
Susan Gigliotti
New Jersey police discover a beloved father shot to death and a vehicle taken from the premises.
Season 31 Episode 05
Originally aired: Aug 14, 2022
Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPod
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
Hi, this is Steve Buscemi.
You know, the actor. Well, now I'm an actor and podcast host.
From piece of work entertainment and campsite media in association with Olive Productions comes Big Time, an Apple original podcast. Each episode follows the story of one misfit with big dreams who isn't afraid to bend a few rules or take a shortcut to get there.
Well, who steals bees? I was duped. I shoot you in the leg.
This is Big Time. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
People thought it was impossible to lose weight and get strong and healthy right at home until they discovered our step-by-step structured programs. And now we've got millions of fit, happy customers.
I'm Carl, the CEO of Body. That's body with an I.
And if you want to lose weight, I understand it's not easy if you're just trying to figure it out on your own. That's why I'm inviting you to our annual Love Your Body event.
You can get access to over 140 structured step-by-step fitness programs and eating plans for just 49 cents a day. Watch the weight fall off.
Watch your waistline shrink. Watch your abs and booty totally transform.
Every program is tested and proven, and now it's your turn. For 49 cents a day, we'll show you how to move your body, nourish your body, and love your body.
And if you don't lose up to 10 to 15 pounds in your first month, you get your money back.
Go to Body.com for the annual Love Your Body event.
That's Body with an I dot com.
When shots ring out in rural New Jersey, a beloved father is left for dead.
There was bullet holes under his arms, blood stained on his shirt.
The Ford Explorer had been stolen from the backyard after the shooting. Now investigators must determine if this is a random act of violence or something much more sinister.
The area is beautiful. You would not anticipate a carjacking.
The circumstances were very strange, to say the least. They were having this affair.
I had told her I was married. She kept telling me how madly in love she was with me.
A woman willing to do anything to get her way. This woman was going to have everybody killed.
You've got to be kidding me. He felt if he followed along that he would win her battle.
They told me that basically I have a gun and I know somebody that's going to take care of it.
He was extremely concerned about having to wear a wire.
She kept questioning, why won't you come over here?
When you're in love with somebody that much, there's no telling what you'll do for somebody. April 16, 2000.
It's 9 p.m. in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, when a homeowner calls 911 to report a possible shooting.
Seasoned officers Marcello Simone and Rich DiStefani arrive within minutes. It was starting to rain on our arrival.
It was a dark night. It was difficult to see.
This location was very rural. It's a quiet street with just a few houses and a lot of wooded area.
Since it's a small township, officers notice a few familiar faces. I recognized one of the females, Susan Gigliotti, and an older woman, Susan's mother, Ruth Jones.
This was Susan Gigliotti's mother's house, and it was her family who was there, and they were the ones who called in 911. Susan told me that her estranged husband, Joe, was there to drop off the children.
Joseph Gigliotti's girlfriend, Sue McChesney, was present also. She arrived with Joe at the house with the children.
Sue requested to use the bathroom and went inside the house with Joseph Gigliotti. That's when Susan says she asked Joe for a favor.
Susan asked her estranged husband, Joe, to check the transmission on her Ford Explorer behind the house toward the garage. Susan had then said while she was inside with her mother Ruth, they heard the shots.
The bathroom was at the rear of the residence and Sue, the girlfriend, had said that while she was
using the restroom, she'd also heard the shots. Shortly after they heard the Explorer go peeling
backwards out of the driveway. Susan Gigliotti tells police she immediately went out back to look for Joe.
Susan Gigliotti called Joe's name and couldn't find him. It was dark and it was raining and it would have been hard to see in those conditions.
So she came back in the house. Because they heard what sounded like gunshots,
they called the police for shots fired.
The general reaction from everyone that was in the house
was surprise and shock.
As police begin to inspect the property,
Officer Simone makes a gruesome discovery.
As I was going, I saw a body laying on the ground. I approached the body and I recognized it was Joe.
The area that we patrol, you get to know your residents. I knew Joseph Gigliotti.
When he was always cordial and say hi, and you'd say hello back. There was bullet holes under his arms, blood stained on his shirt.
It was determined that at that moment, Joe was deceased. We had a crime scene and we had to secure it.
It was scary.
We didn't know if there was somebody still around.
We knew that at least one person had left with a Ford Explorer.
We do know now what the shots were for.
Joe Gigliotti was dead.
We didn't know where the vehicle was.
Getting to know the victim is what we needed to do. Born in December 1967, Joe Gigliotti was a New Jersey native.
The eldest of eight children, he took on the role of caretaker at a young age,
a trait that became a defining quality.
I think being an older brother is probably what gave him his sense of responsibility.
Joseph was a social butterfly.
He would talk to anybody about anything.
At 16, Joe's charisma attracted the interest of a classmate, Susan Jones. And like Joe, Susan was compassionate and well-liked.
They went together through part of high school and then got married not long after. The high school sweethearts tied the knot in June 1986.
Within a year, the young couple welcomed a baby boy. In 1997, a second son followed.
Joseph was really great with his kids. He helped them pursue their dreams.
They were the sunshine of his life. The young couple worked hard to make ends meet.
I met Susan through our job driving a school bus. It was Atlantic County Special Services.
It was for special needs kids, kids in wheelchairs, kids with autism. She cared for the kids a lot.
Joe worked for a company that removed asbestos, and he wanted to get out of that just for health reasons and just get into something a little safer. In the late 90s, Joe enrolled in accounting classes at Stockton University in Galloway Township, New Jersey.
Joe, he was a great student. He was doing this basically for his kids,
so they'd be financially better off. But eventually, Joe's efforts to build a better life for his kids took a toll on his marriage.
When he started going to school, it left more prefer her to Joe, and I don't think she really wanted to do that kind of stuff. In early 1998, Joe moved out, but Susan didn't officially file for divorce until September of 1999.
Their breakup was not good. He was just so devastated and didn't know what to do with himself.
Part of that agreement that they were working on included their custody sharing. The boys lived with Susan after the split, but Joe remained an active part of their lives.
He loved his boys. They were with him a lot, like on the weekends and on his days off.
They were out with him. It wasn't long before Joe found love again with one of his classmates in school.
We just spent a lot of time together studying. And you spend that much time together with somebody that has similar goals, similar dreams, and we just connected.
Joe wasn't the only one who moved on. Susan attracted the attention of 36-year-old Richard DeBow.
Rich got hired as an aide on the bus. We had aides to help us with the wheelchairs and to help take care of the kids on the bus.
My uncle Rich was head over heels for Susan. My uncle was always either staying at her house or they were communicating on the phone.
However, friends say Susan wasn't ready to settle down. She broke it off with Rich after a couple of months.
Rich was easygoing and very quiet, and she was very, like, rough. Not his type.
So I knew that wasn't going to last. By 2000, Joe and Lauren's relationship was also hitting the rocks.
His divorce had not been finalized. Joseph and Susan Gigliotti were still fighting for custody of the children.
He proposed to me no less than three times. But Joseph was helping Susan out financially with the house, and he wasn't able to contribute to our household.
Until that got figured out, I wasn't ready to go there. The couple split, but Joe wasn't alone for long.
In March of 2000, while preparing for his CPA exam, he met Sue McChesney.
I met him online in a chat room for singles.
We hit it off right away.
He started bringing his children over.
I could tell he was an extremely good father and wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.
But sadly, Joe Gigliotti's time with his sons would be cut short.
April 16, 2000. After discovering the gunshot-riddled body of Joe Gigliotti,
Hamilton Township officers call for backup. Our next actions are to control the scene and keep the residents inside the property, whether they live there or not.
Not let anybody in the backyard. We didn't want anything contaminated.
Initially, detectives keep the news of Joe's death quiet from the family. Nobody really understood why they didn't keep searching for Joe in the backyard, but they said they didn't.
That's suspicious. You have to assume everybody is a suspect.
Coming up, crime scene evidence paints a chilling picture of Joe Gigliotti's final moments. It appeared somebody may have been laying in wait.
And officers discover a key
piece of evidence. We did find computers at our home and the computers were actually stolen from
the government. April 16th, 2000.
Within an hour of Joe Gigliotti's murder, investigators are on the scene in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. Being a small town, we don't do the homicide investigation on our own.
That's turned over to the Atlanta County Prosecutor's Office. Once we were contacted by the department, we then arrived and we'd take over that scene.
I came in with my team, and we began processing and started talking to witnesses. I kept asking, do you know anything about Joe? Have you heard about him? Is he okay? And no one would answer me.
When Susan was describing the incident, she thought it was a carjacking, a robbery. But detectives aren't so sure.
It'd be very unusual for that to happen in this location because it is so out of the way as far as somebody passing through. As the hours tick by, Sue McChesney, Joe's current girlfriend, is growing impatient as she awaits any news of Joe.
I told Joseph Jr., something's not right. I would like you to call your grandfather and let me talk to him.
I said, Joe's not here. Something happened.
Could you come pick up the kids? So he said, sure. At some point, police officers showed up, and each one of us, myself, Susan, and her mother, they took us to the police station.
With the occupants of the house away, investigators are free to focus on the scene.
You can see that the victim had some type of wound to his arm, and he had blood in his chest area.
There were no shell casings found, which indicates that this may have been a revolver. There really wasn't much of an outdoor crime scene beyond the body.
The reality is that we don't have any indicators of anything. The medical examiner determined that Mr.
Gigliotti was shot five times. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.
Joe's body is transported to the
medical examiner's office while detectives chase their only lead. The victim's ex-wife,
Susan Gigliotti, had a Ford Explorer and the Explorer had been stolen from the backyard
after the shooting. Authorities immediately release a b backyard after the shooting.
Authorities immediately release a bolo for the explorer. He put that information out countywide as a possibly armed and dangerous individual with a description of the vehicle.
Within an hour, police get a hit after an officer in a neighboring town spots the SUV. Susan Gigliotti's car was located at the train station about three miles away from the Gigliotti residence by an Anchor Harbor City police officer.
The keys were in the vehicle. The vehicle was unlocked.
The officer indicated that he had seen a white male exit the vehicle and go into the train station. Back in 2000, there was no surveillance video at the train station.
What's more, when they sweep the vehicle for evidence, they come up empty-handed. The vehicle was processed.
There was nothing that was left in the vehicle that we could see. With little to go on, investigators turned to their witnesses for answers, starting with Joe's girlfriend, Sue McChesney.
The detective finally told me that Joe was dead. I did not find out he had been killed until that interview.
I had no idea at that point. I couldn't believe, you know, that's what happened.
The girlfriend, Sue McChesney, was very affected by this incident. She showed quite a bit of shock and disbelief and confusion.
Despite the shocking news,
Sue McChesney pulls herself together to provide some crucial context.
Joe had the two boys almost every weekend.
Joe never really told me very much about his ex-wife.
I had not met Susan until that night.
I understood that Joe had a difficult time
returning the children. I could tell that there was a lot of tension there.
Sue McChesney says on the day of the murder, everything felt off.
Christian became sick and was running a fever, and he started crying and whining that he wanted
Thank you. felt off.
Christian became sick and was running a fever and he started crying and whining that he wanted his mother. So I pretty much insisted that Joe give her a call and ask if we could return the children early.
She declined and said don't bring them back any earlier than when you're supposed to bring them back. I couldn't understand why any mom would turn away a child that's sick and wanting them.
When I got there, I asked Susan to use the bathroom. So the four of us went into their mother's house.
As they were exchanging the kids, Joe's ex-wife asked him for a favor. Susan Gigliotti asked Joe to go in the backyard and check the transmission.
She said she was having problems with the transmission. At that point, I went to the bathroom.
While I was in there, I started hearing a couple noises. They sounded like bangs to me.
I became very concerned, and I came out, and I asked Susan, did anyone hear the noises? At that point, a car drove past the house. It just seemed like it was, like, flying past the house.
You know, Joe's outside. I want to go take a look and see if everything's okay.
But Susan stopped me at the door, and she goes, no, no, don't go out there. You do not know the property.
I'll go out and check. Susan Gigliotti ran outside and looked for Joe Gigliotti to see what the disturbance was.
Did not find him, came back in the house. And Susan came back.
She said, I couldn't find him. And I said to her, I go, how is that even possible? How could you not find him? And I said, you know, something's not right.
I thought maybe Joe got injured. Maybe Joe is driving himself, you know, to hospital or something like that.
I insisted that they call the police. So they did.
Police allow Sue McChesney to go home and call Susan Gigliotti into the room. Based on information from other witnesses about her contentious divorce, police asked Susan if she had anything to do with the murder, and she denied it.
Susan Gigliotti downplayed the fact that they had a contentious situation going on. She didn't seem overwhelmed or overly affected with Judge Berner, but she indicated that she had no idea why this would have happened.
Interviewers now want to know who could have been responsible for bringing harm
to Joe. That's when Susan Gigliotti reveals she has a new boyfriend, Steve Furman.
Steve Furman
and Susan met each other through an online chat room, and then they eventually met in person. Without any prompting, Susan admits the two have a side business, an illegal one.
She said her boyfriend, Steve Furman, worked for the federal government, and they had a warehouse in Brooklyn. They stored computers up there, and they were interested in getting as many computers as they could out of there and bringing them back to Susan's house with the intention of selling those computers.
What's more, Susan says Joe recently found out about the operation. Joe Gigliotti had found the stolen items in Susan's house during one of his drop-offs for visitation and was not happy with it.
Susan admits she worried that Joe would use this discovery against her and file for sole custody of their children. Joseph had an opportunity to call the police and have Susan removed from the home because of it.
I told him to do it, and he said to me, I can't do that to her, Lauren. She's the mother of my children.
He wanted whatever was best for the kids, which he felt was staying in their home.
He did not want to disrupt their lives, so he wasn't trying to take them anywhere.
Investigators obtain a warrant to search Susan Gigliotti's home for evidence.
We did find computers at Susan's home.
We were able to establish that the computers were actually stolen from the government.
So Steve Furman is another person of interest.
We'll see you next time. computers at Susan's home, we were able to establish that the computers were actually stolen from the government.
So Steve Furman is another person of interest. We suspected that Steve Furman had some aspect of involvement in the death of Joe Gigliotti.
Coming up, rumors of a jilted lover. There was some belief that he may have been stalking Susan at one point.
For the ex-boyfriend to be in a picture,
he obviously became someone we immediately want to speak with.
And investigators uncover a big break in the case.
The man was extremely nervous, sweating profusely.
Joe was going to be taken care of.
What did you interpret that to mean?
That he was going to be taken care of. What did you interpret that to me? That he was going to be killed.
Suits LA is making big moves. I'm the best attorney in the country, and I can prove it to you right now.
Ted Black represents Hollywood's most famous and powerful. Are we going to fight? We're going to dance.
The all-new series has A-list cases and even bigger egos.
Do you trust me or not?
I trust you.
There's no business like show business.
Suits L.A. Sundays at 9, 8 central on NBC.
Hey, it's John Legend, and I'm excited for a new season of The Voice with the return of the one and only Adam Levine. He's back, folks.
Thank you. I'm well-rested, and I'm coming for you all.
Oh, come on. Plus, we got new coach Kelsey Ballerini.
Nice that he's going to get you anywhere. I'm here to win.
And the great Michael Buble returns. So excited to beat you guys, even though I seem sweet.
Join us for a new season of The Voice where you can see us having fun like this every single show. The all new season of The Voice, Monday on NBC.
Within a few hours of the murder of Joe Gigliotti, his soon to be ex-wife Susan tells investigators that Joe recently found out about her illegal side business.
There was an ongoing dispute between Susan and Joe regarding this. She did confess that she participated in a step with her boyfriend, Stephen Kerman.
He needed to be interviewed. When Steve sits down with investigators on April 17th, he reveals another twist.
The fact that Steve Furman was married did come up in our interview. Stephen told me that he was having this affair and that he deeply cared for Susan Gigliotti.
He says he's in love with her, that they've been seeing each other for quite a while, and that eventually he would like to start a life with her. Detectives push Steve for more information about the stolen computers.
Can you tell me what it is, what exactly it is that you know about these computers. I had found them on Loading Dock, where I work.
And she said, well, we could take them and sell them, and I could maybe, you know, split it with you. She came out there one day, and I put them in the truck and took them to her house.
While Steve admits to the theft, he's avoiding the elephant in the room. He really wasn't talking about the homicide very much.
When he did talk about the relationship between Susan Gigliotti and Joe Gigliotti, it was always how terrible Joe is. That is an immediate red flag.
In my mind, my immediate response was it was a misdirection. Did Susan tell you specifically that she knew what had happened to her ex-husband Joe? No, she just told me that something bad had happened.
He had gotten shot. He's dead.
Well, the simplest question, Mr. Parker, did you kill Susan's ex-husband? No, I did not.
No. Do you know who did? No, I do not.
Detectives believe Steve may be hiding something, but release him for now. When detectives question Susan's family members, suddenly a new person of interest surfaces, Richard DeBow.
We always ask in a situation such as this, who were prior boyfriends? Was there anybody that might be jealous? And Rich DeBow's name came up through a family member as a former friend or lover of Susan Gigliotti. And family members indicated that there was some belief that he may have been stalking Susan at one point.
For the ex-boyfriend to be in a picture, he obviously became someone we immediately want to speak with as well. We were able to pick him up, bring him in.
Investigators press Rich DeBow about his whereabouts the day of the shooting. Rich told us that day that he followed his normal routine.
I believe he worked, he walked the boardwalk in Atlantic City, and then he caught the train back to Acarba City. And from there he went home, and that was the end of his day.
Although authorities need to verify Rich's alibi, he seems harmless. He wanted to cooperate.
He didn't have extensive violent criminal history. There was no indication in the world for us to believe that he was involved.
With no leads from their initial interviews, investigators seek out Joe's friends and family, looking for more clues. All the information that everyone provided was that he was a nice guy that nobody had a problem with and nobody was aware that he had any issues with anyone other than his ex-wife.
There was that custody battle between them for their two children. So it was not a good situation.
The family tells investigators at one point, Susan claimed Joe had abused her during their marriage. Susan had alleged a number of assaults.
At one point, she said, I think, that she had a broken nose caused by Joe during a domestic dispute. However, detectives find no record of abuse.
There was no proof submitted to the court that would sustain a charge of domestic abuse. They do uncover threats of violence.
However, they didn't come from Joe. Friends indicated that Susan Gigliotti was aware that Joseph Gigliotti had an insurance policy and had made statements to them that it would be easier if Joe was dead, that she wouldn't have to go through the aggravation of a divorce.
Could Susan have followed through with her threats? Or did someone intervene on her behalf? Detectives suspect Steve Furman knows much more than he claims. So they circle back to him on April 19th.
During the first interview with Steve Furman,
he was very evasive and very vague in his answers.
We brought him back in, and then we brought up our belief
that this was an arranged murder, that he knew about it.
The man was extremely nervous, sweating profusely.
He just was a mess.
Eventually, the pressure pays off. Did Sue make any comments to you which would lead you to believe that she was responsible for Joe's death? About two weeks ago, she had told me a situation that was going to occur.
She told me that, basically, I have a gun, I have ammunition, and I know somebody that's going to take care of it. When she said to you that Joe was going to be taken care of, what did you interpret that to mean? That he was going to be killed.
Did she say who was going to do this?
She said she knew somebody that lived close by and that he would take care of it.
Did she ever mention this person by name?
No.
Steve may not know the name of the alleged shooter.
However, investigators believe they do.
Rich DeBow, our former lover. Rich DeBeau would do anything for her.
While Steve denies any involvement in the murder, he is not in the clear just yet. At the point that Steve Furman admitted his knowledge, he's now a conspirator.
We felt as though he'd be an asset to us if he would cooperate. On April 19, 2000, Steve agrees to wear a wire in an effort to get Susan to confess and to reveal the alleged gunman's identity.
Steve Furman was nervous. He was going to try to confirm with her that Rich DeBow was the shooter.
He needed her to admit and say names and prove what Steve had said was true. Steve was concerned that she was going to figure it out.
It's an extremely dangerous situation where you're putting a wire on someone's body. Coming up, Steve puts his life on the line.
We can't eliminate all risk in situations like this.
It becomes apparent that Susan may be sensing that Furman's up to something.
As detectives close in, one man can't handle the pressure.
He threw his hands in the air and he said, okay, okay, okay, I'm going to tell you what's happened.
If looks could kill, he'd be dead right there in the air and he said, okay, okay, okay, I'm going to tell you what's happened. If looks could kill, he'd be dead right there in the chair.
April 19th, 2000. Authorities in Hamilton Township, New Jersey are closing in on the main suspects in the murder of Joe Gigliotti after his ex-wife's lover, Steve Furman, agrees to cooperate with investigators.
We had to give Mr. Furman explicit instructions.
He was extremely concerned about having to wear a wire. He was just concerned for his safety.
We're actually seeing Steve Furman and a person who we believe had a hand in committing homicide. And we can't eliminate all risk in situations like this, and that's why it's voluntary.
Steve Furman was made aware of the fact that we would maintain surveillance, and we also provided him with a code word, should anything go wrong. We have teams in place that can respond if it becomes extremely dangerous.
On April 19th, around 5 p.m., investigators take their places. I have a van which is equipped with monitoring devices.
In this particular case, the house could be surveilled.
We then sent Steve Furman in, in his own vehicle, to Susan Gigliotti's house.
He pulled into the driveway, and Ms. Gigliotti came out of her house.
She was very guarded. She did attempt to hug him.
He was able to rebuff that attempt. She kept questioning questioning why won't you come over here are you wired let me pat you down mr firman started requesting to know what mrs gigliotti had said to authorities that he was very concerned that he was going to go to jail this gigliotti indicated that you don't have to worry about that.
You weren't involved.
It was rich to Beau.
That was the first time we got any confirmation
from Mrs. Gigliotti that Mr.
Furman was telling the truth.
They said their goodbyes, and Mr. Furman left in the vehicle.
Investigators immediately locate Rich DeBow and bring him back in for questioning. We brought Rich back in for a second interview.
We couldn't find any evidence at all that he did what he claimed he had done on that day. Before investigators lay out their cards, they first confront Rich about his shaky alibi for the night of Joe's murder.
Initially, Rich DeBow had indicated that he was in Atlantic City and nobody could verify it. That's all it took for Mr.
DeBow to decide it was time to tell the truth. Rich threw his hands in the air and he said, literally, OK, OK, OK, I'm going to tell you what happened.
He said the murder plot was actually discussed several months before it occurred. Rich DeBoe believed everything Susan Gigliotti told him, that she's being abused by Joe Gigliotti, that she wants to be with him, Rich DeBow, for the rest of his life, because that's who he is.
He wants to hear these things, so he believes them. Rich tells detectives that Susan Gigliotti first approached him months earlier with her plan.
He proceeded to tell us how he committed the murder and what he did after.
Every time he would respond, he would end it with, I'm not a cold-hearted monster.
On April 16th, it was around 8.30 that Susan Gigliotti came and picked him up and drove home to Susan's parents' house.
Rich says that Susan handed him a black revolver and left the keys in the Explorer so he could make his escape.
Joe came to the house to drop off the children.
Susan asked him to change her transmission fluid in her car.
He went out there, and that's when Richard DeBow was laying in wait.
He said when Gigliotti bent down to look in the engine compartment, he'd shot him.
Rich shot him a couple times. Joe was begging for his life, asking Rich, please, please stop.
And when we asked Rich, what did you do next? His response was, I shot him again. And with that, Rich took a long breath, and he paused And then he looked at us and he says, I guess I am a cold-hearted monster.
Rich explains that after shooting Joe, he took off in the Ford Explorer as Susan had planned. He then made his way back to Agarpa City.
He went to the train station, and then he proceeded to go home.
Mr. DeBose said that he had gloves on at the time of the murder,
that he took the gloves, he took the weapon, and he threw them in a trash can as he walked towards his house.
He said that he didn't know what trash can he dropped the items in, and we never recovered the weapon. To detectives, Rich's motive is one as old as time.
Rich DeBow felt if he followed along and did what Susan asked him to do, that he would win her back. He did it because he wanted to be with Susan Gigliotti.
And she asked him, and that's all it took. But DeBow isn't done talking just yet and makes another shocking confession.
That's when Rich started telling us about the plan to murder Steve Ferman's wife, Carrie, which was news to us.
It was a, you got to be kidding me.
That murder was to occur two weeks after the murder of Joe Gigliotti.
It was a very bone-chilling moment.
Investigators charge Rich DeBeau with murder
and issue a warrant for Susan Gigliotti's arrest.
The team brought Susan Gigliotti in.
When Susan came in, she saw Rich,
at which point she stopped at the door
and Rich said, I told him everything.
Susan Gigliotti said, who do you think you're talking to? I told you, keep your mouth shut. Rich DeBow responded by saying, it's too late.
We're both going down together. If looks could kill, he'd be dead right there.
Coming up, investigators determine if another arrest is needed.
What did you interpret her to mean by that?
Kill her. I really didn't think she would.
And Susan's fate is left in the hands of the jury. She didn't pull a trigger, but she planned it.
I don't understand. I still to this day don't.
April 19th,
2000. As New Jersey authorities close in on Susan Gigliotti for the murder of her ex-husband Joe, they have just learned of another stunning murder plot.
In addition to Rich DeBow confessing to murdering Joe Gigliotti, he was also slated to murder Stephen Furman's wife, Carrie. Susan wanted to be with Steve.
She wanted his wife dead, and she wanted just everybody out of the way so she could have her new life. In the interrogation room, unlike Rich, Susan keeps her mouth shut.
She's under arrest. She's not saying a word.
If we didn't know her name, we probably wouldn't have got that out of her. We got no information from her.
Now, the burning question is whether Steve Furman was part of the deadly scheme. She fell in love with me and wanted to be with me, and I was having marital problems.
I couldn't get a divorce, and so she turned around and said, well, I'm going to have him taken care of, and I'm going to take care of your wife because you can't get a divorce. What did you interpret her to mean by that? Kill her.
I was petrified, but I blew it off and I said, yeah, right. I really didn't think she would.
In the end, authorities decide not to press conspiracy charges against Steve Furman. Charges were filed against Steve Furman for the computer theft.
As far as his conspiracy and the death of Joe Gigliotti, we didn't have a strong case against him based on the evidence we had. In addition, he was cooperating with us.
There was no pursuit of charges because Mr. Furman was very instrumental in us solving this case.
In March 2002, the case finally goes to trial. Rich Chabot, Steve Furman, all of them turn against Susan Igliotti.
On March 21st, after only 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury reaches a verdict. They did what they needed to do, an hour and a half, and she was guilty of murder.
Susan was convicted of murder in the first degree. Var other weapons charges, and I believe stolen goods charges.
She was sentenced to life, but she does have the option for parole after 30 years. I think she got what she deserved.
She's evil, and she's a manipulator. In January of 2003, Rich DeBoe is convicted of Joe Gigliotti's murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and weapons charges.
He's sentenced to 40 years in prison. I feel bad for him, you know? He was manipulated by this woman to do this
crazy act to take a man's life. When you're in love with somebody that much and they take
advantage of that, you know, there's no telling what you'll do for somebody.
The shockwaves of Susan's manipulation are widespread. She didn't care about the kids of Furman.
She didn't care about her children. She didn't care about the Bo's family.
Joe Gigliotti is dead, and his family mourns his death every single day. She didn't pull a trigger, but she planned it.
She took a great dad from them. He was a fantastic father.
I don't understand. I still to this day don't.
Joseph's legacy is his kids. They are amazing kids that have had to grow up through this and still have been able to succeed and thrive and are both doing extremely well.
And that is, that's his legacy. 100%.
And a worthy one. Susan Gigliotti is currently housed at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.
She will be eligible for parole in 2030.
After serving 17 years of his 40-year sentence, Rich DeBoe died in prison in 2020.
Steve Furman was convicted of theft of government property
and received four years probation from a federal court.
Joe and Susan's two children were raised by Joe's parents. In the 1950s, America was glued to its television screens, watching contestants battle it out for big money on quiz shows like 21 and the $64,000 question.
But behind the scenes, producers were feeding answers to the most popular contestants to keep audiences hooked. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal.
We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history.
Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, quiz shows dominate 1950s TV until a disgruntled
contestant blows the whistle and reveals that the shows are rigged. Follow American Scandal
on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free
and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus
in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.