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Yesterday afternoon, a relative discovered the bodies of Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother in their Chicago home. Both died from gunshot wounds. The Chicago police have a suspect in custody--William Balfour, who is believed to be married to Hudson's older sister Julia--but have not charged him with any crime yet. And Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, son of Julia Hudson, is missing; authorities have issued an Amber alert for him. Balfour is currently on parole, after serving time for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking, and receiving stolen property; his mother told reporters, "My son had nothing to do with this... and I'm very upset with the police because they are refusing to let me see my son." The Chicago police are reportedly investigating whether a dispute over a car led to the killings (Julia Hudson has a photograph on her MySpace page, noting that "William bitch ass sold my car").
Jennifer Hudson's Mother, Brother Murdered; Suspect in Custody
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It's the same media that NEVER mentioned Muslims' hatred of Israel as a possible motive for 9/11.
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Who's Jennifer Hudson? Never heard of her.
The myspace picture caption says SOLD, not STOLE.
mo money, mo problemz
I lived in Chicago for a number of years, and it's not at all surprising that this has happened. This is a *daily* occurrence in that ghastly pit of a city. Everything is corrupt there, from the lowest paid meter maid (crack and speed dealers--gotta pay the rent) all the way up to the mayor, who allows the police department to pretty much do whatever the hell they want, including putting bullets into teenagers for hopping turnstiles on the L.
So once in a while a famous person is involved in one way or another in yet another Chicago murder scene. That's just statistics. A thing that happens a few times every single day of the year is bound to hit the life of a person in the limelight now and again.
I wonder how the victims of all of the other ones are going to feel when they see how much attention Jennifer Hudson gets over her tragedy.
Woo, quick typo correction!
@RatherBe--thanks for pointing it. Fixed.
@yttrz--it is sad that when the relative of someone famous is killed, there's more attention. But I guess one hope is that police will continue to step up its efforts to stop crime. The Chicago police just released the stats that so far, they had more murders than NYC or LA, in spite of being much smaller. If that's not a wake-up call, I don't know what is.
How is she famous? Who the fuck is she?
A shame what happened to her family, but she's a nobody.
Wow...the Gothamist commenters are really heartless and disgusting.
Unlike NYC Chicago hasn't managed to kick all its poor people out yet.
Further this murder sounds like a domestic issue not a robbery or something like that.
But our police force is underfunded, understaffed and completely mismanaged.
With the economy in shambles I hope this crime highlites just how out of control the murder rate has gotten here.
Keep in mind, however, that our murder is one half what it was 15 years agom but, still, this is a shame.
Give me a break. If you never heard of her, she's not famous? Talk about conceit. I suppose you know everybody who's anybody. Makes you sound really jealous. It doesn't take much effort to check IMDb and see she won an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls. I've never seen the movie and don't want to, but even I've heard of her. And, no, I don't watch Entertainment Tonight or Extra or read People.
"A shame what happened to her family, but she's a nobody. "
I wonder if this person was holding their Oscars while typing.
Dreamgirls was that stripper movie, right?
Honestly, I feel for this girl, but my beef is with the media, who probably wouldn't have paid much attention to her if the story wasn't so "juicy". If it was something minor, they wouldn't put such emphasis on her being a "star". They don't even CALL people like Tom Cruise stars, because the people who really are stars....are already known as stars and they don't need the media to teach the people that "this person is a star".
If she was a STAR, we wouldn't have to be told she was. It's proof that the media is just capitalizing on this. Beyond that, I honestly was just trying to see who she was.
I hope they find the kid. :-/
Spiritof76, eat a dick! Just kidding. I actually tried to email you about a comment last week I think, and was disappointed when I realized that Gothamist has no communication tools. Geigh.
Is this the community that Obama organized?
The first rule of media:
If it bleeds, it leads.
It's always been that way just see Lizzie Borden and Jack the Ripper. The Grub-Street Journal was publishing grisly crime reports in the 1730's.
It's akin to the can't look away from a car accident cliche, human beings secretly love to hear about others getting the shaft. Sick and scary, but the nature of the beast.
[14] No, Dreamgirls was not about strippers. Good grief. Get thee to IMDb. You have enough time to type long rants but not enough to check that for a mere minute.
Who called her a "star"? Point out one mention of that. The stories never said she was anything other than a singer-actress who won an Oscar, a story made more interesting because she previously washed out of American Idol. Look up any news story on Tom Cruise and they all identify him as an actor. Ditto for stories about Angelina Jolie. That's basic journalism. You just had an itch to bash someone who has more fame than you personally think they deserve, hence your kneejerk reactions like "she's nobody."
As for your "just kidding," no, you're not. I know a minimizer phrase when I read one.
Honestly, I was really kidding. I am actually a fan of you and your posts here. I don't pull punches, and I'll let you know if I mean it. I have no beef with you, Spirit.
As for "star" references, I've been seeing it all over the news on TV (yesterday was the first day in a while that I watched TV, hence my being out of touch), and all the networks seemed to be trying to convince us that she's a star. If I notice it in print, I'll linky dink.
Uh...she's an Oscar winner.
I think a best Supporting Actress Oscar labels you a star. She was also on American Idol, was in the Sex and the City movie (albeit a minor role), currently has the #1 R&B single on Billboard, is starring in the Secret Life of Bees, and is about to release an album. She's a star on the way up.
Regardless of the fame aspect, any time two people are murdered and a child is missing, it is a horrible tragedy for those involved.
Unlike NYC Chicago hasn't managed to kick all its poor people out yet.
There's still a lot of poor and "under-employed" people in New York. You don't have to look hard to find them. The difference is our police force is more effective and we have more affluent people living in the city as opposed to Chicago where most affluent & influential people escape to the suburbs when they leave work.
What a tragedy! I can't imagine what she must be going through right now. If I found out that my mother and one of my siblings were murdered, I'd be going out of my mind.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Jennifer Hudson and her family.
She is a star and a superb talent and she didn't deserve this -nobody deserves this. I felt sick when I read about this crime and the first thing I thought was that it was probably over nothing. The worst crimes usually are. I hope the man in custody is the right guy: it would be nice if people in Chicago could sleep tonight.
Why is this on Gothamist? Shouldn't Chicagoist be taking care of it?
that women was half beast,half amazing. such a sad storiez