Nightmare on Hickory Street Jury Had 'No Doubt'

The brutal premeditated murder of two young men from Joliet was “obviously tragic,” a juror said after casting his guilty vote against the last of the Nightmare on Hickory Street killers Monday afternoon.

Tom Cowan of Naperville also said he and his fellow jurors had “no doubt” about the guilt of 21-year-old Adam Landerman. The jury needed only an hour and 15 minutes to convict Landerman of murdering 22-year-olds Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover.

“It’s a sad and unfortunate case,” said another juror, Jim Wisnasky of Mokena.

“As a group, we just thought he was ignorant and did not have any morals or values,” Wisnasky said of Landerman, who is the son of Joliet police Sgt. Julie Larson.

“We thought he was very shallow,” Wisnasky said.

Read all the stories and watch every video in the series, Josh Miner: The Nightmare Revealed:

• The Nightmare Revealed: Hickory Street Strangler Josh Miner Tells All
• Part I: Josh Miner Sawed Tongue in Half, Wanted to Transform Into Vampire Clown ‘Freak’
• Part II: Josh Miner Says He Was ‘Too Slow-Witted’ To Be Charles Manson Murder Mastermind
• Part III: Nightmare on Hickory Street Gals Got ‘Bogus’ Deal, Says Josh Miner, Even the Woman Doing Just 5 Years
• Part IV: Cop’s Kid Made Up Sex On Bodies Story To Trick Detectives Into Thinking He’s Crazy: Miner
• Part V: Hickory Street Killings Were Nothing But A Fight Gone Too Far: Miner
• Part VI: No Future: Josh Miner Says He’s ‘Not Living ... Just Existing’

Juror Tiffany Morgan of Bolingbrook said Landerman had “no regard for human life.”

Landerman and three of his friends — Joshua Miner, 26, Bethany McKee, 20, and Alisa Massaro, 21 — conspired to rob Rankins and Glover. Landerman and his friends had been partying at Massaro’s Hickory Street home but were broke and ran out of cigarettes and liquor.

McKee, who was in a sexual relationship with Rankins, suggested inviting him over and robbing him of his drugs and money. To the surprise of the young men and women who were plotting to kill him, Rankins arrived at the death house with his lifelong friend Glover.

Landerman told police during his interrogation that he and Miner planned to start the robbery after the group finished off a bottle of tequila. When the bottle was empty, Miner strangled Rankins and Landerman throttled Glover.

Cowan pointed out that Landerman had an “amazing amount of opportunity to change things” but instead followed through with the deadly robbery plot.

“Children are precious and need to be paid attention to,” he said.