Josh Miner, Mommy's 'Little Jekyll and Hyde,' Gets Life For Nightmare on Hickory St. Killings

Long before Joshua Miner strangled a Joliet man to death so he could buy liquor, drugs and cigarettes with his money, he throttled his young sister when she changed the channel on the family television, a prosecutor said.

Miner, 26, “choked her unconscious,” said Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, telling how the murderer’s mother nicknamed the boy “her little Jekyll and Hyde.”

Miner did much worse than choke 22-year-old Terrance Rankins to the point of unconsciousness. He strangled Rankins until he died. Miner’s pal, Adam Landerman, 21, was charged with choking Rankins’ pal Eric Glover, 22, to death at the same time in January 2013. Miner was found guilty of both murders since he, Landerman and two young women, 20-year-olds Alisa Massaro and Bethany McKee, hatched a scheme to rob Rankins and Glover.

Will County Judge Gerald Kinney sentenced Miner to life in prison Wednesday. The judge had little choice, as he was mandated to do so by state law due to Miner’s double murder conviction.

Judge Kinney sentenced McKee to life last week. Kinney expressed some reluctance and said he would have preferred to give McKee 40 years in prison, or at least something between 20 and 60.
Kinney showed no such compunction when he sentenced Miner.

“It is really difficult to comprehend the senselessness of this crime,” the judge said, adding, “It’s impossible for me to comprehend it.”

Miner and Landerman killed Rankins and Glover after Massaro and McKee lured them to the Hickory Street nightmare house, according to police reports obtained exclusively by Patch.

Miner and his friends came up with the idea to rob Rankins and Glover because they were broke and wanted to buy cigarettes and alcohol, prosecutor Tricia McKenna said during McKee’s trial.

After Glover and Rankins were killed, Miner and Massaro had sex atop the dead men’s bodies, the police reports said.

In the wake of the slayings, Miner also spoke of flaying Glover and wearing his face like a mask, McKee told detectives during an interrogation at the Kankakee Police Department.

“He was going to take a picture later on with his face pulled off like Leatherface,” McKee said, telling how Miner was inspired by the horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which Leatherface goes on a murderous rampage and wears a dead man’s face like a mask.

“I think it’s because of the dreads” Glover wore, McKee explained to Joliet police detectives. She said Miner wanted to “scalp his head and wear it like a hat.”

Glasgow pointed to the “depravity” of not only the slayings, but also Miner’s behavior after Rankins and Glover were dead. Miner “created a black hole on Hickory Street,” Glasgow said, and “took great pride in the fact that he was a Juggalo” who reveled in bloodshed and pain.

“That’s their form of entertainment,” Glasgow said, “to immerse themselves in murder and mayhem.”

Miner could have faced the death penalty if it had not been abolished in Illinois, Judge Kinney pointed out during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. The mothers of Rankins and Glover had different opinions on whether they wanted to see Miner condemned to die.

“If it was up to me, yes it would” be a death sentence, said Glover’s mother, Nicole Jones.

“He took my son’s life for what?” Jones asked. “Cigarettes? Beer? Drugs? That’s worth throwing your family’s life away, somebody else’s life away? No, it’s not. So if it was up to me, I would, yes, no problem. No problem at all.”

Rankins’ mother, Jamille Kent, said a life behind bars might be harsher than an execution.

“Him spending life in prison probably could be worse” than a quick death, Kent said.

“Death is over with,” Kent said. “He’s got to live with this every day.”

With Miner and McKee bound to spend their lives in prison, Landerman remains in the Will County jail waiting on his own day in court. Before handing down his sentence Wednesday to Miner, Kinney, who will soon retire, passed Landerman’s case off to Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

Massaro made out much better than either Miner or her childhood friend McKee, and likely Landerman as well. She wriggled her way out of the murder case in May by copping a plea to reduced charges of robbery and concealing homicides. She was sentenced to five years in prison but will be released within four years of striking her deal.

Massaro got the plea in exchange for agreeing to testify against her three friends. She took the stand at McKee’s trial but prosecutors didn’t even bother to call her for Miner’s.

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