Father of Man Slain in Hickory St. Nightmare House in Court For 'Bad Acts' Murder Case Hearing

The father of one of the men killed in the Nightmare on Hickory Street murders appeared in court Monday for his own murder case.

Eric Glover, 42, allegedly shot his girlfriend in the head in June 2002. Glover was charged with the murder of Velma Franklin within days of her death but the case was dismissed eight months later.

Glover was doing time in prison for being an armed habitual criminal, aggravated driving under the influence and driving with a revoked license when the murder case was reopened and he was again charged with the killing.

On Fathers’ Day in 2002, Glover, Franklin and four of her children, ages 12, 10, 7 and 3, attended a picnic together, said Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Colon-Sayre.

Glover then went out drinking with a friend while Franklin did the laundry and took the children home for dinner.

“That evening they got into an argument,” Colon-Sayre said of Glover and Franklin, but despite the confrontation, the children eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, Franklin’s 12-year-old woke for summer school and went into her mother’s bedroom. She found her mother in bed, bleeding from her head and nose. Franklin’s 3-year-old daughter was with her in the bed, Colon-Sayre said.

Unable to wake their dead mother, the children called their grandmother, who in turn called the police, Colon-Sayre said.

Glover, who is locked up in Stateville Correctional Center, was taken to the Will County courthouse Monday morning for a hearing on whether his prior bad acts can be used against him at his murder trial. Specifically, prosecutors want to cite an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon conviction stemming from an April 2004 incident, an alleged threat he made to a sister of a different girlfriend in July 2007, and the 2009 armed habitual criminal case that put him in prison.

In all three incidents, Glover was in possession of a black handgun, according to a court filing, and he threatened at least one person each time.

Glover’s son, also named Eric Glover, was strangled to death along with his friend, Terrance Rankins, in January 2013. Both men were 22 when they died.

The grisly double slaying—the Nightmare on Hickory Street murders—was carried out by four broke, unemployed young people who were desperate for cigarettes and alcohol, a prosecutor said.

One of the accused killers, 20-year-old Alisa Massaro, copped a plea in exchange for testifying against her four friends. Massaro will get out of prison in less than three and a half years.

A second young woman, Bethany McKee, also 20, went on trial earlier this month for allegedly murdering the younger Glover and Rankins. Will County Judge Gerald Kinney said he will announce his verdict Aug. 29.

Two more alleged Nightmare on Hickory Street murderers—Adam Landerman, 21, and Joshua Miner, 26—remain in the Will County jail awaiting their own trials.

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