Richard Anthony was among more than 20 men who were wrongly convicted in Chicago, Illinois based on misconduct by Chicago police detectives assigned to the Area 1 homicide bureau. These detectives included Kenneth Boudreau, James Halloran, William Foley, Michael Kill, James O’Brien, Michael Clancy and others. The list of the exonerees is here.
On February 8, 1993, several masked gunmen invaded a home in the 5700 block of South May Street in Chicago, Illinois. By the time they left, the owner, 42-year-old Arlesia Davis, had been shot to death. Davis’s 38-year-old brother, Michael Davney, and her 22-year-old daughter, Latonya Davney, had been shot, but survived.
On February 9, 1993, three blocks away, 27-year-old Walter Rule was fatally shot while using a public phone in the 5700 block of South Loomis Boulevard.
On February 10, 1993, masked men entered a beauty salon in the 5100 block of South State Street. Jeffrey Rodgers, 35, a hair stylist, was beaten and shot to death in front of co-workers and customers.
Chicago police investigated the three murders simultaneously, believing they were the work of Gangster Disciples street gang members.
Two weeks later, police announced the arrests of several young men, including 19-year-old Willie Hughes, a member of the Gangster Disciples who was charged in all three murders. Police said he implicated 20-year-old Richard Anthony in the murder of Davis, saying they were acting as lookouts while members of the Gangster Disciples went inside looking for Candy Davney, Davis’s son. Davney was a member of the Disciples and had failed to pay $8,000 in drug profits to the gang.
Police said that Anthony had confessed to his role in the Davis murder.
Hughes, Antwan Holiday, and 18-year-old Jeffrey Clarkson were charged with the murder of Rule at the pay phone.
Holiday and Hughes were also charged with the beauty salon murder of Rodgers, along with 18-year-old James Clark, 18-year-old Jerry Gillespie, 21-year-old Gerald Earl, 18-year-old Gerald Dondle, and Willie Wilson.
Anthony was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and home invasion.
Prior to trial, his defense attorney moved to quash his arrest and suppress his statement. During a hearing on the motions, Detective Halloran said he and Detective Kenneth Boudreau heard Anthony give a voluntary statement, which was written out for him and which Anthony signed.
Anthony testified that police took him to the Area 1 homicide bureau and accused him of taking part in the Davis homicide. Anthony said that Halloran slapped his face, stepped on his toes, told him what to say, and promised that he could go home after signing a statement.
After 36 hours in an interrogation room, Anthony said he signed because “I was tired. I just–I couldn’t take it no more. I just couldn’t put up with it no more. I was ready to go. I couldn’t take it no more.”
He said that he requested, but was not allowed, to make a telephone call. While there, his mother, sister and brother-in-law came to the station, but they were not allowed to see him.
Anthony said he never slept, had one meal during the 36 hours, and was denied access to a bathroom. At one point, he said, he urinated in a soft-drink cup.
The motions were denied in February 1994. The judge noted that “a good deal of what must be resolved here is based upon an assessment of credibility,” and ruled in favor of the detectives.
Anthony went to trial in November 1994 in Cook County Circuit Court. The prosecution’s case relied primarily on the testimony of Detectives Halloran, Boudreau and William Foley, who said that Anthony had confessed.
The prosecution presented evidence through a firearms analyst that shell casings found at the crime scene had the letters PAPA on them, and that a cache of weapons recovered based on information from Hughes revealed ammunition with the same markings.
The prosecution argued that Anthony was a member of the Gangster Disciples based on a photograph of Anthony in the presence of three other men who were displaying hand signals of the Gangster Disciples.
Anthony testified and denied involvement in the crime. He said the information in the statement came from Detective Halloran. “I couldn’t leave,” Anthony said. “I couldn’t see no other way of me leaving, so he [Halloran] asked me if I was ready to go. And I [said] yes, I was ready to go. I was tired. I couldn’t take it no more.”
Anthony’s mother and girlfriend testified that he was with them at the time of the shooting.
In rebuttal, Halloran denied that he mistreated Anthony, denied telling him what to say, and denied that he promised Anthony could go home if he signed the statement.
Detective Foley testified that Anthony had made a separate statement admitting involvement several hours before Anthony signed the statement for Halloran. Foley admitted he did not make a record of the statement until March 10, 1993, more than two weeks later.
Anthony denied making any statement to Foley.
During closing arguments, the prosecution argued that Halloran, not Anthony, was telling the truth, and contended that Halloran would face criminal consequences if he had mistreated Anthony. “[I]f there were any complaint, any scintilla of a complaint, Halloran would be before the Public Integrity Bureau and probably indicted,” the prosecution declared.
On December 2, 1994, the jury acquitted Anthony of murder and attempted murder and convicted him of home invasion and aggravated battery with a firearm. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Hughes was convicted of all three murders in separate trials and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The others were also convicted and received lengthy prison sentences.
Anthony’s appeals were unsuccessful.
In the ensuing years, evidence began to mount that Detectives Halloran, Boudreau, Foley and others in the Area 1 homicide bureau engaged in physical abuse and coercive tactics to obtain false confessions and false statements from witnesses.
In 2001, the Chicago Tribune newspaper published numerous articles about some of the detectives, particularly Halloran and Boudreau, and how they had physically abused suspects until they falsely confessed. One defendant claimed that his genitals had been zapped with a taser during interrogation. Another defendant, who falsely confessed, was acquitted at trial when DNA testing excluded him from the crime.
In 2005, Dan Young Jr. and Harold Hill were exonerated after Boudreau and Halloran obtained false confessions to a murder they did not commit.
On April 1, 2014, Anthony was released from prison on parole.
In 2023, Elizabeth Mazur, attorney for Miguel Morales, along with attorneys for Nicholas Escamilla and Tyrone Reyna, obtained their exonerations due to misconduct by Halloran, Boudreau, and other detectives.
In February 2024, Gillespie was exonerated of the murder of Rodgers based on evidence that he had falsely confessed following physical abuse by Detectives Foley and Daniel McDonald. In that case, Willie Wilson gave a sworn affidavit saying that Rodgers was killed in retaliation for the murder of Wilson’s brother Wayne and that Gillespie was not involved.
In September 2024, Mazur filed a petition on behalf of Anthony seeking to vacate his conviction. The petition cited misconduct by the detectives in the numerous cases that had resulted in exonerations.
“Nearly all the misconduct [in those cases] took place during a similar time frame as this case (the mid-1990s) by the same detectives in this case (primarily John Halloran, Kenneth Boudreau, and other Area 1 detectives) and involve[s] similar allegations of physical abuse and coercive interrogation techniques, including lengthy periods of detention, food, and sleep deprivation,” the petition said.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not oppose the petition and on February 24, 2025, Judge Michael Pattarozzi granted the petition.
On July 23, 2025, the prosecution dismissed the case.
In October 2025, Anthony filed a petition for a certificate of innocence. In January 2026, Anthony filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago and police officers and others seeking compensation for his wrongful conviction.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-01-2025
Last Update Date: 08-05-2026
