Read Online Kill for Thrill by Michael W. Sheetz - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Michael W. Sheetz
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the game was afoot. Events had been set in motion from which the story of his life would emerge. As he dozed peacefully in the warmth of his two-story house in the sleepy county seat of Westmoreland County, Tom Tridico’s dreams could not prepare him for what he was about to encounter. In fewer than ten days, history would link the names of Michael Travaglia and John Lesko indelibly and irrevocably with Sergeant Tom Tridico.
At 9:00 a.m., Rich Dickey and George Boyerinas each hovered over his desk, coffee in hand. They were killing time at the Kiski Valley Barracks, waiting for Tom Tridico and his regularly scheduled intelligence meeting. Sharing information among investigators was a big deal to Tridico—it helped spot patterns. It helped solve cases. Peter Levato’s frozen corpse was on the agenda for this morning. He was John Doe #1.
When Tridico arrived at the barracks, he gathered his investigators around and began talking, listening and thinking. He told of a hunter named Ed Wolak and how the crime scene was straightforward. John Doe’s killer had bound him with common white cotton rope, but he had somehow managed to free himself. The condition of the body hinted that he had been in the water but had managed to swim to shore and climb out onto the bank. His pockets were empty, and there were signs that his killer had beaten him.
The autopsy revealed that the suspect shot him three times with a .22-caliber weapon at close range. The first shot entered his chest and pierced his heart, and then the killer fired the next two shots at close range into the back of his skull. The crime scene technicians scoured the surrounding woods but found no identification, money or personal effects near the body. As odd as it sounded, Tridico noted that the suspect had removed Peter Levato’s dentures. These were the insipid little details of Peter Levato’s death, and he relayed them in all their clinical sterility.
After fielding a few questions about John Doe, Tridico steered the meeting toward the rest of the day’s business. A rash of robberies was troubling the Indiana barracks, the local police had handled a few local burglaries and overall, with the exception of John Doe, it was shaping up to be a very calm Christmas season.
As Tom Tridico wrapped up his meeting, he scanned the teletype printouts from the past several days. His eyes drifted down the page. A litany of “Be on the look-outs,” all-points bulletins and missing endangered persons announcements were scattered among the names of wanted felons and escaped prisoners sent out across the state. One entry caught his eye. The Penn Township Police had recovered an abandoned 1975 Ford Grenada in a field along Route 22 near Joe’s Steakhouse.
Tridico pulled the printout off the stack. The registration of the vehicle listed forty-nine-year-old Peter Levato of 3120 Mount Hope Road in Pittsburgh as the owner. Sensing that these seemingly unrelated pieces of information might be tied together, Tridico sent Trooper Curtis Hahn and Detective George Boyerinas to canvass Peter Levato’s Mount Hope neighborhood. He sent a photograph of Chuck Lutz’s John Doe with them just in case.
T HE C ASE OF THE S TOLEN K IELBASA
It wasn’t long after Hahn and Boyerinas began showing the photograph around that neighbors positively identified the man as Peter Levato. Peter Levato was now the first official victim of Michael Travaglia and John Lesko. He now had the dubious distinction of being the tip of a four-murder iceberg that would emerge from the frozen waters surrounding the Alle-Kiski Valley.
Unfortunately, as with most criminal investigations, the information on the murder of Peter Levato came in fits and spurts. To the lament of Tom Tridico, the search of both Peter Levato’s 1975 Grenada and the cornfield behind Joe’s Steakhouse revealed very little new information about his killers. Because of either extreme care or pure accident, John Lesko and Michael Travaglia had
At 9:00 a.m., Rich Dickey and George Boyerinas each hovered over his desk, coffee in hand. They were killing time at the Kiski Valley Barracks, waiting for Tom Tridico and his regularly scheduled intelligence meeting. Sharing information among investigators was a big deal to Tridico—it helped spot patterns. It helped solve cases. Peter Levato’s frozen corpse was on the agenda for this morning. He was John Doe #1.
When Tridico arrived at the barracks, he gathered his investigators around and began talking, listening and thinking. He told of a hunter named Ed Wolak and how the crime scene was straightforward. John Doe’s killer had bound him with common white cotton rope, but he had somehow managed to free himself. The condition of the body hinted that he had been in the water but had managed to swim to shore and climb out onto the bank. His pockets were empty, and there were signs that his killer had beaten him.
The autopsy revealed that the suspect shot him three times with a .22-caliber weapon at close range. The first shot entered his chest and pierced his heart, and then the killer fired the next two shots at close range into the back of his skull. The crime scene technicians scoured the surrounding woods but found no identification, money or personal effects near the body. As odd as it sounded, Tridico noted that the suspect had removed Peter Levato’s dentures. These were the insipid little details of Peter Levato’s death, and he relayed them in all their clinical sterility.
After fielding a few questions about John Doe, Tridico steered the meeting toward the rest of the day’s business. A rash of robberies was troubling the Indiana barracks, the local police had handled a few local burglaries and overall, with the exception of John Doe, it was shaping up to be a very calm Christmas season.
As Tom Tridico wrapped up his meeting, he scanned the teletype printouts from the past several days. His eyes drifted down the page. A litany of “Be on the look-outs,” all-points bulletins and missing endangered persons announcements were scattered among the names of wanted felons and escaped prisoners sent out across the state. One entry caught his eye. The Penn Township Police had recovered an abandoned 1975 Ford Grenada in a field along Route 22 near Joe’s Steakhouse.
Tridico pulled the printout off the stack. The registration of the vehicle listed forty-nine-year-old Peter Levato of 3120 Mount Hope Road in Pittsburgh as the owner. Sensing that these seemingly unrelated pieces of information might be tied together, Tridico sent Trooper Curtis Hahn and Detective George Boyerinas to canvass Peter Levato’s Mount Hope neighborhood. He sent a photograph of Chuck Lutz’s John Doe with them just in case.
T HE C ASE OF THE S TOLEN K IELBASA
It wasn’t long after Hahn and Boyerinas began showing the photograph around that neighbors positively identified the man as Peter Levato. Peter Levato was now the first official victim of Michael Travaglia and John Lesko. He now had the dubious distinction of being the tip of a four-murder iceberg that would emerge from the frozen waters surrounding the Alle-Kiski Valley.
Unfortunately, as with most criminal investigations, the information on the murder of Peter Levato came in fits and spurts. To the lament of Tom Tridico, the search of both Peter Levato’s 1975 Grenada and the cornfield behind Joe’s Steakhouse revealed very little new information about his killers. Because of either extreme care or pure accident, John Lesko and Michael Travaglia had
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