New Castle's Kadunce Murders: Mystery And The Devil in Northwest Pennsylvania

by Dale Richard Perelman

Overview

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them.

In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467144025
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/18/2019
Series:	True Crime
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	660,539
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Dale Richard Perelman, a native of New Castle, Pennsylvania, has written Mountain of Light: The Story of the Koh-I-Noor Diamond; The Regent: The Story of the Regent Diamond; Centenarians: One Hundred 100-Year-Olds Who Made a Difference; Steel: The Story of Pittsburgh's Iron and Steel Industry, 1852-1902; Road to Rust: The Disintegration of the Steel Industry in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio; Lessons My Father Taught Me; and The Scottish Rite Cathedral (coauthored with Rob Cummings). Mr. Perelman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in English literature, an MBA in industrial relations from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a graduate gemologist's designation from the Gemological Institute of America and a certificate of completion from the Yale University summer writer's program.

Table of Contents

Note on Sources 7

Preface. Too Nice a Day for a Killing 9

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction. A Taste of the Town 13

1 The Crime 17

2 The Crime Scene 21

3 The Gagliardos 32

4 The Interrogation 34

5 Costal 39

6 Atkinson 54

7 The Plot Thickens 64

8 A Snag in the Case 78

9 Trial Preparation 84

10 The Atkinson Trial 113

11 The Costal Trial 169

12 The Kadunce Trial 194

13 The Rest of the Story 198

Postscript 203

About the Author 205