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Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 12

Publication:
Asbury Park Pressi
Location:
Asbury Park, New Jersey
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Page:
12
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

A12 Asbury Park Nov. 23, 1984 Suspect had history of crime (A wyC 7 JJ cases, citing her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. She also was part of the alibi defense for Paradiso in the 1973 attack on the Andover woman. While on the witness stand during Paradiso's trial in the lannuzzi murder, Ms. Weyant admitted she lied in the past when she reported the Malafemmena, or "Evil Woman," the 26-foot cabin cruiser on which Miss Webster may have met her death, was stolen from Boston harbor.

She said Paradiso told her he scuttled it to get insurance. Paradiso, in an October 1983 newspaper interview, denied he had anything to do with Miss Webster's disappearance. He noted he had reported his boat missing four months before she vanished. Authorities contend Paradiso held on to the boat until two days after Miss Webster's disappearance, then sunk it to destroy evidence she had been on the vessel. He is believed to have kept the boat docked at Pier 7 in South Boston, where it was sunk, at the time Miss Webster disappeared.

The Malafemmena was the second boat Paradiso and Ms. Weyant had reported stolen. Between December 1978 and July 1982, they reported 10 automobiles and two boats stolen or vandalized, collecting nearly $42,000 in insurance. A federal indictment charging The defense denied Paradiso was the murderer and suggested Miss Ian-nuzzi's boyfriend, with whom she had argued at a wedding reception earlier on the day she was slain, had killed her in a jealous rage when he realized their relationship was falling apart. The jury convicted Paradiso of second-degree murder and assault with intent to rape.

Second-degree murder is murder without premeditation and carries a mandatory term of life in prison, with a minimum of 15 years before parole, the sentence imposed on Paradiso. In addition, Paradiso received a sentence of 18 to 20 years for assault with intent to rape, of which he will have to serve a minimum of 12 years before parole. The convictions constituted violation of parole on his 1975 conviction and he must serve six more years on that term before he begins serving the time from the lannuzzi murder. The total comes to at least 33 years behind bars. Ms.

Weyant was charged as an accessory after the fact in the lannuzzi murder by providing an alibi for Paradiso. But the charge was nullified when a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted her immunity in July 1983 in both the lannuzzi murder and in Miss Webster's disappearance after she refused to testify before grand juries investigating the two Associated Press Leonard Paradiso, suspect in disappearance of Joan Webster, looks back during July trial for murder of Marie lannuzzi. He was convicted. Paradiso and Ms. Weyant with mail July 26, 1981, the couple falsely re ported to the insurance company that fraud and Paradiso with bankruptcy fraud alleges he and Ms.

Weyant bought the Malafemmena for about $7,500, but had a sales agreement drawn indicating that only Ms. Weyant was the owner and that she paid $9,000 for the boat. It said Ms. Weyant subsequently obtained $9,000 in insurance on it from Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. The" indictment charges that on the boat was stolen and put in a ciaim for $12,500 to cover the boat and equipment on it.

It alleges they removed the equipment and then sunk the boat. The indictment further charges that Paradiso falsely claimed bankruptcy in August 1981. Sherry Conohan Ain)in)(y(oiD MD CRAFT SHOW 1ST Point Pleasant Boro Beaver Fire Co. Dam Rd. Press Staff Report LEONARD PARADISO, a suspect in the disappearance of Joan Webster, a Harvard University graduate student from New Jersey, grew up in Boston's Italian North End in the shadow of the Old North Church of Paul Revere fame, the youngest of six children of Italian immigrants.

He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and earned his nickname, "The Quahog," peddling clams from a pushcart as a teen-ager. At 18, Paradiso married and fathered a daughter. Three years later, he was divorced. Paradiso began to get into trouble with the law while still in his teens with a number of motor vehicle offenses. He first was accused of an attack on a woman in 1969.

The woman in that case would not swear out a complaint. But, as investigators later pieced the story together, she went to some friends in the North End and told them of the assault. A couple of men then visited Paradiso and invited him to move out of the North End and never return or else. He moved. Paradiso initially lived in East Boston, then established two residences one a room in the home of his girlfriend, Candace Weyant, in Revere, and the other, an apartment in Lynn.

In 1973, Paradiso was charged with attempting to kidnap, rape and murder Mystery From page Al "When you think about the type of person she was she was goal-directed, she had strong motivation, she had a strong family background she was not likely to take off," he said. The prime suspect in Miss Webster's disappearance is Leonard "Lenny the Quahog" Paradiso, 42, a burly seafood wholesaler from the North Shore communities of Lynn and Revere, who was convicted in July of murdering Marie lannuzzi, a 20-year-old East Boston woman. Miss Iannuzzi's battered and strangled body was found behind a lobster pound on the east side of Route 107 in the desolate marsh in Saugus Township, about six miles north of Logan Airport, between Revere and Lynn. She was killed July 12, 1979. Joan Webster's handbag and her wallet, with her identification still in it but the money missing, were recovered in the same marsh, 300 feet from the spot where Miss Iannuzzi's body had been found two years earlier, but on the west side of Route 107.

Two months later, on Jan. 30, 1982. Miss Webster's suitcase was found by a Greyhound Bus Co. employee at a downtown Boston bus terminal as he prepared abandoned luggage for shipment to a New York warehouse. He recognized her name on the 'uggage tag.

Based on the bus terminal's procedures for monitoring baggage lockers, authorities determined Miss Webster's bag had been deposited in a locker there either late on the Saturday night she disappeared or the next day. In June 1982, Paradiso was indicted on charges of raping and murdering Miss lannuzzi. He also became a suspect in Miss Webster's disappearance. In January 1983, investigators got their biggest break in the case. An inmate who met Paradiso in the Charles Street Jail, where he was awaiting trial in the lannuzzi murder, sent a letter to Burke, the assistant district attorney, reporting that Paradiso had told him about killing both Marie lannuzzi and Joan Webster.

The inmate-turned-informant, who also was in jail on a murder charge, said Paradiso had told him he had taken Miss Webster "way, way out" in the ocean on his boat, the Malafemmena. "and dumped her overboard." NOVEMBER 24th 25th Show Hours: Nov. 24 9 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. NOV.

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Great gifts for the coming Holiday For directions call 899-3104 or 899-3473 lis UosiiSSsiSi If 0 $250 JH All Furnaces Boilers a hitchhiker he had picked up. When Andover police caught him choking the woman in his car in a remote wooded area, he claimed he found her there in her disheveled condition and was trying to help her. The woman told police he was trying to kill her. Paradiso was convicted in 1975 of attempted rape and assault with a dangerous weapon and sentenced to six to 12 years in prison. Three years later, in May 1978, he was paroled.

Authorities said the assault on the woman in Andover had marked similarities to an attack on Marie lannuzzi in 1979. Paradiso was convicted last summer of murdering her. In the lannuzzi case, the prosecution contended Paradiso left an East Boston tavern with the woman and took her to the Saugus marsh, about six miles north of Boston, where he killed her when she tried to resist his sexual advances. An inmate who testified said Paradiso told him he had choked Miss lannuzzi until she blacked out, sexually attacked her and, when she came to, strangled her with his black scarf. Witnesses said they saw Paradiso with Miss lannuzzi at the bar, and one of them testified he left with her.

Ms. Weyant, Paradiso's girlfriend of 1 3 years, testifying as an alibi witness for him, said she was with Paradiso in the bar and watched, with him, as Miss lannuzzi walked out alone. He did not indicate whether Miss Webster was dead or alive when she allegedly was thrown off the boat. The inmate said Paradiso scuttled the Malafemmena two days later. Authorities launched a massive search of waters in the Boston area for the Malafemmena.

In September 1983, they found it oft" South Boston. The Boston Police Department scuba team, which found the boat, also found an imitation pistol lying under it, which authorities believe Paradiso used to force Miss Webster aboard. A second informant a former inmate and convicted murderer who was Paradiso's cellmate when Paradiso was serving time for an attempted rape contacted authorities in February 1983. He said Paradiso confided in him on Christmas Eve 1979 that he had murdered Miss Iannuzi, and in a phone call two years later, implied he had killed Miss Webster and disposed of her body. Without a body, the task of prosecuting anyone for murder is difficult.

But Burke, the assistant district attorney, says it is not impossible. "It's a major problem," he conceded. "In any homicide case, it's necessary to prove the victim is dead. Without a body, it becomes necessary to use circumstantial evidence, and that is difficult." Evidence in Miss Webster's disappearance was first presented to a grand jury in July 1983. The same grand jury has been recalled several times to hear more evidence.

But when and if a murder indictment will be returned remains an open question. Paradiso, who must serve a minimum of 33 years in prison on current sentences before becoming eligible for parole, faces two other trials. He is scheduled to go on trial next week in federal court in Boston on charges of mail fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to collect insurance money on his boat by falsely reporting it was stolen July 26, 1981, and bankruptcy fraud. His girlfriend of 13 years, Candace M. Weyant, of Revere, is accused with him in the case.

Paradiso faces trial early next year on charges of assaulting and attempting to rape and murder a woman hitchhiker in the summer of 1980, after agreeing to take her to a Revere Beach nightclub area. Investigators believe Paradiso has assaulted at least eight women. him to speak at the ceremonies. After Monterrosa was killed, the ceremonies were dedicated to him. Members of the Monterrosa family and several military officials attended the ceremony.

The minister said the church had reports that army troops sent to get the body were ambushed. Military officials authorized to speak to the media were reported in a meeting and unavailable for comment. According to a church statement, the 37-year-old Fernandez left his home Tuesday and was seen taking part in a religious celebration in San Miguel, some 85 miles east of the capital. The statement said he visited his mother, who also lives in San Miguel, early Wednesday morning. It also gave these details about the minister's last hours.

His mother, Mercedes de Fernandez, said her son was in a car with two other men but did not appear nervous. He told her the three "had to go on a mission" but did not get out of the car. The church said that was the last report Fernandez was seen alive. Two hours later Fernandez' brother reported seeing the minister's minibus near his mother's house, reportedly being watched by military personnel. The minister's wife, Concepcion de Fernandez, later was told the bus was seen at the headquarters of the Arce Battalion, but when she went there they denied having the car.

During a pretrial hearing in the lannuzzi case in March, a woman who said she dated Paradiso in the summer of 1980 testified Paradiso told her he was a "hit man who liked doing females more than males because they were easier and fun." The woman, Charlcne Bucllcrwcll, said Paradiso also told her he would "section their bodies, tie cinder blocks around them and sink them in the ocean." Asked if he believed Ms. Bucllcr-well, Burke said, "Yes, I believe her testimony. I think he likes to 'do' women." Miss Webster's parents, George and Terry Webster, were present in the Boston courtroom during Ms. Bucller-wcll's testimony. They returned during Paradiso's trial in the lannuzzi murder to hear the testimony of the inmate who said Paradiso told him of taking their daughter out in his boat.

Mrs. Webster said she and her husband accept the inmate's testimony as a true account of what happened. She said she and her husband can only guess how Paradiso might have picked up their daughter. They have maintained she was too street-wise to get into a car with a stranger. "We have conjectured that he might have been driving a taxi or posing as a limousine driver," she said.

Webster, an executive with ITT, suggested shortly after Miss Webster disappeared that his daughter might have been picked up by a gypsy cab driver, or someone to whom a gypsy cab driver had given his license for the holiday weekend. Burke said the Webstcrs' theory of a cab driver picking up their daughter at the airport is "viable." But he declined to comment when asked if Paradiso ever held or borrowed a gypsy cab license. "She was sophisticated in the sense she certainly would not hitchhike," Burke said of Miss Webster. "We know her father gave her $50 to take a cab and I doubt that she would have gotten into a car with somebody she didn't know, so it would make sense that she got into a taxi." Authorities said from the beginning they doubted Miss Webster had been abducted from the airport. They said the first contact would have seemed to be non-hostile, since they didn't think someone could have forced her into a car and then thrown her suitcase in on top of her.

After Miss Webster disappeared, Replace That OLD FUSE BOX 0100 With todays fuel costs it pays to replace your old furnace or boiler with a professionally installed high efficiency mooei. srf investigators questioned nearly everyone who had been on the plane with her from Newark to Boston and sought out others who had been in Logan Airport. Miss Webster had graduated in 1978 from Syracuse University College of Visual Performing Arts with a bachelor of fine arts in interiorenvironmental design. Before entering Harvard, she had worked for two years at the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings Merrill in New York, where she designed interiors for an array of buildings in the United States and abroad. When her architectural class at Harvard graduated in June, its gift to the Graduate School of Design was money to develop the garden in back of Gund Hall, the contemporary building housing the school, in Miss Webster's honor.

More than $11,000 has been donated by the class for the purchase and planting of trees, shrubs and flowers for the garden. Kevin Ames, one of the graduating students, paid tribute to Miss Webster during the commencement exercises at the school. "In the years since then (her disappearance), hardly a day has gone by in which we haven't thought of her," he said. "Today, her absence is even more truly felt by us all, but at the same time we are remembering her not with sadness, but as the smiling cheerful friend she was." Burke, the assistant district attorney, said the state's investigation into Miss Webster's disappearance is continuing. "It becomes a personal thing when you meet the family," he said.

"Just meeting them and knowing them, you know how much they loved their daughter." The Webstcrs are still appealing for anyone with information about their daughter to come forward. "I think there exists out there, somewhere, people who have more information," Mrs. Webster said. A $50,000 reward the Webstcrs put up for information leading to their daughter's whereabouts and the conviction of those responsible for her disappearance expired Oct. 31, 1983, but Mrs.

Webster said it's negotiable. Mrs. Webster said she and her husband want to get the mystery of their daughter's disappearance "legally resolved." Price Includes Providing Up To 8 Single Pole Circuit Breakers (One Single Pole Breaker Needed For Each Fuse In Your Fuse Box) $6.00 For Each Additional Single Pole Breaker Required N.J. Lie. 6175 Fully Insured Serving Ocean Monmouth Countio 0172 Call (609) 693-9572) oof Wo SAVE up to ZOU off Regularly J400-2600 Qualify for up to $200...

PUBLIC UTILITY REBATE SAVE up to 45 on fuel costs 4 FULL FINANCING AVAILABLE FREE SURVEY AND ESTIMATE EFRQEflT HEATING AND COOLING ASBURY PARK BRICKTOWN TUCKERTON 988-0309 920-3897 609-296-1196 El Salvador minister found shot to death How to order THE ASBURY PARK PMEi 1 free: 9779 07712 home as checked: the newsstand price) $.60 We'll install a 100 AMP, 230 Volt circuit breaker panel with a capacity for up to 20 single pole breakers Outside service wiring on house and meter socket replaced Ground system upgraded The Associated Press SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador A Lutheran minister, who reportedly eulogizied an army commander of anti-rebel operations, has been found shot to death in eastern El Salvador, a church official said yesterday. Civil guardsmen found the body of the Rev. David Ernesto Fernandez Espino near the city of San Miguel on Wednesday evening, according to the Rev. Mcrdardo Gomez, president of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod. Fernandez had been shot once through the head.

"The Lutheran church has no information about who might have committed this murder," Gomez said. "The war in El Salvador continues to take our country's best children." Guerrillas have been fighting for more than five years to topple the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government. Fernandez was in charge of the 10 Lutheran churches in eastern El Salvador. Another Lutheran minister, who asked not to be identified for reasons of safety, said Fernandez had spoken at the graduation ceremonies of two church vocational schools last Saturday and eulogizied LL Col. Domingo Monterrosa, who was killed in a helicopter crash a month ago.

Monterrosa was in charge of army operations in the area and was considered one of the nation's most talented military commanders. The minister said Fernandez had known Monterrosa and had invited Call toll 800 822 Or, mail this coupon to: The Asbury Park Press Press Plaza, Asbury Park, N.J. i Attn: urcuiation Department I Please deliver The Press to my I Daily Sunday only $1.95 (less I Daily Sunday only I I Name I I Street I I Town I I Zip I I Phone than Includes Sales Tax One Year Guarantee Parts A Written Price Quote Will Be Given To You Before Work Begins Inspection Fee Permit Included For Larger Services Call For A Free Estimate 269 (In. So. Ocian County CALL TODAY FOR A FREE ESTIMATE FOR ANY SIZE JOB J..

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