Joseph Robert Miller

As of June 2022, Miller is still alive and is currently serving his sentence at the Dixon Correctional Center in Dixon.

In 2004, Miller contacted the Cook County Prosecutor's Office and claimed responsibility for the murders of 18-year-old Valarie Sloan and 25-year-old Stacey Morrison, who had disappeared from Peoria in 1993. He provided authorities with a supposed burial site, but no human remains were located and his confessions were eventually dismissed as bogus. Representatives of the Prosecutor's Office later stated their belief that another offender, Arlie Ray Davis, was the true culprit, and that Miller had confessed simply to bring attention to himself. Nevertheless, he has never been officially ruled out as a suspect in the murders, which remain unsolved.

After his conviction, Miller was transferred to the Menard Correctional Center's death row to await execution. In 2002, citing the numerous miscarriages of justice in death penalty cases, Governor George Ryan imposed a moratorium on the death penalty and commuted all of the inmates' sentences to life imprisonment without parole. The state completely abolished the death penalty in 2011.

After serving the minimum term required, Miller applied for parole. Taking into account his good conduct and his physical condition, he was deemed rehabilitated and his petition was granted. Miller was paroled in April 1993 and, on the advice of the prison chaplain, moved to a nursing home in Peoria. During his stay there, he was considered a friendly, talkative and energetic person who regularly attended church with other residents. In his free time, Miller wandered on the streets of Peoria and sought work as a day laborer for additional financial income.

In late August 1993, he was hired to do some repairs to the home of 88-year-old Bernice Fagotte. A few weeks later, police were informed by a newspaper deliveryman that Fagotte had not picked up her weekly newspaper or her mail for a few weeks. After interviewing neighbors, relatives and acquaintances, the authorities realized that the woman was missing. At around the same time, the bodies of three women were found in a drainage ditch on the outskirts of Peoria, with all of them in various stages of decomposition. Their identities were eventually established as 34-year-old Marcia Logue and 26-year-old Helen Dorrance, whose bodies were found on September 18, and 42-year-old Sandra L. Csesznegi, whose body was found on September 26.

On September 23, Fagotte's Oldsmobile was found abandoned in the parking lot of a home near the nursing home where Miller resided. Because of his criminal record, he came under suspicion and was questioned by police on September 29. With his permission, officers were allowed to search his apartment and the interior of his car, whereupon he was taken to the local police station. After detectives read his Miranda rights, the interview began, with Miller claiming that he had nothing to do with any of the crimes. Shortly afterwards, during a search of Fagotte's car, authorities located a knife which had Miller's fingerprints on it. When presented with this, he admitted that it indeed belonged to him, but claimed to have dropped it while driving. Skeptical of his claims, prosecutors later charged Miller with burglary and arrested him in October 1993.

After his conviction, Miller was transferred to serve his sentence at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton. During his internment, he participated in sex offender rehabilitation programs and earned a reputation as a model prisoner. In the mid-1980s, he suffered a severe leg injury that left him physically disabled, due to which he was obliged to a disability pension from the state.

On October 25, 1977, 31-year-old convicted prostitute Martha Ryan, also known as Martha E. Kowalski, was reported missing from Chicago. After interviewing witnesses, police learned that Ryan was last seen in the company of an unknown young man driving an orange Chevrolet Vega. Eight days later, her body, which was wrapped up in a blanket, was found in some bushes outside a liquor store in Skokie, not far from Miller's home.

Due to the fact he and his car matched the description of the man last seen in Ryan's company, Miller was brought to the police station for interrogation. On the following day, Skokie police discovered the body of 22-year-old Ann Iecile Maxham, who had multiple convictions for prostitution. While investigating her killing, officers were approached by a prostitute who claimed to have known the victim, claiming that both Miller and his wife, Marsha, frequently used their services and that she herself had been in their company on several occasions. On the basis of this testimony, Miller was arrested and charged with the two murders on November 5, 1977.

While he was in custody, police obtained a search warrant for Miller's apartment and car, discovering evidence that implicated in an armed robbery in Skokie; a kidnapping in Cook County and aggravated battery in DuPage County. He was also the prime suspect in several other murders dating back to October 1976.

Between the late 1960s and 1977, he was arrested a total of 11 times on charges such as theft, carjacking and sexual assault, but would always get away with a short stint in prison after accepting plea deals from the prosecutors. In the early 1970s, Miller left Chicago and lived in various locations including the cities of Bloomington and Waukegan, and even the state of Virginia. By 1977, he had permanently settled in Skokie, where he had married a local woman and worked as a pizza delivery man.

Joseph Robert Miller (born Joseph Robert Tarczon; January 15, 1955) is an American serial killer and rapist who raped and killed at least six women in Chicago and Peoria, Illinois from 1977 to 1993. He was convicted of these crimes the following year and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Joseph Robert Tarczon was born on January 15, 1955 in Illinois, but was abandoned at an orphanage shortly after his birth. A few years later, he was adopted by a married couple from Chicago, the Millers, who changed his surname to match theirs. His adoptive parents proved to be very strict and frequently beat him, leading the young Miller to develop anger issues and engage in petty crime from an early age.