Michael Gargiulo, aka The Hollywood Ripper

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Michael Gargiulo is best known for killing Ashton Kutcher's date years ago.

You might not remember the name of serial killer Michael Gargiulo – also known as the ‘Hollywood Ripper,’ for his California knifings, ‘The Boy Next Door Killer,’ because he lived so close to his victims, and the ‘Chiller Killer,’ for using his job as an air conditioning repair man to gain his victims’ trust – but I bet you remember that case where actor Ashton Kutcher’s date was murdered, or recall Ashton testifying at the killer’s trial a few years ago. Today, we’ll go beyond the celebrity aspect of this case to examine how Mike Gargiulo got away with murder for 15 years, even after his DNA turned up on one of his victim’s fingernails, starting with the woman who survived him and finally put him in handcuffs.

Michael Gargiulo is best known for killing Ashton Kutcher's date years ago.
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Michelle Murphy, 26

April 28, 2008

Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California

When twenty-six-year-old Michelle Murphy got home from work on Monday, April 28, 2008, she had her Santa Monica apartment to herself – no roommate, no boyfriend. She decided to do her laundry, exercise outside for a little bit, and watch a movie. Before going to bed, she opened her living room window to let some fresh air in overnight.

Less than an hour later, Michelle woke suddenly as a serrated knife plunged into her chest. A man in a dark hoodie was straddling her, stabbing repeatedly at her chest and arms. She asked, “Why are you doing this?” but he didn’t respond. Michelle fought back. “I grabbed at the knife. I was trying to hold the knife to get some leverage to keep it from stabbing me. I brought my legs toward my chest to kick him off me.”

She was successful. Her attacker’s arm slipped in the struggle, causing him to slash his own wrist. He immediately got off the bed, said “I’m sorry,” and walked out of her apartment. Michelle survived the attack, but even today she says, “spending the night alone creates a world of fear in me.”

Investigators found an unknown male’s DNA in blood mixed with Michelle’s on her bedspread, fitted sheet, and in a trail that led from her bedroom, out her front door, and into the alley behind her apartment. The DNA matched 32-year-old Michael Gargiulo. Police had collected his DNA when Michael was a suspect in a 2001 murder, also in Los Angeles County.

Michael Gargiulo was Michelle Murphy’s neighbor, living in an apartment directly across the alley from her. The location afforded him multiple vantage points for observing Michelle’s and anyone else’s activities in and around her apartment. Never mind that he shared his apartment with his wife and her mother – lying and sneaking around were habits that all of Mike’s partners endured.

Investigators learned that Mike had his eye on Michelle for some time. Michelle returned Mike’s waves when he passed her in his work van, and once he walked over to try and strike up a conversation while she was exercising in their shared alley. Mike, co-owner of a plumbing business, once told an employee, “she’s hot, I’m going to get with her,” after they encountered Michelle together.

It would take more than a month for police to finally apprehend Michael Gargiulo. They believe he fled the crime scene in one of his work vans that was parked in front of his apartment building, then laid low. In the days after the crime, a friend saw Mike’s hand in bandages. He told a coworker he was thinking about moving to Mexico. Upon his arrest on June 8, 2008, officers noticed a healing wound consistent with Michelle’s description of the attack. They eventually recovered his work vans abandoned, cleaned, and emptied, but Mike had left all the physical evidence they needed back in Michelle Murphy’s apartment.

That physical evidence would not only lead to an arrest for Michelle’s attack, but also for the murders of three other women going back 15 years.

Ashley Ellerin, 22

February 21, 2001

Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California

Michael Gargiulo is lefthanded and had cut his right wrist while attacking Michelle Murphy, leaving a significant amount of his blood and DNA at her apartment. This matched a blood sample officers collected from him back in 2001 when he was suspected of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin’s murder in Hollywood.

Mike was a suspect because of his suspicious behavior leading up to Ashley’s murder. He lived in an apartment just a block away from her home, and her bedroom window was visible to him even at that distance. He lived in the apartment with his long-term girlfriend from Chicago, but he also had two more girlfriends on the side – one would be the mother of his first child. None of them knew about the other relationships.

In the fall of 2000, Mike, then 24 years old, first approached Ashley by offering to help fix a flat tire. He offered his services as a heating and air conditioning repairman, his current vocation, which Ashley accepted, and that gained him access to her home. After that, Mike started showing up uninvited, even crashing a birthday party Ashley was throwing for a friend and making her guests uncomfortable. “He kept his eyes on her the whole time,” they said.

Ashley’s roommates and friends noticed Mike parked in front of her home in the wee hours of the morning, or watching her home from the dog park at night just across the street. One of them finally confronted Mike, but he had an explanation: he wasn’t stalking Ashley, just laying low because the police were after him, trying to obtain his DNA in connection with the murder of an ex-girlfriend in Chicago that he didn’t commit. Another time, Mike revealed a knife he kept in a sheath on his ankle, which only concerned her friends more.

Ashley Ellerin was trusting, friendly, free-spirited, spontaneous, and optimistic, and she ignored her friends’ warnings about Michael Gargiulo. He was fixing her furnace, and he even got his doctor girlfriend to write her a prescription for her carpal tunnel syndrome. Ashley was used to attention from men, even weird ones. In between acting and fashion design classes, she stripped in Las Vegas and occasionally slept with customers for extra cash. She was young, attractive, dating celebrities, and too naïve to see the danger Mike presented.

Ashley’s former roommate was especially persistent in warning her about Mike, but it had no effect. “She probably thought I was being dramatic about it,” he said. “She knew how I felt. She didn’t seem concerned. She was an amazing person who would make friends with everyone.”

On Wednesday, February 21, 2001, Ashley was planning on going to dinner with actor Ashton Kutcher, then attending an after-Grammy party with him. Her property manager, Mark Durbin, arrived at her place to work on a few repairs beforehand. He says they had a blossoming relationship, and that the repair work turned into a sexual encounter, but he left in time to beat his girlfriend home, and Ashley was still alive and well.  

Ashton then called to cancel their dinner plans and asked if he could pick Ashley up later for the after party. Ashley agreed and shared that she had just gotten out of the shower. A few minutes later, a neighbor was walking his dog at the park across the street when he heard two screams coming from Ashley’s home. He didn’t see anyone coming or going from the property and didn’t investigate.

It was around this time police believe Ashley was attacked from behind with a knife. Her throat was cut from right to left, as though by a leftie, nearly decapitating her. She was stabbed 47 times, all around her head, neck, shoulders, back, chest, abdomen, and lower legs. One wound to her breast looked like the killer was attempting to cut it off completely. The stabs were so forceful that they penetrated her skull. Ashley had been rolled onto her back and posed with her fingers pointing to her groin. Even with the tremendous amount of blood, physical contact, and struggle in that small space, her killer left no physical traces behind.

Over the next hour, Ashley received calls from Ashton, her property manager, and one of her friends, but she never picked up. Her roommate showed up at around this time, but she had forgotten her key. Ashley’s car was there and the lights were on, but the door was locked and Ashley didn’t answer, so the roommate left to spend the night at a friend’s house.

Ashton made it there shortly after the roommate. He also sees Ashley’s car and that the lights inside are on, but no one answers the locked door or responds to his yells from outside. He calls Ashley from his cell phone, but she doesn’t answer that either. Ashton looks in two windows, and from one he sees a red stain that he assumes is spilled wine. Thinking she is upset with him and blowing him off, Ashton leaves.

Ashley’s roommate returned the next morning with a key and discovered Ashley’s body lying in a pool of blood in the hallway outside her bathroom. It was a scene so gruesome that even a decade later, a seasoned detective said “I still smell it. The whole crime scene is vivid in my head.”

Ashley was in her panties and bathrobe, her curling iron, hair dryer, and outfit nearby, as though she was surprised in the middle of getting ready for her date. Police found a trail of bloody shoeprints and droplets leading from Ashley’s body to the front door. The droplets were to the left of the shoes, implying that the killer, holding a bloody knife, was lefthanded. Since the blood trail ended at the front door, they guessed the killer concealed his bloody clothing and the murder weapon before leaving her home. With no signs of forced entry, police assumed Ashley knew the killer and let him in, or that he had a key to the residence.

Four people had keys to Ashley’s home – Ashley, her current roommate, her former roommate, and her property manager. Michael Gargiulo also had access to the home when he worked on the furnace, and one of Ashley’s friends recalled a disturbing incident when Mike let himself into the home with a key when she and Ashley were there. Ashley’s friend yelled at him to get out, and Mike made an excuse about checking the furnace and left, but Ashley didn’t want to make a big deal about it.

The helpfulness of Ashley’s forthcoming friends – including the immediate cooperation of her love interests – were critical in narrowing law enforcement’s focus on Michael Gargiulo. Investigators’ instincts and a fortuitous phone call would soon make him their prime suspect.

Los Angeles County Detective Tom Small was consumed with tracking down Michael Gargiulo for questioning, convinced he had something to do with Ashely Ellerin’s murder. But finding him wasn’t easy – Mike changed residences, jobs, and vehicles frequently, and his leases and utilities were always in his numerous girlfriends’ names, not his own.

Detective Small was shocked when received a call from Cook County police in Illinois asking about Michael Gargiulo. Cook County had just tested fingernail swabs from the unsolved murder of Tricia Pacaccio in 1993. They obtained a DNA profile and were now working through the list of people they interviewed to collect DNA samples for comparison. They knew that Michael Gargiulo, their prime suspect, had moved to Los Angeles County, and they wanted Detective Small’s help getting a hold of him.

Tricia Pacaccio, 18

August 14, 1993

Glenview, Cook County, Illinois

On Friday, August 13, 1993, 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio was just two days away from leaving for her freshman year of college. That night, she and about 40 other recent graduates of Glenview South High School attended a party that served as a final hurrah before everyone left for college. She had a scholarship to Purdue University, where she planned to major in engineering.

Tricia was popular and active in extracurriculars. A former teacher remembers her as “an outgoing, beautiful, wonderful child.” She was a trusting, loving, and happy young woman who “knew what she wanted out of life” and had the energy to go for it.

Michael Gargiulo was 17 at the time and a very close friend of Doug Pacaccio, Tricia’s younger brother. Mike lived about a block away from the Pacaccios and visited them often. The Pacaccio parents remember Mike as a shy and very quiet kid, kind of in the background, and never boisterous. Doug and Mike were on the football team together, and while they were good friends, Doug admitted that Mike had a violent temper that erupted suddenly. He had seen Mike “savagely beat up classmates without provocation.”

The Pacaccios and Gargiulos lived in Glenview, Cook County, Illinois, a middle- to upper-class suburb north of Chicago. That Friday night, Mike was spending time with his girlfriend (the same one who would follow him to California) and a few of their friends. He said he was feeling sick and left the group early while they were still watching rented movies.

About an hour after Mike got home, Tricia returned home as well. Her porch light was on, her family was asleep inside, and there was a party going on in the house across the street from hers. She parked her car and made her way to the door, but an attacker surprised her along the way, twisting and breaking her left arm from behind, stabbing her 12 times in the chest, left arm, breasts, abdomen, and back. He left her on the front walkway to bleed to death and disappeared back into the night, completely unnoticed. Tricia’s father discovered her body the next morning.

The next morning, Michael Gargiulo called his girlfriend in tears to tell her that Tricia had been murdered. Mike would tell his good friend Scott Olson how he was at the Pacaccio’s house most of that day, observing all the crime scene activity. Scott also told investigators about Mike’s “crazy switch”: “When he really wanted something, he was going to get it one way or the other,” Scott explained. “He flipped the switch and all emotions, gone.”

After Tricia’s murder, Mike brought her mother flowers. He bought her father a nice shirt. He gave them restaurant gift certificates and brought them Easter lilies. The gift giving went on for months, and it was strange because Mike was the only one bringing them presents, and he had never done that before.

Meanwhile, police had to compel Mike to sit for an interview with them. When he finally talked to police, he told them that a friend had asked him to hide a gym bag after Tricia’s murder, implying that it contained the murder weapon (a knife). The lead was a dead end. Mike also reported to police that his friend and Tricia’s brother, Doug Pacaccio, threatened him. What really happened was that Mike had asked Doug if he would want to kill the person who hurt Tricia, and Doug said yes.

In 1998, Mike showed up at the Pacaccio’s acting like he had something to tell Tricia’s parents. Family members came over and interrupted him before he said anything. That same year, Mike followed his oldest brother to Los Angeles County, California, thousands of miles away, presumably to escape police scrutiny.

The Profile of a Predator

By 1999, Michael Gargiulo had gotten a role as a boxer in a student film and worked as a doorman at a club on the Sunset Strip. He was fired from that job for assaulting a patron. Mike’s old friends and coworkers explain that he never had a problem with women, and he seemed to always have multiple girlfriends. He was 6’2”, attractive, and athletic. Mike met his girlfriends in online chat rooms, through web dating services, and at work, bars, and clubs. He fathered two children and was married once.

Mike’s romantic partners recount problems with his lying, odd habits (like being out all night), and physical and sexual abuse. Coworkers and friends of victims who encountered Mike remember that he could be withdrawn, quiet, and standoffish but also a braggart, and childhood friends remember his sudden aggressive outbursts. They all knew he carried knives and was skilled in using them.

Los Angeles County police would learn that Mike utilized his social charms and planted seeds of truth in his stories, often borrowing details from people close to him and embellishing them to fit his current persona. “He was kind of a braggart and b***s*** artist,” they said. “He would meet and befriend and associate with these women and form a superficial relationship with them — and ultimately, they would end up dead. He’s every woman’s nightmare.”

Before investigators had narrowed in on Michael Gargiulo as a suspect in Ashley Ellerin’s 2001 murder, they felt the perpetrator had to have personal knowledge of her life and activities, live near her, and had been stalking her. Mike lived within eye or earshot of all his victims, and in some cases had reason to enter their homes. He was witnessed stalking most of them prior to the attacks.

When a DNA Match Wasn’t Enough

Police finally apprehended Mike in December 2002, and although he fought it aggressively, they were able to collect a blood sample from him. It wouldn’t be until September 2003, a full 10 years after Tricia Pacaccio’s murder, that Mike’s DNA was matched to the DNA on her fingernails.

Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to an arrest in either county. Police in Los Angeles County couldn’t arrest Mike because there was no physical evidence connecting him to Ashley Ellerin’s murder, and they didn’t have the jurisdiction to charge him with Tricia’s murder in another state. Detective Small still applauds the Cook County detectives. “They actually went back over this stuff and did everything they could,” Small said. “It was the State’s Attorney’s Office that is not filing.”

They refused to file charges because the medical examiner used the same cotton swab on top of and underneath Tricia’s fingernails. If Mike’s DNA was present on top of her fingernails rather than underneath them, which was now impossible to tell, then it was possible his DNA was transferred via casual contact (touching, hugging, etc.), and that, they argue, was plausible since Mike was at the Pacaccio’s home so often.

However, Tricia interacted with dozens of her friends and family in the hours leading up to her death, including her boyfriend, holding hands, hugging, etc. Yet the only DNA recovered from Tricia’s fingernails was her own and Mike’s. What’s more, Tricia’s and Mike’s DNA was a 50/50 mix, making it even more unlikely that Mike’s DNA got there through casual transfer.

Detective Small went on to say that “in totality of the circumstances and physical evidence, out here, we would prosecute it. Frankly, I think it’s a bunch of shenanigans, but it’s not my say.” He says the State’s Attorney’s Office must “answer to the Pacaccios on why they aren’t moving on it. And not just to the Pacaccios. To all of Gargiulo’s other alleged victims, and their families and friends.”

Because of Cook County’s reluctance to prosecute, in September 2003, 27-year-old Michael Gargiulo was a free man. The girlfriend Mike was living with at the time kicked him out around the same time, but not because of the investigation. The relationship turned sour when Mike asked her for a loan, then punched her when she refused. He threatened to kill her, bragging that he had enough forensics knowledge to get away with it. She filed a restraining order because he began stalking her after their breakup.

Maria Bruno, 32

December 1, 2005

El Monte, Los Angeles County, California

Michael Gargiulo wasn’t single long. In 2005, now 29, Mike moved to an apartment in El Monte with a new girlfriend who was pregnant with his second child. She complained that Mike was physically abusive, stayed up all night, and would come and go at all hours. She suspected him of cheating on her, and he was.

For six months in 2005, Mike dated Yadira Reyes. On their last date, Mike forced her into the back of his work van and raped her. When he dropped her off at home, Mike threatened her, telling her that he memorized her work schedule and would hurt her and her family if she reported what happened. Yadira kept her silence until 2015, when her aunt saw photos of her circulating on the news in connection with Mike’s murder trial. Police found the photos while searching Mike’s computer and were concerned Yadira was another victim.

Mike’s girlfriend moved out of their shared apartment over Thanksgiving weekend 2005, just days before another woman was murdered in the same apartment complex. When she asked Mike about the murder afterward, he related personal details about the 32-year-old victim, Maria Bruno, intimate information about her life and routines. She was an El Salvadorian immigrant with four children who had just left her abusive husband. How did Mike learn these details when Maria only lived at the apartment complex 10 days, and Mike was never home?  Mike went on: he thought Maria was “gorgeous,” especially mentioning her breasts. A neighbor remembered Mike once commenting, “that’s how I like ‘em, thin with large breasts,” when Maria walked by.

Mike also told his girlfriend how he had helped Maria carry her groceries in, but a neighbor remembered it differently. He saw a man who looked like Mike staring into Maria’s apartment, trying her door, once trailing her into her apartment while she was unloading groceries. “She went into the apartment, and he followed her in,” he told police. “The minute he stepped over the threshold, he backed out and the door was shut in his face.” Another neighbor recalled Mike doing something similar to her – he showed up at her apartment, asked to borrow something, then followed her inside uninvited when she went to retrieve it.

On Wednesday, November 30, 2005, Maria Bruno met up with her estranged husband, Irving Bruno, for a date. They spent several hours out together, eating, drinking, and talking. Maria was too impaired to drive, so Irving drove her back to her apartment. The couple had sex, and Maria, still intoxicated, fell asleep afterward. Irving covered her up, dressed, and left her apartment at about 2:45 am.

Sometime after Irving left, Maria’s killer entered her apartment by slicing the screen of her kitchen window and climbing through. He stabbed her while she was lying in bed, inflicting 17 deep wounds to her neck, chest, abdomen, left arm, and left leg. He effectively ripped out Maria’s throat in the process. Post-mortem, he cut off her breasts and attempted to remove her implants. He placed one breast in her mouth and the other next to her head before escaping back out the kitchen window. Maria’s blood droplets led from her bed to the kitchen, where the killer likely stashed his bloody clothing and knife before exiting back through the window.

Irving Bruno returned to his estranged wife’s apartment the next morning to pick her up for work. But Maria didn’t answer the door, and Irving noticed her kitchen window screen was missing. He crawled in the open window and soon discovered Maria’s mutilated, exposed body, lying face up in a pool of blood. He removed Maria’s breast from her mouth before calling 911.

Police found a three-pack of knives on Maria’s kitchen floor with the chef’s knife missing. The chef’s knife was never recovered and is believed to be the murder weapon. Police also locate a blue shoe covering with Maria’s blood on it outside her apartment. They find an unknown male’s DNA profile in the elastic band that would have gripped the attacker’s ankle – it’s not a match to Irving Bruno, and they don’t get a match in the database. Police pulled each resident’s criminal history “and nobody appeared to have a serious arrest record.” They interviewed neighbors, but Michael Gargiulo was never available and didn’t respond to cards left at his apartment.

Investigators didn’t follow up with Mike until 2008, three years later, after they matched his DNA from Michelle Murphy’s attack to the profile they found outside Maria Bruno’s apartment. Over the years, girlfriends, customers, and coworkers observed Mike wearing the same shoe coverings on his repair jobs. Now, it’s believed that Mike would wear the coverings to protect his shoes during an attack and/or to prevent trailing blood evidence outside of his victims’ homes.

A Serial M.O.

Mike left very little physical evidence behind, but the circumstantial case against him was phenomenal. The biggest factor to consider was the extreme coincidence that Mike could live in such close proximity to all four women at the time of their attacks. A judge summed it up well when he said, “in this case, everywhere that Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed.”

Beyond that, and beyond the specific ways Michael Gargiulo is connected to each victim and crime scene, there are overwhelming similarities in the way each attack occurred.

All the victims were young, attractive women who were very petite – around five feet tall and thin. Prior to the attacks, Mike expressed sexual attraction toward each victim, but none of the victims were sexually assaulted.

He used a knife in every attack, stabbing the women around their neck and breasts numerous times, leaving deep wounds in a similar pattern. Responding officers and medical examiners often described the attacks as “angry” and “aggressive,” a level of violence that is rare to see in real life. Mike also posed and/or mutilated each of the victims’ bodies afterward.

Police never recovered a murder weapon and, given the nature of the crime and the amount of blood at each scene, it’s remarkable that Mike almost never left physical evidence behind either (just that shoe covering outside Maria Bruno’s apartment, and of course his own blood after cutting himself while attacking Michelle Murphy). During an undercover investigation while Mike was in prison, he alluded to discarding evidence in dumpsters or at dumps in other towns.

Mike never stole from his victims. The timing and location of his attacks also make a random robbery gone wrong or attack by a stranger seem unlikely. All the women were ambushed in or around their homes at night in a densely populated area, often in a narrow window of time when they were alone, either right before or after bedtime, or right after being with someone. These were high risk attacks, implying that Mike planned his attack ahead of time, waited for his opportunity to strike, and was confident in his ability to get away with it.

Mike told girlfriends that he studied forensics and knew how to get away with murder, providing details about how he would destroy evidence and change his signature. Police found a program on his computer called “evidence eliminator.” One girlfriend recalled him frequently reading The Anarchist Cookbook, which includes a section on knife attack techniques similar to what Mike used in the murders, especially how to surprise and silence your victim immediately. Furthermore, Mike talked openly to many acquaintances about his DNA connection to Tricia Pacaccio’s murder but always claimed that he was being framed.

Delayed Justice in Cook County

All that bragging would catch up to him in 2011 when an episode of CBS’s 48 Hours covered Mike Gargiulo’s crimes. It explained why he still hadn’t been charged in Tricia Pacaccio’s murder. Two of his former club coworkers recognized him from the show and came forward. They referred to Mike as “Mr. Storyteller” and thought he was joking or trying to one-up them when he confessed to Tricia’s murder. His coworkers were swapping stories about their criminal pasts when Mike chimed in that he had killed a girl back home, left her dead on her doorstep, and was too crafty to be caught.  

With these additional witness statements, on July 7, 2011, Cook County’s State Attorney finally charged Michael Gargiulo with Tricia Pacaccio’s murder.

But in this case, justice delayed feels more like justice denied, considering that Mike was the prime suspect in Tricia’s murder early on, and how many women he was able to victimize after Cook County’s inaction. Tricia’s mother summed it up best when she said, “I don’t know why they didn’t put him in jail…I just don’t understand it…These girls could have been alive.”

Defense Theories

Michael Gargiulo successfully delayed his Los Angeles County trial until 2019 while negotiating his legal representation. Trial experts diagnosed Mike with antisocial personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder, which he didn’t take well. “He did not believe he had a mental illness,” said one psychologist. “He was upset that I was pursuing this. He said I was a liar.”

Experts turned to Mike’s family and school records to complete their evaluations. They discovered that, despite his average intelligence, Mike had been in special education classes from age 10 until graduation due to poor emotional regulation and disruptive behaviors. A former teacher at Mike’s high school remembered him being “a little off the wall.”

Mike had been hospitalized for dissociative episodes as a child, but his parents didn’t follow up on recommended psychotherapy. Mike’s father disclosed that all seven of his children had been treated for psychiatric conditions, including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

Mike’s father and siblings also admitted to severely abusing Mike during his childhood. This included being hit in the head with objects like golf clubs and baseball bats, being hogtied and secluded in a basement closet for two or three days at a time, and having his hands held over the open flame of the stove. They all felt that Mike was the weak link in the family. His siblings maintained an attitude of “better him than me,” and would blame Mike for things they did to avoid punishment.

All of this information came from Mike Gargiulo’s family members. Mike said he didn’t remember it. None of Mike’s family supported him at trial except for his 16-year-old son who asked that his father be spared the death penalty.

Mike’s defense team argued that childhood abuse was the catalyst behind his dissociative identity disorder onset, and that he’s capable of acting violently today when triggered. This was their explanation for his attack on Michelle Murphy – that something had triggered a dissociative episode and he didn’t snap out of it until he cut himself. Prosecutors dismissed this idea, emphasizing Mike’s careful planning and actions prior to the attack.

In Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno’s murders, Mike’s attorneys argued third party culpability, pointing the finger at Ashley’s property manager Mark Durbin and Maria’s husband Irving Bruno. Both men were extremely cooperative with investigators, and no evidence connects them with the murders.

As far as his DNA ending up on Tricia Pacaccio’s fingernails the night she was murdered, Mike said, “DNA does not prove that someone, somebody committed a crime. DNA just pretty much says that the person was present or could have been present.”

He went on: “I’m one hundred percent innocent. This is a real nightmare that I’m living. Personally, I feel and know one hundred percent that I don’t deserve this…Everything good about me and the fair person that I am is not even out there and that’s just wrong.”

Mike was also known to tell friends that if you ever get caught for something, you should “lie, lie, lie until you die.”

A Los Angeles County jury delivered guilty verdicts for Michelle Murphy’s attack, Maria Bruno’s murder, and Ashley Ellerin’s murder. Michael Gargiulo was sentenced to death.

Were There More Victims?

During the trial’s penalty phase, five additional victims came forward to testify about what Mike had done to them. One was the former girlfriend Mike raped in 2005. “Suzanne C.” and an unnamed victim also testified that Mike had raped them. “Ashley G.” testified that Mike entered her Beverly Hills apartment uninvited and held a knife to her throat when she was just 16 years old. Another unnamed victim testified that Mike had assaulted her too.

Investigators believe Mike Gargiulo is responsible for more murder victims, perhaps as many as 10, although they haven’t publicly linked him to any cold cases. Since Mike travelled regularly between Illinois and California, they believe he could have attacked women in other states. We researched unsolved knife murders in the areas he lived that shared major similarities to the four known victims’ cases, and we found five cold cases bearing a strong resemblance.

Whether they’re connected or not, these victims deserve justice too.

Cynthia Chemler, 22

June 2, 1993

Found at Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve, River Forest, Cook County, Illinois

Lived at 605 Park Avenue, River Forest, Cook County, Illinois

Cynthia Chemler was a 22-year-old nursing student living with her parents who had just returned to the area after a three-year absence. She was the same age as Mike Gargiulo’s oldest brother. Her body was discovered in a wooded area that she frequented with friends, in clear view of a popular trail and close to a well-travelled road. She was fully clothed and stabbed 10 times. There were no signs of sexual assault or robbery. A week prior, another stabbing victim was found in a nearby forest, although that murder was solved and isn’t connected to Cynthia’s. This stands out – Michael Gargiulo was known to implicate others in his murders and mimic others.

June 3, 1993: River Forest Nursing Student, 22, Found Fatally Stabbed in Woods (Chicago Tribune)

June 4, 1993: Slain River Forest Student May Have Been ‘Naïve,’ Police Say (Chicago Tribune)

Shana Jaros, 18

November 1, 1995

527 South Maple, Nokomis, Montgomery County, Illinois

Shana Jaros was an 18-year-old nursing student who had only been living in her apartment – on her own for the first time – for a week. She was killed after her friends left the Halloween poker party she threw at her place, and none of those guests are considered suspects. Shana’s landlady discovered her the next morning, stabbed 54 times around her neck and breasts, her throat slashed ear-to-ear, and left in view of her open door. She was fully clothed and partially covered with a quilt. There were no signs of robbery, forced entry, or sexual assault. No one heard anything unusual or witnessed anyone coming or going from her apartment after the poker party.

June 22, 2021: Illinois Cold Case: Who Killed Shana Marie Jaros? (Medium)

Nicolette Hayes, 13

February 19, 1999

1100 block of North Dudley Street, Pomona, Los Angeles County, California

Nicolette Hayes was just 13 years old when she was killed in the same bedroom where her two younger siblings were sleeping. Her mother left the house for a few hours and returned to find Nicolette stabbed to death, her body lying on the bedroom floor. Her siblings were still asleep and unharmed. There were no signs of robbery, forced entry, or sexual assault, and her family members were cleared.

February 22, 1999: Clues Sought in Killing of Pomona Girl, 13 (Los Angeles Times)

February 23, 1999: Death of Girl Found Stabbed at Home Remains a Mystery (Los Angeles Times)

Lorella “Lori” Lepper, 32

November 29, 2002

1042 South La Cienega Boulevard, Apartment 10, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California

A friend and webmaster for rock musicians, 32-year-old Lori Lepper was a regular at LA’s rock clubs along the Sunset Strip. Michael Gargiulo might have seen her in 1999 when he worked as a doorman at the infamous Rainbow Bar & Grill. Lori was killed around the Thanksgiving holiday, like Maria Bruno. She was beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death overnight in her apartment. While there were no signs of sexual assault or forced entry, police believe the scene had been staged to look like a robbery. Michael Gargiulo is associated with an address that’s about a two mile drive from Lori’s apartment in June 2002.

March 27, 2002: Unknown Lor Lepper Killer- California- 2002 (AMW Fans Forum)

Map of Lepper’s residence compared to address recorded for Gargiulo June 2002

Yanshi Wang, 43

June 17, 2007

8849 Glendon Way, Rosemead, Los Angeles County, California

An address recorded for Michael Gargiulo in December 2006 is barely one block from 43-year-old Yanshi Wang’s apartment complex. Her complex was known to house single immigrant women, and Yanshi was stabbed repeatedly in her apartment at night. She escaped, naked, and bled to death in the street. A man presumed to be her killer was captured on surveillance video parking her car in a neighboring town’s commercial lot, where he set it on fire and “calmly walked away.” The video was not enough to make an identification.

June 29, 2007: Police probe possible link in two slayings (The Sun)

February 9, 2015: Any chance of solving Rosemead woman’s 2007 murder… (Pasadena Star News)

Map of Wang’s residence compared to address recorded for Gargiulo December 2006

No Closure Just Yet

As he still asserts his “one hundred percent” innocence, Michael Gargiulo is expected to face another trial for Tricia Pacaccio’s murder. In the meantime, it’s unlikely that California will carry out his death sentence. The state’s governor ordered a moratorium on the death penalty since Mike’s sentencing, and they haven’t executed a prisoner since 2006. There were already more than 700 death row inmates in California prior to Mike, making it even less likely that he will be executed.

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