Chicago’s Most Infamous Criminals

H.H. HolmesH.H. Holmes, known as America's first serial killer, confessed to the murder of 27 people in the 1890s. He lured his victims into a hotel he opened at 63rd and Wallace streets for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. (Credit: Public Domain)

Adolph LuetgertAdolph Luetgert was known as the "sausage king" of Chicago in the late 19th century. But after his wife, Louise, disappeared in 1897, police discovered that he had murdered her and dissolved her body in a vat of acid in his Diversey Parkway factory. Chicago author Robert Loerzel documented the case in his book, Alchemy of Bones. Learn More (Credit: Robert Loerzel)

Al CaponeAl Capone came to Chicago from Brooklyn in 1919, and soon became head of the Chicago mob, raking in millions a year in both illegal and legitimate industries. But the height of his infamy came in 1929, when he ordered the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone's associates gunned down seven people inside a warehouse at 2122 N. Clark St. in the Lincoln Park neighborhood – which was used by rival bootlegger George "Bugs" Moran. (Credit: AP)

Leopold And LoebIn a quest to commit the "perfect crime" as Nietzschean supermen, University of Chicago student Nathan Leopold (right) and his friend Richard Loeb kidnapped 14-year-old Bobby Franks and stabbed him to death with a chisel on May 21, 1924. Storied defense attorney Clarence Darrow succeeded in preventing them from being sent to the gallows. (Credit: WTTW)

John DillingerA string of bank robberies all over the Midwest in the 1930s led John Dillinger to be named Public Enemy No. 1. He was gunned down by FBI agents at the Biograph Theatre on Lincoln Avenue in 1934. (Credit: AP)

William HeirensWilliam Heirens was convicted first of the 1945 slayings of Frances Brown, 32, and Josephine Ross, 43, then the dismemberment of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan the following year. Heirens has spent more than 62 years in prison and is eligible for parole, but it was denied in 2007. (Credit: CBS)

Richard SpeckRichard Speck broke into a Southeast Side dormitory and killed eight student nurses on July 13, 1966. Three decades after the crime and even five years after his own death, Speck was still making headlines and drawing ire from prosecutors and victims' families who saw him mocking the justice system. (Credit: CBS)

Silas JayneHorse breeder Silas Jayne was convicted of murdering his brother, George, in 1970. His name later surfaced in several other criminal cases, including the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Voorhees Brach. (Credit: CBS)

Patty Columbo, Frank DeLucaPatty Columbo, 19 at the time, and her older 37-year-old lover, Frank DeLuca, broke into Columbo's family home in Elk Grove Village and brutally murdered her mother, Mary, her father, Frank, and her brother, Michael, on May 4, 1976. Thirteen-year-old Michael was stabbed 87 times. Columbo and DeLuca were sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison. (Credit: CBS)

John Wayne GacyJohn Wayne Gacy was known for many years around his neighborhood as a Democratic precinct captain and a birthday party clown. But in December 1978, police discovered 29 bodies buried in a crawl space of his house and the surrounding yard in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Another four bodies were found in the Des Plaines River. (Credit: CBS)

Brian DuganBrian Dugan had already been convicted of two murders when he confessed to the 1983 murder and rape of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in Naperville. Originally, three men were wrongly sent to death row for the murder, but last year, Dugan pleaded guilty and was himself sentenced to death. (Credit: CBS)

Laurie DannOn May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann shot six children in a school in Winnetka, leaving one dead, then took a family hostage and shot a college student before taking her own life. (Credit: CBS)

Juan Luna, James DegorskiOn Jan. 8, 1993, seven people were shot and stabbed to death in a robbery that netted less than $2,000 at a Brown's Chicken Restaurant in Palatine. Juan Luna (left) was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison in 2007. His accomplice, James Degorski (right), was convicted two years later and also sentenced to life. (Credit: CBS)

Kenneth HansenKenneth Hansen was convicted 1994 for the cold case murders of Robert Peterson and John Schuessler, both 13, and 11-year-old Tony Schuessler, whose bodies were found in Robinson Woods near the Des Plaines River after the boys went to see a movie 1955. Hansen died in 2007. (Credit: AP)

Floyd DurrConvicted sex offender Floyd Durr pleaded guilty to the murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris, whose partially naked body was found in August 1998 in an Englewood neighborhood backyard. Before DNA evidence led to Durr, two boys, ages 7 and 8, were accused of the crime, but charges were dropped. (Credit: CBS)

David MaustDavid Maust pleaded guilty to killing Michael Dennis, 13; James Raganyi, 16; and Nick James, 19, and burying their bodies in his basement in Hammond, Ind. Maust was also convicted of killing a boy near Elgin in 1981, and killing a teenager while in the U.S. Army in Germany. Maust committed suicide in prison in January 2006. (Credit: CBS)

Bart RossFederal Judge Joan Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband and mother murdered in her North Side home on Feb. 28, 2005. Later, Bart Ross left a suicide note confessing to the crimes and shot himself dead in Wisconsin. Judge Lefkow had dismissed a civil rights lawsuit in which Ross claimed doctors had disfigured him when they treated him for cancer. (Credit: CBS)