Mark Alan Smith

On April 27, 1977, Smith was caught trying to escape from the Pontiac Correctional Center through the boiler room, to which he later pleaded guilty and was given another 18 years. While serving his time, Smith's defense attorney, Harold C. McKenney, aided by Jon K. Hahn, helped Smith co-author a book, titled "Legally Sane", in which Mark described his life and crime spree in vivid detail, where he also admits the killings in Germany.

He later confessed to the two killings, as well as those of Ash and Bolyard. He was sentenced to 500 years' imprisonment for the Illinois murders in 1971. He dodged the death penalty, as there was a moratorium for it at the time.

On January 27, 1970, the 27-year-old housewife and mother of two Jean Bianchi, from McHenry, was last seen at a local laundromat on Elm Street. In the evening, she had phoned her husband to inform him that she would come home shortly, but she didn't return. Bianchi's laundry and an unfinished letter were all located at the laundromat, with no sign of her. Three days later, her body was found in a partially frozen creek near one of the town's bridges, having been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times.

On February 27, 1970, Smith was working at the Resin Research Laboratory, part of the Desoto Chemical Company, situated in Mount Prospect. He was left to work in the late evening hours, along with 22-year-old Janice Bolyard, from Evanston. Taking the opportunity to follow her into the basement, Smith began making sexual advances on her, which Bolyard resisted. Infuriated, he began beating her, before choking her into unconsciousness. Smith then moved her to another room, where he took off her undergarments and tampon, before proceeding to rape her. After he had finished, he took her pantyhose and wrapped it around her neck, strangling her to death. She was discovered on the next day, after she'd been reported missing by her fiancé.

On May 27, 1970, 17-year-old Jean Ann Lingenfelter, an honors student at McHenry's local high school who had triple-dated Mark Smith at the school prom, left her home so she could study at a friend's house, as she was only a week away from graduation. After two hours, she left the house so she could meet Smith, and was last seen entering his vehicle. After she did not return home, her parents reported her missing. The next day, her naked body was found by a young couple on a beach, lying motionless at the Lakeland Park subdivision. Her body showed signs of rape, severe beating and strangulation, as well as sexual assault of her vagina and rectum.

On December 3, 1969, Smith abducted 32-year-old Obie Fay Ash of Cotter, before proceeding to rape and strangle her. After ensuring she was deceased, he repeatedly stabbed her. All of this occurred in the nearby city of Mountain Home, where Smith worked as a handyman at a TV repair shop. When she was deceased, Smith tied Ash up with wire, placed her in the backseat of her own car, and drove the car near to the repair shop. Ash's body was discovered later the same day. Ash left behind three children. Smith later admitted Ash's murder in a bench trial.

In 1966, he was enlisted in the army during the Vietnam War and stationed in West Germany, where, in 1967, he was court-martialed for assaulting four African-American colleagues. After three years in the army, he returned to the USA, settling in McHenry County.

The prosecutors at his trial alleged that his victim count likely exceeds 20 in number, but because his crimes covered a two-year period over a large geographic area, they were largely ignored. Authorities have questioned him regarding murders in South Vietnam, South Korea, five other states and in Washington, D.C., as well as the still-unsolved Kenilworth 1966 murder of 21-year-old Valerie Percy, daughter of businessman and Republican politician Charles H. Percy.

Mark Alan Smith (born June 27, 1949) is an American serial killer who killed at least four women in Illinois and Arkansas during the 1960s, and was sentenced to 500 years' imprisonment for three of the deaths. Smith later confessed to killing eight women while stationed as a marine in West Germany, for which he was never prosecuted, and authorities believe he could be involved in other murders, both in the USA and overseas.