Gary Rardon

Gary Duane Rardon (September 4, 1943 – March 16, 2024) was 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.

Early life Rardon's father was William Harley Rardon, a U.S. Air Force master sergeant. Rardon said his parents treated him well. Asked about the murders, Rardon said, "I had a perfect family. Too perfect. My father didn't drink, didn't run around, didn't neglect us. Smoking was his only vice. My mother didn't do anything wrong. But sometimes I felt I didn't live up to their expectations." 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."

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.

As such, Rardon was instead sentenced to three concurrent 40 to 100 years terms in prison, to run consecutively to his federal sentence. Judge James Michael Bailey said "I haven't seen anything as bad before in all my years on the bench." The prosecution said "the value of three lives was $161 and a few credit cards." Rardon's attorney advised him to remain silent during the hearing. However, Rardon turned around and apologized to the families of his victims. One of them bitterly muttered, "He's sorry." Rardon completed his state sentence on September 30, 2016, after which he was 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. He died in Indianapolis on March 16, 2024, aged 80.