Ioan Petru Culianu was a 41-year-old professor of history of religions at the University of Chicago who was shot dead on May 21, 1991, in a bathroom stall near his office in Swift Hall. He was struck in the back of the head by a .25-caliber Beretta; the Cook County medical examiner concluded the shot was fired from at least 18 inches away. The killing happened minutes after a conversation with his doctoral student Alexander Argüelles on a day the building was crowded with visitors for a book sale.

Culianu was engaged to Hillary Wiesner, a 27-year-old Harvard graduate student, and was known for work on eroticism, occultism, and magic in religions; he had been a protégé of Mircea Eliade. Investigators found no clear motive or suspect, and the case remains unsolved. Political motives have been suggested in reporting, including speculation about hostility from Romanian right-wing elements and possible links to the Securitate, but no arrest has been announced.