Killings Shake Chicago Neighborhood
C H I C A G O, July 17 -- When some activists on the far South Side lookedaround their neighborhood last fall, they saw a recipe for death.
A serial killer was preying upon women in a nearby neighborhoodand the conditions in Greater Roseland were frighteningly similar:drugs, prostitution, abandoned buildings, weed-choked lots.
“We looked at Roseland and said to ourselves, ‘We are sittinghere on a powder keg,’” said Michael Evans, an associate directorwith the church-based Developing Communities Project.
Their morbid prediction came true. The first body was pulledfrom one of Greater Roseland’s abandoned buildings in mid-May andfive more have been found in the two months since.
“Now, the most horrendous things that could have happened havetaken place,” Evans said.
A Serial Killer on the Loose?
The slayings mirror those around the Englewood neighborhood inthe 1990s: The victims were all black women found in abandonedbuildings, and most were involved with prostitution or drugs, orboth.
Police believe the Englewood killings may have been committed bythree separate people, all since arrested. The possibility of aserial killer in Greater Roseland has not been ruled out.
While residents absorb that prospect, they have tried to prodthe city into doing something about conditions they believegenerate crime in their neighborhood.
“Look there,” Evans said during a tour of the neighborhoodlast week. “Abandoned house, vacant lot, someone lives there,vacant lot, vacant lot, someone lives there, abandoned house.”
The abandoned buildings are “invitations to all kinds ofdangerous stuff for neighborhoods,” according to George Kelling, aprofessor at Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice.
Kelling was one of the original proponents of the so-called“broken windows” theory of neighborhood crime — the notion thatcleaning up disorder and signs of crime, such as graffiti andbroken windows, actually helps prevent serious crime.
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