Richard Fran Biegenwald

Serial Killer

Richard Fran Biegenwald: The Jersey Shore "Thrill Killer"

Richard Fran Biegenwald was an American serial killer whose criminal history stretched across more than two decades, beginning with a fatal robbery in 1958 and culminating in a series of murders along the New Jersey shore during the early 1980s. Born on August 24, 1940, Biegenwald spent much of his adult life in prisons or under correctional supervision. He ultimately accumulated murder convictions involving six victims and was suspected by investigators in additional killings. His crimes became especially notorious because several were committed after he had already served approximately seventeen years of a life sentence for murder and had been released on parole. Biegenwald became widely known as the "Thrill Killer," a description arising from prosecutors' contention that some of his later murders were committed without a conventional motive such as robbery or revenge. Investigators uncovered victims who had been shot or stabbed and then concealed in graves in New Jersey and at the Staten Island property of Biegenwald's mother. His arrest in January 1983 began an investigation that gradually exposed a much larger pattern of violence than police initially realized.

The 1958 Murder of Stephen Sladowski

Biegenwald's first known murder occurred when he was only eighteen years old. On December 18, 1958, he participated in a robbery at a small grocery or delicatessen in Bayonne, New Jersey. The victim was 47-year-old Stephen F. Sladowski, an attorney who also served as an assistant municipal prosecutor in Bayonne and helped operate the store. During the robbery, Biegenwald shot Sladowski in the chest. He fled New Jersey with an accomplice but was captured in Maryland two days later following another violent confrontation with law enforcement. Biegenwald was returned to New Jersey, convicted of Sladowski's murder in 1959 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Despite the life sentence, Biegenwald was eventually granted parole in 1975 after serving approximately seventeen years. His release would later become one of the most disturbing aspects of the case because he ultimately returned to murder. He experienced additional problems while on parole, including violations that resulted in further incarceration. By the early 1980s, he was living in the Asbury Park area and had developed a close association with another convicted criminal, Dherran Fitzgerald.

The Murders Resume

The murders attributed to Biegenwald during the early 1980s were primarily centered in Monmouth and Ocean counties and surrounding areas of the New Jersey shore. Several victims were teenage girls. Evidence eventually showed that victims were sometimes transported after death and concealed at locations far from where they had originally encountered Biegenwald. One particularly important location in the investigation was the property belonging to Biegenwald's mother on Staten Island, New York. Investigators eventually discovered the remains of two teenage victims buried there. Other bodies were recovered from secluded locations in Tinton Falls, Neptune Township and Ocean Township, New Jersey. ...

Confirmed Victims: (6)

Stephen Sladowski , Date of Death: 1958-12-18

Suspected Victims:

Virginia Clayton Age: (17), Date of Death: 1982-09-08

John P. Petrone Age: (57), Date of Death: 1978-06

Richard Biegenwald - Wikipedia