Career
Active in the Midwest, before his death he confessed to 21 other homicides of young men and boys in the 1980s in five separate states. While awaiting execution, Eyler died in 1994 of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome complications. His defense attorney Kathleen Zellner released his list of victims.
After being charged with the 1982 murder of Steven Agan, 23, in that city, Eyler confessed to authorities in a plea bargain.
Eyler was believed to be involved in additional murders of young men during the next two years. Two of Eyler"s victims, who were discovered in 1983 in Newton and Jasper counties, Indiana, are unidentified as of 2016.
Daniel Bridges was a 15-year-old boy whose dismembered body was discovered on August 21, 1984 in a garbage dumpster in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago"s far North Side. One of 12 children in his family, Bridges earned money as a male prostitute while still attending high school.
Eyler was charged with murder, aggravated kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
He was convicted in July 1986 of Bridges" murder and sentenced to death. At the time of Eyler"s death from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, he was awaiting his execution. He was represented by attorney Kathleen Zellner, who had made an appeal disputing the conviction in the Bridges" murder.
This was pending in the Illinois Supreme Court.
The appeal maintained that one of Eyler"s trial lawyers, David Shippers, had a conflict of interest as he had received $16,875 from a prosecution witness, Robert David Little. Little and Eyler had long been associated.
Eyler had claimed that Little was the one who had killed Bridges. After Eyler"s death, Zellner confirmed that she would proceed with filing the appeal to clarify various legal issues.
The book Freed to Kill (1990) explored Eyler"s potential connection to multiple murders and missing young men in Indiana and Illinois, resulting in investigations being reopened in several jurisdictions.
After Eyler"s death, his defense attorney Kathleen Zellner revealed the names of 17 males whom Eyler had confessed to murdering and four whom he said were murdered by an unidentified accomplice. That person was later revealed to be Robert David Little, an older college professor and longtime associate. According to Zellner, Eyler had made the list of victims around three years before his death, in an effort to obtain a plea bargain.
The prosecutors did not agree to the plea bargain.
Later, Eyler allowed his lawyer to release the list.