Hubert Geralds

Serial Killer

Hubert Geralds Jr.: The Englewood Strangler

Background

Hubert Geralds Jr., born November 13, 1964, is an American serial killer associated with a series of murders in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. His confirmed murder victims were five women killed between December 1994 and June 1995. Geralds became known as the "Englewood Strangler" because strangulation or suffocation was the central method used in the crimes. Many of the women he encountered were involved in sex work, used drugs, or lived in circumstances that made them especially vulnerable to predators operating in the neighborhood. Geralds had spent time in prison before the murders. After living in New York, he was paroled from a New York prison on June 19, 1992. He was later convicted of residential burglary in Chicago and was paroled from an Illinois prison on October 29, 1994. Less than two months later, the first of the five murders ultimately attributed to him occurred.

The Englewood Murders

Geralds operated in and around Englewood, including an area of South Halsted Street that was known for street-level sex work. According to evidence and accounts developed during the investigation and prosecution, he commonly spent time with women while using crack cocaine or other drugs. He would get a woman alone or into an isolated location and then overpower her. The killings were committed through asphyxiation, generally by strangling or suffocating the victim. Investigators said the technique could leave fewer of the obvious external injuries that police normally associated with violent strangulation, complicating the early investigation of the deaths. The murders occurred during a period when numerous women were being killed on Chicago's South Side. Several different offenders were eventually connected to murders in the same general area, making the investigation particularly difficult. Geralds was not responsible for every similar death in Englewood, an important fact that became especially clear when one murder for which he had originally been convicted was later proved to have been committed by another serial killer. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Doretha Withers Age: (37), Date of Death: 1994-12-22

Hubert Geralds