#75 - Lee Ann Reidel *

You’ve heard of the Keystone Kops? I guess you could call these folks the Keystone Killers.

Lea Anne Reifel was a bartender in a strip club. Paul Reidel was her husband, a bodybuilder who owned a gym on Long Island, and a meth addict to boot. Ralph (“Rocco”) Salierno was Lee Ann’s lover, another body builder, a bouncer at the strip club where Lee Ann worked, and the would-be hitman of Paul.

With Paul

Alex Algieri was Paul’s partner in the gym. Guess who got shot? Yup, Alex.

Supposedly, there was some resemblance, they drove the same car, it was dark and cold, and Ralph lived over 1,000 miles away in Florida (where Lee Ann had fled with the kids, and met Ralph). So, instead of the happy-ever-after of being together, cashing in some insurance checks, and enjoying Paul’s share of the gym, Ralph got life and Lee Ann got 25 to life. 

With Ralph

Though – at least according to Ralph’s defense attorney – there was no physical evidence, Ralph actually did confess (and was also implicated by three other people). At the same time, he also claimed (you pick):

• He was on a date with a stripper at the time
• His road-trip (from Florida to Long Island) buddy did it
• The police beat him into confessing (there were no bruises on his hulking bodybuilder’s body)

Lee Ann, of course, threw Ralph under the bus, claiming he did it all on his own. And that, of course, was another shot that misfired.

The case has featured on 6 TV shows and was the subject of 2 books.

2001, New York