Police in Chicago's South Side said that on August 20, 2001, they arrested a man and charged with raping and strangling four drug-addicted prostitutes over a two-month period. The suspect, 27-year-old Kevin Taylor, left a fifth woman for dead over after arguing with her over the price for sex. "He would meet with the victims, make an arrangement for an act of prostitution, take them to a secluded area, and in these particular cases, he got into arguments with the victims and he strangled them," Chief Detective Philip Cline said.
Police arrested Taylor, a cook at The Cheesecake Factory restaurant, at work after investigators found a time card with his name under the body of one of the victims. The victim, 39-year-old Bernadine Blunt, was found August 18 in an abandoned building in the South Side. Similarities between Blunt's death and three other slayings led detectives to question Taylor about those cases. Cline said Taylor confessed to the four murders and the attempted murder of a 38-year-old woman who survived a July 27 attack. The surviving woman was able to identify Taylor in a lineup after his arrest, police said.
The other victims are Ola Mae Wallace, 39, whose body was found in an alley on June 25; Diane Jordan, 42, found in an alley on July 10; and Cynthia Halk, 38, found in a city garbage can in an alley. In early August police issued an alert to Chicago's street women, warning them about the recent murders of several suspected prostitutes. Over the past two years, 18 prostitutes have been slain in the city.