Mark Alan Smith has been in prison since 1970 for the murders of four young women: three in the Chicago area in 1970, and one in Mountain Home, Arkansas, in December 1969. He pleaded guilty in Illinois, was convicted in Arkansas at a bench trial, and is serving an Illinois sentence that adds up to as much as 500 years. A life sentence waits for him in Arkansas if Illinois ever lets him go.
He has also said, in a book written with his defense lawyer and to prison officials, that he had killed young women in West Germany while he was stationed there with the U.S. Army. No German court ever tried him, and the number he has given has changed over the years, from eight in the account that newspapers drew on to two in a 2014 parole interview. Those killings remain his own claims and the suspicions of investigators, and nothing more.
Because he is serving an older indeterminate sentence, he has gone before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board again and again. Each time the families of the women he killed have come back to argue against his release, and each time the board has turned him down. The most recent decision, on August 29, 2024, was unanimous.
Smith was born on June 27, 1949, according to the Prisoner Review Board's file. When he was seven his mother remarried, and the family moved to McHenry County, northwest of Chicago. The board's file records that at about the age of eight he attacked another pupil at school and was sent to a psychiatrist, and that he was described as having trouble with anger.
He went to high school through his sophomore year. Years later, in prison, he earned a GED and an associate's degree, and he told the board in 2014 that he was a few hours short of a bachelor's degree. He also earned vocational, art and photography certificates while incarcerated.
Smith served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in West Germany. The Prisoner Review Board's 2014 file dates his enlistment to 1969, but the same file also records that he was court-martialed in 1967 for an assault on four fellow soldiers who were Black, and it does not explain the difference between the two dates. Newspaper reports, citing his own account, place his German service in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War.
What happened in Germany is known only from what Smith has said and what investigators suspected. The Daily Herald reported in 2008 that he had confessed to killing eight young women in Germany in the 1960s and that German authorities never prosecuted him. The Northwest Herald, writing about his parole hearings in 2014 and 2019, said he had admitted in a book, Legally Sane, to killing at least eight more people while stationed in Germany. The Daily Herald described the book as co-written by his defense attorney, Harold McKenney.
Prison records tell a smaller and less certain story. The board's 2014 file said he was suspected of three to eight killings of women in Germany during his enlistment, and that Smith disputed that range and said he had committed only two. Later board minutes, in 2019 and 2024, said the file showed he had admitted to at least three, or more than three, killings of young women in Germany. None of these accounts has been tested in court, and reports have not named any of the women in Germany.
The first killing for which Smith was convicted took place in Mountain Home, in Baxter County, Arkansas. Obie Faye Ash was 20. The Prisoner Review Board's file gives the date of the offense as December 3, 1969. Newspapers have spelled her middle name both Faye and Fay.
Little has been made public about her life or about the investigation into her death. The Arkansas case was resolved in 1971. According to the board's file, Smith agreed to a stipulated bench trial in Baxter County, a trial before a judge on agreed facts, and a life sentence was imposed on March 18, 1971. The Daily Herald and Patch both reported that he was convicted of killing a 20-year-old woman in Mountain Home in 1969.
That Arkansas sentence has never been served. Smith was already in Illinois custody. The Northwest Herald reported in 2014 that Arkansas officials would take him into custody to serve a life sentence there if Illinois released him. In parole interviews Smith has himself raised the Arkansas term, at times asking to be sent there.
Jean Bianchi was 27, a young mother of two children, living in McHenry. The Daily Herald gave her name as Jean Waldron Bianchi; the parole board's file gives her middle name as Irene.
On January 27, 1970, she was abducted in McHenry and killed, the Daily Herald reported. The board's 2024 minutes describe her killing as an abduction followed by murder and give the date as on or about January 27, 1970.
Exactly one month after Jean Bianchi was killed, a second young woman died in the Des Plaines area, in Cook County. Janice Louise Bolyard and Smith worked for the same chemical company, near Des Plaines. The Daily Herald and Patch gave her age as 23; the parole board's 2014 file gives it as 22.
The board's minutes record that she was killed on February 27, 1970, and that she was strangled. After his arrest in May, Smith confessed to her murder.
Jean Ann Lingenfelter was 17, a student at McHenry High School. On May 27, 1970, she was abducted. She was strangled, and her body was found in McHenry County.
The Northwest Herald spelled her middle name Anne; the Daily Herald and the parole board's file spell it Ann.
Smith was arrested on May 28, 1970, for the two McHenry County murders. The board's file records that after his arrest he confessed to the murder of Janice Bolyard in Cook County. He was taken into Illinois prison custody on December 9, 1970.
Smith pleaded guilty in McHenry County in 1971 to the murders of Jean Bianchi and Jean Ann Lingenfelter, with other charges. For each murder he received a term of 199 to 200 years, the sentences to run one after the other. For the murder of Janice Bolyard in Cook County he received 50 to 100 years, also consecutive.
Together with a later term for attempted escape, the Illinois sentences add up, in the board's words, to an aggregate of 448 to 500 years. Newspapers have reported the total as 500 years. The Northwest Herald reported that he served 10 years before he first became eligible for parole.
Smith was held at Pontiac Correctional Center in 2008, the Daily Herald reported, and the board interviewed him there in 2014.
On April 22, 1977, according to the board's file, he tried to escape from Pontiac. He pleaded guilty to attempted escape in Randolph County on September 16, 1977, and received 6 to 18 years, consecutive to the murder terms. The Northwest Herald reported the addition as 18 years.
His prison conduct record, as summarized for the board in 2014, showed 27 disciplinary reports between 1971 and 1977 and 14 between 1985 and 2008. The last was a major ticket in 2008 for striking another prisoner. By 2024 the board noted that he held an A grade for lack of disciplinary actions. In 2014 he was held in protective custody at maximum security and rated a high escape risk; in 2024 he was in a medium security prison with a moderate escape risk designation.
The board's interviewer in 2014 wrote that Smith had been diagnosed as a sociopath. A psychiatrist's report quoted in the 2019 minutes said that whenever Smith felt threatened, he reacted violently.
Smith first became eligible for parole after 10 years, according to the Northwest Herald, and by 2008 he was coming before the board every three years.
In June 2008 about 20 relatives and friends of his victims appeared before the board to ask that he be kept in prison, the Daily Herald reported. Nichole Owens, criminal division chief for the McHenry County state's attorney's office, called the repeated hearings heart-wrenching for the families. Jean Ann Lingenfelter's brother told the board that his family would have to relive her death as long as Smith was alive.
By 2014 the law had changed so that the board could set his next hearing as much as five years away. That year Smith was interviewed at Pontiac on July 22. He told the interviewer, in words the minutes record, "why bother I am not going to ever be paroled," and said he was no longer the young, stupid, unconscionable person he had been, while accepting that his change had come too late. He said he had no parole plans and no family contact, and asked to be transferred to Arkansas. The interviewer concluded that paroling him would seriously deprecate the seriousness of his offenses and promote disrespect for the law. On August 28, 2014, the board voted 14 to 0 to deny parole and 14 to 0 for a five-year set. The board's file that year gave his projected release date as July 13, 2220.
In 2019 he was interviewed by teleconference at Danville Correctional Center. Asked why he had killed the women, he said he did not know. Sara Whitecotton, a Cook County assistant state's attorney, spoke against his release and asked the board to consider the effect of the hearings on the victims' families. The board found that he had never received a vote in favor of parole at any hearing, and on September 26, 2019, it denied parole by a vote of 13 to 0. McHenry County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Combs told the Northwest Herald that Smith deserved to die in prison. The paper reported that his projected discharge date was then May 31, 2219.
Board member William Delgado interviewed Smith by video at Danville Correctional Center on July 3, 2024. Smith was about 75. According to the minutes, he quickly told Delgado that he was not interested in parole, understood how much time he had to serve, and expected that Arkansas would come for him to serve its life sentence if he ever left Illinois. He had no re-entry plans and said he had no outside contacts left, because they had all died. Prison records showed no visits from family or friends since 2019.
The Cook County State's Attorney, the McHenry County State's Attorney and Randolph County sent letters opposing his release, and numerous relatives and friends of the victims and other citizens opposed it as well. On August 29, 2024, the board voted unanimously to deny parole and unanimously for a five-year set before his case would be heard again. Its written rationale said that release would not be in the interest of public safety and would deprecate the serious nature of the offenses and promote a lack of respect for the law.
In July 2024 he was held at Danville Correctional Center.
No court has tried Smith for the killings he has described in West Germany. The numbers attached to them vary from one account to another: eight in the newspaper accounts drawn from Legally Sane, three to eight in the suspicions recorded in the parole board's 2014 file, two by Smith's own account in that same file, and at least three in later board minutes. The women have not been publicly named.
The Patch summary of his case in 2024 said he was convicted of or confessed to killing nine other women in the United States and Germany besides the 1970 Chicago-area cases. That figure is not a count of proven killings: the court record supports four murder convictions, in Illinois and Arkansas.
June 27, 1949: Mark Alan Smith is born, according to the Prisoner Review Board's file.
1960s: he serves in the U.S. Army in West Germany; the board's file dates his enlistment to 1969 and records a 1967 court-martial for assault.
December 3, 1969: Obie Faye Ash, 20, is killed in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
January 27, 1970: Jean Bianchi, 27, is abducted in McHenry and killed.
February 27, 1970: Janice Bolyard is killed in the Des Plaines area, Cook County.
May 27, 1970: Jean Ann Lingenfelter, 17, is abducted in McHenry and killed.
May 28, 1970: Smith is arrested for the McHenry County murders and later confesses to the Bolyard murder.
December 9, 1970: he enters Illinois prison custody.
March 18, 1971: a life sentence is imposed in Baxter County, Arkansas, after a stipulated bench trial.
1971: he pleads guilty in McHenry County to two murders, with other charges.
April 22, 1977: he tries to escape from Pontiac Correctional Center.
September 16, 1977: he pleads guilty to attempted escape in Randolph County and receives 6 to 18 years.
June 2008: about 20 relatives and friends of the victims oppose his parole.
August 28, 2014: parole denied 14 to 0; five-year set.
September 26, 2019: parole denied 13 to 0.
July 3, 2024: he is interviewed at Danville Correctional Center.
August 29, 2024: parole denied unanimously; five-year set.