Sept. 15, 2025

Terrifying & True | The Acid King Murder: Ricky Kasso, Satanic Panic, and the Killing of Gary Lauwers

Terrifying & True | The Acid King Murder: Ricky Kasso, Satanic Panic, and the Killing of Gary Lauwers
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
Audible podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Spreaker podcast player icon Audible podcast player icon Castro podcast player icon RSS Feed podcast player icon
Terrifying & True

On July 4, 1984, police dogs uncovered a shallow grave in the quiet town of Northport, Long Island. Inside lay the mutilated body of 17-year-old Gary Lauwers—stabbed more than 30 times in a drug-fueled frenzy by his friend Ricky “The Acid King” Kasso. Within days, the story became national news, sparking headlines of Satanic sacrifice and cementing Kasso as the terrifying face of America’s 1980s Satanic Panic.

But was this really the work of a Satanic cult, or simply the grim fallout of teenage drug abuse, mental illness, and neglect? In this episode of Terrifying & True, we dive deep into the disturbing murder in Aztakea Woods, Ricky Kasso’s descent into drugs and occult posturing, and how the media turned one horrific killing into a nationwide moral hysteria.

We’ll examine:

  • The brutal murder of Gary Lauwers and Kasso’s infamous demand, “Say You Love Satan.”
  • How the case fueled the fire of the Satanic Panic sweeping America.
  • The media’s sensational claims versus the grim reality of drugs, rage, and tragedy.
  • The trial of Jimmy Troiano and the lasting legacy of the “Acid King” myth.

From grave robbing to cult rumors, from teenage rebellion to national paranoia, this is the chilling true story of Ricky Kasso, the Acid King of Northport.
We’re telling that story tonight.

🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

🎉 Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
👉 WeeklySpooky.com/Join

📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!

🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:04.519
In the summer of nineteen eighty four, a body was

2
00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:09.679
found buried in the woods of Northport, Long Island, a

3
00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:15.679
teenager stabbed dozens of times. His killer wasn't just any boy.

4
00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:20.800
He was Ricky Casso, the self styled Acid King. Was

5
00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:25.239
it murder for revenge or a Satanic sacrifice that set

6
00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.879
off a nationwide panic?

7
00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.240
What you were about to be buried?

8
00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:32.960
To ben you?

9
00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:42.159
Based on witness accounts, testamaties, and public record, this is

10
00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.799
terrifying and treat.

11
00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:58.960
A quiet harbor town shaken to its core by a

12
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.439
gruesome discovery. On Independence Day nineteen eighty four, beneath the

13
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:09.760
trees of Aztakia Woods lay the body of Gary Lowers,

14
00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:16.799
a teenager brutally stabbed to death. The prime suspect his friend,

15
00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:21.840
Ricky Casso, a troubled youth known as the Acid King.

16
00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:28.760
Almost overnight, whispers of Satanic rituals and cult activity spread

17
00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:33.680
like wildfire, fueling the growing hysteria of the nineteen eighty

18
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.439
Satanic panic. Was this the work of a devil worshiping

19
00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:41.200
cult or the tragic end of a young man lost

20
00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:57.079
to drugs? We're telling that story tonight. On the morning

21
00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:02.239
of July fourth, nineteen eighty four, a police dog strained

22
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:05.599
at its leash in a patch of trees behind Main

23
00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.080
Street in Northport, Long Island. The canine's handler pushed deeper

24
00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:17.360
into the brush until a sudden, stomach turning odour confirmed

25
00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:21.759
the dog's alarm. Beneath a thin layer of leaves and

26
00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:27.960
earth lay the remains of a teenage boy. What police

27
00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:35.479
uncovered was ghastly, a partially decomposed skeleton, still clad in

28
00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:41.520
a denim vest, track pants and Nike sneakers. The body's

29
00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:47.800
face was unrecognizable. Animals and decay had done their work,

30
00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:54.759
and one eye socket gaped empty in the skull. Dozens

31
00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.240
of stab wounds were visible in the victim's chest and back.

32
00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:03.919
Investigators at the scene knew immediately they had stumbled upon

33
00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:10.159
evidence of a brutal murder. Word of the discovery traveled

34
00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:14.840
fast through the quiet harbor town. The dead boy was

35
00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:19.960
soon identified as seventeen year old Gary Lawyers, a local

36
00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:25.639
youth who had been missing for two weeks. Within hours,

37
00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.639
suspicion fell on two other teenagers peers of Gary's, who

38
00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:36.960
had been heard boasting about a killing. Seventeen year old

39
00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:42.120
Ricky Acid King Casso and his friend, eighteen year old

40
00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:48.159
Jimmy Troyano. Acting on an anonymous tip, police fanned out

41
00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:53.520
to locate the suspects. They found Ricky Casso and Jimmy

42
00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:59.039
Troyano the very next day, passed out in a parked car,

43
00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:05.960
dirty and hung over, as if nothing were amiss. The

44
00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:11.439
two were arrested on July fifth, nineteen eighty four, charged

45
00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.480
with second degree murder in Lower's death. The following night,

46
00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:21.680
locked in a Suffolk County jail, cell Ricky Casso scrawled

47
00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:27.920
a final note to his parents and then hanged himself

48
00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:34.759
with a bedsheet, taking his secrets to the grave. For

49
00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:40.040
the shocked residence of Northport, it was almost inconceivable that

50
00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:44.839
local kids, kids they had seen around town, could be

51
00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:50.720
responsible for such a depraved act. But in truth, the

52
00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:55.879
seeds of this tragedy had been planted long before that

53
00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:01.000
summer night. To understand how a long eye and teenager

54
00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:04.800
came to be stabbed to death in the woods, one

55
00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:10.319
has to know the strange journey of Ricky Casso, the

56
00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:15.160
self styled acid King, and the troubled world he shared

57
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:22.120
with Gary Lowers. Richard Ricky Casso Junior grew up in

58
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:26.480
the affluent suburbs of Northport, where his father was a

59
00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:32.439
popular high school history teacher and football coach. By all accounts,

60
00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:38.120
Ricky's early childhood was unremarkable. He was even a little

61
00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:43.720
league athlete and model child, according to his father. But

62
00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:49.839
around junior high school, Ricky's personality began to change. He

63
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.800
discovered drugs, starting with marijuana and quickly graduating to the

64
00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:02.720
potent hallucinogens that earned him his nick classmates recalled that

65
00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:07.560
by eighth grade he was never sober. Ricky could drop

66
00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.800
as many as forty hits of acid in a day,

67
00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:16.279
chased with PCP and whatever else he could find. His

68
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:23.160
friends often saw him wild eyed and tripping, sometimes babbling

69
00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:28.680
about satan or wandering local cemeteries at night in a

70
00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:35.600
drug fueled haze. The once clean cut coach's son transformed

71
00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:41.519
into a gaunt, long haired, dirt bag drifter, usually barefoot,

72
00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:49.560
often homeless, and perpetually high. As Ricky's drug abuse escalated,

73
00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.120
so did his erratic behaviour. He fixated on occult imagery

74
00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:00.959
and heavy metal music, flaunting his interest in Satanism. As

75
00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:06.600
a kind of rebellious persona, Ricky took to carrying Anton

76
00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:12.319
LaVey's the Satanic Bible in his pocket, and would sometimes

77
00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:20.199
interrupt conversations with a random hail Satan. Most local teens

78
00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.959
thought it was an act, a provocative joke by a

79
00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:29.319
burnout who wanted to shock the adults. In truth, Ricky's

80
00:07:29.319 --> 00:07:35.160
occult antics were fairly superficial. He loved the dark esthetics

81
00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:40.240
of bands like ac DC, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest,

82
00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:46.680
even scrawling pentagrams and six six six on walls, but

83
00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:50.920
there was no evidence he was engaged in real rituals

84
00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:56.600
or cult activities beyond getting high in graveyards and chanting

85
00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:02.639
Satan's name to the trees. None of them actually worshiped

86
00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:07.800
the devil. It was an affectation, an esthetic designed more

87
00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:13.279
to piss off fundamental moralizers than anything, one observer noted

88
00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:19.560
of the local metal head culture. Still, in Ricky's distorted,

89
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:26.920
drug addled mind, the line between posing and reality could blur.

90
00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:32.360
Friends recalled him claiming that he did try to commune

91
00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:37.120
with the Devil on his solitary drug binges, tripping in

92
00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:42.519
the woods or the cemetery, sometimes digging into old graves

93
00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:49.279
in search of human bones for supposed rituals. Ricky's increasingly

94
00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:55.480
unhinged behavior alarmed his family. His parents tried multiple times

95
00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:59.120
to get him help. They enrolled him in a drug

96
00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:04.240
counseling pro He skipped the sessions and eventually had him

97
00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:10.440
admitted to a psychiatric hospital, the former Amityville Asylum, after

98
00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:16.080
he threatened suicide and proclaimed that death is the ultimate trip.

99
00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:23.159
But Ricky refused to cooperate with doctors and that resistance

100
00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:35.320
would prove deadly. In one instance, Ricky managed to convince

101
00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:41.679
a psychiatric evaluator that he was neither violent nor truly delusional,

102
00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:46.440
telling them what they wanted to hear, until the professionals

103
00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:53.519
concluded he was antisocial but not psychotic enough to involuntarily commit.

104
00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.919
Each time, as soon as he was released, Ricky went

105
00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:04.320
straight back to his habits. Eventually, his frustrated parents kicked

106
00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.759
the sixteen year old out of the house. Ricky took

107
00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:12.639
to sleeping in friends garages, on park benches, or in

108
00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:17.320
the dense tangle of the Aztakilla woods on the edge

109
00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:23.519
of town. Homeless and aimless, Ricky survived by dealing small

110
00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.600
quantities of drugs and relying on a loose click of

111
00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:34.559
fellow teen runaways and dropouts among his closer companions were

112
00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:40.919
two other Northport boys, James Jimmy Troiano, a streetwise eighteen

113
00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:47.799
year old, and Albert Keones, seventeen, both shared Ricky's appetite

114
00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:53.799
for drugs. Also orbiting this group was Gary Lowers, the

115
00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:59.159
boy who would later become Ricky's victim. Gary was the

116
00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:04.799
same age Ricky. Like Ricky, he had struggled with school

117
00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:08.960
and family stability. He was known to run away from

118
00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:14.519
home for days or weeks at a time. Gary dabbled

119
00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:19.600
in drugs as well, though by many accounts he wasn't

120
00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:25.000
as heavy a user as Casso. In fact, Gary and

121
00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:29.759
Ricky had been friends. They'd hung out together, and at

122
00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:34.639
one point Gary even participated when Ricky decided to dig

123
00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:40.279
up a Colonial era grave in a local cemetery. Ricky

124
00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:44.639
had convinced a couple of his pals, Gary included, to

125
00:11:44.759 --> 00:11:49.360
help him unearth a grave, supposedly to obtain a skull

126
00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:54.039
and bones, either for sale or for use in a

127
00:11:54.120 --> 00:12:00.600
Satanic ritual at the infamous Amityville horror House on Walpurgis Knocked.

128
00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:06.240
The grave robbing escapade ended with Ricky's arrest in November

129
00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:09.679
nineteen eighty three, when the police caught him with a

130
00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:15.120
stolen human skull and hand in his possession. It was

131
00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:19.039
an ominous sign of how far off the rails Ricky

132
00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:25.039
had drifted. Yet even that incident would pale in comparison

133
00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:30.840
to what came next. Early in nineteen eighty four, a

134
00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:36.720
betrayal sparked a feud between Ricky Casso and Gary Lowers.

135
00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:41.080
The two were partying together one night when Ricky passed

136
00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:47.200
out from too many drugs. Spotting an opportunity, Gary rummaged

137
00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:52.799
through Ricky's jacket and stole ten bags of PCP, also

138
00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:58.799
known as angel dust, that Ricky had stashed to sell.

139
00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:02.200
It didn't take long for Ricky to realize his friend

140
00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:09.039
had robbed him. Enraged, Casso confronted Gary, who admitted the

141
00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:12.879
theft and returned as much of the PCP as he

142
00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:18.120
hadn't already smoked or given away. Five bags were gone,

143
00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.360
and Gary promised to pay Ricky fifty dollars to make

144
00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.639
up for the loss. In the days that followed, Ricky

145
00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.440
did not let the matter rest. He was seen berating

146
00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:35.240
Gary and even physically beating him on several occasions to

147
00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:40.879
remind him of the debt. Gary, who had no steady income,

148
00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:45.200
scraped together what money he could and paid Ricky back

149
00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:50.759
in small installments. By mid June nineteen eighty four, it

150
00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:54.279
was said that Gary had finally squared the fifty dollars

151
00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:59.600
debt in full. Friends later testified that the two boys

152
00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:03.200
seemed to have reconciled and that Ricky was no longer

153
00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:09.919
actively hostile to Gary. In hindsight, this calm was the

154
00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:14.840
eye of the storm, a brief pause before Ricky's simmering

155
00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:22.000
resentments and drug fueled delusions would explode into violence. On

156
00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:27.399
June nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, Ricky Casso crossed paths with

157
00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:32.600
Gary Lowers again. It was a warm Tuesday night at

158
00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:36.399
the beginning of summer, and Ricky had plans to get

159
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.519
high out in the woods with his usual crew. He

160
00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:45.080
invited Gary to join him, along with Jimmy Troyano and

161
00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:50.679
Albert Quiones. At first, Gary was hesitant he and Ricky

162
00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:55.960
weren't exactly best friends after the PCP incident, but Ricky

163
00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:01.360
enticed him with a trivial gesture offered to buy jelly

164
00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:07.120
doughnuts for everyone before they headed into the woods. Gary,

165
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.720
perhaps eager to belong and believing the beef was behind them,

166
00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:16.200
agreed to come along for what sounded like a casual

167
00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:22.320
night of partying under the stars. That night, the fourteens

168
00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:26.279
and according to some later reports, a couple of other

169
00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:32.039
hangers on who would depart early, trekked into the Aztachia Woods,

170
00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:37.200
a small patch of forest near Northport's town Park. Carrying

171
00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:41.960
drugs and a portable radio. They found a little clearing

172
00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:46.679
beneath the trees and set about building a campfire. Recent

173
00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:50.279
rain had soaked the brush, so the boys struggled to

174
00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:54.279
keep a fire going. Gary even pulled off his own

175
00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:58.320
socks and cut the denim sleeves from his jacket to

176
00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:02.759
use as kindling, reficing pieces of his clothing to coax

177
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:08.279
the flames. The mood was initially light, just a group

178
00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:13.159
of bored suburban teens getting high in their usual spot.

179
00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:18.879
As the fire crackled fitfully, they passed around what they

180
00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:24.759
believed were hits of mescaline in reality likely low grade LSD,

181
00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:31.840
and smoked several bags of PCP. In total. By some estimates,

182
00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:36.679
the four consumed dozens of doses of acid and an

183
00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:41.120
astonishing quantity of angel dust over the course of the night.

184
00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:48.519
Reality soon began to slip. Time lost meaning in the

185
00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:54.279
darkness of the Astachia woods, the stage was set for horror.

186
00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:06.680
As midnight passed, the drug cocktail took hold, the atmosphere

187
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:11.960
in the woods turned strange and volatile. Each survivor of

188
00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:15.880
that night would later recall the sequence of events a

189
00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:22.240
little differently, fragmented as their memories were by intoxication and trauma,

190
00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:27.279
but the broad strokes can be pieced together from their accounts.

191
00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:32.119
At some point, in the haze of hallucinations around the

192
00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:39.119
dying campfire, an argument erupted between Ricky and Gary. One

193
00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:43.920
account has it that Ricky bizarrely demanded Gary take off

194
00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:47.960
his clothes and throw them into the fire as an offering,

195
00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:54.519
which Gary refused. In any case, harsh words were exchanged,

196
00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:58.599
and years of pent up anger in Ricky suddenly came

197
00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:04.119
surging to the ser Ricky snapped. He pounced on Gary

198
00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:08.839
without warning, knocking him to the ground. Gary's yelp of

199
00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:15.759
surprise quickly turned to screams. What followed was a frenzy

200
00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:22.359
of brutality that lasted anywhere from several minutes to several hours,

201
00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:26.880
depending on who told the story. In the initial scuffle,

202
00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:32.400
Ricky casso sank his teeth into Gary Lower's neck, literally

203
00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:38.400
trying to bite him like an animal. Gary broke free momentarily,

204
00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:44.400
but Ricky was in a violent rage. Jimmy Troyano either

205
00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:50.119
froze in shock or actively joined the assault. Accounts conflicted

206
00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:55.400
on this critical point. Kihones would later claim Troiano helped

207
00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:01.519
hold Gary down, then recanted that claim. Garry tried to

208
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:06.119
fight back, but he stood little chance. Ricky pulled out

209
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.880
a long bladed knife. The blade flashed in the dim firelight,

210
00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:18.079
and then it plunged into Gary's body. Gary cried out

211
00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:23.480
as Ricky stabbed him again and again in a wild fury.

212
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:28.960
I love you, Satan, Ricky hissed at his former friend

213
00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:35.160
as he pinned him to the ground. Gary, bleeding and terrified,

214
00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:42.200
refused I love my mother. He managed to choke out instead.

215
00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:48.480
His defiance only enraged Ricky further. In a scene almost

216
00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:53.599
too gruesome to imagine, Ricky Casso continued to scab Gary

217
00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:59.880
Lowers dozens of times in the back, in the chest,

218
00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:05.279
even in the face. At some point, Gary did manage

219
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:10.960
to stagger to his feet in a desperate bid to escape,

220
00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:15.640
but the woods were dark and his injuries severe. Ricky

221
00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:19.799
tackled him before he could get away. The knife rose

222
00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:26.039
and fell relentlessly as Gary begged for mercy. Finally, after

223
00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:32.319
perhaps upward of thirty two stab wounds, Gary Lowers went limp.

224
00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:37.920
In the eerie silence that followed, only the crackle of

225
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:42.759
the fire and the panting breaths of the attackers could

226
00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:49.000
be heard. Jimmy Troyano later admitted that he helped Ricky drag

227
00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:54.200
Gary's bloodied, twitching body out of the firelight and deeper

228
00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:59.200
into the woods. There, they dropped him among the ferns

229
00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:06.079
and undergrowth. Incredibly, as they turned to leave, Gary suddenly

230
00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:12.599
stirred his body reflexively, sitting up in shock or final agony.

231
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:17.480
Ricky casso led out a curse, startled that his victim

232
00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:22.960
was somehow still alive. With a manic gleam in his eye,

233
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.200
Ricky rushed back at Gary's prone form. He brought the

234
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:32.480
knife down again and again into Gary's face and head,

235
00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:37.880
determined to finish the job. When he finally stepped back,

236
00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:43.519
Gary Lowers was silent and still. One of the blows

237
00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:47.480
had sliced into Gary's left eye socket, and now the

238
00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:53.880
eye was destroyed. Blood pooled into the dirt. The teen's

239
00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:58.519
lifeless body was a ruin of stab wounds and mutilation.

240
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.480
Standing over the corpse of his friend turned victim, Ricky

241
00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:10.119
Casso began to laugh. Troyano would later recall the sight

242
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:16.319
of Ricky, shirtless, smeared in blood, chest heaving, throwing his

243
00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:19.480
head back, and cackling as if the murder were some

244
00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:26.680
great joke. The night had descended into a nightmare far

245
00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:33.079
beyond any drug hallucination. Before leaving the scene, Ricky knelt

246
00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:39.079
and performed a final macabre gesture. He started chanting to

247
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:44.799
Satan over Gary's body. No one present could recall the

248
00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:49.920
exact words of the chant, only that Ricky's muttered invocations

249
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.000
to the devil echoed through the dark pines. In Ricky's

250
00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:59.559
own later telling, he claimed that at that moment, a

251
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:06.119
black crow suddenly fluttered down and perched nearby, cawing loudly,

252
00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:12.440
a sign Ricky believed of Satan's approval of the sacrifice.

253
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.079
Whether that eerie detail was real or just one more

254
00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:25.759
drug fueled delusion, only Ricky would ever know. In the

255
00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:30.680
immediate aftermath of the killing, Ricky Casso, Jimmy Troyano, and

256
00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:37.279
Albert Keijones fled the woods, leaving Gary Lower's mutilated body

257
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:42.839
where it had fallen. The adrenaline high of violence quickly

258
00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:48.119
gave way to panic. Back in town, the trio made

259
00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.279
a pact they would never speak of what had happened

260
00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:57.680
in Astachio Woods. Ricky tossed his bloody knife off a

261
00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:03.960
bridge into the harbor, trying to eliminate evidence. The boys

262
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:10.920
swore each other to secrecy, and initially all three kept

263
00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:16.160
that oath, but Ricky Casso was not one to stay

264
00:24:16.279 --> 00:24:21.440
quiet for long. In the days following the murder, the

265
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:26.559
seventeen year old seemed almost proud of his gruesome deed.

266
00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:30.880
He began bragging to his inner circle of friends about

267
00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:36.759
how he had wasted Gary Lowers. Ricky recounted the horrific

268
00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:43.920
details with a disturbing glee, even imitating how Gary had

269
00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:48.839
begged for his life. At first, most of the teens

270
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:53.480
who heard Ricky's story refused to believe him. It was

271
00:24:53.680 --> 00:25:02.240
just two grotesque too extreme. Northport was a sleepy, safe town.

272
00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:06.759
Kids like them didn't really go around killing each other

273
00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:13.480
in satanic rituals, did they. Some laughed it off or

274
00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:18.759
thought Ricky was merely having a sick drug fantasy, but

275
00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:23.160
Ricky was determined to prove he was telling the truth.

276
00:25:24.519 --> 00:25:27.599
Over the next week or so, he led at least

277
00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:32.839
a dozen different teams on treks into Astachia woods to

278
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:37.200
show off Gary's rotting corpse as a kind of trophy.

279
00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:42.559
He'd guide curious peers to the shallow glen where Gary

280
00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:47.119
lay among the ferns, point at the maggot ridden remains,

281
00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:53.240
and boast, see I told you I killed him. Shockingly,

282
00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:59.359
not one of those young onlookers immediately reported the crime

283
00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:04.799
to the police or to their parents. Some were simply

284
00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:10.119
too frightened of Ricky to dare to cross him. Others

285
00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:20.960
assumed someone else would eventually speak up. The code of

286
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:26.920
silence held for two weeks. In the meantime, Ricky and

287
00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:32.720
Jimmy even decided to bury the evidence of their crime literally.

288
00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:39.160
As the summer heat began accelerating the decomposition of Gary's body,

289
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:45.240
the stench around the murder site grew overpowering. Acting on

290
00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:48.559
a morbid suggestion from one of the kids he'd taken

291
00:26:48.680 --> 00:26:52.359
to view the corpse, Ricky and Jimmy returned to the

292
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:58.039
site several days after the killing with shovels. They hastily

293
00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:03.000
dug a shallow grave next to Gary's remains and rolled

294
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:09.759
his body into it, covering him loosely with dirt and leaves.

295
00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:15.799
During this gruesome task, Gary's corpse was so decayed that

296
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:21.319
his skull separated from his body, a sight that reportedly

297
00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:27.200
made Ricky chuckle in amusement. To any normal person, it

298
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:32.720
was a scene of absolute horror. To Ricky Casso, it

299
00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:37.839
was just another crazy story to laugh about. By the

300
00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:42.240
end of June nineteen eighty four, Ricky Casso and Jimmy

301
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:48.880
Troyano believed they had gotten away with murder. Gary Lower's

302
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:54.519
disappearance had not even been formally reported. His parents, sadly

303
00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:58.640
accustomed to their son running away for days at a time,

304
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:05.319
hadn't imediately alerted police that Gary was missing. With Gary's

305
00:28:05.319 --> 00:28:09.680
corpse now hidden under the dirt, he talked about leaving

306
00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:14.799
town to get a fresh start elsewhere. He and Jimmy

307
00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:20.279
made half baked plans to hitchhike across the country to California,

308
00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.039
where they imagined they could live freely dealing drugs and

309
00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:29.799
partying on the West Coast. In early July, they set

310
00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:34.319
off to put this plan into motion, heading west out

311
00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:40.079
of New York, but youthful impulsiveness got the better of them.

312
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:43.799
They only made it as far as Chicago before they

313
00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:49.359
grew bored or homesick and turned back in a grim

314
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:53.079
twist of fate. By the time Ricky and Jimmy drove

315
00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:57.680
back into Northport in a cheap used car bought with

316
00:28:57.759 --> 00:29:02.319
the proceeds of selling drugs along the way, the dominoes

317
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:07.799
on their undoing had already begun to fall. It was

318
00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:13.200
a teenage girl who finally broke the silence. Disturbed by

319
00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:18.279
the rumors she'd overheard, this unnamed young woman called the

320
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:23.559
Suffolk County Police on July first, nineteen eighty four, and

321
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:28.759
reported that a boy had been murdered in Astachia Woods.

322
00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:33.920
At first, the police were skeptical there was no missing

323
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:39.720
person report, no evidence beyond school yard whispers, but given

324
00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:44.839
the specificity of the tip, officers decided to investigate the

325
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:50.920
wooded area. On July fourth, guided by cadaver dogs, they

326
00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:57.279
found Gary Lower's shallow grave and exhumed his remains. The

327
00:29:57.400 --> 00:30:02.160
crime could no longer be hidden. Later that night, as

328
00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:06.680
Ricky and Jimmy partied obliviously with friends to celebrate the

329
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:11.400
Fourth of July, a neighbor noticed their parked car, and,

330
00:30:12.119 --> 00:30:16.079
recalling the recent talk of a murder, phoned in a

331
00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:22.079
tip about the vehicle. When police arrived and discovered the

332
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:27.839
two teens asleep inside, they moved swiftly to apprehend them.

333
00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:33.200
Ricky Casso and Jimmy Troyano woke to find themselves surrounded

334
00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:39.960
by eighteen officers with guns drawn. The game was up

335
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:46.079
at last. In custody, Ricky Casso at first denied everything.

336
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:51.160
It didn't last. Long, presented with evidence and facing the

337
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:55.720
reality of prison, Ricky confessed to the murder within hours

338
00:30:55.759 --> 00:31:01.240
of his arrest. According to one police account, he admitted

339
00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:06.960
he had been shouting quote satanic stuff while stabbing Gary,

340
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:12.480
an allusion to the now famous demand say he loves Satan.

341
00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:18.000
Jimmy Troiano, on the other hand, maintained that while he

342
00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:25.240
had been present, he hadn't participated in killing Gary. Albert Kehones,

343
00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:29.160
the third teen from that night, had also been picked

344
00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:35.480
up by police. Sensing an opportunity to save himself, Keihones

345
00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:41.839
immediately agreed to cooperate in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

346
00:31:43.079 --> 00:31:47.839
He gave a statement aligning with Ricky's basic confession. But

347
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:54.680
also initially claimed that Troiano had helped restrain Gary during

348
00:31:54.759 --> 00:32:00.000
the murder. Based on Kehoni's testimony and Ricky's own part

349
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:06.200
Marshall confession, both Ricky Casso and Jimmy Troiano were charged

350
00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:17.880
with second degree murder and held without bail. Just two

351
00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:23.200
days later, on July seventh, nineteen eighty four, Ricky Casso

352
00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:29.160
was found dead in his jail cell, an apparent suicide

353
00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:36.240
by hanging. His short, turbulent life ended at age seventeen,

354
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:42.319
robbing the public of any fuller accounting for his actions.

355
00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:47.920
But in a way, the legend of Ricky Casso was

356
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:53.079
only beginning. In the absence of the killer himself. A

357
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:58.079
sensational narrative rushed in to fill the void, one that

358
00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:02.160
would cast the events in as Ten Woods as something

359
00:33:02.359 --> 00:33:08.240
far more occult and elaborate than the ugly reality of

360
00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:14.799
a drug fueled teen murder. Ricky Casso's arrest and shocking

361
00:33:14.920 --> 00:33:19.839
death made headlines, but it was the manner of Gary

362
00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:26.680
Lower's murder that truly seized the public's imagination. Almost overnight,

363
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:31.920
the Northport case morphed into a media frenzy about a

364
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:38.440
satanic sacrifice in the suburbs local authorities fanned the flames. Early.

365
00:33:39.319 --> 00:33:43.880
A Suffolk County detective told reporters that Casso was a

366
00:33:43.960 --> 00:33:48.160
member of a Satanic cult and that a whole throng

367
00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:54.000
of chanting devil worshipers had participated or at least witnessed

368
00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:01.079
the killing. This alarming claim of roving teen cultinetists spilling

369
00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:05.440
blood for the devil brought journalists from far and wide

370
00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:13.840
clamouring into Northport. The press dutifully repeated the most salacious details.

371
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.719
They reported that Casso had butchered his friend as part

372
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:21.639
of an occult ritual, that he had cut out Gary's eyes,

373
00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:25.880
and that he had compelled the victim to profess love

374
00:34:26.639 --> 00:34:32.599
for Satan as he died. These elements made for lurid

375
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:36.480
copy and struck a nerve with a nation already on

376
00:34:36.760 --> 00:34:42.280
edge about deviant youth culture. By nineteen eighty four, the

377
00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:46.519
United States was in the grip of the Early Satanic Panic,

378
00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:51.880
a period of hysteria in which everyday citizens came to

379
00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:58.599
believe Satanic cults were corrupting children from within schools, daycare, music,

380
00:34:59.119 --> 00:35:03.800
and games. Now Here was a real life horror story

381
00:35:04.280 --> 00:35:10.360
seemingly confirming those fears. A nice long Island town its

382
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:16.880
ordinary teenagers turned into devil worshiping murderers. It was a

383
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:25.480
moral crusader's nightmare come true. Television and newspapers eagerly amplified

384
00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:30.639
the Satanic angle. The notorious line, say you love Satan

385
00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:37.159
became the case's catchphrase, splashed in bold type across tabloids

386
00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:43.639
and repeated on TV newscasts. Within weeks, Ricky Casso's scowling

387
00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:49.559
mugshot taken at his arraignment, eyes wild beneath disheveled hair,

388
00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:55.159
an ACDC concert T shirt hanging from his skinny frame,

389
00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:02.079
became an iconic image of adolescent evil. Parents across the

390
00:36:02.119 --> 00:36:07.159
country stared at that photo in horror and disbelief. How

391
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:14.239
could a seemingly average kid descend into such depravity? For some,

392
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:19.880
the answer was simple, rock music, drugs, and the devil.

393
00:36:21.239 --> 00:36:24.679
The fact that Ricky had been wearing an ACDC T

394
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:28.280
shirt at the time of his arrest was seized upon

395
00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:35.719
as evidence that heavy metal music was a gateway to Satanism.

396
00:36:36.199 --> 00:36:40.360
Pundits pointed to Ricky's interest in the Satanic Bible and

397
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:45.599
occult symbols as proof that an underground Satanic movement was

398
00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:52.039
ensnaring the youth. One television special after another gravely intoned

399
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:57.360
that the Northport murder was prima facie proof of Satan's

400
00:36:57.400 --> 00:37:05.079
influence lurking in America suburbia. Even mainstream programs like ABC's

401
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:09.719
twenty twenty ran segments on the case, and in nineteen

402
00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:14.719
eighty eight, HERALDA Rivera devoted a portion of his infamous

403
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:20.639
primetime expose a devil worship, exposing Satan's underground to the

404
00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:21.599
lower's murder.

405
00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:24.639
Whether a Satan exists is a matter of belief, but

406
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:28.199
we are certain that Satanism exists. To summits a religion.

407
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:32.239
To others, it's the practice of evil in the devil's name.

408
00:37:32.800 --> 00:37:37.079
It exists, and it's flourishing. Members of our studio audience

409
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:40.119
tonight will attest to that they are friends and foes

410
00:37:40.119 --> 00:37:46.000
of Satanism, devil worshipers and law enforcers, experts and victims.

411
00:37:46.360 --> 00:37:51.119
They'll help us understand this force that exults evil and darkness.

412
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:54.800
We'll be asking why, why does it exist and why

413
00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:59.039
does it appeal to so many vulnerable people, especially the young. Now,

414
00:37:59.079 --> 00:38:02.239
the very young and the impressionable should definitely not be

415
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:06.400
watching this program tonight. This is not a Halloween fable.

416
00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:09.480
This is a real life horror story and it will

417
00:38:09.519 --> 00:38:13.840
give small children bad dreams. As for teenagers and their parents,

418
00:38:14.119 --> 00:38:17.119
we hope you are watching because it's teenagers who are

419
00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:20.079
most likely to fall under the spell of this jumble

420
00:38:20.119 --> 00:38:24.400
of dark, violent emotions called Satanism, and in some cases,

421
00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:27.320
to be driven into committing terrible deeds.

422
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:32.760
The narrative was clear, Ricky Casso was not just a

423
00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:37.639
disturbed kid, but the tip of a demonic iceberg threatening

424
00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:43.920
the country's children. Yet amid the media circus, the facts

425
00:38:44.039 --> 00:38:50.760
told a far less sensational story. As investigators dug deeper,

426
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:57.920
the supposed cult aspect of the Northport murder quickly fell apart.

427
00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:04.400
The rumored throat of robed Satanists in the woods proved

428
00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:11.599
to be nonexistent, a phantom conjured from Casso's own boasts

429
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:18.960
and early police exaggeration. There was a local clique, grandiosely

430
00:39:19.079 --> 00:39:23.559
calling themselves the Knights of the Black Circle, but they

431
00:39:23.639 --> 00:39:28.480
were essentially a handful of stoner teens who sold pot

432
00:39:28.880 --> 00:39:35.199
and occasionally talked tough about occultism. They bore no resemblance

433
00:39:35.639 --> 00:39:41.360
to an organized Satanic cult, and in fact, Ricky Casso

434
00:39:42.039 --> 00:39:46.559
was never even a core member of that group. The

435
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:50.599
lurid claim that Casso had carved out Gary's eyes as

436
00:39:50.679 --> 00:39:56.360
part of a ritual was also unsupported. The autopsy indicated

437
00:39:56.800 --> 00:40:01.440
Gary's eyes had been damaged by stab wound and decomposition,

438
00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:08.199
not removed with any surgical precision, and while Ricky had

439
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:12.920
indeed invoked Satan during the crime, there was zero evidence

440
00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:18.440
that the murder was premeditated as a sacrifice, or that

441
00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:23.599
it was carried out according to any occult plan. The

442
00:40:23.679 --> 00:40:28.280
truth appeared to be that Ricky Casso murdered Gary Lowers

443
00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:33.599
in a haze of rage and narcotics for reasons as

444
00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:38.880
banal as revenge over stolen drugs and the twisted thrill

445
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:43.840
it gave him. The devil did not make him do it,

446
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:50.440
if anything, the drugs did. Of course, these nuances did

447
00:40:50.559 --> 00:41:02.000
little to stem the tide of panic. By late nineteen

448
00:41:02.039 --> 00:41:06.760
eighty four, communities far from Long Island were reacting to

449
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:12.039
the Northport story and others like it with sweeping measures.

450
00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:17.760
School districts banned heavy metal t shirts and albums, fearing

451
00:41:17.920 --> 00:41:23.960
they were talismans of satanic influence. Church groups held record

452
00:41:24.039 --> 00:41:30.280
burning rallies to destroy demonic music. Popular role playing games

453
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:36.119
like Dungeons and Dragons fell under suspicion. In the public consciousness,

454
00:41:36.599 --> 00:41:41.639
Ricky Casso became the teen face of devil worship and

455
00:41:41.800 --> 00:41:46.760
the dangers of rebellious youth culture. It was easier for

456
00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:52.360
many to believe that supernatural evil had possessed Ricky than

457
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:57.079
to confront the mundane horror of how badly the adults

458
00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:02.159
in his life had failed him. After all, facing the

459
00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:07.119
Casso case as a drug fueled tragedy of parental neglect,

460
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:14.840
mental illness, and broken systems was uncomfortable. Far more convenient

461
00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:20.159
was to label Ricky simply as a satanic monster and

462
00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:26.519
view his crime as an isolated eruption of other worldly evil.

463
00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:32.280
With Ricky Casso dead by his own hand, the job

464
00:42:32.440 --> 00:42:37.440
of publicly reckoning with the Astachia Woods murder fell to

465
00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:42.159
the trial of Jimmy Troyano. Troiano was the only one

466
00:42:42.199 --> 00:42:46.920
of the trio still facing charges for Gary Lower's death.

467
00:42:47.920 --> 00:42:52.000
His trial began in April of nineteen eighty five in

468
00:42:52.039 --> 00:42:56.400
a courthouse in Riverhead, Long Island. It had been nearly

469
00:42:56.440 --> 00:43:00.119
a year since the murder, and the initial media a

470
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:06.280
furr had cooled somewhat. Still, the specter of Satanism hung

471
00:43:06.519 --> 00:43:12.880
over the proceedings. Troiano, now nineteen, stood accused of second

472
00:43:12.920 --> 00:43:17.360
degree murder on the theory that he had actively assisted Casso.

473
00:43:18.559 --> 00:43:25.679
The prosecution's case largely hinged on the testimony of Albert Keiones, who,

474
00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:30.119
under his immunity deal, recounted the events of June nineteenth

475
00:43:30.599 --> 00:43:36.440
and originally had implicated Troiano in helping to restrain the victim.

476
00:43:36.760 --> 00:43:42.519
But Keones was a problematic witness. For one, he freely

477
00:43:42.559 --> 00:43:47.079
admitted that he had been extremely high on LSD and

478
00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:54.039
PCP that night, as had everyone present. Under oath. Keones

479
00:43:54.119 --> 00:43:58.039
even conceded that his memory of the attack was hazy

480
00:43:58.679 --> 00:44:02.360
and that he might have been mistaken about Troiano's role.

481
00:44:03.719 --> 00:44:08.159
In fact, by the time of trial, Chones reversed his

482
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:14.400
earlier story and testified that Troiano had not physically assisted

483
00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:20.800
Casso in the murder. After all, this flip flop severely

484
00:44:20.920 --> 00:44:26.920
weakened the prosecution's case. Troiano's defense attorney capitalized on it,

485
00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:30.440
arguing that the truth of what happened in the woods

486
00:44:31.239 --> 00:44:36.840
was impossible to pin down given the hallucinogenic fog everyone

487
00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:41.840
was under. Quote, it's hard to remember exactly what happened

488
00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:46.559
when the trees are melting and the stars are rushing around.

489
00:44:47.239 --> 00:44:52.199
Troiano had told his lawyer, referring to the profound drug

490
00:44:52.239 --> 00:44:58.360
induced distortions of that night. With no physical evidence tying

491
00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:05.119
Troiano to actual stabbing or restraining Gary, only Casso's fingerprints

492
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:09.360
were on the murder weapon, which was never recovered anyway,

493
00:45:10.159 --> 00:45:15.000
and with keone's credibility in tatters, the jury was left

494
00:45:15.079 --> 00:45:20.800
with ample reasonable doubt. After a three day deliberation, the

495
00:45:20.960 --> 00:45:26.559
verdict came on April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five, not guilty.

496
00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:31.480
Jimmy Troyano was acquitted of all charges in the death

497
00:45:31.519 --> 00:45:37.079
of Gary Lowers. In the end, the justice system officially

498
00:45:37.159 --> 00:45:42.480
deemed Ricky Casso the sole party responsible for the murder,

499
00:45:43.159 --> 00:45:48.880
a conclusion which sensationalism aside, aligns with the evidence that

500
00:45:49.039 --> 00:45:53.880
Casso was the one who wielded the knife and orchestrated

501
00:45:54.119 --> 00:45:59.840
the assault. Troiano, the court decided, had the misfortune of

502
00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:03.519
being present, but was not proven to be an active

503
00:46:03.599 --> 00:46:09.719
participant in the slaying. He walked free another life derailed,

504
00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:14.440
but not legally guilty in the eyes of the law.

505
00:46:15.280 --> 00:46:20.159
The trial's outcome received only modest coverage compared to the

506
00:46:20.199 --> 00:46:26.199
initial hysteria. There were no bold headlines for Troyano's acquittal.

507
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:31.039
A teenager not guilty of being a satanic murderer was

508
00:46:31.119 --> 00:46:36.079
far less newsworthy than a lurid ritual killing, but in

509
00:46:36.119 --> 00:46:40.320
the courtroom at least a kind of truth had prevailed.

510
00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:45.840
The verdict underscored what calmer reflection had suggested all along.

511
00:46:46.679 --> 00:46:51.840
The Northport murder was not a grand conspiracy of devil worshipers,

512
00:46:52.360 --> 00:46:57.639
but rather the tragic culmination of a troubled boy's downward spiral.

513
00:46:58.480 --> 00:47:02.639
As one Suffolk County d detective later admitted, the case

514
00:47:02.840 --> 00:47:08.000
was quote one hundred percent a drug debt murder between

515
00:47:08.119 --> 00:47:14.920
kids who were high as hell, not some premeditated Satanic sacrifice.

516
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:21.320
The ritual trappings had been largely improvised and amplified by rumor.

517
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:26.599
When stripped of that sensational veneer, what remained was a

518
00:47:26.639 --> 00:47:30.679
tale as old as any in the annals of crime,

519
00:47:31.679 --> 00:47:36.800
a tale of youthful rage, substance abuse, and lost innocence.

520
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:41.280
In the wake of the trial, Northport tried to return

521
00:47:41.360 --> 00:47:45.599
to normalcy, but the story of Ricky Casso left a

522
00:47:45.679 --> 00:47:50.360
lingering scar on the community and an indelible mark On

523
00:47:50.519 --> 00:47:55.360
nineteen eighty's pop culture. The so called Satanic panic would

524
00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:59.199
rage on for years after nineteen eighty four, and the

525
00:47:59.239 --> 00:48:02.920
Acid King would often be cited as a prime example

526
00:48:03.440 --> 00:48:09.159
of where moral depravity could lead. The case inspired songs, books,

527
00:48:09.559 --> 00:48:15.800
and films, mostly exploitative that took varying degrees of creative

528
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:21.119
license with the facts. One paperback true crime book published

529
00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:25.840
in nineteen eighty seven was even titled Say You Love Satan.

530
00:48:26.559 --> 00:48:31.000
Cashing in on the infamous line, It presented a highly

531
00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:34.920
dramatized version of the story, so much so that the

532
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.599
author was accused of plagiarizing portions of a Rolling Stone

533
00:48:39.719 --> 00:48:45.559
article and fabricating details for shock value. The media had

534
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:48.639
built up the Casso case in a modern myth of

535
00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:54.159
devil worship, and that myth had legs. It tapped into

536
00:48:54.239 --> 00:48:58.960
a vein of paranoia that was running deeply through American

537
00:48:59.079 --> 00:49:03.599
society at the time. But with the benefit of hindsight,

538
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:08.519
the murder and astachia woods less like a satanic write

539
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:13.519
and more like a preventable tragedy of youth. Ricky Casso

540
00:49:13.800 --> 00:49:19.239
was a severely drug addicted, mentally unstable teenager who fell

541
00:49:19.280 --> 00:49:22.679
through the cracks. He was kicked out of a comfortable

542
00:49:22.760 --> 00:49:27.480
home into a life of homelessness and constant narcotic use.

543
00:49:28.320 --> 00:49:31.360
He repeatedly cried out for help in his own way,

544
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:38.519
through jokes about suicide, extreme behavior, grave robbing. Yet the

545
00:49:38.559 --> 00:49:43.960
interventions never stuck. It is easier, perhaps to blame the

546
00:49:44.039 --> 00:49:48.440
devil than to ask how a seventeen year old became

547
00:49:48.599 --> 00:49:52.800
so lost in the first place. The moral panic of

548
00:49:52.840 --> 00:49:57.920
the nineteen eighties fixated on Satan as an external invading force,

549
00:49:58.559 --> 00:50:02.800
but in doing so it ignored the very real demons

550
00:50:03.199 --> 00:50:09.079
of depression, addiction, and familial failure that plagued kids just

551
00:50:09.239 --> 00:50:14.039
like Ricky. As one commentator noted, no one wants to

552
00:50:14.119 --> 00:50:18.920
acknowledge that Ricky's seemingly normal parents kicked out their mentally

553
00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:22.960
ill teenage son, leaving him to sleep in the woods.

554
00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:26.239
No one wants to look at the fact that Casso

555
00:50:26.599 --> 00:50:30.800
started doing serious drugs at such an early age a

556
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:36.719
red flag of abuse or trauma. Those uncomfortable truths got

557
00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:41.760
buried beneath the lurid symbolism of satanic cults and heavy

558
00:50:41.800 --> 00:50:47.639
metal scapegoating. Today, the name Ricky Casso still sends a

559
00:50:47.719 --> 00:50:52.400
shiver through those who remember the case. The Oak and

560
00:50:52.559 --> 00:50:57.400
scrub pine of Astachia Woods have long since grown over

561
00:50:57.519 --> 00:51:04.360
any sign of blood or shallow graves, but the story endures.

562
00:51:05.239 --> 00:51:10.519
A cautionary tale recounted on true crime shows and whispered

563
00:51:10.920 --> 00:51:15.559
in local legend. It endures because it sits at the

564
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:22.599
crossroads of American anxieties, the vulnerability of youth, the destructiveness

565
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:28.239
of drugs, and the seductive fear of the occult. In

566
00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:33.000
the end, the real devil that came to Northport was

567
00:51:33.079 --> 00:51:36.639
not a horned beast in the woods, but the more

568
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:44.719
familiar combination of rage, drugs, and delusion inside a troubled boy.

569
00:51:46.519 --> 00:51:51.800
Gary Lowers lost his life to that darkness, and an

570
00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:57.599
entire generation of parents, politicians, and pastors nearly lost their

571
00:51:57.639 --> 00:52:03.480
wits to the ensuing panic. The Night in Astakia Woods

572
00:52:03.880 --> 00:52:08.599
will never be forgotten, but it is remembered most clearly,

573
00:52:09.400 --> 00:52:13.760
not as a tale of Satanic ritual, but as a

574
00:52:13.800 --> 00:52:20.880
sobering lesson in how easily fact can be overtaken by fear.

575
00:52:22.480 --> 00:52:26.440
Terrifying and true. Is narrated by Enrique Kuto. It's executive

576
00:52:26.480 --> 00:52:29.840
produced by Rob Fields and bobble Toopia dot Com and

577
00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:33.920
produced by Dan Wilder, with original theme music by Ray Mattis.

578
00:52:34.079 --> 00:52:36.239
If you have a story you think we should cover

579
00:52:36.320 --> 00:52:39.320
on Terrifying and True, send us an email at Weekly

580
00:52:39.480 --> 00:52:42.360
Spooky at gmail dot com. And if you want to

581
00:52:42.360 --> 00:52:44.199
support us for as little as one dollar a month,

582
00:52:44.239 --> 00:52:47.719
go to Weeklyspooky dot com slash join. Your support for

583
00:52:47.800 --> 00:52:50.239
as little as one dollar a month keeps the show going.

584
00:52:50.480 --> 00:52:52.599
And speaking of I want to say an extra special

585
00:52:52.639 --> 00:52:55.679
thank you to our Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay

586
00:52:55.719 --> 00:52:57.320
a little bit more to hear their name at the

587
00:52:57.360 --> 00:53:00.840
end of the show. And they are Johnny Nicks and Lulu,

588
00:53:00.960 --> 00:53:05.719
Jessica Fuller, Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansburg, Karen we Met,

589
00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:08.599
Jack Ker, and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much

590
00:53:08.639 --> 00:53:11.119
and thank you for listening. We'll see you all right

591
00:53:11.199 --> 00:53:14.239
here next time on Terrifying and True.