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By Robert Mitchum and Kristen Kridel, Tribune reporters Tribune reporters James Janega, Jeremy Gorne


Three of the men killed were family, lived together and, for the last 11 years, worked together at McCormick Place.
Otis Thomas labored at the convention center for 25 years, and he helped get jobs there for his son Otis Jolliff and the younger man's cousin Theodore Jolliff, both 28.
Hours after they were killed in a high-speed, apparently head-on crash on Chicago's Southwest Side that also killed a fourth man driving an oncoming car, a stream of men and women came to the family's front door and burst into tears as it opened. Several later eased Cheryl Jolliff Thomas into a car so she could identify the bodies of her husband, son and nephew.
The fatal crash on the 2700 block of West Columbus Avenue early Wednesday also left five others seriously injured, including the 20-month-old son of the driver of the oncoming car. Police said speeding played a role in the crash, and alcohol may have too.
As the precise factors were sorted out, officials identified the dead as the Jolliffs and Otis Thomas, 46, all of the 8100 block of South Sawyer Avenue, and Sir Albert Cole Sr., 20, of the 6100 block of South Richmond Street.
Cole was the driver of an eastbound Ford Crown Victoria that police say crossed the centerline with six people in it. The Jolliffs and Thomas were westbound in a Toyota Camry.
Three people -- a 23-year-old woman, a 21-year-old man, and 20-month-old Sir Albert Cole II -- were gravely injured and recovering at Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center late Wednesday, said family members and a police spokesman. A 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were being treated at Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police officials said.
The most critically injured victim appeared to be the 23-year-old woman at Mt. Sinai, though all of the adult victims were hospitalized in at least serious condition Wednesday, police and hospital officials said. The toddler was in fair condition Wednesday evening.
All of the surviving victims were in the Ford. For hours, wreckage from the crash remained at the scene. One of the men killed was ejected during the collision and found on a stretch of grass adjacent to the roadway, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.
"It looks like it was a head-on collision. But both cars are so mangled that it's hard to tell for sure," Langford said at the scene. "It's hard to imagine that anyone survived."
About 12:30 a.m., Cole "was crossing the centerline going eastbound and hit the front of a westbound vehicle toward the passenger side," Chicago Lawn District Lt. Gerald Koch said. Preliminary reports showed Cole may have had a blood-alcohol level as much as three times the legal limit, Koch said.
Although Officer Marcel Bright, a police spokesman, said speed was a factor in the crash, he said investigators were still awaiting official toxicology reports to confirm whether alcohol played a role. Cole had a valid Illinois driver's license and only one incident on his record, for driving without insurance, secretary of state's office spokeswoman Ruth Riley said.
At Mt. Sinai, Cole's girlfriend, Diamond Scott, 20, stayed with her son, Sir Albert II. Scott's mother, Melanee Scott, 41, said Cole was driving home from his sister's house when the crash occurred. She did not know who the others in the car were, or whether they had been drinking.
"I knew he was OK in my heart. I needed to see him for myself," Melanee Scott said from the toddler's hospital room.
Meanwhile, friends and relatives of the other victims gathered at the Jolliff and Thomas home.
Otis and Theodore Jolliff -- "Odie" and "Thee" to friends -- were more like brothers than cousins, family members said.
"You'd never see one without the other," said Martina Anderson, who has a daughter with Theodore Jolliff.
"They would always dress the same, say the same stuff, do the same things. They were always laughing," said Otis Jolliff's wife, Latesha.
Both men were fathers: Otis Jolliff had daughters, ages 6 and 8; Theodore Joliff had a daughter, Tierra, 7, and a newborn son. Tierra will turn 8 over the weekend, Anderson said.
"She loved her Daddy so much," Anderson said. "I don't know how I'm going to tell her."
The mile-long stretch of Columbus where the accident happened parallels railroad tracks. Manuel Studway, who lives down the street from the crash site, said that although the speed limit along Columbus between Kedzie and Western Avenues is 35 m.p.h., the road is somewhat isolated, and as a result, is frequently used as a "drag strip."
"It's just a straight, flat-out strip. [There's] not enough surveillance," he said. "There's never been anything like this."


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