Southside, Chicago – On May 23, 2004 a disabled man named
Jose Marquez (38), after being promised sexual acts in exchange for cash,
Angela Ford-Wright (26) once his caregiver. He was shot to death in his home
with a bullet to his head. On June 1, 2004 Kenneth Redick (37), expecting an
evening of sex with two women, Angela and her cousin Caroline Peoples (26), he
was instead shot in the head and later found unclothed and dead. The women had
stolen his DVD player, a jacket and a cell phone and Wright-Ford later returned
to to the scene to steal the victim’s Jeep.
Reddick, like Marquez before him, was no stranger to the
cousins. Kelvin Armstrong (24), instead did not know them as far as is known.
On June 18, the pair, who were in their own words “looking for someone to rob”
spotted him outside a currency exchange just as he was stuffing his cash in his
sock. They were driving a van and Angel offered sex if her were to enter the
van. Caroline was waiting in the back with her gun. There was a fatal shot to
the head, as usual. Their final (known) victim in cousins’ series of
robbery-murders was a female friend of
Caroline’s, Ayesha Epps (30). They offered her a ride in the van to a hamburger
joint and sent their victim inside to pick up food and killed her when she got
back in the vehicle. She was later found with two bullets in her head in an
alley. Caroline had shot her in the face but the woman was not yet finished off.
While Ayesha was flailing, gurgling blood, Angela grabbed the gun from her
cousin and fired a kill shot.
After their arrest both made videotaped confessions.
Caroline Peoples when indicted pleaded guilty but her cousin retracted her
confession and demanded a trial which, due to the circumstantial nature of the
evidence, caused the case to drag on for years until Angela was, like her
murder partner, convicted and sentenced to life.
***
May 23, 2004 – Jose Marquez, 38, murdered
June 1, 2004 – Kenneth Redick, 37, murdered
Jun. 18, 2004 – Kevin Armstrong, 24, murdered
On July 1, 2004 – Ayesha Epps, 30, body
found.
Jul. 3, 2004 – both arrested; charged with first-degree
murder two South Side women, cousins, who they said fatally shot four people in
the head over nearly six weeks in an apparent robbery spree.
Jul. 21, 2004 – Caroline Peoples pleads guilty to 4 murders
and other charges; sentenced to life.
2009? – Angela Ford-Wright convicted; sentenced to life.
***
[Andre N. Turner,
“Chicago’s Uncommon Serial Killers; Sometimes Killers Don’t Fit Profiles,” True Crime Stories From the Reignmaker, Mar. 29, 2013]
[“Killing Cousins? Women
accused of 4 South Side murders,” Chicago Tribune (Il.), Jul. 5, 2004]
“Women Who Kill: Part Two The South Side Slayers
***
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