Gary Rardon was convicted in Illinois of three counts of murder arising from offenses committed in Cook County on 14, 16 and November 18, 1974. He was sentenced to 40 to 100 years. The three killings fell on alternate days within a single week, and he was in custody by January 1975.
The court, the date of conviction and the plea or verdict are not on record. The case involved three counts of murder and three further counts, all in Cook County.
Rardon was arrested by the FBI in Kentucky in January 1975. He confessed to all three murders. He was not on parole at the time of the Cook County offenses.
Before 1974 he had served four years in Indiana for manslaughter and had received 3 to 5 years in Connecticut for a robbery with violence. He also faced a federal detainer carrying sentences of 5 and 7 years to run consecutively. These earlier matters are separate from the Cook County convictions.
Rardon served in the Illinois prison system, including a long period from 1994 to 2007 and then a further period from 2007. His last major disciplinary ticket dated from 1986, and he had held the top conduct grade since that year. By 2012 he had never received a favourable parole vote and was coming off a three-year set, with consecutive three-year sets since 2003.
He was interviewed by a Board member on February 21, 2012, when he was 68. He proposed to live in east-central Illinois. In March 2012 the Board voted 12 to 0 to deny parole, finding that release would deprecate the seriousness of the crime and promote disrespect for the law. It voted 12 to 0 to continue consideration to his maximum out date. His projected maximum discharge date was September 30, 2016.
Illinois offenders sentenced for offenses of this period were considered for parole by the Prisoner Review Board, which sat en banc and voted on each case by motion.
The conviction itself is not disputed. Reports of his death in 2024 have not been confirmed.
November 14, 1974: first of three murders in Cook County.
November 16, 1974: second murder.
November 18, 1974: third murder.
January 1975: arrested by the FBI in Kentucky; confesses to all three.
February 21, 2012: parole interview.
March 2012: parole denied 12 to 0; consideration continued to maximum out date.
September 30, 2016: projected maximum discharge date.