Satanic Panic: The Murder of Gary Lauwers

Join us on today's episodes as we cover what really happened up in the Aztakea woods, in the small town of Northport Village, New York when Ricky Kasso brutally murdered Gary Lauwers

Ricky Kasso on the way to his arraignment

Photo Source: Newsday

Satanic Panic is synonymous with the 1980's. But one brutal murder case would accelerate the fear that was already simmering beneath the surface of across the United States. Headlines like these did nothing but throw fuel on the fire during the summer of 1984.

Gary Lauwers

Photo source: Morbidology

Jimmy "Drac" Troiano

Photo Source: Newsday

Albert Quinones

Photo Sources: Newsday

Episode Sources:

Episode Transcript:

Katie KaplanHost00:01 It was the summer of 1984 in a quaint Long Island town. Northport Village borders the harbor on one side. Known for its hard-working blue-collar families, it's one of those places that uses a tired joke as its slogan it's a drinking town with a fishing problem. In the mid-1980s, the suburban dream was still alive and well, and many found secluded Northport to be a paradise, Far enough away from the chaos of New York City and the trouble kids could find there. Parents who settled there were eager to give their kids a wholesome and safe childhood. EmHost00:38 It was also around this time that a new fear was creeping into the minds of Americans across the country Satanic Panic. No one can quite pinpoint the exact incident that became the catalyst for this hysteria. Some people point to two books the Satanic Bible, which was released in 1969, and went on to become a best-seller, and another book in 1980, called Michelle Remembers, written by a psychologist, that chronicled a patient who had been abused as a child by Satanists. This, too, went on to become a best-seller. Others say it started in 1983, out in California, with that whole McMartin preschool incident. And finally, one of the biggest scapegoats back in the day was music, specifically heavy metal bands such as Judas Priest, acdc, metallica, motley Crue, black Sabbath and then later Ozzy, after he was kicked out and went on to start his own solo career. And while the exact origin might be up for debate, it's far more likely that it was a series of these events and quick succession that were to blame. Katie KaplanHost01:39 Despite the cause, satanic Panic had reached a fever pitch that summer in Northport Village after a brutal murder rocked the community to its core and overnight headlines across America did nothing but throw gasoline on a fire that was already smoldering. Some of the headlines from that time read All American Boy Turns to Satan. EmHost02:01 Two teenagers being held in ritual killing of youth Satanic cult. Murder horrifies suburb. Katie KaplanHost02:07 Long Island cops hunt teenage devil worshipers. Teenager indicted in satanic ritual killing. EmHost02:14 As these jolting titles splashed across newspapers in America, parents were sitting down after their kids went to bed and asking one another what happened the night that four teenage boys went up into the Aztecia Woods and only three came out alive. And could it happen to our own children? This is the case of Gary Lowers. I'm M, a former special agent. Katie KaplanHost02:35 And I'm Katie Kaplan, an investigative journalist, and you're listening to Two Sleuths. Warning AdvisoryHost03:01 Warning this podcast contains graphic content that may not be suitable for all listeners. All suspects or persons of interest discussed on this podcast are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Listener discretion advised. Katie KaplanHost03:17 Ricky Casso was forced into sports from a young age. His father, dick, was a high school teacher, but, more importantly, he was a football coach. He demanded that his kids be athletic, and that also included Ricky's three younger sisters. Anything less than being the star of the team was unacceptable for the Casso kids, at least in their father's eyes. EmHost03:39 But Ricky either wasn't a natural athlete or, out of resentment, he just didn't put in the effort and because of this Ricky's dad ridiculed him publicly at his baseball games, so much that other parents would step in between the father and his son telling Dick to calm down that it was just a game. There's no need to ridicule your kid in front of his friends, and in all of our research it didn't seem that there was ever a time that Ricky and his father had a good relationship. Katie KaplanHost04:05 And then the dynamic with his sisters was interesting. He had three of them, but the two oldest were really close, which left the younger sister and Ricky behind as these kind of outcasts. However, eventually this led to a really tight bond between them and Ricky was always described as being extremely protective of her. EmHost04:25 So, whether it was due to the pressure from his dad, his overall family dynamics or just plain old peer pressure, but Ricky eventually turned to drugs, and he did so from a devastatingly early age. He was just 10 years old when an older kid offered him a joint and he accepted, and it started out as it often does, something he just did occasionally. But within two years Ricky had morphed from a part-time stoner to smoking every day and, as we know, sometimes marijuana can be thought of as a gateway drug, and while that certainly isn't always the case, it was for Ricky. Katie KaplanHost05:02 At 12 years old, ricky started using LSD, or acid as it's more commonly known. Lsd is a synthetically created drug with psychedelic properties. While researching this case, many of the kids said it was common to take microdots back in the 80s, but they were under the impression that these microdots were just mescaline, which is basically another form of naturally occurring peyote derived from cactus, and the distinction seemed to be important to them. Since microdots were not lab-created, kids didn't view them as quote-unquote hard drugs. However, it seems that in the years that have passed, we've learned the microdots circulating around Long Island during this time weren't mescaline. Instead, they were taking a combination of low-grade LSD and PCP. EmHost05:46 So these kids were exposing themselves to harder drugs than they realized. But for Ricky, he intentionally got into the hardcore drug scene, moving farther away from the jock group his father so longed for him to be a part of and into the click of burnouts and druggies. His drug use became so extreme that his friends recalled how Ricky would drop acid right in the middle of class. And Ricky didn't just stop with using drugs, he started selling them too, earning himself a nickname that would make headlines in the future the Acid King. Katie KaplanHost06:17 But before he got involved in dealing drugs, he needed another way to support his new drug habit, and so he started committing burglaries, selling items he stole or, if he was lucky, finding a stash of cash in someone's house, and for at least a period of time, his parents were clueless to this. It wasn't until 1980, when he was about 13 years old, that Ricky was actually caught red-handed burglarizing someone's home. When authorities were called, his parents were, of course, shocked, but initially thought it was just a youthful indiscretion. It wasn't until his father looked through Ricky's room and then found a bong that he learned his son was actually using drugs, and they reacted the way most parents would. EmHost06:59 They wanted to take the proper steps to get their son help and put him on a straight path. So they found this narcotics prevention center that catered to helping young teenagers through counseling sessions, among other avenues, and it was during Ricky's first sit-down with one of these counselors that he told them that he had no intention of sobering up and he was going to continue using drugs. Katie KaplanHost07:21 After this failed attempt, his parents sought a more professional approach and started bringing Ricky to a psychiatrist. However, according to author Jesse Pollock, who wrote the Acid King, after this doctor's fourth visit with Ricky, he terminated him as a patient, telling his parents that Ricky was not only being completely uncooperative, but that he was also deliberately sabotaging each session. Realizations struck the cassoes that their son was heading down a path they weren't sure they were going to be able to pull him off of. EmHost07:51 And his father, who had been described as being overly strict on his kids, demanding absolute perfection, kicked his 13-year-old son out of the house. 08:01 Now it was Christmas time, winter in New York. So one thing that actually drew me into forensic psychology was trying to understand and find the root of criminal behavior, and a long-standing debate really centers around nature versus nurture. We find the answer often is a combination of the two, and while both may be at play in this case, as Ricky does go on to become a killer, you can't help but wonder if this event played a big role in the trajectory of his life. At 13 years old, you are still such a child you don't know enough about the world to be capable of finding food and shelter for yourself, and the sense of abandonment he must have felt is really something that's hard to think about Now. This is not to excuse any of his future behavior, but you can't help but feel bad for the kid he was and wondering if things had been different, would he have gone on to commit such horrific acts? But it was also around this time that something else started brewing under the surface. Katie KaplanHost08:59 The year before, on a trip to the local library, ricky had actually found a book on the occult, and this was also around the time when he first started dropping acid. EmHost09:08 Yeah, I think anyone could see that this is not a good combo the young, imaginative mind of a preteen and a mind that's being altered by hallucinogenic drugs with side effects like paranoia, while reading about Satanism and witchcraft. Katie KaplanHost09:21 Right, and at this point keep in mind, satanic Panic didn't quite have its hooks in the community yet, so the books like that weren't banned in libraries as they would be in the coming years. So Ricky was free to explore Satanism. Soon he took to talking to his friends about Satan as often as he could, and kids recalled nights of drinking and taking drugs in the local parts where Ricky would run around shouting praise Satan and this new interest of his just further escalated the issues he was having at home. EmHost09:50 After being first kicked out in 1980, Ricky would spend the next four years living on the streets, off and on. He had short periods of reprieve when he was able to convince his parents that he was cleaning up his act, at which point they would let him come home. But then the cycle would start He'd begin cutting class, he'd stop hiding his drug use and he'd begin praising Satan. Katie KaplanHost10:11 This would all culminate in Ricky being expelled from the latest school his parents had worked to get him accepted into. So each time his parents were growing stricter and less tolerant of this behavior. They would tell him that he had to cut his hair, change how he dressed and then return to school, and then he'd eventually get kicked out of that school and eventually, after each attempt back at home, he would be tossed out onto the streets again. EmHost10:36 But there were times that Ricky himself chose to leave home, deciding that a warm roof over his head and food in his stomach wasn't a worthwhile trade for the freedom that he had living on his own. In March of 1983, during one of the times he was allowed back into his house, his parents tried a new tactic they called the police and asked for help in getting Ricky involuntarily committed to the Amityville Asylum. Katie KaplanHost10:58 During his first week at the asylum, he attempted to hang himself. He was found pretty quickly and he wasn't conscious, but he was alive. He also ran away from the facility several times, but he was always found and picked up by the Suffolk County police and then returned to the asylum. During the 11 weeks that he was there, Ricky was diagnosed as manic depressive, which is now known as bipolar. One thing was clear he had no intention of submitting to the help that was being offered to him. EmHost11:27 After failing again, his parents were at their wit's end and Ricky was back out sleeping on the streets. He sought refuge wherever he could Parks, public bathrooms, abandoned lots and, most famously, a small patch of woods locally known as Aztecchia, situated on the outskirts of Northport Village. Ricky was also known to crash at his friend's houses, but on those nights that he was roughing it, he often had company, his best friend, jimmy Trianow. Katie KaplanHost11:53 Jimmy's upbringing was quite the opposite from Ricky's. He was born in 1965 and was immediately orphaned Now the details of which aren't really documented, so we don't know much about it, but we do know that he spent his early childhood living in an orphanage. He wasn't adopted until he was five years old. EmHost12:12 And, as we mentioned earlier, Jimmy might be someone who is more on the nature side of criminal tendencies, because while he was dealing with abandonment at a really crucial age, when your emotional and physical needs aren't being met, Jimmy also just never seemed normal. A counselor would later say Jimmy didn't understand right from wrong and he really didn't seem to care. Again, we don't know the actual root of the issue here, but he definitely led a turbulent life from a young age. He was adopted by a loving family, but they seemed to be career-minded people, possibly deepening that innate sense of abandonment Jimmy might have already had. Katie KaplanHost12:50 Jimmy's mood seemed to swing erratically from day to day, even as a child, hinting at some possible underlying mental health issues that were undiagnosed Back in the time when that kind of stuff was a bit more taboo Around the age of seven, Jimmy sustained some kind of injury that is turned now into a kind of folklorian story in its own right. Whatever the truth may be, it left a jagged scar from Jimmy's mouth across his face, and that scar, combined with his naturally pointed teeth, led his peers to conjure up comparisons of Jimmy to a vampire, cementing his nickname Drac. That would stay with him for years. EmHost13:28 Early on, ricky and Jimmy were actually following pretty similar paths. They both got into drugs as preteens and started committing crimes. Jimmy's adoptive parents also sought treatment for him, but, just as with Ricky, it did nothing to deter him, and Jimmy's behavior was aggressive and erratic as he entered his teen years. Classmates told stories of Jimmy getting violent with almost no provocation, and so his parents thought getting Jimmy involved in sports would help him find a healthy hobby, and football was a natural choice as a physical outlet, and it was on the seventh grade football team that Ricky and Jimmy would meet. Katie KaplanHost14:03 They instantly became best friends, realizing that neither one cared about football, and instead they spent their time getting stoned or dropping acid. By sophomore year of high school, Jimmy had dropped out altogether, and Jimmy's parents took about the same approach that the cassoes did and kicked Jimmy out of the house. Jimmy's criminal activity really ramps up at this point. Berglaries were frequent as well as criminal trespassing, because he was often seeking places to sleep that weren't public property. He was arrested several times and eventually wound up with a five-year probation sentence, and then he went on to violate this probation when he was caught picking up drugs in Florida and he was sentenced to a year in actual prison. EmHost14:46 Rounding out this group of friends was a third kid named Albert Quinones, but I just couldn't find much about his life or background except that he was a bully, just like Jimmy and Ricky, and Albert's favorite target was a boy named Gary Lowers. Now, gary Lowers was first generation, his parents being from Belgium, and he had a wonderful family and home life. He was his parents' third child and by far the youngest. He had a much older brother, michael, and his sister, nicole, was 14 years older than Gary, but she adored her baby brother, bringing him along on all of her outings when she was a young adult, and in this way, it was like Gary had two mothers, both of whom provided him with love and support. Katie KaplanHost15:27 But as he grew up, he struggled with being accepted by his peers. He was regularly bullied for how he dressed, which was likely influenced by his European parents. It was a stark comparison to the style of the 80s in America ripped jeans and band T-shirts. And as puberty hit, he was developing into a handsome young man. His female classmates were starting to pay attention to him, which just made him a bigger target as he was constantly harassed and beat up by the guys in his class, specifically Albert, despite a good upbringing. We all know the struggles that face us in high school and not being accepted during this formative age can feel like the end of the world. And in what was likely purely a means of survival, gary tried drugs for the very first time. And what? EmHost16:12 followed with that was an instant friend group. Gary was finally accepted by a group of his peers. Now, kids, this is a cautionary tale Don't do drugs, because even those with the best intentions can find themselves entering a world that's just too hard to escape, and that was just the case for Gary. He started by smoking marijuana, and it turned into taking microdots regularly, and it's also an expensive habit. Gary got himself a job washing dishes for a local restaurant. Eventually, though, he did turn to burglarizing local homes, just as Ricky and Jimmy had. He ended up stealing $4,000 out of a home, and he was caught and arrested. His parents were outraged, and Gary and his father actually got into a physical fight, after which Gary ran away for about two weeks. Katie KaplanHost16:59 When he returned, he agreed to go to counseling with his parents. It was only here that his parents actually learned about his drug use, and he admitted to them that he only got involved with it so that he could make friends. But unfortunately, it seems friends were important to Gary because he continued down this path, getting in even more trouble with the law. He at one point assaulted a friend using the hot end of a drug pipe to burn them, and he also pointed a BB gun at two kids and demanded their names and addresses. Gary was arrested for both of these events, each earning him a probation sentence, six years collectively. EmHost17:34 Gary's sister explained how he had a really sweet disposition and he never showed any aggressiveness or violent tendencies, and that it was likely just the circumstances of his drug use that led to some of this behavior. He did go on to drop out of high school at the age of 16 and he told his parents it's because he was tired of being bullied. From then on, gary was in and out of his parents' house, gone days to weeks at a time, making it hard for his mother to ever really know where he was. Katie KaplanHost18:02 This was around the time Gary started hanging out with Ricky Casso and that crew. Ricky and Gary had actually known each other since the second grade, but it was that mutual use of drugs that finally brought them together as friends. In Northport in the 80s, there were really two spots around town where the rebellious youth of the day would gather to drink and use. First was Cow Harbor Park, situated on one of Long Island's many marinas. It was an unusual area that, due to its ownership and police jurisdictions, law enforcement couldn't patrol, which made it a hotbed for illicit activities. As you can imagine, the reputation of this park disintegrated overnight in 1981 when one morning a goat fetus was found burned in the gazebo surrounded by matchbox. Rumors flew after a tip came in saying it was a sacrifice made by the Knights of the Black Circle. 18:54 This group would eventually go on to be tied to this case through years of press coverage, as they were classified as a satanic cult operating in Northport. In truth, they were a group of guys who dealt marijuana at Cow Harbor Park. They were accused of killing cats and performing satanic rituals because they all wore jackets with an inverted pentagram on the back. But when the truth came out, they weren't a satanic cult after all. Instead, they wore the pentagram to freak people out and they said it was to keep rival drug dealers from encroaching on their turf. And really it worked, but it didn't do much to quell the town from fearing they were going to influence their kids to turn to Satan. This was all fanning the fire as Satanic Panic was starting to plant its roots in the US. EmHost19:39 Now the second popular hot spot for the kids back in the day was that small patch of woods we mentioned earlier. It's where Ricky would go sleep when he was kicked out of the house. The kids started calling it that because it had these long since abandoned ruins standing in it, and Teenagers were drawn to this part of the woods Not only because it was a secluded spot to engage in whatever they didn't want prying eyes to see, but it also had a lot of spooky lore behind it. Now there are several different origin stories for the ruins in these part of the woods, and Jesse Pollock lays them out in that book we mentioned, and you should go grab a copy if you want to get even deeper into this case. Now, one of the stories he tells us that these kids had passed down over the years was that in the 1920s A minister arrived in town and he began raising money so he could build a temple out in the woods. 20:26 After amassing large donations from the town, he started building it. He laid a roadway with marble flooring and erected a Gothic archway with windows in the shape of a cross. And Then everything stopped and the minister vanished. By the time he turned back up, the town was furious to learn that he had spent all of their money and Failed to build the temple. He ended up asking for more money, which he was denied, and so he retreated up to the Aztec he a woods. He was found four days later hanging from a tree. It had become sort of an urban legend around the town and Teenagers are curious and drawn to stuff like this. I have to admit it's reminiscent of one of the many spooky stories we had in my hometown down to the tile, in the ground out in a remote area. But ours had an arch with dark stains under it and we were told it was a cult and that's where they made their sacrifices. Katie KaplanHost21:15 And I might have been one of those really dumb kids who might have engaged in some light trespassing to sneak a look hypothetically, but uh hey, yeah, no judgment here, and I have to say that we did have an area where some of Charles Manchin's Followers lived, down in the canyon that was below the community where I live. Did you ever go check it out? I did not. EmHost21:39 I was brave enough. Okay, it's time, don't do that, kids anyways. Katie KaplanHost21:44 So back to our story. It's in these two places, shrouded in Laura and dark histories, that Ricky, jimmy, albert and Gary were spending their time. It was in Cow Harbor Park that Ricky crossed paths with a Vietnam vet named Pat Toussaint. Pat was a staple there at the park, always high, always drunk, but he was particularly obsessed with the occult and always had a copy of the satanic bible with him and he would apparently give lectures about the devil and Ricky would sit in witnessing it. Ricky was all in on Lucifer. There were many friends and acquaintances who would tell stories later on about Ricky's affinity for satanism, from shouting all hail satan constantly to sitting in the park eyes glazed over, chanting Satan, satan, satan, to talking about how he wanted to be the devil's right-hand man. He made proclamations that he himself was satan and it was clearly more than just a passing curiosity that he had. EmHost22:44 And then he started taking things a step further. Now, nine years prior, ronald DeFeo Jr Massacred his entire family and the now infamous Amityville house and this was just down the road on the south side of Long Island and DeFeo claimed that it was demonic voices that made him do it. Well, ricky started telling everybody that he needed to get his hands on a skull so he could go to the Amityville house and perform a ritual on the front lawn to summon the devil. And so one night in March 1983, he went to the Crab Meadow Cemetery and he tried to dig up a grave and steal a skull, but after night of digging he hadn't found anything. Eventually he was caught and police couldn't really determine if he had succeeded in stealing any body parts, so he was actually discharged with violating the public health law. When he was arrested for this, police officers found a piece of paper in his pocket, and it was a list of the dignitaries of hell, which is basically a hierarchy of demons. Katie KaplanHost23:41 When his parents caught wind of this arrest, ricky was once again tossed back out on the street. It was March, new York, rainy and cold spring hadn't yet thawed the town, and so after sleeping outside in the Aztecia woods in this climate, ricky came down with pneumonia. He pleaded with his parents to come back home and they said they would agree if he agreed to be institutionalized, since the last time they had needed police involvement to make it happen and he wasn't committed then to the process. Ricky agreed and so once he came home they took him to the hospital to be treated for pneumonia first. 24:16 While on the mend in the hospital, ricky's parents learned that since the police weren't making the request for Ricky to be institutionalized, they would need a referral from two psychiatrists. Doctor came to evaluate Ricky there at the hospital and he told them about everything His drug use and the problems he was having in life, as well as his legal troubles. He said that if he had to go to jail he would kill himself. After being evaluated, the psychiatrist said he wasn't exhibiting any psychotic behavior and since he had told the doctors he didn't want to be committed, they couldn't take him unless it was voluntary. Unfortunately, ricky had clearly lied to his parents about his willingness. EmHost24:54 Now, just before Ricky had come down with pneumonia, he was out at a house party and he had 10 bags of angel dust on him, which is PCP. 25:02 At some point that night he passed out and when he woke up the dust was gone and the friends at the party Told him that they saw Gary take it out of Ricky's pockets while he was asleep. So Ricky tracked Gary down and he beat him up. Now Gary still had five envelopes of the dust and gave them back to Ricky, but Gary had given away the other five. So at ten dollars a pop Ricky told Gary he had to pay him back. But Gary just lost his job, so money was hard to come by. With Ricky now in the hospital, gary had some time to try to put the money together and he'd also come to the realization that he needed to get his life back on track. He told his girlfriend at the time that he felt trapped in a cycle of drug use and he wanted more than anything to escape by getting out of northport and he was looking at joining the military after he settled his debt with Ricky. Katie KaplanHost25:50 So once Ricky had recovered he spent the next few months beating Gary mercilessly any time he saw him. Friends actually say this happened about four to five times over the next few months and Gary, who at this point still didn't have the money to pay Ricky back, was hiding, avoiding Ricky and all the spots around town that they might run into each other. But by early June Gary was actually excited. He had the money put together and he started reappearing in town around some of these places. Eventually he met up with Ricky and he paid him the 50 dollars and it seemed that Ricky was ready to let bygones be bygones. EmHost26:26 Able to show his face around town again. On June 19th 1984, gary made his way out to Cow Harbor Park and he joined his friends who were out celebrating their last day of school and the freedom that summer promised. Gary was proudly exclaiming that he didn't have to stay in hiding anymore. He and Ricky were all good and totally square. Gary took a few micro dots and he hung out at the park. Eventually, ricky and Jimmy and Albert stopped by. After hanging out with the large crowds at the park, ricky told his group that he'd treat them all to donuts and he invited Gary along. Gary, eager to be re-accepted by his peers, joined them. After a stop at Dunkin Donuts, the four of them made their way up to the Aztec-E of Woods. Katie KaplanHost27:07 As they headed up into the woods, they gathered around a fire pit, one that Ricky was extremely familiar with, as he had spent many nights sleeping in this very spot. As the night wore on, they dropped acid and eventually started a fire, but hours later, ricky, jimmy and Albert emerged from the woods with Gary nowhere in sight. EmHost27:27 As Gary had only intermittently been staying at home, his family didn't realize Gary was missing right away. During the last week of June, gary's mother answered the phone and was told by an anonymous caller You'll never see your son again because I just killed him. His mother was obviously rattled but shook it off as just a practical joke. She didn't know that the caller was actually Ricky Casso and he was telling her the truth. Katie KaplanHost27:53 Ricky seemed to be proud of what he had done and he started telling people around town that he had killed Gary Lowers. And no one believed him. So when people started saying no way or shut up Ricky, he decided to prove it to them. He brought some of them up to the Aztec-E of Woods and showed them under very little leaf coverage Gary's remains. It is estimated that between 10 and 20 people were shown Gary's body in the weeks after his murder. EmHost28:20 Jimmy too couldn't keep his mouth shut. But what is so insane about all of this is that, out of the overwhelming number of people who were told about the murder, and then including those who saw his body they didn't tell their parents or the cops, except for one brave girl. On July 1st 11 days after Gary was murdered a call came into the police station. The caller said there's a body in the woods behind Gunther's tap room and then hung up. Police thought the caller had sounded like a young girl and while Northport PD's knee-jerk reaction might have been that this was just a prank call, they still went out and took a look. After a cursory search, however, they didn't find anything and they decided it probably was just a prank call. Katie KaplanHost29:06 But this opinion quickly changed the next day when another call came in. The source of this call has been reported differently. It was either from the girl's father or a nine at the all girls school she attended. Either way, it was from an adult who told the police that gene wells had heard her friend Gary Lowers had been murdered and buried in the Aztec-E of Woods. Now that the caller had been identified, police actually went out to talk to gene, and the story she provided them, if true, had a lot of details. EmHost29:35 Now she said she had been at the movies with her friend and her friend's boyfriend, who happened to be Jimmy Troyano, and Jimmy had started telling them about how the four of them were out in the woods that night when Ricky killed Gary and that they had buried Gary up in that spot. Now police thought if this was true, then at least they knew who the suspects were and it wouldn't be much of an investigation. So first they went to check in with Gary's parents, who confirmed they hadn't seen their son in a few weeks, but they stated this was normal. They then asked miss Lowers to file a missing persons report in light of the information they had just received. Katie KaplanHost30:08 It was around this time when Ricky and Jimmy started to panic. It had finally sunk into their deeply drug-addled brains that they might have let one too many, or maybe a few too many people Know about what went down with Gary in the woods. They decided it was best to skip town, and Ricky had his sights set on California. So they packed up a busted up old car they were able to buy for next to nothing and they left town. EmHost30:33 It was July 3rd when the police went back out to search Aztecia for a second time, but again they found nothing. However, by this point it had started storming and this hampered the effectiveness of the cadaver dogs and other search efforts that were underway. But by July 4th, with clear skies overhead, they went back out giving the search one more attempt. And then the cadaver dog hit on something and when the handler looked down, the dog had a human scalp in its mouth. The area was cordoned off and, in an extremely shallow grave, gary's body was found in an extremely advanced state of decomposition. Katie KaplanHost31:09 Finally, with the discovery of Gary's body, they were able to confirm that a murderer had actually taken place, and with the information provided by that lone brave girl who had finally come forward, police weren't left with much of a mystery as to who might have been responsible. So they set out to round up the three people who were in the woods that night, and they started with Albert. Albert was easy to grab, as he had stayed at his house, and the police drove him down to the station. EmHost31:39 But Ricky and Jimmy had left town at this point. However, after hitting the road, it occurred to them they should probably turn around, head back to North Port so they could sell their stash of LSD and angel dust to their usual crowd. That way they could quickly sell their jugs to finance their trip across country, and, in a move that would walk them directly into the arms of the police during the very moment they were looking for them, Jimmy and Ricky turned around and went back to North Port. Since it was the 4th of July, they had an easy time selling their supply to the kids parting around town, but the two had also engaged in some parting themselves, so they decided to sleep off their high in the car before heading out of town the next morning. And this is when police came across them, passed out in their car and they were taken into custody on a day celebrated for independence, the same day that Ricky and Jimmy would lose theirs. Katie KaplanHost32:30 Now as they were being taken into custody. Ricky resisted and actually reached into his pocket, but before he could take out the switchblade he was reaching for, cops were able to get him into cuffs. Finally, with all three perps at the station, investigators took turns interviewing them separately. They all had pretty much the same story to tell, but Albert, who had been interviewed for hours before Ricky and Jimmy had been found, had already struck a bargain with detectives and provided a detailed confession about what happened to Gary. In exchange for this, he received immunity. Albert told police a long story and they believed everything they were hearing. Albert went on to state at trial, however, that police spent hours beating him until he agreed to that confession, and he still maintains that to this day. EmHost33:18 And the story of all three of them gave police went something like this After getting up to Ricky's spot and asked Techie Woods, everything was really damp and they were having trouble lighting a fire, and so Ricky insisted that Gary use his clothing to start the fire. It started with Gary removing his socks to help with the kindling, but Ricky then told him he needed to use his jacket. Gary didn't want to, but he agreed to remove the sleeves from his jacket so he could turn it into a vest. Now, during this time, all four were dropping microdots and at one point Gary says Ricky, I have this weird vibe that you're trying to kill me. And apparently Ricky laughs it off and tells him no way. Katie KaplanHost33:57 But they do start talking about perhaps brawling with each other, and Gary agrees to fight Ricky one-on-one as long as no one else jumps in and as long as Ricky doesn't use any weapons. Soon enough they were on top of each other, fighting as they so often did. Ricky bit Gary in the neck and then again in the ear and according to Albert, he heard Ricky demand, say you love Satan, and when he looked over he says he saw Ricky stabbing Gary while Gary was crying saying I love you mom. At one point Gary was able to break away and runs into the woods, but Jimmy and Ricky chase after him and drag him back to the fire. EmHost34:36 And while this scuffle happened, ricky dropped his knife, but Jimmy picked it up and handed it back to Ricky, who continued stabbing Gary while chanting say you love Satan. Eventually, ricky and Jimmy drag Gary's body to an area away from the clearing and they start covering his body with leaves. According to Ricky, he thought Gary was dead at this point, but then he said Gary sat straight up and so he started stabbing him in the face and reportedly cut Gary's eyes out. After that, ricky said he heard a crow, let out a call, and Ricky took this as a sign from the devil that he had approved of Gary's murder. After the three boys left the woods, they went to Albert's house where Ricky washed off Gary's blood. Katie KaplanHost35:18 The stories between the three relatively lined up, with the exception of Jimmy, who apparently held back some of his own involvement initially. 35:27 Eventually, when police took him out to the woods to point out the locations where everything had happened, including where Gary's body was buried, jimmy finally said you might as well know I had a part in it, meaning in Gary's murder. 35:40 He told police that Ricky did all the stabbing, but that he not only held Gary down while it was happening, he had kicked Gary, hearted the ribs and thinks he even may have broken a few. And then he told police that he and Ricky had come back up to the area after a few weeks and decided they needed to actually bury Gary's body, since it had been fairly exposed with just a thin covering of leaves. So they returned and dug a shallow grave, barely deep enough for Gary's body. As for the murder weapon, ricky had thrown it into the marina, and it has never been found. During Ricky's interview with police, he apparently showed no remorse for killing Gary. He was concerned with getting caught, though, and police learned part of the plan to escape was already in place, as they had allegedly both already gone through the application process to join the Navy. EmHost36:31 With three similar statements now in hand, police decided to charge both Ricky and Jimmy with Gary's murder, and Albert was getting to walk away with immunity. The following day, jimmy and Ricky were transported to the courthouse to appear for their arraignment and in a moment that would be seen around the world, ricky walked past the press in handcuffs and he looked over at the cameras and let out this growl like hiss, and it was the photo snapped at this exact moment that would go on to become a lightning rod for satanic panic. And it's not hard to see why. Ricky Casso looked like a man, possessed Crazy hair, bugged out, wild eyes with his mouth open and, most poignant of all, he was wearing an ACDC shirt which had the image of the devil on it. 37:18 Following all of this, acdc would actually go on to spend a period of time as the quote unquote face of this so-called devil music. Some even claimed that the band's name stood for Antichrist Devil Child, but according to the band, this was not the source of their name. It was actually named after an electrical current. The initials ACDC stands for the term alternating current and direct current, but that was a lot less threatening for the terrified masses that were spouting the satanic panic rhetoric. Katie KaplanHost37:46 This photo made Ricky the poster child for what parents had to fear. His name became synonymous with satanic panic. This image of a 17-year-old kid killing in the name of Satan truly went on to traumatize the nation. During the 80s, a majority of newspapers that covered the murder ran this photo above the fold. Gary, on the other hand well, his photo is hard to find and almost never posted. We'll post both on our social media sites and what would be another shocking turn of events. A few hours after this picture was snapped, ricky returned to his jail cell, where he made a news with his bedsheets and then tied them to the top of the jail cell bars With the sheet fixed around his neck. He climbed up as high as he could and he jumped. Guards later found Ricky hanging in his cell, but unlike his attempt years earlier at the Amityville Asylum, this time Ricky was dead. EmHost38:41 Now Ricky's suicide was a bit controversial. A psychiatrist had sat down and evaluated both Jimmy and Ricky individually. He had determined that Jimmy was showing suicidal tendencies, and so he sent him to the Med Bay, which is basically a nurse's station in the jails, and it was here he could be kept under observation. And when it came time to evaluate Ricky he found that Ricky was doing fine, seemed well adjusted and not at all suicidal, and so Ricky was left in his cell. But the doctor did advise the guards to make their rounds and check Ricky more frequently, no more than 30 minutes between each check. Katie KaplanHost39:16 People, including Ricky's family, wondered why, with Ricky's mental history and previous attempts on his own life, that he wasn't put under watch like Jimmy, and there were rumors that the guards hadn't been regularly checking on Ricky. We may not ever know if there's more to that story and if, after the brutality of the murder and how disliked Ricky was, there really was something behind this alleged controversy, leaving a suicidal kid alone and unsupervised. EmHost39:44 And this leads us to the infamous press release given by the Northport Police Department after Ricky and Jimmy were in custody. It's one of the reasons that this case sits at the center of Satanic Panic. The statement made by police is what reporters took to printing in the press, and the whole statement was shocking, not at all in line with the standard vague press releases usually issued by police departments. It was a long statement and it included a lot of sensational information. To start with, they said that Ricky was a member of a Satanic cult and he worships and partakes in rituals honoring the devil, and they also provided the detail about Gary's eyes being removed. Now this statement went on to say that Ricky heard a crow caw and, as a Satan worshiper, he knew this was the devil ordering him to kill Gary. In the statement, they did say they were considering Gary's death a revenge, killing and drug related, but with all the other details about Satan. This is what people clung onto. Katie KaplanHost40:42 With the release of the statement, reporters of course wanted to know more about this alleged cult that Ricky belonged to, and it was printed that it was the Knights of the Black Circle and that Ricky wasn't just a member, he was their leader. This alone led to a lot of hysteria around the case. This, of course, wasn't true, but it would take a long time before it was cleared up and determined that Ricky actually had no affiliation with the group, who themselves had nothing to do with devil worship and again. EmHost41:11 It was this statement that led to the headlines running across America, some of which we had read at the top of the episode People believed that a 17 year old kid was a cult member and had killed his friend as a part of ritualistic satanic sacrifice, when in reality, ricky was a messed up kid who sought revenge after being ripped off, and he just happened to be really into Satan. But we'll never truly get answers on this matter now that Ricky is dead. Katie KaplanHost41:40 In the aftermath of his death, jimmy was the one left holding the bag, but the prosecution's job had just gotten a lot harder Now that Ricky was dead. His confession couldn't be used against Jimmy. That comes down to the Sixth Amendment ensuring a defendant's right to face his accuser, which was at this point impossible. Defense attorney Eric Nyberg requested to be assigned Jimmy's case. He had two statements that Jimmy gave to the press, the first right after he was picked up and then a second when he was taken out to the woods. Jimmy made two more to his attorney and Nyberg realized they were all different versions of the same event. EmHost42:17 Then Rolling Stone released an article on this case, written by David Bresken, entitled Cult Killings Kids in the Dark, and in it there were statements made by Albert Quinones Now he had never given an interview to the press and all the time after Gary's murder. But he spoke to David and in the article Albert went on about how high he was and that he was tripping out the night of Gary's murder. He said he saw trees that were bending down and it was. In the same article he says how cops beat him up for two and a half hours to get his confession. Katie KaplanHost42:49 So, with Jimmy's conflicting account of that night and with what Albert said in that article, jimmy's attorney knew the defense that he was going to present at trial. It was that these kids were so out of their minds on drugs that night that their recollection was completely unreliable and that no one really knew what happened that night. Furthermore, if Albert's confession had been coerced through a beating by the police, it was going to be inadmissible in court and it was really the only evidence the prosecution had against Jimmy. EmHost43:20 And so Jimmy's lawyer subpoenaed Rolling Stone to get their hands on David's interview recordings and notes that he had had from his interview with Albert. 43:29 But Rolling Stone refused, which technically put them in contempt of court. So it escalated through the court system and then, in a verdict out of Suffolk County in March of 1985, the court talked out their reasoning, and in doing so they examined the shield law, and that states that a news reporter shall not be held in contempt by any court for refusing or failing to disclose any source of news coming into his possession in the course of gathering that news. But beyond that, they also had to put two different constitutional rights up against each other the First Amendment, right which protects press and the freedom of speech, up against Jimmy's Sixth Amendment, right to confront a witness. In the end the courts found that Jimmy's request for this information did not meet the threshold. As Jimmy's claim was really just vague assertions that the material requested might be needed for discovery or to impeach a witness, the court ruled this was not sufficient enough to uphold the subpoena, and so Rolling Stone wasn't compelled to turn anything over. Katie KaplanHost44:29 Jimmy's trial started on April 4, 1985, less than a year after Gary was murdered. The first sticking point for the defense was over the cause of Gary's death. The medical examiner testified that, based on Gary's jacket alone, they found 22 stab marks, but that, due to the state of decomposition that Gary's remains were found in, they couldn't actually identify the exact locations where he was stabbed. It does seem, though, that they saw other evidence, most likely on the bones, of an additional 10 stab wounds outside of what evidence was in the jacket, which brings the total to at least 32 stab wounds inflicted on Gary that night, including the ones to his face. 45:10 The examiner stated that he found significant injuries to Gary's sixth and eleventh vertebrae caused by a knife-like instrument, and these wounds severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the waist down, making him unable to run away, which conflicts with what Jimmy and Albert had claimed when they said that Gary had ran into the woods. The defense used this to mean that, if Gary couldn't have run away, that he couldn't have been dragged back to the campsite, and this proves that Jimmy's statements to the cops are unreliable. The defense asked what would have happened if the knife punctured Gary's heart, and the doctor said that he would have bled out and would have died almost instantly. But there was no soft tissue left to determine if that had happened. So the defense turned to the jury and said if Gary had been stabbed in the heart by Ricky, then Jimmy wouldn't have had the time to participate in killing him. EmHost45:59 So he's out there sowing the seeds of reasonable doubt any chance he got. And then it was time for Albert to take the stand. Now, this was the prosecution's star witness. He had been granted full immunity for any charges because of the testimony he was about to provide. While under oath, and while Albert may have claimed he just sat there and watched that night, he easily could have been charged for being a necessary after the fact obstruction of justice or evidence, among other charges. But no, instead he was given full immunity. So when a state or government witness takes the stand, they've been interviewed beforehand at length. So the DA's gone through their testimony and there's not usually any surprises. That's why those courtroom dramas where bombshell information is revealed on the stand it's usually a little farfetched and not a very common occurrence. At least one side is always very familiar with the testimony that will be provided in the witnessee. But during Jimmy Troyano's trial, albert did just what we see in Hollywood he dropped a bomb and neither the defense nor the prosecution saw it coming. Katie KaplanHost47:07 During cross-examination, when the defense was asking questions of Albert, they began going through the events of the murder night. Albert suddenly told the courtroom that, while Ricky was on top of Gary, albert walked over and kicked Gary right in the face. Both sides were clearly stunned and Jimmy's attorney asked Albert to repeat himself, and so he was confronted with the fact that he never told this to police. He had always insisted that he just sat there and never got physically involved. Paralyzed from fear and the drugs, albert responded that he had actually lied to the police, and perhaps this wasn't so much as a shock, because prior to that his testimony had been a mess and was full of contradictions. EmHost47:49 To begin with he told them that he had had no idea that Gary was going to be murdered ahead of time. But in Jimmy's statements he said Albert did know. And it was actually Albert that told Jimmy it was Ricky's plan, before they ever went into the woods at night, to kill Gary. And then Albert testified that he had only taken three micro dots and drank a little bit that night way less than the rest of the group. But this flew in the face that he claimed he was so drugged up that he didn't know exactly what had happened. And then, completely contrary to that, he testified to another shocking statement. He said that night Gary told Albert that he was afraid Jimmy was going to kill him, not Ricky, and that it was Jimmy who first tackled and chased Gary. Katie KaplanHost48:33 And only after that did Ricky then get involved and to further complicate things, both the defendant and this witness in this murder trial were using heavy mind-altering drugs when the murder occurred, so it really just muddied everything up. During his closing statements, Jimmy's attorney turned to the jury and asked would you convict your own child based on the testimony presented in this courtroom? If you wouldn't convict your own child, then don't convict this one. EmHost49:02 The jury deliberated for three days when they returned their verdict. They had found Jimmy Troiano not guilty for the murder of Gary Lowers. But Jimmy wasn't free to walk out of the courtroom that day. He had to return to jail and await the trial he was facing for a burglary he had committed right before Gary was murdered. He would go on to lose that trial and was sent to a few years in prison. But not long after he was released he walked into a bank in Albany, new York, and robbed the place for almost $1,000. It would take almost a year for the cops to pin that robbery on Jimmy, and in that time Jesse Pollock went on to detail in his book that Jimmy had been arrested several more times for possession of crack, cocaine, larceny and third degree burglary. Eventually, however, he was caught and convicted for the bank robbery and he served just under seven years and was released around 2000. Katie KaplanHost49:53 Four years later he walked into a CVS armed with a pellet gun that looked real. He had not only covered his head, face and hands with bandages, but he had covered those bandages with ketchup. He walked up to the pharmacist and, while pointing the gun at them, passed them a note that read Give me all oxycontin 80s, 40s, 20s and fentanyl patches. Now I have a gun. Exclamation point. I will use it. Exclamation point. While the pharmacist was trying to open the safe, jimmy became impatient, jumped the counter and pushed the pharmacist aside. Once the safe was open, he grabbed three bottles of what ended up being Ritalin. EmHost50:32 So he was now facing federal charges, specifically Hobbs Act robbery, and he was sentenced to 12 and a half years. Now Jimmy appealed that sentence and we got our hands on the court documents for that appeal. In it Jimmy argued that he was suffering from bipolar mood swings and in his own words he said that had the sentencing judge been fully informed of my past health history and my loss of control over my reasoning ability, then maybe he would have been more lenient. And then in the appellate judges ruling she had some interesting things to say. She said what worries me is that you've had so many chances to straighten yourself out and not only have you failed to do so. Your record is severe. The seriousness of this offense is severe, and I'm looking at two offenses now where the public are in serious danger. Katie KaplanHost51:19 Jimmy may not have been found guilty for the murder of Gary, but he went on to lead a life of violence and spent many years in both state and federal prisons. The Aztakea Woods have since been cut down and a development now sits on top of the spot that Ricky brought so many of his friends to proudly show off the body of Gary Lowers. The town of Northport will never forget the events that unfolded that summer night in 1984 and the aftermath that rained down because of how it was all interpreted. EmHost51:47 And we will never forget Gary Lowers. He was just a 17 year old kid, with his whole life ahead of him, and he didn't deserve to die. Katie KaplanHost51:56 All right, slueths. With that, we want to wish you all a spooky and very safe Halloween. I'm going to embark on my big move across a few states and then I'm gearing up to jump into the podcast full time. EmHost52:08 So for that reason we will be taking a short hiatus, but we're also working on a really big project that we will be able to deliver to you guys all at once, and so we're really looking forward to announcing that as it gets closer. In the meantime, we will be back with a new episode for you on November 21st, so make sure you've hit that follow button in your podcast player so you don't miss when that episode drops. Katie KaplanHost52:31 We also have a big update on an unsolved case that we've already covered, and we'll be dropping that many episodes sometime before the 21st. So make sure to keep your eyes peeled and until next time, stay vigilant and stay curious, fellow Slueths.

Satanic Panic: The Murder of Gary Lauwers

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