The worst mass homicides in recent history

Originally published Jan. 13, 1993

In Illinois

• July 13-14, 1966: Richard Speck stabs and strangles eight student nurses in a Chicago apartment.

• Jan. 9, 1993: Seven people - two restaurant owners and five employees - are found shot to death at a Brown's Chicken & Pasta fast-food restaurant in Palatine.

• June 26, 1973: Seven people are killed by William Workman of Palos Hills. Victims are his parents, his best friend and his friend's parents, a 12-year-old girl and her pregnant mother.

• Feb. 14, 1929: Seven gangsters are killed in a Chicago garage in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

In the nation

• March 25, 1990: Eighty-seven people are killed in an arson fire at the Happy Land social club in New York. Julio Gonzalez, convicted of 174 counts of murder (two for each victim), is sentenced to 25 years to life.

• Oct. 6, 1991: George Hennard drives his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and opens fire, killing 23 people and then himself.

• July 18, 1984: Twenty-one people are fatally shot at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, Calif., by James Oliver Huberty, who is killed by a police sharpshooter.

• December 1987: A total of 16 people, including 14 members of one family, are discovered slain after the arrest of R. Gene Simmons on Dec. 28. A search of his home near Dover, Ark., uncovers the remains. Simmons was executed June 25,1990.

• Aug. 1, 1966: Sixteen people are killed in Austin, Texas, by Charles Whitman, who fired on passers-by from a tower at the University of Texas until police shot him to death.

• Aug. 20, 1986: Fourteen people are shot to death at a post office in Edmond, Okla., by Pat Sherrill, 44, a postal worker who authorities say was about to be fired. Sherrill then killed himself.