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According to the above link, a Samuel Denicola was convicted of murder in 1974 and died in prison in February 2012. See below. He would have been up for parole again in July of that year. Inmate Information
I well remember this crime. The circumstances were particularly ironic and tragic. I grew up on the other side of Jericho Turnpike, a few blocks from the family who were murdered. I attended Corpus Christi School in Mineola (although I grew up in Garden City Park), and I remember the Sunday Mass at which prayers were asked for this family, who were also parishioners, who had been butchered. The relative who had murdered them was, I believe, an immigrant from some European country (like Czechoslovakia or Hungary) and had been sponsored by them to emigrate to America. The murders occurred within weeks of Christmas. The family members were all out of the house (I think it was a Saturday), shopping for Christmas. Something had set the relative off and he stabbed one of the sons. He then hid the body in a room, and waited in the house for the other family members to return. As they returned, one by one, he would stab them to death and stash their bodies away in a separate room. I also remember that it was reported that his attacks against each family member was quite vicious and that he had also stabbed the family dog over 50 times. At the time, the 1961 song by the Tokens "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was getting a lot of air play, and it became indelibly (and hauntingly) linked in my mind with this family slaughter (in fact, the lyrics actually seemed to underscore this connection). Years later, I found that one of my brothers had the same exact association with this song. I recall press descriptions of family Christmas presents, wrapped and hidden away in closets, being found by the police. It was this mass murder which caused my family, and others in the neighborhood, to begin locking our doors and windows at night (yes, back then people still felt safe enough to go to sleep for the night with unlocked doors). Weeks later, the murderer was picked up in a rowboat off the coast somewhere down South claiming to be a refugee from Cuba. He was sent to Pilgrim State Hospital for the criminally insane. For all I know he might still be there. He also had a son, who later grew up to walk into his therapists office, pull out a gun and shoot himself in the head.
Killer mate ivanov was imprisoned in a mental hospital in New York. He spent 13 years there. He asked to be tried for the murder of five family members. It was one of the longest trial in the history of New York State. The jury has decided: not quilty, he is a mental patient
Killer mate ivanov was not a U.S. citizen but a citizen of Yugoslavia. After the trial
he was transferred to a mental hospital in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav psychiatric doctors
found that he was mentally completely healthy.
Social Services was asked by his family in Yugoslavia to take over the care. No one
has agreed to house killer. After a few months he escapes from the mental hospital.
He settled in Paris, France where life (another 25 years) hard working two jobs.
The killer mate ivanov died in January 2000 as a free man and a rich man.
That should lead to a full news article on Ivanov's murders. Here's a snippet:
Quote:
Mental Patient Accused of Murder MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Forty detectives have been assigned to track down an escaped mental patient accused of massacring the family of a brother-in-law who helped him come to this country a year ago. Named in a first-degree murder warrant is Mate (Mike) Ivanov, 38. "Irrefutable evidence" places the mentally disturbed Ivanov in the home of Peter Gregov at the time of the five slaydngs Saturday, according to Stuyvesant Pinnell, Nassau County chief of detectives. The killer methodically stabbed and slashed to death G~egov, 39; Mrs. Gregov, 35, and their three- son, then neatly covered the bodies—Gregov's with a rug, the others with blankets or sheets....
Mistery or money?
Hardworking man was dream the American dream. Why this man was in a mental
hospital before tragedy?
Mental Patient Accused of Murder MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Forty detectives have been assigned to track down an escaped mental patient accused of massacring the family of a brother-in-law who helped him come to this country a year ago. Named in a first-degree murder warrant is Mate (Mike) Ivanov, 38. "Irrefutable evidence" places the mentally disturbed Ivanov in the home of Peter Gregov at the time of the five slaydngs Saturday, according to Stuyvesant Pinnell, Nassau County chief of detectives. The killer methodically stabbed and slashed to death G~egov, 39; Mrs. Gregov, 35, and their three- son, then neatly covered the bodies—Gregov's with a rug, the others with blankets or sheets....
I believe it was on Beebe Rd, one block off of Herricks Rd. I had a friend that lived down the street from the crime scene. I was 14 and I believe one of the kids that was killed went to our High school (Mineola), which was located behind Chaminarde HS, before they built the big school behind McGinnis of Sheepshead Bay Restaurant on Jericho Tpk. We rode our bikes down the street to the house. All the windows were covered in sheets. My friend said the walls were smeared with blood, that it was very savage attack. The guy hid by the basement stairs and nabbed people as they entered into the back doorway. I lived in Williston Park and used to ride my bike over to my friends house. About 53 yrs ago, it doesn't seem real, but it sure was.
Richard
I believe it was on Beebe Rd, one block off of Herricks Rd. I had a friend that lived down the street from the crime scene. I was 14 and I believe one of the kids that was killed went to our High school (Mineola), which was located behind Chaminarde HS, before they built the big school behind McGinnis of Sheepshead Bay Restaurant on Jericho Tpk. We rode our bikes down the street to the house. All the windows were covered in sheets. My friend said the walls were smeared with blood, that it was very savage attack. The guy hid by the basement stairs and nabbed people as they entered into the back doorway. I lived in Williston Park and used to ride my bike over to my friends house. About 53 yrs ago, it doesn't seem real, but it sure was.
Richard
PS it happened around Thanksgiving Nov 27 1961.
Just read the post by MAS18940 and realize I am wrong. It was a long time ago
Yeah, 342 Herricks Rd. I was spooked plenty by the story and seeing the house within a week after
Back in 1999, a family bought a house in Jericho. After moving in, the owner took a barrel to the curb for disposal. The sanitation workers checked the barrel before taking it and found a dead body that had been sealed for years.
NCPD investigated. The first owner of the house owned a plastics factory and had an affair with the the deceased and killed her when she became pregnant. She had disappeared back in 1969, but her family was from Central America and the disappearance was not investigated here in the US.
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Thank you.
I remember this and wrote a short story for an Upstate publication with this very theme. There was no follow up investigation.
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