Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 8

iNi Suction 1 Chicago TriDune, Suiaay. Novemoei 21. Police investigate tips of 'Manson'-like mastermind in 'Ripper' murders front room of a brick bungalow at 5348 N. Spaulding Ave. Green plastic evergreens are Elanted in a row in front of the house as edges.

Gecht's parents are divorced, -r V- 'Hfc; ft v. MJiA-j 1 Edward Spreitzer Thomas Kokoraleis Andy Kokoraleis Robin Gecht Various friends and acquaintances of Gecht have told police that Gecht was in the habit of employing "impressionable" teenage boys in his businesses, including Spreitzer and Andy Kokoraleis. They said he appeared to develop relationships with youths who could be described as "street kids" and "vulnerable." A next-door neighbor of Gecht on North McVicker said he often saw Spreitzer and Andy Kokoraleis at the house, along with other teenage boys who would go in and out of the house at odd hours of the night. Neighbors said that Gecht often left the house during the night. In 1980, Gecht was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with a sex attack on a young girl.

Gecht's wife has filed for divorce, citing "inhuman treatment" and "extreme mental cruelty." GECHT MET Spreitzer two years ago in a doughnut shop on the Northwest Side. Spreitzer went to work for Gecht, and lived with him once in Villa Park and on North McVicker. Spreitzer, friends told police, could be described as a "slow learner." A Chicagoan, Spreitzer also was a high school drop-out. He has two previous convictions, one in 1979 for possessing a stolen car and in 1980 for theft. How Gecht met the Kokoraleis brothers remains unclear, police said.

Authorities said the Kokoraleises, sons of a Greek immigrant, moved into a seedy stretch of apartment buildings at 917 W. North Ave. in Villa Park about a year ago. Andy often worked for Gecht, police said. The two Kokoraleis brothers shuttled between Villa Park and Chicago, staying two nights at home and the rest of the week with friends in Chicago.

Their mother died in the mid-1970s, police said. The three, all younger than Gecht, were described as unkempt, tough-talking "punks." Police are uncertain whether all neighbors and friends say, but they continue to live together in the house. When a reporter arrived there Friday, Robin Gecht's teenage brother, Jake, answered the door. He said the rest of his family was sleeping. "Robin didn't do anything; they just used his van," said Jake, who also has dropped out of school.

He woke his father, who works at Cook County Hospital, but the father said through his son that he had nothing to say. Robin Gecht, 28, is a slightly built man with sandy-colored hair. He was reared by his grandparents, police said, until they died, at which time he moved in with his parents. His childhood as one of seven children was apparently marred with difficulties. FRIENDS HAVE told police that Gecht had difficulty living with his parents, especially with his mother.

He was a problem child, and police said that they have information that he was beaten. He dropped out of high school, and moved out of the house when he was about 16. He lived with various friends, but seemed to cultivate as his friends "slow" teenagers who, like himself, were street kids and high school drop-outs, police said. At 19, friends say, he married Rosemary, who was 16 at the time. Neighbors say that the Gecht family on North Spaulding is unfriendly to others and loud, with arguments between the children often spilling out onto the sidewalk.

"The kids, all of them, grew up with a lot of responsibilities that only adults should have," said one friend of the family. "There just isn't a lot of love in the family." By Bonita Brodt ROBIN GECHT was the middle child, wedged between six brothers and sisters. A problem child. A high school drop-out. A street kid.

Was he the mastermind in a bizarre string of "Jack the Ripper" mutilation murders? To his neighbors in the working-class neighborhood around 2100 block of North McVicker Avenue, on the city's near Northwest Side, Robin was friendly enough. He would wave hello whenever he walked by. He was Mr. Fixit. A skilled contractor, electrician and all-around handyman, he would routinely volunteer to do repairs on houses on his block.

He did a good jot). In the year and a half that he lived there, neighbors remember lazy afternoons when his wife, Rosemary, would sit in the front yard, playing with their three young children. Robin would be puttering around, always busy at something cutting grass, raking leaves or helping out their landlord with household repairs. THE TINY HOUSE now sits boarded up and empty. The locks have been changed.

On Halloween, Gecht and his family quickly moved out, leaving behind a trail of broken windows, trash and a mysterious little anteroom in the attic where a series of red and black crosses had been painted on the walls. That was just the beginning. Gecht is now under suspicion as a modern-day "Jack the Ripper," charged with nonfatal slashing attacks on two Chicago women but implicated in a string of gruesome mutilation murders in which three of his close friends are charged. Investigators are exploring information that Gecht acted as a "Manson-like" leader of the crew, with the ability to manipulate his friends, similar to Charles Manson, whose followers committed ritualistic murders in California several years ago. There is evidence suggesting that the violent murders here may have been committed in a cult or self-styled Satan-worshiping ritual among the friends, possibly including the sacrifices of animal and human parts on an altar in Gecht's tiny attic.

murders were volunteered. It is not known how many slayings are involved. Some of their information has proven false. One suspect recanted a murder confession which contained a near-perfect description of a suburban woman who is in fact missing, saying he was "just kidding." CHARGES HAVE been filed in connection with four mutilation slayings of women and one random slaying of a man against Edward Spreitzer, 21, Andy Kokoraleis, 19, and his older brother, Thomas, 22. Authorities in both Cook and Du Page Counties say they have evidence linking one or more of the men to at least one more mutilation murder.

Police may explore the possibility of making a deal with one suspect in exchange for his testimony against the others. "The frightening thing is that we still are not clear about what we are dealing with," said one investigator. "We are very concerned about what prompted three young men with absolutely no record of violence to commit such acts." Authorities are searching for those answers, in part, by taking a close look at Gecht, to determine possible involvement in a mass-murder conspiracy. IT WAS 11:30 a.m., and the shades were pulled down, blotting out all the light to the AUTHORITIES have established that the Ripper-style murders began as early as last May, though the discovery of the attacks came to light just as Gecht abandoned his house. Women were nabbed at random, and often drugged once caught, police said.

Then they were slashed, raped, their breasts usually mutilated before their death. Gecht had just been released on bond when they moved, charged with an attack on a woman he allegedly had picked up in mid-October in his 1975 red Dodge van at the corner of North and Elston Avenues. Handcuffed, she was slashed, raped, and one of her breasts was cut off. Amazingly, she survived and was found where she was dumped near some railroad tracks. The description she gave of her attacker and his red van led to Gecht's arrest.

Gecht soon was tracked down and arrested again, this time for another alleged Ripper attack. Though this woman's claims were discredited, her information led to more charges when yet another prostitute identified Gecht by photograph as the man who, last June, picked her up and carved a gaping hole in her breast. One by one, three of Gecht's close friends none of whom had any known history of violent crimes were rounded up. Some startling details of several violent ON HIS OWN, Robin Gecht worked for a time as a furnace cleaner, police said, and then trained himself as a contractor and an electrician. For about Vh.

years, he operated his own business, and Electric," out of a storefront on the 1600 block of North Mason Avenue, police said. the suspects allegedly involved in the ritual slayings have been arrested. There also have been unconfirmed reports of homosexual conduct among the men arrested. City winter emergency plan told By Jack Houston A CONTINGENCY plan coordinating city services during all kinds of winter emergencies was announced Saturday by Mayor Jane Byrne at a City Hall news conference. The plan calls for a winter emer-' gency command post to be set up in City Mall, headed by the chief of the Department of Neighborhoods.

"The command post would deal with such emergencies as shelter for victims of fires or other disasters, residents left without food, problems with, medical assistance, utility shutdowns and sudden transportation we're trying to get out a jnessage of preparedness," Byrne plan is quite simple situation-oriented and flexible enough to respond to a variety of needs." i I SHE SAID forecasts call for Chicago' to have an "extremely cold" Byrne said her winter action plan will be coordinated by a special task force Jed by the city's commissioner of. sales, weights and measures and the deputy commissioner of health. The." plan complements the city's snow plan, she said. The mayor, who is up for re-election next year, won her job in 1979 after contending in her campaign that the incumbent, Michael Bilan-dic, had failed to deal adequately with the huge snowfalls that year. She "denied, however, that her announcement was politically 9 motivated.

f'We hope to perform well every winter, which I think we did," she said, responding to questions about the timing and significance of her announcement. TERRY HOCIN. deputy health commissioner, said there will be a "progressive response" to weather emergencies by the city, depending upon the seriousness of the situation. "It will be all out, if required, land far less than that if not requiredmuch as we do in a fire situation, where we start out with the lowest alarm and ring up additional alarms," he said. He said the task force would operate with a "modest budget," but he declined to give an estimate.

THE PLAN, to be implemented DecM, has three phases: alert and action. Tlid preparation phase, which Byrne called "essential," includes a public education campaign in cooperation with Commonwealth Edison Co: and Peoples Gas Light Coke 20,000 home-winterizing kits, valued at $50 each, will be distributed free at neighborhood workshops on energy conservation. Karen Petitte, consumer sales, weights and measures commissioner, said the city also has a commitment from Edison to provide public-service announcements to radio and television stations on home energy conservation. The plan also calls for a low-interest energy loan program to be funded by Peoples Gas, Petitte said, but a Peoples representative said the program would not be available until the winter of 1983-84 at the earliest. The mayor's only comment on the mayoral campaign, when pressed by reporters, was a prediction that ft will "heat up." Byrne is expected to announce hc candidacy Monday An Offer of Care and Color From Lancdme.

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