Jack D. Richardson, 49, a man from Alabama, was beaten to death on the night of Friday, January 11, 2019, in the first block of East Ida B. Wells Drive, formerly Congress Parkway, in downtown Chicago. The Sun-Times described the area as the South Loop; the tracker places it in the Loop community area. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office, Richardson was in an "altercation" with a man at 9:50 p.m. when he was struck multiple times. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died. An autopsy released the next day found he died from multiple blunt force injuries suffered during an assault, and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.
No one was in custody, police said. They did not release a description of the man he fought with, say what the altercation was about, say whether the man used a weapon or say whether anyone else was involved.
No arrest was announced, no reward tied to his case could be found, and no follow-up story about the investigation appears to have been published. Downtown streets are watched by many public and private cameras, but no images were released to the public.
Almost nothing is known publicly about who Jack Richardson was or why he was in Chicago that night. The reports do not say whether he was visiting, working, passing through or had recently moved to the city, and no obituary or memorial could be found. Jack Richardson is also a common name; searches are dominated by a celebrated Canadian record producer and many others who shared it, which buries any trace of the Alabama man who died downtown. His family in Alabama may have learned of his death from far away, with few ways to follow the case.
The first block of East Ida B. Wells Drive lies at the south end of the Loop, between State Street and Wabash Avenue, among hotels, college buildings, the Harold Washington Library Center and the elevated train tracks. Even at 10 p.m. on a winter Friday, the area has pedestrians, students, hotel guests, bus riders and drivers. Anyone walking there that night may have seen the fight or the man who walked away from it.
Chicago recorded about 500 homicides in 2019, down from about 580 the year before. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides that year, though that figure counts cases closed without charges. Stabbings and beatings drew far less attention than the shootings that dominated the city's headlines, and many of them were reported in a few lines and never mentioned again.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jack Richardson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 7 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near State Street, Wabash Avenue or Ida B. Wells Drive on the night of January 11, 2019, who saw a fight there, or who knew Jack Richardson during his time in Chicago may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
