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  • Terror Town USA

  • The Untold Story of Joliet's Notorious Serial Killer
  • By: John Ferak
  • Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
  • Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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Terror Town USA

By: John Ferak
Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
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Publisher's Summary

New from the best-selling author of Wrecking Crew!

During the early morning hours of July 17, 1983, fatigue became a factor for the young couple from central Illinois who spent their day under the hot sun at Marriott’s Great America amusement park north of Chicago. On their drive home, the tired teenagers pulled to the shoulder of Interstate 55 to get a restful sleep. As the teens slept inside their car under the moon and the stars, a dangerous force of evil lurked in the shadows, parking directly behind them. 

The summer of 1983 was like no other in Joliet, Ill., a hard-working, rough-and-tough blue-collar industrial city an hour’s drive southwest of Chicago. It was one of the hottest summers on record for Joliet, and an elusive serial-killing madman kept piling up the body count as he showed no signs of being caught. 

One overnight killing spree claimed five victims, including members of the Will County Sheriff’s Office. The following month brought more bloodshed: a quadruple murder inside a small Joliet shop best known for its pottery classes.

The plague of senseless violence sparked the controversial New York City-based Guardian Angels to mobilize foot patrols in Joliet, generating more unwanted news media attention for the community. Even the National Enquirer produced its own sensational piece, labeling Joliet “Terror Town, USA”.

Residents shuddered with horror. Determined detectives worked in overdrive, trying to find an overlooked clue or two. Finally, when an arrest seemed to come out of nowhere, area citizens breathed a sigh of relief. Authorities linked the so-called stone-cold killing machine to a chilling count of 14 homicides, plus three women who miraculously survived their agonizing encounters. 

But with multiple murder trials on the horizon, it remained anyone’s guess whether Milton Johnson, whose family nicknamed him “Big’un”, short for “Big One”, was guilty of mass murder. If so, would he die by means of lethal injection at the Illinois Department of Corrections?

©2021 John Ferak (P)2021 WildBlue Press

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant and so sad

Brilliant as usual
Incredibly sad
Highly recommend for all true crime enthusiasts
As usual Kevin Pierce delivers this story with compassion, strength and a voice I have grown to respect and love
Thank you

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Can't believe I had never heard of this before

What is truly terrifying is that this man was sentenced to death and then had his sentence commuted to life in prison -because because the death sentence was outlawed in Illinois- could potentially get out of jail in his 70s. That is fucked.

Milton Johnson barely even has a Wikipedia page. It is believed that he killed more than 10 people but who was heard of him? It is terrifying that he could potentially be released. 70-year-olds are still capable of brutalising people. Of kidnapping, raping and torturing women. How the hell is this justice?

I listen to the audiobook of Terror Town USA which was not a bad book. I did find myself losing focus at the start because I think the author looked at all of the red herrings from the police investigation, therefore I didn't know what was relevant and what wasn't to the case. It's amazing that Milton Johnson was released from a prison sentence of 25 to 35 years after only 13 years, and the police were not warned that he was returning. When similar crimes were occurring the police did not know that he was back in town which is crazy.

I know this happened back in the 80s, but I really hope that the communication between law-enforcement and prison officials has improved to the point were people convicted of extremely violent crimes that are released early back into the public are informed to police offices. Also, how was it that Milton Johnson's latest parole officer had only met with him once? He was a dangerous, dangerous man who had only been out of prison less than a year, and his latest parole officer couldn't comment on him because he's only met him once? How fucked is that?

I think it's always interesting to see how cases in the 80s and early 90s were solved when technology was changing so quickly. Here we see the mention of DNA and hair and fingerprints, however it's in a rudimentary way. For example, they were able to identify hair as coming from a black person but they weren't able to determine whose hair it was. I believe this is still the case unless the root is attached. They also were able to use a receipt from several months ago to attempt to link Milton Johnson with one of the victims.

I think that Milton Johnson is a monster I think he didn't need to kill any of the people that he did, most of them were crimes of opportunity to steal a couple of dollars? He didn't rape all of his victims, he didn't kidnap all of his victims, he was just a sick, sadistic man who I believe enjoyed killing.

I do think more needs to be written about this man, particularly if he is being released into the public. I really hope that those in Joliet, Illinois are still aware of this man and that if he is released he's not able to resume a normal life because that just is not justice. You were sentenced to death so either you should be getting the death penalty or you should be spending your life behind bars. You should not be getting released in a twilight years to go and be a productive member of society because you are not a productive member you would never have been you're a disgusting sick man.

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A great listen, a very sad story

Being from Australia, I had never heard of this case. This book is a great listen, narrated very well & is interesting to any true crime fan.

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I still don’t know what this is about

I’m half way through this book and I still have no idea what it’s about. It is so disjointed and unstructured. This is looking to be one of the very few books I won’t finish.

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