An old mug shot of mass murderer Cedric Anderson (Cook County Sheriff)Convict and Heroin Addict was Faced with Break-Up, Prison
By Nicholas Stix
Since when do you downplay or suppress altogether the reporting of mass murder? When the killer is black, of course.
Yesterday morning in Villa Park, Illinois, just west of Chicago, Cedric Anderson, 42, murdered the girlfriend who was leaving him, her two children and her niece, and torched the girlfriend’s house, before driving to his parents’ home in nearby Dolton, just south of Chicago, where he shot himself to death.
So, does the Tribune editor write a headline saying, “Convict with Long Rap Sheet Awaiting Sentencing Murders Four and Torches House, Then Kills Self”?, or “Facing Break-Up and Prison, Convict Goes Berserk, Kills Four, Torches House, and Commits Suicide”? Of course, not. Those would be reader magnets. Instead, the Trib’s headline editor tried to make the story sound as humdrum as possible, in order to drive readers away: “Man linked to 4 deaths in suspicious fire found dead of apparent suicide.”
What kind of mushy language is that? It suggests that Anderson somehow knew the killer. It sounds like the inversion of an SPLC smear: "Writer linked to White Supremacists." Whereas, the SPLC seeks to exaggerate someone's connection to evil, the Tribune is seeking to weaken the association of Cedric Anderson with evil.
So far, the national MSM have ignored the story.
The Victims
Ursula Nailor, 37 (the killer’s girlfriend)
Darnell Holt Jr., 16 (the girlfriend’s son)
Daniel Nailor, 13 (the girlfriend’s other son)
Dominique Robinson, 19 (the girlfriend’s niece)
The Trib report speaks of “the family's ranch-style home.”
When I was a kid, the meaning of “family” in such a statement would be transparent: A husband and wife and their kids. But this is a typical, contemporary, black “family,” which is to say, no family at all. A live-in convict-junkie-boyfriend—who likely was not making any contribution to the home), an unmarried woman, and the two sons she had by two other men, is not a family.
If Ursula Nailor had married Cedric Anderson, then you might be able to speak loosely of a “family,” but he clearly was not husband material. Anderson had a long rap sheet of mostly petty crimes, was a longtime drug addict, and shouldn’t even have been a free man, let alone living under the same roof with a woman and her two children. However, he was a beneficiary of Illinois’ unofficial, Ten Strikes and You’re Out program, and Ursula Nailor’ s personal, Have a Heart for Black Criminals program.
And so, now we have a dead woman who had been in the prime of her life, and three dead teenagers who had barely begun theirs.
Cedric Anderson reportedly left a note saying he was “despondent.” Not “sorry,” just “despondent.” It was all about him. He wasn’t despondent, he was narcissistic and evil. Had he really been despondent, he could have simply killed himself, and left Miss Nailor, her sons, and her niece in peace, to get on with their lives… without him.
Man linked to 4 deaths in suspicious fire found dead of apparent suicide
By Carlos Sadovi, Christy Gutowski, Deanese Williams-Harris and Rosemary Sobol
5:59 p.m. CST, January 17, 2012
Chicago Tribune
A man fatally shot his girlfriend, her two sons and niece as they slept in their beds early this morning, then set their Villa Park home on fire before driving to his parents' home, where he killed himself, officials said.
Cedric Anderson, 42, was found dead in a home in the 14000 block of Edbrooke Avenue in Dolton around 1:30 p.m., according to Tom Ahern, spokesman for the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency.
Hours earlier, his girlfriend, Ursula Nailor, 37, her sons Darnell Holt Jr., 16 and Daniel Nailor, 13, and her niece Dominique Robinson, 19, of Bolingbrook were found dead around 7:15 a.m. today after a fire was reported in the family's ranch-style home on Summit Road in Villa Park.
Investigators believe Anderson shot the four around 7 a.m. as they slept in their beds, Ahern said. Anderson then set the fire at the home [sic] he lived with Nailor and her sons. He then went to his parents' home, officials said.
DuPage County officials are awaiting autopsy results before confirming the identity of the victims or how they were killed.
But Anderson left a note at the parents' home, officials said. The note did not take responsibility for the killings but indicated he was "despondent," officials said.
At the Dolton home, police found a .357-magnum revolver believed used in the shooting in Villa Park, officials said.
Anderson has a long Cook County criminal record, mostly for drug-related offenses, dating back to 1990, according to court records.
On December 29, Anderson was convicted in the Maybrook courthouse of possession of heroin, a Class 4 felony, but remained free while awaiting sentencing in March. He faced up to three years in prison, officials said. Authorities had been seeking to question him when they discovered he had apparently killed himself, officials said.
Anderson was ordered to undergo treatment for his substance abusein [sic] 2009 after he failed a random drug test that was part of the probation he received for an earlier drug offense in 2008, court records state.
The records show Anderson has repeatedly received probation for offenses such as aggravated drunken driving, possession of a controlled substance and for having a firearm without the required registration and firearm owners identification card in 2008.
It was not clear why the judge in the case allowed him to be free on bond while awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors said it is up to the judge to order someone detained.
Officials with the Cook County State's Attorney's office could not say if they had petitioned the judge in the case, Judge Thomas Tucker, to have Anderson held at Cook County Jail while awaiting sentencing.
The DuPage County sheriff's office has been investigating the fire as a possible arson, according to DuPage County sheriff's spokeswoman Dawn Domrose. A dog was brought in to check for accelerants.
A top DuPage County law enforcement source said prosecutors sought a search warrant because of evidence of possible foul play inside the home.
Ursula Nailor had been planning to move out of the house soon and live near her mother in Selma, Ala.
"My daughter was getting ready to move," said Doris Wallace, who moved to Selma three months ago. "She was waiting on her income taxes so she could buy a trailer home. She was going to move in with me until she got her trailer home."
Wallace said family members called her this morning and told her about the fire, but she knew very little about what happened or why.
"Right now, I just don't know, I just don't know," Wallace said, getting ready to board a plane to Chicago. "I'm on my way."
Earlier Wallace speculated that Anderson seemed distraught [sic] the recent court date.
"It was like he was scared that he was going to be locked up or something and lose her," said Wallace.
Nailor had earlier kicked him out of the home when he came home drunk and Nailor did not want him drunk around her children.
Last night, Nailor and her sons went out to dinner with Robinson and another niece, 9. After dinner, they dropped the 9-year-old girl off at her Bolingbrook home so she could go to school today. Then Nailor and her sons drove back to their Villa Park home, Wallace said.
"Dominique drove back behind [Ursula] and followed her back to her house and they all were there," Wallace said. "Dominique stayed there."
She said her daughter was known as "Poodie," Darnell was "DJ" and Daniel "Punn."
"I spoke to her yesterday when she was getting ready to take the kids out," Wallace said. "She was laughing, my granddaughter was texting her to please come and get her. She wanted to go with them, Poodie was taking them out and she always stay's [sic] up under Poodie."
Wallace said her daughter drove a school bus for the Falcon Transportation Company. She said Nailor had a boyfriend who occasionally stayed at the home [?]. [Is the boyfriend in question the killer or yet another man?]
Falcon owner Ed Peterson said he showed up at the home today to console the family.
He said Nailor had worked at the company since 2006 and he became concerned when she did not show up or call work this morning. She was scheduled to begin work at about 6 a.m., Peterson said.
“She was a loving mother and often talked about her kids,” Peterson said.
Darnell Holt was a freshman at Willowbrook High School, and a member of the freshman football and wrestling teams, school officials said.
"He was a great young man. He was a well-respected student. This is going to be a very difficult loss as we move forward," said Dan Krause, principal at Willowbrook High School.
Although it is an abbreviated school day because of final exams, Krause said there is support for students and staff who want to talk about the loss.
"Our crisis team is in the building. They're meeting with students as needed," he said.
Kyle Rushing, 14, a freshman at Willowbrook High School and a friend of Darnell’s, said he learned about the fire from his basketball coach this afternoon.
“Everyone (on the team) was shocked,” he said. “It got quiet. We just started to pray for him.
“I haven’t seen him in a while because we were on break,” he added. “I was looking forward to seeing my friends again, and then this happened. It’s just heartbreaking.
He was a loving and caring person. He always wanted to be best at everything that he would do.”
He said Darnell was a very good athlete.
Darnell's brother Daniel was a seventh grader at Albright Middle School.
"He was a well-liked student," said District 48 Supt. John Correll, said of the younger boy. "He was friendly and cheerful. People are taking this pretty hard."
Correll said the district has arranged for counselors to be on hand today and tomorrow.
A neighbor said the victims "were a quiet family, nice people."
"They lived there for three years and were renters," said Ann Bendera, who lives next door to the home.
Bendera said she would often see the children playing in the front yard with the family dog. [What happened to the dog?]
Around 7:15 a.m. today, she heard sirens but figured they were going to a hospital nearby. But then she saw the fire trucks and opened the door and saw black smoke everywhere.
"When I heard they died, I thought, oh my God," she said.
Tribune reporter Erin Meyer and freelance reporter Joseph Ruzich contributed to this story.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]
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