Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth: West Palm Beach's Crime of the Century

In Palm Beach County, Florida in 1955, there was perhaps no greater admired person than Judge Curtis Chillingworth.  His family had transplanted from New York; his father serving as the first city attorney.  With law and justice running in the family, Curtis graduated from the University of Florida, was quickly admitted to the Florida bar and, in 1921, became the youngest person (at 24) to hold the circuit judge position.  It was a title he would hold until his death.

Curtis also joined the United States Naval Academy and served in both World War I and World War II.  Between the two wars, he married and had three daughters.   He was considered local royalty and rightfully so.

He had a solid reputation as a fair and honest judge.  He was also a stickler for punctuality and was known to stand outside the courtroom, watching the hand on the clock, to enter at precisely the exact time.  He was reliable and dependable.

So when he didn't show up for an 8 a.m. appointment at his beachfront cottage in Manalapan on June 15, 1955, nor in his courtroom, there was immediate concern.  The two carpenters that had been hired to build a playground for the Chillingworths' grandchildren, and who had arrived at the Chillingworth residence at the agreed upon time and date, found the door open and the house vacant.  They waited for a period and then decided to take a swim in the ocean, taking the footpath that wound around the home and to the beach.  They spotted what they took to be blood.  Upon close inspection, they also noted that the home's floodlight was shattered.  They immediately contacted the authorities.

At the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Judge Chillingworth's 10 a.m. calendar came and went, with no appearance or word from him.

Police responded quickly, given the missing man's notoriety in the area.  There wasn't a lot to go on.  They had the glass shards from the broken floodlight, two empty spools of tape -- one in the living room and one in the sand, signs of a scuffle in the sand and blood found on the front porch.  No one at the time could know this was the start of West Palm Beach's crime of the century.

In tracing the judge's steps, detectives found out that he and his wife Marjorie attended a dinner the evening of June 14, departing for their home around 10 p.m.  Nothing untoward happened at the dinner.  The couple had arrived home and gone to sleep, as their bed indicated.

Robbery was ruled out as the judge's billfold was found in the residence with cash inside, along with Marjorie's pocketbook which held $40.  Both their vehicles were still in the garage; the judge's Plymouth still had the keys in the ignition.

Accidental drowning during a morning swim was considered but also ruled out as dry swimsuits were located in the home and no bodies had surfaced.

The only items, besides the Chillingworths themselves, that appeared to be missing were a pair of men's pajamas, a ladies' nightgown and two pairs of slippers.

The Palm Beach Air Force Base sent in boats, divers and a helicopter to scan the waters, hoping to find . . . something.  No luck.

The Chillingworth family offered a $25,000 reward for information in solving the disappearances.  The local legislature offered $100,000.

The case quickly went cold, with no leads and no further evidence.

In 1957, Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth were both declared legally dead.

In 1959, the legislature voted to keep the $100,000 reward on the books indefinitely, or until the case was solved.

Authorities continued to work the case, determined to solve the mystery of the missing couple.  Judge Chillingworth's background was considered and investigated, as well as those cases he had presided over.  The brother of one of his friends was considered a potential suspect for a  while -- the judge had presided over the man's murder trial.  That avenue fizzled.

All seemed quiet until 1959 when a man by the name of Floyd Holzapfel bragged to a friend that he knew who had killed the judge.  Holzapfel, known as "Lucky," had earned a Purple Heart as a paratrooper in the Battle of the Bulge.  Following the war, he had become a fingerprint technician for the Oklahoma City police and one of the organizers for the West Palm Beach Young Republican Club, as well as being a Jaycee and Cub Scout leader.  He was also a bootlegger who had served time for bookmaking and armed robbery and had been arrested for attempted rape.  Married three times, one former wife claimed he had beaten her so badly, she had landed in the hospital for five days.

That friend he blabbed to -- James Yenzer -- along with an ex-Palm Beach police officer by the name of Jim Wilber lured "Lucky" Holzapfel to a hotel in Melbourne, Florida and got him good and drunk.  Lucky was then more than willing to discuss the details of what he knew of the Chillingworth disappearances. A member of the Florida Sheriff's Bureau, tipped off by Yenzer and Wilber, the ex-cop, sat in an adjacent room recording the conversation.

According to Lucky, he was hired by Joseph Peel to murder Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth.  On the night of June 14-15, 1955, he took an accomplice and fellow bootlegger named George "Bobby" Lincoln to Manalapan by skiff.  They arrived at the Chillingworth residence around 1 a.m.  Lincoln hid in the bushes while Lucky knocked at the door and pretended to be a stranded boater.  Judge Chillingworth answered the door in his pajamas and was greeted by a pistol.  Lucky and Bobby fastened nooses around the necks of the judge and Marjorie, tied their hands behind their backs and forced them on the sand.  Marjorie screamed and one of the men, likely Lucky, hit her with the pistol, cutting her head and causing blood to spatter on the sand.  Judge Chillingworth offered his abductors $200,000 to let him and his wife go.  The couple were then gagged with adhesive tape and hustled onto the boat and taken out to sea.  The quartet in the skiff drifted for about an hour before lead weights were strapped to the Chillingworths' legs.  With the jaunty comment of "Ladies first!" Lucky picked up Marjorie and threw her overboard.  When he and Bobby went for Judge Chillingworth, he jumped overboard.  Despite his bound wrists and weighted legs, Judge Chillingworth managed to stay afloat until Lincoln hit him over the head with a shotgun.  The blow was so strong, the barrel broke.  Lincoln and Holzapfel then dragged Judge Chillingworth back to the boat, where they fastened an anchor around his neck and then threw him back in the water, watching him sink.

After snuffing out two lives, Lucky placed a phone call to Joseph Peel, uttering only four words:  "The motor is fixed."  With that, Peel knew that his problems with Chillingworth had been taken care of.

Joseph Peel was a well-known name not only to authorities but to the community in general.  Like Curtis Chillingworth, Joseph Peel was a judge and had grown up down the street from Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth and their daughters.

He had become an attorney in 1949 and in 1952, was named the city's only municipal judge.  He was married and had children, like Judge Chillingworth.  Unlike Judge Chillingworth, however, Peel was a dishonest playboy who manipulated the law into his favor.  Rather than seeing the legal field as a calling, he saw it as a means to make money and live a flashy lifestyle.

In 1953, the unethical Peel represented both the husband and wife in a divorce suit.  This clear violation of ethics landed him in front of Judge Chillingworth.  Considering his youth, Judge Chillingworth gave Peel a warning rather than a disbarment but said it would be the only one.

Rather than being scared straight, Peel -- along with Lucky Holzapfel and Bobby Lincoln -- ran a protection racket.  Peel easily played both sides of the law, signing warrants and orders for the police and then giving the criminals a heads-up they were coming.  Criminals paid him big money for this benefit and it wasn't long before Peel was making his annual $3,000 judge's salary in a week.

The racket may never have been discovered if Peel did not once again get caught for unethical behavior while acting as an attorney in a divorce case.  This time, he represented to his client that he had filed all necessary paperwork on her behalf and she was divorced.   She found it was untrue when she remarried and had a baby, finding out instead that she was a bigamist.

Once again, Peel was scheduled to go before Judge Chillingworth.  He knew this time the honest and kind Chillingworth would disbar him.  Disbarment would end his lucrative set-up with the local criminals and put paid to his excessive lifestyle.  It was early June of 1955.  And it was then that Joseph Peel put his murderous plan into action.

Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth would only have days left to live.

On October 1, 1960, Lucky Holzapfel was arrested.  On December 12, 1960, he pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to death.

George "Bobby" Lincoln

Bobby Lincoln, already in prison for a moonshine-related conviction, cut a deal with prosecutors who, with no bodies, needed eyewitness testimony.  Lincoln testified against Holzapfel and Peel in exchange for immunity.  He would finish his federal sentence in Michigan and in 1962, went to Chicago where he converted to Islam and changed his name to David Karrim.   He later returned to Florida and was a free man when he died in 2004, never having served a day for his part in the murders of Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth.

Confronted with Bobby Lincoln's eyewitness testimony, on November 7, 1960, Lucky chose not to fight and admitted his part in the murders.  He also told the courtroom that Joseph Peel had wanted him to commit one more murder to help him out - - that of the prosecutor himself.

Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel

On December 12, 1960 Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel plead guilty to the Chillingworth murders and was sentenced to death.  In 1966, his death sentence was commuted and he received a parole date of May 3, 2009.  In 1992, he suffered a stroke that resulted in partial paralysis.  In 1996, he died.  He had never received a penny of the $2,500 he was promised to kill the Chillingworths.

The mastermind of the murder plot, Joseph Peel, was alerted as to Holzapfel's arrest and Lincoln's deal and took off running from the state of Florida.  He was apprehended in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  While awaiting trial, twice he had attempted to have Holzapfel killed.  He also planned a failed attempt at a jail escape.

Joseph Peel

Justice that had long evaded Peel finally caught up with him.  On March 30, 1961, jurors took less than six hours to find him guilty of accessory to murder.  His life was spared only due to two jurors who would not vote guilty unless the death penalty was taken off the table.  He received a life sentence for each of the Chillingworths and was sent to the Florida State Prison in Raiford where, over the next 18 years, he would attend church regularly and work on the prison newspaper.  He was paroled in 1979 to begin serving an 18 year federal charge on mail fraud in Missouri.  He served only three years of that sentence when, suffering from ill health, he was paroled and returned to Florida.  His wife having divorced him while he was incarcerated, at the time he gave an interview in 1982, he was engaged to a woman who had been the flower girl at his first wedding.  During the interview he claimed guilt only in that he knew of the murders, had not planned them, but did nothing to stop them.  Few people believed his statement.  Nine days after he was paroled, Peel died.

The bodies of Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth were never recovered.  Their family installed a double grave in West Palm Beach's Oak Lawn Cemetery.  The graves remain empty.

The house at 211 Dyer Road in Manalapan, where the Chillingworths had gone to sleep that last night of their lives, was sold.  It still stands today.

June 15, 1955, the day that he and his wife were killed, was the 32nd anniversary of his appointment as circuit judge.


I've read a lot of true crime over the years.  All the cases are sad and horrifying in their own ways but this is one of the most gut-wrenching I've researched.  The torture Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth must have gone through, sitting on that boat for well over an hour, with their hands tied and mouths taped up, as they went further out to sea, I can't begin to imagine.  For Judge Chillingworth to fight so valiantly to live, for this Navy veteran to stay afloat even with his hands bound and weights on his ankles and after watching his beloved wife being thrown over the side of the boat . . ,  It's something that pains me to contemplate.  Some of the sources I looked up stated that their killers later reported that the Chillingworths exchanged final words ("I love you") to each other before the end (which would mean that the tape was removed from their mouths, at least briefly, before they were killed.)

All this for a measly $2,500.  The hired killer, Lucky Holzapfel, and his buddy, Bobby Lincoln, didn't know Curtis or Marjorie.  Neither had laid eyes on the Chillingworths before they abducted them and were perfectly okay with murdering them in such an inhumane manner.  What went wrong with Holzapfel and when?  He had served his country, like his victim, and at one point, had gainful employment with a law enforcement agency.  He also gave his time and energy to his  community.  When, and why, did that change?

As far as Bobby Lincoln, he appeared to have no violent offenses on his record before jumping on that skiff to head to Manalapan.  He had run-ins with the law but as a moonshiner, not a cold killer.  Yet, he still struck Judge Chillingworth with the shotgun so fiercely that it resulted in a broken barrel.  And he helped Holzapfel restrain both victims and toss Curtis Chillingworth overboard, watching as he drowned.

Joseph Peel is less of a mystery to me.  His type have been around for years and, sadly, will continue to be.  He seems a classic narcissist, opportunist and sociopath.  No conscience to guide him, only lust and greed.  Given a second chance, he squanders it and then, upon getting caught once again, turns his anger to the person who will be required by law to take it away from him.  The same person who, not coincidentally, showed him compassion and mercy the first time he set foot in Judge Chillingworth's courtroom.  Instead of gratitude, Peel showed Curtis Chillingworth contempt and disdain.  Marjorie Chillingworth was merely collateral damage.  Later in his life, Peel was given more compassion by the judicial system, that paroled him due to his failing health, than he allowed his hitmen to give their victims.

Of the three, only Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel received the death penalty.  Was it deserved?  In my opinion, yes.  But I also think Joseph Peel was just as deserving.  Without him, the seed to kill the Chillingworths would not have been there.  And while there could be an argument for Bobby Lincoln to be spared, it infuriates me that he did not even spend 24 hours behind bars for his role in the abduction and murders.  I understand the prosecution wanted an eyewitness, especially during a time when convictions without bodies was rare, but complete immunity seemed insane.  Lincoln knew they were going to Manalapan to abduct and murder at least one person.  He should have had to spend at least seven years behind bars for that, if not more.

Do you think justice was done in the Chillingworth case?  Would you have agreed to give Bobby Lincoln complete immunity for his testimony?

Bobby Kent: Murder Between Friends

Bobby Kent in 1992 

". . . They should be ashamed of what they did."

On July 13, 1993, a group of six teen girls and boys from the pleasant community of Hollywood, Florida, a middle class suburb of Fort Lauderdale, gathered at a local Pizza Hut, as many do during the carefree days of summer.  This congregation, however, wasn't meeting up to nosh and socialize but to discuss how they were going to commit murder.

Their chosen victim was twenty year old Bobby Kent, the only son of Fred and Farah Kent, who had immigrated to the States from Iran, changing their surname in the process.  Fred was a successful stockbroker, allowing his family a privileged lifestyle.  Bobby -- popular, gregarious and handsome -- had graduated from high school and attended community college.  He was serious about bodybuilding and had entrepreneurial dreams -- although those dreams were of a questionable nature.
Bobby's best friend was Marty Puccio.  He and Marty had met in the third grade and developed a friendship that was dysfunctional at best.  Marty's parents would recall the young boy coming home, after spending time with Bobby, covered in bruises and, at time, bleeding.  The Puccios believed this was some form of roughhousing and encouraged their son to cut off contact with Bobby or at least limit it but apparently did not take any other kind of action.  Sadly.

This love-hate relationship -- with Bobby both being playful and punishing toward Marty -- continued into adolescence.  The bullying became so bad at one point that Marty begged his parents to move away from Hollywood so that he might escape.  His parents refused, leading their son to live temporarily with relatives in New York.  Before long, though, Marty returned to Florida and back into his cruel relationship with Bobby.  He seemed unable to break away from the abusive connection.

It was during their adolescent years that both young men took up bodybuilding, spending a great deal of their time at the gym.  It was also said that they both began taking steroids, causing Bobby's already volatile and aggressive nature to worsen.

In the 11th grade, Marty dropped out of school.  This added to the list of grievances Fred and Farah Kent had against him as they ironically believed Marty was a bad influence on their son and wished to stifle the friendship.  

At some point after Bobby himself graduated from high school, he entered the business arena as a filmmaker.  As the gay subculture was at the height of its popularity in south Florida, he came up with the idea to film men masturbating and sell the tapes.  The pornographic venture did not go as planned, however, as the generally poor quality of the films made them difficult to sell.  It was also rumored, after the events of July 1993, that Bobby had pimped his taller, muscular friend out at gay clubs.

Marty had met Lisa Connelly, a shy, overweight 18 year old high school dropout and the two had fallen quickly in love, spending all their time together.  Lisa quickly noticed how Bobby treated his so-called friend and hoping to take his mind off abusing Marty, introduced him to her friend, Alice "Ali" Willis.  Ali, like Lisa, was also 18; she had already been married and given birth to a child that her parents cared for.

While friends dating friends would have made for a cozy quadrangle, Ali and Bobby only dated for a few weeks.  Bobby began abusing Ali, subjecting her to "bizarre" sexual behavior and, according to Marty later on, threatening both her and her child's lives.

Meanwhile, Lisa discovered she was pregnant with Marty's baby.  Feeling her boyfriend, and now the father of her child, would never escape Bobby Kent's torture, she began to plot how she could eradicate Bobby from both their lives.  Permanently.

She recruited her friend Ali -- Bobby's most recent girlfriend -- and Marty, of course.  She also added Ali's new boyfriend, Donnie Semenec, Lisa's cousins Heather Swallers and Derek Dzvirko and Derek Kaufman to their murderous band.   Kaufman was 22 years old and claimed to be a mafia hit man; Lisa felt his so-called contract killing knowledge would come in handy for their plans.

They chose July 14 as the day Bobby would meet his maker.  One day after their Pizza Hut meeting in which all the future killers had attended with the exception of Marty.

Ali, the former girlfriend who Bobby had allegedly raped, was used as the bait.  Marty called Bobby and invited him to a remote canal near Weston, stating they were going to race cars.  As an added incentive he assured Bobby that Ali would be there and was anxious to have sex with him.   Bobby agreed and was picked up from his home by the seven who would kill him around 11:30 p.m.

Upon arrival at the chosen site, Ali took Bobby off to a more secluded spot, on the pretext she wanted to talk with him.  Those remaining assembled their weapons -- a pipe, an aluminum baseball bat and two knives.    

While Ali, and Heather Swallers, who had caught up to them, distracted Bobby, the five co-conspirators snuck up on him.

The body of Bobby Kent

Donnie Semenec, Ali's boyfriend, plunged a knife into Bobby's neck.  Seeing Marty, Bobby pleaded with him for help, apologizing for anything and everything he had done and begging for mercy.  Marty responded by stabbing Bobby in the stomach.  Bobby attempted to run but was outnumbered.  Donnie, Marty and Derek Kaufman hit and stabbed his torso.  Marty slammed Bobby's head into the ground and cut his throat.  It was Derek, the self-professed hit man, who dealt the final blow - - beating Bobby's head in with the aluminum baseball bat and making sure Bobby Kent was removed from this earth.

The body was then rolled to the edge of the marsh.  They had chosen the location specifically on the belief that alligators would find the corpse and consume it, effectively destroying all evidence.  They tossed the baseball bat and knives into the ocean and decided they would all agree they had been together, hanging out, on the night of the murder while Bobby had been out on a date with an unidentified woman.

Bobby's family reported him missing when he didn't return home that evening.  Marty Puccio, as Bobby's best friend, was contacted by the police about Bobby's possible whereabouts.  Marty feigned ignorance about where Bobby might be and professed to be worried about his friend.  The cops may have had a gut feeling that something wasn't right but had nothing to go on.

However, like most teens, the seven killers could not stay quiet.

Lisa Connelly, who claimed that Bobby had raped her, confessed to her mother about the murder.  Her mother, in turn, contacted her own sister, who was Derek Dzvirko's mother.   The two sisters took their children to see their brother, who had friends in the police department.  They were then directed to Detective Frank Illaraza of the Broward County Sheriff's Office.  Dzvirko not only confessed everything to Illaraza, he led the detective to Bobby Kent's remains, still where his killers had left him.  The wallet in the pocket of the pants confirmed that it was indeed Bobby Kent.

Once Bobby had been found, the conspirators quickly cracked and began giving excuses as to why he had to die.  They claimed they were merely bystanders to what they had thought was going to be a simple beating.  Nope, they knew nothing about any murder.  The prosecutors dealt with it by trying each of the seven defendants separately.

Perhaps frighteningly, not one of the alleged killers displayed any remorse at trial.  Three of the defendants had not known or even met Bobby Kent prior to the evening of July 14, 1993, making their lack of remorse difficult to grasp.

The killers under arrest.  Top from left:  Puccio, Willis, Semenec, Swallers

Bottom from left:  Dzvirko, Kaufman, Connelly

Marty Puccio, the so-called best friend of the victim and who himself had been victimized by Bobby Kent for years, received the harshest sentence.  Charged with first degree murder, he was sentenced to death in the electric chair on August 3, 1995.  Bobby's mother, Farah Kent, believed justice had been served.  "Now he will fear for his life, as my son did for his," she remarked after sentencing.  In 1997, the Florida Supreme Court overturned his death sentence and commuted it to life with parole eligibility in 25 years.  He is serving his time at the Desoto Annex in Arcadia, where he has reportedly gone into the prison ministry.

Derek Kaufman, the 22 year old who had told the younger crowd he was in the Mafia in order to impress them, and who showed up for the murder party with a bat instead of the promised gun, was sentenced to life plus thirty years.  He is serving his time at the Gulf Correctional Institute in Wewahitchka, where he has incurred nearly twenty infractions, including drug use and disobeying orders.

As Donald Semenec's eighteenth birthday was on the day he helped to kill Bobby Kent, and having delivered the blow that started the frenzy, he was sentenced to life plus fifteen years.  He is serving his sentence, like Derek Kaufman, at the Gulf Correctional Institute in Wewahitchka.  Also like Kaufman, he has racked up an impressive count of infractions -- some twenty -- ranging from weapon possession to drug and alcohol use.

Derek Dzvirko was charged with second-degree murder and originally sentenced to seven years on May 12, 1995 but received an additional four years on his sentence for his attempt to lie on the witness stand after his initial sentencing, while testifying against the others.  He was paroled on October 1, 1999, after serving four years, and left Florida for Missouri, where he worked as a truck driver.

Lisa Connelly was sentenced to life plus five years.  Her sentence was reduced on appeal to nine years.  The alleged mastermind of the murder, she was paroled on February 3, 2004, after serving a total of nine years.  She gave birth to a daughter while incarcerated and is reported to live in Pennsylvania with her daughter and a younger son.  She has kept a low profile since her release, running a cleaning business and becoming a certified optician.

Alice "Ali" Willis was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to forty years on May 31, 1995.  That sentence was reduced on appeal to seventeen years for the murder charge and fifteen years for the conspiracy charge.  She was paroled on September 16, 2001, after serving just over six years.  Despite being picked up in 2013 for retail theft, a parole violation, she did not end up back in prison.  She is said to live in Melbourne, Florida with her husband and children.  She will remain under community supervision until September 15, 2041.

Heather Swallers was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to seven years.  When she took the stand on May 17, 1995, she did not follow Dzvirko's lead and lie and, in fact, turned in evidence.  She was paroled on February 14, 1998, after serving almost three years -- the first to be released from custody.  She reportedly resides in Georgia with her children.

In 1998, Jim Schutze wrote a book on the case called Bully:  A True Story of High School Revenge.  Three years later, the book was adapted into a film by Larry Clark, also called Bully, which starred Brad Renfro and Nick Stahl.  .

In 2013, Bobby Kent's sister Laila spoke publicly on the decision to allow all three female defendants and one male defendant to be released from prison.  According to the Sun Sentinel she was quoted as saying, "It disgusts me that they have freedom after killing someone.  They're horrible people and they should be ashamed of what they did.  They don't even deserve to be alive."

Bobby Kent's family had his body cremated and his ashes were scattered.


Somewhat similar to the Kirsten Costas case I wrote about yesterday, the Bobby Kent case is about bullying, although the Kent case much more directly so.  Bobby Kent was and remains a much less sympathetic victim than Kirsten Costas as he not only verbally abused others (even those he claimed were his friends) but physically tormented them as well.  If two of the women who participated in his murder are to be believed, Kent sexually assaulted and raped them -- one of them being the girlfriend of his own friend, Marty Puccio.

Also in possible opposition to the Costas case, there was a clear conspiracy and plan to obliterate Bobby Kent.  His murder didn't happen during an episode of assault or immediately following but was a clear, thought out design.

While there is never any excuse for murder, in this case there does appear to be extenuating circumstances.  The abuse dealt to Marty Puccio is not under dispute.  It seems clear that he had a victim mentality and reacted much the way abused persons do.  That gives me a small amount of sympathy for him.

What I don't understand though is why no one thought to take Bobby Kent's abuse to the authorities before deciding to mete out their own version of justice.  Maybe Marty Puccio had been beaten down -- physically, emotionally and mentally -- over the years by his so-called friend but the others cannot attempt to utilize that excuse.  Of course I am seeing this from the viewpoint of a fully formed adult.  The girls in the case were eighteen; is it feasible that while they may not have wanted their friends and family to know that Bobby Kent raped them, they were okay with being part of his murder?  And Marty Puccio was twenty years old but do we know how old he was emotionally in 1993?  He had been abused by Bobby for more than half his life by that point.  Would he have had the wherewithal to approach authority figures, even his parents?

And what of everyone involved in this sordid mess but Marty Puccio, Lisa Connelly and Alice Willis?  They had no real connection or interaction with Kent and yet they decided to join in and participate, even tangentially, in the cold and brutal murder of another human being.

I find the sentencing and time served troubling as well.  Read anything about this case and you will see many accusations of the female defendants in this case getting much better treatment.  I believe they caught a break due to their gender.  One of them hatched the idea and put it in motion, recruiting everyone else.  The other used herself in order to lure the victim and kept him occupied so that her fellow conspirators could get into place, readying themselves to murder.  While none of the girls may have wielded a weapon, under the law they are just as guilty as if they did.  Heather Swallers' participation in the murder seems much less involved and given that she gave evidence truthfully, I don't have a real issue with her brief sentence.  Connelly and Willis may be a different story; although I would certainly have sympathy if they were indeed victims of Bobby Kent's abuse.

I am not pointing fingers at anyone because the parents of all these young people involved suffered but . . . it seems their attitudes towards their children's behavior were excessively and exceedingly casual.  Roughhousing during play, for boys, is one thing.  But bruising of the body and bleeding is quite another.  I can't help but wonder what might have happened if Marty Puccio's parents had taken this matter to Bobby Kent's parents when they were still young children.  Or, if necessary, to the authorities.  Would it have saved Bobby Kent's life and spared Marty Puccio from a life incarcerated?  And what of Bobby Kent's parents?  Did they know their son was exhibiting such violent behavior?  And while Bobby allegedly wanted to enter the business scene, he looked to be trying to do so in a scuzzy way.  Did his parents have any idea of his involvement with the pornographic movies?

This case is troubling for many reasons.  The fact that a cruel and sadistic predator was allowed to roam freely for so long is infuriating.  The extreme violence dealt to him, while partly understandable in the eyes of his victims, is horrifying.  As is the killers' utter lack of remorse.  Was it from a form of PTSD?  Or worse, was it because these privileged and indulged teens simply had no conscience?

Perhaps the biggest mystery of all to me is why Marty Puccio's defense team never claimed any type of mental defect as a result of years of abuse.  How he got sentenced to death while the other defendants avoided that punishment entirely.  Was Marty judged more culpable because he made the phone call?  Or because he was supposedly Bobby's best friend?  is Marty really that much different than a battered wife who, after years of abuse and threats, kills her spouse?  Or do we put a different light on things because Marty is a man?

Does the Bobby Kent case trouble you as much as it does me?  Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Lita Sullivan's Killer Released From Prison

On Friday, May 25, 2018, Phillip Anthony "Tony" Harwood, the convicted triggerman in the murder of Atlanta, Georgia socialite Lita McClinton Sullivan, was released.  Harwood served a 20 year sentence for the 1987 murder at Coastal State Prison, located in Garden City.

A former truck driver, Harwood was paid $25,000 by Lita's estranged husband to kill her so that James Sullivan could avoid a protracted and costly divorce.  In exchanging for testifying against Sullivan, Harwood pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and avoided the death penalty.  Sullivan is still serving his life without parole sentence at Macon State Prison.

Interestingly enough, Harwood claimed his innocence in the shooting during Sullivan's trial; a position he continues to maintain.

For more information on this case, please visit my post on Lita here.

Thoughts and prayers to Lita's family and friends.

Lita McClintock Sullivan

January 7, 1952 - January 1, 1987

Kirsten Costas: The Real Life Death of a Cheerleader

Kirsten Costas

She was so pretty, everyone said

The more so the pity

That she was found dead

 - From "Death of a Cheerleader" by Marcy Playground

The 1980s were a decadent and excessive decade and that lifestyle -- complete with designer duds, cars and big homes -- was embraced by many cities through the U.S.  Orinda, California was one of them.

Orinda, in Contra Costa County, sits just east of Berkeley, home to the oldest University of California campus in the state and one of the most socially liberal environments in the country.  While residents of Berkeley may have been attending class or leading a protest, Orinda catered to affluent suburban professionals who commuted to Oakland, San Francisco and Walnut Creek.  An unfailingly friendly city (and one that would rank number two in friendliness by Forbes magazine), Orinda's school district is noted for academic excellence; ranked first in the state, the district also has a consistent 99-100% graduation rate and pays its teachers on average $75,000 per year.

Miramonte High School, the only public high school in Orinda, not only produces academics but athletes.  NFL players Ken Dorsey, Bryan Barker, and Drew Bennett and Olympian Heather Petri all call Miramonte their alma mater.

In 1984, Kirsten Costas was a popular sophomore at Miramonte.  The fifteen year old was a cheerleader, a varsity swim team member, a participant of the civic group Bob-O-Links (known locally as the "Bobbies"), and a good student.  The only daughter of affluent parents, Kirsten was petite with dark, wavy hair she wore in a cute, short style of the time.  She appeared to be fashionable and was later described by her friends as witty, outgoing, confident and sarcastic.  Unlike many teens, she didn't suffer through an awkward period and enjoyed going to school, where she counted working in the student office among many of her activities.  So popular was she that everyone in the school knew who she was, even if they didn't actually know her.  For all intents and purposes, Kirsten Costas was leading the charmed life of teenaged dreams.

Bernadette Protti, on the other hand, desperately wanted what Kirsten had.  Unlike her classmate, Bernadette came from an overtaxed family, the youngest of six children.  Her parents were devout Catholics; her father was a retired public works officer and her mother a homemaker.  The Prottis couldn't afford the lifestyle the Costas family could and that was the lifestyle Bernadette wanted.

Like most teens and students, Bernadette was average.  She had her circle of friends but she wanted that ultimate pinnacle of popularity.  She wanted to succeed.  She wanted to be liked.  She wanted what the cute and perk Kirsten Costas had.  And so she began to follow in Kirsten's footsteps.  Kirsten tried out for cheerleading, so did Bernadette.  Kirsten wanted to be a member of the Year Book committee, so did Bernadette.  Bernadette failed in all these missions.  She did get a job in the student office alongside Kirsten, resulting in the popular girl asking Bernadette to do her friends favors.  Kirsten didn't do them herself as being caught would result in termination of privileges.  Bernadette did them, hoping to gain favor.

She was also permitted entry in the Bobbies, also alongside Kirsten.  Ostensibly a volunteer group designed to organize fundraisers and other charitable events in the community, it was allegedly more of a sorority dedicated to parties and fun.

Despite her acceptance into the Bobbies, Bernadette was not satisfied.  She had figured that by circling Kirsten's orbit she could entice her into friendship.  Kirsten, however, had no desire to be friends with the wannabe and follower.

A planned ski trip ended disastrously for Bernadette.  She had worked babysitting jobs in order to pay for the trip.   Her ski clothing and equipment was purchased secondhand or borrowed from others.  Kirsten's own clothing and equipment was new, costly and trendy.  She commented on Bernadette's own belongings, comments that stung the girl that was acutely aware of the haves and have nots.

Instead of the cruel comments souring Bernadette on Kirsten, they only seemed to deepen her obsession to be popular and liked.  Especially by Kirsten Costas.

By the end of the 1984 school year and beginning of summer, Bernadette Protti had come up with a plan to win over Kirsten.  In mid-June, knowing that Kirsten was away at cheerleader camp, Bernadette called the Costas home from a pay phone.  She told Kirsten's mother that there was a dinner planned for the following Saturday for new Bobbies and that it was a secret only for Bobbies to know.  While she didn't give out her name, she said she would pick Kirsten up for the dinner around 8:30 p.m.

Bernadette told her parents she had a babysitting job that Saturday night and would need the car.  The ruse worked, allowing her to show up at the Costas residence as planned to pick up Kirsten.

When Kirsten ran to the car, after the honk in the driveway, she was surely disappointed to see Bernadette rather than one of her usual peers.  Despite this, she climbed into the car to head to what she thought was a Bobbie dinner but she likely realized quickly that wasn't so given that Bernadette was dressed in a track suit and faded jacket.   When confronted, Bernadette admitted the dinner was a fabrication she had made up for Mrs. Costas' benefit so that Kirsten would be able to go to a party.

Kirsten also noticed a knife in the car, which Bernadette laughed off, saying that her sister kept in there in order to cut up fruits and vegetables.  This didn't seem to bother Kirsten.  

The duo had by then reached the town or Moraga where, according to Bernadette, she was instructed her to pull into a church parking lot so her passenger could smoke some pot.  They sat there for 40 minutes, again according to Bernadette, with Kirsten offering her a hit of the joint.  This, according to Bernadette, was what started the argument as she turned Kirsten down.   Later on, however, Bernadette's friends and classmates would dispute the likelihood of this statement as they felt Bernadette, always a follower and desperate to be accepted, would quickly have smoked the marijuana if it gained her acceptance.

Kirsten also asked about the party that Bernadette had mentioned and learned that Bernadette's invitation was of a second-hand nature.  Kirsten flat out refused to attend a party in which she hadn't truly been invited, leading Bernadette to protest that Kirsten was going to "spoil everything," to which the popular girl responded there was never anything to spoil.  This led to Bernadette crying and asking why Kirsten was so mean, why she wouldn't be her friend.  In response, Kirsten rolled her eyes, leading to Bernadette verbalizing how much she admired Kirsten and wanted to be like her.  Kirsten saw these confessions as pathetic and told as much to Bernadette.    

It was at this point that Kirsten left the car and ended up at the home of Alexander and Mary Jane Arnold.  Kirsten told the couple, who she knew, that she had been out with a friend but the friend had gotten "weird" on her.  She asked if she could use their phone to call her parents, something that was readily agreed to.  With no answer at the Costas residence, as everyone was out, Alex Arnold offered to drive her home.  He later recalled that Kirsten was calm and talkative, speaking of school activities and her social life.  If she had been concerned about her interaction with Bernadette, she didn't show it.  

Bernadette, who had watched Kirsten leave the car and enter the Arnold home, now followed them back to Orinda.  Her panic and anger increased with each mile, as she figured that Kirsten would revel in gossiping about her to the other popular kids.  Any chance she may have had to enter the inner sanctum of Kirsten Costas was surely destroyed.

The scene of the crime

Arriving at her home, Kirsten at first started toward the house but then changed course and headed for where Bernadette had pulled in and parked on the street.   Bernadette grabbed the knife from the car and met Kirsten on the lawn of her neighbor's house.

Kirsten backed up and yelled at Bernadette to go away.  Bernadette responded by attacking Kirsten with the knife, stabbing her twice in the stomach with the 18 inch blade.  Kirsten's hand was hit as she held it up to protect herself.  As she fell to the ground, Bernadette stabbed her twice in the back before running to her car and quickly taking off.

Alexander Arnold, who had remained in his car to see Kirsten safely into a house, had seen a figure rush the teen, heard an altercation and seen Kirsten fall.  Assuming a fist fight had taken place, he took off in hot pursuit of the Ford Pinto that had so quickly left the scene.  He didn't know that Kirsten Costas had been fatally assaulted.

Kirsten had gotten to her feet and staggered to her neighbor's house, banging on the front door.  She collapsed as Arthur Hillman opened the door.  Hillman cradled the bleeding girl and yelled for his son to call 911.  He asked Kirsten who had stabbed her but reportedly the only thing she said was that she couldn't breathe.  

Kirsten was taken to the hospital by ambulance as police began securing the scene.  Alexander Arnold returned, unable to catch the car he had pursued, and told officers what he saw transpire and what Kirsten had mentioned about the "weird friend."  He also described Kirsten's attacker as a chunky teenaged girl with stringy blonde hair, attired in track pants and driving a Ford Pinto.

Meanwhile, Bernadette had arrived home around 10 p.m.  Figuring Kirsten had told the police who stabbed her, she waited for the cops to arrive and place her in cuffs.  It didn't happen.  Instead, Bernadette took a late evening walk with her mother.

By 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, 1984, Kirsten Costas was pronounced dead.  One of the stab wounds she suffered had bisected the major artery to her heart.

The community of Orinda was shocked and horrified by Kirsten's murder.  Homicide was not common in their safe hamlet, especially a brutal attack on a teen girl.  Hundreds of mourners turned out for Kirsten's funeral, including a crying Bernadette Protti.

Investigators began questioning students, including Bernadette who also took a lie detector test.  The results were inconclusive, proving neither guilt nor innocence.  Bernadette's proferred alibi of babysitting went unverified.  Nancy Kane, a "goth" girl who had been picked on by Kirsten, was bullied by students who believed she was responsible for killing Kirsten.  She had at one time ran with the crowd Kirsten was in but had fallen out with them.  Her prickly relationship with Kirsten at the time of the murder was well known at Miramonte.  So excessive were the rumors and innuendo about Nancy that her mother would not allow her to take a lie detector test and the girl transferred to another school in September.  While this transfer may have made life easier for Nancy, it seemed to cement the belief that she was guilty.  Of course, rumors and theories were everywhere.  Orinda residents wanted to believe that the crime was committed by an outsider.  Surely one of their own could never do this.

A new school year started, one without Kirsten Costas.  Bernadette Protti continued on with her life as a student and Bobbie.  She didn't know -- how could she?-- that the Orinda police had contacted the FBI to request a profile on the person who murdered Kirsten.  The FBI's profile arrived in October of 1984.  

The profile stated that Kirsten's killer would be a girl of the same age as the victim and Kirsten would have known her.  The biggest surprise as far as the Orinda police were concerned was that the murderer would not be remorseful.  They had been questioning persons believing the guilty individual would break down.

Kirsten's parents, Berit and Arthur Costas, had hired a private investigator to find the killer of their daughter.  It was while he was reviewing the case files and evidence that he noticed Bernadette's alibi.  He made the call to the family she claimed to have been babysitting for that night and found her alibi didn't hold water.  He then notified the detectives.

On December 9, 1984, Bernadette was interviewed a second time.  The detectives read the FBI's profile to her and asked if it sounded like anyone she knew.  "Me," she told them.  She wasn't arrested at that point.  She told detectives she needed time to think.   The detectives surely knew they had their killer and were hoping for a confession.

Bernadette returned home and tried to talk to her mother who begged off, claiming exhaustion.  Instead, Bernadette wrote her parents a letter in which she confessed to killing Kirsten.  She wrote that she was able to live with it [killing Kirsten] but couldn't ignore it.  She also begged her parents to still love her.  In a postscript, she asked them not to ask why she had done such a thing because she claimed she didn't know.  Bernadette then left the letter with her mother, asking her to wait 30 minutes before reading it, and headed to school.

Once the note was read, the Prottis hauled ass to Miramonte, picked up their daughter and took her to the police station.  Her confession, recorded at that time, had a tearful Bernadette stating she felt inferior to the popular and confident Kirsten.  She also said that she was embarrassed by her family's socio-economic standing and Kirsten's comments on the same.

Bernadette (far left) in the courtroom with her sister and mother

Despite Bernadette Protti's confession, the prosecutor elected to take the matter to trial.  Whether she was convicted for first or second degree murder, given her age, the sentencing would be the same.  The plea offered by Bernadette's defense team, in which she would plead to second degree murder, was rejected.  The resulting three days of testimony in front of a judge but no jury was nothing short of entertainment for the community and torture for the Costas and Protti families.

Despite the prosecution's attempts to show that Bernadette had premeditated Kirsten's homicide, the judge found her guilty of second degree murder.  On April 1, 1985 -- April Fool's Day, of all things -- Bernadette Protti was sentenced to the maximum -- nine years.

Bernadette was sent to the California Youth Authority in Ventura, where she would complete high school and receive her GED.  She was paroled after seven years, gaining release at the age of twenty-three, on June 10, 1992 -- nearly the eight year anniversary of Kirsten's death.  She left California, changed her name, got a career, married and had children.

The Costas family -- Berit, Arthur and son Peter -- left Orinda for Alaska and then Hawaii.  Having begged for Bernadette not to be granted early release, they were understandably disgusted and discouraged with the justice system.

In 1994, a made for television movie was produced about the case.  Called A Friend to Die For in the U.S. and Death of a Cheerleader in the U.K., it featured television stars Kellie Martin (in the Bernadette role) and Tori Spelling (in the Kirsten role.)  Martin's character, petite and brunette, was portrayed sympathetically; Spelling's character, taller and blonde, was seen as a mean, vicious popular girl who may have deserved what she got.

In the years since the crime, the trial and Bernadette's release, former friends and students have spoken little about the events.  Those who have whisper of a possibility that Bernadette had propositioned Kirsten, leading to gay panic, something very real back in 1984 where lesbianism was something unusual, to be feared and/or mocked.

Others shake their heads over Kirsten's reported "mean girl" antics and habit of thinly disguised and often cruel barbs.

Bernadette's sister Gina had testified at trial that she routinely kept a knife in the Pinto in order to cut fruits and veggies, as Bernadette said she told Kirsten.  The Costas family, however, disputed that then and now.  It does seem unlikely that someone -- anyone -- would choose an 18 inch knife in order to pare fruits and vegetables.  The Costas family also believes that Bernadette had no intention of taking Kirsten to the party that night, citing her attire.

Only Kirsten Costas and Bernadette Protti know with absolute certainty what happened that night.  Bullying was not taken as seriously in 1984 as it is today.  In fact, it wasn't even termed bullying.  Getting picked on or doing the teasing was considered a relatively normal rite of passage then, with the idea that the picker would grow out of it and the pickee should just ignore what was going on.  Nobody seemed to give serious thought as to the emotional damage that could be inflicted on the victim.

That said, no matter how cruel Kirsten Costas may have been she didn't deserve to die.  Teens are notoriously blind as to how their actions and attitudes affect others.  Kirsten had been described as witty and sarcastic by her friends.  It's entirely possible that any barbs Kirsten made had been done under the cover of wit and sarcasm.

For Bernadette Protti, a teen girl with debilitating self-esteem, Kirsten's refusal of her friendship, after cracks on her appearance, would have been devastating.  For teen girls, appearance -- physical and economic -- is everything.  In Bernadette's mind, Kirsten held the cards for everything.  She could open the doors to popularity or permanently close them.  I don't doubt that her single-minded desire for what Kirsten had became an unhealthy obsession.

As to whether Bernadette planned to kill Kirsten that June night, it's impossible to say with certainty.  Had she become so angry, so deluded that she calmly and coldly planned to eliminate the girl she saw as both a role model and rival?  Or did she snap in the equivalent of a crime of passion, caught up in the heat of the moment?   I don't know but I think the Costas family has good arguments, based on the size and ferocity of the knife she used and her clothing.  Would Bernadette, a girl so desperate to be popular and so keenly aware of appearances -- especially in the image-conscious 1980s -- plan to attend a party in track pants and faded jacket?  

Whatever the truth of the motive, Kirsten Costas died exactly one month shy of her sixteenth birthday, choking on her own blood.  She would never graduate from high school, never go to college, never marry and have a family of her own.  The Costas family would lose a daughter and sister.  Bernadette Protti's family would have to live with the knowledge that their daughter and sister is a murderer.  She too would lose years of her life to the juvenile justice system.  Unlike Kirsten, however, she lived on, able to finish school, have a career and family.

The notoriety of the case has led to two songs.  One, by Marcy Playground, is called "Death of a Cheerleader."  The other is (unbelievably) called "Bernadette Protti" and is performed by Seeing Means More.

What do you think?  Have you heard of this case?  Have you seen the made-for-television movie?  Do you think justice was served in this case?  Or did Bernadette Protti get away with her crime?

Kirsten Marina Costas

July 23, 1968 - June 23, 1984