Ex-Cop Accused In Dismemberment Plan Found Dead In Jail—Suicide Suspected

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 6, 2012 11:08PM

Steven Mandell, left, and Gary Engel are shown at their arraignment, Oct. 26, 2012. [Sketch credit: Lothar Speer (via WLS-TV screen grab)]

Gary Engel, one of two former police officers charged in a bizarre extortion and murder plot last month, was found dead in his McHenry County jail cell Monday. Suicide is suspected; Engel was found hanged by a bedsheet.

Engel, a former Willow Springs policeman was due in court at the Dirksen Federal Building today to be arraigned on charges he and ex-Chicago cop Steven Mandell conspired to abduct, extort, murder and dismember a local businessman in an office they called "Club Med" that housed a sink, counter, shower, and the necessary tools for the job. Engel and Manning (who also has gone under the aliases "Steven Manning" and "Etienne Duvalier") worked together before. Engel was sentenced to 90 years in prison for the 1984 kidnapping and extortion of a Kansas City Nightclub owner Mandell also helped to mastermind. Using the same defense Mandell used to have his conviction overturned, Engel was released from prison in 2010.