Between December 1989 and September 1990, a series of armed robberies and rapes occurred in beauty salons in the Chatham neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. A man tagged as the “beauty shop rapist” walked into beauty salons with a gun, ordered the women into the back rooms, forced them to undress and robbed them of money and jewelry. Two of the five robberies also involved sexual assaults.
Based on descriptions given by victims, the police created a composite sketch. After the sketch was circulated in public, the police said they received an anonymous tip that the sketch resembled 42-year-old John Willis, a tavern custodian who had prior convictions for theft. Mr. Willis’s photograph was put into a photographic lineup and the two rape victims identified him as the perpetrator of crimes on May 2, 1990 and September 7, 1990.
Willis was arrested on September 14, 1990 on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault. On October 2, 1990, he was indicted on two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and seven counts of armed robbery for the crimes on May 2 and September 7. He was also indicted on seven other armed robbery charges for three other beauty shop robberies during that time period.
In February, 1992, Willis went to trial in Cook County Circuit Court on the charges relating to the May 2, 1990 crime. The victims identified him as the man who entered the beauty shop asking for a haircut, but then drew a handgun and ordered everyone in the shop into a back room. They testified he ordered the women to disrobe, robbed them of their money and jewelry, and then raped the youngest of the women before leaving.
Pamela Fish, a Chicago crime lab analyst, testified that her analysis of the semen was inconclusive because the quantity of biological material was too small to be tested.
On February 13, 1992, Willis was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and seven counts of armed robbery. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
While Willis was in custody, similar crimes continued to occur in the same neighborhood. In April 1992, police arrested Dennis McGruder for five of these crimes, which occurred between November 1991 and March 1992. Four of these crimes occurred in taverns and one occurred in a beauty shop.
In September 1993, McGruder pled guilty to 20 counts of armed robbery and four counts of rape in those attacks. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In November 1993, Willis went to trial for the September 7, 1990 crime. The prosecution’s case again rested solely on identification testimony by the rape victim and other eyewitnesses.
Fish again testified and said her results were inconclusive.
Willis’s attorneys tried to introduce McGruder’s photo into the evidence. Willis and McGruder facially resembled each other, although Willis was several inches taller and heavier than McGruder. The prosecution successfully argued that McGruder’s crimes were not relevant to Willis’s case, and the defense effort was thwarted.
On November 3, 1993, a jury convicted Willis of aggravated criminal sexual assault and multiple counts of armed robbery. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison. The prosecutors then dismissed the remaining robbery charges.
In 1997, Willis’s lawyer, Gregory O’Reilly, located Fish’s laboratory bench notes of her serological analysis. The notes showed that the semen was blood type A. Willis’s blood type was B, meaning he was excluded and that Fish had testified falsely when she said her testing was inconclusive.
O’Reilly sought DNA testing under a new post-conviction DNA statute, but Assistant State’s Attorney Earl Grinbarg, who had prosecuted the cases against Mr. Willis. claimed that the DNA material no longer existed. O’Reilly found a record in the Chicago Police crime lab showing that Grinbarg had checked out the evidence. There was no record of it being returned.
In September 1998, O’Reilly located the original test slide containing the semen sample from the first rape for which Willis was convicted. The slide was in Grinbarg’s trial file.
DNA testing excluded Willis and identified McGruder as the rapist.
Willis was released on Feb. 24, 1999. On March 15, 1999, a motion by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to vacate all of his convictions was granted, and the charges were dismissed.
Willis subsequently filed a federal lawsuit. The city of Chicago settled for $1.25 million, Cook County settled for $1.25 million and the state of Illinois settled for $100,000. Willis also was awarded $125,000 in compensation from the state of Illinois.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 03-12-2026
