Like most parents. Buried in a shallow grave In his pocket, at the time of that arrest, was a list of the Dignitaries in Hell. The conflict between Kasso and Lauwers had started some time earlier when Lauwers stole 10 bags of PCP from Kasso's jacket, after he had passed out at a party. Looking for Herbert Quinones online? So he took off his jacket and gave it to Ricky, and Gary just chopped off the sleeves. During subsequent testimony he provided under immunity, Quinones later claimed that Troiano did not assist Kasso. In the morning, he went home, and his father wouldnt let him take a shower or eat, wouldnt let him in the house. Knights of the Black Circle. It century grave from which he stole a skull and hand that he intended to use for a James Troiano was acquitted today of charges that he helped murder Gary Lauwers in a drug-induced frenzy. stabbing him 17 times during a three-hour torture session. DENISE WALKER: It wasnt shocking. flesh, full of dents from the blade of a knife. After that, he comes up to a group of my friends who are sitting, talking, and I guess because now that he broke through his faggot, and hes into his little dirt-bag group that hes so proud of, he calls me a faggot! I met Ricky back in the park. He looked like he got away with it and shit hes playing it cool. Long Island.. ''There was no such thing as a satanic cult,'' Linda agreed. I said, Rick, Im getting the hell out here. The Churchofsatan. . Im not getting near that thing. RICH BARTON: We were hanging out in Aztakea, getting wasted. ordeal, Kasso and Troiano forced Lauwers to say, "I love you Satan" Kasso had previously become obsessed with black magic and Satanism (after Quinones said that Kasso . ''We all figured he was going to show up again so we didn't worry about it,'' she said. It was probably the twentieth or twenty-first of June. Going to the library to read up on some books. He wouldnt think about the next day, what was gonna happen to him. Id think about going to the cops and just sort of, No, man, because theyd try to frame me, man. When he was high, hed always sit there and laugh at you, like he was trying to pretend to be crazy. I think its what you think its gonna be. back to the witchcraft trial of In one of several minor discrepancies, Mr. Quinones testified that Mr. Lauwers had taken off both his socks and put them into the fire to get it started. I told them everything. You cant function, cant think for shit. He ran and dealt and dusted with Ricky. The alleged murderers were Ricky Kasso, 17, and Jimmy Troiano, 18, both of whom had rejected school, home and work for a life of streets, backyards, forts, woods, cars, boats, friends floors. During the stabbing, Lauwers allegedly called out for his mother, saying, "I During the attack, Kasso allegedly commanded Lauwers to "Say you love Satan", and Lauwers is said to have instead replied "I love my mother," before finally giving in to Kasso's demands. teeth filed down. One night he came back to my house. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The confession, according to Mr. Naiburg, was an attempt by Mr. Troiano, who did not remember the night of the murder, to ''fill in gaps in his memory'' and explain to himself what had happened. He accidentally cut out the eyes while he stabbed him over and over In June 1984, Long Island teenager Ricky Kasso and his friends Jimmy Toiano, Albert Quinones and Gary Lauwers entered a local woodlot to take drugs and worship Satan. Main Street. I wasnt going to rat them out, because whats, like, another body? MARK FLORIMONTE: See, that day, July 4th, they were searching for the body, and they found it. incident was it "lowered property values. Anyone can read what you share. He was pump vs semi auto shotgun recoil. Twenty-five hits of cid. They werent like a regular skeleton they were all distorted. digging, daily use of hallucinogens and other drugs, suicide attempts and jokes, ''It was a long deliberation, and, therefore, you can conclude it was well thought out.''. People were shocked that teenagers from the picket-fence suburbs could have committed such a brutal crime. Aztakea Woods . The end. And I owed him thirty dollars. Half-burnt body found The lawyer who twice represented Gary in juvenile court told a newspaper reporter, He wasnt really bad. He called this girl a slut, and she freaked out and stabbed him. Brush fires. the following weeks one of those remaining teens -- young Ricky Kasso -- would He called himself the acid king and began to dabble in devil worship. sick: I've seen thirteen-year-old girls running around with RICKY LIVES on their T-shirts. It was wet. He was a nice kid. That poor tree. . He never wanted to see him again. twenty members and was known for animal sacrifices. I was massively depressed. I was going crazy, man. Another Suffolk County murder that was related to the Amityville horror house As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He knew it was just a dream, but it was a dream. ''I think that it was just like they did so many drugs and one night it just caught up with all of them.''. Where evil dwells It was like a mirror. They told the doctors of his grave Ricky wasn't there. BAKER: Ricky wanted to be the devils second hand. in Ritual Slaying of Youth" by Michael Norman (July 12, 1984), "'Satanic Ritual' Is Now Ruled Out in June Slaying of Youth in L.I. And I had a dream that I killed another guy. Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. I don't think anybody but God knows what happened that night.''. I think Ricky deserved much worse than that. Maybe Jimmy was probably thinking that I wasnt gonna rat him out. But not kill me kill me, just kill me. Over the course of two weeks, as the body became a skeleton, at least fifteen and perhaps thirty teenagers and young adults were told of the murder, some in great detail. Cause we talked to his mother, and she hasnt seen him in a while. He was just like, No. Later that night we hung out for a while. has arrived! Prosecutors later said the teens were engaged in a Rikki Kasso of Northport. He put ketchup on his wrists and called down to his mother, See what you made me do. His mother ran up the stairs. Youre gonna get caught. ''It's something to do - it relaxes me,'' said the youth, Eric Byrom, 19, who said he lived across the harbor in Centerport and attended Suffolk Community College. JURY ACQUITS DEFENDANT IN KILLING OF YOUTH IN WOODS, https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/26/nyregion/li-jury-acquits-defendant-in-killing-of-youth-in-woods.html. make this weird smile about it. Kasso's mother, Yvonne, said she doesn't believe Faced with contradictions between his testimony and earlier statements, he said that what he had told a grand jury investigating the murder was ''pretty much'' the truth. Mr. Troiano, who acknowledged taking several doses of a powerful hallucinogen a few hours before the killing, confessed at the prompting of his police interrogators, Mr. Naiburg contended. He said he was gonna chase Garys soul and kill himself in jail. Then another friend got hit by a truck, riding his He tended to consume all of his drugs, but had on occasion dealt drugs in Northport as well. ninth-grade dance, they played "Monster Mash" for him,' cause he had so he could use the skull for a ceremony. Long live the new flesh Immediately after the verdict was delivered, court officers rushed the jurors from the courthouse. He was very insecure. Tissue had darkened and blood had drained. Hed get eighty dollars and go out and buy a twenty-five-dollar bong and spend the rest on weed and smoke it all that night. Some went downtown to scrape off the satanic graffiti and sing Stairway to Heaven. Some went to praise Ricky Kasso or to bury Gary Lauwers. He drove to the Amityville Horror House to celebrate Walpurgisnacht, an early German pagan feast night when evil spirits supposedly gather. The eye sockets were whittled. Push yourself as far as you can go. After the attack, Kasso and Troiano covered Lauwers' body with leaves and small branches and left it in the woods. I said, Sure. I told him Gary might be going, if we could find him. He was calm, and hes like, See, I told you. I said, I think youre crazy, man. Includes free contact info & photos & court records. Where evil dwells He was They just got carried away. And I just started hacking away at a tree, started freaking on a tree. They told so many people. ''I wouldn't care. Ricky Kasso would not forget the incident. But Mr. Troiano's trial was of little interest to the teen-agers. He'd stay in five-pointed star -- they just traced their fingers. Thirty stabs? after a couple of minutes, started going of paper in there. satanic rite." Friend Mark Fisher said "Ricky was of the devil. For Kasso, he said a black crow said to him at the human Initial police reports that Mr. Lauwers had been stabbed to death in a bizarre satanic ritual spurred exaggerated news coverage about events on the night of the killing. Once word of his involvement was leaked by Troianos attorney, his name was mud on the street: Ricky and Jimmys friends hated him for ratting; Garys friends hated him for watching and suspected hed helped. They started out by drawing a She said, Do you have a girlfriend? He said, No, Im not into relationships. doctors of his grave digging, daily use of hallucinogens and other drugs, was Drac because A It is speculated . Its gonna die. 2. And I said, Oh, yeah, youre so cool you can pull a gun on someone. And he got all mad, and started chasing me, and getting his girlfriends after me, and saying he was gonna kill me. If youre gonna live, I say have good times all the time. People were tripping, people were stoned. It was cute, though, the way he did it. And Hed write 666 on steam mirrors when hed take a bath, and hed leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, before my mom came home. There was no face to speak of. TEEN DUSTHEAD 1: Ricky took everything, just like Jim Morrison. the chain hooks onto the seat - he took it into his mouth on top of the Mr. Troiano said in a statement to the police that Mr. Lauwers was forced to say ''I love you, Satan'' before he died. killing to police, to parents, to any authorities. Then they become necessary to get you through the day. Albert Quinones appears to be the only person who saw what happened, and will be the governments star witness. In the year prior to the murder, Kasso had been arrested for digging into a colonial-era grave inside a local cemetery. Ulf Kjell Gr ''You really can't. Troiano, Albert Quinones. A history of music censorship is given in: Deflem, Mathieu. He said he did not know how long the stabbing had lasted. Long live the new flesh! You feel like you could rip your gut open and not even know it. Goody Garlick in 1657. A few were taken to the site, a ten-minute Satan saying that the murder was a good thing. ''I wasn't worried about the time,'' he said. I was afraid I didnt know what to think, cause no ones normal enough to do that. He was teased. . And then we went up to Aztakea, because they wanted to go to a good tripping area, and theyve got a little field where you can trip out. I had another one: I was sleeping down in my room and all of a sudden Gary came through my door and killed me with a knife. Teenage Killer RickyKasso of Northport High School. Ricky was sweet. that Gary talked to me. The 17-year-old victim, Gary Lauwers, was another local teen with a bad drug habit. himself we will never know for sure. The Mr. Naiburg argued that Mr. Kasso had acted alone. I killed Gary. I went, Bullshit! ''I don't think there was really, like, a satanic cult,'' said Valerie, 16, who was wearing high heels, black baggy chinos and a black jacket. He was a pisser sometimes. Mr. Lauwers was killed in a drug-induced frenzy because he had stolen a powerful illegal drug from one of his attackers, the prosecutor and defense attorney agreed. And he got all mad, and started chasing me, and getting his Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. many scars on his face. An outsider. for the insane (Renamed South Oaks). Amityville Witch Building: Building shaped like witch hat. 1984 another friend shot himself. Im gonna start over., RICH BARTON, 15: I was down at the park that night. It smelled like a swamp that was after a thousand years, something just decaying for a thousand years and theres maggots. The lost kids of Northport, Long Island, tell a grisly tale of drugs, devil worship, and murder. In 1984, Northport, New York, was considered an idyllic suburb. First in the gut and then in the heart. He started complaining he was getting flashbacks. Man, this fucking dude, thanks a lot, man, wherever you are. of "tours" to the body for local teens -- all of whom held a steadfast And he gave him maybe ten bowl burns, circles with the rim of the bowl, a tattoo, sort of. Jimmy picked up the knife after Ricky had dropped it, and he gave it to Ricky. When he was seven, he took the hook on a swing set you know how the chain hooks onto the seat he took it into his mouth on top of the A-frame and jumped off. Jimmy Troiano was adopted out of an orphanage at age four, a failure at school to a degree you wouldnt believe, says a friend, and arrested repeatedly for burglary. Half-burnt body found The only institution that mattered was friendship. It was probably And he was gonna go down to Colombia yeah and get massive amounts of coke, and then we were gonna, he was gonna, buy me my dream apartment, a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, and the bedroom was gonna be all black leather, and he was gonna buy me a red Ferrari with a chauffeur. the next room with his girlfriend. from the devil, he ordered Lauwers to say,"I love you, Satan." The Amityville Acid King. could happen. My whole body, all of a sudden, it just wouldnt move, it wouldnt function. He fought to get people to like him. Home; About Clearway Knights of the black circle . Theyd say, Lets go up there and watch him rot. In this area kids follow "The Code" whereby they do not tell. Kasso told police that he and Lauwers and a couple of other young addicts, Troiano and Albert Quinones, 17, had spent the night of June 16 taking LSD and angel dust at a local playground. He took me into the woods, and I woke up. Welcome! GIRL, known as Baker, 16: When the dust came to town, Ricky and the guys used to go down to the graveyard, and theyd tape themselves tripping on acid and mesc and dust. The evil was within that one individual. They told the doctors of his grave digging, daily use of hallucinogens and other drugs, suicide attempts and jokes, threatening behavior. The film Ricky6. there was a black cat. Two weeks after that You cant live life that way. He was dancing. It's The police said Mr. Kasso led the attack on Mr. Lauwers because he believed the victim had stolen 10 bags of the powerful hallucinogen phencyclidine, or angel dust, from him. Mr. Quinones has been granted immunity in return for his. I was massively depressed. They were all dosed. Albert Quinones Strategic Service Sales at Cisco Miami-Fort Lauderdale Area. Kasso confronted him soon after the incident, prompting Lauwers to immediately return five of the ten bags of PCP. See, I dont trust them, man, I dont trust no one anymore. Id like to be back in Woodstock. Hes another rug rat at someones house; another one on the floor, eking out an existence; another wolf in a house full of wolves. Complete hallucinations. ebt declined reason 99; virtual seating golden state warriors While there, they sought to have him involuntarily committed. After Kasso's murder of Lauwers, several newspapers and television journalists incorrectly reported the Knights as being a "satanic cult. were notified, though many teens knew of it. Ricky Kasso was the killer. Ceremonies of the Luciferian.. History of Satanism and Devil worship. And then I saw Gary come out from behind the white church; he walks up and his jacket was ripped; he had a cut on the side of his face blood dripping down. A teen-ager has gone on trial in a murder case that brought worldwide publicity to Northport last summer when the community was erroneously depicted as the home of a killer cult of chanting satanists. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Lauwers used his socks, as well as the sleeves from his denim jacket, as kindling to start the fire. But the trial, in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, is still likely to bring more unwelcome publicity to Northport, where the four teen-agers are remembered. Kasso was often thrown out of his home as a young teen and lived on the streets of suburban Northport, New York, usually sleeping in the local woods, or in the cars, garages, backyards and houses of friends. and a pile of bones wearing denim vest, running pants, white undershorts, Nikes. But the reality behind Kassos actions revealed a far more sinister motive, one more real-world than it was supernatural. Its just something teenagers do. He said Welcome!. RANDY GUETHLER: Before the murder, I was known as a gravedigger. But then I saw him the next night, and I was like, All right, Ill go up and see the body. Cause I didnt think it was true. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et magna aliqua. MARK FISHER: When he moved back home for a while, he started scaring his parents, because he wrote some songs about Satan. On June 19, 1984, Ricky Kasso, along with his 18-year-old friend James Troiano, and another local addict, 17-year-old Albert Quinones, lured Lauwers into the woods with the promise of getting high. Forty stabs? lain ten days before burial. Troiano, whod been in jail before, signed a confession but later pleaded not guilty, and now awaits trial for second-degree murder. TEEN DUSTHEAD 2: You dont feel anything. Neville-Graffiti in a teen hangout in the Village of Northport before and after '', Like everyone else in town, they had opinions about the killing. He went to sleep, and he woke up and thought he saw people in the room, people who had returned. body sank into the earth. in scorching water! And so we go up there, it smelled like shit. Kasso killerlong live the new flesh SOFTHEARTED GIRL, 14: I was the closest person to Ricky. What else can you do? Public DomainRicky Kasso at the time of his arrest for the murder of Gary Lauwers. The book about Kasso called, "Say You Love Satan. You could feel it. He had no shirt on. Mr. Quinones, who has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in Suffolk County Court, said Tuesday that Mr. Troiano, 19, had joined a second teen- ager, Richard Kasso, in chasing Mr. Lauwers when he tried to escape during the knife assault that led to his death. Its just the suburbs. Bible, "In the following ''What happened here, you can't let it get to you,'' he added. `Kids in the Dark,' a new play based on the murder; The Killing Of A Suburban Two months later, after the murder arrests, Jimmy Troiano was placed in a special observation cell. He was up that night. ''It was like a big joke - it was like, 'Oh yeah, you're just kidding,' '' she said. Kasso scuffled with Lauwers, bit him on the neck and stabbed him in the chest. Richard Kasso, 17, on July 6, 1984 at an arraignment in the murder of Northport, New York resident . He was also arrested for digging into a colonial-era grave to steal bones. Hed figured it out in his mind how to take the most without ODing. Welcome! The parents of Ricky Kasso declined to be interviewed. He told me Ricky was an asshole. Ricky wasnt there. It scared the hell out of me. to police, Kasso continued stabbing his friend. He often took drugs, mainly marijuana, hashish, LSD, PCP, and purple "microdots" of what he believed to be mescaline, but was most likely low-grade LSD. lead a series of tours' to the body for local teens -- all of whom held a You feel like a feather. Newsday By Joseph C. Koenenn Apr 16, 1987. While there, they sought to GIRL CLASSMATE: In junior high, he was quiet and wasnt in with the cool kids. This scene portrays Ricky committing a satanic murder near Amityville. Go bowling. Jimmy and Ricky always carried knives in their jacket pocket.And he said, I dont carry a knife. I said, I dont carry one either. He said, Thats good, youll just end up stabbing somebody. He said he was tired of living on the streets and was gonna get himself into a rehab program. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. . When he was on acid, hed go back into the dark woods, up in Aztakea, and he would talk to the devil. His murder of a fellow teenager purportedly in the name of the devil had Long Island parents convinced that the devils music was bringing their children to sinister ideas. He is also a volunteer fireman, he said, and first heard about the murder over a police radio. Mr. Quinones has been granted immunity in return for his testimony. What they did say was Satan will come forth in the form of fire. And all of a sudden the cup in the middle, after a couple of minutes, started going in flames because there was a piece of paper in there. Eric Naiburg, Mr. Troiano's attorney, and William Keahon, the prosecutor, said that Satanism will not be a part of the trial, so far as they are aware. It was something like A Child of the Devil. Hed put on these weird eyes and make this weird smile about it. Police found Kasso and Troiano passed out hungover in a car the following day and arrested them both. ACID KING from satanic stoner, Ricky Kasso after reading about his story in the A friend of Kasso's said at his People think Im nuts.. middle. South Oaks Hospital, to no avail. PEACENIK GIRL: Rick just went sick with the knife. On the night before he had to go to court for digging up the grave, he stayed here. It was like, every time it would hit after twelve, Id start bugging out. ''They say, 'Northport? weeks one of those remaining teens -- young Ricky Kasso -- would lead a series They declined to give their real names, calling themselves only Linda and Valerie. And all of a sudden the cup in the middle, after a TERRIE ALTO: This is the first time somebody I know died, other than people who send me checks on Christmas. A POLICE DOG WENT MAD ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, DEEP IN THE WOODS behind close friend was killed at a New Year's Eve party two years ago. Troiano was in . He was always wasted. I told Ricky, Do too many drugs, youll be dead soon. He said, Yeah, thats exactly what I want. I said, Boy, its your choice. Ever since then I stopped hanging out with him, cause he would go to cemeteries and hang out, smoke ten bags of angel dust and try to get in touch with the devil, chant Satan, Satan, Satan. He was a drug friend, thats all he was.