Richard Biegenwald's Kevo

Born in 1940, Richard Biegenwald was the victim of harsh and innumerable beatings from his father, who was a known alcoholic. At the age of five, Biegenwald set fire to his family's home. He was sent away for observation at the Psychiatric Center in Rockland County, New York. By the age of eight, Biegenwald was drinking and gambling. By nine years of age, he had undergone a succession of electroshock therapy treatments at New York's Bellevue Hospital. His next institutional stop was at the State Training School for Boys at Warwick, New York, where he was accused of theft and inciting other inmates to escape. On his visits home to Staten Island, New York he stole money from his mother's purse, and at age eleven he set himself on fire. Biegenwald was released from the Psychiatric Center in time to graduate from eighth grade at the age of sixteen. Biegenwald dropped out of high school after only a few weeks, and left for Nashville, Tennessee, where he stole a car and was arrested by federal agents for transporting the vehicle across state lines. A few months after being released from Kentucky officials, Biegenwald stole another car on Staten Island and drove to Bayonne, New Jersey where he tried to hold up a grocery store. In the process, he shot and killed Stephen Sladowski. Biegenwald and his male partner, Dherran Fitzgerald, were picked up in Maryland two days later after Biegenwald shot a Salsbury police officer and fired a shotgun at state troopers who pulled him over for speeding. Biegenwald was convicted of murder, and given a life sentence, but was released after serving only seventeen years in 1974.

Back on the street, Beigenwald worked odd jobs, and met a sixteen year old girl who was a neighbor of his mother. The girl was a right-minded, outstanding student, whose parents were shocked when they found out that she was engaged to a scar-faced ex-con who was more than twice her age. By this time, Beigenwald had not reported to his parole officer since mid 1977, and was suspected in a rape as well. He was arrested in Brooklyn in June 1980, and married his girlfriend in the Brooklyn House of Detention. The rape charges were dropped when the victim failed to identify him in a lineup, but he still served six months for his parole violation. When released he moved into an apartment with his wife in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

On January 4, 1983, Beigenwald began his killing frenzy with some help from his friend Dherran Fitzgerald, who helped him bury bodies. While in custody, Fitzgerald began to tell of Biegenwald showing him a body in the garage, and saying that she had been killed "for business reasons." He helped bury the body at the home of Biegenwald's mother, on Staten Island, New York, and accidentally uncovered a second dead body as he was digging the grave. Fitzgerald then led police to the bodies of three more victims. As the investigation went on, charges were filed against Biegenwald in the death of a prison escapee named William Ward, who was shot five times in the head and buried outside Neptune City, New Jersey. Fitzgerald was also suspected, but not charged in two additional murders.