Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 125

(fhtcago (Tribune SECTION LAKE SUNDAY AUGUST 26, 2001 nsned; hcM in 4 stramdin I A f. ii South Side man also accused in area, and in these particular cases, he got into arguments with the victims and he strangled them," Chief of Detectives Philip Cline said Saturday slaying attempt By Matthew Walberg, Noreen Ahmed-Ullah and Aamer Madhani urday. Kevin Taylor, 27, of the 10700 block of South Eberhart Avenue, was charged late Friday night with four counts of murder and sexual assault and one count of attempted murder. Police allege Taylor attacked all five women after they argued with him over the nature or the price of a sex act usually less than $20. "He would meet with the victims, make an arrangement for an act of prostitution, take them to a secluded der of a 38-year-old woman who survived a July 27 attack in a parking lot at 225 W.

Evergreen Ave. Police say she was choked until she lost consciousness but was not sexually assaulted. The surviving woman was able to identify Taylor in a lineup after his arrest, police said. She also told police Taylor mentioned to her that he worked at the restaurant. The other victims are Ola Mae Wallace, 39, of the 4100 PLEASE SEE ARREST, PAGE 2 tors found a time card with his name on it under the body of 39-year-old Bernadine Blunt, of the 200 block of East 115th Street.

Her body was found Aug. 18 in an abandoned building at 331 E. Kensington Ave. Similarities between Blunt's death and three other slayings led detectives to question Taylor about those cases. Cline said Taylor gave videotaped confessions to the four murders.

Taylor also allegedly confessed to the attempted mur Taylor Tribune staff reporters A South Side man who po at police headquarters. Police said they arrested Taylor, a cook at The Cheesecake Factory restaurant on North Michigan Avenue, at work Tuesday after investiga- lice say raped and strangled four Chicago women and left a fifth for dead over the last two months was denied bond Sat- Suburban dream loses luster for many residents -ri- rj! I rA Mary Schmich Nielsens aside, Condit hubbub was overrated Whoops. I forgot to watch that interview with Gary Condo. Gary Condor? Huh? Condit? Whatever you say Anyway, I forgot. Not because I'm one of those high-minded types who'd rather listen to Beethoven played by a kazoo band than switch on the TV for the latest scandal.

I happily held vigil in front of the screen for the sexual harassment saga of Anita Hill and Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Ate too many meals on the living room couch while watching O.J. dance out of a murder rap. Was as hooked as a monkey on bananas by the shenanigans of ice-skating hooligan Tonya Harding. Stayed up late or home from work too many times to catch the endless tango of Monica and Bill.

And any boob-tube patriot had to at least consider watching What's-His-Name tell Connie Chung what he didn't know about his vanished intern Chandra Levy, right? For days beforehand, the Paul Reveres of the media had galloped across America shouting that Condit and Connie were coming, Condit and Connie were coming, implying that democracy was at stake in the battle of the blow-dried newswoman and the blow-dried congressman. And even though we knew the actual contest was for ratings, why not watch? Maybe it would be one of those rare communal TV experiences, the kind that used to be half the pleasure of watching TV, a nation gathered around the electronic fireplace, laughing and gasping and learning together across the miles and airwaves, separately sharing a few moments that would supply debate and education for days, even years. Out of a sense of civic obligation, I let that improbable thought drift through my mind on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, I'd simply forgotten altogether about Gary Con-guy "Am I the only person in America who didn't watch that Gary Condo interview?" I asked a security guard who's usually up on the news. "Am I the only person who just can't focus on this story?" "I didn't watch," he said.

"Don't read about it either." "You watch that Gary Crocodile interview?" I asked a woman I know. "No," she said, though she added that she watched clips of it on "Politically Incorrect." "No," said another. But she did see i Ml Tii St id- TRIBUNE POLL Top suburban problems Traffic congestion and rising property taxes are the two leading problems suburban residents face, according to a recent Tribune poll. Residents were asked: Here are some suburban problems that people have told us about Which, If any, is a problem where you live? Traffic congestion fifttt. Property tax increases Residential development Teen drugalcohol abuse Lack of affordable housing Crime where you live 1 Traffic congestion tops respondents' list of gripes in poll By Stanley Ziemba Tribune staff reporter As traffic backs up and houses sprout in open land, a growing number of suburbanites say their quality of life has deteriorated, according to a new TribuneWGN-TV poll.

Twenty-one percent said that in the past decade, quality of life has gotten worse in the suburbs up 6 percentage points from a similar Tribune survey conducted in 1999. Make no mistake: The vast majority of suburbanites think life is as good or getting better. But the ranks of the dissatisfied are swelling. Those respondents pinned their pessimism on a set of familiar problems: traffic congestion, cited by half; too much residential development, noted by 42 percent; and crime, mentioned by 36 per- cent. For some, the very problems that pushed them out of the city decades ago have become a regular part of suburban life.

"When we first moved here, I could look out my patio door and see rows of corn growing for as far as the eye could see," said Mike Johnston, 59, a retired tool-and-die maker living in Orland Park. "Now all I 111'. rfirjf- Quality of public schools 0 23 t4 cr; 4 Tl mmmmmza'TrrXj Source: Poll conducted July 18-26 by Market Shares based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,196 heads of household in the six-county suburban area. Margin of error is 3 percentage points. Chicago Tribune see are row upon row of houses." "It's just so much harder now to deal with trying to go somewhere," said Patricia PLEASE SEE QUALITY, PAGE 2 Tribune photo by Ed Wagner Of those who said quality of life has gotten worse in the suburbs, 50 percent blamed traffic congestion, according to a Tribune poll.

That's up from 22 percent in 1999. clips on "Nightline." "And I have to say the guy is creepy-looking. I shrugged. "Yeah. And?" She shrugged.

We sighed. Who cared? Everyone cares, you would have 7El WIS uuDuque 90, 'A Mystery of baby's 1 i 1 Rockford Rockfordj Bond set at $2 million for 2 teens in shooting thought from Friday's breathless news body in trunk is buried in tiny town as MILES 1 (T LjMoline -Jg) owa I (74) (m) i GalesburaXl .11 Kickapoo 1 QuireyC Springfield Hannibal MO. vs). paper headlines (THIS JUST IN! CONDIT SAYS NOTHING! BADLY!) and from the endless analysis of that nothing. Best of all, the stories panted, the ratings were boffo.

But if an allegedly impressive 24 mil lion or so Americans watched the no-news interview, guess what? Another 260 million or so Americans did not watch. We forgot. Didn't care. Couldn't give up a rerun of "ER." Were watching cable. A video.

Preferred a book, the phone, a bath, a conversation. Went to bed. We do not know the name of What's- His-Name's lawyer, PR agent or alleged Chicago Tribune By Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter Bond was set at $2 million Saturday for each of two teens charged as adults in the shooting of a hospital executive during a Kane County home invasion, and prosecutors said the youths face between 6 and 50 years in prison for the crime. Joseph A. Hauschild, 17, of Proviso Township, and Ethan Warden, 15, of St.

Charles are facing charges including attempted murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm. Kane County prosecutors allege the pair entered the home of Thomas Wright in search of cash on Aug. 14, less than 24 hours after Wright's son, Christopher, committed suicide. The two appeared in separate bond hearings at the Kane County Jail Saturday, wearing jail-issued garb and sullen expressions. Each appeared with his mother before Kane County Judge Leonard Woj-tecki, and neither had an attorney with him.

Kane County sheriffs police said the two were school friends at St. Charles East High School before Hauschild dropped out. The pair also were friends with 18-year-old Christopher Wright, police said. Police have said the two teens wore masks and carried handguns when they sneaked into the Wrights' St. Charles-area home on Falcons Trail in search of $7,000 that was kept in a locked box.

Christopher Wright, who had hanged himself in the family's back yard the day before, had bragged about the money to friends, police said. Warden, of the 600 block of Cedar Street, appeared in court first, wearing a blue jumpsuit and handcuffs. He told Wojtecki his juvenile ar- PLEASE SEE SHOOTING, PAGE 2 ex-lovers. Didn know until the day after the interview (which earned TV'S BIGGEST RATING SINCE MAY!) that, when all was said and not said, NOTHING HAPPENED. tate sale.

"There are mysteries that go on in people's hidden attics and basements," said Steve Bale from a barstool in the local tavern on Friday. "Especially when you get into a small town, you think everyone knows everyone's business. Well, that's not necessarily true." The discovery has intrigued townspeople, conjuring up memories and speculation about what dark thing may have happened in the foursquare white house on Knox Street. Detectives start with a cold trail in their search to find out what happened to the baby and how the Army footlocker that held her body came to rest in the attic of an old man's home. At the same time, the By Christi Parsons Tribune staff reporter KICKAPOO, 111.

Years ago, someone hid a horrible secret here when they tucked the body of a red-haired newborn girl inside a box, wrapped it carefully with tape and locked it in a suitcase inside a foot-locker. For decades it has been a secret even in this tiniest of towns, where most people know one another's business and unwanted pregnancies are hard to hide and even harder to live down. But the matter guarded for so long became public last week, when the body of the baby decomposed but naturally mummified was discovered by two men who bought the footlocker at an es And the 260 million of us who did not story seems eerily sensible to old-timers, who can think of lots of reasons someone who gave birth years ago in a small town such as this might have wanted to hide the fact. "It was around 30, 40, 50 years ago," said Dan Heinz, the Peoria County coroner who is trying to fix when the child died. "If you were pregnant and had an out-of-wedlock baby, well, you just didn't PLEASE SEE KICKAPOO, PAGE 3 watch have to wonder: Is network TV really in so much trouble that it's screaming news when a little fraction of our number tune in? For all its lurid possibilities, the Gary Condit story is in many ways like most of the stories that flash urgently across our TV screens and newspa pers, demanding that we pay attention and care.

Try as we might to muster up deep feelings for all those stories about all those people we ve never met, we simply can't. INDEX News stories are like people. There's Pollutant slows plans for ex-missile site U. of C. Transplant hope Doctors hope a new system will make transplants safer and less rushed, page 3 Open-space plans slowed as tests are required a limit to how many you can focus on, tend to, invest with emotion.

You have to choose which news gets your time and troubles your mind. For some people, those stories will always involve sex and politics. For others, those stories will always be about the Sox or the Cubs. Any decent person can't help but worry about Levy, shudder in sympathy at the spectacle of her parents' grief, and wonder if her congressman is worse than a liar. But until it's proven that he is, a lot of us will continue to spend our news attentions elsewhere.

The budget surplus, anyone? Navy and Marine Corps pilots who fought the Japanese over the Pacific. In the Cold War, it was the site of three deep, concrete magazines ready to launch Nike missiles at incoming Soviet bombers. Now, the former Liberty-ville Training Site is being groomed for another use as a resource for the community and for local schools. Vernon Hilts and three school dis this wasn't discovered earlier, but it's a big project," said Michael Allison, Vernon Hills village manager. The substance probably is a waterproofing material applied to the outside of the magazines, environmental consultants for the Navy said.

It could have been missed in earlier inspections because the inspectors were looking for PLEASE SEE SITE, PAGE 31 tricts plan to spend $16 million to create open space and athletic fields on the site. Before that can happen, however, officials must determine whether a petroleum product recently found at the bottom of two of the magazines poses an environmental hazard. Village and school officials said they hope the discovery is only a small setback. "I'm a little disgusted that inc. column NEWS a REVIEWS 2 4 By John Flink Special to the Tribune During World War II, the swath of land that now lies behind strip malls and office buildings near Vernon Hills High School was used to train 5-7 OBITUARIES WEATHER.