Chapter 1: What crime occurred in Franklin, New Jersey?
In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.
I wonder what's the emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.
For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another absolutely wild and crazy New Jersey edition of Small Town Murder Express. New Jersey, the Florida of the North, everybody. And here it is.
We got a very crazy one for you today. Before we get started, though, definitely do me a favor. Head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com and get all your tickets for live shows. Get all your merchandise, live shows, upcoming. Next ones with tickets available is September 18th in Milwaukee at the Peps, which is a great venue. And we love going there. It's beautiful.
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Get your tickets. Buy them now. So shut up and give me murder.com. Definitely get yourself Patreon. What are you waiting for? What is that? Ah, Patreon. What is that? Tell me more, Jeff. Patreon.com slash crime in sports, which is the name of our other show. God damn it. Let's go. You should listen to. Absolutely.
Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get everything we put out, including as... As soon as you subscribe, you're going to get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. You can binge on those, almost 400 of them actually. Then immediately after that, every other week, you get – Two new episodes, one crime and sports, one small town murder.
This week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about the Christian Power Team, which were these guys that were just roided to shit, jacked up, huge lunatics that would go on the religious channel and like bend rebars and tear phone books and then scream about, thank you, Jesus, thank you. Give me the power. Oh, boy. There's some scandal that goes on after.
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Chapter 2: Who were the main individuals involved in the crime?
I have found it hard to find employment and a nice place to live. I've decided that it was not a place that I wanted my children to grow up. It is still not at all diverse, and my children also find it difficult to fit in. I will say it is a nice place to visit, but I don't recommend living here. Which for a one-star review, that's pretty mild, honestly. The whole thing is like, I don't know.
It's all right. It's a little boring. Things to do here. Here we go. The Mineral Museum, like you said. Yeah. Got to do it. They have days at the Mineral Museum where anyone can come and dig for minerals for $75. You pay $75 and they give you a little shovel and a bag probably and you go out there and do whatever you want. Go find some shit.
Where are you digging? Just a wild field?
I have no idea. Wild mineral field? I have no clue. And I don't know what you're getting. Is this of any value or is it just, I don't know what you're doing. But that sounds fun. I mean, I'll dig around for some shiny rocks.
That sounds fun.
What the hell? It's fun for the kids probably. There's also the Franklin Day Festival. And that is, they say their motto here is bringing the community together. Right. Oh, yeah. We have a couple of bands playing there. Swing Sabroso is coming. Sure. Oh, yeah. Since its inception in 2000, it's generated a growing number of loyal fans throughout the tri-state area and abroad.
Is that right?
They even get outside of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut into the wilds of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, Maryland even. These three states, we may be in Philadelphia before you know it. Yeah, I like this, though. Swing Sobroso was formed by Ray Rodriguez, who struggled with cancer and lost his battle in April of 2016. Jesus Christ!
What the fuck are we doing?
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Chapter 3: What was the background of Tommy Koscovich?
Yeah.
So, really, he left two families. He doubled up there.
He left a lot.
Okay. Now, Victoria, a couple years later, she just takes off, too, to go live with a boyfriend and leaves Tommy 12, 13 years old just with the grandma, with her grandma, with her mom, I believe.
Yeah.
So parents abandoned him completely. Gone. They don't care. And, you know, probably better if the dad tells you, I love you the least. Probably better he's not around. So he basically, both parents just kind of shit him off there and, you know, send him off to the grandparents. Yeah. Oh, by the way, he's got some interesting issues.
Number one, he feels that his toy soldiers and trees and things of that nature are sentient and can feel things like his toy soldiers. Do they talk to him? No, that's another level of whatever. But he just thinks that they're that. And also he says this for years that from the age six on, he heard what he called whispers, hearing voices of from a, quote, evil false prophet.
Yeah, it's almost like you shouldn't fuck your step-siblings.
It's weird, yeah. I mean, not that that's going to have any genetic basis on it, but it's going to make a weird kid. I'm sorry. Genetics aside, it's going to make a fucking weird kid. It's just weird. They're going to find out how you met. Yeah. How'd you meet mom and dad? Well, when I was eight and she was six. Her dad brought her over and, oh boy, was I intrigued. I'll tell you what.
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Chapter 4: How did the planning for the crime unfold?
The bus driver didn't care. The bully opened the door, pulled me out and started to beat the living hell out of me. He said the driver didn't care, and so he didn't trust adults after that. He gets a broken arm, and he said the driver watched the whole thing happen. Broke bones, Jesus. Hey, you know what? It's none of my business. Jersey's a very none of my business state.
Hey, I don't know what the hell's going on. Between the two of you, so I don't know. I don't know who did what. I don't want to get on the wrong side of this. My problem over here right now. Age 14, he's using drugs. He said, quote, I really acted out in school so I would fit in.
The other kid saw me as the kid who would do crazy things and take a ton of drugs, which is another way to not get picked on if you're the crazy guy. And it seemed every time I moved and went to another school and being the new kid I was picked on, the only kids who didn't seem to pick on me were the druggies. Now, druggies are very accepting. They're very passive folks.
That crowd is very accepting in high school. They really are because they're the outcasts. That's why they're doing drugs when they're 16. Also because what we're doing is illegal. Yes.
If you're doing it too, we're both criminals.
You probably got a similar background. A lot of the jocks might come from a different background. They see that you're different and they pick on you. Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a better way to sleep on a Casper mattress. Oh, Casper.com. Absolutely. People always say you spend a third of your time asleep.
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Chapter 5: What happened during the robbery of the pizza delivery driver?
Wow. Okay? So April 18th, 1997, Tommy tells his friend Christine Slater – a young lady here, a teenage girl in the friend group. He's hanging out with Christine, and he tells her basically everything. He says, I'm going to order a pizza, I'm going to have it delivered to a remote address, and I'm going to kill this delivery person. And she said... Why? Why? Yep, that's exactly what she said.
Why? Pray tell. And he said, well, because I want to join the mafia. Duh. And you join by killing someone, which is, again, not how that works. They're going to hear about it. I'm not even going to have to go find them. It'll get through the grapevine. A guy in a suit will come knock on my door. Just a guy in a track suit will come and, hey, come here. He's eating a sandwich.
You know the guy.
She doesn't call the cops or anything like that because she thinks it's Tommy running his mouth. He thinks he's going to get in the mafia for killing a pizza guy. He's just an idiot. Who cares?
Because this is a dumb thing to think.
Yeah. And I've heard people say kids when I was a teenager say dumber shit than that. And you just ignore them and nothing ever happens. That's the way it works. Now, he tells Michael Conklin as well. Conklin said, I don't want any part of that. He's the why guy. He was like, I don't see a point to this. I'm not getting involved in this. He also tells a kid named Jason Kelly.
It's a long story, but Jason Kelly, the Kelly family, Robert and April are his parents. Tommy helped them out while a member of the family had cancer. And Tommy like did things for the family and fucking mowed the lawn and like was a real big help to these people while somebody in their family had cancer.
So he tells a Spanish music band that I'm not sure.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What were the immediate consequences of the crime?
Me and you together, okay? So they hop in Jeremy's 95 Pontiac Grand Am, which is a great car for back then. A Grand Am? If I was in 97, in 1997, if I had a 95 Grand, never mind what it is, it's two years old. Every car I had at that point was 15, 10 years old. It was a piece of shit. Yeah. The seats in these were so comfortable. They were that like plush.
Oh, I remember. Like plush velvet. Velour. Yeah.
Great fucking seat. And puffy as shit. They're nice. So they drive out 1045 to Scott Road, and basically they get up to the house. Jeremy's driving. George is in the passenger seat. Car pulls up to the curb with the passenger side facing the boys on the curb there. So it's on their right, on the car's right. Now they say 1650. George is the guy in the passenger seat. He says 1650.
So Tommy looks at Jason and says, you got money? And Jason says, yeah. And then Tommy goes, oh, no, never mind. I got the money and reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out the 45 and empties the clip into the car.
Oh, my God.
Empties the clip. Seven shots. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Quick as he could. Jason then fires the .22 into the car as well. They're just opening fire on this car like there's Sonny Corleone in the fucking car at the toll booth. Wow. So two of the bullets from the .45 enter the right side of Jeremy Giordano's neck and exit out the left side.
Oh.
The medical examiner later will say those bullets killed Jeremy pretty much instantly.
It's over. Yeah.
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Chapter 7: How did the investigation lead to the suspects' arrest?
At the same time, this is becoming news around town, and Christine Slater hears about it, the friend that they told about it who blew it off. So she calls the goddamn cops right away. She called the cops. She's like, I know who did it.
She said, my friend Tommy told me two days ago he was going to do this because he wanted to join the mafia and he wanted to kill a pizza delivery person and steal the car. And then what you do is you give the car as a tribute to the mob boss and then he lets you in. Here's a 95 Grand Am and he goes, you're my son now. And then you burn a saint.
In five years, when it's out of warranty, you will call it a 95 goddamn. Because every two weeks, this thing's going to give you problems.
It's going to be a fucking problem. So he said he wants to do that. He said he told me how he was going to do it, and this is exactly what I heard happened.
Wow.
So... this is not good. Now, number one, she heard about it ahead of time and didn't say anything. So she, this could be a crime in her, for her, but it's, they don't really care. Cause they, it's, she's a teenager. And she said, I didn't think he was going to fucking seriously. He talks all the time. He's been saying this for years. Then they get a second tip though. Um,
Steven Madden's a guy who lives on Scott road and Saturday evening before 10 PM. He sees a blue Chevy Cavalier with a loud muffler drive past his house. Very distinct car. Uh, maybe 15, 20 minutes later, he sees the same car drive past again, loud muffler, uh, two other Scott road residents saw and heard the same car, one headlight out loud, loud muffler. Um, so, uh, Yeah. So they talk about it.
He calls the police. So now they have the guy putting them at the scene. They have the friend saying that she, you know, told him to.
They said they were going to do it. And we've got two people that saw his dumb fucking car.
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Chapter 8: What were the outcomes of the trial and sentencing?
They insist it's a stripes reference. Even Jason Kelly, the guy who gave him the bullets, testified that it is a stripes reference and that it was a joke among their friends. Don't know. The trial court said, no, no, they're all coming in. The price list is allowed in the gun magazines. That's to say he was experienced with guns and knew what he was doing and his confession.
Everything's allowed in. All right. A detective reads the murder, his song lyrics about killing people in a deadpan voice to the jury, which is a bad thing. If a detective reads anybody's lyrics, I mean, you could take the greatest lyrics in the world. You could sit in there with just a fucking list of Nas lyrics. Just it would sound horrible coming from a deadpan detective. Mom's spaghetti. Yes.
Over and over. And he says, quote, about killing people. You can kill by. And then it's illegible.
or on by guns one night you break in somebody home and you take their money and kill by drive something illegible down the road and shout and shouting by the big heads the best that those are lyrics they don't ride um so they bring everybody in the friend who you know a dunkin donuts employee who saw them on the pay phone yeah you name it everybody the people who've
You know, the girl who heard him talk, the Jason Kelly guy, everything. The defense case is, you know, he didn't really do this. You know, what are you talking about? That's basically their case.
He wasn't there.
Their case is, but he's a fucked up kid. He's got mental illness. Yeah. So they bring shrinks in to say he's got mental illness. Did you see his grandma's house? It's all fucked up. Yeah. So verdict comes in. Unsurprisingly, he's guilty. Yeah. Yes.
Now, after he's guilty to that, on the same verdict sheet, they say, did Tommy, by his own conduct, fire the bullet or bullets that killed Jeremy, yes or no? Unanimously, they vote yes. Now, that makes it go to the penalty phase, and now the death penalty can be used. If any of them said no, they can't have the death penalty.
There's like a double safety mechanism there, so there's not just random death penalties given out. So they sentence him during sentencing. They bring up a lot of mitigating witnesses talking about how horrible his childhood was. Never. His grandmother fed him pills. His uncle fucking fed him drugs. All this shit.
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