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Illinois Not Immune to Highway Killings

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 5, 2010 9:30PM

Probably not the wisest thing to post this so soon after a running diversion featuring a creepy clown, but this is probably the most left-field story we've seen all day.

An article in this morning's USA Today on the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative notes that 459 murders and 41 attempted murders have happened along the nation's highways in the past four decades. The USA Today piece also contains a handy interactive map breaking down the killings by state. 18 murders have occurred along Illinois highways.

The victims, often prostitutes, are picked up in one state and found in another. The FBI also notes that many of the murders go unsolved. Finally, from the "reinforcing the cliche" file, the FBI has a list of 200 suspected murderers, almost all of them long haul truckers.

Makes you want to think twice about hitchhiking, doesn't it?