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OUR WORST NIGHTMARE? Prosecutors say so, as the accused serial killer's trial begins today.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Christy Gutowski Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer

The crimes are so horrific, so unrelenting in their brutality, that one prosecutor labeled the man accused of them "Satan."

The victims were raped, beaten, tortured and set on fire or chopped into pieces and dumped as if they were yesterday's trash.

One mother watched helplessly as her 10-year-old daughter was assaulted at knifepoint. Two sisters survived war-torn Bosnia only to suffer vicious deaths six months after fleeing their homeland.

Paul Frederick Runge is accused of stalking Cook and DuPage counties in search of women to kill, often after he went to homes that posted for-sale signs in classified ads or on supermarket bulletin boards. Prosecutors said his spree from January 1995 to March 1997 left six women and a little girl dead.

Runge, 36, is suspected of unleashing the violence at the very time a task force had him under close surveillance.

Still, years passed without an arrest.

Although authorities found a way to lock up the convicted rapist in 1997 after a parole violation, it wasn't until a computer- assisted DNA matching system pointed the finger at Runge that charges finally were filed against him in summer 2001. He also confessed during videotaped interviews.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he is convicted. His defense team maintains the Carol Stream man was legally insane at the time of the killings.

A Cook County jury will begin hearing evidence today in the accused serial killer's first trial at 26th Street and California Avenue in Chicago.

The jury will be asked to reach a verdict only for the 1997 murders of the Chicago mother and daughter, which, because of the DNA evidence, is considered the strongest of the prosecution's cases. Still, testimony regarding the other killings will saturate the proceedings.

The trial is expected to stretch through February and perhaps longer.

For Susan Eberly, whose only daughter, Stacey Ann Frobel, is believed to be Runge's first victim, it seemed this day would never come.

"I want him to see me," she said through tears. "I never knew how vicious I could be but, after 11 years, I still want to peel his skin like a grape."

A dog's grisly...

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