Angelo LaMarca

Case identification

Angelo LaMarca

Status

Angelo LaMarca was executed by electrocution in Sing Sing Prison on August 7, 1958.

Background

Peter Weinberger was kidnapped from his suburban home on July 4, 1956. Betty Weinberger wrapped her one-month-old son Peter in a receiving blanket and placed him in his carriage on the patio of their home in Westbury, New York. She went inside for a few minutes while he slept. When Mrs. Weinberger came back, the carriage was empty and a ransom note was present.

The offence

A ransom note was left, and the kidnapper apologized for his actions but said he needed money and asked for $2,000. The note promised the baby would be returned “safe and happy” the following day if the demand was met. The kidnapper threatened to kill the baby at the “first wrong move.”

A second ransom note was later found in a blue cloth bag left alongside a curb. The second note told the parents where to find the baby “if everything goes smooth.” The FBI and experts concluded the original ransom note and the second note were written by the same person.

Angelo LaMarca wrote the ransom notes and kidnapped Peter Weinberger at random after seeing Betty Weinberger place Peter in the carriage on the patio. LaMarca drove off after scribbling a ransom note in his truck and snatching Peter.

After kidnapping Peter Weinberger, LaMarca abandoned the baby alive in heavy brush off a highway exit and drove home.

Peter Weinberger died of exposure.

Investigation

After the kidnapping, Morris Weinberger requested that newspapers hold off printing the story of his son’s kidnapping. All but one newspaper granted the request, and the kidnapping made the front page of the New York Daily News.

On the first ransom drop attempt, police left a phony ransom package at the spot where the kidnapper requested the money be left, but the kidnapper never showed up.

On July 10, six days after the kidnapping, the kidnapper called the Weinberger home two separate times with additional instructions on where to take the money. At the second drop site, police searched a blue cloth bag found alongside a curb. Inside was a handwritten note telling the parents where to find the baby “if everything goes smooth.”

After a required waiting period, the FBI entered the case on July 11. Its first step was to establish a temporary headquarters for employees from the NY Office in Mineola, Long Island. The temporary headquarters operated 24 hours a day and was under the personal direction of the Special Agent in Charge of the NY Office.

The only evidence officials had at that time was the ransom notes. Handwriting experts from the FBI Laboratory in Washington, DC, traveled to New York to provide handwriting analysis training for Special Agents. Investigators examined handwriting specimens maintained by the New York State Motor Vehicle Bureau, federal and state probation offices, schools, aircraft plants, and various municipalities. After examining and eliminating almost two million samples, the search ended on August 22, 1956.

An agent at the U.S. Probation Office in Brooklyn noted a similarity between the ransom notes and writing in the probation file of one Angelo LaMarca.

Investigators concluded LaMarca had not violated the federal kidnapping statute because he crossed no state lines. He was turned over to Nassau County authorities for state prosecution.

Agents and investigators carried out an extensive search of the parkway near Exit 37 and a search for Peter Weinberger.

The FBI and Nassau County police conducted a search after LaMarca was arrested, including a discovery by an FBI Agent who spotted a diaper pin and later the decomposed remains of Peter Weinberger.

Arrest

Angelo LaMarca was arrested at his home on August 23, 1956 by FBI Agents and Nassau County police. He first denied any involvement but confessed when confronted with handwriting comparisons.

LaMarca told investigators that he went to the first drop site the day after the kidnapping with the baby in the car but was scared away by press and police in the area. He drove away, abandoned the baby alive in heavy brush off a highway exit, and went home.

In one description, LaMarca was arrested on August 24 and confessed shortly after.

LaMarca, 31, was arrested at his home.

Trial

In late 1956, LaMarca was tried and convicted by a jury on kidnapping and murder charges. The jury returned its verdict without a recommendation of leniency. LaMarca was convicted of both crimes in December 1956.

The trial proceeded with jury selection beginning on November 5, 1956 and ending at the end of the sixth court day on November 14, 1956. A total of 230 jurors were examined, with 44 excused because they could not devote the time necessary to try the case, 6 excused for illness, 13 excused because of jurors’ own ideas on insanity, 20 excused because they were acquainted with one or more persons involved, and 15 excused for various other reasons. A balance of 132 jurors remained. The voir dire of the prospective jurors commenced on November 5, 1956 and was concluded on November 14, 1956.

The jury was described as consisting of 10 fathers and two grandfathers.

District Attorney Frank Gulotta prosecuted the case and urged the jury to convict LaMarca on both counts even if it meant sending him to the electric chair. Gulotta said:

“This man LaMarca has passed that sentence on himself. Literally and actually, with the life of that little child in the palm of his hand, he determined his own fate when he said to himself: Shall that baby live or shall that baby die? His hands closed and he chose death. When that baby's life expired, LaMarca's life expired, too.”

A conviction on kidnapping and first-degree murder resulted in a death sentence mandatory because the jury did not recommend mercy.

Sentencing

On December 14, 1956, LaMarca was sentenced to death.

Appeals

After conviction, LaMarca appealed to the New York Court of Appeals. The conviction was affirmed (People v. LaMarca, 3 N.Y.2d 452, 165 N.Y.S.2d 753, 144 N.E.2d 420), and an application for a writ of certiorari was denied (355 U.S. 920, 78 S.Ct. 351, 2 L.Ed.2d 279).

LaMarca also filed a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case styled UNITED STATES ex rel. Angelo John LA MARCA, Petitioner, v. Wilfred L. DENNO, Warden of Sing Sing Prison, Respondent. The appeal involved an application for a certificate of probable cause under 28 U.S.C. section 2253. The court recited the relevant statutory language and addressed whether probable cause existed for the appeal. The court stated the sole issue and denied the certificate. The decision was argued June 27, 1958 and decided July 2, 1958.

Judge David N. Edelstein filed an order on June 13, 1958 denying LaMarca’s application for a writ of habeas corpus.

LaMarca also sought change of venue in the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department. His motion was denied on October 1, 1956.

The federal habeas process involved proceedings in the County Court of Nassau County before the Honorable Cyril J. Brown. Judge Brown concluded that nothing occurred during voir dire that might have impaired the defendant’s right to a full and fair disclosure of the facts on the voir dire (People v. Winship, 309 N.Y. 311 (130 N.E.2d 634)). Chief Judge Conway wrote that the defendant’s attorney never said any one of the 12 jurors was prejudiced against the defendant and found no support in the evidence for the claim that LaMarca was unable to, and did not, receive a fair trial in Nassau County. The Chief Judge stated:

“Thus, it is clear that the attorney for the defendant never said that any one of the 12 jurors was prejudiced against defendant. 'I can find no support in the evidence presented to me for defendant's charge that he was unable to, and did not, receive a fair trial in Nassau County. His guilt was proved beyond doubt and the trial was free from legal error. He, himself, was satisfied that none of the jurors was prejudiced against him and he never claimed on the trial that any one of them was prejudiced against him. Accordingly, there is no justification for a further appeal to our court and I find myself unable, in good conscience, to certify that there is. The defendant has had his day in court and has received the full protection of the law.'”

Outcome

Peter Weinberger’s decomposed remains were found during the investigation after LaMarca led investigators to where he had abandoned him.

LaMarca was convicted of kidnapping and murder in state court, was sentenced to death, and was executed.

Aftermath

Following the Weinberger kidnapping, President Eisenhower changed the waiting period for FBI assistance in kidnapping cases from seven days to 24 hours.

Later, another law in 1990 mandated that all law enforcement agencies take action in missing-child cases without observing a waiting period.