/2003-Spreitzer is one of the many death row inmates to benefit from Illinois Governor George Ryan reducing all death row inmates' sentences. Spreitzer, like most of the formerly condemned men, recieved a new sentence of life without the possiblitly of parole. Ironically, when Governor Ryan suspended all Illinois executions in 1999, he made one exception. Who was the one last prisoner he allowed to be executed? Andrew Kokoraleis.