Michael Gargiulo | Ep.1

This podcast explores themes of violence against women, rape, and murder.

It includes explicit dialogue.

Listener discretion is advised.

Please note, some of the voices you hear in this series have been performed by actors.

Under the shimmering lights of Hollywood in the 2000s, a killer lies in weight.

He's someone people think they can trust, a neighbor.

But he's biting his time, stalking the streets, hunting for his next victim.

From ID and arrow media, I'm criminal psychologist Dr. Michelle Ward.

In this is Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper.

Chapter one, Michael Garjulo.

Michael Garjulo was watching, always watching.

She was stabbed and I mean butchered.

Almost 50 times in her throat was cut.

I touched her and she was like, you know, ice cold.

That's when the shock set in.

A media frenzy erupts when this modern day serial killer is convicted of attempting to murder one

woman and succeeding in murdering two other women, all neighbors he ambushed in their own homes.

News at 10, actor Ashton Kutcher appears in the Hollywood Ripper trial.

For the first time in my work on the Mind of a Monster series,

I'm investigating a case that as of today isn't over.

This killer awaits trial in another murder case in Illinois.

Trisha parked her car and walked up to the side of the house, key in hand,

but she never made it inside.

Throughout this season, I'll be delving into the disturbed mind of Michael Garjulo.

He's one of the most contemporary and as a woman living in LA at the time,

troubling serial killers, I've investigated.

The rage of the killing of Ashley was so extreme.

The attack on Ruiabruno was so vicious, so callous, it almost like it was like a personal thing.

The methodical and systematic slaughter of women by Michael Garjulo.

That's what this case is about.

It's 2019.

Michael Garjulo is standing trial for multiple murder charges in Los Angeles.

I remember it vividly.

Dubbed the Hollywood Ripper case, it makes headlines all over the world.

Journalist Nathan Solis reported on the case and he takes me into that courtroom where the

sole survivor is about to face her attacker.

So, Michelle Murphy takes the stand.

It must have been a moment of high drawback.

She's finally faced to face with her attacker 11 years later.

What do you remember about her testimony and the atmosphere in the courtroom at that time?

The room felt incredibly fraught with tension, not necessarily out of fear for her safety,

but fear for her having to confront this again.

She was just so incredibly brave and strong in the eyes of everyone in that room at that time.

I wrote in my notes because Garjulo is about I think six feet tall and she's petite and she's

much smaller than him, but she's tearing herself like she's ten feet tall because she had so much

courage and conviction to be up there. She struck me as someone who had no problem looking at

Garjulo. She was the one that survived and she looked directly at him and I don't think

that's something that we can all say for ourselves.

Michelle Murphy's testimony opens the trial. Everyone wants to hear from the woman who's

survival unmasked as suspected serial killer. The 37-year-old takes the stand.

She's only a few feet away from the 43-year-old Michael. He's bald, pale, and wearing thick,

rimmed glasses. Virtually unrecognizable from the repairman with Hollywood good looks who

was Michelle's neighbor in Santa Monica back in 2008. Did she mention about her interactions that

she'd had with Mike Garjulo before the night when he attacked her? Yeah. So the two of them lived in

opposite apartment buildings in Santa Monica and they had a common alley in between the two of them

and that's where they were parked their vehicles. He had a utility truck parked but she would sometimes

see him and he would occasionally waver. That was the extent of their interactions. She didn't

feel like she was being watched or stalked. No, no, but apparently his apartment looked right into

her apartment so it was just a matter of him looking at his window. Oh gosh.

Michelle's testimony takes us back to April 28th, 2008, a warm spring evening in Santa Monica.

She's put in her laundry and now she's working out in the back alley behind her apartment building.

She's jumping rope. Michelle is 26 and keeps in good shape. She's 51 and attractive with dark shoulder

length hair. By 9 p.m., her laundry is done. She empties the dryer and goes up to her second floor

apartment to take a shower. A relaxed evening lies ahead. Her roommate is out of town so Michelle

has the place to herself but it's a Monday night so nothing crazy just TV and then sleep.

She cracks open the living room window to let in a cooling breeze before going to bed at about

10 p.m., Michelle is in her bathroom talking to the emergency responder on the phone. She's covered

in blood, terrified, shaking. Please describe for us what she says happened that night.

She testified that she woke up to the feeling of the knife coming down on her and that she couldn't

immediately see what was happening because she knew that someone was on top of her. Wow. She

felt the sensation of being stabbed. She said something to the effect of I'm not going to let this

be my end or I'm not going to give up here and she struggled with him and she grabbed at the knife

but it was slick with her blood and so she couldn't get a good firm grip on it.

So as she was struggling she pulled her legs out from under him. She pulled her knees up to her

chest and she basically launched him. She kicked him off with whatever strength she had.

You go girl. Yeah no it was it was incredible to hear her describe that and during that

struggle is when he cut himself. The prosecution just laid out its evidence and was asking their

questions and I included the 911 call of her talking to an operator and about the attack and

her voice sounded composed but but but very tinny you know the quality wasn't great

and that times you could hear her breaking down and then she'd pick herself up.

So she was able to describe his physique and his height. She said oh he's 5'11".

He was wearing dark clothing. I couldn't see his face. Do you remember how he got in?

Yeah if he went through a window he cut it open with a knife. The jury was shown the photos

from her apartment and it was just covered in blood just everywhere and over her bed spread

in her hallway where she crawled out of because she chased after him as he was running out of her

apartment and he said sorry to her and then she locked her door. Oh my gosh.

Take a second to let that sink in. I'm sitting here processing what Nathan has said

that this girl who's small strong but small in bed asleep not clothed is able to transition from

sleep to attack to defend herself in no time at all. No matter who you are it takes time to realize

what is going on around you, what's your experience and to engage in fight or flight. Somehow

she's able to get out from underneath this large male attacker with a weapon somehow injure him

and chase him down the hallway and then to make it even stranger he apologizes for what?

Is he sorry to finish the job? Is he sorry he messed up? Who is he apologizing to?

To Michelle? To himself? Or perhaps he's sorry because this means he may get caught.

Back in court photographs are being shown to the jury of Michelle lying in a hospital bed after

the attack stab wounds to her chest and arms. Were you able to get an impression of the jurors' reactions

as she described the injuries in the night? Some of the jurors were just would not take their

eyes off of her. And a few of them were taking notes invisibly upset when they would see photos of

her injuries that were put up on display. So you could see that they would take a beat and they

would look up and it was kind of like a gut patch because you're looking at this very graphic

cut to this person's body and she was in the room with this. There was also a sense that

she was getting the last word in and that she was able to face her attacker and you know hold him

to account. From an emotional standpoint how did she seem on the stand? She seemed for the most

part composed and the fact that she had the ability to go through those questions without breaking

down was definitely surprising. I mean despite it being 11 years later none of us have experienced

anything like that and I can't imagine ever reliving it without being an absolute mess. She painted

a picture that you probably could never really imagine. The idea that someone is in your bedroom

at night is probably a fear that a lot of people have but for her to paint that visual and then

for her to be in the room with this man made her seem like she was a giant.

For my research I have access to thousands of pages of legal documents from the California State

Superior Court. Throughout this series I'll be digging into these transcripts to gather information.

I've learned that Michael's trial revolves around four women Michelle Murphy whose courage ended

his killing spree Ashley Elloran and Maria Bruno. Plus the judge takes a rare step of allowing the

prosecution to include evidence about a fourth woman Trisha Picaccio. Michael will stand trial for

her murder later in Illinois. Like all of the women he's accused of killing Michelle Murphy is good

looking outgoing and petite. Easy for Garjulo to overpower. Beyond neighborly hellos they did not

know each other. Who is Michael Garjulo and how did he become such a brutal killer?

Michael Atomas Garjulo is born on February 15th 1976. He's the fifth of seven children.

He has three sisters and three brothers. His father has several jobs working long hours to support

his growing family, leaving Michael's mother at home in charge of this boisterous gaggle of children.

They live in Glenview, a leafy suburb 20 miles north of Chicago. Glenview is a small safe town.

The type of place where kids playing sprinklers on the front lawn while parents wash their cars.

The mind of a monster team tracks down one of Michael's teenage friends who agrees to an

interview on condition of anonymity. We've disguised his voice to protect his identity.

We would just kind of hang out and smoke weed and go cause mischief or whatever and yeah,

we would just kind of roll around in cars and smoke weed and Michael would, you know,

find us some weed cause he was a little older and there's some people who would, you know,

help accommodate us. That wasn't the greatest fun back in those days. I remember one particular time

we were in my dad's Chevy Tahoe at the shopping plaza driving it over the grass island in the

parking lot, just kind of going straight across like off-roading it and he was like giggling like a

school girl. He was enjoyable, you know, for the most part to hang out with. I mean, we used to laugh

with Michael a lot honestly. He was usually at the expense of others, but we would laugh with Michael

a lot. He was funny. I thought he was a funny guy. So in a lot of ways, Michael is just a typical

teenager, which in and of itself is an insight. He's not a loner sitting in his room or in his garage

or basement, not interacting with other kids or classmates. It might be notable that Michael's

hanging out with someone who is three years younger than he is. But remember, most of the other

kids are in school or obeying rules. There's only so many misfits to choose from. Both of these boys

are doing poorly in school. I don't remember him in school and I don't remember talking about

school. It was my impression that he, I did, I did a similar thing. I dropped that high school when

I was a junior and ended up getting my high school diploma. A lot of the kids that were a little

more inclined to be in trouble tended to eradicate towards that. So I'm sitting here going through

these court documents because I feel like I need more clues about Michael's childhood. And this

is kind of interesting. Right here, it says that he was put into special education when he was 10

for being disruptive, distracting others and teachers generally just finding him difficult.

And that's all according to the psychologist who was brought in by the defense, Vien Castelano.

Now she talks about him having oppositional conduct disorder. And I don't think that's what she

means. I think what she means is the two separate disorders of oppositional defiant disorder

and conduct disorder. But they're a little different. Oppositional defiant disorder is characterized

by being disobedient and defiant with adults, which is exactly what I think Michael had at the time.

Now, conduct disorder is a little bit more serious and he's not quite there yet. That's characterized

by having a disregard for the rights of others being very physically aggressive and very anti-social.

That's like real rule breaking in these kids. And it's more than just being oppositional and defiant

at age 10. So I would say that's probably pretty right on that he probably had oppositional

defiant disorder. Now, her evidence was part of the defense case presented at Michael's trial,

so the prosecution and no other parties found any of these details. So far, I'm just saying a

naughty rebellious teen. I need to understand more about his genes and his environment to get a

clearer picture. There were scruffy Italian family and I'll be honest with you. I looked up to

Michael because he had a name behind him that Garjulo name was kind of a, I don't want to see,

like super popular, but like Garjulo boys were known and they were fairly popular guys.

Michael claims he's bullied by a sibling. I remember him telling stories about like getting locked

in his room and getting the crap picked out of him and his parents didn't defend him. His parents

didn't seem to, it was according to him, according to him. I never really understood he was, but

according to him, his parents just kind of let it go down. They didn't really interject. They didn't

really come to his rescue. This account is mirrored in Michael's trial, but the psychologist

hired by the defense. It hasn't been verified by the prosecution or any other parties.

Michael is a bully too. I want to see if his teenage friend never saw this side of him.

He was just an intimidating, volatile, untradicable guy. I always felt like I was lucky because

for whatever reason Michael didn't pick on me, he would pick one of us in the group and just,

yeah, he was mean. Yeah, you know, he would just so belittle you, make funny, he wouldn't,

he was relentless. He wouldn't stop. Yeah, I remember him picking on my friend. I was a bigger kid

when I was young. I was already predisposed to be on guard for bullying it. So I always found it

enjoyable that Michael didn't pick me to pick on me. But I just always remember feeling like

on edge, you know, you never kind of knew what he was going to do. I mean, we'd be sitting there

one moment, smoking a joint. And the next moment, Michael would be ripping his shirt off, running

across the field, screaming or, you know, attacking my body and punching him, you know,

repeatedly. He was extremely volatile. I mean, you just never knew what he was going to do.

This is more significant bullying than someone who simply targets just one person.

As discussed, this looks like conduct disorder, which is more serious than oppositional defiant

disorder or ODD. ODD is a pattern of negative defiant and disobedient behavior towards it.

Conduct disorder, on the other hand, includes physical aggression,

destruction of property, deceitfulness, and overall more serious rule violation.

Now, this can be typical in someone we see on a trajectory toward full-blown anti-social

personality disorder, in which we have a long-term pattern of disregard for and violation of

the rights of others, like a criminal in the making. But lots of will-adjusted adults were

bullies as children. So I need to dig deeper into his familial history to try to understand

all possible influences on his criminal outcome. I found out that both of Michael's grandfathers

came to New York in the early 1920s on a boat from Naples. Fred Gardefe is a professor of Italian

American studies, and, like Michael, is a third-generation Italian American. His grandparents

arrived in Chicago around the same time as Michael's. Why Chicago? Why'd they go there?

Chicago was the transportation hub of the United States. It was a point in which people

went west. There was meat packing. There were transportation. The railroads met there.

Everybody needed workers at that time, and they really needed unskilled workers as well.

What kind of jobs would they've had? They were the works for the railroads. They were the

builders. You know, there's a story that says they were lured over with the ideas that the streets

were paved with gold. And when they got here, they realized the streets were paved at all.

There was no gold there, and they were the ones expected to do the painting. Many, many, many

migrants died during the buildings of skyscrapers. This kind of idea that the worker was

extendable. Life is cheap for first-generation Italian immigrants like Michael Garjulo's grandparents.

Their children would have witnessed the hardship. The blood, sweat, and the tears it took to build

a new life. The sacrifices that meant they could leave the Italian ghetto for the leafy suburbs.

Just like Michael's parents did when they moved to Glenview in 1964.

You don't know the Garjulo's, and you're a bit older than Michael, but how was life at home for

you and your family growing up? I grew up thinking very much so that I would never live to be

40 or 50 years old, because violence was something that was expected. It was a way of

resolving problems. You know, somebody's giving you a problem, slapping. Somebody's giving you a

real problem, killing. My father was killed when I was 10. My father's father grabbed me. The day

my father was killed, I was about to cry. And he said, you're the man in the family now. Men don't

cry. I didn't cry from that day in 1963 until I went as a therapy 40 years later.

But when I did go to therapy, I had a therapist once we said to me, it's a wonder you didn't become a

mass murderer. Obviously, Fred Gardefei did not turn into a mass murderer, and frankly having a

violent childhood does not at all mean someone will grow up to be violent. I don't know how much

of Fred Gardefei's story rings true for Michael's family, but this tough macho immigrant heritage

is somewhat of a useful lens for which to view Michael's upbringing. We do know that we are

culturally, genetically, and environmentally related to our own family. So disentangling the causes

of behavior in one singular person is impossible. It's too anecdotal. We need a population statistic

for that. However, we also know that there can be cultural influences in terms of what specific

behaviors are normalized within a family. Then Fred Gardefei tells me something else,

deep in the Italian psyche, that might help me understand Michael better.

So what was going on in Italy in the 1920s that made so many people want to leave?

Italy was a land that was constantly invaded and not only invaded but occupied by foreign

countries, and this idea of creating a false front and a real, to protect your real

core of who you are. That's part of the behavior of people who live in occupied countries.

The Italians call it having a bella figuda, and you make yourself look better than you are,

or you make yourself look worse than you are. So this idea of bella embluta figuda,

it's so ingrained in Italian culture that people like Garjulo would have had it up in

under his skin. It would have been in his DNA. And the idea is you don't let people know what

you're thinking. You don't really let them know the truth about you. The idea is that if you tell

the truth to somebody, the devil will take over. Don't let anyone know what you're thinking.

Don't let anyone know the truth about you. The perfect mantra for a serial killer.

This also makes me wonder more about Michael's parents, how he was raised and what his

home life was like. Something for me to dive further into.

So I'm outside playing with my dogs as they are wrestling. We're here. We're here. And it's

got me thinking about Michael Garjulo's friend and what he said about him and how he's a bully and

he's kind of, you know, a little bit violent and maybe a bit of a troublemaker. But so are plenty

of teenage boys. And what I think is, yes, we could be seeing a guy on a bad trajectory,

but we have to remember a lot of teenage boys grow out of this kind of stuff. He's a little bit on

the rougher edge of that spectrum, but he's also from a culture where some of that behavior seems

positive. And he hasn't done anything quite yet to really raise red flags, but I say this.

This is the crucial crossroad. It's where some kids mature and become reasonable adults and others

take a much more dangerous road. We'll see where he goes.

It's 1993 in Glenview, Illinois. And Trisha Picaccio is an 18-year-old high school graduate

looking forward to her freshman year at college. I speak with Chicago's sometimes journalist Frank

Maine. So I want to take you back to your impressions of Glenview in 1993. I'm familiar with the

area. It's a very nice kind of upper-class community, kind of a leafy, sleepy community.

And most of the kids are upwardly mobile and heading to good universities.

And I've read that at the time. Trisha Picaccio is one of them.

Trisha was heading to Purdue University of study engineering and that's a great engineering

school. So she was kind of following the path that a lot of kids from that area would follow,

which is to either go to one of the big 10 schools or Ivy League schools or something like that.

So that's kind of the neighborhood that she grew up in.

Trisha is a force of nature. She's a four foot 11-inch powerhouse with the world at her feet.

As well as the school debate team, she's on the Badminton team and she will be leaving Glenview

at the end of August for Purdue University in Indiana. She's beautiful, clever and popular.

Trisha's brother Doug knows Michael Garjulo. Mike and Doug first met at age 9. They went to the

same elementary school to Cub Scouts and even started a band together. Doug on base, Mike on drums.

Doug and Michael are also on the football team together. Michael is fast, strong, and can kick a

football farther than anyone else. In August 1993, Michael, or Mike, as his friends call him,

is 17. He's athletic and handsome with warm brown eyes, a charismatic smile, and dark hair in a

mullet. Mike's either spending time with his girlfriend, Alison Missefi, they've been dating since

they were 15 or 16, or hanging out with friends like Doug Pacaccio. In my research, I want to learn

more about the Pacaccio family and where Michael fits into it. Everyone is welcome at their house,

which is the next street over from the Garjulo's. Doug Pacaccio's mom, Diane, often cooks for her

kids' friends, but she remembers that Michael never seems particularly comfortable in the house.

Diane sets some food in front of him and she says he'd pick it up and he'd start pacing back and

forth like a caged animal. She says why don't you sit down with everyone else and he'd say,

well I can't and he'd take off out the door. Could this be puzzling behavior? Michael's known

Doug for most of his life and isn't at home in his house, but it might be normal teenage awkwardness

around other people's parents, or him just being uncomfortable with authority figures in general.

Or is it because he has nefarious intentions toward Trisha that he doesn't want to accidentally

reveal by sticking around for too long? On August 14, 1993, Trisha Pacaccio is found stabbed to death

on the doorstep of her family home. In the LA courtroom in 2019, prosecuting district attorney Dan

Acman is seeking justice for Michael Garjulo's victims. Trisha Pacaccio's case is used in evidence,

even though Michael's not on trial for her murder at this time. D.A. Acman presents what he believes to

be Michael's first murder and paints a heartbreaking picture of Trisha Pacaccio's last hours.

On Friday, the 13th of August in 1993, it was hot and muggy and glenview and a thick fog

had settled over the area. Trisha is due to leave for Indiana in five days, journalist Frank

Maine. She was out with some friends and they were kind of having this kind of a last

rub before she went to college and they went out to a restaurant and kind of celebrated and

then afterwards I think that she drove her friends back to their cars and then went home.

Trisha's evening ended with hugs and kisses with her friends.

Trisha, it was the summer of her life and the end of a perfect evening with friends.

Trisha parked her car and walked up to the side of the house, key in hand, but she never made it inside.

What happened that night?

The police think she was killed somewhere around 1 a.m. in the morning, but her body wasn't

found until the later that morning when her dad went to walk with a family dog and

was looking out the front door and saw Gymshues near the stairs and it turned out to be his daughter

and obviously it was horribly traumatic. He screamed and then from what I gathered, they were

in such shock that eventually the police had to take both of them to the hospital because of their

horror and what they had discovered. It is so traumatizing to think about a father

stumbling upon his daughter's mutilated body. I expect nothing less than then needing to be

hospitalized after that. It's the ripple effect of victims in a case like this is so mind-boggling to

me. A crime like this looks like rage. It looks like anger and you have this sweet heart, the

apple of everybody's eye and killed in this such a violent manner and this is on the family stoop.

They walk outside of their house, probably not even knowing that their daughter's not home

and there she is. You have to register that she's dead. Could you describe Trisha's injuries?

From what I recall, one of her arms was broken in the struggle that she had with her killer

and she was stabbed like a dozen times. Back in court, prosecutor Dianneakman makes the case

that Michael Garjulo is responsible for killing Trisha. The evidence will show that Garjulo was waiting

for her with the knife. Garjulo, who is athletic and had trained in martial arts and boxing,

grabbed Trisha, who was very petite, snapped her arm and stabbed her repeatedly in the left

breast arm and chest. Garjulo left her bleeding to death on the doorstep of the family home and

then fled. Michael's teenage friend remembers that day vividly more than 30 years later.

That was a huge, huge thing for a little one view. They have a little girl stabbed a

dot on her doorstep, you know? I mean, that was that was a big news in Glenview.

Murders are very rare in Glenview and this one of an innocent girl for rociously stabbed outside

her home has a shattering impact on the collective psyche. Journalist Frank Maine.

So it's a crime that obviously seems linked to extreme anger and personal animus.

The question that everybody had at the time is how did this lovely girl who was a straight A

student seem to kind of bridge all sorts of different social groups and in the high school.

Why would somebody do this? Exactly.

Forensic investigators seal off the scene and Trisha's body is taken away for examination.

It's quickly established that Trisha has not been sexually assaulted.

The stabbing is frenzied. Trisha has wounds to her chest, arms and back.

It's overkill, much more than needed to end someone's life.

Stabbing is an intimate act. It requires strength, skill and practice and it can go wrong.

So why choose that as a way of killing?

Sometimes the attacker gets pleasure through the act itself, being so close to someone as their

life drains away. Prosecutor Dan Eggman shares with the jury what he believes to be Michael's MO.

Garjula's plan to kill was to first identify a target who lived near him, equate himself with that

victim and her habits and routines and then watch, shadow, stock and hunt down the victims

relentlessly as part of his plan to kill. Michael stays silent throughout his trial.

But after his arrest in 2008, following the attack on Michelle Murphy,

his conversations in Jill were secretly recorded. Throughout the series, these snippets will give us

valuable insights into his state of mind. Here's an excerpt from a conversation Michael had with his

cellmate. The Hollywood detective would just say, fucking, and ask me saying, oh, this one was

blind, this one was brilliant. You, you just like beautiful women, you can't get them, so you kill

them. That's their motive. Yeah, I think they're fishing. That's what it sounds like. I was like,

what? I've never heard any woman over any, just just into making money. I don't have problems with

any women. I should write a book and publish it. I'm already in college, wrongfully accused.

Michael's typical of many killers, of course he didn't do it, but that couldn't be further from

the truth. Michael is setting patterns that will expose him as a dangerous predator, a killer who

meticulously targets and stalks young women, before butchering them in the most horrific way.

Coming up this season on Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood River, I had never ever felt that type

of energy before. It was it was cold. It was not friendly. It was not welcoming. She said, how did

you get in? Where'd you get that key? Get the fuck out of here. These killings in Los Angeles wouldn't

have happened if he was in prison in Illinois. I just remembered being like God, this guy who I really

kind of looked up to and valued my friendship with could be such a hideous monster. He's so confident

that she's not going to scream. He's so confident in his ability to brutally murder somebody.

Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood River, is produced by Arrow Media, a free mantle company for ID.

I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Ward. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcasts,

and we'd love it if you could take a second to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts.