On August 4, 1972, 67-year-old retired insurance executive Paul Corbett was shot dead in his Barrington Hills home. Four armed men — Donald Taylor, Reuben Taylor, Michael Clark, and Nathaniel Burse — arrived under the pretense of asking for directions, forced their way in and held Corbett, his 58-year-old wife Marion, Marion’s 22-year-old daughter Barbara Boand, and Marion’s 60-year-old sister Dorothy Derry at gunpoint. The victims were corralled into the pantry, the telephone cord was ripped out and demands for money and jewelry were made. After the household dog barked, Barbara Boand protested and was shot in the chest; the remaining victims, including Paul Corbett, were executed with gunshots to the back of the head. Anthony Boand discovered the bodies later that evening when he returned a borrowed car.

All four suspects were arrested and charged. Donald Taylor admitted to shooting three of the victims; the four were bound over to a grand jury and later convicted in 1974. Nathaniel Burse was killed while in custody at Lake County Jail. Donald Taylor died in prison in 1991; Reuben Taylor was paroled in 2018 and Michael Clark in 2019. The killings were widely seen as racially motivated and provoked a sharp response in suburban Chicago, where officials said the crime shattered the sense of safety.