Once Upon A Crime In Hollywood

The Hollywood Ripper trial shifts its focus to the two California murders – Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno. Ashton Kutcher, the most famous witness in the trial, takes the stand to detail the night he went to pick up Ellerin before she was found dead. Michael Gargiulo’s defense team hammers Ellerin’s former apartment manager about his version of events the night of her murder, and several of Ashley’s friends speak about their interactions with Gargiulo and his apparent obsession with her. Neighbors of Maria Bruno also take the stand, as well as her estranged husband Irving Bruno, who is grilled by the defense about his actions the night of her murder. As the trial begins to wrap up, psychological experts are brought in to assess Gargiulo’s state of mind, and the jury is finally left to make a decision on his guilt, sanity, and potential sentence for the three attacks.

The Hollywood Ripper trial begins nearly 28 years after the murder of Tricia Pacaccio. Michael Gargiulo is on trial for the murders of Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno, as well as the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy. Due to California law allowing “prior bad acts” evidence to be introduced, prosecutors also detail the murder of Tricia Pacaccio to show a pattern of behavior and the eerie similarities between each of the attacks. Michelle Murphy, the lone survivor, also testifies at the trial. We speak to detectives who worked on the case, plus former L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Joshua Ritter about key aspects of the trial, and the most impactful witnesses in the attack on Michelle Murphy, and the murder of Tricia Pacaccio.

With no suspects in Maria Bruno’s murder, L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Detective Mark Lillienfeld continues the search. Michael Gargiulo marries, then moves to Santa Monica, California, with his wife. Across the alleyway, 26-year-old Michelle Murphy lived in an apartment nearby. One night, Murphy woke up with a man on top of her, stabbing her repeatedly with a knife. She manages to kick off the attacker, who cuts himself in the struggle and flees the apartment. When police arrive, they find blood at the crime scene that matches Michael Gargiulo, and he’s eventually arrested for the attack. When L.A. County Sheriff’s detectives who were investigating Maria Bruno’s murder find out, they search Gargiulo’s old apartment in El Monte and find a key piece of evidence. With Gargiulo now in custody, CBS 48 Hours airs a special about Tricia Pacaccio’s murder in Cook County, which leads to a break in the case. We speak with CBS correspondent Maureen Maher about the special, plus former Santa Monica Police lieutenant Darrell Lowe about the attack on Michelle Murphy, and Mark Lillienfeld details the search of Gargiulo’s El Monte apartment and a controversial undercover operation conducted while Gargiulo was in custody.

After Cook County’s State’s Attorney chose not to prosecute, Michael Gargiulo is once again a free man. He moves into an apartment in El Monte, California with his girlfriend, where a 32-year-old woman named Maria Bruno moves in across the complex. Less than two weeks after she moves in, Maria Bruno is killed. Her estranged husband, Irving, finds her stabbed, mutilated, and left for dead in her own bed, just hours after the two had been out the night prior. In a chilling 911 call, Irving describes the scene to police. Mark Lillienfeld, a detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, is assigned to the case. We speak to Det. Lillienfeld about the crime scene, witness statements from people who lived in the apartment, and a crucial piece of evidence left at the crime scene: a blue medical bootie with drops of blood on it.

Cook County detectives are looking for Michael Gargiulo in California, and connect with L.A.P.D. homicide detective Tom Small to help locate him. Armed with a search warrant, detectives track him to an apartment listed under his girlfriend’s name, and arrest him. They submit his DNA for testing and get a match with the DNA collected from Tricia Pacaccio’s fingernail clippings. When the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office is presented with the evidence, they decide not to charge Gargiulo due to the possibility of the DNA being obtained by “casual contact”. We speak with DNA expert Kristen Mittelman and former L.A. County prosecutor Joshua Ritter on the decision by Cook County’s State’s Attorney not to prosecute Gargiulo. Plus, Tom Small tells us how the Pacaccio family reacted to the news.

Seven years after Tricia Pacaccio’s murder, Cook County’s Sheriff’s Office were now treating it as a cold case. A new investigative team submitted Tricia’s fingernail clippings taken from the crime scene as DNA evidence, hoping to get a match. Meanwhile, Michael Gargiulo had moved to Hollywood, where he met 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, who lived a few blocks from his house. After introducing himself as an air conditioning repair man, “Mike” would eventually start showing up at some of Ellerin’s parties uninvited. Ashley was living a glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, partying with some famous actors like Vin Diesel and Ashton Kutcher. The night of February 21, 2001, she had plans to meet Kutcher for drinks after the Grammy Awards, but she never made it there. We speak with Detective Tom Small of the L.A.P.D., who investigated the case, and began searching for a man who was only known by Ashley’s friends as “Mike the furnace guy”.

The Hollywood Ripper story begins in Glenview, Illinois – an unincorporated suburb of Cook County, where 18-year old Tricia Pacaccio was just finishing high school. Tricia attended a road rally with her friends, one of the last times they would get to see each other before leaving for college. When she returned home, she was attacked at her side doorstep and stabbed over a dozen times. Her father found her body the next day, and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office began to investigate. After years of finding no leads, a new investigative team began to zero in on one of Tricia’s neighbors – Michael Gargiulo – who grew up with Tricia’s brother Doug. Even after finding himself in trouble with the law, police couldn’t convince Gargiulo to provide any information about Tricia’s murder, or what he may have known about it. Eventually, he moves to Hollywood, California, where another woman was murdered just blocks away from his house.

With Ronni Chasen’s investigation officially closed, Beverly Hills Police would be challenged over the next several years to release over 200 pages of semi-redacted documents relating to the investigation. Those documents, reviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, show conflicting information about the evidence implicating Harold Smith, and call into question some of the police department’s public statements over the course of the Chasen investigation. In the final episode of our six-part series, we discuss what the documents reveal, and the most significant unanswered questions remaining about Ronni Chasen’s murder.

Guests: Barry A. J. Fisher – Former Crime Laboratory Director, Joshua Ritter – Criminal Defense Attorney, Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, Steve Katz – Former showrunner and Executive Producer for America’s Most Wanted, Myrl Stebens – Licensed Private Investigator, Former Police Investigator

With Beverly Hills Police all but wrapping up the investigation into Ronni Chasen’s murder, media speculation continued about other possible theories, including a murder-for-hire and a rumored gambling debt involving Ronni’s brother, Larry Cohen. The rest of Ronni’s family drew the spotlight when a copy of her will was published by TMZ, putting scrutiny on who was a beneficiary of Ronni’s death, and who wasn’t. In Episode 5, we discuss some of the theories surrounding Ronni’s family, what insight could be gained from her will, as well as the much-anticipated release of Ronni’s autopsy report.

Guests: Jill Gatsby, Ronni’s niece, Ann Louise Bardach – Covered the Chasen case for The Daily Beast, Joshua Ritter – Criminal Defense Attorney, Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney

The media frenzy continued in the aftermath of Harold Smith’s fatal interaction with police at the Harvey Apartments. Beverly Hills Police requested the gun Harold Smith used to commit suicide to be turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Crime Labratory for further testing. After announcing they had a “preliminary ballistics match” to the weapon that killed Ronni Chasen, Beverly Hills Police officially closed the case. In Episode 4, we discuss questions about the ballistics analysis in the case, bold statements made by the Beverly Hills Police Department, and how investigators determined Ronni Chasen was killed in a ‘robbery gone bad’.

Guests: Barry A. J. Fisher – Former Crime Laboratory Director, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Myrl Stebens – Licensed Private Investigator, Former Police Investigator, Joshua Ritter – Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney