David Edward Maust - Crimes

Crimes

In 1974 while stationed in Germany he killed a 13 year old boy, James McClister, the child of American expatriates, and was court-martialed and convicted of manslaughter and larceny (he claimed that the boy's death was the result of an accident on a moped which he had stolen.) He was sentenced to four years of prison at Fort Leavenworth. Maust requested not to be paroled, but was released in 1977 despite his wishes.

In 1979 in his apartment in Chicago Maust stabbed a friend in his apartment while he was sleeping. He was tried for attempted murder.

In 1981 Maust decided to find and kill the 13-year-old who had molested him at the children's home. He was unable to find the boy, encountered 15 year-old Donald Jones and decided to kill him instead. Jones was eventually drowned in an Elgin quarry.

In Texas the same year Maust stabbed a young man, was arrested, and sentenced to 5 years for “causing bodily injury to a child.”

In 1982, while in jail in Texas, Maust was extradited to Illinois for the Jones murder. A Cook County sheriff's police officer wrote on a cover sheet of the extradition papers sent to Texas: "Bad Guy. Gacey Type." Originally found unfit to stand trial, he was held in mental health facilities. Ultimately, after those hospitalizations and roughly ten years in jail awaiting trial, Maust pled guilty in 1994 and got 35 years. However, he got credit for the 12 years he was held and time off for good behavior; thus he served 17 years altogether and got out in 1999. A fact sheet sent to the Illinois Department of Corrections by the Cook County state's attorney's office after this conviction said, "This inmate is most likely the most dangerous inmate you will house." The prosecutor urged that Maust be kept incarcerated, but under the law, Maust was eligible for this early release. He himself wished to stay under supervised custody and wrote a letter requesting this. His letter was ignored.

In 2001 Maust hit an acquaintance 6 times in the back of the head with a metal pipe in another attempted murder, but he was not prosecuted because the acquaintance, although he reported the incident to police, did not want to pursue prosecution.

On 12 December 2003 Maust was arrested for the strangling death of James Ragyani, 16. Ragyani's body was found encased in concrete in Maust's basement in Hammond, Indiana. He was later charged with the deaths of Michael Dennis, 13, and Nick James, 19, similarly wrapped in plasted and encased in concrete. In November 2005 he pled guilty for the three murders and was sentenced to three life terms.