Harrah's Murder Prompts Mayor To Reduce City's Homeless

JOLIET, IL — The March 24 murder of a 76-year-old suburban Milwaukee man on the fifth floor of the downtown Harrah's Casino Hotel has motivated Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk to say "enough is enough" concerning Joliet's rising homeless population. O'Dekirk told Joliet Patch on Tuesday he is forming a task force to dramatically reduce the number of people who are homeless in Joliet.

O'Dekirk said more details of the mayor's task force would be unveiled at Tuesday night's regular meeting of the Joliet City Council, which begins at 6:30 p.m.

Downtown Joliet has been a popular gathering spot for homeless people for years, but it is hardly the only part of the city of where homelessness is rampant, the mayor explained.

"I want to stress that it's not just downtown," O'Dekirk told Joliet Patch. "It's different parts of the community and other areas like around by the hospital, Larkin Avenue and Jefferson Street."

O'Dekirk pointed out the city is trying to foster more economic development as part of a Tax Incremental Financial district near the St. Joseph Medical Center campus. The hospital on the city's west side is near Glenwood Avenue as well as Madison Street.

O'Dekirk said he has had numerous conversations with the Joliet Police Department and officers have given him information about areas that are becoming hot spots for homeless people —locations that often become breeding grounds for more crime and drug activity.

O'Dekirk said the biggest problem facing Joliet is the fact that so many of the homeless people have no ties to Joliet whatsoever — people such as Robert A. Watson, the man charged with last month's Harrah's Casino Hotel murder. A number of homeless people are coming to Joliet because of the availability of free social services, free meals and free room and board, the mayor said.

"It's a social services issue, it's a law enforcement issue, it's an issue on a number of different levels," the mayor said.

The man charged with first-degree murder, Watson, was a 25-year-old who had relocated to Joliet about a month earlier. Watson had previously lived in Arizona and Texas, where he had a lengthy criminal record. He also lived in Normal and Chicago, according to the court.

O'Dekirk said it's his understanding Watson was staying in abandoned houses around Joliet in the days leading up to the murder. Authorities have said the slaying was a targeted robbery and that Watson did not know the victim.

The homicide victim, Emanuel Burgarino, was a 76-year-old suburban Milwaukee man who had booked a room at the Harrah's in downtown Joliet.

On March 24, a Sunday night, the Wisconsin man was stabbed 26 times in a hallway in the casino. The man's killer was after his cash, prosecutors have revealed.

Joliet Police found Watson the following day, hiding out on the second floor of downtown Joliet's Public Library, less than two blocks from the hotel. An employee at the library had recognized Watson as the suspect being sought in the deadly stabbing.

The downtown library branch is a magnet for homeless people. During the summer, it's not uncommon for a dozen or more homeless people to gather along the library's sidewalks, blocking access for other pedestrians.

Mayor O'Dekirk told Patch his task force's goal is simple and straightforward.

"It's to dramatically decrease the number of homeless people in our community," O'Dekirk said. "This should not just be a Joliet issue. We are actually a very generous community, but there is no reason why good people in other communities can't share the burden."

As for Robert Watson, who remains in the Will County Jail facing a $5 million bail, "What was he doing here?" O'Dekirk asked. "There are communities all over Illinois importing their homeless people into our town, Joliet."