Dennis Williams

The Crime

In the early morning hours of May 11, 1978, 28-year-old Lawrence Lionberg and 23-year-old Carol Schmal were abducted from a gas station where Mr. Lionberg worked in Homewood, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago.

Their bodies were found the next day in an abandoned townhouse in a public housing project in East Chicago Heights, a suburb later renamed Ford Heights.  

Mr. Lionberg had been shot once in the back and twice in the back of the head. Ms. Schmal had been sexually assaulted and shot twice in the back of the head. 

The Investigation

Ms. Schmal had driven Mr. Lionberg to the station because his car was not working. It was his first overnight shift and Ms. Schmal stayed to keep him company. When the day manager arrived at 6:50 a.m.. the station was ransacked. About $150 in cash and $250 worth of cigarettes were missing. Ms. Schmal’s purse was found in her car there. It contained a receipt for a wedding ring and more than $50 in cash.

Mr. Lionberg’s body was found in a field not far from the abandoned townhouse where Ms. Schmal’s body was found on the second floor.

A tip from a man named Charles McCraney, who lived in the housing project near the murder scene, led to the May 14, 1978 arrest of 21-year-old Dennis Williams, 20-year-old Kenneth Adams, 20-year-old Willie Rainge and 25-year-old Verneal Jimerson. In addition, Paula Gray, a 17-year-old with an intellectual disability, was brought in for questioning.    

On May 16, after being held for two days, Ms. Gray signed a written confession and then testified to a Cook County grand jury that she held a disposable cigarette lighter burning while Mr. Adams, Mr. Rainge, Mr. Jimerson, and Mr. Williams raped Ms. Schmal. She also stated that she saw Mr. Williams shoot both Mr. Lionberg and Ms. Schmal with a .38-caliber pistol. She said Mr. Williams threw the gun into a creek near the scene. Divers were unable to recover any weapon, even though the creek was dammed up to reveal its bottom.

On June 19, Ms. Gray recanted her story at a preliminary hearing in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming that she was on drugs and that the police walked her around the crime scene and told her what to say.  Since Mr. Jimerson was only implicated by Ms. Gray’s recanted testimony, his charges were dismissed. Ms. Gray was charged with murder and perjury.

The Trial

In September 1978, two juries were selected in Cook County Circuit Court. One heard the case against Ms. Gray and the other heard the case against Mr. Adams, Mr. Rainge, and Mr. Williams.

Mr. McCraney testified that he saw a group of six to eight people enter the abandoned building, including Mr. Williams, Mr. Rainge and Mr. Adams. He said he later heard a gunshot, but did nothing since gunfire was commonplace in that neighborhood.

Michael Podlecki, a forensic scientist for the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement’s Bureau of Scientific Services, testified that serological tests run on the vaginal swab showed seminal fluid from a person with type A blood. The tests also indicated the possibility of intercourse with persons having type A blood with a trace of “H substance,” and, possibly, type O blood. Mr. Podlecki said this indicated that Ms. Schmal had had intercourse with someone who secreted these blood types in their body fluids. Mr. Williams had type A blood;  Mr. Adams had type A with a slight trace of “H substance;” Mr. Rainge had type O blood. All three secreted their blood types in their body fluids. 

Mr. Podlecki said Ms. Schmal also had type O blood, as did Mr. Lionberg. He said it was impossible to tell if either of them was a “secretor.” However, if Ms. Schmal was, that could explain the positive test for O type blood or for A type with “H substance.” He said that it did not appear, however, that it would account for the positive test for type A blood.

Mr. Podlecki testified that three hairs recovered from Mr. Williams’ car were Caucasian. He said there were no dissimilarities between two of the hairs and the hair of Ms. Schmal. Mr. Podlecki said the other hair was consistent with Mr. Lionberg’s hair. He said that even at the highest magnification, he could not ascertain any dissimilarities between the hairs.

Mr. Podlecki cited a Royal Canadian Mounted Police study of relatives, which had found that there was a 1 in 4,500 chance that similar hairs — that is, hairs matching in 99.9 percent of their characteristics — came from different heads. Mr. Podlecki testified that it would be less likely that matching hairs would come from different heads among the general population. 

The prosecution presented the transcripts of Ms. Gray’s testimony before the grand jury as well as her recantation testimony at the preliminary hearing.

David Jackson testified that, on May 15, while he was in the Markham police station jail, Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge both said they had sex the night before and that they “really shouldn’t have took it from the lady.”  On cross-examination, Mr. Jackson admitted that he had a grudge against Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge.

Ms. Gray testified that her statements and testimony to the grand jury were false. She said she had been coerced by the police.

On Oct. 20, 1978, Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge were convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and rape. They were acquitted of armed robbery. Mr. Adams was convicted of rape and first-degree murder, the crimes for which he had been charged. Ms. Gray was convicted of rape, first-degree murder, and perjury. 

Mr. Williams was sentenced to death, Mr. Rainge to life in prison, Mr. Adams to 75 years in prison, and Ms. Gray to 50 years in prison.  

On appeal, Mr. Williams argued that his defense lawyer, Archie Weston, who also represented Mr. Rainge and Ms. Gray, had provided an inadequate legal defense. The convictions of all four  — Mr. Williams, Mr. Rainge, Mr. Adams, and Ms. Gray — were affirmed on appeal. 

Mr. Williams then petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court for a rehearing. While the petition was pending, a disciplinary case involving Mr. Weston came before the court. As a result, the Supreme Court granted Mr. Williams’ petition. 

In November 1982, the Supreme Court reversed Mr. Williams’ conviction. The court noted that based on the facts in the case, it could no longer characterize Mr. Weston’s decision not to make the motion to suppress the hair evidence or to take other action on Mr. Williams’ behalf as professional misjudgments.

Mr. Rainge was granted a new trial in 1983. And the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals also granted Ms. Gray a new trial because of Mr. Weston’s conduct. Mr. Weston was later disbarred. 

Prosecutors then made a deal with Ms. Gray to release her in exchange for testifying against Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge at their retrial. As part of the deal, Ms. Gray also agreed to testify against Mr. Jimerson, who was then charged. 

Mr. Jimerson went to trial in October 1985 in Cook County Circuit Court. Mr. Podlecki again testified that the vaginal swab from the rape kit contained blood types A and O, Ms. Schmal was type O, Mr. Jimerson and Mr. Rainge were type O, and Mr. Adams and Mr. Williams were type A secretors.

He testified that Mr. Jimerson could not be excluded as a contributor to the vaginal swab and noted that 47 percent of the population shared blood type O with him. However, this was misleading because the portion of the population that could not be excluded was greater than that: in addition to all men with Type O blood, it also included all men with Type A blood, and all Type B and AB “non-secretors” (men who do not secrete their blood type markers into their semen). The correct figure should have been closer to 80 percent of the population.

On Nov. 7, 1985, Mr.  Jimerson was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and rape. Mr. Jimerson was sentenced to death.

In 1986, prior to the retrial for Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge, the defense moved to bar Ms. Gray from testifying, alleging she was incompetent. In support of the motion, the defense presented the testimony of Dr. Robert Watkins, a family practitioner who had examined Ms. Gray on May 19, 1978, eight days after the murders. Dr. Watkins described her condition as acute schizophrenic reaction. The trial court denied the defense motion.

In February 1987, Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge went to trial a second time. The defense presented testimony from Dr. Paul K. So, a material sciences professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, who refuted Ms. Gray’s testimony about how she held the disposable lighter to provide illumination during the rapes. Ms. Gray had said that while she could not say how long she held the lighter alit, one of the rapes lasted 30 minutes.

Dr. So testified that he tested five disposable lighters. Only once, he said, did a lighter fuel a flame for more than 30 minutes, but by that time, the top of the lighter had melted.

Dr. John Adams of the Illinois State Water Survey testified the water flow in Deer Creek, where Ms. Gray said Mr. Williams had tossed the murder weapon, was too slow to have moved a gun. 

On Feb. 13, 1987, Mr. Williams and Mr. Rainge were convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and rape. Mr. Williams was again sentenced to death. Mr. Rainge was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In February 1989, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld Mr. Jimerson’s conviction and death sentence. In March 1991, the First District Illinois Appellate Court upheld Mr. Rainge’s conviction and sentence. In October 1991, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld Mr. Williams’ conviction and death sentence.

The Exoneration

In 1994, David Jackson, the jailhouse informant, recanted his testimony, saying he had lied because prosecutors gave him a deal on his pending charges.

At that point, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office agreed to DNA testing in an attempt to link Mr. Jimerson to the crime. 

Meanwhile, Northwestern University journalism students found a police file showing that, within a week of the crime, Marvin Simpson had told the police they had arrested the wrong men. Mr. Simpson said he heard shots, saw four men run from the scene, and the next day saw them selling items taken from robbery. Mr. Simpson said the real attackers were Dennis Johnson, his brother Ira Johnson, Arthur Robinson, and Juan Rodriguez. This report had never been turned over to the defense.

On May 10, 1996, Mr. Robinson told journalists that he had been present at the crime and that Dennis Johnson, who had since died of an overdose, had been the gunman who killed Ms. Schmal and Mr. Lionberg. Mr. Robinson said he, the Johnson brothers, and Mr. Rodriguez had driven to the gas station because Mr. Johnson wanted to collect a debt from Mr. Lionberg. When Mr. Lionberg said he didn’t have the money, Mr. Johnson forced the couple into their car and eventually drove to the vacant townhouse. There, Ms. Schmal was raped and killed. Mr. Robinson said he ran away and did not see Mr. Lionberg shot.

On June 7, 1996, attorneys for Mr. Williams, Mr. Rainge, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jimerson received a report of the DNA testing of the vaginal swab from Ms. Schmal. All four were excluded.

On June 14, 1996, Mr. Williams, Mr. Rainge and Mr. Adams were released from prison to home confinement. With Mr. Jimerson, the four had come to be known as the “Ford Heights Four.” 

On June 24, 1996, the prosecution dismissed the case against Mr. Jimerson. On July 2, 1996, the prosecution dismissed the charges against Mr. Williams, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Rainge.

Days later, the prosecution announced that DNA tests on the biological evidence had identified the rapist as Mr. Robinson. Mr. Robinson, Ira Johnson, and Mr. Rodriguez were then charged. Ira Johnson and Mr. Robinson pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison. Mr. Rodriguez was convicted at trial and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

In 1999, Cook County settled lawsuits filed by Mr. Williams, Mr. Rainge, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jimerson for $36 million, at the time the largest civil rights payment in U.S. history.  

On Nov. 14, 2002, Illinois Governor George Ryan pardoned Ms. Gray based on innocence. On Dec. 18, 2008, Cook County settled Ms. Gray’s civil lawsuit for $4 million.