Thomas Hawtree, a 17-year-old white male, was shot to death on September 4, 1972, inside his family’s rural home near Monee, Illinois, along with his parents Stephen, 56, and Judy, 53. The three were forced into the basement and killed in what investigators described as an execution-style attack; the placement of the bodies and the methodical shootings suggested the victims were controlled before they were killed rather than the victims of a spontaneous confrontation.

Ballistics later linked the Hawtree killings to other murders in Illinois, including the August 4, 1972, slaying of four members of the Corbett household in Barrington Hills and the deaths of Southern Illinois University student Michael Gerchenson and Army Specialist William Richter. In October 1972 authorities announced arrests of men alleged to belong to a loosely organized group known as De Mau Mau; several were charged in connection with nine killings, though officials cautioned not every defendant was accused of personally participating in every homicide. The exact disposition of charges specifically tied to Thomas Hawtree is not clearly detailed in public historical accounts.