1980 — Oct 28, Apartment building arson fire kills children, South Side Chicago, IL — 10
— 10 Chicago Tribune (Linnet Myers). “Killer Cries After 2d Death Penalty.” 9-24-1987.
— 10 Chicago Tribune. “Multiple Killer Convicted Again…10 Children Died.” 9-22-1987.
— 10 NFPA. The U.S. Fire Problem. “Home Fires with 10 of more Fatalities (1980-2007). 2008.
— 10 State of Illinois Prisoner Review Board, October 2002 Session, Inmate No. N23646.
— 10 Warden. “Leroy Orange.” Center on Wrongful Convictions, Pritzker School of Law, IL.
Narrative Information
State of Illinois Prisoner Review Board: “Leonard Kidd has murdered 14 people, 13 of them women and children. In 1980 he set a fire at night in the apartment building where his girlfriend lived and where he knew numerous children were sleeping. 10 of those children died in the fire. In 1984 he stabbed to death a 9-year old boy, her mother, another woman and a man. After butchering the victims, Leonard Kidd set fire to that apartment building as well…. Petitioner was convicted of the October 28, 1980 arson and murders of 10 children living in an apartment building at 1512 E. 65th Place in Chicago. Petitioner’s father owned the building….” (State of Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Oct 2002)
“The following children died as a result of the fire: 7-month old Deavon Boyd, 7-year old Chirodia Anderson, 2-year old Cyrus Anderson, 9-year old Ronald Anderson, 6-year old Patricia Burt, 5-year old Denise Burt, 1-year old Latashia Monique Burt, 17-year old Diane Armstrong, 13-year old Linda Armstrong, and 6-year old Albert Burt. The parties stipulated the cause of death as acute carbon monoxide toxicity caused by the fire.” (State of IL Prisoner Review Board, October 2002, pp. 33-34.)
Newspapers
Oct 29: “Chicago (UPI) — A fire gutted a two-story frame apartment building on the city’s South Side, killing nine children and injuring four other people.[1] Arson was suspected. Authorities said the victims of the blaze, which broke out about 10 p.m. Tuesday, had no means of escape. ‘It (the fire) totally burned out the stairs and hall,’ said Fire Commissioner William Blair. ‘One of the doors to one of the bedrooms was totally consumed. That’s a lot of fire.’…. ‘the fire spread very fast,’ Blair said. Police bomb and arson investigators said early today arson was suspected in the blaze, which apparently started in a vacant first-floor apartment and raced up the stairwell….
“Firefighter Tessie Stewart said the building was engulfed in flames by the time fire engines arrived…. ‘In about 30 minutes we had it out. The front stairs were completely burned out and the back stairs were broken out so the people had no way to get out…We heard the screams and the people were already jumping out the windows.” (UPI/Marcella S. Kreiter. “Nine youngsters killed in fire on Chicago’s South Side.” The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL. 10-29-1980, p. 16.)
Oct 30: “United Press International. A small fire that scorched a vacant room in a South Side Chicago apartment house was quickly doused by residents. But the arsonist returned and an hour later the building was an inferno, and nine children were dead. Police Wednesday [Oct 29] dubbed the deadly blaze arson, saying the small fire that preceded it was the tip-off.
“Investigators sought the boyfriend of one of the victims for questioning. He apparently had a quarrel with the teen-aged girl shortly before the fires were set, police said.
“The second fire spread rapidly…leaving the nine victims no means of escape. A woman and three other children were injured in the blaze….
“The dead were identified as Monica Burts, 1, and her sisters, Patricia, 6, and Denise, 5; Albert Armstrong, 7; Diana Armstrong, 17, and her sister, Linda, 13; Ronald Anderson, 9, his brother, Silas, 2, and sister, Shioda, 7.” (UPI. “Arson suspected in blaze that killed 9.” The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL, 10-30-1980, p. 5.)
Oct 31: “Chicago (UPI) — Police Thursday cited a raft of building code violations and negative lab tests and said an apartment house fire that killed nine children may not have been set by an arsonist….City building inspectors said the house, a two-story single family dwelling converted into four or five apartments, had been cited for 25 code violations. Its owner was due in court Monday for a hearing on the alleged violations.
“Leonard Kidd, 19, one of four persons injured in the blaze and whose family owned the building, told investigators he smelled smoke earlier in the evening and found a paper fire burning in a first-floor apartment. He said he and a sister of one of the victims put out the fire and went out for something to eat. When they returned about 10 p.m., Kidd said, they smelled smoke coming from another unoccupied apartment on the first floor. Kidd said the girl went upstairs to warn other occupants of the building and to call firefighters while he kicked down the locked apartment door.” (UPI. “Arson tests negative in apartment fire.” The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL. 10-31-1980, p. 5.)
Sep 24, 1987: “A Cook County Criminal Court jury took only 11 minutes Wednesday to give a second death penalty to a man who stands convicted of 14 murders. Leonard Kidd, 26, broke into tears after the decision.
“Kidd was sentenced to death earlier for killing four people; this time, he was sentenced for the murders of 10 children who died in a fire that Kidd set. The jurors took barely enough time to vote and sign the verdict forms after they heard evidence from Assistant State’s Attorneys Jeffrey Warnick and Richard Stock.
“On Monday, the jurors found Kidd guilty of arson and 10 murders for setting a fire on Oct. 28, 1980, that killed 10 children, aged 7 months to 17 years. At that time, the jury knew nothing of the quadruple murder of which Kidd had been convicted….
“While in custody, Kidd admitted to setting an East 65th Place building on fire. Prosecutors said he did it because he was angry that his late father hadn’t left him the building. But during Wednesday’s hearing, Kidd denied that he had committed either…” (Chicago Tribune (Linnet Myers). “Killer Cries After 2d Death Penalty.” 9-24-1987.)
Jan 11, 2003: “….Kidd remained on death row until January 11, 2003, when Governor George Ryan commuted his sentence to life in prison without parole.” (Warden, Rob. “Leroy Orange” [Leonard Kidd’s half-brother], Center on Wrongful Convictions, Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.)
Sources
Chicago Tribune (Linnet Myers). “Killer Cries After 2d Death Penalty.” 9-24-1987. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-24/news/8703120289_1_deadly-arson-murders-second-death-penalty
Chicago Tribune (Linnet Myers). “Multiple Killer Convicted Again. Man on Death Row Set Fire in Which 10 Children Died.” 9-22-1987. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-22/news/8703110688_1_murders-deadly-fire-death-row
National Fire Protection Association. The U.S. Fire Problem. “Home Fires with Ten or More Fatalities (1980-2007).” Quincy, MA: NFPA, April 2008 update. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org:80/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=30981&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/The%20U.S.%20fire%20problem
State of Illinois Prisoner Review Board, October 2002 Session, Inmate No. N23646. Accessed at: http://www.statesattorney.org/Leonardo%20kidd.pdf
United Press International, Chicago. “Arson suspected in blaze that killed 9.” The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL, 10-30-1980, p. 5. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-herald-suburban-chicago-oct-30-1980?tag
United Press International, Chicago. “Arson tests negative in apartment fire.” The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL. 10-31-1980, p. 5. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-herald-suburban-chicago-oct-31-1980-p-5/?tag
United Press International (Marcella S. Kreiter), Chicago. “Nine youngsters killed in fire on Chicago’s South Side.” The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL. 10-29-1980, p. 16. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/harrisburg-daily-register-oct-29-1980-p-16/?tag
Warden, Rob. “Leroy Orange” [Leonard Kidd’s half-brother], Center on Wrongful Convictions, Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. Accessed 5-27-2017 at: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/il/leroy-orange.html
[1] An article on Kidd’s murder conviction notes that one of the victim’s, 7-month-old Deavon Boyd, was found alive, but died in a hospital two days later — the tenth fatality. (Chicago Tribune/Linnet Myers. “Multiple Killer Convicted Again. Man on Death Row Set Fire in Which 10 Children Died.” 9-22-1987.)