Anthony Rapoport Beat Aunt To Death With Baseball Bat On Christmas, Police Say

A Wilmette man beat his aunt to death with a baseball bat Saturday because he was tired of being "nagged" by his relative, police said Monday.

About 4 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a possible homicide at 3115 Hill Lane in the northern suburb, according to a release from the Wilmette police department. There, police found 49-year-old Nancee Rapoport unconscious with severe head trauma. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from her injuries.

A man on the scene told police that his nephew, 24-year-old Anthony Rapoport, called him and said he had killed someone inside the home before fleeing the scene.

Officers found Anthony Rapoport a short time later with blood on his clothing, and he "admitted to striking the victim about the head with an aluminum baseball bat," according to the release.

The department had responded to the Rapoport residence on Christmas Eve as well, after the man and his aunt had an argument about doughnuts. He was arrested that day on an outstanding warrant for an aggravated assault case in Skokie, but posted bond Christmas morning and returned to the residence where he allegedly murdered his aunt.

"The motive for the homicide appears to be the culmination of a series of ongoing minor disputes between the two parties," police said in a release.

After his arrest, Rapoport told investigators he was tired of being "nagged" by the victim.

Rapoport's bond was set at $8 million during a Monday afternoon hearing.

Comments

[nrold92]

04:58 PM on 12/31/2010

I have known the grandparents for many years. They are wonderful, generous people that have given all of their love to their children and grandchildren. Hershel and Celeste raised Anthony and Brittany. Also, their sons were adopted. There is no blood relati

[ConservativeCapitalist]

10:36 PM on 12/30/2010

This seems like the perfect candidate for capital punishment if he is found guilty. I certainly don't want to pay for someone to be in jail their whole lives and someone who commits a crime that heinous should never be released.

[jsgaetano]

06:00 PM on 12/30/2010

after the man and his aunt had an argument about doughnuts.

Well hey, at least he had a good reason for killing the victim.  Maybe he can get the same judge as the guy who murdered someone because their dog peed on his lawn.

[Cpt Obvious]

03:47 AM on 12/30/2010

"he was tired of being "nagged" by the victim."

I hear ya, brother...

[SweetJudith]

04:31 PM on 12/29/2010

What a Merry Christmas!!!!

[boomcat44]

02:56 PM on 12/29/2010

I don't know why I read things like this.
It just makes me want to take my own bat and just wail away on the guy's head.
This guy is a waste of human skin.

[PMJ79]

04:36 PM on 12/29/2010

@boomcat44:

Violence begets violence. Hate begets hate. If you wailed away on that guy's head, what would you become for doing it? Would you become just like Anthony or worse?

[boomcat44]

07:20 PM on 12/29/2010

What would I become?
I don't know if happy would be the right word.
It'd be close though.
I know what you're trying to say, but that doesn't change the way I feel.
Not saying it's right or wrong, or even very smart.
I'm just saying that's the way I feel.

[jsgaetano]

06:01 PM on 12/30/2010

Violence begets violence. Hate begets hate.

Are you quoting Yoda?

[SweetJudith]

04:45 PM on 12/29/2010

Yes! Human excrement!

[HankyJoe]

10:13 AM on 12/29/2010

Wow. Dysfunction Junction.

[Greenchicago]

11:05 PM on 12/28/2010

I live in this neighborhood and know about this family. It is very sad and tragic. Anthony was abandoned by his drug abusing parents and raised in that house by his grandparents who were also supporting their two criminal sons and their addictions. The police know this family well because of the drugs,theft and violence that the boy and his sister grew up with. Nice role models. These kids were stealing and doing drugs from a very young age. Everyone in that family is deeply disturbed even the poor aunt who only lived there because she had nowhere else to go and was also an addict. Who let this boy slip through group home and then juvenill court and then the regular court system? Neighbors on this street have complained for at least 15 years about this family being trouble. There are many people who should feel guilty about this murder.

[davesf]

03:40 PM on 12/29/2010

True, but only one of them hit someone in the head with a baseball bat.

[ebanks84]

08:13 PM on 12/28/2010

I wonder if he'll get tired of being nagged by his cell mates as well. I think he's got a lot of nagging coming for sure.

[ebanks84]

08:17 PM on 12/28/2010

What are you talking about?

[ebanks84]

08:26 PM on 12/28/2010

Never mind. I checked what you said and I'm shocked. I never new those things about this group of people and I lived around those people most of my life in Brooklyn, NY. Since I'm not into religion, it's a "no wonder" I don't know anything about them. This is shocking to say the least.

[something really stinks]

05:20 PM on 12/28/2010

Never nag someone on happy pills.

[dblan9]

11:33 AM on 12/28/2010

Aunts? Who has a problem with Aunts?
After the Holidays I would suspect a story about Mother-in-law's.

[jungpatawan]

09:37 AM on 12/28/2010

A few more facts to the case:
 
The outstanding Skokie warrant was for an alleged October assault on a nurse and a hospital security guard at Skokie Hospital.
He'd been arrested and hospitalized at Cook County Jail (not sure for what, psych eval maybe?) after threatening to kill Nancee in August but the charges were dropped.
The Christmas Eve disturbance was over some donuts he failed to buy, or got the wrong kind.
The family pled for him to be released for Christmas.
The cops were called BACK to the scene because he hid her cell phone and tried to inappropriately kiss and touch her. 
Right after they left he beat her to death.  His grandfather, who also lived there, witnessed him hit her twice.
Anthony tried to plant a knife to fake self-defense.
Her estranged husband is actually his blood uncle (his father's brother) and related to Nancee only through that marriage, but he called her his mom and she referred to him as her son.
At the time of his bar mitzvah, Anthony was living in a group home for disturbed kids.
 
Said a neighbor:  "I am shocked, but I'm not shocked. There was a lot of dysfunction over there."
 
A lot of red flags, a lot of failures. 
 
Sad.

[Aldyth]

09:26 AM on 12/28/2010

Wonder how he feels about being nagged by prison guards when he ends up in Stateville for life.

[dems08]

08:47 AM on 12/28/2010

red flags for years...

living in a group home for "disturbed kids" at 13

convicted of disorderly conduct as a juvenile

In 2004, age 18, pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced to 31/2 years in prison

Aug. 26, charged with assault after threatening to kill his aunt, charges were dropped

Oct. 14, charged with misdemeanor aggravated assault and battery accused of kicking a nurse, punching one security guard and threatening another

Christmas Eve and Christmas Da, police called to mediate arguments between nephew and aunt