
#572 - Murderous Male Stripper - Wantage Township, New Jersey
This week, in Wantage Township, New Jersey, a crazy relationship between a male stripper, and his law student girlfriend seems ready to explode, since he's opened credit cards in his infant's name, and hid naked women under his son's crib. In the end, this woman's mother ends up brutally murdered, with a weapon we haven't heard ever used in this way. Was it all just self defense??
Along the way, we find out that there are farms very close to New York City, that when your mother hates your boyfriend, she'll always hate your boyfriend, and that that the worst place to hide a naked woman, is under your son's crib!!
New episodes every Thursday!
Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com
Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!
Follow us on...
twitter.com/@murdersmall
facebook.com/smalltownpod
instagram.com/smalltownmurder
Also, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Listen and Follow Along
Full Transcript
Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit about Gold Belly.
That's right. It's incredible.
It's an unforgettable gift you can get. Hey, how about mom on Mother's Day? That's coming up.
It's Gold Belly, everybody. This amazing site that we order from all the time and where you can get the most iconic, famous foods from restaurants all across the U.S.
This is great. We all move around the country and then we want the things we want from back home and it's not there.
Or even from somewhere else that you just want to go to. And they'll ship it anywhere across the country for free in time for Mother's Day.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
And there's so much good stuff on there, too. There's so much good stuff.
I mean, everything from the New York bagels. That's what we got, which is excellent.
Gold Belly will ship gift-worthy cakes from Ina Garten and Martha Stewart, Magnolia Bakeries, famous banana pudding, New York bagel brunch directly from the city, or even authentic deep dish Chicago pizza. If you're looking to make your Mother's Day perfect or you want to impress your friends and family with an epic meal next time you host, go to goldbelly.com and get free shipping and 20% off your first order with promo code SMALLTOWNMURDER.
That's goldbelly.com, code SMALLTOWNMURDER for free shipping and 20% off your first order. Now back to the show.
Hey everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit more about Thrive Market. Jimmy, myself, we both want to be healthy and know how to eat healthy.
But the thing is, where do you start with that if you don't know what you're doing? It's very difficult. And that's why we love Thrive Market.
It's our go-to online grocery store for getting all of the healthy essentials delivered. And we don't even have to leave house it's the no junk online grocery store that bans over 1 000 harmful ingredients from anything they have there thing i know you have one thing here particularly pasta sauce drives me bananas and rouses rouses there and it tells me what's what's good and what's not and not full of sodium because that's the problem some of those pasta sauces loaded sodium.
So you can find better options easy with Thrive Market's Healthy Swap Scanner. Scan a product that'll instantly recommend a cleaner alternative.
It's amazing. Yeah, you swap out things.
You get like Simple Mills crackers and lesser evil popcorn. Are you ready to make the switch? Well, go to thrivemarket.com slash smalltownmurder for 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift.
That's T-A-T-T-A-T-T-A-T-T-A-T-T-A smalltownmurder. Now back to the show.
Hi, I'm Kristen Bell. Carvana makes car buying easy.
Isn't that right, hon? Dax? Dax?
Sorry, did you know about this seven-day money-back guarantee?
A week to evaluate seat comfiness, you say?
A week of terrain tests?
Yeah, I can test the brake pad resistance at variable speeds.
Make sure all the kids' stuff fits nicely.
Make sure our stuff fits nicely.
Oh, the— Right.
Still need to buy the car.
Getting ahead of ourselves here. Buy your car with Carvana today.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy.
Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo.
I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman.
Thank you, folks, so much for joining us all aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station. We have an absolutely wild one for you today, as it always is express and every other episode too for that matter but express it's so compressed that it just seems crazier so we have some wild stuff before we get to that shut up and give me murder dot com is where you get tickets for live shows and if you want to come to a live show in 2025 i highly suggest and recommend that you do it right now because a lot of these are selling out.
We have Madison's sold out. We got San Diego's about sold out.
Couple of tickets left in St. Louis.
Grand Rapids sold out. Portland sold out.
You got to get in there. Seattle, D.C., Philly, and Chicago are where there's some tickets available left.
Get those tickets right now. Shut up and givememurder.com.
Get your merch while you're there. To wear to a live show, of course.
Listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports, which you don't have to like sports. We're doing a whole series on Evil Knievel right now.
It's barely sports. The guy's just flinging himself off of jumps with a motorcycle and crashing.
It's a lot of fun.
You also should listen to Your Stupid Opinions, of course, which is a hilarious show where we go over reviews of everything under the sun.
And then if you listen to everything and you need more, Patreon is where you get it.
P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody, $5 a month or above, you get everything.
And I'm talking about as soon as you subscribe, a huge back catalog of hundreds of bonus episodes you've never heard before. And then new ones every other week.
One crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get it all, damn it. And this week, what you're going to get for crime in sports, it's disaster potpourri.
Yeah. Industrial disasters, amusement park disasters, hot air balloon disasters, you name it, it's disaster time.
We'll talk about it. We'll talk all about it.
How can you be melted at work? We'll talk about it. Then for Small Town Murder, we're going to talk about psychics that actually succeeded.
Oh. We've done so much debunking of everything, I'm like, let's find out when something actually worked.
So we're going to figure that out and figure out how that happened. So we'll talk about all that and more.
That is patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the show as well, the regular show.
That said, I think it's time, everybody, to get into some crazy murder. I think it's time to sit back.
What do you say? Let's all clear the lungs. Arms to the sky.
And let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.
Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? All right.
We're going to New Jersey this week. Here we go.
The silence is what everyone. Oh, okay.
Great township new jersey to be exact w-a-n-t-a-g-e wantage okay that's how they say it uh it's in northern new jersey here it's about an hour to the northwest of new york city which i know sounds so weird if you're not from the area you go but new jersey's over here and New York's over here. Yeah, but the city goes here and Jersey's inland.
It's a whole thing here. Hour what? Northwest? Northwest of New York City, yeah.
That's a long distance, yeah. Very commutable, though, an hour from the city.
Two hours to Philly and about an hour and 40 to Neptune City, New Jersey, which was our last New Jersey episode, episode 529, Murder Audition, which was a crazy episode. That's the one where the kid got caught in the car.
His friend filmed him and did the whole sting operation on him because he killed that girl for no reason. It was horrifying.
So we'll talk about that. This is in Sussex County, area code 973.
Population in this town, 10,831.
Okay.
So a pretty small town to be an hour from the city.
It's not bad.
Median household income here is pretty high compared to the national average.
National average is about 69,000.
Here it is 88,563.
And the median home price, super low to be commutable to New York City as well.
$300,000 for the median home price, which is lower than the national average, actually.
This isn't the most fancy town going, but it's not that bad either.
Here's a little bit of history, just to drop here.
It was named for Wantage England, of course.
Oh, yeah.
And it became a precinct, this town, on May 30th, 1754. So it's been around quite a while.
It's been a township since 1798. And it was included in the initial group of New Jersey townships.
There was 104 originally, and this was one of them here. Here are some reviews of this town.
All right, five stars here. Wantage is beautiful.
Oh, shit. shopping boutiques.
For the outdoorsmen, there are ideal locations for fishing, hunting, and for hikers, among other trails, you can climb to the highest point in all of New Jersey, High Point Monument. Located less than an hour's drive from major cities, Wantage offers a peaceful, scenic escape from urban living.
Sure. Which sounds like a real estate agent wrote that, for Christ's sake.
Wow. Here's three stars.
It's a rural area. It's great if you just want to be away from the hustle and bustle.
You need to be able to drive as all of the stores are 20 minutes away by car. So, I mean, it's kind of a rural-y area.
There's no public transportation in the county. Growing up around here was okay as long as your parents are involved.
As long as they're hanging out with you in the woods. With each other? I don't know what's going on.
It's not a good area to retire in. It's the Northeast.
Yeah, it's cold and wet and expensive. Three stars here.
I've grown up here for the majority of my life, and I really like it. I love seeing all the animals everywhere.
Sometimes it's sheep. Sometimes it's cows.
We get it. Farm animals.
If you said sometimes it's a Yeti, that would be interesting. Otherwise, I don't know.
You definitely have to get used to the farm smell, though. Yeesh.
Yeah. I just wish places were closer together.
You can't really walk place to place. Yeah.
It's like poop. And it smells like shit.
It's an from the city though. That's not bad.
And then finally, three stars, only a few restaurants, Mexican, Greek, and an inn, and there are two diners. That's it.
That's all, that's all they, can't believe there's no Italian joint around here. It's fascinating that, that's the only thing they want to talk about.
That's it. Done.
I was like, okay. Cuisine was like cuisine that's it that's it not even if it's good or not just only a few restaurants these exist we have these things to do here just just filling in on this just what we have things to do the wantage new jersey harvest festival right which takes place at the holy spirit orthodox christian.
Around October-ish. It's September 29th and 30th.
So, yeah, admission is free, obviously, because I don't even know who's going to pay for. What do they have here? Food vendors, live music.
They have, it says it's on church grounds, and they have, let's see, I see no, they don't really talk about any of the like activities they say there is american and slavic foods great so that's nice and then there's two bands playing okay um we have the culver gap bluegrass trio yep which they leave no mystery of what they're doing we get it there's three's three and we know what you're playing. And then finally, the Snake Oil Willie Band, which sounds awesome.
I want to see Snake Oil Willie. That's who I want to see.
He only has one eye, right? Snake Oil Willie? It's just bad music, but he's passing it as good, I guess. That said, let's go ahead and talk about some murder, shall we?
Thank God.
Jesus, let's do it.
Let's talk about a young lady first, Virginia Leota, just like Ray, L-I-O-T-T-A.
She goes by Gina, Virginia Leota, which I guess if you took the I out, Gina's in the name.
I suppose it's close.
It's close.
A lot of them go by Ginny.
Some of them just go by Verge.
Ginny, Verge.
Verge is a big one.
Verge is real popular.
My mom had a friend named Verge.
Thank you. Gina's in the name.
I suppose it's close. It's close.
A lot of them go by Ginny. Some of them just go by Verge.
Ginny, Verge.
Verge is a big one in the East Coast.
Verge is real popular.
My mom had a friend named Verge.
She was a mess.
Oh, she was this crazy, loud, drunk lady, and we'd have to go to her house, and she was
a disaster.
I like Vi or V. Both of those are good.
That's not bad.
Verge is just weird.
Gina's usually not for this.
Not Virginia.
Not Virginia, but she goes by Gina. She's born October 1969.
And she has a brother named Joseph as well. Joey Leota over here.
Sure, sure. So she grows up in this area.
Her mom's name is Elizabeth Lott, L-O-T-T. And Elizabeth is born in 1937.
So, you know, obviously a good amount older than her daughter now Elizabeth here they're like an educated family like a smart family now it's funny because Elizabeth didn't start out like that she didn't start out as having like money and status in a town she was born in West Virginia as one of 13 children of a coal miner. Wow.
So her life could not be any more different than it was when it started. It could have gone way worse.
Oh, my God. She could have been in one of our West Virginia episodes.
Think about it. So instead, that's impressive.
She'll end up being a professor of economics at pace university in new york which i don't think when you're born as one of 13 kids to a coal miner in west virginia in 1937 you're gonna go she's gonna be a new york city professor someday teach us all about math like that's good for her man um now she has the two children and gets divorced very young. Oh.
When the kids are very young. So like early 70s, her and her husband get divorced.
So she ends up raising them alone. And while she's doing this, she puts herself through college to become an economics professor.
Unbelievable. Elizabeth has some stick-to-it-ness to her.
Yeah, that's yeah she is hardcore man uh she also puts joseph through medical school what and puts gina through law school yeah was she a stripper that no that's how she's back then too was a little easier you could actually afford college but still i mean those are the some of the hardest ones to do yeah and also just she's smart her kids have to be doing so i mean to become to come from where she came from and then end up putting her kids through law and medical school wow she did about as good as you can do that's like american dream shit right there so um by the time the kids are adults gina and joseph here like i said she is a professor of economics at Pace in New York, and her health is declining pretty good here. And when she gets into her 60s, her health starts to decline a good amount.
Now, a few years back in the early 2000s or late 90s, late 1990s, she buys a house described as her dream home. Great's on 40 acres of land oh yeah she bought an estate my dream home too fuck yeah it's isolated from the other homes in the area she would eventually like her kids to build houses on this property on the property yeah and have a big compound basically sure she's gonna move a a little bit of the West Virginia holler into the 40, except they have 40 acres.
It's not a trailer on the front lawn in front of the house, which is good. So 1992, Gina, she meets a man, okay? Boy, he's an interesting fella here.
Paul Foglia, F-O-G-L-I-A. Is she done with medical school at this time? The son went to medical school her brother Joseph she went to law school Oh she went to law school Yeah At this point I don't think so because she is only 23 years old at this point in 92 So Paul Foglia is born in October 1960 so he's a good nine years older than her Wow to begin with Now they met when she was a social worker oh and he was a male stripper hell yeah that's how they went now Paul Paul has an he's a real interesting guy he does a lot of stripping number one he's like a six foot one 200 pound like muscular guy who strips yeah and it is fucking hilarious that he has like long dark hair which when he's younger and you know stripping was probably great for him but later on his hair is terrible okay it's but he still he still styles it like he still has the same amount of hair like he likes like a it it looks like a Johnny Depp hairstyle is the best way to fucking describe it.
Like a ponytail with like bangs, long bangs that come down in the front.
But he has like no hair up top.
That's the fucked up part.
So he's just got like this, it's such a mess later on.
The ponytail is to pull it over the bald spot.
People used to scream and shove money in this guy's pants. And now they are like, oh, get your horrifying head away from me.
Oh my god. Dude, it's bad.
He's also worked as a mechanic before but stripping's his main job though. That's what he mainly does.
Also a personal trainer when that comes up here and there. But also a stripper.
But also he likes to strip and strips a lot. Because that's what pays this fucking bill.
We'll find out where and when also. Now the relationship between him and Gina is on and off all the time.
Because he's a dick. Because he's a stripper.
Well, yeah, and he's a mess too. He's absolutely a fucking mess on top of it.
He's the most irresponsible person who's ever walked the earth. He's a fucking mess.
Early in the relationship, Gina discovered that he had a whole other girlfriend that he didn't tell her about. So there was that.
Also, he would call Gina obsessively at work. And not only would he call her at work, he would call her boss up to make sure she was working not call her to make sure the story was accurate to make sure she's at work right now she's at she's actually working though like at her desk and the guy would be like do you work here is this that's too much you want to just come take a shift of a supervisor because you can't do that no it's absolutely crazy uh the first thanksgiving they spent together this is fucking great too gene invites paul over to elizabeth lott's house to for a family thanksgiving you know what i mean paul by the way is from a different completely different background he's his family is trailer people yeah like he's yeah has no one know i don't know where his father is um he lives in a trailer with his mother most of the time for thought to try to have some generational no no cycle breaking absolutely not and he comes home you know stinking of 45 different women's perfume to a trailer with his mother so that's not great so at this Thanksgiving dinner Paul comes over He takes a fucking bite of the food that Elizabeth has made, this feast for the family, and spits it out.
Why? Tells her it's gross. Your food is terrible.
Okay, this is his first time there. You pretend it's good.
You can't choke something back, man. I hate Thanksgiving food.
I go every year to my brother's house.
It's Thanksgiving food that he's having?
Thanksgiving.
You know what he's eating.
Just eat it.
And he spit it out?
Goddamn turkey.
You've had it dry.
You've had it without taste.
Just eat it.
It's fucking fine.
Chew it more.
It's ridiculous.
Well, she used salt, and he doesn't like salt.
On what? I mean, if it's... Wasn't over-salty.
She used salt to season her food, and he does not like any salt. Okay.
So he spit it out. So everyone's supposed to eat plain, unseasoned food because this weirdo...
He just doesn't come over. Yeah, because Gina's stripper friend doesn't like it.
Okay. Wow.
So her mother was, quote, highly insulted. This is the way Gina put it by this.
Yeah, you come to my house and do this. It's not making a good first impression.
Gina said that her mother also disapproved of Paul's dancing and had concern that he was, quote, doing other things and sleeping with people for money and prostituting himself.
I think all of those are the same thing that she thought.
All of them.
Doing all those things, you know, sleeping with people for money.
Also, Gina said, quote, she was concerned that he could be in homosexual relationships.
Oh, my God.
Wait.
He's dancing around them. Dancers, they are all gay you know that come on now nobody can keep a rhythm who's straight that's ridiculous that's a that's an awful large leap that's a big leap it's a big fucking leap but wait till later um so early in the relationship elizabeth lott told gina that paul was quote trying to control her and was stalking her from the beginning you see she said get away from that gay stalking dancer stripper weirdo get it who can't eat salt get him away from here that's so funny it's fucking hilarious and you bring a guy home in 1992 to your mom in new jersey yeah who's from you know the west virginia hills and shit and you're like here's my stripper boyfriend and she's get him the fuck out of my house obviously they're gonna say he dances i'll bet he fuck yeah and if joseph brought home a stripper woman the mother would probably have the same reaction yeah get her out of here she probably fucks dudes yeah she probably has dried same reaction.
Yeah, get her out of here. She probably fucks dudes.
Yeah, she probably has dried semen in her hair. Get her out of here.
So a little bit about Paul's past. He has not been a squeaky clean kind of fella here.
He has a pretty good police record. As a matter of fact, while this is all going on, while they're all together, you know, through the 90s into the early 2000s in the early 2000s paul uh catches an assault charge against his own mother paul paul is you can't hit ma knocking his own mom around in the trailer you can't hit mom that's just a paul please with the stereotypes you're really i mean jesus christ man he's also that's not his first time arrested obviously here he was arrested in dekhalbe county georgia in 1980 for trespassing and larceny oh boy he was arrested in west caldwell new jersey in 1982 um for larceny and uh he was also arrested for uh disorderly conduct in wayne new jersey in 2003.
So none of these things are like, you know, mastermind criminal shit. He's not robbing banks or anything like that.
But it all shows a lack of judgment and self-control, I would say. He's kind of a dick.
Kind of a dick. Now, Gina and Paul are going to end up having two sons together.
Is that right? Oh, she is going to be tied to this man.
Oh, no.
Now, Gina said that he tried to find other employment.
He spent – but instead of finding it, he spent several hours a day lifting weights and doing aerobics and going to the gym.
That's true.
Which doesn't pay any money, unfortunately.
Their first couple – their first child's born in 1999. And this is amazing.
The night before his baptism, I've never heard of this before. Even for small town murder, this is going far.
Okay. The night before their first child's baptism, they were living together, Gina and Paul.
Gina, something happened and Gina heard a noise and went and checked on the house and in the middle of the night found a naked woman under her son's crib. What? Paul brought a woman into the house where his wife and his soon-to-be-baptized son are sleeping and was fucking her, and they made a noise and woke Gene up, so this woman ran and hid under the baby crib butt naked.
That happened. So imagine.
That's a night. You go in to get your infant, and you're like, and there's a naked woman under there.
That has to be. I heard a noise.
There's a fight. Nothing.
I don't know's gonna cause a fight on the baby oh don't do that holy shit i just hired a new nanny paul probably said yeah it's her first day i told her no clothes so we know she's not stealing things yeah that that's what it is i said you're not allowed to wear clothes because the last lady stole from us she's from another country leave her alone that's her culture she's lithuanian that's how they do it just relax so the that is fucking amazing that's that's a lot uh there was another time when um okay oh he also lied to her and didn't tell her that he'd been married before also and she had to find that out because she's a lawyer you know knows how to look that shit up um also they had a huge argument because there was a guy who was friends with gina and friends with her for a long time and obviously he didn't like that very much paul so they would argue all the time and he ended up having a big argument where paul hid in the bushes outside this man's house and then popped up to start yelling at him.
Wow.
And causing a big fucking scene.
So that is wild.
Now, Gina is going to end up graduating from law school in 2003.
That's when she finally graduates because she was going kind of on and off.
And, you know, it's hard when you have two kids to go to, like, everyday law school.
Yeah.
So she does that.
Somehow, they continue this relationship through all of it through the naked woman under the crib that's that's a deal breaker in it i would hope i would think that would be where it's like okay this relationship's over there's literally a naked woman in my son's room under the crib. This is crazy.
I smell sex on her still.
If you saw that in a movie, you'd go, that's funny, but it's far-fetched. It's something that would be like The Hangover.
You know what I mean? Like a naked woman jumps out and the wife's like, what the hell's going on here? Is Mike Tyson in the closet going to beat me up to Phil Collins' songs? Is there an Asian in somebody's trunk? What's happening? So, anyway, she gets pregnant again in 2003 from Paul. My God.
Jesus. So, Elizabeth, mom, was very upset that Gina was having another child with this fucking idiot.
She's like, oh my God! Seriously? Please tell me someone else knocked knocked you up. So the son was born and Gina said that she believed that Paul loved his children, but he didn't support them financially at all.
Now, for all intents and purposes, they, quote, break up, but they don't really break up. They're still kind of together.
This is a very toxic, sticky relationship. It's ugly.
So Gina is living with her mom in this nice big house, in the dream home. And I guess while this is happening, Elizabeth does not want Paul to visit the home when she's not there.
Right. She said, I don't want him here when I'm not here.
He can obviously visit his kids, but I don't want him in the house when I'm not there. So that's interesting.
Gina said, quote, I was hoping he would get a job and find an apartment where the kids could visit. Yeah, right.
That'd be nice. Yeah.
I trusted him. I thought if I supported him, he would come through and we could have a little life together, but it never happened.
She still thinks it's been over 10 years of this crazy shit. And she still like i just he'll just get it together one of these days like that's unfortunate dude i i mean at what point do you go i can't fix him i can't right yeah it's not fucking happening this is the type of person that has like 14 toasters because she can't throw them out after they break you know it, it's like, holy shit.
He's a lot. I feel bad.
He's a lot. So Elizabeth said that he can only come to the house two days a week to see his sons.
I don't want him here any more than that. So that's how it goes.
And Elizabeth does not take any shit. She doesn't back down.
She wants, they talked about arguing with, because Elizabeth was always arguing with Paul. And one of the family members said, you know, you don't know this guy, though.
You can't be arguing with grown men. He could hit you.
Or he could do something to you. And she held up her fist and said, if he ever tries to hit me, I'd paste one on him.
That's what she said. Paste one on him.
So she's going to punch him herself here. She's a tough old lady there is an incident in the hospital here uh gina was sick during her second pregnancy and she was hospitalized and became sick in her room okay the only person there is paul and he just left without even getting a nurse he just said well well you you're sick at the door no no she was in the room being sick and he was like well i'm gonna take off now this is gross no one else was there yeah yeah he put the little bucket next to her and was like not much more i can do you're fat and it stinks in here it's gross man i'm gonna go it's all pukey in here you know that goes so she said gina called for help until three or four in the morning and just laid there throwing up.
Oh, my God.
Another incident at the hospital here.
She was in the hospital, like, checked in.
In a bed.
Paul was supposed to pick their older son up at school.
And when Gina called him, he told her his car broke down and he's far from the school.
So, you know, sorry.
Can't do it.
Can't do it. Yeah.
Oh, well. So now she's got to try to figure this out from a hospital bed.
Physically impossible at the moment. Sorry for you.
Oh, she began. She said she became hysterical and began calling other kids parents.
And she finally reached one. She explained the problem.
The parent told her that. What are you talking about? Paul is sitting here with me eating a can of tuna fish.
Why does he do this?
Out of the can.
He's just eating.
What kind of a weirdo goes to their son's school and eats tuna out of a can?
That's a fascinating human.
And told Gina this, but he's there.
So he did it just to fuck with her while she was in the hospital, which is really weird. Gina told, Gina told her mother about that, and Elizabeth said, well, that's the kind of thing that idiot does.
Sounds like him. That sounds like him.
So as of 2004, they're still involved in this horrible relationship here. He, at this point, is working as a bartender, Paul is, at the Phone Booth Bar, F-O F O N E by the way yeah which
still exists under a
different name I think
it's the Irish cottage
now but it was the phone
booth bar it is neither a
phone booth nor an Irish
cottage nor an Irish
cottage and also you
can't name it the phone
booth bar now because no
one would know what the
fuck that was why does
that say fun a I don't
understand what phone a phone a maybe it's a French place. This could be, maybe it's fancy.
Hey everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about our safest sponsor, Simply Safe. The days are getting longer.
We got longer daylight hours, which means you might be spending more time away from your house, which gives burglars more time to rob your house. That's what happens here.
FBI crime data shows that break-ins are more likely during daylight hours than at night, actually, which you don't think of that. But you need to protect your home with SimpliSafe's proactive security that helps stop threats before they even happen.
We love SimpliSafe because, number one, they're great.
The alarms are great. The cameras are high quality.
I love the fact that they can tell somebody and yell at them to go away from your house, and they can call the cops. And it's easy to install.
I was so worried when we first got it. I was like, I'm not going to know how to do this.
It's super easy. They have installation if you need it, but you can do it.
If we can do it, you can do it. Visit SimpliSafe.com slash small to claim 50% off a new system with professional monitoring plan and get your first month free.
That's SimpliSafe, S-I-M-P-L-I, safe.com slash small. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.
So now back to the show. hey everybody Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about our fashionable, stylish friends over at Quince.
Spring's coming up. People want to travel.
You've been in the house all winter. You want to get out.
You want to do things. Vacation season's here.
Road season for us is here, and we're going to treat ourselves to some of the little luxe upgrades that we deserve with Quince's high-quality travel essentials at a fair price, like lightweight shirts and shorts from $30, pants for any occasions, and comfortable lounge sets. Also, you can get premium luggage options and durable duffel bags to carry it all.
And the best part, all Quince items are priced 50% to 80% less than similar brands. We like Quince a lot.
I've ordered stuff. I have a leather jacket.
I have sunglasses. Jimmy's got pants.
And I'm looking for more stuff because we got to travel. They got great flannels too.
They do. And I do need travel stuff too.
So we need this for the road. Quince is going to help us out for the road.
And for your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from Quince. Go to Quince.com slash smalltownmurder for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order.
That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash smalltownmurder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash smalltownmurder.
Now back to the show. So he he's also got a by now he has a ton of credit card debt obviously yeah and even is in the process of being in trouble for forging his son's name on a credit card application his son's name at the most it's a five-year-old god he's trying to or it's an, or it's an infant, either one.
Gina says, even though everyone thought she split up, they split up because she was too embarrassed to tell everyone she was still with him. She says, quote, we didn't split up.
The relationship was ending. I was ambivalent.
I was ambivalent for 12 years. You can blame me for that.
I still wanted to be a family with my sons. My whole life was an embarrassment.
I often said, yes, we're going to get married. Everything's fine.
She'd tell people that. Oh, so what's going on? Oh, yeah, no, we're getting married.
That's what she'd tell people. Unbelievable, man.
I guess there was certain times Gina said that her mother, Elizabeth, had criticized Paul in front of the children as well. I mean, one of them is an infant, so that doesn't matter.
But the other one, she said also that Elizabeth often spoke badly of Paul in front of his son. Joseph, Gina's brother, said that Elizabeth and Paul would occasionally have confrontations, but not frequent confrontations, but they would have some things.
Now, like I said, mom is trying. Mom's goal is to die eventually and leave the property to the kids so they can build houses on it and have this property going on.
Yeah. Here's some other relatives here.
This is an outlier of an opinion here. This is Jean, Elizabeth's sister-in-law.
So Jean is aunt, I guess, said that she saw Paul a few times at family reunions held every year about a week before Christmas and said he seemed mannerly. What is it? OK.
And said when you just go meet someone for dinner or for a social get together, you only get a first impression of them. We didn't see any bad side to him.
Except for when you spit the food in people's face. That was Thanksgiving.
That wasn't the family reunion. We knew that.
So at Christmas, when the whole family's there, he knows how to pull it together and be full of shit. So summer of 2004, there is argument between elizabeth and paul um she called him a bum and he called her a quote fat pig that's how that went all right you fat pig that's what he said those are equal don't make me take my cock out and dance all over this fucking living room because i will right now you're a bum yeah well you're a fat pig that's right paul said she just doesn't like me because i'm quote not professional okay yeah that's what it is that is fucking amazing and uh the funny thing is here um he had they the family talks about how he quote lost five jobs in five years as a mechanic and never had a goddamn dime saved.
He's a bum is what they're saying. Period.
Fat pig. You fat pig.
September 24th, 2004, 10 p.m. here.
Okay. Gina here is driving home from a family dinner at their uncle's house in Tadawa, T-O-T-O-W-A.
She's calling her mother on the cell phone, calling the house,
and Elizabeth is not answering the phone.
No Liz.
Repeated phone calls, and she's not answering the phone.
Yeah.
Which is odd for Elizabeth here.
So Gina is worried and driving home quickly.
She's got her two sons with her.
One of them is an infant, like five months old the other is you know six years old or so so they arrive at the home here and she said she knew something was wrong instantly the sliding glass door was open which it usually is unlocked that's normal she said quote I could see into the house from the sliding glass doors in the back. I first saw my mother.
I could see her clearly lying face down in the family room. I could tell something was wrong even from the outside.
Yeah. Face down in the family room is not a normal.
That's not how she usually watches Jeopardy probably. Yeah.
It's not. That's how she thinks best to do the daily double, I think.
So Gina said, I thought she had a heart attack.
She was just laying there with a table on top of her.
It's a wooden folding tray table on top of her. Oh, one of those TV dinner trays.
But like a heavy one, not a chintzy one.
Her thick glasses were broken and laying on the floor next to her.
So Gina tries to call 911 from her cell phone, but for some reason she couldn't remember to hit send. This is how your brain.
She used her cell phone 10 times on the way over. Yeah.
Hitting send every time. But your brain, when it goes into freak out mode, can't even do the simplest tasks.
It is fascinating because I always have dreams about not being able to operate my phone. But anytime I've ever been in a car accident or needed police, I'm always panicked.
I can't do it. It's so hard.
I can't ever figure it out. Figure it out.
So she couldn't figure it out. She threw her cell phone down because she thought it was broken or something.
She just never hit send. So she grabs the landline, because her mom has a landline, and calls 911.
Operator starts telling her to do CPR on her. So she's like, okay, I've got to go over there and tend to her.
So Gina says, I leaned over to check her pulse, and that's when I saw the wounds. I saw a lot of blood.
I saw her scalp and torn skin. Oh, boy.
I tried to describe it to 911, but I didn't want to scare my child. I told him to turn around and look away.
Yeah, this is traumatic for a six-year-old to see grandma with her fucking skull cracked open. Yeah, her scalp.
Wow. Not what you expect from grandma's house.
So Gina said she flung off the wooden tray table that was on top of her mother and reached down to turn her over.
She said I wanted to help her, but I just knew she wasn't there anymore.
Part of me knew she was gone.
I didn't want to hurt her anymore.
She didn't want to start moving her around.
So she said she studied the wounds of her mother and said she came to the realization that, quote, she didn't fall.
Someone did this to her.
She said, and I thought they could still be here. I grabbed my children and ran out of the house as fast as I could.
Absolutely. You have no idea if you walked in in the middle of this and now they're going to come kill you and your kids.
So the police arrive and the medical people arrive and they say she was struck with the folding table while she was in a horizontal position. The laying down.
Yeah. Yeah.
Laying down. They opined that she died from blunt impact trauma to her skull and brain, having sustained a skull fracture to her right side that was likely fatal and caused by significant force with a table.
Someone took a fucking heavy TV tray and bashed her skull in with it. Wow.
Which is, we've never had that as a murder weapon, right? No. This week we have had visine and a fucking tray table.
Two things we've never had before. It's a banner week for small town murder, I'm telling you.
That is crazy. The murder martini.
Six pack of visines. The murder martini, as I named the episode.
Unbelievable. She was killed by that.
They said that the injuries she had to her head were similar to those of victims of a car accident. Wow.
That's the force she was hit with. Yeah, that's hard.
The medical examiner said her skull was cracked in mosaic fractures, which requires significant force to create. Yeah, yeah.
And she said her brain shifted from the impact and caused bleeding and hemorrhaging. This is hard, man.
Yeah. There's a photo of her skull with, you can see exposed brain in it.
Like it's horrifying and absolutely horrifying. They said that they asked how those are caused, the mosaic features of the skull.
She said the right side of the skull was hit with a heavy flat object with such force that it cracked her skull in a radial pattern similar to a mosaic tile design that expanded out to reach across the top of her head. That's how fucking hard she was hit.
From the side all the way over. It radiated.
Wow. The inner structures of her skull were also found to be fractured from the blow.
The evidence at the scene dictates to me what happened there. This is what the medical examiner is saying.
The home was well kept with some disarray, but there were no signs of struggle or forced entry. There was a glass lamp and picture frame still standing on the table right next to the victim.
The home seemed untouched other than the victim's condition. This wasn't not a robbery gone wrong.
There's one target in this house and it's hard. That's it.
Not even the lamp like nothing. Wow.
So they said, could you possibly get fingerprints off the murder weapon off the murder weapon and they said unfortunately they are there's a lot of blood all over the table but they said wood is not a good material to get fingerprints from which it's really it's grainy yeah it's not it doesn't the ridges will take away yeah it doesn't and also there's moisture thing. It'll suck moisture in wood and things like that.
So it's not a very good keeper of fingerprints.
Yeah, yeah.
It'll take the oils from your skin and disperse them and it won't have the right pattern.
I would figure the grains would disguise the ripples in the finger.
But I would consider absorbing the oils.
Yeah, I've heard that too.
And it's not an even surface either ever would. No matter how even it looks, it's not.
So it's hard. So chaos ensues at the house here, obviously.
A neighbor sees all the emergency vehicles and comes over. She takes the older son back to her house.
So can you please take my son out of this you know murder scene possibly um now this lady next door takes the son and also calls up the phone booth bar yeah to tell paul what's going on for some reason i don't know how the the mother's neighbor knows that to call the phone booth bar for Paul, but she does.
She says, you need to come to the house.
So Paul arrives at the neighbor's house about 20 minutes later.
So investigators are processing the crime scene and securing evidence for analysis.
Like I said, no signs of forced entry.
Nothing appears to be stolen whatsoever.
And there's no evidence of any sexual assault or anything like that. Just a beating.
Just I'm mad at that lady's skull, period. So Gina and Paul go to the local police department with the detective here.
And they call up the phone booth and confirm that he had worked there during the evening.
Like he said, I was at work all night.
You know, you guys, where were you guys?
Okay, no one was there.
So they call up the phone booth and they said, yeah, no, Paul did have a shift tonight,
but he did leave for, quote, a period of time when he claimed to be ill.
Okay.
So the detective went to the phone booth and got the videotape from the surveillance cameras in the parking lot to see exactly how long he left when and how ill he was it shows him arriving for work at 601 this is what kind of an asshole he is he's late already he's already late he's gonna run in there putting on his apron like oh yeah no no like get there five minutes early for a bartending shift you fucking he showed up late then he left the premises at 7 51 p.m. and returned at nine useless bartender like um which is so he was gone for an hour and nine minutes from the parking lot which is plenty of time the bar is six miles away from elizabeth by the way.
Wow. So he went to work for an hour and a half and was like, I got to murder.
I got to go murder somebody. So was he sick, though? Maybe he was out there throwing up the whole time.
Look, an hour and a half is long enough at work to find out whether or not you can hack it for the rest of the shift. Whether you can get through the day or not.
Yeah. So fellow employees and a patron of the bar said that he didn't appear to be ill that evening, but he claimed he was.
They said he left the bar and they said when he returned, he was disheveled, sweaty, and had bloodshot eyes. Oh, he apologized for leaving in the middle of the shift, but the manager fired him anyway.
So that's another job he just lost. Yeah.
Couldn't even keep it at the phone booth. booth now the re you'd say why was he there when they called him then if he got fired because he got fired and said okay and then went and sat down and ordered food who the fuck gets fired and then it's like all right i'll just patronize the joint i'll be a customer instead never heard of that that's why take it out of my last check so he they said he appeared nervous was pacing and repeatedly went to the men's room then left the bar after receiving a phone call which was the phone call saying come down here okay now they get paul in there and they're quite they advise him of his miranda rights and he denies killing i said did, did you kill her? And he said, no, of course not.
That's crazy.
He admitted his relationship with her was shitty, but he's like, I didn't.
I never left the bar.
Yeah.
And then they were like, we heard you left the bar.
This is when they already know that he left the bar.
And he says, well, I might have left for 20 minutes to get some air or something.
Then they said, well, everyone says you were gone for more than an hour.
And he says, OK, maybe I was gone for for longer than 20 minutes. But I, quote, absolutely never left the parking lot.
They were like, but we have. OK.
And they have video tapes of them leaving. They also collect his shoes and clothes and get DNA samples.
He's pissed that they're even questioning him. He's very upset.
Yeah. He, two days after the murder, he asked Gina about having his regular visitation with the kids.
Gina said, quote, he said, when can I have my visitation? I said, my mother's just been killed. You can't be serious.
He was mad. He was like, Sunday is my day with the boys.
I don't care whose skull's been fucking mosaically fractured in the house. I'm coming over.
I don't care if grandma's dead. So September 29th, 2004, five days later, they find out that his shoe tests positive for Elizabeth's blood in a DNA sample.
He's got it on his shoe. So he's arrested and charged with murder.
No one else has blood on their shoes. That was quick.
So five days. They just had to get the DNA back.
They got it and were like, that's our guy. So they introduced forensic evidence that the blood on the shoe resulted from impact spatter and that he had been standing within 10 feet of the blood source at the time, you know, where a murderer would be.
Oh, no. Fuck.
They also, in the arrest affidavit they name a man we'll talk about him later who they claim who who claims he's had sex with paul and is a close friend of his and says that paul admitted to going to elizabeth's home that night with the intention to kill her he fucked a a man after this? No, no, beforehand, but they're still buddies. When you fuck a man, you gotta, you know, you stick close afterwards.
You tell him your secrets. Alright.
That's pretty wild here. We'll talk more about him.
And Joseph Leota, Gina's brother, said, I knew what he had done. I had a fairly strong suspicion of what he had done.
Paul's mom couldn't feel less like that. Paul's mom, Joan, I'll read this right from the paper, quote, Joan Foglia emerged yesterday from the worn trailer she shared with her son in Finn's Mobile Home Park in Wayne and said her son did not commit the murder.
Quote, my son is innocent. He didn't do any of this.
I can't take this anymore. And I live in this shitty trailer.
It's all bad. She said that she doubted that her son will ever get to, or that she, not even her son, she said, I'll probably never get to see my grandchildren again because the lots have money and we don't that's that they can keep the kids away from us a neighbor of his who's known paul for 10 years said he was shocked about this he said i i heard about a month and a half ago that everything was good between him and his girlfriend he said quote i thought they were getting married now at the county jail okay there's a guy named alan casey who's a fellow inmate here and um yeah he said to this guy he tells this guy that he went there with the intent of killing elizabeth he says he loved gina and he loves his children that he wanted to live with them but he told the cellmate there that the only way for this to happen was for lot to not be there.
I can't move in there. I can't move into this nice house that I don't have to pay for if this woman is there.
Yeah, I need my fat pig's mother to be gone. Gotta happen.
Fat pig of a mother-in-law. Future mother-in-law.
So he also said that he knew that she'd be alone that night because he had earlier spoken to Gina and knew that she was going to a family dinner. And Gina does say that, yes, he had.
She did tell him that earlier that night. So he told the cellmate that when he appeared in Elizabeth's home the night of the murder, she threatened to call the police on him because he showed up.
So he said he, quote, snapped, pushed her to the ground and hit her with the folding table god damn fuck that part's probably true because she said i'll call the cops get off my property i'll call the cops she said your kids aren't here there's no reason for you to be here so now he's in jail awaiting trial yeah in 2005, he sues Gina
to see the kids more
from jail.
And a judge
enters an order requiring Gina
to, quote, supply
three photos of the children to
Paul's counsel along with copies
of progress reports and
report cards every three months.
So she's got to provide
three new pictures and report cards.
That's it. That's it.
That's all she Thank you. She has copies of progress reports and report cards every three months.
So she's got to provide three new pictures and report cards.
That's it.
That's it.
That's all she has to do. She does not comply with that order.
Really? Yeah, she says, fuck him. So he files a motion to enforce it and find her in violation of his rights.
Then the same judge entered a motion granting his an order granting his his motion saying that counsel fees and costs associated with gina's non-compliance with the court order shall be awarded to paul in the event of any future failure to comply so now it's going to cost her money uh she complied with the court order for a period of time there when it didn't yeah it was going to cost her money so 2008 the trial here it comes okay during the opening the prosecutor says elizabeth lott came closer than any other person to revealing the secret now the secret was he's has a gay lover that's the secret it was a secret he was willing to kill to protect that's why he went up there which is a stretch to say that honestly i don't care i'd say i don't give a shit why he went over there wanted to move in the house and couldn't so there you go the mother-in-law future mother liz already suspected he fucks dudes that's what i mean that's that's what she thought the whole time yeah he also while he's in jail he sends a handwritten two-page letter to sh Caralti, who's a former girlfriend of Joseph Leota, Gina's brother. Okay, they have a kid together.
In this letter, he states, please, Shannon, help me. You know I didn't want this.
I've repented with a contrite heart. I don't know what you've heard or believe, but I did not provoke this horrible thing that happened.
Which is a weird way to put it. I didn't provoke this horrible thing.
It's a very weird way. Who cares? It's very fucking weird here.
He said that she wouldn't allow in the letter. He went on to say that Elizabeth wouldn't allow him to sit at the family table during Sunday dinners.
and this woman who was there said that Elizabeth often demeaned him in front of whoever was in the room, including his young son. She said she never saw Elizabeth physically threaten Paul and that Elizabeth arranged a visitation schedule and did not allow Paul at her home when Gina and the boys were not there.
And that also Elizabeth never restricted Paul from seeing his sons outside of her property
and said that she would never have let him in if he was alone there.
She would have never let him in.
Absolutely not.
Hey, everybody.
Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit from our friends at Shutterfly.
Oh, Shutterfly.com.
That's absolutely right. Shutterfly believes the moments that matter the most deserve a photo book.
You want to remember these things. They're big for big moments, weddings, graduations, that trip that you took that you've been saving up for for five years.
And, you know, that's a big deal. They're also for everyday moments, though.
It doesn't have to be a big giant thing. You can turn your Instagram feed into a coffee table book.
You can make an annual memory book for your kids so they can, as the years go by, they can know that's there. You can create a family cookbook.
There's endless possibilities. Let's be realistic here.
Your imagination is the only thing that can hold you down here with Shutterfly. I'm putting together one of us on the road.
That's one that I'm putting together right now. I think that would be pretty cool.
So that's kind of what I'm doing with it here. We have an exclusive offer for our listeners.
New customers get a free 8x8 photo book with promo code SMALLTOWN at Shutterfly. Enter code at checkout.
See promotion details for more info. But get your free 8x8 photo book with the promo code SMALLTOWN at Shutterfly.com.
Make something that means something with Shutterfly. Now back to the show.
Hey everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit more about Aura Frames. What are you going to get your mother for Mother's Day? Something boring? Here's a gift certificate or Don't do that.
Mother's Day gifts are a little predictable. You can be unpredictable here.
Get them an Aura frame. Name the best digital photo frame by Wirecutter.
And it's great. You're going to love it.
It's terrific. I have literally gotten every single member of my family Aura frames.
It's the best gift. Everybody uses it, too.
Every single single person has it on their counter and it becomes a focal point for when you're hanging out over there. Oh, there's a picture of grandpa.
Oh, look, it's that. It's so cool.
And you really need this. And Aura Frames come with unlimited storage so you can share as many photos as you want from your phone to mom's Aura Frame.
Aura has a great deal for Mother's Day. For a limited time,
our listeners can save on the perfect
gift by visiting AuraFrames.com
to get $35
off, plus free shipping
on their best-selling Carver Matt
frame. That's AuraFrames.com
promo code SMALLTOWNMURDER
Support the show by mentioning us at
checkout. Terms and conditions apply.
And now back to the show.
Hey everybody, just going to take a
Thank you. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout.
Terms and conditions apply. And now back to the show.
Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you about Audible. Let Audible expand your life by listening.
Explore over one million audio books and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate you all in one easy app. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight
from leading professionals and experts on better health,
relationships, career, finance, investing, and more.
Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one.
Either way, I love listening to these titles on Audible.
Right now, what I'm checking out, number one is Evil,
E-V-E-L, about Evil Knievel,
and the Red Ripper
about Chikatilo,
the famous Russian serial killer.
And it is really detailed,
really interesting.
Good listen on both of those.
And there's so much more.
I'm listening to like 12 things at once
right now on Audible.
I love it.
Get advice and insight
from leading professionals
and experts on health,
relationships, career,
finance, investing, and more. There's so much opportunity to learn and more to imagine when you listen start listening today when you sign up for a three 30-day trial at audible.com small town murder now back to the show um she said that um she wrote in her he wrote in his letter that Elizabeth, quote, said and did really mean things.
So just break her skull into 100 pieces.
And that makes sense.
Make a mosaic out of her head.
Wow.
I tried to leave.
She came at me.
Oh, he's claiming his whole defense is self-defense for a sickly 67 year old woman. Meanwhile, he six foot one 200 pound in shape male stripper yeah and he was afraid afraid for his life afraid for his life he said uh that gina wants me to go away for the rest of my life and it wasn't even my fault unquote not my fault he said he obviously didn't plan the killing because afterwards he went to the police station for questioning with bloodstains on his shoes.
Wow. Maybe he didn't know.
And the letter also includes several insults directed at the Leota family as well. So there's that.
Fat pigs and everything else. They also introduce his, quote, prior bad acts, which are his neglect, his criminal record, and the fact that he's a stripper, they lump into that as well.
Like he's not to be trusted. They said, quote, the fact that this defendant has neglected his son, has been unfaithful to his girlfriend, has been employed as a male stripper, has amassed substantial credit card debt, and has forged his son's name on a credit card application.
That's said during the opening. Now, there is an objection, and there's a big sidebar here, citing the testimony that he was a, quote, male dancer, and that's not even relevant here.
The judge overruled the objection, finding the testimony to be proper introductory testimony to establish the nature of the relationship, and also ruled the testimony about the defendant calling and checking on Leota was relevant because it went to the issue that he was raising, which is the provocation defense. Okay.
Gina testifies about the first time they met, about Thanksgiving dinner. When asked about the way Paul dresses and his attitude at the dinner, this is the spit the food out, it's too salty dinner, there's more objections, and they have another big sidebar over that.
The judge says this is the entire relationship that existed among these people since they met each other. The defense attorney says it's not what took place between the witness and the defendant, it's how Mrs.
Lott reacted to what took place, whether she was justified or not is not relevant. The passion and provocation goes to the action, not the reason for the action.
It's an expression of Lott's dislike that's relevant, not the reason for it. So they're saying even if Elizabeth had all the reason in the world to hate this guy, that's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about when he came over, could she have hated him and attacked him? Period. Whether it's relevant to hate him isn't really or, you know, whatever.
And in a fashion that was threatening. Yeah.
So the prosecutor said that the evidence is to the motive of the defendant and demonstrated why Lott hated him from the beginning. And the judge overrules the objection.
They're going to let all that in. Paul testifies on his own behalf, which if you're going to say an old lady attacked me and I had to kill her, you better have some words to back that up here.
You better have some proof, show something. He said he was sick the night of the murder and left the phone booth, though he claimed it was with permission when it wasn't because he got fired.
So he lies right there on the stand. He had spoken to Gina by phone and she was upset.
He believed it was due to the constant tension between her and her mother. And he thought that they had argued that day.
That's all about you, though, stupid. He decided to go to Elizabeth's home and speak with her about their problems.
I'm going to lay it all on the line here. He said he saw her watching TV through the rear sliding door.
He said he tapped on the door and Elizabeth let him in, which we know probably didn't happen right away. The back doors open all the time.
He said the conversation deteriorated into a battery of insults where she called him names and he called her a witch. It's a fat pig witch.
He then claimed that Elizabeth came at him swinging her arms and she picked up the folding table and swung it at him. ECW.
She's going full fucking wrestling here. She cut a promo on him, picked up a table.
She's going to cut my forehead off. Holy shit.
That is crazy. He said that she swung it at him, hitting him in the left arm, causing a minor laceration, which, by the way, he didn't have at the bar or the police station.
He had no laceration at all on him. He said he grabbed the table from her and hit her on the head.
He said when she fell to the ground he hit her again and then left the table on top of her only two times and he crushed this poor woman's head one it's the one good flat shot while she was laying down is the one that really got part of that probably is because her head was on the ground too so there was pressure on the other side so um he said that after she hit him with the table quote i went into a blackout and a blur rage he said he was enraged because elizabeth told him he was quote not good enough for his daughter for her daughter his kids his sons and then if it was up to her she'd take his kids away and he'd never see them again yeah and then he killed her which is you know that's proportionate suplexed me through light tubes and it was crazy hit me with a barbed wire bat and i just had to say i said we're turning these ropes to barbed wire and we're getting inside the cage i'm tired of this shit unbelievable so during cross-examination he acknowledged that he had given a number of different accounts of his activities on the night of the homicide to law enforcement authorities. He also admitted that in an attempt to have his bail lowered, he supplied a false certification in which he claimed the police had coerced him into providing a formal statement immediately after arrest.
He never indicated any of those prior statements, however, that Lott threatened him or hit him with the folding table. That's new information he just came out with at the trial.
There was other evidence that inferentially challenged the credibility of his version of events. For example, when he was initially interviewed, they observed no injury to his arm, which they were looking for shit like that.
He also claimed that when he returned to the phone booth after the homicide, his frequent trips to the men's room were caused by nausea and his need to care for the cut. But surveillance videotape doesn't show any injury either.
On cross-examination here, the prosecutor extensively questions him about his debts and the fact that he has lost five jobs in five years as a mechanic. They say, do you remember replying for a credit card in your son's name? And he said, for Alex, it was just a joke.
What's the joke? There's what's the joke between me and the person who's going to read this credit application who are you joking with what's the punchline and they said it was a joke and he said i never used it oh and they said quote it was a joke it was a joke you do something that affects your son's credit and he said i never I never used it. And they said, and you laugh about it?
And he said, I didn't.
I didn't know any better at the time.
I put his name on it.
I got, and they said, forged a credit card application, forged your son's name.
I didn't know any better at the time.
It was sometime in the last three years this happened.
He was in his 40s.
The man was in his 40s.
He didn't know that was not okay. I've grown a lot in the last three years.
Oh, man. So then they questioned him extensively about his failure to pay child support.
They also bring up the naked lady under the crib, hiding in the bushes to attack the friend. Then they talk about his dancing, and here's where it comes.
Okay. They say, you're dancing.
Let's talk about that. that you say dancing we're not talking about the polka or the tango or anything he's he says no i worked in chippendales in new york oh which was a big deal and they said right and you also danced at feathers right a gay club he's just putting his top one up there yeah you know he's like a comic who just lists the best club he's ever played at.
Not right. All the other shitholes.
And he said one time I didn't like it and I quit. And they said, you used to strip for money.
And he said, no, I worked out on a solo flex machine, but that was in like 1994. Okay.
Yeah. Okay.
It gets better. They said, no, you've've danced you took your clothes off for money that's what you did for a living and he went oh yeah yeah what okay so you don't understand the uh solo flex it gets better the solo flex thing is going to get explained here they asked if elizabeth knew anything about his dancing and he said he did and then they said and she knew that you stripped at gay clubs and he said no and that was only twice and i quit he said once before now it's twice we've now gone to two so just two weeks just just two weeks i just worked there two years that's all i only i just blew two guys that's it after a while it's really gonna get they said you know that she suspected
you were involved in more conduct than just taking your clothes off right and he said i had no idea and he said you didn't know and he said i said i had no idea they said she never called you a male whore before look i had a nordic track i just i was yeah stuff i was doing she said he said no she did not. So the judge permitted the prosecutor to inquire about his relationship with Brian Shell.
That's the guy who gave the statement to the police. He claims he was Shell's, quote, personal trainer and that Shell, quote, offered him money to do body worshiping.
Okay. That's facts.
No, it's not. The court takes a break and the jury sends a note asking the judge what the fuck is body worshiping we don't know what that is so the prosecutor over the defendant's objection and contrary to the judge's earlier ruling limiting testimony was permitted to continue with this line of questioning they said uh when i was cross-examining you before, you had a sexual relationship
with Brian Schell, right?
There was a sexual component to it.
He said, for him it was sexual,
not me.
Okay, that's the ultimate gay denial shit
that I've ever heard in my life.
He was doing the sucking.
I was just sitting there.
That is not,
and I don't care,
suck all the cock you want.
It doesn't fucking matter to me.
I don't give a shit,
but I'm just saying that's what dudes who are embarrassed about this say.
Oh, God.
The prosecutor says, what does that mean?
For him it was sexual.
What are you talking about?
And Paul says, he got a sexual thrill out of watching me work out or touching my body.
That's the solo flex.
That's what he was doing.
So the prosecutor said, that's what I'm trying to get at.
There was a sexual
contact between you and
Brian Schell and there was money exchanged,
right? And he says, at the
time there was, yes.
Which makes him a male whore.
According to Elizabeth.
I'm a prostitute, for sure, yeah.
So the state contends all this
evidence is relevant to rebut an unfair
and inaccurate attack against the victim
and to provide a proper framework
for the jury to fully evaluate
of the The state contends all this evidence is relevant to rebut an unfair and inaccurate attack against the victim and to provide a proper framework for the jury to fully evaluate events leading up to the murder. They said it all falls under the rule 404 exclusion of crimes, wrongs or acts because the testimony only showed his behavior was boorish, indolent or self-indulgent and not that he had a propensity to commit murder.
So it shouldn't go along with that. In closing, the defense attorney says this wasn't a murder.
This isn't a murder. He said this is a heat of passion manslaughter coming after years of ill treatment of Paul by this terrible woman who provoked him.
She said, you heard him talk about how she swung a table at him in a rage. What's he supposed to do? She hit him first.
Right. I don't know.
Don't be in her house is where you could do, I think. Yeah, I mean, just leave.
So the verdict, ten and a half hours of deliberation for this jury, which seems like a lot, right? Yeah, I mean, he left work and went back. Yeah.
All we're deciding is manslaughter or murder. He admitted he did it.
So it's just, is it going to be manslaughter or murder? It's six men and six women on the jury. They find him guilty of first degree murder.
Yeah. Yeah.
Possession of a weapon, which is the fucking table, which is hilarious. A tray is a weapon in court with intent to use it unlawfully.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Possession of a weapon, which is the fucking table, which is hilarious.
A tray is a weapon in court with intent to use it unlawfully. Yeah.
Yeah. And criminal trespass as well.
During sentencing, Joe, the brother there, Gina's brother, said this man could not hold a job changing attire. And she was paying for his two children.
That one thing in the world that he couldn't change was my mother's mind. All that anger was focused on my mother's head.
There is so much vitriol for an unemployed man. They fucking hate this.
You fucking bum. You non-tire-changing fucking dick-out-of-your-pants bum.
People hate a man who just will not get a job. They hate him, especially these Jersey Guineas.as they're like you don't even support your fucking kids you're a bum so they sentence him you sir they fuck off life in prison with parole but not for 30 years that's good yeah and he's like longer i think he's like 47 or something so it's a good amount he's not going to be doing much stripping when he gets out, put it that way.
One of the jurors, by the way, said some people's opinions vary, but everyone recognized everyone else's motive and just wanted to make sure justice was carried out correctly. We knew our responsibility.
We took it very seriously, and that caused us to be very careful in the decision made. So this guy said, too, this is his first time on a jury, and he said, I had no idea it was going to be a murder case.
I hope I don't have to do this ever again. That was tough.
2009, they continue to fight in family court here about the photographs. And this goes back and forth.
And we're not going to get into the details because we don't have time. 2010, he appeals this whole thing.
And it is on mainly the admission of extensive prior bad acts evidence and the court's failure to provide a limiting instruction to private defendant of his right to a fair trial. That's his one thing.
Now, it's called the Caulfield test, I guess, that you can tell if this should go in. And they say that this test requires that one, evidence of the other crime must be admissible as relevant to a material issue.
Two, it must be similar in kind and reasonably close in time to the offense charged. Three, the evidence of the other crime must be clear and convincing, and the probative value of the evidence must not be outweighed by its apparent prejudice.
Also, he has several points. Point two, trial judge's refusal to more specifically instruct the jury.
Point three, prosecutorial misconduct.
Point four, the court erred in excusing juror number seven after two days of deliberations in order to accommodate the juror's vacation plans.
Point five, the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him to a life term because a proper analysis of the aggravating factors does not support such a sentence. That's how it goes.
So they find the whole thing. They say reversed.
Wow. Shouldn't have let that shit in that you let in.
Basically. I mean, the man killed a woman, went back to work, was fired and then admitted ate a pot pie or some shit? Had some chicken fingers and then fucking went to the police station with blood on his shoes.
With blood on his shoes. Gina's pissed.
Gina said, those jurors did not convict him because he took a credit card out in my son's name. They didn't convict him because he was a male stripper or a bum.
They convicted him because he killed my mother. He can bring in whatever evidence he wants, but we can't put it into context.
This is meddling by a court, and they don't care what effect they have on people. They turn around and say, no, it's okay to blame the victim.
That's what this decision does. Then he sues her again to see the kids more, and that fails.
2012, new trial. Here we go.
They say the defense attorney says this new trial is going to be a lot shorter. They won't be able to paint the same picture of Paul.
The fact that he was a male stripper is banned from the retrial. But it comes up again though.
It still comes up because it has to. Yeah, because you got to ask, what do you do for work, sir? That's all of that.
What have you been doing? It just comes up. Why was she mad at you? Well, if you're fired all the time, how come you have money? How do you how else do you make money? Yep.
Gina said she tolerated verbal or that that Paul. They asked him if Paul tolerated a lot of verbal abuse from Elizabeth and the prosecutor objects to all of that.
So there's a lot of objecting and things of that nature here. They said Gina testified the day before the murder happened.
He and Gina had sex for the last time before they broke up. Wow.
That was that. Oh, that was it.
So that's what they were saying. That was the end of it right right there and gina said my discussion with the defendant was that i had had enough of splitting up we decided we'd have sex one more time then split up he must be a great fuck that's all this is he has to be right has to have a good dick on him i think right unbelievable has to be fucking swinging a hammer that's all i can imagine so in closing the the prosecutor said Paul had a clear mind and clear intent of murder that night.
In all of those 12 years, he never once went to talk to her alone. The one time he did, he beats her to death.
Nothing more clearly defines his intent that he went there to kill her. They said he knew that she was home alone with no car, knew that Gina and the children were at a dinner party away from the house.
On the first day of a new job, he leaves after an hour and drives over to the house,
parks halfway up the driveway, walks around the back to an unlocked door.
They said Paul was under control when he aimed that tray table at her head and chopped at her like an axe.
After he did this, he didn't call 911.
He didn't try to help her.
He left her for dead and called Gina to ask how long she would be before she got home.
Wow.
Okay, the defense attorney said this should be a passion provocation manslaughter. 10 years tops.
Come on. Quote, this is not a murder.
This is a family tragedy. What was it? Some balls to say, man.
He left work for this. This is not a family.
And then lied all about it yeah he didn't go i couldn't help it oh my god and yeah uh he said uh what was it what was it that converted paul from a person who would never do something to this to into someone who did we know what happened let's look at why he suffered from verbal abuse and much more for years. Jesus Christ.
She said this was the nature of her extreme hatred for him.
This time, Verda comes in two hours of deliberation.
Fast this time.
I am guilty again.
Okay, good.
Sentencing.
Gina's brother, by the way, chastised his lawyer, Paul's lawyer, for his conduct this, and called him a monkey at one point.
You can't say that.
Which is hilarious, I think.
You fucking dumb monkey.
It was a white guy, too.
So it's not a racial component.
He just called him a monkey.
Gina said, how could you do this to these little boys?
When your retrial came up and I had to sit your six-year-old son down
and explain to him what his father had done before he heard it from somewhere else. This is what you did to these boys.
You don't care about us. You only care about yourself.
I truly feel you're without a conscience, Paul. What I say doesn't matter.
You've only thought of yourself anyways. He said, my mother was right about you.
That's hilarious. That stings to hear.
This justice is a cold substitute for what you took from me.
I'm haunted. All of my thoughts lead me
back to the horror you created. You destroyed
everything. Wow.
Whenever I... Oh, Jesus Christ.
My best memory of my mother
was when I was four years old. I was watching her get
ready to go out. She pulled her hair back
and put it up in a braid. Now, whenever I
do my hair and remember that, I brace myself
because I know the image of her lying on the floor with her hair soaked in blood and her skull open is coming. Then his son gets up there on the stand, his teenage son, and said, the day I was told you were the killer of my grandmother, I died.
I can't remember my grandmother's voice. But I do remember seeing my grandmother under a wooden table and my mother screaming.
You gave up the right to know me when you killed my grandmother. I hope you stay in prison till you die.
And he also called him a killer, a bastard and a child's life destroyer. Paul says, quote, this is he's got a whoa.
He said, I didn't want to go back to prison for life because I didn't go there to do that to your mom.
Talking to Gina.
I should have never done that to your mom and let my son find her like that.
Then he says to Gina, I think about you every day.
Whoa.
I never meant for this to happen.
I loved you, Gina.
I loved our family.
I don't know what happened to me that night.
The judge says, she suffered repeated blows.
It was a vicious attack. I cannot accept this defendant's claim that he did not mean to kill her you sir may fuck off life again 30 years before parole yeah uh he appeals all of that and obviously that doesn't matter i don't like this trial either nope they said nope keep on keeping on fuckhead they actually said that the brutal circumstances surrounding the victim's suffering justified the life sentence.
Virginia right now appears to be practicing family law in New Jersey. So she looks to be thriving and doing great.
Good for her because she's been through a lot and we feel bad for her. By the way, don't take it out on this guy.
There's a LinkedIn profile of a guy named Paul Foglia, and he's the assistant vice president at Excess Casualty, which is the worst fucking thing it could be because that was an Excess Casualty. Yeah.
That is bad shit. Is that insurance? I imagine.
I think it's insurance. So there you go.
That is Wantage Township, New Jersey. Very quickly run through the end here.
Definitely follow us on social media at Small Town Murder on Instagram at Small Town Pod on Facebook. Definitely shutupandgivememurder.com Get your tickets for live shows.
Chicago, St. Louis, you're up next in May.
A lot of them are selling out. Get your tickets right goddamn now.
Shutupandgivememurder.com Also get your merch while you're on there. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of your bonus material.
$5 or above will get you hundreds of episodes immediately of shit you've never heard before. And then new stuff every other week.
One crime in sports, one small town murder. You get it all this week.
Crime in sports, disaster potpourri, industrial shit, hot air balloons. You name it, we'll do it.
Amusement park for crime or for small town murder. We're going to talk about when psychics actually succeeded in finding bodies and stuff like that.
We'll talk all about that. Patreon.com slash crime and sports.
And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show.
You want to follow us on social media,
shut up and give me murder.com as a list and drop down menus.
And until next week,
everybody,
it's been our pleasure.
Bye. If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen early and ad freefree on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him.
We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect.
He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history.
I was targeted, premeditated, and meant to sow terror. I'm Jesse Weber, host of Luigi, produced by Law and Crime and Twist.
This is more than a true crime investigation. We explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever.
He's awoken the people to a true issue. Finally, maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our health care system.
Listen to Law and Crimes Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus.
You can join Wondery Plus on the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.