Richard Biegenwald

Richard Fran Biegenwald (August 24, 1940 – March 10, 2008) was an American serial killer, who committed his crimes in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Between 1958 and 1983, Biegenwald killed at least nine people, and he is suspected in at least two other murders.

Early life

Born in Rockland County, New York, Biegenwald was frequently beaten as a child by his alcoholic father.^[1] At the age of five, Biegenwald set fire to their home^[1][2] and was sent for observation at a Rockland County Psychiatric Center.^[1]

By the age of eight, Biegenwald was drinking and gambling; at age nine he underwent electroshock therapy at New York's Bellevue Hospital.^[1] After his therapy, Biegenwald was placed in the State Training School for Boys in Warwick, New York. During his years there, Biegenwald was accused of theft and inciting other inmates to escape.^[1] During trips to visit his mother in Staten Island, he would steal money from her.^[1] When he was 11 years old, he set himself on fire^[1] in his mother's home. When Biegenwald was 16 years old, he graduated from the eighth grade^[1] and was released from the Training School to attend high school.^[1] Biegenwald dropped out of high school after only a few weeks.^[1]

Soon after dropping out of school, Biegenwald went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he stayed for two years. Biegenwald stole a car in Nashville, and was arrested in Kentucky by federal agents for transporting a stolen car across state lines.^[1] He returned to Staten Island in 1958.^[1]

The first murder

After his return, Biegenwald stole another car and went to Bayonne, New Jersey.^[1] There,^[3] on December 18, 1958,^[2] Biegenwald robbed a grocery store with accomplice Frank Spardoff (possibly "Sparnroft"),^[2] shooting and killing the proprietor, Stephen Sladowski,^[3] an attorney & prosecutor. Biegenwald fled the state after the murder, but was captured two days later in Salisbury, Maryland, after a shooting involving police.^[1] Biegenwald was extradited to New Jersey, where he was convicted of murder and given a life sentence.^[1] Biegenwald was released in 1975^[1][3] for good behavior after 17 years imprisonment.^[2]

Back on the outside

Biegenwald worked odd jobs for the next three years^[1] and kept a low profile. In 1977, Biegenwald was suspected in a rape, and was wanted for failing to report to his parole officer.^[1] Biegenwald was arrested in Brooklyn in 1980^[1] on the rape charge, but was released after the victim failed to pick him out of a lineup.^[1] Biegenwald got married, and he and his wife moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey.^[1] There, Biegenwald was befriended by Dherran Fitzgerald,^[1] who would play a role in several of his future murders.

Biegenwald struck again when he shot and killed 18-year-old Anna Olesiewicz^[1][2] in Ocean Township, New Jersey. Her body was found in January 1983 by children playing in a wooded lot behind a Burger King on Route 35 and Sunset Avenue, fully clothed with no signs of sexual assault and with four bullets in her head.^[1][2] He had found the young woman walking down the boardwalk in Asbury Park, and lured her into his car. A friend of Biegenwald's wife went to police after Biegenwald showed her another young woman's body that he had hidden inside his Asbury Park home's garage.^[1]

Biegenwald was also suspected, but never charged, in two other killings. One involved the shooting death of John Petrone, an exconvict and sometime police informer, unearthed—minus his jawbone—on a remote New Jersey wildlife preserve. The other case involved Virginia Clayton, 17, abducted and killed on September 8, 1982, her body found three days later, four miles from the site where Petrone was buried. ^[4]

Capture

Police surrounded Biegenwald's home on January 22, 1983, where Dherran Fitzgerald also lived.^[1] Police lured Biegenwald out of his house using a ruse and when he stepped off his back porch, he was grabbed by officers. Fitzgerald saw the commotion and hid himself in a secret room with several weapons. Detectives located the room and after threatening to shoot through the wall, he surrendered. A search of the home revealed a large cache of weapons and drugs. Police confiscated several pipe bombs, handguns, rifles, shotguns, a machine gun, Rohypnol, chloral hydrate, marijuana, a live puff adder, venom collecting apparatus, and floor plans for several area notable residences and businesses.^[1]

During questioning, Fitzgerald told police of a third body, that of a young woman, that Biegenwald had shown him hidden in his garage.^[1] This victim was driven to the rear of Burger King in Ocean Township, and dumped in the wooded area behind. Fitzgerald told police that he helped Biegenwald transport another body to his mother's house in Staten Island and bury it in the basement. Fitzgerald went on to say that while he was digging in the basement, he exhumed a body that Biegenwald had buried there some time before. Fitzgerald led police to three other bodies in addition to the two buried in Staten Island.

As the investigation went on, police located a ninth victim, William Ward,^[2][3] who was buried in a shallow grave in Neptune City, New Jersey. Ward was a prison escapee whom Biegenwald had befriended. The friendship was apparently short lived, as Biegenwald shot Ward four^[3] or five^[1] times in the head and then disposed of the body at a cemetery nearby.

Police only had enough evidence to charge Biegenwald with five counts of first degree murder. Fitzgerald turned state's evidence^[2] and his testimony was crucial in convicting Biegenwald. In return for his testimony, Fitzgerald was only charged with one count of possession of a weapon and one count of accessory to murder after the fact, and served a 10-year prison sentence. Fitzgerald was released from New Jersey State Prison in 1994.

Sentencing

A Monmouth County jury found Biegenwald guilty on all five counts of first degree murder. Biegenwald was sentenced to death by lethal injection, but the sentence would later be overturned by an Appellate Court. Until his death, he was serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole at New Jersey State Prison.

Death

Biegenwald died on March 10, 2008^[2][3] at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey, said Corrections Department spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer in an interview to the Associated Press. An autopsy revealed that Biegenwald died of respiratory and kidney failure.

Known victims

• Stephen Sladowski—Shot to death in 1958 after a robbery attempt in Bayonne, NJ.
• John P. Petrone-Shot to death in June 1978 at an abandoned airport in Freehold, NJ.
• Maria Ciallella—Shot and dismembered on November 1, 1981. She was buried at Biegenwald's mother's house.
• Deborah Osbourne—Stabbed to death on April 8, 1982. She was buried on top of Ciallella's body at Biegenwald's mother's house.
• Anna Olesiewicz—Shot four times in the head on August 28, 1982 after being lured away from the Asbury Park boardwalk. Her body was left behind a Burger King in Ocean Township, NJ.
• William Ward—Drug dealer shot and killed by Biegenwald at his home in Asbury Park in September 1982.
• Betsy Bacon^[5]—Disappeared November 20, 1982

References