Do you know who murdered Aldolph Martino? In the spring of 1989, Washington, D.C. was in the grip of a relentless wave of violence that saw the city's homicide rate soar to historic highs. It was against this grim backdrop that Aldolph Martino, a 27-year-old male barber, went to work on the afternoon of April 14th. His place of business, the Superior Barber Shop, was located in the Benco Shopping Center at 4526 Benning Road in the Southeast quadrant of the city.
The shop was bustling with the typical sounds of a neighborhood gathering place, with somewhere between 15 and 20 customers, including several children, waiting for their turn or accompanying family members.
At approximately 1:40 p.m., as Martino was in the middle of cutting a customer's hair, the mundane atmosphere of the barbershop was irrevocably shattered. A man whose face was obscured by a mask burst into the establishment. Without a word, he raised a gun and fired several shots directly at Martino's head. The sudden violence sent a wave of panic through the crowded shop as patrons scrambled for cover. Aldolph Martino fell to the floor near the doorway, his life extinguished in an instant. The masked gunman fled the scene, leaving behind a scene of chaos and terror.
In the immediate aftermath, as police and paramedics descended on the shopping center, the investigation into the city's 142nd homicide of the year began. Despite the numerous witnesses inside the Superior Barber Shop, the identity of the shooter remained a mystery, shielded by the mask he wore. No arrests were ever made in connection with the murder of Aldolph Martino, and the case grew cold over the ensuing years. His death became another statistic in a particularly bloody chapter of the city's history, a story of a life cut short in a brazen public execution for which no one has ever been brought to justice.
