Elena Semander

popular name: Vincenzo Rao

date_of_death: September 25, 1988

age: 90

cause_of_death: Natural Causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Vincenzo Rao was a Consigliere for the Lucchese crime family in New York City. In 1957, Rao was arrested with 60 other mobsters at the notorious Apalachin Meeting. During the 1963 Valachi hearings, Rao was listed as the Lucchese family's consigliere, and was convicted on perjury charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the same time the longtime boss Thomas Lucchese had become ill and Rao was thought as suitable successor. His chance to become the new boss never came to fruition due to his trials. When he retired in the 1970s, Rao was considered one of the wealthiest mob members due to his real estate business he used to launder money.

popular name: Rocco Marinucci

date_of_death: March 15, 1982

age: 30

cause_of_death: Murdered - mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Rocco Marinucci was a pizza restaurant owner (Pop’s Pizza in South Philly) and a Philadelphia crime family associate. He was responsible for planting a bomb under mob boss Philip Testa's porch, killing him instantly. Rocco Marinucci worked as Peter Casella's chauffeur and bodyguard within the Philadelphia crime family, and he was recruited into the conspiracy to whack Philip Testa. On March 15, 1981, he planted a bomb on Testa's porch, killing him. Testa's son, Salvatore Testa, was given permission by Nicky Scarfo to kill those responsible for his father's death. Marinucci was killed by Testa on March 15, 1982 - exactly one year to the day since his father's murder. Marinucci's body was found on Federal Street in Southwark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with bullet wounds to the neck, chest, and head. His mouth was stuffed with three firecrackers. But don't feel too sad for Rocco - one of his associates flipped and confessed to helping Marinucci murdering his neighbors for playing their music too loud. Upon his death, he was interred at Grave of Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA.

popular name: The Family of John List

date_of_death: November 9, 1971

age:

cause_of_death: Murdered - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: John List was a narcissistic mass murderer who suffered from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder who systematically murdered his mother, his wife and three children on November 9, 1971. Fired from his accounting position at a paper company in Detroit and again at Xerox in Rochester, in 1965 List accepted a position as vice president and comptroller at a bank in Jersey City. Borrowing money from his mother, List moved with his wife, children, and mother into Breeze Knoll, a 19-room Victorian mansion at 431 Hillside Avenue in Westfield. In 1971 he was fired from the bank, deep in debt and with a nearly empty bank account, List would leave the house each morning, pretending to go to work when in reality he parked at the Westfield train station and read the paper until it was time to go home. With the prospects of filing for bankruptcy, going on welfare, losing his mansion and believing his wife and children would all go to hell because of all the evil in the world, List planned the murders for months. On the morning of November 9th in 1971, John drove his children to school and upon returning home, calmly walked up to his wife as she was sipping coffee and shot her in the head. He then walked up to the third floor, kissed his mother on the cheek, and when she asked what the noise was, shot her in the head. And then made a sandwich and drove to the bank to withdrew his mother's account of $250,000 in cash. He then picked up his daughter Patricia (16) and youngest soon Frederick (13) from school and as they entered the home he shot both of them in the head. He then drove to Westfield High School to watch his elder son John Frederick (15) play in a soccer game. After driving John Frederick home, List shot him repeatedly because his son attempted to defend himself. He then arranged all the bodies (except for his mother who was too heavy to bring downstairs) in the once ornate grand ballroom under sleeping bags, turn the temperature down and played classical music over the loudspeakers. The next morning he turned all the lights in the house on and disappeared for 18 years without a trace.