Ed Sobolewski, a 29-year-old Polish immigrant, was shot in the back and killed on March 13, 1986, on Chicago’s Northwest Side. The killing drew major attention from the local Polish community and launched a lengthy investigation and prosecution.

Authorities identified taxi driver Joseph Geist, then an admitted member of the American Nazi Party, as the primary suspect. Ballistic testing linked bullets from Sobolewski’s murder to Geist’s firearm, and witnesses helped place Geist at the center of the case. Prosecutors said Geist killed again three days after Sobolewski’s death and that he had previously been charged with attempted murder for a 1985 shooting at a bookstore manager.

Geist, described at trial as a killer who murdered for the sake of killing, was found fit to stand trial, convicted of Sobolewski’s murder and originally sentenced to death; a judge later vacated that sentence and imposed life without parole. Did anyone who knew Ed or who lived on the Northwest Side in March 1986 see or hear anything that could still help clarify what happened?