A legal gun, the usual motive, and 3 dead in Darien

The coldblooded Darien killer wasn't so tough that he couldn't shop for a good deal on a murder weapon.

The 40-caliber Glock pistol used to kill Jeffrey Kramer, his wife Lori, and their son Michael was on sale a week ago when it was purchased, according to police detectives.

It's on sale all this month at Midwest Guns in West suburban Lyons. Regularly $649. Special early spring discount of just $625.99.

Investigators say they have videotape from the store security camera of Jacob Nodarse, 23, purchasing the gun a few days before the killings.

Considering that Midwest has been in business for 47 years, has a reputation as a well-run store, and is a supplier to many law enforcement agencies and officers, Mr. Nodarse would have been required to show a valid Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card as proof that he was entitled to buy and own a gun.

The murder plot, with a legally-purchased semiautomatic pistol, was carried out just a few hours before Chicago's handgun ban was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

A pure coincidence of course, but the timing is notable.

The city's 28-year old ban on handguns has been as ineffective in stopping violent crime as Illinois' FOID card system was in preventing the Kramer's from being killed in Darien.

Also, the shiny new and perfectly legal Glock wasn't the only weapon carried to the Kramer house in Darien. The shooter also brought along a hammer to smash a window so he could get into the house. That item required no permit.

Over the weekend, prosecutors revealed details of how the murders were accomplished. They said that Nodarse of Countryside and his best friend Johnny Borizov, 28, of Willow Springs, had met the previous week to figure out the details. Borizov was locked in a dreadful child custody fight with his ex-girlfriend, Angela Kramer, 25, and allegedly wanted her and her entire family dead.

According to DuPage County states attorneys, after Nodarse broke into the home at 3 a.m., he first fired a shot at Michael Kramer, 20, who was asleep with his 17 year old girlfriend on a couch.

Nodarse then moved onto Kramer's parents - murdering both of them according to investigators. He then returned to finish off Michael, who had grabbed a knife, which proved no defense for the .40 Glock.

Angela Kramer, one of the intended targets, never was found by the shooter. Having heard the commotion she burrowed herself in a closet and called police. Before Darien authorities arrived, the gunman escaped the slaughter scene.

For several days, police and DuPage County prosecutors kept saying "we don't know the motive."

Such a proclamation has always puzzled me.

First, because the discovery of a motive never brings anyone back from the dead.

But more important - they did know the motive. They always know the motive. It is always the same in every murder.

Selfishness is always the underlying explanation. Doesn't matter whether there is also a robbery, a rape, a bad divorce or if it is an Outfit hit.

Selfishness is the motive.

"I am more important than you." That is what every murder comes down to.

When DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett said Saturday that "the crime was born of hatred," he almost got it right. Hatred is a subset of selfishness.

Regardless of the armchair criminal psychology that plays out after every horrific crime such as Darien, this is one case where you can't blame the gun for three dead people any more than you can blame the hammer for the broken window.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie