Murder of Peter Weinberger

Years later, in 1996, LaMarca's grandson, Joey, was implicated in a murder in Long Beach. After his arrest, Joey claimed that he was genetically predisposed to murder. The case, and Vincent's life as a whole, inspired the plot of the 2002 film City by the Sea.

During his highly-publicized trial in Nassau County, New York, LaMarca attempted to attribute the murder to a state of temporary insanity caused by stress around his financial problems. He was convicted of first degree murder and kidnapping and sentenced to death. After spending over eighteen months on death row, LaMarca was executed in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair in 1958.

On August 6, 1958, one of LaMarca's attorneys, Nancy Carley, attempted to obtain a writ of habeas corpus to stay her client's execution, which was scheduled to take place the next day. Carley argued that Judge Mario Pittoni had refused to answer a question from the jury and had thus denied LaMarca a fair trial. During a 30-minute hearing, the Circuit Court ruled that the argument was invalid. Afterwards, Carley stated that no other legal action in the case was likely and that LaMarca's only chance of survival was if New York Governor W. Averell Harriman agreed to grant executive clemency. LaMarca's wife, Donna, also appealed to Governor Harriman by radio. LaMarca's second attorney, David Markowitz, stated that the intention behind making the radio appeal was "to try to contradict the feeling of antagonism that has been aroused against Angelo LaMarca. Maybe enough people will be moved to send telegrams to the governor asking him to save this man's life." Governor Harriman's office received 400-500 telegrams from people opposed to LaMarca's execution, but he refused to intervene. Until the end of LaMarca's life, Donna insisted that he was insane, stating to a reporter after making her radio appeal, "I just can't believe my husband will die. How can they send an insane man to the chair? No man who is a father can let another child die unless he was crazy."

Angelo LaMarca was executed at 11:00 p.m. on August 7, 1958, at Sing Sing. He was pronounced dead three minutes later. His last meal had consisted of fried chicken, French-fried potatoes, vegetables, ice cream, and coffee. Prison officials stated that he repeatedly shouted, "Maybe they'll save me yet," in the hours leading up to his execution. Shortly before his execution, LaMarca said his final goodbye to his children. "They got along fine," Donna LaMarca said. "He told them to do well in school and to take care of me. [The girl] is too young to understand, but [the boy] knows what’s happening." At his execution, a silent but visibly frightened LaMarca was accompanied by a Catholic chaplain. He was not observed to have said anything in the death chamber except quiet muttered responses to the chaplain's prayers, and one comment to a guard placing a strap over his eyes and face: "What are you trying to do, choke me?" Otherwise, he made no final statement. There were 35 witnesses to his execution, one of whom was Edward Curran. Curran later recalled, "I didn't particularly want to be there, but Betty Weinberger and Frank Gulotta asked me to go, so I felt I had to do it."

Peter Weinberger (June 2, 1956 - c. July 12, 1956) was a one-month-old infant who was kidnapped for ransom on July 4, 1956, in New York state. The case gained national notoriety likely due to the circumstances of the kidnapping and the victim's family, as unlike many ransom victims, Weinberger was not from a wealthy and prominent family, but from a suburban middle class family.

Peter Weinberger was born on June 2, 1956. On July 4, when Peter was 32 days old, his mother, Betty Weinberger, placed him in a carriage covered with mosquito netting on the patio of their house in Westbury, New York, a town in Nassau County, and left him unattended for approximately 10 minutes. She returned to find that someone had pulled open the netting, taken Peter, and left a ransom note on notebook paper in green ink. The note read, in part:

On August 22, 1956, six weeks after the kidnapping and after the FBI had analyzed over 2 million public records in an attempt to find a handwriting match, a federal probation officer in Brooklyn, New York, found a document in his files with handwriting that matched the unique writing style of the ransom notes' author. The defendant in that case was then-31-year-old Angelo LaMarca, who had been convicted of bootlegging in Suffolk and had just completed his term of probation. After FBI handwriting experts concluded that LaMarca had written the ransom notes, Nassau County police planned the arrest in a way that was intended to avoid harm to Peter Weinberger if he were still alive. The next day, on August 23, police swarmed the homes of LaMarca and all of his close relatives. Police arrested LaMarca at his own house as he returned from dropping off his own two children at his parents' house.

On August 29, 1956, LaMarca was indicted on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder. A week later, on September 5, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. On September 21, he motioned that the trial be moved out of Nassau County due to the pretrial publicity the case had received in the local press, but on October 1, the motion was denied; the trial ultimately took place in Nassau County.

LaMarca's trial began on November 5, 1956. In an unusual twist, Nassau County District Attorney Frank Gulotta decided to prosecute the case himself. Jury selection occurred during the first six days of the trial, wherein 230 jurors were questioned; 44 were excused due to lack of time, 6 were excused due to personal illness, 13 were excused because of their ideas and understanding on legal insanity, 20 were excused due to their acquaintance with people involved in the case, and 15 were excused for unspecified reasons. The jury was set on November 14, 1956. The jury consisted of twelve men, all of whom were fathers and two of whom were grandfathers.

The trial concluded in early December, with the jury reaching their verdict on December 7, after deliberating for 6 hours and 24 minutes. LaMarca was found guilty of felony first degree murder and kidnapping. In New York at the time, a first degree murder conviction carried a mandatory death sentence. However, because LaMarca had been convicted of felony first degree murder instead of premeditated first degree murder, the jury had the option of sparing his life by recommending mercy. LaMarca's lawyers pleaded with the jury to let him live since he had young children of his own. The prosecution replied, "What mercy was shown baby Peter when he was left in that woods? What mercy did he show then?" Ultimately, LaMarca's jury did not recommend mercy, meaning he would be sentenced to death. Upon hearing the verdict, LaMarca's wife and mother, who were in the gallery witnessing the trial, reportedly fainted. One week later, on December 14, 1956, LaMarca was formally sentenced to death, with Nassau County Judge Mario Pittoni scheduling his execution to take place during the week of January 28, 1957.

In 1954, LaMarca was arrested for his participation in a bootlegging operation that also involved his father, Vincenzo, and his younger brother, Joseph, as well as two other men who were not related to LaMarca. The group set up an illegal still capable of producing 500 gallons of bootleg whiskey. Following their arrests, all five were charged with operating a still and possessing mash, the latter of which was a federal offense. LaMarca received a 90-day suspended sentence along with a year of probation. The documents filed in relation to LaMarca's probationary period would play a significant role in his capture for the Weinberger kidnapping.

Angelo LaMarca married Donna LaMarca on June 6, 1946. They had two children together, a boy named Vincent and a girl named Vivian; at the time that LaMarca received his death sentence, Vincent was 9 years old, and Vivian was 5.

Prior to the Weinberger case, the laws concerning federal intervention in kidnapping cases had been shaped by the Lindbergh kidnapping by Richard Hauptmann, who, like LaMarca, was executed after being convicted of the kidnapping and murder of a baby. Hauptmann's case had inspired the Federal Kidnapping Act, which, after amendments made in 1934, decreed that if a kidnapping victim was still missing after seven days, the FBI were allowed to presume that the victim had been trafficked across state lines and could therefore intervene as federal authorities. As a direct result of Peter Weinberger's kidnapping and murder, the Federal Kidnapping Act was amended in 1956 to allow the FBI to enter a kidnapping investigation after just 24 hours had passed. Later, in 1998, the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act would allow the FBI to become involved in kidnapping investigations prior to 24 hours passing.

Angelo LaMarca was born in New York on April 13, 1925. On July 31, 1943, he was drafted to serve in World War II; his enlistment papers state that he had "dependents" at that time but was single, that he worked in the manufacturing of "paper goods," and that the most advanced education level he attained was attendance at grammar school.