The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is said to have begun when Mrs. Catherine O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern while being milked. The conflagration resulted in approximately three-hundred fatalities. Ever since, Chicago and fire have been inexorably linked.

Just over a century later, a much smaller fire in the Midwest metropolis soon became etched in Chicago lore in an entirely different manner.

At nearly 9:00 p.m. on the evening of February 21, 1977, firemen were dispatched to a large apartment complex on Pine Grove Avenue in the city’s Lincoln Park section. They found the blaze confined to a suite on the fifteenth-floor. Inside apartment 15B they made a macabre discovery: beneath a burning mattress and a pile of clothes lay the nude body of a woman with a butcher knife entrenched in her chest.

The victim was identified as the apartment’s occupant, forty-seven-year-old Teresita Basa, the daughter of a wealthy Filipino family had lived in America for approximately a decade. She worked as a respiratory therapist at the now defunct Edgewater Hospital.

Teresita Basa’s manner of death was an all too common occurrence in Chicago where violent crime is rampant. The manner by which her killer was identified, however, was anything but common.

The murder of Teresita Basa has long been a closed case, but the means by which it was solved still defies logic.

Teresita Basa

 

Ruth Loeb, a friend from the hospital, had phoned Teresita at roughly 7:30 p.m. The women chatted for about twenty minutes, during which time Teresita mentioned a male friend was coming to her apartment, but she did not specify whom.

Neighbors Marid and Katherine Knazze detected smoke coming from Teresita’s apartment at approximately 8:40 p.m. They alerted janitor Petro Lulusa, who summoned the firemen.

Crime Scene Photographs

Responders determined the fire had been intentionally set in an attempt to cover up the murder. It had destroyed any physical evidence which may have been left by the killer.

Crime Scene Photograph

Teresita’s boyfriend was initially considered the prime suspect because the two frequently fought, but he was ultimately cleared. The break in the case began five months later following a most unusual contention.

Chicago police were certain the bizarre call they received in July 1977 was either a crank or that the caller was not dealing with a full deck. They were, however, desperate for leads. As outlandish as the claim sounded, and because the caller, Dr. Jose Chua, (identified in some articles as Joe Chua), was a respected professional, they were not so quick to dismiss.

Dr. Chua, a surgical assistant at Chicago’s Franklin Boulevard Community Hospital, claimed his wife, “Remibias” (Remy), was having visions and dreams in which she spoke to him in a voice different from her own.

Like Teresita Basa, the Chuas had emigrated from the Philippines Dr. Chua said that his wife’s normal voice did not have an accent, but that she had spoken in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines, in her hypnotic state. In so doing, she identified herself as Teresita Basa, and informed him she had been murdered. Friends confirmed Teresita spoke with a noticeable accent.

Dr. Chua contended his wife, apparently communicating as Teresita, told him to tell the police a man named Allan Showery was her killer. Dr. Chua said he did not initially do so because his wife had no recollection of the occurrence when she awoke. He had never met Teresita Basa, nor did he know about her murder. He attributed the incident to Remy’s fatigue.

Shortly thereafter, however, as Remy was again sleeping, Dr. Chua said “Teresita” returned and this time insisted he go to the police. Still believing his wife was having a combination of a bad dream and a hallucination, the doctor responded by saying he had no evidence to give them. He says “Teresita” then reiterated that Allan Showery was her killer and added he had taken her jewelry and given it to his girlfriend.

When Remy awoke, she again had no recollection of the incident, but she confirmed to her husband that an Edgewater Hospital employee named Teresita Basa had recently been murdered and that Allan Showery was an orderly at the hospital.

Remy had also previously worked at Edgewater Hospital as, like Teresita, a respiratory therapist. She recalled meeting Teresita during an orientation session at the hospital two years earlier, but said they worked different shifts and that she did not know her well.

Remy and Jose Chua

 

Police may have dismissed the incidents if the name Allan Showery had not been mentioned. In their search of Teresita Basa’s apartment, they found a notepad with the words “Get Theater Tickets for A.S.” They initially did not think it was a valuable clue, but it now became of utmost importance.

Friends said Teresita generously tipped the financially strapped thirty-one-year-old orderly for helping her with errands and small tasks. He had mentioned he was coming to her apartment that evening to fix her television set and had told coworkers that Teresita was getting her tickets for a show. Several people recalled seeing him at the theater shortly after Teresita’s murder.

Showery lived only a few blocks from Teresita. Under questioning, he confirmed he went to Teresita’s apartment but claimed he returned home after not having the tools to fix the television. He denied killing her and said he did not pilfer any of her jewelry.

Allan Showery

Yanka Kalmuk, Showery’s pregnant girlfriend, however, told police he had recently given her two pieces of jewelry, calling them a late Christmas present.After she agreed to let Teresita’s friends and family view the gems, they confirmed the pearl ring and jade pendant were Teresita’s. The jewelry had been purchased in France years earlier and had previously belonged to her mother.

Furthermore, Yanka told police her boyfriend was hardly a handyman, saying he could not fix anything.

While he was in Teresita Basa’s apartment, investigators came to believe that they only thing Allan Showery used his hands for was to put a butcher knife through her chest.

Teresita’s Stolen Jewelry

When confronted with the evidence, Allan Showery confessed to the murder of Teresita Basa. He said he noticed the jewelry while at her apartment and formulated a plan to rob her. He said he returned to the apartment and Teresita let him in after he told her he had retrieved the tools to fix her television set.

When Teresita turned to lock the door, he grabbed her from behind and attacked her. He said he lost control of his emotions and killed her. He disrobed her to make it look like a sexual crime and then placed her bedroom mattress over her body, and set it on fire.

 

Showery Comes Clean

Showery, however, later retracted his confession and pled not guilty to the murder of Teresita Basa.

At his trial, Showery’s lawyer, William Swano, suggested Remy Chua had faked her trances because of a grudge against Showery. The defense argued Remy had a grudge against Showery. She had recently been fired from the Edgewater Hospital and suspected Showery of having denigrated her work performance to her bosses, and she believed he had made several prank phone calls to her residence.

 

These suggestions, along with the jury being confused by the so-called ghost evidence, led to a mistrial.

 

 

An Interesting Headline

As prosecutors were preparing to retry Showery, he had a pleasant surprise for them. On February 23, 1979, he plead guilty to murder and arson. In exchange, he received only a fourteen year sentence and was paroled in July 1983 after serving just under five years.

A Light Sentence

Showery most likely pled guilty on the advice of his lawyers in the hopes of receiving a lenient sentence.

Given as to how suspicion was first cast upon him, however, some cannot help but wonder if the ghost of Teresita Basa returned to order him to plead guilty to her murder.

Did Her Spirit Name Her Killer?

Dead people are said to vote often in Chicago. Are some spirits of the departed, on occasion, doing more than casting ballots in the Windy City?

One For The Books

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205142201/teresita-basa 

 

SOURCES:

• Center for Paranormal Studies
• Chicago Tribune
• “Houses of Horror” by Richard Winer
• Unsolved Mysteries