The Chicago Rippers were a satanic cult and organized crime group composed of Robin Gecht and three associates: Edward Spreitzer, and brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis. They were suspected in the disappearances of 18 women in Illinois in 1981 and 1982.

When Gecht was first arrested, he had to be released because the police had little evidence connecting him to the crimes. After further investigation, though, the police discovered that in 1981, he had rented a room in a motel along with three friends; each with adjoining rooms. The hotel manager said that they had held loud parties and appeared to be involved in some kind of cult. Police then tracked down the other men, Edward Spreitzer and the Kokoraleis brothers. When interrogated, Thomas Kokoraleis confessed that he and the others had taken women back to Gecht's place; what Gecht called a satanic chapel; There they had raped and tortured the women, and amputated their breasts with a wire garrotte. Kokoraleis went on to say that they would eat parts of the severed breasts as kind of a sacrament, and that Gecht would masturbate into the breasts before putting them in a box. Kokoraleis claimed that he once saw 15 breasts in the box.

The Kokoraleis brothers and Spreitzer confessed to their crimes, but Gecht protested his innocence. After a series of trials, Thomas Kokoraleis was convicted of murder but only sentenced to life imprisonment as his reward for his initial confession. Gecht is serving 120 years in the Menard Correctional Center for the attempted murder and rape of Beverly Washington. Andrew Kokoraleis was sentenced to death and was executed by lethal injection on March 16, 1999. Spreitzer was also sentenced to death but has since had his sentence commuted to life.

9" X 12" arcylic painting on Blick art panel. Signed and dated by year on the back.