Alex Mengel

Case record

Alex Mengel was a Guyanese-born tool and die maker who was 30 years old.

Background

He entered the United States in November 1976. In 1984, he had logged one arrest for assaulting his ex-wife.

The offence

On the evening of February 24, 1985, Westchester County police officer Gary Stymiloski notified headquarters that he was making a routine traffic stop in Yonkers, New York. After spotting shotgun shells in the car, Stymiloski radioed for support. Before reinforcements arrived, the suspect killed Stymiloski with a single bullet in his brain while Stymiloski was dying, in his cruiser.

Investigators later connected Mengel with the murder of Beverly Capone and with an attempted abduction of a 13-year-old girl in Skaneateles, New York, southwest of Syracuse.

Investigation

The suspect vehicle was found abandoned in the Bronx and traced to Alex Mengel.

Two of his companions, held in custody as material witnesses, agreed that the shooting was senseless and unprovoked, leading to issuance of a murder warrant on February 27.

On March 4, while Mengel fought extradition from Canada, New York state police found items belonging to Beverly Capone in a Catskills summer cabin near Durham. Eleven days later, the woman's remains were discovered in heavy woods a half-mile from the cabin. Capone had been stabbed once in the chest, and her scalp and the skin of her face were sliced away by her killer. Tissue samples from the body made a positive match with the scalp recovered from Capone's car in Toronto.

With the new evidence in hand, authorities linked Mengel with the attempted abduction of the 13-year-old girl in Skaneateles on February 27. The child was delivering papers when a stranger wearing lipstick and an ill-fitting wig tried to snatch her off the street. The child escaped without injury, and she agreed with detectives that the “wig” might just as well have been a woman's scalp.

Arrest

Three days after the murder warrant issuance, in Toronto, local officers spotted Mengel outside a shopping mall. He crashed his car into a wall while trying to escape, then swerved into a dead-end street where he was cornered and arrested.

The stolen vehicle was registered to Beverly Capone, an IBM computer programmer reported missing by her family, in Mount Vernon, New York, on February 26.

During the Toronto arrest, two pistols and a woman's scalp were found inside the car. Ballistics tests established that one of the guns had been used to kill Officer Stymiloski in Yonkers.

On March 26, Canadian authorities ordered Mengel's deportation to New York as an illegal alien with insufficient money to support himself.

Trial

A grand jury in Westchester County indicted Mengel for first-degree murder in the slaying of Officer Stymiloski on April 27. Greene County followed suit on April 8, charging him with second-degree murder in the case of Beverly Capone.

Sentencing

No sentencing outcome was reached because Mengel died before the proceedings could continue.

Appeals

There was no appeal described; Mengel fought extradition from Canada.

Outcome

Mengel was killed while attempting escape from custody on April 26, 1985. Returning under guard from his arraignment in Greene County, he tried to escape from his state police escort on the Taconic State Parkway. Undaunted by handcuffs and chains, he grappled with one guard, seizing the officer's sidearm, and was killed by the driver before he could squeeze off a shot.

Aftermath

A woman's scalp, presumably Capone's, had been found in the stolen car in Toronto. Police found Capone's body under a pile of stones in a wooded Catskills area. Authorities believed the killing and disguise connected to the attempted abduction attempt, including the use of the victim’s hair as a wig.

Other details

• Beverly Capone was 44 years old.
• The attempted abduction victim was 13 years old and was delivering papers.
• Mengel was traveling with friends when the officer flagged him down for speeding.
• The attempt to abduct the 13-year-old girl occurred on February 27, when the suspect wore lipstick and an ill-fitting wig.