Mark Alan Smith

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,[2] 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.[3] Smith later admitted Ash's murder in a bench trial.

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.[4] 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.[2]

After chancing upon her, Smith forced Bianchi into his car at knifepoint, whereupon he repeatedly stabbed and raped her. He then drove outside of town and dumped the body in a local stream, but as he was leaving, he saw that she was trying to climb up an embankment and escape. He quickly caught up with her, and inserted his fist up her vagina. Then, he pulled her shirt over her head and continued stabbing Bianchi, to the point where he could clearly hear that her lungs had collapsed. After assuring himself she had died, Smith dumped the body into the stream again, where it was later found at the creek.[2]

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.[2] 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 with Mark Smith at the school prom,[1] 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.[2] Her body showed signs of rape, severe beating and strangulation, as well as sexual assault of her vagina and rectum.

Smith admitted that he raped and strangled Lingenfelter, later inserting a beer bottle in both her vagina and rectum after she had died. He then put the lifeless body in the trunk of his car, and dumped the body at McCollum Lake.[5]

Aside from these murders, Smith himself confessed to killing between three and eight women in West Germany during his enlistment, which he later recanted to just two. German authorities never prosecuted him for these alleged killings, despite his confessions being credible.[2]

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.[1]