
Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca are arrested for the brutal
slaying of Columbo's parents and brother in Elk Grove, Illinois.
Twenty-year-old Columbo had left her family home two years earlier to
live with DeLuca, a 36-year-old married man. The pair later killed
Frank, Mary, and Michael Columbo in order to receive the family
inheritance, unaware that the Columbos had written Patricia out of their
wills years earlier.


As a 16-year-old, Columbo worked in a suburban coffee shop where she
met pharmacist Frank DeLuca, who managed the pharmacy next door. He soon
hired her to work in his store and the two began an unusual sexual
relationship; Columbo showed classmates pictures of her having sex with
DeLuca's dog.

In April 1974, DeLuca brought Columbo to stay in his own home,
despite the fact that he still lived with his wife and five kids. Her
parents were relieved when she later told them she was going to move
into her own apartment, and even provided her with money. However, they
soon learned that DeLuca had left his wife and moved in with their
daughter, prompting Columbo's father to beat DeLuca severely.

On May 4, 1976, Patricia Columbo, then 19, and Frank DeLuca,
39, decided to carry out the plan themselves. They crept into the
Columbo family home and shot Columbo's parents. They then bludgeoned
Mike with a bowling trophy and stabbed him nearly 100 times with
scissors. Police questioned Patricia but had no reason to suspect her
until the following week.

Inspired by the promise of reward money, a friend led police to the
men who had discussed killing the Columbo family with Patricia. After
the couple was arrested, DeLuca's employees revealed that they had seen
him washing and burning bloodstained clothes on the day after the
murders.

Apparently, he had kept them silent by threatening their
families. While in jail, DeLuca attempted to have these witnesses killed
by a cellmate, but another inmate thwarted the plan by telling the
police.

The jury convicted Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca, and they were
each sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison. But Columbo managed to
keep herself in the spotlight: In 1979, it was reported that she had
assisted in organizing sex orgies involving guards and wardens at her
prison in Dwight, Illinois. High-ranking officials at the prison,
including the warden, were forced to resign in the wake of the scandal.
Lord have mercy on us all.
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DeleteLord have mercy on us all.
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