Gary Rardon

Rardon also said he had anger management problems. He'd gotten drunk several days before the murders. Prison psychiatrists said he had an IQ of 117. Rardon served most of his sentence at Danville Correctional Center and Graham Correctional Center. While in prison, he learned computer skills and received a certificate in cooking. He also took two years of college business courses. Rardon became eligible for parole in 1987, but was unanimously denied release at all of his hearings. His projected discharge date was set for September 30, 2016.

Rardon completed his state sentence on September 30, 2016, and was immediately transferred to federal custody to serve his 12-year sentence. He was released from federal prison on December 17, 2020. Overall, Rardon served nearly 50 years in prison for the murders.

At a parole hearing in 2012, Rardon said "he was having hard times and just lost it," describing the robbery-slayings as "pretty cold blooded." He said his release plan was to live in the Champaign-Urbana area and live alone. He said he would need to rely on his 90-year-old mother, aunts, and uncles to get a job, and did not talk further about his parole plans. Rardon, who had not received a major violation in prison since 1986, said he turned his life around in 1985, after he became determined to become a better person. He expressed remorse for his actions, saying he regretted the pain he had caused to the victims, their families, and his own family. Rardon said he now had feelings for people, and believed this was somewhat of an indicator that he had changed. He said he did not have these feelings in the past.

Rardon was charged in Illinois with three counts of murder and three counts of armed robbery. He also faced federal charges for transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce and possessing an unregistered firearm. In 1976, Rardon pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. On February 17, 1977, he pleaded guilty to all of the state charges.

As he was driving, Rardon saw Gruenberg leaving a sales office to go to his car. He parked and watched him go back inside. Gruenberg was sitting at his desk when Rardon entered and shot him once in the left side of the neck. He then took his wallet, which had his credit cards and approximately $75. Two miles away, Rardon used the credit card to buy gas for the stolen Corvette, signing the receipt "Asher Gruenberg." The station attendant wrote down the license number of the car on the receipt. Rardon headed south through Indiana and Kentucky, using Gruenberg's credit cards multiple times. All of the receipts went to Rena, who turned them over to the FBI. FBI agents tracked Rardon to a Sears store in Louisville, Kentucky, and he was arrested on January 16, 1975. The federal agents found him wearing Gene Ravenscraft's coat and carrying Asher Gruenberg's ID and credit cards. Rardon quickly confessed to all three of the murders.

From November 14 to November 18, 1974, Rardon killed three men in Chicago with the sawed-off shotgun during robberies. The first victim was 28-year-old Gene R. Ravenscraft, who was killed on November 14. A native of Wheeling, Illinois, Ravenscraft had been working overtime since his wife, Cynthia, was pregnant with their third child. On the night of his murder, Gene was the only man in his office working the night shift, as he had only been there a few months. Around 7 P.M., Rardon, carrying his shotgun, saw Ravenscraft alone in the office. He walked inside and shot him once in the left side of the neck, killing him. Rardon then took $23 and Ravenscraft's coat.

On November 18, Rardon killed 50-year-old Asher Gruenberg of Skokie, Illinois. Gruenberg had worked for a steel company before joining a construction business. A World War II veteran, Gruenberg had left high school to serve in the Philippines and New Guinea. He and his wife, Rena, lived with their son, Myron, and daughter, Linda. The family were faithful Jews. Myron was supposed to have his bar mitzvah on November 30, 1974.

In 1965, a psychiatrist who examined Rardon said he was "near psychotic" and "very dangerous." However, just two years later, the same psychiatrist re-examined him and said there was a "minimal" chance he would ever be violent again. Rardon later admitted that after his first psychiatric examination, he went to work for the psychiatrist as a medical records keeper. He was released on parole on May 8, 1967. In 1969, Rardon was sentenced to 3 to 5 years in prison for robbery in Connecticut.

On July 7, 1962, James Homer Smith, 23, who had just left the Marines, went into a train station in Indianapolis. When he asked if anyone needed a ride east, Rardon, then 19 and an AWOL sailor, said yes. Later that day, he shot Smith twice in the head and stuffed his body in the man's car. Smith's body was found 12 days later in Washington, Pennsylvania. On December 5, 1962, Rardon was arrested and charged with first degree murder. He claimed self-defense, saying Smith had made sexual advances towards him. On April 19, 1963, Rardon pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 2 to 21 years in prison. On January 8, 1966, his father, who had visited him regularly in prison, died of a heart attack. Rardon's grandfather, who briefly took care of him as a child, visited him in prison. "He told me that my father died of a broken heart," Rardon later said. "I never forgot that. When I was young, I wanted to be an FBI man."

Gary Duane Rardon (born September 4, 1943) is a convicted American serial killer and spree killer who killed a man in Indiana in 1962, then robbed and killed three working men in Chicago, Illinois over a four-day period in 1974.