Assistant Warden Virdeen Willis, a 45-year-old African American man, was shot and killed on June 30, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois. Willis had served with the Illinois Department of Corrections for 19 years and was off duty when he left Maggie’s Shamrock Lounge on the city’s South Side around 9:45 p.m. He was accompanied by a cousin when a suspect approached and shot him.

The suspect, Steven Smith, a 38-year-old gang member who had previously been incarcerated at Pontiac Correctional Center where Willis was assistant warden, was convicted of Willis’s murder and sentenced to death by injection in 1986. The case later underwent significant legal reversals, including a 1999 Illinois Supreme Court reversal of the conviction and a 2002 absolute pardon granted by the governor. Willis is survived by his mother and remembered by colleagues and family for his service.

Did anyone who knew Willis or worked at Pontiac Correctional Center at the time see signs of a threat or have information that could shed more light on the motive or events that night?