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[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
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any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential
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support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on
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our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable
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for all listeners. [Music] In 1978, 9-year-old Tammy Moore had an exceptionally close relationship with
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her mother, Marie Moore. Marie adored Tammy, and she loved being a mom. She had told Tammy that she never felt loved
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by her own parents. Even though Marie was an only child, she'd always felt starved of
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attention and affection. She told Tammy that her mother and father had always told her she was ugly and wouldn't
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amount to anything. This upbringing resulted in Marie looking for love wherever she could find
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it and constantly moving to new locations as though she was searching for something. When she unexpectedly became
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pregnant in her early 20s, Marie initially considered having an abortion. But realizing that a baby
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could be exactly what she'd been searching for, Marie decided to go through with the pregnancy and raise her
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daughter as a single parent. She was a doting and indulgent mother. Tammy could misbehave and be rude at
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times, later describing herself as a rotten child, but Marie never disciplined or reprimanded
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her. Tammy didn't feel as though she was missing anything by not knowing her father. There were lots of other single
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parent families in their neighborhood, and it wasn't unusual for the kids that she knew to not have a dad around.
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But she did wonder sometimes who her father was. One evening, Tammy and Marie were
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watching television. Out of nowhere, Tammy turned around to face her mother and asked,
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"Who's my dad?" Marie pointed at the TV set and said, "He's your dad." She was pointing at American singer
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songwriter Billy Joel, who was currently on the show they had been watching. In 1978, Billy Joel was one of
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the biggest names in pop music, having released an album the previous year titled The Stranger that went certified
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platinum. Marie told Tammy that when she was younger, she'd had an affair with Billy Joel, which had resulted in
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Tammy's conception. That's why you can sing, she said. Tammy was thrilled by this news,
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but Marie cautioned her that she wasn't to tell anybody. If people knew, they would
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treat her differently. It had to be kept a secret. [Music] By 1981, Marie and Tammy were living in
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an apartment in a narrow three-story weatherboard house in the city of Patterson, New Jersey, the state where
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Marie had been born and raised. Their household had also grown. Marie's friend, 50-year-old Mary
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Gardulo, had moved in with them. Although she was 15 years older than Marie, the two women were
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close. Marie had also taken custody of 12-year-old Harriet Bane, who was the daughter of a
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friend. Harriet's family had been going through a difficult time, so Marie had offered to take her in.
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It helped that Harriet was the same age as Tammy and the two got along well. The Moore home was often bustling
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with other visitors who didn't live there as well. During the summer of 1981, it
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became a popular place for neighborhood kids to hang out. 35year-old Marie Moore was always
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happy to play host and was seen as a fun and cool mother. She took her daughter Tammy and her
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friends on outings to the beach, bowling alleys, and amusement parks. On other occasions, they'd just
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stay at home singing songs at the top of their lungs around the kitchen table. It was a fun and rockous
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environment for the pre-teens to escape to. Everybody was welcome, and they could stay as long as they wanted.
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Three children who regularly spent time at the moors were Marie's godaughter, 12-year-old Theresa Fury, 13-year-old
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Louisis Montalvo, and 14-year-old Ricky Flores. Tammy Moore thought Ricky was handsome, and she soon started dating
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the boy, who was 2 years her senior. It was very much a youthful romance and wasn't
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serious. Over the course of the summer, the children's attachment to Tammy's mother, Marie, led to Harriet, Theresa,
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Lewis, and Ricky all calling her Mah as well. Together, they formed a tight-knit
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unit that spent every day together. On Sunday, September 13, 1981, once all of the children were back at
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school, Marie Moore decided to let them in on her and Tammy's secret. She told the four other children
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that Tammy's real father was the pop star Billy Joel. Marie explained that she and Billy
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had been married some years earlier. Marie's friend, Mary Gardulo, who also lived in the apartment, was
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already aware of this connection. Marie had told her several years ago of her involvement with the famous singer
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songwriter to everyone else. This news came as a [Music] surprise. But that wasn't all. Marie
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told them that Billy Joel had decided to become more involved in their lives to help restore some order to the Moore
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residents. The household had become too chaotic during the summer, and Billy wanted this
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to be corrected. The children were confused by this sudden announcement. A few minutes later, the
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home's telephone rang in the living room. Marie went to answer it. She called out that it was Billy on
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the phone. Harriet, Theresa, Lewis, and Ricky were to join her in the living room, but
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Tammy, and Marie's 50-year-old housemate, Mary, were not. Everyone did as they were asked,
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with Tammy and Mary staying away while the other four children gathered around Marie in the living
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room. They listened as Marie began relaying instructions from Billy on the other line.
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She explained that they were each to start performing whatever household chores Billy asked of
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them. Every day before school, they were to go to the Moore residence to complete
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their chores, which would change on a weekly basis. Marie said that Billy had also
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demanded that Ricky Flores become engaged to Tammy despite the pair's young ages and the fact that they were
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not in a serious relationship. Ricky was to be in charge of the household alongside Marie to see if he
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would make a suitable husband for Tammy. Marie added that in addition to being a pop star, Billy Joel was in the
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mafia. He had organized crime connections who would harm the children's families if they disobeyed
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him. If they did not do as told, or if they told anybody outside of the home what
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was going on, then Billy would arrange for a bomb to detonate at the [Music] resident. The children were shocked and
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scared. They liked and trusted Marie and had no reason to believe she would lie to them. Plus, they had all heard the
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phone ring in the other room while she was busy talking to them. That seemed to prove that Billy
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Joel really was contacting her. Mary Gardulo had become distraught and afraid upon hearing about the phone
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call and was clearly already aware of Billy's role in Marie's life and the danger he
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imposed. Her reaction appeared to be confirmation of Marie's claims. So, the children did as they were told.
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Every day after school and sometimes before as well, they made their way to the Moore's apartment, ready to do
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whatever Billy needed them to. Marie would be waiting with a list of rules and tasks that Billy had
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provided over the phone. The children set about completing their chores. These included cleaning
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the bathroom, dusting surfaces, and washing the dishes. Marie told Ricky that as head of
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the household, he had to inspect everything after they finished. If the chores hadn't been
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completed to Billy's satisfaction or performed quickly enough, then Ricky would have to discipline the other
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children. On one occasion, Ricky looked everything over and told Marie that the chores had
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been done. Marie replied that Billy didn't agree. He had hidden cameras set up around the apartment so that he could
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survey the goings on remotely, and he'd told Marie that the children hadn't cleaned under the kitchen table
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properly. At this, Ricky went to check the kitchen table. There was dirt beneath it, just as Billy
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had said. This appeared to be proof that Billy was watching their every move. He went back to Marie and told her
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that Billy was right. Marie told Ricky that as punishment for not doing their chores
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properly, Billy wanted Ricky to beat the other kids with a whiffle ball bat, a long hollow plastic bat used to play a
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variation on baseball. Ricky did so as Marie remained on the phone, relaying further directions from
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Billy. A familiar routine quickly began. Each day after the children arrived at the apartment, the phone would ring and
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Billy would be on the other line. While Marie held the receiver and spoke to Billy, she would ask the
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children to recite the rules they'd been given. If anyone made a mistake or forgot a rule, then Marie ordered Ricky
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to discipline them until they could recite the rules correctly. After any punishments had
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been doled out, the kids would complete their chores with further beatings if they were deemed to have done a poor
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job. The punishments grew worse over time. Marie's daughter, Tammy, was exempt from
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the chores everyone else had to perform. Because her mother didn't want her around when Billy called, Tammy
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would excuse herself when the phone rang and usually went outside to play. But she later recalled that on one
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occasion, Ricky had entered her bedroom without asking and used a set of thumb cuffs to cuff her thumbs together,
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effectively binding her hands. He then left, closing and locking the door behind
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him. Tammy tried desperately to wiggle out of the thumbcuffs to no avail, and the whole time she could hear the other
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children crying and begging in another part of the apartment. She later found out that her
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mother and Ricky had been forcing the other children to eat cat feces. When Marie found out that Ricky had
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cuffed her daughter, she reprimanded him and removed the cuffs immediately. After their daily visits to
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the Moore residents, Lewis, Theresa, and Ricky would return to their respective homes where they said nothing about what
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was happening. They were afraid that if they did, Billy Joel and his mafia connections would harm their families as
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Marie had warned. Lewis Montalvo, who lived nearby with both of his parents, was punished less
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than the other children. Harriet Bane, who was residing with the Moors at the time, suffered the
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worst of the beatings. Because Ricky Flores had been tasked with keeping the other children
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in line, he mostly escaped physical punishment, but the threat of it was always there.
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Sometimes Marie took it upon herself to discipline him. She would occasionally hit Ricky, telling him that Billy had
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demanded it because Ricky had lied or failed to keep the others in line. One way that Ricky could escape
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abuse himself was by coming up with inventive ways to punish the other children. Marie told him that was a way
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to impress Billy. Occasionally, Marie told Ricky that he had to hit her as well. Sometimes he had to use his hands,
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other times, an item such as a book or a bat. Marie seemed to enjoy these punishments, often telling Ricky that he
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hadn't hit her hard enough. Ricky was also given other jobs to perform. Marie was a recreational
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drug user, but she said that Billy wanted her to stop this habit. He asked Ricky to take possession of some pills
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she had as well as her house keys. That way, she wouldn't be able to take the drugs or go out at
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night. Ricky agreed, keeping these items hidden at his own home. Apparently, Billy had also changed his
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mind about wanting Ricky to marry his daughter, Tammy. Marie told Ricky that Billy now
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wanted him to break up with her instead. Ricky did so. By midocctober, the abusive dynamic
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had been in place for over a month. Ricky had stopped attending school so he could be at the Moore residence all day
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long. This was supposedly what Billy wanted. On Friday, October 16, Marie Moore placed a phone call to Ricky's
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parents informing them that Ricky was planning to work at the Jersey Shore that weekend, so wouldn't be returning
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home. This upset Ricky's mother. She didn't approve of the amount of time her son was spending with Marie Moore and
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had already told him to come straight home after school that day. Her suspicions peaked. Ricky's mother
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phoned her son's school to check up on him. She was informed that he hadn't been attending school
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lately. Apparently, a woman who had identified herself as his mother had called to let them know Ricky had heard
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his back and would be taking some sick leave. Ricky's parents planned to confront their son, but he didn't come
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home that night. He spent the entire weekend at the moors, returning home on the night of
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Sunday, October 18. His mother confronted him when he got back, informing him that he was now
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grounded. She or his father would drive him to and from school every day so they
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could make sure he was in class. This new system was implemented the following day.
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As Ricky's mother drove her son to school, she noticed she was being trailed by a Ford Pinto, the same car
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that Marie Moore drove. The same thing happened when she picked Ricky up from school and
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continued throughout the entire week. 5 days went by without Ricky Flores following violent orders that had
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supposedly been demanded by Billy Joel. On the morning of Saturday, October 24, Ricky left his house and ran
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to a nearby corner where Marie was waiting to pick him up. When he got in her car, Marie said that he had to move
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into her home for 4 weeks. Billy was ordering it as a way to help Marie stop taking drugs for
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good. He wasn't to tell his parents where he was going, but he should keep checking in with them so they knew he
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was safe. Ricky wanted to help Marie get better, so he agreed to this plan. But the temporary situation became
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more permanent about a week later when Marie informed Ricky that his mother had filed a police complaint against
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him. This meant she didn't care about him. Marie explained he would have to keep living with
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her. It was true that Mrs. Flores had filed a police complaint against Ricky for being quote weward and
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incourageable, but she had only done so in a desperate attempt to get her some back. Even though Ricky was still
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calling her two or three times every day, he was deliberately distant when they spoke, just repeatedly affirming
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that he was happy he no longer lived at home and had no plans to move back. Mrs. Flores suspected that Ricky
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was living at Marie Moore's home and repeatedly called Marie to ask where he was. Marie denied knowing anything
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regarding Ricky's whereabouts and even invited Mrs. Flores to come over and search the house
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herself. Mrs. Flores declined this offer, instead reporting the matter to the police.
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Officers and case workers from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, New Jersey's then state
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agency that investigated cases relating to child abuse, paid several visits to the Moore home over the next month, but
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never found any trace of Ricky. Whenever they attended the property, Marie would make him hide in a
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crawl space located in one of the bedrooms. Not long after Ricky moved into the Moor's apartment, Marie Moore came home
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one day with some alarming news. Tammy, Mary Gardullo, Ricky, Lewis, Harriet, and Theresa all gathered
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around as Marie told them that some of Billy's men had made her pull over while she was driving home.
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Against her will, they'd injected her with a drug, something that would allow Billy to take possession of her body and
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to speak through her. Marie asked them to give her some coffee to counteract the effects of the
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drug. As Marie sat at the kitchen table sipping her coffee, she suddenly put her
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mug down and covered her face with her hands. She sat that way for a couple of minutes, then lowered her hands
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again. Marie's facial expression was different. It was meaner than usual. Her entire demeanor had changed,
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and when she spoke, her voice sounded cold and angry. It was also deeper, like a
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man's. "I'm not Marie, I'm Billy," she said. She began verbally abusing the children
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and barking orders at them. She also swore at them a lot, which was something Marie never
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did. From then on, the daily phone calls from Billy stopped. Whenever there were demands
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from him to be passed on, Marie would sit and hold her face in her hands as Billy took possession of her.
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She would then shout commands at Ricky, who would do her bidding. Lewis Montalvo was struggling
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with the ongoing abuse and torture. Unlike some of the other children, Lewis came from a stable home
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and his parents were still together. They lived nearby and Lewis had a curfew he had to follow each
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evening. Nevertheless, he didn't dare tell his family about what happened when he went
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to Marie Moore's house each day in case it put them in harm's way. Lewis later said that one day while
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he was at Marie's home, he had tried to kill himself. Quote, "I was just tired of all the beating and everything that
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happened to me." Lewis had gone upstairs to the attic window and was planning to jump
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out of it. Suddenly, Ricky chased after him and took him back downstairs to Marie. Then the phone began to
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ring. It was Billy and Marie passed on his message. Even if Lewis killed himself,
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it wouldn't matter because his family would still be killed, too. That put a stop to any thoughts of
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suicide. One day at the end of October, Marie called Lewis into the living room where
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she was sitting with Ricky. She said that Billy had decided Lewis didn't have to visit the Moore
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household anymore. He could return home that day and never come back. But first, Ricky would give him
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something to remind him not to say anything. Ricky then escorted Lewis to Mary Gardulo's bedroom and told Lewis to
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raise his hands over his head. Lewis did as he was told. Ricky began beating him with his
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fists, giving him a bloody nose. When he was done, Lewis went home and never went to Marie's apartment
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again. He didn't tell his parents about anything that had happened over the past
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month and a half. He was too scared that if he did, they would become victims of
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Billy [Music] Joel. After Lewis left, the pattern at the Moore residence continued without
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him. Harriet Bane and Theresa Fury had to do whatever they were told and Ricky would
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administer punishments as expected. Several times a day he would beat them with a whiffle ball bat.
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Sometimes he hit them with heavy books instead after Billy Joel told him the bat wasn't hard
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enough. Harriet would later recall being made to lie naked on a bed while Ricky beat her with a book.
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The radio was turned up high so the neighbors wouldn't hear her scream. As a full-time resident of the
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household with no family nearby, Harriet was still receiving the worst assaults. Initially, Mary Gardulo, Marie
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Moore's 50-year-old housemate, was spared from the abuse that the children were subjected to.
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She was obviously terrified of Billy, but still tried to intervene where she could by attempting to stop Ricky from
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hurting Harriet. This prompted Marie to pass along a message from Billy. Mary was
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being too nosy and was butdding in, so she would have to start doing chores as well. Ricky was told to include Mary in
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his punishments. From then on, he started beating her as well. Marie Moore began to keep her
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windows nailed shut and doors almost always closed. This prevented sounds from the victims being overheard by
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neighbors who lived on other floors of the building or in the houses that sat close next
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door. It also prevented those inside from leaving. A couple of times after the abuse had begun, Harriet Bane had tried
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to escape without success. On Friday, November 27, 1981, the day after Thanksgiving, and more
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than 2 months into the abuse, Harriet made a third attempt to flee. This time, she succeeded, running
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from the house barefoot and jacketless into the cold late autumn weather. Her first thought was to run to her
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brother's house. He lived in Loi, which was 7 mi southeast of Patterson. Harriet ran in that general
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direction, but didn't know exactly where to go. A few times, she stopped to ask nearby strangers for directions.
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She managed to make her way to Elmwood Park, a neighborhood 5 mi east of where she'd started in Patterson and just 2 mi
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from her brother's home. However, one of the people Harriet asked for directions became concerned by
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her appearance. They phoned the police, reporting that a girl without a jacket or shoes was wandering around Elmwood
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Park. Some officers were dispatched and began driving towards where Harriet was last
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seen. They caught up to her on Route 46, a busy highway that runs from east to west New
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Jersey. Harriet was wandering along the four-lane highway, still barefoot and cold. When she spotted the police car,
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she ran in fear, but the officers were able to catch up to her. They took her to their station and
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Harriet gave them a statement. She didn't provide them with Marie Moore's name or that of Ricky
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Flores and refused to disclose exactly where she had come from. Harriet was terrified of being
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sent back to Marie's house. However, she did explain some of the abuse she'd suffered and said that someone named
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boss or sir had been beating her at the direction of another individual. Harriet was later taken to a
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hospital to be examined. Her body was covered with bruises and other injuries that
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confirmed she'd been the victim of serious violence. Harriet was kept in the hospital for one
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week and provided further statements while there. After speaking with two case workers from the Division of Child
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Protection and Permanency, Harriet finally revealed the full details of her story, telling them about Billy Joel and
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his connections to the mafia. She gave them Ricky and Marie's names as well as Marie's address.
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The case workers were stunned by the story, which sounded implausible and outlandish. Nevertheless, they opened an
00:28:53
investigation into the matter, beginning with a visit to Marie Moore. Marie listened calmly as the two
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DYFS case workers told her of the allegations against her. She denied that Ricky Flores lived there or that there
00:29:11
had been any violence under her roof. Presenting as trustworthy and believable, Marie suggested that maybe
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Harriet had fantasized this entire incredible tale. The case workers were inclined to
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listen to her. Even though Harriet had clearly been beaten, the story she'd told was hard to
00:29:34
believe. Nor could they see any indication that Ricky Flores was residing at Marie's home.
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Unsure what else to do, they recommended that Harriet Bane not return to Marie's
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apartment and sent the 12-year-old to complete a 90-day program at a mental health diagnostic center
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instead. The case workers later recommended the case be investigated by Patterson police, but for some reason it
00:30:04
wasn't picked up. DYFS didn't check in again to find out why. Back at the Moore residence, Harriet's
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escape had created havoc. Marie told Ricky that Harriet had been killed. Billy Joel had run her down
00:30:25
in his car. Ricky took this seriously, seeing it as further evidence of Billy's power and
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danger. Privately, Marie told her daughter Tammy that she'd let Harriet go home.
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Tammy was shielded from much of the goings on in the residence and saw Ricky as the household's
00:30:47
aggressor. To her, this proved that her mother was helping where possible by letting Harriet
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leave. For Mary Gardulo and Theresa Fury, Harriet's escape led to worse punishments. In the weeks after Harriet
00:31:05
fled, Ricky Flores began forcing the two to undress and would then thumbcuff each
00:31:10
of them naked. One of their thumbs would be cuffed to one of their big toes, and
00:31:17
they would both have to lie on their stomachs in this uncomfortable position for up to an
00:31:22
hour. Ricky continued to inflict beatings with the bat and books. Sometimes he kicked them as well or
00:31:31
burnt them with cigarettes. Months went by like this with the violence against Mary and
00:31:39
Theresa escalating as Ricky felt the increasing pressure from Billy. One morning in January 1982,
00:31:47
Ricky was having a conversation with Marie in the kitchen. Marie was possessed by Billy at
00:31:55
the time and was talking in her gruffer, more masculine way. Speaking as Billy, she told Ricky
00:32:03
that Marie loved him and asked if he wanted to be her boyfriend or her son. Ricky replied that he saw Marie as
00:32:12
a mother. Billy told Ricky that he'd need to decide which he was going to be, warning that Ricky shouldn't hurt Marie.
00:32:22
Billy had harmed other men who had done [Music] so. Speaking as herself, Marie also put
00:32:30
pressure on Ricky. She had been diagnosed with epilepsy 6 years after having Tammy and told Ricky that
00:32:38
sometimes she had seizures at night. She asked him to sleep in her bed with her so he could help if she began having a
00:32:47
seizure. Ricky agreed. Soon, Marie told him that she was sexually attracted to him and wanted
00:32:55
them to have a physical relationship. Ricky said he'd rather not, as he still saw Marie as a
00:33:03
mother. Marie wasn't happy with this, telling Ricky, "Well, I have my needs, and if
00:33:10
they can't be met, then I have to go somewhere else." Ricky felt as though he had no other
00:33:18
option and nowhere to go. From February 1982 on, Marie began sexually abusing him. At around the same time, the Moore
00:33:33
household moved to a new apartment just down the street on Madison Avenue. Like their previous apartment, this was
00:33:42
a weatherboard home that had originally been a single dwelling. It was owned by an elderly man
00:33:49
named Ferdinando Ragusa, who Marie was friends with. They would be residing on the second floor, while Ferdinando was
00:33:57
on the ground floor. Marie and Tammy Moore, Ricky Flores, and Mary Gardulo all lived at the apartment,
00:34:06
while Theresa Fury still returned to her grandmother's house at night to sleep. Months went by and the terrible
00:34:15
abuses continued. In late May 1982, Mary Gardullo hatched a plan to escape. On the evening of Sunday, May
00:34:26
30, Mary told Marie that she wanted to take a shift at work the following day, which was Memorial Day. Because it was a
00:34:34
holiday, Mary would make time and a half instead of her usual wage. Marie agreed, intending to take
00:34:43
Mary's earnings for herself. She let Mary leave the home the next day without incident.
00:34:52
Mary wasn't really rosted on that day. She had just wanted access to a telephone. She used the phone at work to
00:35:00
call her siblings and ask for help. They collected their sister and drove her to Tom's River on the Jersey
00:35:08
Shore about an hour and a half's drive from Patterson. After hearing Mary's story,
00:35:14
her siblings had her speak with the detective from the Tom's River Police Department.
00:35:20
Over 3 hours, Mary gradually opened up to the detective. She showed him the bruises
00:35:27
and burns that covered her body. He later described Mary as very distraught and emotionally destroyed and in very,
00:35:37
very poor physical condition. Mary was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and provided an official
00:35:46
statement about the physical abuse and torture Ricky Flores had inflicted on her. Mary said that a child named
00:35:54
Theresa Fury was also being abused in the same way and provided Marie Moore's address where they could find her.
00:36:03
Mary said that Marie knew everything that was going on, but made no mention of singer songwriter Billy Joel's
00:36:11
supposed involvement. Given Marie's home was out of their jurisdiction and it involved
00:36:21
the abuse of a minor, the Tom's River Police referred the matter to the PA County Division of Child Protection and
00:36:28
Permanency and the Juvenile Division of the Patterson Police Department. On Monday, June 7, DFS
00:36:37
assigned the case to social worker Kathy Delipesca, who followed the matter up immediately.
00:36:44
She went to the school that Tammy Moore and Theresa Fury attended and spoke to both girls about Mary's
00:36:52
allegations. The girls said they knew nothing about any violence in the home, but said they had recently seen Ricky
00:36:59
Flores there. This was significant as Ricky was still missing from his parents' home.
00:37:08
After these conversations, Kathy Delipesca visited Marie Moore to ask her about the
00:37:15
allegations. Marie adamantly denied them, telling Kathy that Theresa was her godchild and she would never allow her
00:37:22
to be harmed. She also stated that she hadn't seen Ricky Flores in about 6 months.
00:37:30
When Kathy informed Marie that both girls said they'd recently seen Ricky in the Moore home, Marie corrected herself
00:37:38
and said he'd just visited briefly a few weeks earlier. Kathy Delipesca returned to her
00:37:46
office to conduct some further investigations, including speaking with the case worker who'd handled Harriet
00:37:53
Bane's case 7 months earlier. Deciding the issue was serious enough to warrant action, Kathy went back to the
00:38:02
Moore residence later that same day with three detectives from the Patterson Police
00:38:08
Department. Two of the detectives headed around the back of the residence while Kathy and a detective from the
00:38:14
department's juvenile division knocked on the front door. Marie Moore let them in. When Theresa Fury saw the officials
00:38:25
standing there, she tried to escape via the back door only to be stopped by the waiting
00:38:32
detectives. Meanwhile, Kathy Delipesca and the other detective were grilling Marie about the suspected
00:38:40
abuse. Marie repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Kathy asked Theresa to remove some of her clothing to check for
00:38:49
injuries. As Theresa did so, Kathy noticed significant bruising. Both Theresa and Marie seemed
00:38:59
surprised by this with Theresa explaining that she must have fallen at school. Kathy Delipesca arranged for
00:39:09
Theresa to visit a doctor who said the girl's bruises weren't consistent with a fall.
00:39:15
She had cigarette burns and other injuries that indicated she had been beaten by another
00:39:22
person. The day after this appointment, Kathy took Theresa and Harriet Bane to the police station to make
00:39:30
statements. Harriet, who'd escaped from the Moore home 7 months earlier, was more forthcoming.
00:39:37
She explained that Ricky Flores administered the beatings, but that he did so at the instruction of Billy Joel,
00:39:45
who spoke through Marie Moore. Theresa was reluctant to talk until the police told her they were only
00:39:54
interested in arresting Ricky. She made allegations against him, but adamantly defended Marie.
00:40:03
Marie was summoned for questioning that same day. Initially, she persisted in denying
00:40:11
everything. Her tone began to change, however, when detectives showed her a statement made by Mary
00:40:19
Gardulo. Marie began to change her tune, conceding that there had been violence in her home.
00:40:27
She said that on a recent weekend, Ricky Flores had visited and made sexual advances towards her. When she rejected
00:40:35
him, he became violent. Mary Gardulo had rushed to her defense, prompting Ricky to lash out at
00:40:43
her as well. Marie said she'd never seen Ricky hurt Theresa, but said he'd threatened
00:40:51
to harm her own daughter, Tammy, if she reported him. That was why she'd denied the
00:40:58
allegations so firmly. Marie denied knowing where Ricky was now. Detectives told her to call them if
00:41:08
she saw him, and Marie agreed. Investigators chased up Lewis Montalvo to see if he could verify any of the
00:41:17
claims made from his own time spent at the home, but Lewis said he knew nothing about
00:41:27
them. Over the next few months, the case remained open. DYFS case workers checked in on
00:41:35
Theresa Fury every so often. 12-year-old Theresa hadn't had an easy start to life. She had been raised by
00:41:44
her maternal grandparents since she was two. Theresa's mother struggled with the
00:41:50
drug addiction and so her parents took Theresa in. When she was about 8 years old, her
00:41:56
father had died of cancer. A few years later, in March 1980, Theresa's grandfather died. One
00:42:05
month after that, her mother passed away from a drug overdose. At just 10 years old, Theresa
00:42:13
was an orphan. It was just her and her grandmother, Catherine Joyer, at home. Despite the early grief and loss
00:42:23
Theresa had experienced, she had a lot of joy in her life. She loved swimming, dancing, and playing baseball.
00:42:32
Her favorite TV show was The Brady Bunch, and she enjoyed playing video games. Theresa collected Barbie dolls
00:42:41
and had a teddy bear she slept with every night. Petite with the chestnut brown hair and brown eyes, Theresa liked
00:42:49
to wear pretty dresses. Locals in her neighborhood would often see her after school buying
00:42:56
ice cream, soda, or candy. Theresa had spoken over the years about becoming a nurse or maybe a
00:43:04
secretary. She loved Halloween and always made an effort with her costumes. But Theresa's grandmother,
00:43:13
Catherine, had noticed changes in her after she started spending more time with Marie
00:43:19
Moore. Theresa had stopped wearing the dresses she once loved, instead opting for jeans.
00:43:26
She often came home from visiting the Moore home in a bad mood with Catherine describing her as
00:43:33
cranky. The much younger Marie had tried to offer the older woman advice on raising Theresa, telling her that she
00:43:40
was too old-fashioned and old. Marie didn't approve of the 10 p.m. curfew Catherine insisted upon and said
00:43:49
she should let Theresa date and wear makeup. Catherine had raised Theresa as a Catholic. When it came time for
00:43:59
Theresa's first communion, Catherine couldn't find any proof that Theresa's mother had her baptized. So, she
00:44:05
arranged for a priest to do so in April 1981. Theresa would need god parents, so
00:44:13
Catherine suggested an aunt take on the role. But Theresa refused, saying that she wanted Marie Moore to be her
00:44:21
godmother. That was the only way she would agree to participate in the church. Catherine agreed to Theresa's
00:44:29
terms and she made her first communion on Sunday, May 2, 1982, one month before DYFS case workers
00:44:38
would start looking into whether she was being abused under Marie's roof. Not long after this, Marie Moore began
00:44:47
asking Catherine to give her $5 each week and an extra $10 each month to pay for special books and tutoring for
00:44:54
Theresa who was having trouble with her homework. This request didn't seem strange as Theresa spent a lot of time
00:45:03
at Marie's home and Catherine assumed she was helping the girl with her schooling due to her role as godmother.
00:45:11
She gave Marie the money, but never saw any evidence of the new textbooks or tutoring. Theresa seemed to love
00:45:20
spending time at Marie, often spending more time there than at home. Although, whenever Catherine did see her, she
00:45:28
didn't seem very happy. Late in the summer of 1982, Theresa became even more irritable.
00:45:38
On one occasion, she threw an ashtray at Catherine when asked to pick up her clothes. Then one day in early
00:45:45
September, Theresa failed to return home at her usual time. Catherine called the police and an
00:45:54
alert was issued. Theresa reappeared the next day, telling her grandmother she'd spent the
00:46:01
night with a friend. Catherine suspected she'd actually been at Marie Moors, even though Theresa had
00:46:08
been told by DYFS case workers that she should avoid that residence. Theresa had been adamant that
00:46:16
the bruises all over her body were the result of falling down the stairs at school, but the matter was still being
00:46:25
investigated. On Wednesday, September 15, Theresa turned 13. Exactly 1 week later on Wednesday,
00:46:34
September 22, Theresa was at home in the morning getting ready for school. Just as she was about to leave,
00:46:42
she turned around to ask Catherine what was for dinner that night. Then she headed out the front
00:46:50
door. Theresa didn't come home that night. Consumed by worry, Catherine Joyer phoned the police to report the
00:46:59
disappearance as well as a local newspaper. Wanting to spread awareness in case Theresa had run away, she told
00:47:08
the paper, "Tell her that her nanny is sick and worried. Tell her I can't eat or
00:47:15
sleep. Tell her all I do is cry." Catherine went to Marie Moore's house to check if Theresa was
00:47:25
there. Marie let her in and they talked in the kitchen. Marie said she had no idea
00:47:32
where Theresa was and there was no indication that she was there. Catherine didn't know what to do
00:47:42
except wait for her granddaughter to come home. Weeks went by and then months with no
00:47:49
word from Theresa. Then in December 1982, 3 months after Theresa had vanished, Catherine
00:47:57
received a phone call from Marie Moore. Marie said she'd spoken to Theresa. The 13-year-old was working for
00:48:06
a carnival and had asked Marie to tell Catherine Merry [Music] Christmas. Throughout the first half of
00:48:20
1983, the Moore home was a lot quieter than it had been in previous years. Marie, Tammy, and Ricky Flores were the
00:48:29
only residents. Now, in late May 1983, Marie told the now 16-year-old Ricky that he needed to
00:48:37
get a job to bring money into the household. She took him to a factory to see if they would hire him, telling the
00:48:45
staff there that she was his mother. Ricky was hired and Marie informed his employer that she would be
00:48:52
collecting him every day for lunch and after his shift. No one but her was to pick him up.
00:49:01
Ricky's family hadn't seen him in over 18 months. He'd stayed in touch with his mother over the phone, but none of his
00:49:08
relatives knew where to find him. One day during the first week of July, Ricky's brother, Philillip, who
00:49:15
worked repairing typewriters, was sent to a factory on a service call. While he was there, he spotted an
00:49:23
employee whom he thought looked a lot like his younger brother. Philip asked a factory supervisor for
00:49:30
the name of the employee and was told Ricky Flores. Philip left immediately and went
00:49:38
home to get his mother. Then he drove the two of them back to the factory. They headed for the front
00:49:45
office and had Ricky paged. When Ricky approached, he saw his mother and brother standing there.
00:49:53
Oh my god, mom," he said before fleeing on foot. Philillip tried to chase after his
00:50:01
brother, but Ricky quickly disappeared. Ricky didn't return to work after that, but his mother notified the
00:50:11
police of the sighting. She still had charges out against her son, and she wanted them
00:50:17
pursued as she believed this was the best chance she had of getting Ricky home. A detective assigned to the case
00:50:25
obtained Ricky's employment records from the factory and soon had a residential address for the
00:50:31
teenager. It turned out that Ricky was still living with Marie Moore and her daughter Tammy and the trio had just
00:50:39
recently moved from their apartment on Madison Avenue to a new address one mile away.
00:50:46
A juvenile warrant was issued for Ricky and two detectives headed over to the Moore residence on Tuesday, July
00:50:54
12th. At first, it appeared that Ricky wasn't at home. The detectives conducted a search
00:51:02
of the property and soon found Ricky hiding beneath a sink. Both he and Marie Moore were
00:51:09
arrested and taken in for questioning. Ricky refused to speak and was eventually released into his mother's
00:51:19
custody. Marie, however, was very talkative. She told detectives that the only reason she housed Ricky Flores was
00:51:27
because he was in the mafia and his boss had threatened her. Marie subsequently reneaked these allegations and
00:51:35
eventually admitted that she had a sexual relationship with the 16-year-old. She said that Ricky was a sweet, loving
00:51:44
boy who had never harmed Harriet Bane or Theresa Fury, but admitted he had once beaten Mary Gardulo because she was
00:51:53
quote interfering in our lives. Noting that Theresa Fury was officially a missing person, police
00:52:01
asked Marie if she knew where she was. Marie said she hadn't heard from Theresa since September 1982, almost a year
00:52:13
earlier. Charges were filed against Marie for her treatment of Ricky. She was charged with having sex with a
00:52:20
minor, interfering with custody, and endangering child welfare. Detectives added another charge for the
00:52:28
false statement Marie had provided more than a year earlier in 1982 when she said Ricky had never harmed Mary
00:52:37
Gardulo. Marie was permitted to return home until it was time to appear in court.
00:52:46
After that, there was no further contact between Ricky Flores and Marie Moore, and it was now just Marie and her
00:52:53
daughter Tammy at home. They moved houses yet again, not long after Marie was charged. Several months went by with
00:53:03
police hearing nothing from the Moore household. Then, on Saturday, December 17, 1983, they received a call from
00:53:13
Marie Moore. She said that her daughter Tammy had just disclosed something terrible. She
00:53:20
had been sexually abused by Ricky Flores while he had been living with them. And that wasn't all. Based on what
00:53:29
Tammy had told her, Marie suspected that Ricky was behind Theresa Fury's disappearance.
00:53:37
Marie thought Ricky had killed Theresa and possibly hidden her body somewhere at their previous address on Madison
00:53:44
Avenue where they had lived throughout 1982. They had resided on the second and third floors of the apartment with their
00:53:53
landlord Ferdinando Ragusa living on the ground level. Police interviewed Tammy who
00:54:01
provided a statement accusing Ricky Flores of sexual assault. She said that Ricky had raped her and
00:54:09
that she had also witnessed him kill Theresa. 3 days later, two detectives went to the Madison Avenue address to
00:54:17
conduct a search. The property's owner, Ferdinando Regusa, met them there, and Marie Moore
00:54:25
was present as well. She pointed out a depression in the yard where she said a body could
00:54:32
have been buried. Then the group went up to the third floor to look around. Marie pointed at a spot in the
00:54:40
ceiling and suggested that Theresa's body could have been placed in the attic above. She also pointed out a panled
00:54:47
area in a wall of one of the bedrooms. The detectives took a closer look. The portion of the ceiling Marie
00:54:57
had pointed at had a piece of wood that was concealing a hole in the plaster. One of the detectives clambered up into
00:55:05
the attic crawl space and looked around. He noticed a roll of duct tape and some white powder that he identified
00:55:13
as lime, a mineral sometimes used in the disposal of carcasses. There was also a tray covered
00:55:21
in melted candle wax, but there was no body. When he climbed back down, the other
00:55:29
detective noticed a foul odor wafting from the attic. The detectives left and returned
00:55:36
the next day with the crew and dug up the part of the yard Marie Moore had indicated. There was nothing
00:55:45
there. The following day of Thursday, December 22, police received a call at 9:00 a.m. from Ferdinando Reagusa.
00:55:54
He wanted to know if they would be back to search the house more thoroughly that
00:55:59
day. The detective who took the call said they wouldn't and they were actually thinking of closing the
00:56:05
investigation entirely. 15 minutes after that call, the phone rang again. This time it was Marie Moore
00:56:16
calling to confirm that they were really planning to cancel the investigation. After being told that they were, Marie
00:56:24
arrived at the station in person in less than an hour. She was carrying a piece of insulation from the Madison Avenue
00:56:32
apartment which was stained with blood. This was further evidence that somebody had been killed at the
00:56:39
residence and the police should keep looking. Once again, police returned to the Madison Avenue residence for another
00:56:50
search. While they were at the apartment, Marie Moore and Ferdinando Reggusa pointed out
00:56:57
something they had discovered. It was in the bedroom Marie had drawn attention to the other
00:57:04
day. A portion of one of the walls seemed out of place. It was covered in wallpaper like
00:57:11
the rest of the wall, but there was clearly something beneath the paper. Pulling back the wallpaper, Marie and
00:57:20
Ferdinando revealed a hole that had been clumsily concealed with a piece of wood
00:57:24
nailed to the wall. When the wood was removed, a crawl space became visible. Looking inside the crawl space,
00:57:34
detectives saw something there. It was an object wrapped in a lightly stained quilt and tied with a
00:57:41
rope. At the base of the object, some plastic bags protruded from the quilt with duct
00:57:48
tape wrapped around them. The object appeared to have the form of a human body with lime sprinkled
00:57:56
liberally where the head would be. It was carefully removed from the crawl space and laid out on the wooden
00:58:04
floor of the bedroom. Detectives took photographs of the object before removing the quilt, which
00:58:11
was covered with dark red and brown stains. Without the quilt, it became obvious that the object wrapped in
00:58:19
plastic bags and duct tape was the small body of Theresa Fury. It would take some time for the truth to
00:58:31
emerge, but police eventually learned what had happened to Theresa. After DYFS case workers had
00:58:39
taken an interest in her, Marie Moore had become worried. In September 1982, she convinced the 13-year-old girl to
00:58:48
run away from her grandmother's house where she lived and stay permanently with her.
00:58:54
By now, Theresa was the only child still being physically abused and beaten at Marie's
00:59:01
command. Marie refused to let Theresa attend school, not wanting anyone to find out about her
00:59:09
abuse. In late October 1982, the four of them moved from the second floor apartment at the Madison Avenue address
00:59:17
to the third floor. Up there, the abuse of Theresa grew even worse. During the day, she was kept thumbcuffed
00:59:27
to a hook on the kitchen wall. At night, Ricky would move her to the bathroom and
00:59:33
cuff her to the bathtub. She would have to sleep there all night only to be escorted down to
00:59:40
the kitchen in the morning to be cuffed again. This pattern repeated for months. When visitors came over, Theresa
00:59:49
was forced to hide in a cupboard. Marie and Ricky deprived Theresa of food, leading to her becoming
00:59:59
emaciated. They wouldn't let her use the toilet, instead giving her a potty to use. Then they made her wear disposable
01:00:07
nappies with nothing else. She was forced to consume animal excrement and her body was scrubbed with
01:00:16
bathroom cleaning agents. A clothes peg was attached to her tongue to silence her
01:00:24
screams. Theresa was also sexually abused by Ricky, sometimes with objects. Marie Moore began taking the
01:00:32
young girl downstairs to Ferdinando Reggusa's apartment where she was sexually abused by the elderly man. In
01:00:40
exchange, Reggusa gave Marie money. Theresa's health deteriorated as a result of the ongoing abuse. One morning
01:00:51
in January 1983, she fainted. Marie Moore removed her cuffs and helped her regain consciousness only
01:01:00
to put the thumbcuffs back on once Theresa came around. She slept cuffed to the bathtub
01:01:06
that night as she always did. The following morning, Marie told Ricky to move Theresa from the bathroom
01:01:14
to the kitchen so that her daughter Tammy could shower. When Ricky went to the bathroom,
01:01:20
he saw Theresa lying face down on the floor. He unccuffed her, but she didn't stand up on her own as she usually
01:01:30
did. Ricky hoisted Theresa up to her knees by placing his arms under her shoulders. When he let go so she could
01:01:38
finish getting up on her own, Theresa fell forward, smacking her head on the porcelain bathtub, then hitting the
01:01:46
floor. Ricky picked Theresa up and carried her into the hallway. She began to moan before
01:01:54
falling silent. Ricky pressed down on her stomach and her body made a gurgling sound.
01:02:02
Tammy, whose bedroom was directly across from the bathroom, had seen Theresa fall
01:02:07
and hit her head. She called out for her mother, who came running. When Ricky told Marie what had
01:02:15
happened, Marie assumed that Theresa had died. She told Tammy to leave for school, then told Ricky to move the body
01:02:25
to a crawl space in the bathroom while she went out to buy supplies. She returned with a yellow garment bag,
01:02:33
which they placed Theresa's body in. The bag was then moved up to the attic before Ricky Flores later wrapped
01:02:40
it in garbage bags and ate rolls of duct tape at Marie's instruction. Theresa's remains were then
01:02:48
covered with insulation and stashed in a corner of the attic. Marie told her daughter Tammy that they
01:02:56
had sent Theresa's body to Tammy's father, Billy Joel, in New York City. An autopsy would later confirm
01:03:04
that Theresa had received potentially fatal blows to the face and head, consistent with hitting the bathtub and
01:03:11
tiled floor, respectively. However, the injury to her face could have also been caused by
01:03:18
someone kicking her. It would have taken Theresa between 4 and 8 hours to die from these injuries,
01:03:26
meaning she had likely been alive when she was wrapped in plastic and duct tape. The decomposition of her soft
01:03:34
tissue made it impossible for the medical examiner to determine if she had suffocated to
01:03:41
death. Theresa's body was kept in the attic for 5 or 6 months. when it started to smell. Marie and Ricky used lime to
01:03:50
try and mask the odor. As Marie, Ricky, and Tammy prepared to move out from the Madison
01:03:56
Avenue apartment in the summer of 1983, Marie said they would have to relocate Theresa. Speaking as Billy, she
01:04:06
explained that if the property had electrical problems, then an electrician would have to go up to the attic and
01:04:12
would find the body. Marie removed Theresa's body from the attic, wrapped it in a quilt tied with
01:04:20
robe, and then lowered it down to Ricky, who was standing below. The two then hid the body in the
01:04:27
bedroom crawl space, where it remained until detectives found it 6 months later in December
01:04:35
1983. Marie Moore had spoken to Theresa's grandmother several times throughout the year between Theresa's
01:04:42
death and her body's discovery. Each time she feigned an interest in Theresa's well-being. The last time she had spoken
01:04:53
to Catherine Joyer was in September 1983 when she asked if she had heard from her
01:04:59
granddaughter [Music] lately. During yet another police interview, Marie initially insisted she
01:05:09
hadn't witnessed Theresa's murder, but she later changed her story. She said she'd seen Ricky Flores slam
01:05:18
Theresa's head into the bathtub and that he had hidden her body all by himself. She claimed that she'd only
01:05:25
ever tried to help Theresa. Maria admitted that Billy Joel, as she'd described him, didn't really
01:05:33
exist, but there was something about Ricky Flores that brought Billy out in her. When one of the detectives tried to
01:05:41
coax the Billy persona from Marie, nothing happened. She claimed that ever since
01:05:47
Ricky had left her home, Billy had vanished as well. But this wasn't exactly true.
01:05:56
After Ricky moved back to his family's home, Marie had made repeated attempts to contact him to no avail.
01:06:05
In September 1983, a family of four known as the Santiago had moved into her home. They were 20-year-old Horge Oyola,
01:06:16
17-year-old Lydia Santiago, and their two daughters, aged 2 and 1. Just as Marie had done with the children
01:06:25
who visited her previously, she groomed this new family by befriending the young
01:06:30
mother and her 15-year-old sister. They would go shopping, head to the cinema, or just get high at their
01:06:39
apartment. In response to Marie's kindness, the Santiago family began to call her Ma.
01:06:47
Marie confided in the family about her prior relationship with musician Billy Joel and told them he was her daughter's
01:06:55
father as well as a mafia boss. She also told them about Ricky Flores, claiming he was in the mafia as
01:07:03
well and worked with Billy. The apartment's phone began to ring with calls from Billy, just as it
01:07:11
had years earlier. One day, Marie returned home and said she'd been injected with a drug that
01:07:18
would permit Billy to possess her body. She then transformed into Billy. Lydia and her sister believed
01:07:28
this was legitimate, though Jorge did not. Despite Ricky Flores no longer being at the home, Marie remained
01:07:38
fixated with him. Sometimes she would stalk Ricky in her car while a member of the Santiago
01:07:45
family was with her. She also had the Santiago pass on messages to the teenage boy. Sometimes these messages were her
01:07:54
declaring her love for him. Other times they were threats to report him to the police if he didn't return to Marie.
01:08:03
Marie told Lydia that if the police ever questioned her, she should tell them that Ricky had threatened Marie and her
01:08:10
daughter Tammy via the telephone. One time, while pretending to be possessed by Billy Joel, Marie
01:08:17
offered Jorge and Lydia $50,000 to kill Ricky Flores. The couple never took her up on
01:08:25
this offer. Marie began coming up with a plan to implicate Ricky in Theresa's murder
01:08:33
instead before he could implicate her. Lydia and Jorge had overheard Marie coaching Tammy to say that Ricky had
01:08:42
raped her and killed Theresa. She wrote a story down detailing the rape and how Ricky had
01:08:49
beaten Theresa to death, then had Tammy memorize and rehearse it repeatedly. [Music]
01:08:58
When Marie had started calling the police to report her suspicion that Ricky was behind Theresa Fury's
01:09:05
disappearance, detectives knew that she was more involved than she let on. They lied and told her they were
01:09:13
planning to close the investigation in order to coax her into revealing exactly where Theresa's body was.
01:09:21
On Wednesday, December 28th, 1983, Marie Moore was charged with Theresa's murder. Detectives had obtained a number
01:09:31
of statements from witnesses who had seen firsthand exactly how the abuse at the Moore residence had
01:09:38
unfolded. They believed that although Ricky had committed much of the physical abuse, he had been controlled by Marie
01:09:46
using the guise of Billy. They also had evidence from the Santiago that she'd started to repeat the same
01:09:54
pattern with them. After reviewing all of the evidence, they decided not to charge
01:10:00
Ricky Flores as an adult. He was offered a plea deal where he would be charged as
01:10:06
a juvenile with a maximum sentence of 3 years in exchange for testifying against
01:10:11
Marie Moore. In April 1984, a grand jury returned a 33-count indictment against Marie Moore, charging her with crimes
01:10:21
against multiple victims, including sexual assault, aggravated assault, kidnapping, extortion, endangering the
01:10:30
welfare of a child, and felony murder. People who knew Marie Moore were puzzled over what had happened to her.
01:10:41
The crimes she had been charged with didn't match the person they'd known. Her parents couldn't understand what had
01:10:49
gone wrong. Although Marie had always told her daughter Tammy that she'd been deprived of love as a child, her parents
01:10:57
told a different story. Her mother had become a stay-at-home parent so she could spend
01:11:02
as much time with her daughter as possible. Her father told reporters that if anything, Marie had been a little
01:11:10
spoiled due to being an only child. As a teenager, Marie hadn't been withdrawn or moody. She loved animals,
01:11:19
fashion, and took care of her appearance. She seemed to get along well with classmates, and always behaved at
01:11:27
home. The only time I saw her lose her temper was when I bought her a secondhand bike
01:11:34
that she couldn't learn to ride. Marie's father told journalist Rosalie Longo. She was so angry she threw it in
01:11:42
the garbage on the street. I felt so bad I bought her a new one on her birthday. After Marie enrolled at
01:11:51
college, there were hints at something else going on beneath the surface. Marie had loved school and initially
01:11:58
planned on becoming a teacher, but she dropped out of college a few semesters in. She didn't tell her parents about
01:12:05
this, instead pretending she was still studying while secretly working in a friend's beauty
01:12:12
salon. She told her parents other lies as well. On one occasion, she said she'd won a scholarship when she hadn't.
01:12:20
Another time she said she needed money to fix her car after getting into an accident. When they examined the car,
01:12:28
there wasn't a scratch on it. Marie moved out of home at the age of 19 and frequently relocated to new
01:12:38
addresses. There were rumors she had married a disabled 66-year-old man while still in her late teens, but nothing was
01:12:46
known about him. During the mid70s around 6 years after the birth of her daughter, Marie Moore
01:12:54
was diagnosed with epilepsy. She began suffering seizures which were witnessed by other
01:13:01
people. Marie eventually left New Jersey and went to California for a time. Her parents knew little about what she had
01:13:10
gotten up to while living on the West Coast. Mary Gardulo, Marie's older friend, who
01:13:17
had been abused by her throughout 1981 and 1982, knew a little more. In 1978, she went to California to
01:13:28
visit Marie and Tammy, staying in their apartment with them. During this visit, Marie Moore had
01:13:35
confided in Mary that Tammy's father was Billy Joel. She also said her nextdoor neighbor, a
01:13:43
woman named Helen, was in the mafia with Billy and was keeping her in line at his
01:13:49
request. Mary believed these stories partly because she often heard Marie seemingly being tortured and abused when
01:13:57
she went to visit Helen. Mary wanted to help Marie, but Marie warned her to stay out of it. if
01:14:06
you know what's good for you. When Mary wanted to go home to New Jersey, Marie warned that Billy would
01:14:15
bomb her airplane. Mary caught the flight anyway, and Marie later told her that the only
01:14:21
reason she was still alive was because Marie had convinced Billy to leave the plane alone.
01:14:28
This prior experience was why Mary had been inclined to believe Marie when Billy reappeared several years later in
01:14:37
1981. In turn, Mary's obvious fear about the situation had helped convince the children at Marie's home that the threat
01:14:45
was real. When Marie moved back to New Jersey, some noted a change in her with one friend saying that she'd become
01:14:55
quote a hard, cold woman. Marie's parents also noticed she seemed different. Her usually
01:15:05
well-groomed hair was disheveled and damaged, and she had a cast on one leg. When asked about the injury, Marie just
01:15:13
said she'd fallen down some stairs. A friend who was worried about Marie suggested her parents take her to a
01:15:22
psychiatrist. They did so, but Marie refused to attend her follow-up appointment. Instead, telling her
01:15:29
parents they were the ones who needed psychiatric help. In March 1984, Ricky Flores
01:15:38
pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault. The judge expressed a wish to hand down
01:15:44
a harshest sentence, but said that Ricky would be given 3 years at a state reformatory as per his plea
01:15:52
agreement. Marie Moore's trial commenced more than 6 months later in October 1984. The prosecution was depending on
01:16:01
witness testimony in their case against her, with their star witness being Ricky
01:16:06
Flores. Marie's other surviving victims would testify too, including Lewis Montavo,
01:16:13
Harriet Bane, and Mary Gardulo. Although they hadn't been present to witness the torture of
01:16:20
Theresa from June 1982 on, or her eventual death, their statements gave Ricky's testimony more credibility, as
01:16:28
their descriptions of earlier events were entirely consistent with his. DYFS case workers also testified as well
01:16:37
as Catherine Joyer, Theresa's grandmother. She sobbed while on the stand, asking why did she do
01:16:48
it? Prosecutors pointed to Marie Moore's changing stories evidenced by four different statements she had made to
01:16:56
police. They argued that Marie was the puppet master who orchestrated and ordered the abuse within her home.
01:17:04
She had cunningly convinced her victims that Billy Joel was actually in control and persuaded them that he was a
01:17:11
dangerous man who could harm their families. While she was a caring and nurturing presence in their
01:17:18
lives, one factor that had convinced them Billy really was in contact with Marie was the phone calls she seemingly
01:17:26
received from him. It turned out that Marie had previously worked for a phone company as an
01:17:33
operator and knew how to make the phone ring, seemingly of its own accord. Prosecutors said that Marie was
01:17:42
motivated by the thrill she gained from controlling and overpowering her victims. She was also able to exploit
01:17:49
them for monetary gain. like when she took money from Theresa's grandmother for books, clothes, and tutoring
01:17:56
sessions for Theresa for herself. Marie's attorneys argued for an insanity defense, providing evidence of
01:18:05
her epilepsy and a seizure disorder, which they said could have damaged her neurological functioning. Evidence was
01:18:12
also provided that Marie had suffered brain damage, possibly the result of a car accident.
01:18:19
A scan indicated that Marie had frontal lobe atrophy and the defense explained that a head injury could result in an
01:18:27
individual experiencing psychosis. A clinical psychologist retained by the defense said that he
01:18:35
believed Marie Moore had a multiple personality disorder which had created the personality of Billy. He had
01:18:43
witnessed Billy take over Marie's body during a session with her and argued that Marie Moore was legally insane
01:18:50
because she didn't know what was morally right when in that state. Multiple personality disorder is
01:18:58
now known as disassociative identity disorder and is a rare mental health condition. One American study estimates
01:19:06
it affects 1.5% of the population. The jury ultimately found Marie Moore guilty on almost all counts with the
01:19:17
exception of the attempted murder of Ricky Flores for offering money to the Santiago to kill
01:19:24
him. The jury was also tasked with determining whether Marie would be sentenced to life in prison or given the
01:19:32
death penalty. After deliberating for 7 hours, they found that Marie Moore should be
01:19:39
sentenced to death, making the 38-year-old the first woman in New Jersey to receive the death penalty in
01:19:46
48 years. Marie Moore showed no emotion as her sentence was handed down, but each
01:19:54
of her hands gripped onto those of her two attorneys. When the judge asked if Marie had
01:20:01
anything to say, she responded, "I did not murder my godchild. I did not do anything to
01:20:08
anyone in that household." When speaking to the media, the assistant prosecutor who argued the
01:20:16
case acknowledged that Ricky Flores's sentence had been extremely light compared to Marie Moors.
01:20:23
He explained that a deal with Ricky had been necessary in order to prosecute Marie, adding, "It's clear she was the
01:20:32
one who shaped these events." He argued that Ricky had only committed the violent acts he had at
01:20:40
Marie's direction. Moreover, he was also a minor who had been emotionally, sexually, and
01:20:47
physically abused by Marie Moore. In 1988, New Jerseyy's high court overturned Marie Moore's murder
01:20:58
conviction and death sentence, citing the fact that she had not directly caused Theresa Fury's
01:21:05
death. For the remaining counts she was still guilty of, she was given a sentence of 224
01:21:12
years. She would be eligible for parole after serving 87 years and 6 months. In an episode of the television program
01:21:22
Evil Lives Here, that aired in August 2023, Marie Moore's now middle-aged daughter, Tammy, shared her memories
01:21:29
about her mother and the crimes she committed. Tammy said she'd been kept ignorant about the majority of the
01:21:37
abuse, though she did witness Theresa Fury's decline towards the end, as well as her
01:21:43
death. After her mother's conviction, Tammy spent 2 years in a loving foster home before moving out on her
01:21:52
own. Tammy regrets not notifying the authorities about what was going on in her home and struggles to understand why
01:22:00
she didn't. From her perspective as a child, it had appeared as though Ricky Flores
01:22:06
was the aggressor and her mother was relatively blameless in the entire ordeal. After producers confronted Tammy
01:22:14
with court documents detailing exactly what her mother had done, she seemingly began to process the magnitude of
01:22:21
Marie's crimes for the first time. Tammy visited her mother in prison for 28 years after her
01:22:29
conviction. At some point around 2012, her mother told her she'd discovered a painful lump in one of her breasts.
01:22:38
Marie Moore subsequently died of breast cancer in prison. In the immediate aftermath of
01:22:46
Theresa Fury's death, the story captured the media's attention due to the horrific nature of the crime and the
01:22:54
bizarre fact that Marie Moore convinced her victims, famous musician Billy Joel,
01:22:59
was behind everything. Despite claiming since at least the mid 1970s that Billy Joel had fathered her
01:23:07
child, Marie Moore never had a relationship with him. It is unknown whether he has been made aware of the
01:23:16
case. The public and the media questioned why police and other authorities hadn't intervened earlier
01:23:23
when first provided with evidence about the abuse taking place at the Moore home.
01:23:29
Instead, action had stalled due to red tape and some confusion related to the bizarre nature of the
01:23:36
crimes. In an interview with North Jersey newspaper, The Sunday Record, Ricky Flores's attorney
01:23:44
stated, "The system definitely faltered and failed. No question about that." Police defended their response by
01:23:54
pointing out that Lewis Montalvo had been too scared to ever come forward, while Harriet Bane and Theresa Fury had
01:24:02
also denied much of the abuse out of fear. An op-ed published in the Sunday Record read, "The murder and most of the
01:24:13
suffering could have been prevented if New Jerseys child protection system worked the way it was supposed to.
01:24:20
Instead, months and years went by while paperwork about the abused and the abusers piled up in the files of law
01:24:28
enforcement and child welfare agencies. Patterson's mayor was quoted as saying that the case had led to the
01:24:36
city's police being put on notice. cases involving children were of the utmost importance. And when a child's
01:24:44
safety was at stake, police were to quote, "Rip up a neighborhood." "That's good news," the
01:24:53
op-ed concluded. Even if it comes too late for Theresa Fury. [Music] [Music]