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| (photo source) |
A Family Is Annihilated
It was Thursday, May 6, 1976 when the maroon 1972 Thunderbird was spotted parked at 140 South Whipple in west Chicago. The officer responding to the suspicious vehicle report arrived around two o'clock and noted that the car had an Elk Grove Village sticker in the front window. There were no hubcaps, the right front window had been smashed and covered by a piece of cardboard and the ignition had been pulled. Seeing as how the car hadn't been stripped, though, the officer believed it had been stolen by amateurs. A check, though, revealed that the car had not been reported stolen and was registered to a Frank Columbo of Elk Grove Village, a suburb 20 miles northwest from Chicago.
At one time home to farmers and German immigrants, Elk Grove Village eventually developed into a residential community. Its easy commute to O'Hare International Airport helped the population to double in the 1960s and the village itself to continue expanding with new housing, roads, schools and businesses. The growth would continue throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s and eventually Elk Grove Village would house the largest consolidated business park in North America. In 1976, Elk Grove Village was considered a safe haven from the crime that plagued cities like Chicago.
Frank Columbo was a successful auto parts salesman who had no business being in the neighborhood and so the officer attempted to phone the Columbo residence multiple times over the next hour or so, getting only the insistent beeping of a busy signal. He then transmitted the information to the Elk Grove Village Police Department.
On Friday, May 7, at roughly 4:45 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the Columbo home at 55 Brantwood to inform the occupants that their car had been found in Chicago. Upon arriving, the officer was immediately on alert seeing three days' worth of newspapers gathered around the front porch and while the storm door was closed, it was unlocked and the front door was ajar. The officer received no response to his knocks, other than the sound of a dog barking from inside. He called for backup and while waiting, walked the perimeter of the house's exterior, noting not only piled up newspapers and mail but the fact that there were no cars in the driveway or garage. All the windows and doors appeared intact and secure, other than the front door. When the backup officer arrived, both men then entered the Columbo residence.
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| Frank and Mary in a joyful moment (photo source) |
They found 43-year-old Frank first, in the family's living room. He was lying on his back, dressed in a t-shirt, plaid pants and socks, surrounded by broken glass and with a torn and bloody lampshade nearby. He had clearly been dead for several days.
Forty-year-old Mary was found lying on her back on the landing outside the bathroom that featured gold filigree tiles she had painstakingly hand painted. She had a bullet wound on the bridge of her rose, literally right between her eyes, and a one-inch slash across her throat. Part of an artificial fern plant and a bloodied magazine were lying next to her body. Broken glass and beads were scattered by her head.
The officers immediately called for an investigative unit and evidence technicians.
At roughly 5 p.m., Investigator Raymond Rose of the Elk Grove Village Police Department became the first investigator to arrive on the scene. He viewed the bodies of Frank and Mary Columbo and also made note that Mary was still wearing a large diamond ring on her left hand. Her handbag was found in the bathroom, its contents on the floor, as well as a cigarette case and an ashtray.
Rose observed four human teeth lying between the top of the stairs and the wall, as he continued his examination of the crime scene.
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| Michael (photo source) |
In his bedroom was 13-year-old Michael. He was lying on his back on the floor, clad in a white t-shirt and blue sweatpants. His head was bloodied and he appeared to have a bullet wound to the left side as well as one to the back. He also had a multitude of stab wounds to his neck and chest. A pair of gold-plated scissors with crossed blades was found on his desk and a marble-based bowling trophy was lying next to his body. Both items were bloody.
Walking through the rest of the house, Rose found a bloodied crumpled magazine, loose coins, beads and portions of artificial ferns on the floor of the foyer. In the kitchen, the garbage had been dumped on the floor, which was bloody. One of the cabinets was open, the telephone was off the hook and a personal telephone directory was open to a page that had the name and number of the Columbos' eldest child written on it. In the master bedroom upstairs, the covers were pulled back, as if someone was readying for bed, but the sheets were smooth, indicating no one had slept there. Everything appeared orderly, with no ransacking, and the bedside alarm clock, which had been set for 9 a.m. was buzzing.
Outside the house, a nine-inch knife was lying next to the front stoop and a steak knife was found lying a rock garden.
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| The scissors used to stab Michael (photo source) |
Rose was immediately aware that valuable items in the home - portable color television sets, a CB radio, an eight-track recorder, stereo equipment, cameras, projectors, a .40 caliber shotgun, and two air rifles, not to mention the diamond ring that Mary Columbo wore - were all easily visible and had been left untouched. There was also a wall safe that contained nearly $5,000 in cash. No one had opened the safe or attempted to pry it open.
In Rose's opinion, the valuable items being left behind, the fact that all the windows were intact, the back door was locked, the front door showed no pry marks or forced entry and the phone lines were not cut discounted robbery as a motive.
Also noticeably absent, at least in the detectives' minds, was 19-year-old Patricia Columbo. While the arrival of police cars, detectives and crime scene tape had aroused natural interest throughout the neighborhood, the lone survivor of the Columbo family massacre never appeared. Detectives summoned Patty, as she was known, to come to the station and provide them with information.
While all detectives and law enforcement personnel know that people respond to tragedies and grieve in glaringly different, and even unusual, ways, Patty Columbo, rather than being distraught or in tears, showed up at the precinct with what she considered a lead: her father Frank's ties with the mob. According to Patty, Frank ran a mob chop shop for stolen cars behind the auto parts store and that probably led to the murders. Detectives dutifully made note of her story, as well as the fact that she openly flirted with the male officers and was dressed rather seductively.
On Saturday, May 8, the chief medical examiner of Cook County performed the autopsies on the Columbos. The body of Frank Columbo contained irregular lacerations from a blunt object, probably a heavy crystal lamp and/or the bowling trophy found by Michael's body. Frank had suffered four gunshot wounds: one to the right side of his face, one to the left side of his face, one to his left lower lip, and one to the left side of his head behind his ear. He had also sustained cuts from a sharp instrument and had four teeth missing from his jaw.
Mary Columbo had died from the gunshot wound she sustained between her eyes. She was likely dead by the time her body hit the floor and her heart had certainly stopped beating when her throat was slashed.
Michael Columbo had died after being shot at close range in the head. After being shot, he was bludgeoned with a heavy instrument before his neck and chest were stabbed or punctured more than 90 times. The medical examiner felt the stab/puncture wounds were shallow enough that they could possibly indicate a female administered them. A single foreign hair was recovered from the front of Michael's t-shirt at the time of his autopsy. That hair would later be determined to be microscopically indistinguishable from the hair of his sister, Patty.
Based on the stomach contents of the family, and the lack of rigor mortis, the medical examiner estimated the Columbos had died between 11 p.m. on May 4, 1976 and 1 a.m. on May 5, 1976.
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| The crime scene (photo source) |
At the time the autopsies were being performed, the evidence technician for the Elk Grove Village Police Department pried open the trunk of Frank Columbo's Thunderbird at the PD garage. He noted there were dark maroon or red smudges on the trunk, visible from five feet away and that the smudges could have been from either grease or blood. Unfortunately, the smudges were contaminated and were unable to be compared. Handprints were found on the fender and trunk of the car. These prints came from the left hand of a person who was either missing a left index finger or wherein the left index finger did not make an impression. Glass was recovered from the floor of the car's interior, as well as take-out bags from a fast food restaurant, a white box from back seat and a bloodied artificial plant stalk similar to that found by Mary's body. When the glass fragments were analyzed using a refraction method, it was determined that they could have originated from the broken lamp base found on the Columbos' living room floor.
Later on that same Saturday, less than five miles from Elk Grove Village, a Wood Dale police officer, responding to the teletype on Mary Columbo's missing car, located the 1972 Oldsmobile '98 in the parking lot of a condominium complex. There was no damage or theft to the vehicle and nothing appeared to be out of place. A resident at the condominium complex would later state that when he left for work around 5:30 a.m. on May 5, there had been no car parked in the space next to his but when he returned home around 5:30 p.m., the Oldsmobile was there.
When the Oldsmobile was examined by evidence technicians, five fingerprints were recovered, as well as two different types of cigarette butts from the ashtray and a blue blanket in the backseat. Part of the roof liner had red stains on it and was removed.
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| Patty as a child with her mother, Mary (photo source) |
All About Patty
On Monday, May 10, 1976, funerals were held for Frank, Mary and Michael Columbo. As is standard operating procedure in a homicide investigation, detectives planned to attend with one minor change: noticing how flirtatious Patty Columbo was with the male officers previously, they sent a young, handsome officer along. Although Patty had brought her boyfriend, a man by the name of Frank DeLuca, to the service, DeLuca reportedly sat alone off to the side while Patty openly flirted with the cop. So brazen was she with the cop that relatives, who had heard of DeLuca but had not met him, assumed the cop was her boyfriend. Frank's older brother, who had lived only a block from the Columbo residence, recalled that he and Patty had verbally argued over Patty's desire to have her family cremated (it went against the Catholic Columbos' beliefs) and that at the wake, Patty did not cry or show any visible signs of emotion.
Outside of Patty's flirtation with the officer, her behavior sent up red flags to the seasoned detectives. She laughed and joked over cigarettes outside the church and then once inside, threw herself, wailing, on the slate gray coffins that held the earthly remains of her father, mother and brother, coffins that were closed due to the damage inflicted on them in their last moments of life.
Detectives checked into Patty's suggestion that Frank Columbo had mob ties and came up empty. They found nothing to tie him in with the mob or any illegal activity. Instead, they focused their attention on Patty.
Patricia Columbo was the first child of Frank and Mary and the apple of Frank's eye, calling her "Princess" and treating her just as that. Patty had been the center of her parents' world until she was six years old, when her younger brother Michael was born. Although some family and friends would later say that Patty had always been very caring and maternal toward her younger brother, others would claim she was jealous and resentful over the attention Frank gave to his only son.
By the time she reached adolescence, Patty was a very pretty girl who easily turned the heads of boys . . . and men. She was known to be wild and uninhibited. She was also headstrong, as demonstrated by her decision to drop out of school when she was sixteen. She stole the credit card and the wallet of two fellow employees at Walgreens, where she was working the cosmetics counter, and racked up thousand of dollars in charges. Although her father made restitution and paid off the amount, in July of 1974, she was convicted of deceptive practices and sentenced to two years' probation -- probation she was still on at the time of the murders.
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| A young Patty with her father, Frank (photo source) |
It was around this time that she met Frank DeLuca. DeLuca was a Purdue University graduate with a pharmacy degree who had been working at Walgreens since 1961 or 1962. He had been promoted to manager by the time he met Patty in 1972. At that time, he was 36 years old, married and the father of five children but he had a reputation as being a swinger around town. Sixteen-year-old Patty was not the first Walgreens' employee he had an affair with, although she may have been the youngest. Patty was up for swinging with Frank, having sex with other women and allowing Frank to photograph her and make videos. Neither Frank nor Mary Columbo were aware of the illicit relationship between their daughter and her boss and so when Patty decided to move out of the home on Brantwood in 1974 and into the DeLuca family home, it was apparently with the blessing of Frank and Mary. At the DeLuca home, unbelievably, DeLuca and Patty continued their affair, engaging in sexual acts while Marilyn DeLuca and the DeLuca children were in another room or in the yard. At some point, the Columbos found out that Patty was involved not only with a man nearly twice her age who was married and had children but had a reputation as a swinger. Needless to say, Frank Columbo was understandably upset and disapproving.
Patty lived with the DeLucas for about a year before she came running back home in the summer of 1975 to tell her father that she was done with DeLuca and she wanted her own place. Frank was likely thrilled that the affair was over, although Patty was lying. She didn't tell her parents that not only was she still very much involved with DeLuca but that DeLuca and his wife had separated. Frank helped Patty to find an apartment in Lombard, a small village known for their annual Lilac Festival about 15 miles south of Elk Grove Village. He also agreed to foot her monthly rent.
Needless to say, he was less than happy when he found out that not only was Patty still seeing DeLuca but the Lombard apartment he was paying for was essentially the couple's love nest - DeLuca had immediately moved in with Patty.
In August of 1975, a month before Marilyn DeLuca filed for divorce, Frank approached Patty and DeLuca in the parking lot of the Walgreens where DeLuca worked, ordering DeLuca to leave Patty alone. A violent confrontation ensued when, according to DeLuca, Frank pointed a rifle at DeLuca's head and said, "I'm going to blow your head off!" When DeLuca crouched down, Frank hit him across the mouth with the butt of a rifle, knocking DeLuca completely to the ground. When DeLuca began to get up, Frank hit him again with the rifle butt, this time in the stomach. DeLuca claimed that Frank then said, "You're dead, you motherf*cker!"
Patty filed a complaint and had her father charged with assault. Frank was arrested and tossed in jail but Patty soon withdrew the complaint. Reportedly, once he was out, Frank made plans to disown Patty.
The Columbos apparently had little or no contact with Patty until the late winter or early spring of 1976, when they appeared to mend fences over Patty and DeLuca planning to marry. As DeLuca's divorce would be finalized at the end of May, the couple said they were going to marry in June. According to DeLuca, the Columbos had accepted the relationship and were even going to gift them with a new washer and dryer as a wedding gift.
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| Police outside the Columbo home on May 7, 1976 (photo source) |
The Plot Thickens
On May 12, 1976, fingerprints were taken of Patty Columbo and Frank DeLuca. It was noticed and noted at the time that DeLuca was missing the index finger and the tip of his middle finger on his left hand. No nicks or scabs were noticed on either his hands or Patty's.
Two days later, on May 14, detectives spoke with 25-year-old Lanyon "Lannie" Mitchell who had plenty of information on Patty Columbo and Frank DeLuca. Mitchell, a car salesman, had first met Patty in September of 1975 through a friend of hers. Mitchell said that he had offered Patty money to go out with a friend of his, 34-year-old Roman Sobczynski. Patty told Mitchell that she was living with her boyfriend but she needed the money. She also mentioned that her father had struck her boyfriend in the head with a rifle butt. In October, Mitchell and Sobczynski met up with Patty at the Where Else Lounge, where they drank and danced. Under the impression that Mitchell was a "heavy" who did favors for his friends (helped by the gun he toted), Patty discussed the animosity between DeLuca and her parents and expressed a desire to have them killed. Mitchell told her he would do it for $10,000 a person, or $20,000. He quickly assured detectives that he never had any intention of killing anyone but was trying to impress Patty, so that he could have sex with her.
According to Mitchell, Patty called him multiple times throughout October of 1975, wanting to know when he was going to kill her parents. Mitchell stalled her by asking for a rundown of her parents' activities and schedules. In return, Patty provided him with floorplan drawings of the Columbo house and informing him about the wall safe, the televisions, the CB radio, furs and diamonds.
By November, Patty was again demanding to know when the killings would take place. According to Mitchell, she wanted them done around Christmas as some sort of demented gift to herself. Sobczynski, who had been informed about the "contract" through a telephone call from Mitchell, demanded money up front to continue. Patty told him that the money for payment would come after the killings from an insurance policy. In the interim, however, she offered sex in exchange and both men accepted. After their sexual encounters, Patty gave Mitchell photographs of her family and what amounted to a dossier on their activities.
In early December, Mitchell accompanied Patty to the Columbo residence as Patty wanted him to case the house. Mary answered the door and Mitchell panicked, leaving the property and driving down the street. When Patty rejoined him, she told him that she and Mary had an argument about DeLuca and Patty wanted her parents killed that night. She said she left a patio door unlocked so that he could enter the home.
Another month went by and in January of 1976, Mitchell said that Patty told him and Sobczynski that her little brother was going to have to go too because he might figure out things later. Later that month, Patty informed Mitchell that she had once again left the patio doors unlocked and that she and DeLuca were both getting anxious.
In mid-March, Mitchell called Patty and asked about the up-front money. Patty told him neither she nor DeLuca had any money and again questioned when the hits would go down.
Mitchell reiterated to the cops that he was not a hit man, nor had he ever had any intention of killing Frank, Mary and Michael Columbo. He had simply been stringing Patty Columbo along for sex and money.
Detectives picked up Roman Sobczynski, a recruiting officer for the Cook County Department of Personnel. He was married and the father of three children. Despite being held at the Elk Grove Village Police Department until five or six the following morning, he refused to talk. He would also refuse to speak before the grand jury.
Detectives corroborated at least part of Mitchell's statement after speaking to Carolyn Tygrett, Mary Columbo's sister. Carolyn recalled visiting her sister in late 1975 or early 1976 and Patty had shown up saying she was there to pick up something. She left soon thereafter, without picking up whatever it was she claimed to have been there for. Mary, however, discovered that the sliding glass patio doors, locked before Patty's visit, were unlocked and she secured them.
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| Patty at her arraignment (photo source) |
Arrests
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| (photo source) |
On July 17, 1976, Frank DeLuca was arrested once more and tossed into a Cook County jail to await trial. An inmate by the name of Clifford Childs became his cellmate for the next six months. According to Childs, DeLuca had bragged that he had been the one to come up with the perfect plan to kill the Columbo family and he had personally shot each family member himself. The plan was apparently for there to be a reconciliation between Patty and her parents, which would then pave the way for a meeting to be arranged on the evening of May 4. DeLuca said the meeting had been scheduled for 8 p.m. but he purposely delayed his arrival until 10 p.m. in order to establish an alibi at Walgreens. It had been Frank Columbo who answered the doorbell and he had turned and started to walk up the stairs when DeLuca had shot him in the back of the head with a .32 caliber revolver. He then shot Mary and he and Patty had gone to Michael's room, where the boy had been sleeping. They woke him up, forced him to stand and then DeLuca shot him in the head. To make it appear as if a robbery had taken place, the house was messed up and DeLuca took $150 in cash, some jewelry and a few small household appliances that he put in Frank Columbo's Thunderbird, which was driven to a westside neighborhood in Chicago and left. DeLuca and Patty had expected that the car would be broken into, the contents stolen and then traced back to the Columbos, solidifying the robbery motive. DeLuca told Childs he had been in the Columbo residence for no more than 25 minutes and that he had worn gloves, even going so far as to stuff the index finger of the left glove.
Convictions
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| Inmate C73216 (photo source) |
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| Inmate C77200 (photo source) |
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| The final resting place of Frank, Mary and Michael (photo source) |
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