It certainly wasn’t what the cop was expecting. Going to the Columbo home to investigate a car theft, he found the door open, and the family sprawled dead inside. Father Frank, mother Mary, and 13-year-old son Michael were all shot, bludgeoned, and stabbed to death, laying in their own blood.
There was one family member who was missing, 19-year-old daughter Patricia, but she lived with her boyfriend, 39-year-old Frank DeLuca. The pair had actually started their affair 4 years earlier, when Patricia was all of 15 years old. At the time, DeLuca, who managed a drug store, was married with 5 kids. Patricia’s family was none too happy about the relationship, and Patricia’s dad had actually assaulted DeLuca and threatened to kill him.
The case broke when a former lover of Patricia’s, Lanyon Mitchell, told cops she had solicited him for the murder of her family. He had refused, and it seemed that Patricia and DeLuca had carried out the hit themselves. It sounds like a little insurance money was involved as well.
Both were convicted, getting sentences of 200 to 300 years. In some ways, though, the fun was only starting. Patricia became something of a prison madam, organizing sex parties between the guards and inmates in exchange for privileges. Though the killings occurred in 1976, Patricia stays in the news by getting denied for parole year after year after year. DeLuca died in prison just a couple of years ago.
The lovers’ story has appeared on Deadly Women, been a popular topic with podcasters, and has been the subject of 2 books.
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