Thrill Killer: Richard Biegenwald

Some people chase thrills by skydiving or speeding down a highway.

They flirt with danger, but only for the adrenaline rush, never for real harm.

But there's another kind of thrill seeker, one who doesn't stop when the rush fades.

One who escalates until nothing excites them but the moment life slips away.

This is the thrill killer.

According to criminologists Ronald and Stephen Holmes, they kill for one reason.

The high.

It's not personal.

It's not even emotional.

It's the ultimate form of stimulation.

Murder as entertainment.

They often choose their victims at random, not because they matter, but because they don't.

Their violence is impulsive but addictive.

A compulsion that spirals into chaos.

Like today's subject who started early, setting fires, drinking, and stealing just to feel something.

By adulthood, he perfected the art of hiding in plain sight.

He didn't need a motive.

He needed a fix.

And once he got a taste for killing, stopping was never part of the plan.

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According to Homes and Homes, thrill killers don't murder out of hate, greed, or even desire.

They kill for the experience, the sensation, the high.

Thrill killing is a form of hedonism, murder committed for personal pleasure.

But unlike lust killers whose gratification is rooted in fantasy and control, thrill killers chase the adrenaline.

It's the fear in their victim's eyes, the power of holding a life in their hands, the rush of doing something forbidden and getting away with it.

These killers often stalk their victims, prolonging the moment before they kill.

They want to feel it.

Every heartbeat, every scream, every second of terror.

that's the real reward.

And when the thrill fades, they don't stop.

They escalate.

They find new ways to keep the feeling alive, even if it means killing again and again.

Born in the summer of 1940, Richard Beginwald grew up in Staten Island, New York, in a household starting to disintegrate.

His father, Albert, drank heavily, and by the time Richard was old enough to talk, Albert had become abusive towards his wife, Sally.

Richard likely sensed how unstable things were, whether he witnessed the abuse or not, and he seemed to develop severe behavioral problems at a young age.

Before Richard turned five years old, a psychiatrist diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Childhood onset schizophrenia is very rare, and the term typically refers to schizophrenia diagnosed in a child of 13 years or younger.

In children under 6, the condition is especially hard to confirm because many of the symptoms can mimic a developmental delay.

It's unclear exactly what symptoms Richard displayed.

Medical reports at the time describe his behavior as bizarre, but don't offer much beyond that and reports he was withdrawn and irritable.

And instead of responding to this with compassion, it seems his father reacted with abuse.

It became a vicious cycle.

Albert's violence towards his son likely exacerbated his psychiatric symptoms, and as Richard's behavior worsened, so did the abuse.

Then things came to a head.

At just five years old, Richard tried setting his family's house on fire.

His parents had Richard admitted to a children's psychiatric hospital about 45 miles away.

Richard spent the next three years there as an inpatient and was only permitted to leave for occasional weekend visits at home.

It didn't seem to help.

Reportedly, Richard's behavior became more antisocial.

He tortured animals, and he was cruel and aggressive to his fellow patients.

By age eight, he was reportedly drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and gambling.

In September of 1949, Richard's mother transferred him to the psychiatric wing at Bellevue Hospital.

The doctors there concurred with the earlier diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia and also noted that Richard was hyperactive and fixated on fantasies about death.

They decided to proceed with an intensive course of electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT.

ECT was in its heyday in the late 1940s and was used to treat a number of psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia.

The treatment involved administering electric currents to the brain, causing a brief surge in electrical activity, which is generally known as a seizure.

ECT can be effective, but in the 40s, it was often done without regard to the patient's safety and even used as a punishment.

The procedure could therefore be horrific, and remember, Richard was under 10 years old.

Today, most guidelines advise against using ECT on children younger than 11, largely because the long-term effects on a developing brain are unclear.

But at Bellevue in 1949, it seems no such rules existed.

Richard underwent a total of 20 ECT sessions in the span of six weeks.

After his treatment, Richard was released from the hospital.

But his mother recognized her son needed constant supervision, so Richard was sent to a reform school northwest of New York City.

The program promised to rehabilitate troubled boys through fresh air and farm work.

But Richard showed no interest in rehabilitation.

He made at least one attempt to escape the school, and during his weekend visits home, he stole money from his parents.

Even so, doctors eventually discharged Richard from medical supervision.

When he was 16, he was sent home to live in Staten Island full-time.

By this time, Richard's parents had separated.

And after over a decade in institutions and reform schools, Richard enrolled at a local public school.

But it wasn't without its challenges.

Richard had never been interested in studying, and any enthusiasm he might have had for regular school soon faded.

He managed to graduate the eighth grade at age 16, then started attending high school.

But by then, he was again becoming consumed by self-destructive urges.

He was arrested multiple times for car theft.

After just six months, he dropped out of high school.

Now, free of any guardrails, Richard took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.

While there, he stole a car and went on the run.

The authorities caught up with him later in Kentucky.

Richard was convicted of car theft and sentenced to several months behind bars.

Having spent more than half his life in various facilities, this didn't phase him.

As soon as he was released in late 1958, he returned to Staten Island and to his old ways.

That winter, he teamed up with an accomplice, 18-year-old James Sparnroft.

On December 18th, the pair stole a car and drove north to the city of Bayonne, New Jersey.

They headed to a local grocery store and parked outside.

Richard got out of the car holding a sawed-off shotgun.

James stayed behind as the getaway driver.

When Richard walked into the store, he spotted the owner Stephen Slodowski putting away some items under the counter.

He didn't notice the intruder right away, but when Stephen stood up, he saw Richard at the front of the store, pointing the shotgun directly at him.

Richard ordered him to open the register.

Stephen refused.

He had worked as a criminal prosecutor and wasn't easily intimidated.

Richard floundered at first.

This confrontation wasn't going as planned.

But he didn't stop to think for long.

He quickly fired at close range, hitting Stephen in the chest and killing him.

Richard grabbed Stephen's wallet and fled.

He made no attempt to get at the register or the cash box beneath it.

Then he jumped inside the getaway car as James sped away into the night.

James was panic-stricken after Richard bungled the plan.

They were never meant to kill anybody, and Richard had only managed to steal $100.

Unlike other killers who stalk, plan, and rehearse, thrill killers don't always need a script.

According to Holmes and Holmes, their murders are often crimes of opportunity, impulsive, reckless, driven by the moment.

It's not about revenge.

It's not about fantasy.

It's about the rush, the unpredictability, the surge of power that comes with taking a life on a whim.

Richard Begenwald fit that profile almost too well.

Sometimes he'd kill someone he knew.

Sometimes it was a stranger.

What mattered wasn't who it was.

It was how it made him feel.

And once he got a taste of the thrill,

he didn't want to stop.

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Steven Sladowski was a city prosecutor and respected member of the Bayonne, New Jersey community, so his murder prompted an immediate and robust police response.

Richard and James ditched their getaway car on the drive home, and within hours, the cops tracked it down.

But since the vehicle was stolen, they couldn't glean much information from it.

Authorities went door to door throughout Bayonne, questioning residents in hopes of finding a lead.

Richard and James got wind of this and decided to get out of town.

They stole another car and drove south.

This time, Richard was behind the wheel, and being the thrill seeker he was, he was going way over the speed limit.

After hours of driving, they reached the town of Salisbury, Maryland, around 1 a.m.

There, a cop spotted their car careening along the highway and pulled them over.

As Sergeant Eldridge Heyman approached, he gestured for Richard to roll down his window.

Inside, Richard slowly pulled his shotgun onto his lap, then lowered the window.

He waited until Heyman was right alongside the car.

Then, he turned sharply to his left, pointed the gun, and fired.

As Heyman fell to the ground, Richard sped off.

The shotgun blast only grazed Heyman's cheek, so he wasn't seriously injured.

He radioed for backup and gave a detailed description of the car and its occupants.

Around 2 a.m., Police Lieutenant Carol Sermon spotted the pair driving on the outskirts of town.

He pulled them over and got out of his patrol car.

This time, Richard didn't wait.

As Sermon walked towards him, Richard leapt out of the driver's seat and fired his shotgun, striking the officer in the leg.

Surman returned fire and Richard took a bullet to the cheek.

He dropped to the ground in pain and James surrendered.

After two nights, their crime spree had ended.

The authorities in Maryland soon linked Richard and James to Stephen Slodowski's murder in Bayonne.

In custody, James told the police that his accomplice had been the triggerman, killing Stephen and shooting at the officers.

Still, in the end, prosecutors charged both Richard and James with the murder.

They pleaded no contest, which meant there would be no trial.

Instead, they were brought to New Jersey for sentencing.

The judge sentenced Richard to life in prison while James got 25 to 30 years.

Both would be eligible for parole at a later date.

In the summer of 1959, 19-year-old Richard arrived at Trenton State Prison.

Just three years after being given his freedom, he was right back in another institution, and this maximum security facility was by far the toughest place he'd been.

Richard soon got a reputation as somebody not to be messed with in prison.

Jailers sent him to solitary confinement several times after he fought with other inmates.

One fight was so severe that he spent 11 months in solitary confinement.

Today, some states have strict regulations on using solitary confinement in prisons, especially among young inmates.

Prolonged isolation can cause symptoms like hallucinations, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, and delirium.

In the late 1950s, few guardrails existed, so solitary confinement was frequently used as punishment.

But it seems Richard's behavior eventually improved.

In the spring of 1967, he was transferred to Braway State Prison, a lower security facility.

As far as we know, he became a model prisoner in Rahway.

With his improved behavior, officials granted Richard parole in June of 1975.

He'd served 16 years behind bars.

He moved back into his mother's house in Staten Island and tried to rebuild a life for himself.

He found work painting houses and repairing cars.

He reported regularly to his parole officer.

To everyone who knew him, Richard seemed transformed.

While prison had noticeably aged him, it had also made him more mature and focused.

He was soft-spoken, articulate, and exuded a quiet confidence.

He used that confidence when he met 16-year-old Diane, a bright honor roll student at a New Jersey high school.

Dating Diane was sinister and predatory.

The immense power imbalance in their relationship was surely a deliberate choice on Richard's part.

Teens are easier to manipulate, especially when he supplied her with recreational drugs.

And as Richard was adjusting to freedom, thoughts of death crept back into his mind.

They weren't overwhelming, not yet, but soon they began taking up more of his attention.

One night in mid-1977, a young woman was standing alone near the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island.

She had her thumb outstretched trying to hitch a ride.

To protect her identity, her name was never released, so we'll call her Susie.

That night, Richard saw Susie and pulled over.

He rolled down his car window and smiled at her.

According to author John O'Rourke, after exchanging a few words, Susie hopped into his car.

The man drove away.

For a while, they chatted amiably.

But at some point, the atmosphere shifted.

Susie seemed to get nervous.

Out of nowhere, the driver stopped the car.

He grabbed hold of her and began to rip her clothes off.

She fought back and managed to struggle out of his grip.

She grabbed the door handle and leapt out into the darkness, running as fast as she could into the undergrowth beside the car.

Susie reported the incident to the police and gave a detailed description of her attacker.

Based on her description and presumably his criminal history, the police identified Richard as their suspect.

They issued a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of attempted rape.

But Richard somehow got wind of this and fled before the police could catch up with him.

His movements throughout the next few years of his life are unclear since he was trying to lay low.

But in June 1980, the police finally caught up to Richard and arrested him at a party in New York City.

However, the authorities' case for attempted rape soon ran into a hurdle when Susie couldn't pick Richard out of a police lineup.

With little physical evidence, prosecutors dropped the charges.

Still, Richard hadn't checked in with his parole officer during the three years he was on the run, so authorities were still able to put him behind bars for violating his parole.

One week before Richard was sent back to prison, he and Diane exchanged vows behind the bars of the Brooklyn Detention Center.

Richard was released from prison after six months.

He and Diane settled into an apartment in Point Pleasant Beach, a waterfront city on the Jersey shore.

Soon, The thoughts and fantasies of death crept back into Richard's mind.

It was all he could think about.

Until one evening, when the thoughts stopped being enough.

On Halloween night, 1981, 17-year-old Maria Chiolla left her family's house in Brick Township, a few miles west of Point Pleasant.

She told her father she'd be at a party and would be home around midnight.

Around 12.20 a.m., an officer spotted Maria hitchhiking on Route 88 as he made his way to respond to a call.

He told Dispatch he'd swing by and pick the girl up after he was done.

But when the officer returned 10 minutes later, Maria was gone.

The details of Maria's death wouldn't be revealed until years later after Richard's arrest.

Richard had abducted Maria from Route 88, then killed her with a gunshot to the head.

He drove to his mother Sally's house in Staten Island.

He snuck into the backyard and buried Maria's body in a shallow grave.

Thrill killers don't just kill for pleasure.

According to Holmes and Holmes, they often choose victims based on opportunity, but some still develop preferences.

For Richard, that meant young women with long dark hair.

He didn't always hunt them.

Sometimes he just crossed paths and that was enough.

Once the murder was done, he didn't linger.

He buried victims in different locations, scattering them like secrets he dared anyone to find.

That's the thing about thrill killers.

It's not about the victim.

It's about the moment.

And for Richard, the only thing better than the kill was knowing he could do it again.

As he threw shovelfuls of dirt into the earth, gradually covering Maria up with soil and mulch, Richard felt a new kind of thrill.

It wasn't the adrenaline rush he'd experienced from past crimes.

It was calmer, less frantic, and more satisfying.

It was the feeling of getting away with murder.

In the spring of 1982, Richard found a new way to keep the thrill going.

He'd made two close friends in prison, William Ward and Darren Fitzgerald.

William had escaped from jail in November 1978.

Darren served his time and had recently been paroled.

Neither of them were laying low.

Instead, they started a gun-running operation and they wanted Richard to join.

The trio would buy guns in Florida, then travel back to New Jersey where they'd sell the guns.

Richard's job was to be the enforcer.

If anything went wrong, he'd spring into action.

This kept Richard's violent urges at bay for a while, but soon the fantasies got the better of him.

There was only one thing that could give him the thrill he desired.

On April 4th, 1982, 17-year-old Deborah Osborne left her home in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, accompanied by a friend.

The girls hitchhiked their way to a local bar called Idol Hour, about 11 miles up the coast.

At the bar, they ordered drinks and chatted.

At some point, Deborah's friend went to the bathroom.

When she returned, Deborah was gone.

It's unclear exactly how Richard got Deborah to go with him.

According to some who knew him, Richard had a deeply unsettling demeanor.

A New Jersey prosecutor, Ralph E.

Stubbs, said, quote, he had an evil expression.

He made everyone around him feel cold and lifeless.

He seemed to have the ability to mask that when needed.

He was charming and appeared unthreatening enough that multiple women agreed to take a ride with him.

But once he had Deborah in his car with the doors locked, Richard might have let that mask drop.

Deborah possibly fought back or tried to flee because Richard's subsequent attack indicated he was furious.

He stabbed her with a knife more than 20 times.

This was a significant escalation from his previous two murders, in which he used guns.

He also changed what he did next.

Instead of driving to his mother's home in Staten Island, Richard brought Deborah's body back to his and Diane's home in Point Pleasant.

He kept the body in the garage for an unknown amount of time until one night when he invited Darren over, he wanted to show his friend something.

Once they were in the garage, Richard lifted up a mattress.

There, Darren saw a woman's body, head wrapped in a plastic bag.

He didn't ask any questions.

He just helped Richard dismember the corpse and put the pieces in garbage bags.

Richard and Darren put the bags in the trunk, then drove nearly 50 miles north to Richard's mother's house in Staten Island.

It was after midnight and no lights were on inside.

Just as he'd done six months earlier, Richard dug a makeshift grave in his mother's backyard and buried Deborah's body.

While they were digging, Darren caught sight of another woman's body, Maria Chiolella.

Richard told his friend that this was a business deal gone bad.

It's unclear when anyone reported Deborah missing or how that investigation played out, but without her body, the police had scant evidence to work with and no way to tie the crimes back to any suspect, let alone Richard.

Despite the thrill of getting away with murder, Richard didn't have the immediate urge to kill again.

Maybe because his predatory instincts turned to focus closer to home.

Shortly after Deborah's murder, Richard and Diane got a new apartment in Asbury Park, another beachfront town on the Jersey Shore.

Darren moved into the unit across from the couple.

Richard and Darren spent hours together in the basement of their apartment complex, building bombs and weapons.

They also kept a poisonous snake and extracted its venom.

The end game of all this isn't clear.

Allegedly, the pair planned to poison a group of people en masse at a local mall.

They also continued operating their gun business with William Ward.

Meanwhile, Diane got a job at a restaurant.

There, she made a friend, 22-year-old Teresa Smith.

But the two didn't just bond over small talk.

They shared a common burden.

They were both involved with drugs.

Teresa admitted to using amphetamines, while Diane had stolen drugs from her last job as a pharmacist.

At some stage, Diane introduced Teresa to Richard, and in June 1982, Diane invited Teresa to live in their apartment.

Reports vary as to the exact nature of the relationship between the trio.

According to Teresa, she and Richard had a sexual relationship.

But it went beyond that.

Richard seemed to view her as a kind of protégé.

He taught Teresa how to to shoot a gun and took her to a nearby stretch of woodland for target practice.

He was allowing her to believe that he was teaching her to hunt, but in reality, he was teaching her to kill.

Around the same time, Teresa noticed a strange pattern in her new roommate.

Richard had mood swings and sometimes became edgy and agitated.

Though he was 42, he had tantrums like a child.

Then he'd disappear for hours or days at a time.

When he returned, Teresa thought he seemed restored and relaxed, as if some kind of demon had been exercised.

Eventually, she asked him what he did while he was away.

Richard told her the truth.

He'd been killing people.

But he didn't stop there.

He tried to persuade her to join him.

He framed it as a way for Teresa to prove herself to him and to show off how tough she was.

He asked if there was anybody in her life she'd like to kill, and she brought up a co-worker at the restaurant who we'll call Alice.

In August of 1982, Richard and Teresa began plotting to kill Alice.

They came up with a plan.

Teresa would persuade Alice to drive her home after work.

Then, Teresa would strike, killing her coworker.

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August 27th was the date Teresa and Richard chose to kill Alice.

That evening after work, Teresa invited Alice to come for a drive with her.

They cruised around various oceanfront towns, and as Alice enjoyed the picturesque views of the Atlantic, Teresa tried to muster up the courage to do what Richard wanted.

But in the end, she couldn't do it.

Teresa drove Alice home and returned to the apartment she shared with Richard and Diane.

When Richard found out Teresa didn't follow through on the plan, he was furious.

As Teresa settled in for the night, Richard stormed out.

Meanwhile, 80 miles west, 18-year-old Anna Olezowitz set out on a beach trip from her hometown of Camden, New Jersey.

She and a friend, Denise Hunter, drove for about an hour and a half to get to the Jersey shore.

They headed straight for the Asbury Park boardwalk, a buzzy oceanfront area with plenty of restaurants.

There, the two girls sat on a bench and enjoyed the fresh air after their drive, listening to music from a bar nearby.

They didn't see Richard watching.

It was a balmy Friday evening at the height of summer and people packed the boardwalk.

He blended right in.

After it got dark, Denise went to the bathroom, leaving Anna alone on the bench.

When Denise returned, Anna had vanished.

She was with Richard driving back to his apartment, which was just a couple of minutes away.

Once they arrived at the complex, he parked in the driveway and went in while Anna stayed put.

As she waited, Richard headed to Teresa's bedroom.

He shook her awake and said he had something to show her.

Half asleep and groggy, Teresa refused to get up.

She muttered she was too tired, but perhaps her intuition told her that whatever he had to show her was not something she wanted to see.

Fuming, Richard headed back to the car with his gun.

It's unclear exactly where Richard and Anna went next, but at some point, Richard shot her four times in the head, killing her.

Later that night, he brought her body into his garage and wrapped a garbage bag around her head.

He laid an old mattress over her body and then went to bed.

Back at the boardwalk, Denise searched for her missing friend.

At first, she figured Anna must have gone to a bar.

She checked every watering hole she could find to no avail.

The girls had been planning to stay at Denise's uncle's house in the nearby town of Neptune, so Denise headed there next, but there was no sign of Anna.

Denise decided to go to bed.

She figured Anna must have met someone on the boardwalk and gotten distracted.

She'd show up sometime in the night.

But the next morning, Anna still hadn't come home.

Denise headed to the nearest police station and filed a missing persons report.

Just a few miles away, Teresa also woke up anxious, and the feeling only grew when she emerged from her bedroom to find Richard waiting in the living room.

He said he had something to show her, and this time, Teresa followed him.

He led her to the garage and lifted the mattress to show her Anna's body.

He then ordered her to pick up Anna's legs so that she could, quote, see how it felt.

Richard told Teresa that he'd brought Anna home so that she could kill her.

When she'd refused, he did it himself.

Then, he crouched down and removed a ring from Anna's hand, which he gave to Teresa.

A morbid token of his affection.

The next day, Richard enlisted the help of Darren Fitzgerald once again.

The pair drove out to a vacant lot behind a Burger King and disposed of Anna's body.

Meanwhile, local police began interviewing Anna's friends and family, trying to pin down any leads in her disappearance.

But they came up empty.

Anna seemed to have vanished.

Within a few weeks, the trail went cold, leaving Richard free to continue his crimes.

On a September morning in 1982, Richard and Darren got a visit at the apartment from their friend and gunrunning associate, William Ward.

The conversation quickly went south.

Darren and William got into an argument about money and it turned physical.

At some point, the pair smashed through a screen door and ended up wrestling on the front porch.

With that, Richard decided to take matters into his own hands.

Richard pulled out a handgun with a silencer on it and shot William several times in the head in broad daylight.

Then, he dragged his friend's body into the garage and into the trunk of his car.

That night, he drove out to a cemetery and buried William.

Up until this point, Teresa might have been too scared to speak up, but now she knew she had to leave.

In October 1982, five months after moving in with the Beginwalds, Teresa moved out.

Before leaving, she removed the ring that Richard had taken from Anna's body.

She was repulsed by it and gave it to Diane, though it's unclear if she knew the backstory.

One month after she left, Richard returned to his old routine.

On November 20th, 17-year-old Betsy Bacon left her home in the wealthy town of Seagurt, about seven miles south of Asbury Park.

She told her parents she was buying cigarettes and wouldn't be long.

She walked along Route 17 toward the local market.

Somewhere along the way, Betsy stepped right into Richard's crosshairs.

We don't know exactly how she ended up in Richard's car.

Maybe he offered her a ride or forced her in at gunpoint.

But we know he eventually shot her in the head in in the cold execution style that had now become his trademark.

Afterward, he wrapped a trash bag around her to contain the blood.

Then he drove back to his apartment.

The next night, Richard, accompanied by his accomplice, Darren, drove Betsy's body out to a remote stretch of land about 10 miles away.

They dug a shallow grave and buried her there.

To this point, Richard had generally taken pains to make sure all of his victims were buried in places they'd never be found.

But there was one exception.

In January 1983, two boys made a gruesome discovery in a vacant lot behind a Burger King in Ocean Township.

They found a partially clothed skeleton.

The story made headlines across the state.

Shortly after the body was found, an Asbury Park officer named Mike Dowling happened to see it in a local paper.

Reading the description of the clothes that had been found on the body, Dowling made an immediate connection.

He'd been one of the officers investigating Anna Olesowicz's disappearance the previous summer and had been deeply troubled by the lack of leads.

Now, five months later, he finally had one.

He called the police department in Ocean Township, filled them in, and asked them to compare the skeleton with Anna's dental records.

His hunch was right.

The body was Anna.

A few days later, Teresa heard about the discovery of Anna's body.

She realized this was the same young woman whose body she'd seen in Richard's garage.

For the past few months, she'd tried to compartmentalize her memories of that day and of her time with Richard and Diane.

It felt like a bad dream.

But with the news of Anna's remains being discovered, all those repressed emotions flooded back.

She confessed everything to her new boyfriend, George.

As luck would have it, George's ex-wife Bonnie was a probation officer.

Bonnie was able to convince Teresa there was only one way forward.

Bonnie set up a meeting between Teresa and an Ocean Township detective.

She told him everything, starting from when she'd first met Diane Beginwald.

Then she described her relationship with Richard, how he taught her to shoot and tried molding her into a killer.

She explained how Richard made her look at Anna's body, even forcing her to touch it.

He also gave her the ring.

Teresa had no hard evidence to corroborate what she was saying, so police headed to the Asbury Park apartment complex.

There, they arrested both Richard and Darren.

And when they searched the two apartments, they found physical evidence that backed up Teresa's claims, including Anna's ring and the murder weapon.

It was just the beginning.

Once he was in custody, Darren turned on Richard.

He told the police about the other murders he knew of, Maria Chiolea, Deborah Osborne, William Ward, and Betsy Bacon, and directed them to where the bodies were buried.

Acting on his instructions, a team of investigators descended on Sally Sally Beginwald's Staten Island home.

They dug up the backyard and uncovered the skeletal remains of Maria and Deborah.

In May 1983, Richard was indicted for killing Anna, along with several other counts involving drugs and firearms.

He pleaded not guilty.

At his trial, which began that November, Darren was a star witness for the prosecution, having agreed to testify against Richard in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Teresa also took the stand and walked the jury through her relationship with Richard, how he tried to persuade her to become a killer, and how he showed off Anna's body like some kind of trophy.

The prosecution emphasized the senseless and thrill-seeking nature of Richard's crimes.

They noted that when he killed, he did it purely because he, quote, wanted to see someone die.

That's the hallmark of a thrill killer.

No clear motive, no emotional trigger, just a craving for fear, for power, for the moment itself.

It was that cold, aimless violence that earned him the nickname the Jersey Shore Thrill Killer.

A title not given by tabloids, but by a state prosecutor who saw the pattern for what it was.

Murder as entertainment.

Richard didn't care who his victims were.

He cared about what the act gave him.

And once the thrill took hold, nothing else mattered.

A jury ultimately found Richard guilty on five counts, including Anna's murder.

He was sentenced to death, which was later changed to life in prison.

In a second trial, three months later, he was convicted of killing William Ward and sentenced to life.

And in the fall of 1984, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Maria Chiolella and Deborah Osborne and was given 60 years.

Almost a decade after that, he pleaded guilty to Betsy Bacon's murder.

In the end, Richard Beekinwald died from natural causes behind bars in March 2008, having never expressed any remorse for his crimes.

According to Holmes and Holmes, thrill killers are some of the most unpredictable.

They don't kill out of compulsion or revenge.

They do it for the excitement, a surge of power that comes with ending a life, often on a whim.

Like thrill killer Charles Schmidd, who murdered for the adrenaline rush and boasted about it afterward, or thrill seekers Leopold and Loeb, who helped kill a young boy in the 1920s just to prove they could.

It's unsettling to see how thrill killers slip through the cracks because their motives seem so senseless, so empty, they defy standard investigative logic.

But studying Richard's case helps us understand how the pursuit of pleasure, when left unchecked, can turn into something monstrous.

Thank you for listening to Serial Killers.

We're here with a new episode every Monday.

Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast.

And if you're tuning in on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts.

For more information on Richard Beginwald, amongst the many sources we used, we found the Jersey Shore Killer Richard Beginwald by John O'Rourke extremely helpful to our research.

Stay safe out there.

This episode was written by Emma Dibden, edited by Chelsea Wood, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and sound designed by Alex Button.

I'm your host, Janice Morgan.

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