Notable Long Island crimes
The Medford pharmacy killings
Credit: SCPD / Suffolk County Sherriff
On June 19, 2011, Father's Day, David Laffer entered Haven Drugs in Medford with the intent to rob the pharmacy of painkillers and killed two employees and two patrons. His wife, Melinda Brady, was charged with planning the robbery and driving the getaway car. Laffer was sentenced to life in prison and Brady was given a 25-year sentence.
The Ocean Parkway serial killer
Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
In December of 2010, a grisly discovery was made along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, shown on Dec. 14, 2010. Police found four sets of remains less than a mile apart -- all prostitutes in their 20s who advertised online. Since, an extensive search has led to 10 sets of remains found in Nassau and Suffolk, and has led police to believe there may be a serial killer at large.
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The Patchogue hate-crime trial of Jeffrey Conroy
Credit: James Carbone
Jeffrey Conroy, 19, shown on Nov. 10, 2008, was convicted of manslaughter in the 2008 fatal stabbing of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero and of second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime in attacks on three other Hispanic men. The Medford teenager faces 8 to 25 years behind bars in what District Attorney Thomas Spota's office said is the first hate-crime conviction in Suffolk County in a case involving a death.
Murder in the Hamptons
Ted Ammon, a wealthy banker and chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center, seen in a photo with his two adopted children, was beaten to death by his wife?s boyfriend in East Hampton as their divorce was days from being finalized. Daniel Pelosi received the maximum sentence, though he maintained his innocence, saying he was "the victim of media and of circumstance."
Joel Rifkin
Credit: AP Photo / Ed Bailey
After spotting his pickup on the Southern State Parkway without license plates in 1993, state troopers are led on a chase by Joel Rifkin, above, an unemployed East Meadow landscaper. After Rifkin crashes into a utility pole in Mineola, police approach him and detect an odor coming from his truck. They find the body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, one of 17 women, mostly prostitutes, that Rifkin would confess to slaying over four years. New York State's worst serial killer is sentenced to more than 200 years in prison on seven murder convictions.
The "Suffolk County sniper"
Credit: AP
Peter Sylvester of Nesconset, shown on Sept. 12, 1995, confessed to shooting five people, killing one. He targeted victims with a high-powered rifle over 13 frightening days in the summer of 1994 and was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Colin Ferguson and the LIRR Massacre
Credit: Dick Yarwood
Claiming white people are holding him down, Jamaican immigrant Colin Ferguson, shown on Feb. 16, 1995, opens fire with a 9-millimeter handgun inside a Long Island Rail Road train as it arrives at Merillon Avenue station in Garden City on the evening of Dec. 7, 1993. He kills six and wounded 19 others before being overwhelmed by three passengers. The shootings spark national outcry for handgun reform and persuades nurse Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband, Dennis, was killed and son, Kevin, was wounded, to run for Congress. Ferguson gets 315 years and 8 months-to-life in Attica.
The kidnapping of Katie Beers
Credit: Newsday File / Dick Kraus
Katie Beers was kidnapped and sexually abused in an underground Bay Shore chamber belonging to family friend John Esposito for more than two weeks. She was found alive 17 days later. The investigation scene is shown on Jan. 19, 1993.
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The Long Island Lolita
Credit: Newsday File / Dick Yarwood
Involved in an affair with Baldwin auto body shop owner Joey Buttafuoco, 17-year-old Amy Fisher goes to his house in Massapequa on May 19, 1992, and shoots his wife, Mary Jo, in the face with a .25-caliber pistol. Mary Jo survives. The case becomes a cause celebre, spawning three TV movies within a year, among them: “The Amy Fisher Story” with Drew Barrymore and “Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita” with Alyssa Milano.
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The murder of Kelly Ann Tinyes
Credit: Newsday File / Michael E. Ach
On March 3, 1989, Kelly Ann Tinyes, 13, is stabbed, beaten and sexually mutilated in a house on Horton Road in Valley Stream owned by the family of Robert and John Golub. A day later, police find her body in a basement closet at the home -- five doors away from her own house. For eight weeks in 1990 a televised, scientific drama is played out in court -- with DNA evidence used to convict Robert, 21, shown on March 23, 1989, of murder.
Martin Tankleff's story
Credit: AP Photo / Ed Betz
Seymour and Arlene Tankleff were found bludgeoned and slashed to death in their Belle Terre mansion in 1988. Son Martin Tankleff was convicted of their murders in 1990 but the conviction was vacated on appeal 17 years later.
Murder on Christmas Eve
Credit: Newsday File
Lisa Solomon was choked to death on Christmas Eve in 1987and dumped near the Huntington Station apartment she shared with her husband, Matthew. He reported her missing, but later was arrested and confessed in 1988.
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Richard Angelo, the "Angel of Death"
Credit: AP / Ken Kortkin
Richard Angelo, 26, killed several patients at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip in 1987. His goal was to inject patients with various drugs to cause a near-death state, and then "save" them so he could appear heroic. Angelo failed to bring many of his victims back to life and was later caught and arrested. He was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, among other charges, and was sentenced to 61 years in prison.
Murder of 13-year-old John Pius
Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
John Pius, 13, was found dead April 20, 1979, behind a Smithtown elementary school with six small stones jammed down his throat. Above, police look closely at the bicycle that belonged to Pius, whose body was found just feet away, on April 21, 1979. The wooded area is just beyond the playground area of Dogwood Elementary School.
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Credit: UPI
The kidnapping of business executive Jack J. Teich from his home in Kings Point on Nov. 12, 1974 was solved nearly two years later when police track bills from the massive $750,000 ransom to a man living in a trailer in Barstow, Calif.
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Credit: Newsday
Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six of his family members Nov. 13, 1974, in what was dubbed the “ Amityville Horror.” Two Suffolk homicide detectives lead him to his booking in Hauppauge. The crime scene inspired a controversial book and film that portrayed a family's experiences inside the home a year after the murders. They claimed the house was haunted and left less than a month later.
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Credit: Newsday
On July 4, 1956, down-on-his-luck taxi dispatcher Angelo John LeMarca drives through a neighborhood in Westbury, snatches 32-day-old Peter Weinberger from a baby carriage and 20 minutes later leaves him to die by the side of the Northern State Parkway in Plainview — and nevertheless sends a ransom note demanding a mere $2,000. He gets caught when police match an obscure government form written in green ink to the ransom note, also written in green ink. LeMarca gets the electric chair at Sing Sing on Aug. 7, 1958. His own son becomes a cop — and his grandson is later implicated in a murder. The story becomes the basis for the 2002 movie “City by the Sea” starring Robert DeNiro.
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Credit: AP
Socialite Ann Woodward, who claimed she believed she was shooting at a prowler, kills her millionaire husband, Billy Woodward Jr., with a shotgun blast in the hallway of their 12-room mansion in Oyster Bay Cove on Oct. 30, 1955. He owns Nashua, the best racehorse in the country -- and is worth a cool $20 million. A grand jury did not indict her. Years later, she committed suicide. The couple is shown together for a dance at the Belmont Ball at the Turf and Field Club at Belmont Park in 1954.
Credit: Newsday
The largest bail-jumping in American history, the sordid tale of Massapequa Farmers Market owner Ivan Jerome, known as "Ivan the Terrible," who fled the country in 1956 -- a year after his market burned down and police discovered 2,400 feet of X-rated film showing sex acts with girls ages 11 to 17. Jerome is shown on Aug. 17, 1955.
Credit: Newsday / Ike Eichorn
The “Miss Lonely Hearts” killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck went on a 1940s killing spree that earned them a trip to the electric chair in 1951. Their story led to a 2007 movie “Lonely Hearts,” featuring John Travolta as a Nassau County cop.Fernandez and Beck are shown on March 1, 1949.
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