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NARRATOR: On the 7th of September 2006, three
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people were gunned down on a street in the city
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of Bridgeport in Connecticut.
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The youngest victim, nine-year-old Kylie Flannery,
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had been chased down by the lone gunman
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and executed at close range.
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All of this unfolded in a matter of minutes,
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so for anybody witnessing this, it
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must have been like watching a scene from a movie play out
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but knowing that it's all too real at the same time.
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The killer was 41-year-old Richard Roszkowski
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whose infatuation with Kylie's mother, Holly Flannery
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had come to a head in the most tragic of circumstances.
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Even though Holly Flannery was clearly in some fear of Richard
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Roszkowski, I don't think, for one moment,
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she could have imagined that would effectively mean the end
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of her life and her daughter's.
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NARRATOR: Roszkowski was eventually sentenced to death
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for killing Kylie and given life sentences for the murders
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of her mother Holly and tree surgeon
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Tommy Gaudet, a man with no connection to the Flannerys.
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EILEEN POTKAY: Roszkowski, he's absolutely evil.
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I hate him, and I'm glad that I never
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have to be in the same room ever again with him.
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NARRATOR: Richard Roszkowski had emerged as one of the world's
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most evil killers.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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In May 2009, 44-year-old Richard Roszkowski
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was sentenced to death for the murder
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of three people in a short yet bloody killing spree
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2 and 1/2 years previously.
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His youngest victim, Kylie Flannery,
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was just nine years old.
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The twisted killer had become fixated
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with Kylie's mother, Holly.
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It was an obsession that led to tragedy, which
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played out just after 9:00 AM on a quiet sunny morning
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in Connecticut.
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Local news reporter Daniel Tepfer
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was one of the first journalists at the scene.
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DANIEL TEPFER: It's a case I'll never forget.
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I, actually, was on my way to work that morning
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when I got a call to get over to Seaview Avenue,
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and I got there.
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The police were still there.
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They were still interviewing witnesses.
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And I started talking to some of the witnesses there,
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and I was just appalled at what they
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were telling me had occurred.
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And these are things that will stay with me forever.
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NARRATOR: At his trial, Roszkowski
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claimed to be insane and in a drug-induced haze
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during the killing spree.
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The prosecution team of C. Robert
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Satti Jr. and Margaret E. Kelley helped put him behind bars.
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I've been doing this for a long period of time,
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actually 40 years.
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What was especially difficult in this case
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was the fact that he executed Kylie in the manner in which he
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executed her, shooting her once until she fell
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and then walking up to her and giving her the coup de grace,
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killing her.
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MARGARET KELLEY: It opens your eyes to the fact
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that in the blink of an eye, things can change.
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And I remember it being a beautiful day,
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and here's a young girl going to school with her mother.
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Next thing you know, there are three people dead,
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and I'm sure that for the people that
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were in the area at the time and what they may have seen
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or heard or witnessed, it's just how things can tragically
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change in just a split second.
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NARRATOR: During a second trial in 2014,
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Roszkowski would show a remorseful side,
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but behind the facade lay a deadly killer.
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He had been sent to the state's maximum security
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mental hospital sometime after his arrest,
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and the head of the hospital who's
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dealt with the worst of the worst called the judge
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and said, could you please take him out here?
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We can't handle him.
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He's too dangerous for us.
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That might give you an idea of the kind of person
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that Richard Roszkowski is, cold-blooded, no moral compass,
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no conscience.
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NARRATOR: This killer story begins in January 1965.
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All we know about Richard Roszkowski's background
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is what he told the authorities after his arrest.
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Roszkowski was born in the US, and the information about
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his background is quite patchy.
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And we're quite reliant on the things
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that he said about it, so we did have to take it
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with a bit of a pinch of salt. But one
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of the things that he says is that his father
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didn't really bother with him.
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He felt that his father was quite distant.
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From what I remember, not a good student in school, got
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involved in drugs early on, was rarely in school later on,
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and he used to get in trouble--
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little things, thefts and vandalism
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and that kind of thing.
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NARRATOR: At a very young age, Roszkowski and his family
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visited his mother's homeland, Poland,
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which he says is where his troubles with substance abuse
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began.
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Roszkowski claims that he first
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tasted alcohol when he was around five or six years old.
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And then, when he was 10, he started misusing substances,
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like marijuana and glue sniffing,
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and that then progressed on to other things.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: Glue sniffing leads to cannabis.
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Cannabis leads to cocaine.
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Cocaine leads to heroin.
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That all leads to a drug problem,
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and we're now still only a teenager.
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NARRATOR: Roszkowski was small in stature,
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something that led to him being picked
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on during his formative years.
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Roszkowski claims that his family moved to a new area
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during his childhood, and this area was quite deprived.
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It was quite poverty-stricken, and it
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was an area where there was quite a lot
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of criminal activity going on.
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And he claims that he was bullied by the local children
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in the area, and then later on, the people who had
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bullied him forced him to join some kind of gang.
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So again, we've got all of these external factors
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that are compelling me to behave in a particular way.
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NARRATOR: Life didn't get any easier for Roszkowski.
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He struggled with his drug addiction
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and couldn't hold down a regular job.
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Roszkowski lived quite a transient life as an adult.
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He flitted from job to job.
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If you think of the impacts on that,
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Roszkowski doesn't have this consistent group of people
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around him, either colleagues or neighbors,
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who act as a bit of an informal check on our behavior.
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So he is off the radar, in many senses of the term.
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NARRATOR: Roszkowski's mother had a house on Trojan Drive
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in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and her son would
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sporadically live with her.
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During this time, he got to know another resident
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on the street, Holly Flannery.
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ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She got to know Roszkowski's mother quite
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well and spent quite a lot of time at her house,
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and she gets to know Roszkowski through his mother.
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And I think because of the kind of person
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Holly was, I think she probably showed
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him some kindness and some empathy and some compassion.
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NARRATOR: Holly Flannery lived on Trojan
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Drive with her husband and her daughter Kylie.
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But according to witness testimony from the case,
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Holly and Roszkowski became close in the early 2000s.
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On the surface, Holly seemed to be
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a really wonderful person, a good mother, a great wife.
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She did everything that you would think is a normal mother
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and a housewife would do, but below the surface,
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there was something dark there.
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It was something that would cause her to be attracted
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to Richard Roszkowski.
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NARRATOR: By 2004, Roszkowski was serving three
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years in prison for burglary.
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Court documents show that Holly would visit and speak
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with him on the phone.
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Holly did correspond with Roszkowski in prison,
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and I think this came from a place of kindness
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and a place of concern.
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I think she believed he was somebody who'd
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had several disadvantages in life,
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and she was acting out of friendship to him.
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But in terms of the way he interpreted her kindness,
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he became fixated with her.
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He became obsessed with her, and it
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didn't take long before Holly started to become actually
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quite fearful of this man.
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NARRATOR: In a letter Holly wrote to a friend
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in January 2004, she stated that she'd
00:09:15
spoken to Roszkowski over the phone
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while he was still in prison.
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She said that she'd been threatened by him
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and was told she was going to go off a cliff.
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Chillingly, she added, if I should turn up dead,
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tell Kylie I loved her.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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When Roszkowski is released from prison in 2005,
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he moves in with his elderly mother,
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so he is in Holly's daily life.
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She sees him day in, day out, going about her business.
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And I think this is the point at which his fixation
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and obsession with her intensifies,
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and some of his behavior towards her
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starts to be quite concerning.
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It was obvious, at some point, that she realized that he was
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completely out of control, that she had no longer could control
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him, and he had become a threat not
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only to her, but her daughter who
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she worried much more about.
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NARRATOR: In case files, Holly's friends
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stated that she appeared more anxious
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and was afraid of her obsessive neighbor.
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At one point, Roszkowski broke into Holly's house
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and threatened her with a gun.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: I doubt very much whether she encouraged it,
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but like all stalkers, they don't pay attention to reason.
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They act irrationally, and no one could demonstrate that more
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accurately than Roszkowski.
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There was one particular incident in July 2006
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where Holly said that Roszkowski had pinned down and shaved
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some of her hair off.
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And he said to her that he wanted
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to basically mess up her hair, so no other man would want her.
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So at this point in time, his behavior has crossed
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the line to physical violence.
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He may have been following her before.
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He may have been spying on her, but now, he's actually
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physically harming her.
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So he thinks that Holly is his possession.
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He thinks that he owns her, and this is
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a really dangerous place to be.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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NARRATOR: Richard Roszkowski had grown
00:11:23
completely obsessed with his former neighbor,
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39-year-old Holly Flannery.
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The ex prisoner and ne'er-do-well was known
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to the authorities, but there appeared
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to be no reason for concern.
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DANIEL TEPFER: He had a number of arrests for drugs or thefts.
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He was flying below the radar.
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He was the kind of person that you wouldn't
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even generally give notice to.
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He's just someone-- someone in the crowd, I guess.
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NARRATOR: Roszkowski's mother had moved away
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from Trojan Drive, and the 41-year-old
00:12:00
was now living a transient life around Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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He'd previously been staying in lodgings
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on nearby Seaview Avenue.
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MARGARET KELLEY: He was living in this rooming house
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with some other individuals.
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There was some testimony during the trials
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from one of the individuals that there was a drug use going on.
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NARRATOR: Not all of the tenants at the house on Seaview Avenue
00:12:24
were criminals.
00:12:25
Just before Roszkowski had been asked to leave by the landlord,
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he'd crossed paths with a 38-year-old tree
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surgeon named Tommy Gaudet.
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He'd been living in this rooming house on Seaview Avenue
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with other people who had been working
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at the landscaping company.
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He had been separated from his family
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and was hoping to turn his life around and get back to them.
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ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So their paths had crossed,
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and they knew of each other.
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But I think in the brief time that they have instructed,
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Tommy had clocked that Roszkowski
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was not a nice individual.
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He had noticed that he was unpredictable,
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and he was the kind of person to give a wide berth to.
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NARRATOR: Tommy Gaudet had two children
00:13:07
who meant the world to him, which his sister
00:13:10
Eileen Potkay testifies to.
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EILEEN POTKAY: Oh, my God.
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You know what?
00:13:16
I'm actually getting goose bumps just thinking about it.
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When my niece was born, it was probably
00:13:20
one of the most wonderful days of his life to have a baby
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girl, and he was hands on.
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He changed her diaper.
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He fed her.
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He burped her.
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He went shopping for her clothes.
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When he became a father, he was an amazing dad to Natasha.
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And it was many years later that he
00:13:38
had a son, so Natasha was alone for many years
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with Mommy and Daddy.
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But my brother was a very hands on dad, and he adored her.
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NARRATOR: In September 2006, Thomas Jr. was 10,
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and Natasha was 14.
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NATASHA GAUDET: I remember going in his cherry picker.
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He was a tree man.
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And he worked for a tree company,
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and he used to have this big truck with--
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like the firemen have, like the big bucket on top.
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And I remember going in there, and, you know, feeling
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like I was on top of the world.
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THJOMAS GAUDET JR.: My dad was a great dad.
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He made sure that we were always having
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the best time as possible.
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I think, him growing up, he didn't have the best father
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figure, so he definitely wanted to make sure
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that his children had, you know, so
00:14:24
much better than what he had.
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The last time I spoke to my dad,
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I was in the driveway hanging out,
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and he stopped by and said, hello.
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And that was the last time I saw him.
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NARRATOR: Tommy Gaudet got up for work
00:14:38
on the 7th of September 2006, but he never made it that far.
00:14:44
At some point during the morning,
00:14:46
Tommy and Richard Roszkowski had a heated exchange
00:14:50
over the phone.
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Roszkowski phones Tommy and basically,
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accuses him of having a relationship with Holly.
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And Tommy just thinks this guy has lost it.
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He remembers Roszkowski his behavior
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and just thought, oh, this is just him kicking off again.
00:15:08
NARRATOR: Three miles across town on Trojan Drive,
00:15:11
Holly Flannery was getting her nine-year-old daughter
00:15:14
Kylie ready for the first day at her new school.
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DANIEL TEPFER: According to testimony at trial,
00:15:21
it had started out as a very normal morning.
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Holly had gotten Kylie up to get ready to go
00:15:26
to Thomas Hooker School.
00:15:29
NARRATOR: But the nine-year-old would never make it to school.
00:15:32
Holly and Kylie's 41-year-old former neighbor
00:15:36
had finally snapped.
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After months of intimidation, Richard Roszkowski
00:15:41
was about to put his deadly threats into practice.
00:15:46
Roszkowski went into a rage, a rage
00:15:50
that most people certainly wouldn't be able to understand,
00:15:53
and I don't understand.
00:15:55
But he somehow imagined that Holly was cheating on him.
00:15:59
She had broken off their relationship,
00:16:01
and he was determined to confront the man he
00:16:05
believes she was cheating with.
00:16:09
NARRATOR: Somewhere in Roszkowski addled mind,
00:16:12
he believed that Holly and Tommy Gaudet,
00:16:15
who were strangers to one another,
00:16:17
were in a relationship.
00:16:19
It has never been established under what circumstances
00:16:23
the trio traveled to Seaview Avenue,
00:16:25
although Holly's car was eventually
00:16:28
recovered from the scene.
00:16:30
But just after 9:00 AM, Roszkowski,
00:16:33
Holly Flannery, and her daughter Kylie
00:16:35
arrived at the boarding house.
00:16:39
Now, in terms of Roszkowski thinking,
00:16:41
he was like a missile at this point.
00:16:44
Here is a man who is very fixed and very rigid in his thinking.
00:16:48
He's decided that he's going to kill Tommy on this day,
00:16:51
and that is exactly what he follows through.
00:16:55
DANIEL TEPFER: He was just standing outside the house.
00:16:57
He was just simply just standing there, outside this rooming
00:17:00
house when Roszkowski decided, for whatever reason was going
00:17:05
through his head, that Gaudet must
00:17:07
be the man that she was cheating with even
00:17:10
though they had never even met.
00:17:12
NARRATOR: One thing we can be sure of is, at some point,
00:17:15
Richard Roszkowski pulled out a gun.
00:17:19
Gaudet yelled at him.
00:17:20
Like, what is going on here?
00:17:21
Hey, what's going on?
00:17:23
And was immediately shot in the head.
00:17:26
But once Gaudet is dead, it's as if the lock is taken off
00:17:30
Roszkowski's self-control, and he grabs Holly Flannery
00:17:35
in a headlock on the street, in front of her daughter Kylie,
00:17:39
puts his arm around his head, and Holly's shouting,
00:17:45
screaming.
00:17:46
She started screaming, not in front of my daughter,
00:17:49
not in front of my daughter.
00:17:51
He then shot her once in the head.
00:17:53
She falls to the ground.
00:17:56
And then, poor Kylie just doesn't know what on Earth is
00:17:59
going on, and trying to make sense of it,
00:18:01
she runs for her life.
00:18:04
He then runs after her, catches up with her,
00:18:07
shoots her in the back, causing her to fall down
00:18:09
on the sidewalk on her back.
00:18:12
She's face up, screaming, crying.
00:18:15
He then walks and stands right over her and fires
00:18:18
into her face.
00:18:22
NARRATOR: In less than three minutes,
00:18:24
Tommy Gaudet and Holly Flannery had been shot dead,
00:18:28
and Kylie Flannery was fighting for her life.
00:18:32
The nine-year-old who'd meant to be starting a new school
00:18:35
that morning had been chased along a suburban street
00:18:39
and shot three times at close range by Richard Roszkowski.
00:18:45
So Kylie is a 9-year-old girl.
00:18:47
She's just seen her mother shot dead in front of her.
00:18:51
She's seen her mother's killer kill somebody else.
00:18:55
So I think it's sheer terror in terms of what's
00:18:58
going through her mind.
00:18:59
It's very difficult to process that amount of trauma
00:19:02
and work out what on Earth is going on.
00:19:04
So her immediate reaction is to just get away,
00:19:08
get out of there.
00:19:10
The thought of that little girl, Kylie,
00:19:13
running down the street, her flip-flops flying off as she
00:19:18
ran, scared to death, and then to be shot and laying
00:19:22
on the sidewalk face up when Roszkowski stood over her
00:19:27
and fired the final shots, I can't even
00:19:31
imagine it had happened.
00:19:33
NARRATOR: Paramedics rushed Kylie to a hospital,
00:19:36
but her injuries were too severe.
00:19:39
Despite efforts by doctors to resuscitate
00:19:42
the nine-year-old schoolgirl, they couldn't save her life.
00:19:46
GEOFFREY WANSELL: There could be no excuse for this.
00:19:48
To take the life of a 9-year-old child lying at your feet whom
00:19:51
you've shot in the back and you decide to execute her
00:19:54
effectively by shooting it twice in the head, that
00:19:58
is profoundly, profoundly wicked act, which I think does justify
00:20:03
the use of the word "evil."
00:20:07
NARRATOR: Three people were now dead at the hands
00:20:10
of Richard Roszkowski, and the drug-addicted killer
00:20:13
was on the run.
00:20:15
His obsession with his 39-year-old former neighbor
00:20:19
had led to tragedy.
00:20:21
Let there be no doubt that Roszkowski was erratic.
00:20:26
Let there be no doubt that he'd always
00:20:29
lived on the edge of society and that he consoled
00:20:34
himself with drugs and crime.
00:20:37
The tragedy of this entire case is his fixation
00:20:41
on Holly Flannery, because without that, these killings
00:20:44
would not have happened.
00:20:45
He decides on a course of action,
00:20:47
and he literally just goes and carries it out.
00:20:50
So any time that morning on the way over to the boarding house,
00:20:54
in between killing Tommy and Holly,
00:20:56
in between killing Holly and Kylie,
00:20:58
he could have decided to stop.
00:21:00
He could have decided not to kill anybody else,
00:21:03
but that was never going to happen, because he had a plan
00:21:05
and he was going to follow it through.
00:21:09
NARRATOR: Detectives arrived at a scene of carnage.
00:21:13
A beautiful sunny morning had been darkened by a killer
00:21:17
who remained unaccounted for.
00:21:19
Police had no idea who it was and no idea if he
00:21:24
was going to strike again.
00:21:27
After chasing nine-year-old Kylie down the street
00:21:30
and shooting her at point-blank range,
00:21:32
Roszkowski had taken flight.
00:21:36
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He doesn't run down the street.
00:21:38
He runs through gardens, jumping over fences in an effort
00:21:41
to escape.
00:21:42
Because it is 9 o'clock in the morning, in broad daylight,
00:21:47
plenty of people out, and he's committed
00:21:49
three ruthless killings in a matter
00:21:52
of moments in plain sight.
00:21:55
This is not a man killing in private.
00:21:58
This is a man killing in full public view.
00:22:02
Roszkowski flees on foot, taking clothing
00:22:05
from clothing lines on the way so that he
00:22:07
can change his clothes and make it
00:22:09
look like he's somebody else.
00:22:11
So he's got the presence of mind to do that.
00:22:14
He also pulls over a motorist and offers
00:22:17
them some gas money to give him a lift to his mother's house.
00:22:22
NARRATOR: While Roszkowski made his escape
00:22:24
in an unknowing stranger's vehicle,
00:22:26
detectives were already onto him.
00:22:29
The roommate of Tom Gaudet, who came out shortly
00:22:32
after the shooting, gave the name of a Richard Roszkowski,
00:22:35
and he gave the police the location of his mother's
00:22:38
residence in Trum.
00:22:40
NARRATOR: Roszkowski would not remain
00:22:42
a fugitive for very long.
00:22:44
C. ROBERT SATTI: He was arrested in the town of Trumbull
00:22:47
with the assistance of Trumbull police officials
00:22:50
who had set up at his mother's residence, what--
00:22:55
just happened to be at the dead end of the street,
00:22:57
so they were able to set up a perimeter.
00:22:59
And Mr. Roszkowski just appeared to have no affect and emotion
00:23:03
at that particular time.
00:23:05
NARRATOR: Across town, stunned journalists
00:23:08
had started arriving at the bloodied sidewalks
00:23:11
of Seaview Avenue.
00:23:14
DANIEL TEPFER: When I arrived at the scene,
00:23:15
it appeared there was pandemonium.
00:23:17
People were all over the place.
00:23:19
The police had blocked off most of the streets
00:23:21
in the neighborhood.
00:23:23
They were out questioning people.
00:23:24
I came upon a man sitting in a pickup truck.
00:23:28
He was a landscaper, and he was just
00:23:30
sitting there, slumped over the steering wheel of his truck,
00:23:36
obviously in distress.
00:23:38
So I went over to ask him, you know, what's going on?
00:23:41
Well, as it turned out, he had been driving down
00:23:43
the street on Seaview and had seen,
00:23:46
had seen the little girl getting shot,
00:23:47
and it was just so upsetting to him that he had to pull over.
00:23:51
He couldn't drive anymore.
00:23:52
I, then, went and talked to some other witnesses,
00:23:56
all had similar accounts and all who were visibly distressed.
00:24:01
It's just something that it's very hard to comprehend.
00:24:05
NARRATOR: The junction of Seaview Avenue and Boston
00:24:08
Avenue is a busy intersection during rush hour,
00:24:12
and many passing motorists had witnessed
00:24:15
the very public murders.
00:24:18
DANIEL TEPFER: One woman recalled
00:24:19
hearing Holly Flannery scream, not in front of my daughter,
00:24:23
you know?
00:24:24
She remembers hearing that but didn't really see that much.
00:24:27
I mean, it was just-- everybody had little bits and pieces
00:24:29
of things that they had seen or they had heard,
00:24:33
and you just had to kind of try to put together like a puzzle.
00:24:36
NARRATOR: Many of the witnesses described
00:24:39
how calm Roszkowski appeared to be during the shooting.
00:24:43
This wasn't somebody who was losing it, who was going mad,
00:24:47
who was on a rampage.
00:24:49
And it's very tempting to interpret his behavior
00:24:52
in this way because of how close together
00:24:54
these murders were, but I think he
00:24:56
knew exactly what he was doing.
00:24:58
And if you listen to the witnesses describe it,
00:25:01
they talk about him walking and seemingly being unaffected
00:25:05
by what he'd just done.
00:25:07
NARRATOR: The murder of three people, one of them a child,
00:25:11
had completely shaken the community,
00:25:14
especially the people who turned up to help.
00:25:18
C. ROBERT SATTI: It was testified too
00:25:19
that the ambulance driver and the medic
00:25:22
was impacted very deeply because he had a child,
00:25:25
and it may well have been a daughter
00:25:26
about the same age of Kylie.
00:25:29
I do know, in talking to the law enforcement
00:25:32
officials that were there, it impacted all of them deeply.
00:25:36
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think the impact on the local community
00:25:38
would have been immense.
00:25:40
This is not the kind of place where multiple murder happens.
00:25:43
People would have just been going
00:25:45
about their daily business, going to buy a paper,
00:25:48
taking the kids to school, getting their morning coffee,
00:25:51
and in front of them, the scene of carnage emerges.
00:25:54
So I think it has left a scar on the community in terms
00:25:59
of the feeling of safety and security in your own street,
00:26:03
in your own neighborhood, and the fact that people
00:26:06
like this, they walk among us.
00:26:08
They often don't look like monsters,
00:26:10
so it does make us question everybody around us.
00:26:13
NARRATOR: As investigators at the scene
00:26:16
began to identify the victims, they reached out
00:26:19
to the family of Tommy Gaudet.
00:26:22
EILEEN POTKAY: I got the phone call.
00:26:23
And I was driving in the car, and I pulled over.
00:26:25
And they're telling me that my brother has been killed
00:26:29
and that there was a woman and a child with it also,
00:26:31
and I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that,
00:26:34
how is this all connected?
00:26:36
And she just kept repeating it to me,
00:26:37
that, you know, we're trying to put the pieces of this together
00:26:40
and that my brother had been leaving for work
00:26:42
and was gunned down when he exited his door.
00:26:44
That's how I found out.
00:26:47
I remember waking up to my mom on the phone,
00:26:50
talking really loud saying, you know,
00:26:52
what are you talking about?
00:26:53
This can't be happening.
00:26:55
Let me walk outside.
00:26:56
Thomas is sleeping, talking about me, and I was like,
00:26:59
what's going on?
00:27:00
So me, as a curious 10-year-old, I decided to turn on the news,
00:27:03
and I saw, you know, the helicopter scene of the scene,
00:27:08
you know?
00:27:09
All they said was a, you know, three people have been killed,
00:27:14
and the aerial view of the house was where my dad lived.
00:27:18
And I had recognized it because I had been there,
00:27:19
you know, just a few weeks prior,
00:27:21
so I stumbled out of bed, went outside,
00:27:25
found my mom and my sister in the driveway crying.
00:27:27
And I was like, what's going on?
00:27:29
I know that my dad walked out of his house
00:27:32
and got ambushed and shot in the head, and I don't know why.
00:27:40
That's all I know.
00:27:41
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:27:47
NARRATOR: It appeared that Richard Roszkowski
00:27:50
had killed Tommy Gaudet because of misplaced jealousy
00:27:54
and paranoia.
00:27:57
There's a lot of different stories and theories
00:27:59
about what happened.
00:28:00
I remember hearing, like, a lot of different lines.
00:28:02
Like, it was a love triangle, a crime
00:28:05
of passion, just a bunch of crap,
00:28:08
a bunch of mishmosh stories with no facts
00:28:11
or evidence behind them but, I guess for the views--
00:28:14
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Before the day of the murders,
00:28:16
Holly and Tommy had never met one another.
00:28:19
They were not known to each other in any capacity
00:28:21
whatsoever, and the only place that they had come together
00:28:24
was in Roszkowski's imagination.
00:28:27
He had become so fixated on Holly, so obsessed with her
00:28:31
that he would sit and ruminate and think and make up
00:28:36
scenarios in his head that he would
00:28:38
convince himself were real.
00:28:39
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:29:16
NARRATOR: When Roszkowski's name was released to the public,
00:29:20
Thomas Jr., who was just 10 at the time,
00:29:23
recognized his father's killer.
00:29:26
When they put his mugshot on the news,
00:29:29
I immediately had a flashback to, you know,
00:29:32
just a couple of months prior for my birthday
00:29:35
when my dad was visiting and came to give me a birthday
00:29:38
card, and Richard actually drove him,
00:29:40
because they were roommates.
00:29:41
So I immediately was like, oh, my gosh, mom.
00:29:44
That's the guy who is dad's roommate,
00:29:47
and he gave me 20 bucks for my birthday.
00:29:51
NARRATOR: Days after the shootings,
00:29:53
the Gaudet family visited the crime scene on Seaview Avenue.
00:29:58
There were a lot of police officers, of course,
00:30:00
a lot of bystanders, a lot of balloons, a lot of Teddy bears.
00:30:04
I didn't know if those were for Holly and my dad
00:30:07
or if they were for Holly's daughter.
00:30:10
NATASHA GAUDET: He killed a 9-year-old little girl.
00:30:12
She was a baby.
00:30:13
My son is 10.
00:30:15
She was nine years old.
00:30:16
I mean, not that it justifies my father or that--
00:30:20
Holly's death or anything like that or it
00:30:22
minimizes it, but to kill, to empty the clip in a little girl
00:30:27
while she's running from you, that's, like, beyond evil.
00:30:30
I know this for 100% certain that if my brother had had
00:30:34
the opportunity that day to protect that little girl
00:30:37
and save her life, he would have.
00:30:38
He loved children.
00:30:39
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:30:43
NARRATOR: Roszkowski told detectives
00:30:45
that he'd been gorging himself on drugs in the days and hours
00:30:49
leading up to the murders, and he continued to claim to have
00:30:53
no memory of the incident.
00:30:57
To my understanding, from what I hear and from what I know,
00:31:00
he was doing crack and heroin, and he
00:31:03
was on a long drug binge that had been going
00:31:06
on for days, a lot of drugs.
00:31:09
We're talking Xanax, marijuana, alcohol, heroin, crack.
00:31:12
We're talking a lot of drugs in his system.
00:31:15
NARRATOR: As well as his out of control drug addiction,
00:31:18
detectives discovered Roszkowski's motive
00:31:21
behind the murders.
00:31:23
During the police investigation,
00:31:25
they learned of Roszkowski's rather transient,
00:31:29
chaotic lifestyle, and they learned of his previous stints
00:31:33
in prison and his drug use.
00:31:35
They also come to learn about Holly's experience,
00:31:39
being victimized by Roszkowski, so the picture
00:31:42
starts to emerge of a man who feels entitled to behave
00:31:46
in whatever way he wants.
00:31:48
He's very fixated.
00:31:49
He's very rigid in his thinking, and he is self-obsessed.
00:31:53
He is me, myself, and I. He has very little
00:31:56
concern for other people.
00:31:57
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:32:02
NARRATOR: Just under three years later in May 2009,
00:32:06
44-year-old Richard Roszkowski went
00:32:08
on trial at the superior court in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
00:32:13
He was charged with murdering Holly Flannery,
00:32:16
her nine-year-old daughter Kylie,
00:32:18
and tree surgeon Tommy Gaudet.
00:32:21
Tommy's family were in attendance
00:32:23
throughout the hearing.
00:32:28
I just remember seeing him and, you know,
00:32:29
asking my mom like, can he come out from behind there?
00:32:33
Can, you know, he get us?
00:32:35
And, you know, of course, that's a fear.
00:32:37
This person just killed your dad.
00:32:39
Can they come and kill you next?
00:32:40
There were times where he was literally feet away from me,
00:32:45
and that, you know--
00:32:48
that thought comes over you.
00:32:49
Like, wow.
00:32:50
I can-- maybe I can get him, and it's almost
00:32:52
like you want to attack him.
00:32:53
And it brings up something inside of you
00:32:55
because you're-- you're just thinking he's so close to you,
00:32:58
but it's uncomfortable to be that close to a killer,
00:33:01
a killer that could take two adults and a child's life
00:33:03
within three minutes.
00:33:04
Three minutes, they're all dead.
00:33:07
NARRATOR: Roszkowski claimed to have no recollection
00:33:10
of the murders and therefore, was
00:33:12
not in control of his actions.
00:33:15
The defense tries to claim that Roszkowski is insane,
00:33:19
and by implication, he's not responsible for his actions.
00:33:24
And Roszkowski does play up to this.
00:33:27
So he exhibits some signs of shaking and stuttering
00:33:32
in his speech and trying to appear
00:33:34
in a very stereotypical way to be somebody who is insane.
00:33:39
NARRATOR: As well as a claim of insanity,
00:33:41
Roszkowski stated that he'd been on a drug
00:33:44
binge that lasted for days in the lead up to the killings.
00:33:49
Supervisory assistant state's attorney C. Robert
00:33:52
Satti Jr. led the prosecution.
00:33:56
C. ROBERT SATTI: There was a substantial defense
00:33:57
that was put on.
00:33:59
It took two different forms.
00:34:00
One was a claim of intoxication, and the intoxication
00:34:04
went to the fact that Mr. Roszkowski, if the jury
00:34:06
determined that he was intoxicated,
00:34:09
we had to disprove that and show that his intent was not going
00:34:13
to be mitigated or actually, if he was intoxicated,
00:34:16
was an absolute defense of the crime.
00:34:17
So I do recall that there was an intoxication claim being made,
00:34:21
and they put a lot of witnesses on concerning that.
00:34:24
There was also a challenge as to the mental status
00:34:27
of Mr. Roszkowski.
00:34:29
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He was basically trying to say,
00:34:31
this is not my fault, you know?
00:34:33
Poor me, look at me.
00:34:34
I'm suffering from a terrible condition.
00:34:36
But it was very clear in terms of his behavior
00:34:39
around the offenses that he did know what he was doing.
00:34:43
He had a presence of mind.
00:34:44
He was constantly making decisions and making choices.
00:34:48
Had he been legally insane, had he been suffering psychosis
00:34:52
or something like that, driving him to behave
00:34:55
in a particular way, he would not have been anywhere
00:34:57
near as organized as he was.
00:35:01
NARRATOR: Many of the witness statements from the day painted
00:35:04
a very different picture, that Roszkowski was calm
00:35:08
and in control of his actions.
00:35:11
NATASHA GAUDET: Where he killed them, there was a light,
00:35:13
and there was a row of cars.
00:35:15
So there were people who literally looked in the mirror
00:35:18
and saw these people get shot and killed
00:35:20
and murdered through their rear view,
00:35:22
that were testifying that day.
00:35:24
DANIEL TEPFER: It was a tough testimony.
00:35:26
No question about it.
00:35:27
It was tough for everyone in the courtroom to hear.
00:35:30
I'm sure was tough for many of the witnesses
00:35:32
to testify about it.
00:35:34
Some of them cried.
00:35:37
Looked over at the jury, some of them were crying.
00:35:39
It was obviously something that they had never
00:35:42
heard before, maybe never even imagined before, but now,
00:35:46
on top of it, they would have to hear to decide
00:35:48
someone's guilt or innocence.
00:35:50
NARRATOR: Ultimately, Roszkowski's plea of insanity
00:35:54
fell on deaf ears.
00:35:56
I think the jury needed to understand that Mr. Roszkowski
00:36:00
was responsible for his actions and knew
00:36:03
what he was doing when those three people were executed.
00:36:07
We had argued that it was an extreme, cruel activity that
00:36:12
occurred in the killing of her that I suggest led
00:36:16
to the finding of the jury that Mr. Roszkowski
00:36:18
deserved the death penalty.
00:36:19
The verdict was guilty on the capital felony,
00:36:22
and he was subsequently sentenced to death.
00:36:27
NARRATOR: But, in an agonizing twist for the victims'
00:36:31
families, a legal technicality meant
00:36:33
the judge was forced to overturn the jury's decision.
00:36:37
Roszkowski's conviction was upheld,
00:36:40
but a second sentencing trial would have
00:36:43
to take place in the future.
00:36:46
In December 2011, Roszkowski was interviewed in prison by
00:36:51
psychiatrist Dr. Howard Zonana.
00:36:54
He still claimed to have no memory of the events.
00:37:13
NARRATOR: Roszkowski did, however, allude to a reason
00:37:16
behind the killing spree.
00:37:18
He claimed to have discovered a letter in his mother's home
00:37:22
on the morning of the 7th of September 2006.
00:38:21
INTERVIEWER: Right.
00:38:32
NARRATOR: No letter has ever been found by police
00:38:35
investigating the murders, and no link
00:38:38
between Tommy Gaudet and Holly Flannery
00:38:40
has ever been established.
00:38:43
Richard Roszkowski's resentencing trial took place
00:38:46
in 2014, and this time, he was given the opportunity to speak
00:38:52
to the families of his victims.
00:38:55
Like I said, is I'm truly, deeply remorseful
00:39:00
for what happened, and I'm truly sorry for the pain
00:39:03
that I have caused to you and to all the family members.
00:39:09
I am truly, truly sorry for your pain.
00:39:12
He says, I feel sorry.
00:39:14
I feel remorse.
00:39:16
And for me, that's a bit of a red flag,
00:39:18
because just parroting the words sorry and remorse
00:39:22
don't actually mean that you are sorry or remorseful.
00:39:25
It's more convincing for me when offenders are talking
00:39:28
about how they feel, what kind of physical emotions
00:39:31
they're feeling.
00:39:33
I would like to believe that he was sincere,
00:39:36
but I don't think he was.
00:39:37
I think he was going through the motions of saying it.
00:39:40
I don't think it was accurate.
00:39:41
I don't think it was believable.
00:39:43
NARRATOR: In May 2014, the results of the second trial
00:39:48
was the same as the first.
00:39:49
Richard Roszkowski was sentenced to death,
00:39:52
but because Connecticut had abolished the death penalty
00:39:55
in 2012, his sentence was eventually
00:39:59
changed to life without the possibility of release
00:40:02
at a third trial in 2018.
00:40:06
I was just relieved and I'm glad that he'll never
00:40:08
ever see the light of day, and he
00:40:10
can't harm anybody else ever.
00:40:12
He's damaged and changed a lot of lives with what he did.
00:40:16
And that other family has to live
00:40:18
without their granddaughter, and they lost their daughter.
00:40:20
We have to live without my brother.
00:40:22
My niece and nephew lost their dad,
00:40:24
but for that other family, that mother
00:40:26
lost her daughter and her granddaughter, you know?
00:40:29
It's horrible, absolutely horrible.
00:40:33
NARRATOR: We may never know the real reason why Richard
00:40:36
Roszkowski decided to kill three people in September 2006,
00:40:42
but there seems to be no doubt that it
00:40:44
was driven by his obsession with Holly Flannery.
00:40:50
DANIEL TEPFER: There's always been questions about what
00:40:52
the relationship was.
00:40:54
There'll always be questions.
00:40:55
I mean, people will never really understand
00:40:59
what it was that attracted her to Richard Roszkowski.
00:41:03
I mean, that's one of those things
00:41:04
that will never be answered.
00:41:07
I don't think we will ever know the true nature
00:41:09
of the relationship between Holly and Roszkowski,
00:41:12
because Holly has been silenced.
00:41:14
She's never going to be able to tell her side of the story,
00:41:17
and anything that Roszkowski says,
00:41:19
we really have to take with a pinch of salt.
00:41:21
And very often in these cases, we
00:41:23
look at the victim's behavior.
00:41:25
What did they do to provoke their offender?
00:41:28
Did they do anything to encourage him?
00:41:30
And I'd say, no.
00:41:31
The only person responsible for these murders is Roszkowski,
00:41:35
and that's what we need to remember.
00:41:38
NARRATOR: Roszkowski's infatuation
00:41:40
with Holly led not only to her death and the death
00:41:43
of her daughter, but also a man who'd never clapped eyes
00:41:47
on either of them until just seconds
00:41:50
before he was executed right outside his home
00:41:54
on Seaview Avenue.
00:41:57
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:41:58
EILEEN POTKAY: Tommy should be remembered for, number one,
00:42:01
being a hard worker, number two, being the best dad ever.
00:42:05
He adored his children.
00:42:07
And number three, he was the best uncle to all
00:42:09
the nieces and nephews he had.
00:42:11
They all adored him.
00:42:12
And he's loved, and he's missed.
00:42:15
WOMAN (ON VIDEO): Who's that Ray Ray?
00:42:16
What's his name?
00:42:17
Uncle Tommy.
00:42:21
His grandkids, my kids ask about him all the time,
00:42:25
and they always say they would have loved to meet him
00:42:29
and sad that they will never get to meet up.
00:42:32
At least, I had him for a little bit.
00:42:34
I had him for a little while.
00:42:38
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42:40
NARRATOR: Richard Roszkowski will never be
00:42:42
able to ruin any other lives.
00:42:44
The dangerous killer will remain behind bars
00:42:47
for the rest of his days.
00:42:50
My experience, listening and seeing Roszkowski,
00:42:53
he's one person that can never be rehabilitated.
00:42:56
He is just one of those rare individuals that's just so bad
00:43:01
that he should never be able to walk where
00:43:03
the community is ever again.
00:43:08
NARRATOR: Roszkowski was completely
00:43:10
fixated on Holly Flannery, and whatever their relationship,
00:43:14
nothing could justify his actions.
00:43:17
To kill the woman he obsessed over,
00:43:20
her 9-year-old daughter, and an uninvolved father of two
00:43:24
in a bloody public execution undoubtedly
00:43:28
makes Richard Roszkowski one of the world's most evil killers.
00:43:32
[MUSIC PLAYING]
