SURVIVOR STORIES
LARRY MCGEE
Larry McGee
Framed and tortured by two of “Chicago’s Finest,” Michael McDermott and James Boylan*1
Larry McGee was convicted of two separate crimes at separate trials. First, for a home invasion, robbery, and attempted murder of a child that took place on August 31, 1993, and then for an earlier carjacking and murder that happened on May 11, 1993. In both cases Detectives Michael McDermott and James Boylan were the principal investigators. McDermott is a self-confessed torturer of suspects*2 and Boylan has documented involvement in five other cases of alleged torture of suspects*3
In the May 11 crime a black Nissan Pathfinder and its driver, Tedrin West, were carjacked and West was killed. McGee was alleged to be one of the carjackers that took West’s car, robbed him, took him to a deserted area and killed him in cold blood. In the August 31st home invasion a group physically broke into the home of Lula and Ivory Dross, stole their possessions and attempted to kill Raven Davis, their eleven-year-old granddaughter and a witness to the crime. In the Dross home invasion case the surviving child, Raven Davis testified against McGee. In both cases the principal witness against McGee was confessed participant, Robin Cherry, who was 12 years old at the time of the crimes and alleged that McGee, 19, was her boyfriend with whom she was angry over infidelity to her. Cherry has said since then that Detectives McDermott and Boylan told her to name McGee and others, or she’d be charged and tried as an adult for the crimes and get life in prison*4.
For Larry McGee it all seems to have started on June 5th, 1993, when he and his now deceased cousin were leaving the ChickPick House, a nightclub at 25th and Michigan, as it was closing. He saw Dwayne Bruce and man across the street leaning against Bruce’s car talking to some women. McGee knew Bruce from his neighborhood and asked him for a ride home. As McGee and his cousin were crossing the street an unmarked police car with three plainclothes officers drove past, super slow, sizing them up. McGee and his cousin just got into Bruce’s car, and they started home. At 26th and King Dr., seemingly out of nowhere, the same police car popped up and pulled Bruce over. The three detectives pulled everyone from the car and told them to lean against the trunk while they searched it. They found two handguns under the front seat.
The police charged Bruce and his friend with an illegal gun. McGee and his cousin were charged with criminal trespass in Bruce’s car and were released later that day. Bruce and his friend, however, went to Cook County jail. McGee thinks that his association with Bruce in a police file may have led to what followed.
Four months later, on December 13, 1993. McGee walked into Dunes fast-food restaurant across the street from the Ida B. Wells CHA complex at 39th and King Drive, where he lived. Five minutes later two Chicago police burst through the restaurant door with guns drawn. McGee knew both officers and asked the younger one what was going on.
He was told something had happened down the street and they were searching everyone they saw. He searched McGee and found nothing and then he walked over to Two men who had been playing a video game. One of them said he had a gun before he was searched. They found a small silver handgun in the man’s pocket.
McGee and the other two were handcuffed and put into the squad car and taken to the police station at 51st and Wentworth. There, they were placed in separate interrogation rooms. After about a half hour two detectives came into the room holding McGee. Instead of asking about the gun, they asked questions about a carjacking and armed robbery at 43rd and King Drive, in which the driver’s car and money were taken at gun point.
Of course, McGee knew nothing about all this. He suggested they test his clothes for gunpowder residue, but they declined. He was charged with the crime. They said the silver handgun was his. McGee was held in Cook County jail for over six months awaiting trial for the carjacking. On July 28, 1994, he was acquitted of that charge at a bench trial. One of the arresting officers testified they had mistakenly put the gun on McGee. He said they found the stolen car on 45th and State Street and McGee’s fingerprints weren’t found anywhere in or on it. Furthermore, the victim had said that the suspect had a very different gun.
But the die had been cast. While being held at 51st and Wentworth two detectives, Michael McDermott and James Boylan, came into his interrogation room. They said they were from Area Two on the far South Side. McDermott ask McGee if he knew a person on a picture he had. He did not. Then McDermott ask where he’d been on May 9th. He recalled that his son was born on May 8th and he was at Mercy Hospital with his newborn son, the mother, and her mother.
McDermott asked McGee if he knew Robert Seal. He didn’t recognize the name but when McDermott showed him another picture it was of a man they called “Hustle Man” in his neighborhood. McDermott asked him about two phone numbers, and the numbers belonged to people he knew.
McDermott said that the numbers had been called from McGee’s cell phone, one that he had bought from Hustle Man in 1993 for $50. McDermott asked him if he knew Dwayne Bruce, nickname “Dog.” He told him that he knew Bruce from the neighborhood at Ida B Wells.
McDermott then asked what McGee knew about a young girl getting shot while she slept, and McGee knew nothing about it. McDermott asked again if he was sure he didn't know the person on the first picture, whom he still didn’t know.
McGee asked McDermott what this was all about. McDermott said that he and his partner, Boylan, were investigating two crimes. In one two people were robbed and a young girl was shot while she slept. In the other a man was carjacked, robbed, and murdered. McDermott told McGee they knew he was involved in both crimes.
At this point McGee told McDermott that the conversation was over. As they were leaving McDermott stopped at the door, turned toward McGee, and said that they weren’t done with him.
Finally, on December 15, 1993, after two days at 51st and Wentworth, McGee was taken to Cook County Jail to await trial on the first carjacking case. This first interrogation was very important, because at McGee’s first and second trials McDermott denied ever having seen McGee prior to September, the next year. This lie could have been easily refuted by calling the two detectives that handled the bogus carjacking case. They were the ones who brought McDermott and Boylan into the interrogation room to question him.
Almost six months later, on September 2, 1994 at 4:00 in the morning, a correctional officer (CO) at the jail woke him up, saying he had court that morning. He knew he didn't have court and went right back to sleep. The CO and her Sergeant both came to his cell and showed him his name on the court list. So he got up and got in line.
At the next division a CO told him to step out of line and sit on a bench. Five minutes later the CO said, when he asked why he was still there, that the CPD had come to get him. He loudly told the CO he wasn't going anywhere with the police at 4:00 in the morning, and seconds later six other COs and a Lieutenant came running around the corner to see what the commotion was about. The Lieutenant said that it was out of his hands, so McGee asked to call his lawyer. They said the phone didn't come on until 7:00.
Ten minutes later he was taken from the jail, handcuffed by police, and put in a police van with several others. McDermott looked in and said, “Didn't we tell you that we'd be back?!” In about Twenty-five minutes they got to Area 2. When the van was opened McGee started yelling that he wanted his lawyer. Boylan quickly pulled him from out the line and put him into an interrogation room and handcuffed his right hand to the wall.
An hour later McDermott and Boylan came into the room. Before either could say anything, McGee asked for his lawyer again. He asked 8 to 10 times, and McDermott said he’s spoken with his lawyer and he wasn't coming. McGee asked to make a phone call and was refused.
McDermott then repeated to McGee what he’d told him in December at 51st and Wentworth, that a man had been robbed, shot, and killed, and a young girl had been shot while she slept out South. While McDermott continued to talk McGee kept asking for his lawyer and a phone call.
This went on for two days. Every time McDermott tried to talk McGee would talk over him and ask for his lawyer and phone call. He says he asked over 100 times, only to be ignored. After a while he started falling asleep while McDermott was talking, and McDermot would kick the leg of his chair to wake him up. Finally, McGee told him that he only knew what he'd been told by McDermott at 51st and Wentworth in December, that a man got robbed, shot, and killed by someone, and a young girl got shot while she slept. Then he closed his eyes.
McDermott had been sitting on the corner of the desk right in front of McGee. He was still talking while McGee’s eyes were closed, trying to go back to sleep. He heard the empty chair move and opened his eyes to see that McDermott had moved to the empty chair and was waving a black gun in his face, shouting, “You ain't tough now, huh? I should blow your damned head off like you all did the one kid, and just say that you tried to take our guns.” McGee felt then that he was as good as dead.
He looked at Boylan behind the desk, who’s laughing. Although his right hand was handcuffed to the wall McDermott's gun was so close to his face he says he could’ve touched it with his left. He believed he was about to die and thought about trying to take it the gun out of his hand, but McDermott said, “Go ahead and take it.” McDermott kept repeating they were going to kill him.
Suddenly, McGee said, someone knocked on the door. Boylan jumped up from behind the desk and ran to the door and held it close, and McDermott put his gun in an ankle holster under his pant leg. Then both detectives stepped outside to speak to whoever was it was that had knocked.
About five minutes later Boylan came back, unhandcuffed McGee’s right hand from the wall, and brought him out of the interrogation room. When he saw other people he started screaming for help. “They're trying to kill me in there,” he yelled. Everyone stopped what they were doing and McGee thought someone would do something, but no one said or did anything. Instead, they all laughed.
Boylan put him up in a lineup with five or six others, took their picture, and rushed him back to the interrogation room. He handcuffed McGee’s right hand to the wall again, and said, “You can scream all you want because no one here is going to help you.”
McGee told him that he needed to use the washroom. Boylan just laughed and walked out of the room. McGee urinated in the corner. About ten minutes later McDermott and Boylan both came back. When McDermott saw the floor was wet he asked, angrily, what was on the floor. McGee told him that he had asked Boylan about a bathroom and that he had just laughed.
McDermott told him he was charging McGee with both of the crimes because he knew too much about them.
McGee was at Area Two for 72 hours. During this encounter with McDermott and Boylan:
He never got to see a lawyer.
He never got to make a phone call.
He never got to use the bathroom.
He never got anything to eat.
He never answered any question except for what McDermott had told him at 51st and Wentworth in December the year before.
He never made any statement.
He never wrote anything down.
He never signed anything.
He never got any sleep.
In both cases Robin Cherry, a teenager who was admittedly heavily addicted to drugs and confessed to involvement in both crimes, named McGee and several others as accomplices, naming McGee as the mastermind that organized them and another defendant, Dwayne Bruce, as the shooter.
The Truth
At the time of these two crimes McGee owned a two-door yellow Chevrolet Blazer and a four-door gold box 1986 Chevy Capri. Raven Davis, who was eleven years old when someone attempted to kill her, testified three years later and said that McGee was there. She said that a red four-door Blazer the police found outside her family's home was McGee’s, because she’d seen McGee on 39th St driving a red four-door Blazer. This was miles from 622 E. 92nd Pl where the crime happened.
The red 4 door blazer police found outside of Ravens’ family home had two sets of fingerprints in it. Detectives never brought the two people who matched those prints in for questioning. McGee’s public defender, Deborah Grohs, asked McDermott why didn’t they bring them in and McDermott said they knew they already had the killers. McGee had never seen Raven Davis before she testified at his trial.
After Davis testified the EMT that had attended to Davis’ testified. Under cross examination by Grohs, she said that when she asked Raven who had done this to her Raven told her that she did not know because it was too dark inside her home when it happened.
Others confessed to these two crimes and have been out of prison for years. In the home invasion/attempted murder case they are Robin Cherry, Tamika Ward, and Troy Terrell. In the armed robbery/murder case they are Robin Cherry, Robert Earl Seal, Courtney Donelson, Kenny Mills, and Dwayne Bruce. All are free; Bruce was released in 2020.
Mr. McGee has maintained he had nothing to do with the murder and carjacking of Tedrin West. The only witness directly tying him to the crime, Robin Cherry, has admitted to falsely implicating others in this murder. She has admitted hostility towards Mr. McGee in particular, claiming he was an unfaithful lover.
West was shot and killed on May 11, 1993. Over a year later, in August 1994, Robin Cherry turned herself into the police and confessed to her involvement in the West murder and the home invasion of the Drosses. Cherry was the only eye-witness to testify at McGee's trial and she provided the only details of the shooting.
Cherry said she was testifying in Mr. McGee's trial based on an agreement she made with the State's Attorney’s Office. In exchange for implicating McGee and testifying against him and Bruce in the West murder and the Dross home invasion, the State agreed to charge Cherry with only two counts of robbery for her involvement in both.
Cherry testified that on the night of West’s murder, May 11, 1993, she was at a party with McGee, Bruce, Courtney Donelson, Kenny Mills, Troy Terrell, and several others. She said she left the party around 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. with McGee, Bruce, Donelson, Mills, and Robert Seals. She said McGee had suggested that they find someone to rob.
Cherry said they all left in a brown station wagon driven by McGee. They encountered Tedrin West's car, and she said they followed West's vehicle until he parked in front of a currency exchange and went inside.
According to Cherry, when West got back in his car McGee put his gun to the window and ordered West out of the car and then pushed him into the back. She said Bruce and Seals got in the front seats. Chery said she got back into the station wagon with Donelson and Mills, and drove around in both cars for several hours.
Finally, Cherry said, they came to a place where they stopped and McGee walked West from the car to a grassy area. Cherry said Bruce told West to lie down and then shot him in the head, while McGee was standing nearby. Next, according to Cherry, Mr. McGee got back in the station wagon with the others, while Seals alone drove West's car.
On the expressway Seals was driving the victim's car wildly, Cherry said, and police stopped it. She said Seals got out of the car and ran up an embankment, and she lost sight of him. The only usable fingerprint removed from Tedrin's car belonged to Robert Seals.
Cherry testified that after spending about a half hour at Planet Rock, she left with Mr. McGee and went to an apartment where she stayed for two weeks. She said that she stayed there so that she would not tell anyone what happened.
A CPD Officer Chester testified that about two months after the shooting, on June 5, 1993, he stopped a car for running a red light. Bruce was the driver of the vehicle and McGee was a back seat passenger. Chester found a loaded revolver in the front seat of car. The bullet that killed Westin matched the class characteristics of the gun found in Bruce's car, but there was no match of the individual characteristics. He said the bullet could have been fired from any similar .38 caliber gun. Millions of such guns exist.
Detective Michael McDermott testified that about a week after Cherry's confession, on September 2, 1994, he brought McGee into the station for questioning. McDermott said he confronted McGee with the phone calls made on Tedrin West's cellular phone after his murder. Mr. McGee responded that he bought the phone from Robert Seals and that he used it to make a couple of calls, but that the phone was turned off after a couple of days.
The jury found McGee guilty of first degree murder and armed robbery. Judge Vincent Gaughn sentenced McGee to an extended term of 100 years imprisonment for the murder, and a 6-year concurrent sentence for armed robbery. He ordered that these sentences be served after the sentence McGee had already received in the Dross home invasion case.
Conclusion
Larry McGee will be in prison at least until 2103, when he’ll be 129 years old. This is a life sentence. He was 19 when the crimes for which he was convicted were committed. The only witness against him was a woman who confessed to both crimes, who was 12 years old at the time, and who was never imprisoned.
Known torturer police detectives Michael McDermott and James Boylan tried unsuccessfully to get Larry McGee to confess to these crimes. They succeeded in getting Robin Cherry to name several others as accomplices in both crimes to which she confessed. She has since alleged that McDermott and Boylan threatened her with a life sentence unless she named the others.
*1 All that follows, except where otherwise noted, is from a handwritten account of events by Larry McGee, submitted to the CAARPR by U. S. Postal Service mail.
*2 McDermitt testified at the Federal perjury trial of he participated inn interrogation of with Jon Burge, who he said physically fought, threaten with a gun, and suffocate suspects in an effort to get confessions.
*3 Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, “[Torture] Detective Database”, https://www.caarpr.org/detectives
*4 See “People v. Bruce, 2020 IL App (1st) 180515,” Appellate Court Of Illinois First Judicial District Fifth Division.