A Chicago man in Cook County Jail on charges of raping two women has been charged with trying to have his victims killed so they couldn’t testify against him, authorities said today.

He even provided the supposed hitman with the location of the victim’s ID and keys — which he kept from the rape, prosecutors said. And he suggested one of the victims be raped again before being killed, they said.

John Hopkins, 34, asked the supposed hitman to bribe the women and have them “iced” if they wouldn’t take the money, Cook County Asst. State's Atty. Erica Dillon said in bond court, where Hopkins was ordered held on $2.5 million bond.

But the supposed hitman was really an undercover sheriff’s investigator, she said.

Hopkins’ re-arrest on charges of solicitation to commit murder for hire and solicitation of bribery followed a joint investigation by the Cook County Sheriff’s Intelligence Unit and the state’s attorney’s office.

Investigators recorded conversations between Hopkins and the undercover investigator, Dillon said.

Hopkins was in jail on the rape charges when he allegedly began talking to fellow inmates about his victims, Dillon said.

He told one inmate that the victims “will never come to court,” Dillon said.

An undercover officer was assigned to talk with him as a supposed associate of another inmate. They met several times, Dillon said.

Hopkins gave descriptions of the women, including one’s name. He also told him where to find the ID and keys of a victim, which he had kept and stashed in his home, she said.

He told the undercover investigator to do whatever was necessary to keep them from coming to court, including paying them off, Dillon said.

When the investigator asked what happens if they refused, Hopkins said they should be killed — or as Hopkins said, “iced,” Dillon said.

One could be made to look like an accident, he told the investigator, Dillon said.

“A lot of m----- get shot out there,” he told the man, Dillon said.

The other victim, from Hyde Park, could be raped again and then killed, he told the investigator, Dillon said.



John Hopkins, currently in jail on charges of raping two women, is accused of asking a supposed hitman to bribe or kill the women to stop them from testifying against him.

Should we call Bubba so he can give him a warm welcome?