Case Category

8 Cases

Main Menu

Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Gauger was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his parents, Morris and Ruth Gauger.  Gauger's parents ran a farm, operated a motorcycle shop, and sold imported rugs.  At trial, detectives claimed that during interrogation when they told Gauger that he killed his parents, Gauger said he must have killed them during a blackout because he knew nothing about it.  They then claimed that Gauger told them he really did commit the crime.  However, the only details ascribed to Gauger ended up being flatly inconsistent with the facts of the crime.  Gauger said they had him speculate about the crime after falsely telling him that he failed a polygraph exam and that blood drenched clothes were found in his room.  The prosecution also presented testimony from a jailhouse informant, Raymond Wagner.

An appeals court overturned the conviction because it found that Gauger was arrested without probable cause and this fact made the entire interrogation unconstitutional.  Without the confession, Gauger was not retried, but prosecutor Gary Pack continued to affirm his guilt.  Pack's affirmations stopped after the ATF had uncovered wiretap evidence that two members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang had committed the murders.  (They were later indicted for them.)  Wagner reportedly is willing to admit his testimony was fabricated if he is paid for an interview.  Gauger was freed in 1996.  (NL)  [7/05]

After being interrogated for five and a half hours, Martin H. Tankleff, 17, confessed to beating and stabbing his wealthy parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff. Arlene died and Seymour would die weeks later. Police falsely told Marty that his father had come out of a coma and identified him as his and Arlene’s attacker. Police convinced Marty (for a short while) that he must have attacked his parents in a blackout. No evidence linked Marty to the crime, and while his confession matched the crime theory police held at the time, it did not match the facts of the case. Marty soon recanted and none of his surviving relatives believed he committed the crime. In a highly publicized trial covered by Court TV, a jury convicted Marty of the murders and he was sentenced to fifty years to life in prison.

Since the trial, a man has come forward, stating he drove two accomplices to and from the house on the night of the crime, for what he thought was a burglary. One of the accomplices was connected to Seymour Tankleff's estranged business partner, Jerard Steuerman. Steuerman admitted he was under pressure from Seymour to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in business loans. Steuerman had partnered with Seymour in bagel stores and horse racing. He was also the last person to leave a high-stakes card game at the Tankleff house early on the morning of the murders. Several days after the crime, as Seymour lingered in a hospital before dying, Steuerman staged his own death and fled to California, shaving his beard and assuming an alias.

Starting in 2003, several new witnesses came forward, implicating Joseph Creedon and Peter Kent as the killers. Creedon was an associate of Steuerman and Tankleff believed that Creedon and Kent had acted on Steuerman’s behalf. Evidence also emerged that the lead detective in the case, K. James McCready, had worked for Steuerman, and may have been bribed by him. In Dec. 2007, Tankleff’s conviction was overturned. The DA announced that he would not retry him.  (www.martytankleff.org) (NY Times) (Newsday) (LI Press) (JD33 p8)  [9/06]

Camiolo was charged in 1999 for the 1996 arson murder of his parents after they died from a fire in the home he shared with them.  He faced the death penalty.  Authorities also charged Camiolo with insurance fraud.  They said he set the fire to collect on a $400,000 inheritance.  Camiolo's chain smoking mother had presumably started the fire by dropping a cigarette or match on a sofa.  Camiolo tried to put out the fire by throwing a pitcher of water on it, but such an action only made the fire worse.  He said he told his semi-invalid parents to go out the back door and he called 911.  His mother made it out to the back porch, but later died from injuries sustained during the fire.  His father was found in an indoor bathroom and was pronounced dead soon afterwards.  Camiolo went out the front door and was retrieving clothes from a gym bag in his car when police arrived.  It was shortly before dawn and he was still in his underwear.  On arrival, the police witnessed the living room windows blow out as the fire reached flashover status.

Floor samples from the first floor where the fire originated tested positive for the presence of gasoline.  However, neither the carpet nor the padding above the floor tested positive for gasoline.  A volunteer firefighter, Steven Avato, who helped fight the fire, happened to have experience as a ATF arson investigator.  He was dumbfounded that Camiolo was charged and rocked the boat by publicly criticizing the arson charges.  The state thought Camiolo's exit through the front door was suspicious, but Avato thought it was common for people caught in fires to exit through the door they most commonly use, even if it is not the closest one.

A private investigator tracked down the contractor who built the house.  The contractor said the sealer used on the hardwood floors had been thinned with gasoline.  Lab tests were performed that revealed the presence of lead in the detected gasoline. Since leaded gas had not been sold for 15 years prior to the fire, investigators concluded that it could not have been used to start this fire.  The charges against Camiolo were dropped and he was released after 10 months of imprisonment.  For taking a stand in the case for which he was later proven right, Investigator Avato won an Investigator of the Year Award from the International Association of Arson Investigators.  (Forensic Files) (TruthInJustice)  [9/05]