The Illicit List: Crime and Craigslist

George Webber

George Weber, 47 was found dead in his apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on Sunday, March 22, 2009. The freelance journalist had been stabbed 50 times in his brownstone apartment at 561 Henry Street.

He'd been a newscaster at WABC on a number of shows for over 12 years, including one hosted by Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and civil rights lawyer Ron Kuby, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg's show. In February 2008 he had been laid off, but he continued to work for ABC News Radio as a freelance anchor. He had finagled a radio job in his hometown of Doylestown, Penn., when he was just 16, and later worked in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver before moving to New York.

John Katehis, of East Elmhurst, Queens, was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon on March 25, 2009. He had been arrested the night before at a bus depot in Middleton, N.Y. Herb Moses, the young man's public defender, suggests that he may have been "used" by the older man.

Erotic Services ad from craigslist.com

Police say Katehis answered Weber's Craigslist ad. They believe the plan had been that Weber would pay Katehis for sex. Weber allegedly was looking for someone to choke him, and for oral sex. Weber and Katehis arranged to meet Wednesday, then rescheduled for Friday.

That day, shortly after 6:00 p.m., Katehis allegedly entered Weber's Henry Street apartmentand killed him.

Katehis told police that after the pair indulged in cocaine and vodka, Weber attacked him with a knife. Police say that Katehis duct-taped Weber's legs and that Weber tried to free himself with the knife, rather than using it to attack Katehis. Wounds on Weber's hands showed he tried to fight off his attacker.

The autopsy shows Weber was stabbed in the head and neck, and multiple times throughout the torso.