Ripper Crew Member Thomas Kokoraleis Released From Prison

ELMHURST, IL — A member of the sadistic Chicago Ripper Crew is back on the streets. Thomas Kokoraleis was a member of the crew that terrorized women during the early 1980's and are believed to have been responsible for the deaths of as many as 20 women in the Chicagoland area during that time.

Now, as of March 29, 2019, Kokoraleis has been released from prison. He served half of a 70-year sentence for the murder of 21-year-old Elmhurst resident Lorry Borowski, who went missing from a real estate office on May 15, 1982.

Borowski's body was found months later inside a cemetery in Clarendon Hills where she had been raped and murdered.

Kokoraleis, his two brothers and two others were known to stalk the streets of Chicago and the suburbs in a red van looking for women to terrorize and kill, the Chicago Tribune and others have detailed.

The newly freed killed was originally to serve life in prison, but his sentence was later reduced to 70 years. Sentencing laws at the time called for him to only have to serve half that sentence, and he is now free after 35 years.

Kokoraleis' March 29 release was confirmed by the Illinois VINE service, a victim notification network. According to WBEZ, he was released from the Illinois River Correctional Center near Peoria. At age 59, Kokoraleis will have to register as a sex offender, but he will have no other restrictions upon his release.