'Hollywood Ripper' Michael Gargiulo Faces Families Of Victims

GLENVIEW, IL — In the penalty phase of the trial of convicted serial killer Michael Gargiulo, jurors are set to recommend the Glenview native be sentenced to either life in prison without the possibility of parole or death.

Gargiulo, 43, was convicted in August of the murders of Ashley Ellerin in 2001, Maria Bruno in 2005 and the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy in 2008 following a three-month trial. Murphy managed to fend off a knife attack in her Santa Monica apartment and escape after suffering eight stab wounds. Blood found at the scene led investigators to Gargiulo DNA.

In four days of testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court ahead of sentencing, prosecutors and defense attorneys called witnesses to provide impact statements and expert testimony. Prosecutors told the jury Gargiulo "earned and deserved" the death penalty. His defense attorneys argued he was clearly mentally ill and should not be put to death.

Cook County prosecutors have said they plan to seek Gargiulo's extradition from Los Angeles County to face charges in the 1993 killing of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, found fatally stabbed on the front porch of the family's home.

Prosecutors believe Pacaccio, who attended Glenbrook South High School with Gargiulo and lived less than 600 feet away, was the first victim of the man later dubbed the "Hollywood Ripper." She was an honor student and member of the debate team who had been due to attend Purdue University on an engineering scholarship just days after she was killed, her family members testified Monday.

Douglas Pacaccio, Tricia's younger brother, testified his memory of finding his sister dead remained as fresh as it was at the time. He was a year behind her at Glenbrook South.

"It almost gets to the point where you feel like the reality of the situation is the bad dream," he said. "And then you wake up and you relive the crushing despair that takes over you, and it took over me that morning when I saw her and I realized she was completely lifeless and there was essentially nothing I could do to help her. Every year of my life I remember it like it was yesterday."

An immeasurable number of Glenview community members were impacted by his sister's killing, Pacaccio said.

"It turned it upside down. It took a nice town and it turned it into a horrible place. It was a place of suspect paranoia. No one knew what was going on, no one could understand why anybody would attack someone so innocent, so sweet, so nice with literally no enemies in sight," he said. "Teenaged kids and young adults trying to make sense of it all couldn't. I still to this day get messages from people, just letting us know that they're still thinking of us and her and they're still traumatized by it."

Pacaccio's mother, Diane, said she has thought about her daughter every single day for the last 26 years.

"The community was devastated because nobody could understand what happened, even now — to know what happened, you can't understand it," she said.

Since moving back into the family home four years after her daughter's murder, Pacaccio said she has kept her daughter's room exactly as it had been left. Her grandchildren now play in the room, with her granddaughter sometimes dressing up in Tricia's clothes.

"I go in there every day," she said. "The only part is I never get to hold her, laugh with her, cry with her, because she’s not there for that."

Prosecutors asked what message she would want to give to her daughter.

"Tricia, I know that you know I'm fighting for you, and you know that I love you and all of our family loves you," she said.

Abuse Alleged

Vianne Castellano, a forensic psychologist called as a witness by the defense, testified she interviewed Gargiulo's family members ahead of the trial. They told her he suffered from severe childhood trauma at the hands of his parents and siblings starting when he was a toddler, she said.

Family members said Gargiulo would be tied up and left in a closet without food or water for up to three days until he was about 8 years old, she testified.

"[His older siblings] had this very sadistic practice, in my mind, but they all thought it was a good game to play, where they put on these Halloween latex masks and open the door to this closet where he was tied up and just scare him, you know, shout at him," Castellano said. "He would soil himself because he was scared to death."

Sometimes Gargiulo's mother and older brother would punish him by holding his hands over a gas stove to burn him from age 8 to 10, the psychologist said. When Gargiulo was about 10 to 12, she testified his siblings told her they would tie the boy, who was passionate and emotional about animals, to a tree stump and force him to watch as an older brother placed fireworks into small animals and blew them up. Around age 13, an older brother would tie him to a chair and force him to watch videos of violent sexual behavior toward women.

Castellano also testified she reviewed Gargiulo's medical and educational records, which showed he was in special education for "emotional disturbance" from fifth grade onward after he was hospitalized for a dissociative episode at age 10.

"He basically had behavioral problems and he was considered to have an oppositional conduct disorder," Castellano said.

Gargiulo's father and siblings told her an aunt and an uncle on both sides of his family had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and his six siblings had been diagnosed with mental illness and admitted to psychiatric facilities at various points in time.

"There's a very clear history of mental illness in this family," Castellano testified. "These are genetic. These are inherited, so there's a genetic predisposition that gets triggered by environmental stresses that causes the illnesses to manifest themselves."

Gargiulo has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and anti-social personality disorder, she said.

Gargiulo told Castellano he has no conscious memories of his childhood up to age 18, she said. But he described experiencing what he considered to be night terrors that she believed pertained to his abuse. The psychologist said such "psychogenic amnesia" was common among those who have experienced severely traumatic events.

Each of Gargiulo's family members interviewed by the psychologist "absolutely refused" to testify at sentencing on his behalf, although they were not served with a subpoena, Castellano told jurors.

Gargiulo's 16-year-old son also testified Thursday, saying he had limited memories of his father before his arrest more than 11 years ago. The teen asked jurors not to sentence his father to death, saying his father had valuable qualities and had encouraged him to respect his mother and do well at school.

Even if Gargiulo receives a death sentence, his execution may never be permitted in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order placing a moratorium on enforcement of the death penalty in the state, overriding a pair of 2016 ballot measures where more than 53 percent of voters opposed eliminating executions and more than 51 percent voted to speed them up. Gargiulo is not eligible for the death penalty in Illinois if convicted of Pacaccio's murder.

Investigators tied Gargiulo's DNA to Pacaccio's killing in 2003, but former Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said there was insufficient evidence to file charges. Three years after his arrest in Southern California, Gargiulo was indicted in Illinois, in part due to a comment on a Glenview Patch article, a spokesperson for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said in 2011.

Jurors have already found Gargiulo guilty of the Los Angeles County charges and determined he was sane at the time of the crimes. They are set to hear closing arguments Tuesday before recommending a sentence to Judge Larry Fidler.

Related:

• Glenview Victim's Family Awaits Extradition Of 'Hollywood Ripper'
• Trial Begins In LA For Man Accused Of Murdering Glenview Teen
• Serial Killer Behind Deaths Of Illinois Teen, California Women: Prosecutors
• Cook County Prosecutor Grilled About Murder Charges In Tricia Pacaccio Stabbing

Full victim impact statements from Tricia Pacaccio's mother and brothers: