The Grudge

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Speaker 2 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 4 Tonight on an all-new dateline.

Speaker 5 She and her son Danny were in the basement of their home when the doorbell rang.

Speaker 5 Danny bounded up the steps to answer the door

Speaker 5 and then the shots rang out.

Speaker 5 Danny was hit. Mark was shot in the abdomen.

Speaker 8 I saw my son holding his chest.

Speaker 7 I knew he wasn't gonna make it.

Speaker 9 Why, Daniel, out of all people, one of the sweetest kids I've ever met.

Speaker 5 Her husband was rushed to the emergency room for surgery.

Speaker 3 I was just in total shock.

Speaker 10 You get a call that there's been another murder.

Speaker 11 Correct.

Speaker 12 A man knocked on the door, said, are you Mark Angelucci? And he said yes, and then just started shooting.

Speaker 5 We weren't expecting to link up a murder in California to the attack here in New Jersey.

Speaker 10 I just thought this is crazy.

Speaker 8 Nobody's safe.

Speaker 7 I had a feeling that the person probably wanted me.

Speaker 10 It's personal. This was revenge.

Speaker 5 Most assuredly, yes.

Speaker 7 That someone would come to my door and take my only child.

Speaker 7 It's unfathomable.

Speaker 4 Here's Andrea Canning with the grudge.

Speaker 10 Summer 2020, in the throes of a pandemic, a killer had devised the perfect plan for murder.

Speaker 7 Our guard was down because that bell was ringing so often.

Speaker 10 Home deliveries had become a way of life.

Speaker 7 Some of these packages were being delivered by people out of their own cars.

Speaker 10 So there was no cause for alarm when on a lazy Sunday afternoon, a man rang the doorbell at the home of a prominent family in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

Speaker 7 And I remember my son looking at me and going, who's that?

Speaker 10 They had no idea.

Speaker 10 Evil was waiting on the other side.

Speaker 7 I saw my son lying perpendicular to the door, holding his chest. And then I remember just screaming.

Speaker 10 On a warm summer Friday evening, Esther Salas, her husband Mark Andrell, and their son Daniel were celebrating, in a socially distant way, Daniel's 20th birthday.

Speaker 7 We rented a tent in the backyard and set up this real long table and a few of his friends from Catholic University came and it was a glorious weekend. Daniel was just, he was jumping out of his skin.

Speaker 7 He was so excited.

Speaker 10 Daniel and his friends continued the celebration the next day with a trip to the beach. By Sunday afternoon, everyone had gone home.
It was July 19th, around 5 p.m.

Speaker 10 Mother and son were cleaning up the basement and sharing a special, special, albeit fleeting moment.

Speaker 7 I think he was swinging a wiffle bat or something, and I remember him saying, let's keep talking, mom. I love talking to you, mom.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 at that exact second, the doorbell rang.

Speaker 10 Curious, Daniel shot up the stairs to answer the door.

Speaker 7 The next thing I heard were these, this bang, this loud sound that I had never heard before. And I hear Mark say, no.

Speaker 7 And then I hear bang, bang bang bang and I just I just screamed what is happening and I ran up the stairs what do you what do you think is happening do you have any idea no the only thing I could think of is that it was a bomb and I was preparing myself as I'm running up the stairs to see like

Speaker 7 body parts everywhere but what I saw was just as worse as anything that I had imagined

Speaker 10 She saw Daniel lying on the floor by the front door. Her husband Mark was crawling on the porch, trying to catch a glimpse of the attacker's license plate as he drove away.

Speaker 7 I remember Mark crawling back, and we were both just

Speaker 7 screaming, Danny, hold on, hold on. I heard him moaning softly.

Speaker 7 And I actually lifted his shirt

Speaker 7 and saw the bullet hole.

Speaker 10 Did you say anything to him knowing that this might be the last time that you would be with him?

Speaker 7 No, no, I just kept saying, hold on, honey.

Speaker 11 Hold on.

Speaker 7 And I knew he was such a fighter that there was a part of me that thought, you know, if anyone can do it, Daniel will.

Speaker 10 Mark had been shot, too, multiple times.

Speaker 7 I know Mark was screaming, call 911.

Speaker 10 Patrol officers with the North Brunswick Police Department arrived within minutes. Deputy Chief Joseph Battaglia was at a family picnic when he got the call.

Speaker 10 In North Brunswick, shootings are rare, so this one especially caught him by surprise. It was at the home of a federal judge.
What details are you given about what has happened at this house?

Speaker 14 They told me that there was two individuals were shot, and it was the house of Judge Salas.

Speaker 10 Do you know right away who Judge Salas is?

Speaker 14 Yes, I'm familiar with the name, yes.

Speaker 10 Judge Esther Salas was the first Latina federal judge to preside in New Jersey, appointed by President Obama in 2011.

Speaker 10 Battaglia quickly learned it was Salas's husband, Mark, a defense attorney, and their son Daniel, who'd been shot.

Speaker 14 When the first responding officers arrived, Daniel had a pulse and he was breathing. They administered basic first aid.

Speaker 10 What condition was Mark in?

Speaker 14 Surprisingly, Mark was talking and he was sitting up and he was tending to Daniel.

Speaker 10 EMTs raced Mark and Daniel to the hospital. Officers searched the area.

Speaker 14 They secured the home, they secured the perimeter, and then they set up a canvas at the area.

Speaker 10 Did they find anything that's of significance?

Speaker 14 We spoke to the neighbor next door who had actually very good information. He said he saw an individual, white male, tall, thin, wearing a mask, had a FedEx messenger bag, got into a silver or blue

Speaker 14 Nissan Centra, and fled the area.

Speaker 10 Based on eyewitness accounts, the deputy chief felt confident the shooter had left the area.

Speaker 14 Our concern was where was he going next, being that this was a federal court judge. Were those his targets?

Speaker 10 More federal judges. Yes.
So you're thinking maybe this guy has a hit list of some kind?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 10 But But Taglia's gut was telling him the judge was the intended target, but he couldn't be sure.

Speaker 14 Because Mark also was a defense attorney who had probably made some, you know, possibly some enemies over the years.

Speaker 10 He called in the cavalry.

Speaker 14 FBI, ATF, state police, county prosecutors, U.S. Marshals, U.S.
Attorney's Office, our agency.

Speaker 10 This was serious.

Speaker 14 It was a large operation, yes.

Speaker 10 The largest police operation he'd ever been a part of. And they were all worried about the same thing.
Would the shooter strike again? The clock was ticking.

Speaker 7 When we come back, I kept asking, how's my son? How's my son?

Speaker 4 For Judge Salas, pure agony.

Speaker 7 I remember to

Speaker 7 screaming, screaming.

Speaker 4 While investigators turned to her husband for what could be critical clues.

Speaker 5 He couldn't actually speak, but he was able to tap out certain words to talk about what he saw.

Speaker 10 As law enforcement hunted the shooter, a police officer raced federal judge Esther Salas to the ER. Her husband and son were fighting for their lives.

Speaker 10 Daniel, her only child, had been shot in the chest. What do you learn when you get to the hospital?

Speaker 7 You know, I knew it was bad because I kept asking my, how's my son? How's my son? Somebody tell me something. And, you know, nobody was saying anything.
And the doctors came in and

Speaker 7 broke the news to me that he didn't make it. And I remember just screaming, screaming and shaking one poor doctor.
I felt so bad.

Speaker 10 Her son was gone and she had no idea what was happening with her husband. She shouted to anyone who would listen.

Speaker 7 Can someone tell me about Mark? I need to know if I'm planning one funeral or two.

Speaker 7 As she waited for an answer, it just became way too much for me to deal with and I remember literally passing out.

Speaker 10 When she came to, she learned Mark was in surgery. A bullet had ripped through his liver and intestines.
The thought of also losing her husband was too much to bear.

Speaker 10 They had met 28 years earlier in the prosecutor's office. She was an intern.
He was working homicide.

Speaker 7 I think it was love at first sight

Speaker 7 for us and we've been inseparable since 1992

Speaker 7 and he's just the love of my life.

Speaker 10 And now the life they had built together flashed before her eyes. A deeply religious woman, she focused on praying for her husband.
Whoever did this was out there. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 10 And that has to be absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 7 It was, but you know, it was the last thing I was thinking about at that point.

Speaker 10 But back at the crime scene where FBI special agent Joe Denahan had now taken the lead on the case, he thought about little else.

Speaker 5 The first thing that ran through my mind was

Speaker 5 we are going to be having to gear up for a pretty serious manhunt. The subject was in the wind.
We knew there could be additional threats to public safety.

Speaker 10 His team fanned out, interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. Were you able to find anything as far as physical evidence at the scene?

Speaker 5 We attempted to get prints and DNA from the door frame, the door jamb, the doorbell, and the doorknobs, which we rushed to Quantico.

Speaker 10 Along with the bullets and casings from a 380 handgun, they were recovered in the judge's front hallway. He also sent agents to the hospital hoping to interview Mark, who'd seen the shooter up close.

Speaker 10 But when they arrived, Mark was being prepped for his second surgery. So he's got to get into surgery, and you need your information because this guy's on the loose.
Correct.

Speaker 10 And Mark is now able to speak with you all?

Speaker 5 So Mark was intubated, so he couldn't actually speak, but he was actually able to spell out and tap out certain words for us to try to talk about what he saw.

Speaker 10 Mark moved his fingers over a laminated alphabet, spelling out what he remembered. What was he able to tell you in this intubated state?

Speaker 5 So he indicated that it was a single male who had dressed up like a delivery person.

Speaker 5 And he provided a little bit of a physical description, which which matched generally what we had from witness statements.

Speaker 10 There were conflicting reports about the man's race. He'd been described as Caucasian, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern.
But they all agreed on one thing.

Speaker 5 His height was either 6'2 ⁇ or taller. You know, the demographic was broad, but his height was unusual.
And we felt that 6'2 or taller was something that we could work with.

Speaker 10 Mark pulled through that surgery, which gave the judge some relief, but she still struggled to process all that had happened.

Speaker 7 It's just hard to imagine that on a Sunday, after such a beautiful weekend, at five o'clock in the afternoon, that someone would come to my door and take my only child.

Speaker 7 It's unfathomable.

Speaker 10 Who would do this to their family? As the hours ticked by, an army of law enforcement officers was trying to answer that question.

Speaker 10 Agent Denahan had his theories.

Speaker 5 At the top of our list was someone that had a personal grievance against Judge Salas herself. We also, though, had to consider, could it be someone that was targeting her husband, Mark?

Speaker 5 And lastly, and even though it was unlikely, could someone have been targeting Danny himself?

Speaker 10 Shortly after the shooting, the FBI paid a visit to Danny's good friends, brothers Casely and Carlson Goodwill.

Speaker 16 We basically sat there and spoke with them for about 30 minutes to an hour.

Speaker 10 Did they ask you if Danny had any enemies? Someone who might have wanted to hurt him?

Speaker 16 Yeah, but I told them, I mean, there was no one, even when I think now, there's no one that ever had any resentment towards him.

Speaker 10 In fact, they say it was quite the opposite.

Speaker 9 Why, Daniel, out of all people, one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. My type, the nicest, hard-working, you know, just to this day.

Speaker 10 The brothers couldn't believe that anyone would want to kill their friend. They'd just been with Daniel a few days before playing football, something they did regularly.

Speaker 16 He could throw like 50 yards off one step. So we'd be playing for about an hour and he's just throwing the ball.
So far, me and my brother running, we get tired.

Speaker 16 We're like, all right, Daniel, we're tired.

Speaker 10 They said Daniel was a tough competitor, but also the most selfless person they knew.

Speaker 10 When his high school baseball coach offered to take the entire team out to Buffalo Wild Wings if anyone could memorize 75 ways to be a good player, respect for your opponent, thank your parents, relax aggression.

Speaker 19 Daniel did it.

Speaker 16 Win every series.

Speaker 6 I go to every series.

Speaker 10 What do you think when you see that video?

Speaker 16 It's very inspiring, I'd say. I know that's him.
And everything he's saying, that's what he encompasses as a person and as a sportsman.

Speaker 9 He wants to see the best out of himself and everybody else around him.

Speaker 10 Another friend of Daniel's, Connor Quigley, agreed. Danny was always looking out for everyone else.
He just always had my back.

Speaker 20 I always can count on him. He'd be that person to come over and just...
be able to tap me on the back and say, hey, I'm with you, whatever you're going through.

Speaker 10 Where do you think this comes from?

Speaker 20 I think definitely his parents. His parents were just such loving people to Dan and to everyone around him.
And I think that really shows where Dan gets it from.

Speaker 10 Loving parents who felt incredibly blessed to have Daniel. After multiple miscarriages, the judge says they weren't sure they would ever have children.

Speaker 7 I lost three children before Daniel, and I lost one after Daniel.

Speaker 7 So Daniel was literally our miracle baby.

Speaker 10 She couldn't think of anyone who would want to harm her son. Neither could the FBI.
After talking to Daniel's friends and searching his social media, they had all but ruled him out as the target.

Speaker 10 By nightfall, they were no closer to finding the shooter. With the pressure mounting, they focused on Mark and the judge and anyone who might have a grudge against them.

Speaker 4 Coming up, a hard look at Judge Salas's most contentious cases.

Speaker 2 One involving two men and a brutal crime.

Speaker 5 They had a bad reaction to one of the rulings the judge had made, and they were over six foot two with a violent criminal history.

Speaker 4 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 10 The high-profile murder of a federal judge's son quickly made national news. This was a brazen crime.
A gunman apparently disguised as a delivery man.

Speaker 10 The FBI was asking anyone with information to contact them. Special Agent Denahan and his team were following every lead, knowing the stakes were high.

Speaker 5 We needed to identify, locate, and neutralize that subject before anyone else could be heard.

Speaker 10 You have a killer on the loose.

Speaker 14 Correct.

Speaker 10 Agents work through the night. With the judge's son crossed off their list as a possible target, they turn to her husband, Mark.

Speaker 10 Was there anyone that you could think of that might have wanted to harm Mark because of a case that he had handled?

Speaker 5 Mark is a very well-thought-of-defense attorney. So although he's represented some individuals accused of very serious crimes, we weren't aware of any that had serious grievances against him.

Speaker 10 As law enforcement raced to find her son's killer, Judge Sellas spent those early morning hours at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. The loss of her only child was sinking in.
Daniel was your everything.

Speaker 7 He was the center of my universe, our universe. He was everything.

Speaker 10 Was he a mama's boy?

Speaker 6 Oh,

Speaker 7 the biggest mama's boy. He and I had a connection that, you know, quite frankly, is amazing.

Speaker 10 Her despair from Daniel's death was compounded by a horrifying realization. Her job as a federal judge was most likely the reason her son was gone.

Speaker 7 There's a part of me immediately after everything happened that I sort of said to myself,

Speaker 18 you know,

Speaker 7 did I make the right decision?

Speaker 7 But then I think about my son and how proud he was.

Speaker 10 She remembered when she was being considered for the judgeship. Curled up in bed with Daniel, who was 10 at the time, she told him she was unsure if she should take the job.
And he's like, why, mom?

Speaker 7 And I said, well, honey, it's going to require a lot of mommy's time. And, you know, I just worry about the impact on you.

Speaker 7 And he says, says oh I get that mom I get that and there was this pause and then all of a sudden he goes but if it was me I'd take the job

Speaker 7 did that did that seal the deal right there sealed the deal that was his way of saying go for it

Speaker 10 agents dug through the judge's cases one in particular caught Danahan's attention it involved a violent crime with the defendant and an accomplice They had a bad reaction to one of the rulings the judge had made, and they were over six foot two with a violent criminal history.

Speaker 10 Just hours after the shooting, it was enough to put them at the top of the suspect list.

Speaker 5 Around midnight that evening, we had moved a significant number of assets towards them.

Speaker 10 So, secretly watching this person and his accomplice? Correct.

Speaker 5 Utilizing cell phone analysis,

Speaker 5 geolocating where their cell phone was, where they were, and stuff of that nature.

Speaker 10 But by 3 a.m., investigators had ruled them out. So, based on like maybe where they had been

Speaker 10 at the time of the shooting? Correct.

Speaker 10 Investigators also looked into Judge Salas's most high-profile case in recent years, the sentencing of Real Housewives of New Jersey reality TV stars Teresa and Joe Judice for financial fraud charges.

Speaker 10 Joe was pretty upset. He got deported to Italy from all of this.
Did you think that there was any chance that a relative was seeking revenge?

Speaker 5 We took a look at all the high-profile cases, but

Speaker 5 they really really did not produce any evidence that led us to believe that.

Speaker 10 Judge Salas also doubted anyone from that case would be involved. That case definitely made you a more high-profile judge because there was so much media around it.

Speaker 7 I really approached that case like I approached every other case that has come before it and after. I treated them, I hope they would say,

Speaker 17 with

Speaker 7 respect and I gave them the same treatment I would give anyone else, no matter who comes before me. I treat everybody the same.

Speaker 10 It was another dead end. Every theory Agent Denahan and his team chased down left them empty-handed.

Speaker 5 Throughout the entire evening, as we were waiting on the evidence to arrive at Quantico, we were really building out our theories, but we had no one at that time.

Speaker 10 But things were about to change. As the sun came up the next morning, Deputy Chief Battaglia was preparing for a debriefing with the FBI.
That's when one of his officers got a call.

Speaker 10 It was a detective from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department in California.

Speaker 14 The detective happened to be watching TV. He saw the broadcast on a FedEx individual with a mask going up to a house and shooting two people.

Speaker 10 The detective said just days before they had had a similar case.

Speaker 14 He said, I know it probably has nothing to do with it 3,000 miles away. And we said that's exactly what happened dressed up as a UPS guy.

Speaker 10 Are you thinking it's a long shot but yeah maybe this is connected?

Speaker 14 That's what we were thinking. It was highly unlikely but we had to follow every lead.

Speaker 4 Coming up another sudden savage attack in a doorway.

Speaker 12 This person said are you Mark Gajalucci and he said yes and then the individual just started shooting.

Speaker 10 Were you just shocked when you heard that?

Speaker 5 It was shocking. We weren't expecting to link up a murder in California to the attack here in New Jersey.

Speaker 10 Deputy Chief Battaglia had just been briefed about a recent murder in California.

Speaker 10 And as he learned more details, it sounded eerily familiar. You are dealing with the same MO.
You've got someone dressed as a delivery man with a gun.

Speaker 14 And we also know that the shell casings are the same caliber used in New Jersey.

Speaker 10 So this is a real possibility that these cases are connected.

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 10 Where do you go from there?

Speaker 14 Well, immediately notified the FBI.

Speaker 10 Agent Denahan was told the victim in California, Mark Angelucci, a 52-year-old lawyer, had been shot in his front hallway eight days before the shooting at Judge Salas's house.

Speaker 10 Were you just shocked when you heard that?

Speaker 5 It was shocking. We weren't expecting to link up a murder in California to the attack here in New Jersey.

Speaker 10 In California, Mark Angelucci's colleague, Michael Konzaki, got a call from a mutual friend just hours after the shooting.

Speaker 12 I could tell that he was crying and he kind of came out and said, Mark's been murdered.

Speaker 10 As a private investigator and former homicide detective, he needed to know more. He started making calls and quickly learned it was Mark's roommate's father who answered the door.

Speaker 12 This person said, are you Mark Angelucci?

Speaker 5 He said, no.

Speaker 10 He offered to sign for the package, but the delivery man said he needed to see Mark in person to get a signature.

Speaker 12 So Mark came up and this person said, are you Mark Angelucci?

Speaker 12 And he said, yes.

Speaker 12 And then he pulled a gun. Mark saw the gun and he turned to run.
And then the individual just started shooting.

Speaker 12 had heard that he had been hit in the back of the head.

Speaker 10 The shooter shooter fled. Mark's roommate called 911.
Mark was declared dead at the scene. For Michael, it was a crushing loss.
What did you think of Mark?

Speaker 12 Mark is a tremendous human being.

Speaker 10 Another friend of Mark's, Harry Crouch, was also devastated by the news.

Speaker 23 I wish I could describe his smile.

Speaker 23 He enjoyed life.

Speaker 13 Everything to Mark was an adventure.

Speaker 23 He was afraid of nothing. You know, go climb pyramids in Peru, party in Las Vegas, and wherever he was, the world was better off for it.

Speaker 10 Harry and Mark were leaders of the National Coalition for Men, a controversial organization that argues men are often the victims of discrimination in the courts, in media, and elsewhere.

Speaker 10 Critics, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, call the group a, quote, male supremacist organization. Harry argues they are not anti-women.

Speaker 10 What would you say to anyone who calls this a woman haters club?

Speaker 23 I would say they should do their research. And we have a lot of women members.
So obviously that can't be the case.

Speaker 10 Mark did pro bono work for the group. He took on custody battles and other cases where he thought men were being discriminated against.

Speaker 10 In one case, he successfully argued for men's equal access to domestic violence shelters. He spoke about it at a conference.

Speaker 24 You can at minimum provide at least the same counseling and legal services you give to women.

Speaker 10 San Bernardino sheriff's detectives asked Harry about the cases Mark had been working on.

Speaker 23 I talked to the homicide investigator a couple times.

Speaker 10 Detectives were interested in the organization's most high-profile lawsuit. It had taken on the federal government, arguing it was unconstitutional to require only men to register for the draft.

Speaker 10 Mark was the lead attorney when the case went before a federal court in Texas. The judge ruled in his favor.

Speaker 23 And we'd actually secured, at that time, a positive ruling from that level of court.

Speaker 10 But Harry wasn't convinced there was a connection.

Speaker 23 Mark was involved in a few other high conflict cases.

Speaker 10 What cases jumped to mind as far as possibly being connected to his murder?

Speaker 23 There was a situation up in Santa Barbara, and apparently there was even an altercation in court that erupted into something physical. where I think Mark decked the attorney.

Speaker 13 Are you serious? Well, that's what I've heard.

Speaker 10 The rumor rumor had made the rounds, but that case didn't concern Michael Konzaki. He had a different theory.

Speaker 12 I was interviewed by the sheriff's detectives on there, and I says, well, you know, I don't have any proof of anything. I says, but here's a theory.

Speaker 10 He had zeroed in on a case of Mark's involving public officials and alleged corruption. Did you think that there could have been a motive in there somewhere to want Mark dead?

Speaker 11 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 10 And if he was right, what, if anything, did it have to do with the judge?

Speaker 4 Coming up,

Speaker 4 who else might be in danger? Mark's colleague, now scared for her own life.

Speaker 10 I got one call from a strange guy that said, Mark didn't learn his lesson. Is Rhonda going to learn her lesson? Oh, that's creepy.

Speaker 8 It's very creepy.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

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Speaker 10 The morning after the shooting in New Jersey, law enforcement was working to solve a case that got more complicated by the minute. A shooting on the East Coast, another on the West Coast.

Speaker 10 They had no idea how they were connected. In San Bernardino, California detectives were now on their ninth day investigating the Mark Angelucci murder.

Speaker 10 They were working around the clock, and they had no clues, no motives. They were just on ground zero.
Lawyer Rhonda Kennedy, had been with Mark in court the day before he was killed.

Speaker 10 Detectives called her shortly after the murder. Paranoia sets in, and you were like, well, maybe it was this one.
She told them all about the cases she and Mark were working on together.

Speaker 10 How many cases did you have with him at that time? We had three. So it could have been one of those three cases, potentially.
Exactly. It terrified me.
I don't know if, you know, if I'm a target.

Speaker 10 Rhonda was also in the middle of a campaign, running for U.S. Congress.
Right in the middle of a congressional campaign, yeah. And then that's when the crazies came out.

Speaker 10 I got one call from a strange guy that said that

Speaker 10 Mark didn't learn his lesson. Is Rhonda going to learn her lesson? Oh, that's creepy.

Speaker 8 It's very creepy.

Speaker 10 Fearing for her life, she got proactive and sent out this tweet. I'm sure the cowards that murdered my friend in cold blood won't be stupid enough to come after a congressional candidate.
Yes.

Speaker 10 That's a pretty bold tweet. What were you hoping to accomplish with it? That if they came after me, I'm a congressional candidate.
Don't be stupid.

Speaker 10 Rhonda highlighted one case in particular that had made local headlines. It was the case Michael, the PI, had also mentioned to police.

Speaker 10 Mark's client, a man cleared of rape charges, was suing county officials, claiming they unfairly seized his land while he was under investigation.

Speaker 10 Is there one person in particular in that case that's popping into your head?

Speaker 25 Yes.

Speaker 10 Were the detectives looking at this person? Yes, they were.

Speaker 10 Like in the Salas case, case, detectives were looking for someone seeking revenge, but they too had come up with nothing.

Speaker 10 The days dragged on with no break in the California case until that detective saw the judge's story on TV. Judge Salas was told about the development.

Speaker 10 This story got so much crazier when you discover that this attorney in California has been murdered. What did you think of that?

Speaker 7 I was at first shocked,

Speaker 7 and then I

Speaker 23 just

Speaker 7 didn't understand the connection.

Speaker 10 The judge hadn't given it much thought. Her attention was understandably elsewhere.

Speaker 7 I was focused on Mark. Is he going to make it?

Speaker 7 How serious is this? And what could I do?

Speaker 10 Her husband, Mark, was clinging to life in the ICU, and for the moment, she felt safe. You're in sort of a cocoon right now.
You're surrounded by security, but you're going to have to...

Speaker 10 leave this hospital and continue to live your life with this man out there.

Speaker 8 Does that cross your mind at all?

Speaker 7 You know,

Speaker 7 yeah, you are fearful.

Speaker 10 And something else crossed her mind. As she sat by her husband's bedside, she realized whoever did this had easy access to her personal information.

Speaker 10 Federal judges' data, like home addresses and phone numbers, is not protected. Like everyone else's, it's available online through Google searches and data brokers.

Speaker 7 This information can be used for such nefarious purposes that we have to start thinking about what we allowed us to be out there.

Speaker 10 A plan began to form. She made a vow to do everything in her power to affect change, to make judges' personal information hard to access.

Speaker 7 Judges need to feel that they are being protected, that we are going to be able to do our jobs without fear of being gunned down, literally in our homes.

Speaker 10 In this case, Agent Denahan believed the killer had easily found the judge's address and likely stalked her.

Speaker 5 I believe he conducted a lot of research prior to doing the attacks.

Speaker 10 So who was he? While the agent waited for reports to come back from Quantico, an unexpected lead came in from police in upstate New York, a dead body.

Speaker 10 So this individual was found outside of the car with a gunshot wound?

Speaker 13 Correct.

Speaker 10 And something else.

Speaker 5 A dossier on Judge Salas, along with an envelope that looked like a Ruse envelope. And secondly, we found a dossier on Mark Angelucci.

Speaker 10 Now, law enforcement knew for certain the two murders were connected. But how?

Speaker 4 Coming up.

Speaker 2 Finally, a suspect and a mind-boggling possible motive.

Speaker 5 It sort of put his anger on steroids, so to speak.

Speaker 10 As Sunday turned into Monday, the FBI Crisis Command Center was still buzzing. Agent Denahan had just gotten a big break in the case.
You now have another dead body.

Speaker 11 Correct.

Speaker 10 Agents raced to Rocklow, New York, two hours north of New York City. Where was his body found?

Speaker 5 20 feet from his vehicle in an open field.

Speaker 10 Denahan got an update from his agents. They believed the man had parked his car, walked into the field, and shot himself.

Speaker 5 Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head with a.380 caliber handgun.

Speaker 10 A quick search of the man's car and agents found those dossiers on the judge and Mark Angelucci. They also discovered the dead man's name, Roy Den Hollander.

Speaker 19 What were you learning about him?

Speaker 5 He was 72 years old at the time of his death. He was highly educated, was a practicing attorney.

Speaker 10 Anything else the agent wanted to know about Den Hollander was found in a 1,500-page manifesto on his computer.

Speaker 10 The pages dripped with hatred of women, like his ex-wife, a Russian bride who dumped him when she got to America.

Speaker 10 But Den Hollander saved the brunt of his anger for his mother, writing, may she burn in hell.

Speaker 5 So he was clearly a misogynist. All the failures of his life, all the shortcomings which were his doing,

Speaker 5 he blamed on women.

Speaker 10 The FBI learned he appeared on TV several times ranting about anti-feminist lawsuits he'd filed.

Speaker 10 Several years ago, he appeared on the Colbert Report showing off his breakdancing moves and was mockingly called, quote, a difference maker for a suit arguing ladies' nights at bars were discriminatory.

Speaker 19 They want equality.

Speaker 24 Let's give them 51% of the worst of the society.

Speaker 18 Then they'll change their tune and they'll start whining, where's the kitchen?

Speaker 10 It was looking very likely that this was the man responsible for both shootings. The judge and Mark Angelucci were on what appeared to be a lengthy hit list found in Den Hollander's car.

Speaker 10 Also on that list, other judges and attorneys. And something unexpected.

Speaker 5 There were people in the medical field.

Speaker 10 Doctors who had treated Den Hollander. The FBI learned from reading his website that he was dying of a rare form of melanoma.

Speaker 10 Do you think that played into what he did and kind of going out in a blaze of glory?

Speaker 5 That's a logical theory that it sort of put his anger on steroids, so to speak.

Speaker 10 Now, the FBI scrambled to connect the dots between Den Hollander, the judge, and Mark Angelucci.

Speaker 5 Throughout the next few hours, we were able to piece together that the subject, Roy Den Hollander, had a professional relationship with Mark Angelucci in California.

Speaker 5 They were both part of what is described as the men's rights movement, which embraces all things masculine.

Speaker 10 California detectives had interviewed Harry Crouch about his organization, the National Coalition for Men. Now, the FBI was calling him.
He knew the shooter.

Speaker 10 Roy Den Hollander was actually in your group at one point, in your organization.

Speaker 23 And I threw him out.

Speaker 6 Why?

Speaker 23 Well, I mean, because of his character, because of his annex. He threatened to come out to California and kick my ass.

Speaker 13 That's a quote.

Speaker 10 According to Harry, Den Hollander wanted to join the group's federal lawsuit, the one arguing against a male-only draft.

Speaker 23 I told him that wasn't going to happen. I'm surprised he didn't come shoot me instead of Mark.

Speaker 10 Do you think Den Hollander was jealous of Mark? Absolutely. Remember, Mark had a win in that case.
This was revenge.

Speaker 5 Most assuredly, yes.

Speaker 10 The pieces of the puzzle were now coming together quickly. The FBI determined the gun Den Hollander used to kill himself was the same one he used to kill Daniel and Mark Angelucci.

Speaker 5 Same.380 caliber handgun, which was legally purchased in the 1980s.

Speaker 10 Agent Denahan and his team tracked Den Hollander's movements minute by minute. His two-week spree began when he got on a train in New York City.

Speaker 5 He took Amtrak out to California, bringing the weapon with him.

Speaker 10 Surveillance cameras captured him at the Los Angeles train station and at the one in San Bernardino.

Speaker 10 He spent a few days in the area, Denahan says, most likely tracking Mark, waiting for the perfect time to kill him. And then how does he get back?

Speaker 11 Same way.

Speaker 5 He immediately returns same way.

Speaker 10 He then picked up the silver rental car in Philly and drove to New Jersey.

Speaker 5 Tracking his cell phone, we were able to put him down in near, very close proximity to the judge's residence hours and days before the attack, which indicated us that he was watching her and trying to develop a pattern of life.

Speaker 10 So why was Den Hollander targeting the judge? She had nothing to do with Mark Angelucci's lawsuit. Turned out, Den Hollander had filed a similar lawsuit involving the draft.

Speaker 10 His case was in New Jersey. And presiding over the case was none other than Judge Esther Salas.

Speaker 7 I knew the case, but it wasn't one that sort of even registered as a potential threat.

Speaker 10 And you were sort of on his side. And I mean, you ruled for him.

Speaker 7 That's the ironic part.

Speaker 10 The judge had allowed Den Hollander's case to move forward. You must have asked yourself, well, why? Why my family?

Speaker 7 No, but as someone once told me, he hated you the moment you were born.

Speaker 7 And that is something I couldn't change.

Speaker 10 Because you're a woman.

Speaker 7 Because I'm a woman and I'm Hispanic.

Speaker 10 Among the hundreds of pages in the manifesto, Denahan found multiple references to Judge Salas. He said things about her that she was hot,

Speaker 10 but then he said she was lazy.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he impugned the judge extensively. He had problems with her.

Speaker 5 He had problems with a lot of women.

Speaker 10 But perhaps his biggest problem with the judge was that he thought the case was moving too slowly. His case was lagging far behind Mark Angelucci's.

Speaker 5 And he began not to focus on the legal side of it, but on her personally. He believed that she was specifically slowing down his lawsuit.

Speaker 10 Agents were left to wonder, if Den Hollander's vendetta was against the judge, why didn't he finish the job and shoot her?

Speaker 5 Danny and Mark basically put up a strong enough defense of their home that it precluded him from coming forward.

Speaker 5 Whether it was just their body posture, the way they angled the door, the attitude they portrayed, whatever it was, Hollander must have felt that way.

Speaker 5 And that's why he fired immediately and then fled.

Speaker 7 I asked the agents, why do you think he didn't come into the house to come finish me? I was his target.

Speaker 7 And the agent's line,

Speaker 7 which will stay with me forever, is that he was met by superior forces.

Speaker 6 My son and his father.

Speaker 10 And now, his mother hopes that her son's sacrifice will save other lives. A bipartisan bill, named after Daniel, was introduced in both the House and Senate.

Speaker 7 It would address increasing the security systems in all judges' homes, as well as increasing the ability for the U.S. Marshals to protect judges, both in manpower and appropriations.

Speaker 10 The bill would also take measures to prohibit data brokers from selling judges' personal information, like their home addresses, phone numbers, and tax records.

Speaker 10 A similar bill was recently signed in New Jersey.

Speaker 7 Daniel's death is speaking to us, but are we listening?

Speaker 7 You know, maybe we can't stop every bad thing from happening to any federal judge in the future, but we can make it darn hard for them to track us down.

Speaker 10 The judge has begun to pick up the pieces of her life, staying by her husband's side as he recovers. Has this made you too stronger?

Speaker 7 It has. It has.
It's just us two now and our dogs. We've been inseparable since this happened.

Speaker 10 And she took a bold step to help her move forward.

Speaker 7 I forgave this man

Speaker 7 during a mass at our home.

Speaker 10 I don't know how you did that.

Speaker 7 I remember holding Mark's hand, bowing my head, and saying, God, I forgive him. And I said it three times.

Speaker 7 And from that moment on,

Speaker 7 I feel lighter.

Speaker 10 Once Mark has completely recovered, This trailblazing judge plans to return to the bench.

Speaker 7 I absolutely love being a United States District Judge. It's a dream come true, and this man took the most important thing in my life.
I can't let him take anything else from me.

Speaker 10 You don't want Daniel to be forgotten. Yeah.
What do you want people to leave with?

Speaker 7 You know, I want people to remember Daniel for what he was. He was pure joy.
He was pure love.

Speaker 7 He was a boy who thought of everyone before himself.

Speaker 2 That's all for now.

Speaker 4 I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

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