48 Hours - Last Seen at a NYC Party

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

When a man goes missing, his friends turn to social media to track his final hours. What they learn is horrific. Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Joey's missing. He's somewhere. He's got to be somewhere.

Hey, where's Joey? Have you heard from Joey? This isn't like him to not call me back. There's something really wrong. Let's go back to November 12, 2016. A bunch of people were going out to New York City. Joey would go into Manhattan a good amount. He would meet all of our friends there. He had hundreds of friends. Hundreds of friends.

Joey always had this positive outlook on life. When you were with him, you felt like you could fly. He was an athlete, loved sports. Bright future, smart kid. That night, we went to the Gilded Lily. The Gilded Lily is in the Meatpacking District. It's a lounge. It has club-type music. It's kind of high-end. Everyone dresses up. Were you drinking?

We were drinking. How would you describe Joey? He looked fine. He didn't look like he was even buzzed. 3.30 or so, the night was ending, so everyone exits. I remember Joey on my left, and these girls were looking at him a certain way, and he was looking back at me and just smiling like, you know, that he was interested.

I get approached on my right side by two guys, and they try to start some conversation with me. Joey's on my left, and they kind of form a group on that side. He jumped in a cab and went off with these two guys. Why do you think he did? Do you know? I just don't know, but I guarantee they're saying that they have a penthouse apartment, there's girls, this guy's dad's a jeweler.

And that jeweler was the jeweler to the stars. Oprah! You're talking about Oprah Winfrey, you're talking about Jennifer Lopez. He sold an engagement ring to Melania and Donald Trump. Saturday night came and went. I can't get in touch with him. Has your son ever gone a whole day

without texting or calling you? Nope. I started getting phone calls from a bunch of our friends. Have you heard from Joey? Have you spoke to Joey? Joey's with you, right? They thought he was at my house. What happened?

So I went on Instagram. I went on Facebook. I called everyone on my phone. We go and we just start looking for him. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.

Everyone was still trying to get a clear-cut answer as to what was going on. Sources say 26-year-old Joseph Camunale came to this building early Sunday morning with friends. Why? Why were you there? Why did you meet them? Why'd you go out that night? If you were invited to go to Sutton Place, you would wanna go there. It's like its own private enclave

that only money can penetrate. Comunale's father reported him missing when he never came home. What's now going through your mind? The worst. The worst. Yeah. What do you think happened in apartment 4C? Something went terribly, terribly wrong. Aaron Moriarty reports, what happened in apartment 4C.

I met Joey freshman year of college. We've been best friends ever since. Joey was one of my best friends. My best friend. Best friend. Everybody called him their best friend. But I was his best friend. Joey Cominale's father, Pat, knew his 26-year-old son well.

And at first, he wasn't worried when he couldn't reach him the morning after Joey went out with some friends on Saturday night, November 12, 2016. I know it sounds crazy, but in New York, things don't really start until late. It's not unheard of for kids to come home at six in the morning, and I figured he's sleeping. He was sick earlier in the day. Looking back, Joey's friends like Steven Nasso will tell you that Joey never even intended to go out that Saturday night. I think he took a nap for like three hours. But then Joey's college buddy, Preetam Devakabharbu, a part-time promoter, texted and offered Joey VIP treatment at the Gilded Lily,

a club then located in the chic meatpacking district in downtown Manhattan. I was working, so I'd be able to take care of everyone that came in. Did you ever worry about him? I worried about Joey because I loved him, but I knew that he always surrounded himself with good people. Elisa Labretto dated Joey Cominelli on and off, but mostly on, for five years. First at Hofstra University. And later, when Joey became a sales associate at his father's security company.

And Elisa became a teacher. He is like the rest of us. He wants to have fun, doesn't want any problems. But that particular Saturday, she and Joey, like a lot of long-time couples, were taking a break. We had a little bit of like a disagreement, and I was like, you know what, I just need a little bit of space. Like, I'll talk to him in the morning. So Joey headed into Manhattan

from Stamford, Connecticut. We hop on the Merritt Parkway, shoot down in New York City. Joey was with Steven Nasso, and they met up with a group of friends. It was always a good time to meet people, and that's why Joey and them came out to Gilda that night. As the club was closing,

you could see Joey and his friends exiting on surveillance video. It was early Sunday morning, and the crowd emptied onto the street. That's when Joey began talking to three women standing outside the club. Then, out of the blue, two men joined them. The men did not know the women,

and they didn't know Joey and his friends either. There's six or seven million people in New York City, and they crossed paths with us. At that point, Stephen borrowed Joey's phone and stepped away from the group. When Stephen turned back, Joey and the group were gone. And this new group that he had met, somebody said, hey, you want to go to a friend's apartment

in Sutton Place and continue having some fun. Veteran New York crime reporter Murray Weiss covered the Joey Cominelli story when it first broke and is now working for 48 hours. So Joey went along, leaving his phone behind with his friend, thinking, I'll get it tomorrow, no big deal. They just jumped in a couple of cabs and off they went.

Stephen got word that Joey had gone to a party uptown at someone's apartment. So he headed home with Joey's phone. Hours later, on Sunday afternoon, back in Stephen's apartment, Joey's phone began ringing. It was his father. He said,

Hey, where's Joey? And I said, he stayed in the city. And he was like, alright right, well, if something happened, find him for me. So then I went to Joey's place, and he wasn't there. Did you talk to him every day? Yeah, every day. We'd talk about the Yankees and the Rangers. I'm so sorry, Pat. Stephen got in touch with Preetham,

who tracked down the phone number of a guy named Larry who had been at the party. Larry told us that he doesn't know where Joey went. That's when the vast network of Joey's friends got to work, homing through social media, searching for any scrap of information. through social media searching for any scrap of information. Friend Mike Mullen says they plugged Larry's phone number into Google and got a last name. And actually his Facebook popped up, Lawrence DeLeon.

Is this the kid? Yeah, that's the kid we were with last night. Max was the one who really put everything in motion. Max Brancinelli was perhaps Joey's closest friend. He manages a restaurant, but when he heard Joey was missing, he turned himself into an online detective. Did you ever try to track down or retrace somebody's steps before using social media? No.

You're in a panic and you're trying to find your friend. So show me where you started. So I went on Instagram here. And why Instagram? Why would you start there? Instagram, you can click on the location of the place and it will show people that posted a picture there from that place. Here's what Max did.

He began using Instagram's locator function for the Gilded Lily, looking for users who had posted the previous night and that morning. He kept his eye out for Joey. As I was scrolling, I landed on this picture. And why did this catch your eye? This caught my eye because I happened to know him in the middle. By total coincidence, Max spotted a friend, Alvin. But that's not the only reason he stopped at this photo.

I know the type of girls Joey chases. They're dark features, and I just had a punch. I screenshot the picture, and I sent it to the group of the guys that were out at the club with him the night before. And what'd they say? They were like, yeah, it's that girl right there on the right. And I was like, wow.

That woman had also gone to the Sutton Place party that night. Max called his friend Alvin, who had her phone number. So I then hit her up. Do you remember being with Joey last night? Like, we can't find him, he's missing. And she told me like, yeah, we were with him last night. She told him that when the party ended early that Sunday morning,

Larry DeLeon and Joey walked her and her friends to an Uber. She told me they waved, and he looked like he was going back inside with Larry. But when Max called Larry DeLeon, he said Joey did not go back inside the building. And he's like, he left with the girls. He left in the Uber with the girls. Those were two very different stories. At this point, I'm not sure who's lying to me. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint.

Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. They always say lies, you can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence

and questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested and convicted because he's black. Just because a white female says a black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel.

Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking

story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

How does a 26-year-old man simply disappear? Joey Cominelli was part of a close-knit, loving family with a younger sister, Alexa, and parents, Pat and Lisa. He loved going to the city. He did it all the time. He loved it. You know, he'd go to Ranger games. He'd go to the Yankee games. He'd go to the Giant games. Pat Cominale lives in a tony part of Connecticut, but he's a Bronx kid at heart. He moved here, met his future wife Lisa, and founded a successful security firm that he later sold for more than $400 million. But that meant nothing

now that his only son was missing. How important is family to you, Pat? Hm. Yeah, family's important. That's... That's everything. Tell me about his relationship with his dad. I have never seen a person admire their father so much. I've never seen a father admire their son so much. They were inseparable.

By Sunday evening, with Joey now missing about 10 hours, Pat phoned Larry DeLeon, who had been at the Sutton Place apartment with Joey. Larry says they walked the girls out to the car, and that's the last they saw of them. But then DeLeon provided one small additional detail about Joey that, to Pat, seemed off. He said, the last I heard of him, he said he was going to get cigarettes. Did that make sense?

Didn't make any sense, because if you talk to his friends, they'll tell you that he never bought a pack of cigarettes in his life. Joey smoked cigarettes from time to time, but he never bought them. That's why it doesn't make any sense. Pat thought so too. He decided to file a missing persons report. So I said, all right, let me go to Stanford PD. By then, Pat had Larry DeLeon's phone number.

The on-duty sergeant called DeLeon, who denied knowing where Joey was, but he did provide the names and numbers of two friends at the party, James Rackover and Max Gemma. DeLeon also provided the address, 418 East 59th Street in Manhattan, a building that calls itself the Grand Sutton. The Grand Sutton is a luxury condo in one of the wealthiest sections of New York City. And apartment 4C was home to 25-year-old James Rackover. You're not expecting an issue in Sutton Place. Sutton Place is a beautiful place to live. No one would disagree.

Over the years, the neighborhood's been home to a parade of celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, and rock star Freddie Mercury. What could go wrong on the Upper East Side? Do you know anything about Larry DeLeon or James Rackover or Max Gemma at that point?

You know nothing about them? But as the days passed, the police would find out a lot more about the three young men, all in their 20s, who partied that morning with Joey. The three young men in this story are young men of privilege. Larry DeLeon worked in real estate and came from a well-off New Jersey

family that owned thoroughbred horses. Max Gemma was a computer software salesman whose father was once the mayor of Oceanport, New Jersey, and had been in business with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law. But no one appeared to live a more charmed life than James Rackover, who was living in Sutton Place. His father, Jeffrey, who had a much larger apartment in the same building on the 32nd floor,

specialized in getting one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry for the world's rich and beautiful. I grew up in the same town with Jeffrey Rackover. We grew up a block apart and while we weren't close our families knew each other. He not only cultivated becoming a jeweler to the stars, he wanted to be among them. He was friends with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He came to know Oprah. His apartment has photographs of himself with all these personalities.

James enjoyed the good life. He was an aspiring model working in the insurance business, loved boxing, and even had a boxer named Gloves, of course. I think Joey had an opportunity to go to a fancy part of New York City, into a fancy apartment, and he went along. And there were those three young ladies along for the ride. Jenna Stissy, Katie Conroy, and Samantha Guardiola. But all that mattered to Pat was finding his son.

He had already filed a missing persons report with the Stanford police, but also wanted to alert the New York City cops. So at 9 a.m. Monday morning, some 25 hours since anyone reported seeing Joey, Pat was at the 17th Police Precinct, where he told NYPD Detective Yeoman Castro everything he knew. Detective Castro, I still remember saying, let's go to the building. And we jumped in the police car. When they arrived at the Grand Sutton, Detective Castro asked to view the building's surveillance video.

And then he starts reviewing video. They asked me a couple times to come in to identify if that was my son. So we did. At some point you see your son. Sorry about that. see your son? Pat was overcome when he spotted son Joey and Larry DeLeon walking the three women out to the curb. But then what do you see? We see him come back into the building.

So you see Larry DeLeon and your son walking back in the building. And what did that say to you? They're lying. There's a problem here. Remember, Larry DeLeon had said, Joey did not go back inside the building. It was all too much for Pat. Detective Castro asked him to wait at the 17th Police Precinct. So as I went outside to make phone calls,

the porter started to bring garbage out. And I ran back inside, and I said to the police, don't let the garbage go. Make sure you search all the bags. I just kind of had that sense that if these guys were lying, there could be something in the garbage. And sadly, he was right. Inside those bags, police discovered Joey's bloody pants,

his shirt, and his driver's license. Also tossed in the trash, a special chain Joey always wore, given to him by his father. I said to myself, I don't think he walked out of the building alive. 14 hours after Joey Cominale and Larry DeLeon were seen on video walking those women to their Uber, surveillance cameras caught James Rackover taking his father's Mercedes-Benz for a drive.

With the help of NYPD's network of cameras, detectives were able to track some of his movements. They quickly put in Rackover's Mercedes-Benz license plate, and bing, bing, bing, it started showing up going down the FDR Drive. The car went south around southern Manhattan. It then made a turn into the Holland Tunnel, but led out to New Jersey. But detectives could not pinpoint precisely where the car eventually stopped. They needed a break, and they soon got it from Larry DeLeon.

He agreed to meet with them and they sensed that there was something that he wanted to say and so the detective said to him you know what do you want to tell us we have a missing boy here his family you know wants to know what happened to him. On Tuesday DeLeon began talking. The party at the apartment in the wee early hours of Sunday morning had been lively, he said. One of the women videotaped some of it on her phone. There was cocaine and plenty of drinking. DeLeon and Rackover even competed to see who could give the best lap dance.

But by 6.45 a.m., the women left in that Uber. And that's when cameras captured DeLeon and Joey walking back into the building and up to apartment 4C, where DeLeon says a fatal argument erupted. Larry DeLeon tells the police he has an exchange of words with Joey Comunale that Joey says something like, James got the cocaine, you know, I got the cigarettes, what have you brought to the table? He kind of pounded his hand on a table. Larry DeLeon admitted to the police that he just flew into a rage and slammed Joey, knocked him down and hit him a few times.

DeLeon says that when he began punching Joey, his friend Max Gemma was asleep on the couch. Then, DeLeon says, Rackover, a boxing fan who took pride in his chiseled physique, jumped right in. fizzle physique jumped right in. And according to Larry, James starts also beating the crap out of Joey, who's now defenseless and gurgling because he can't hardly breathe. Communale lawyer Bob Abrams has heard DeLeon's confession. He claims that after he had beaten a defenseless Joey and almost killed him, Max woke up. They got so very nervous because Rocco was now beating the crap out of Joey that they would do anything Rackover said.

And this is really difficult for me to talk about because what they did and how they did it is just so horrific. DeLeon says he told Gemma to leave the room, and that's when DeLeon says Rackover began stabbing Joey. The stabbing ended Joey's life. Dillion says Gemma left the apartment and had no involvement in the murder. He says Rackover then dragged Joey's lifeless body into the bathroom. He tries to dismember him with a serrated knife. Dismembering somebody is not an easy thing to do. And Rackover

was not able to do it. While they plotted their next move, they began a frenzied cleanup of the apartment, mopping up Joey's blood with bleach and paper towels, all the while fielding calls from Joey's friends and his father. You're talking to Larry DeLeon and your son's still in the apartment, and they act like there's nothing wrong. Yeah. Incredibly, evidence shows that Rackover and DeLeon took time out to eat, placing a delivery order. Then, as shown on building surveillance cameras, they explored the basement looking police-ay for a way to get Joey's body out of the Grand Sutton without being seen.

Then, they had another idea. What they do next is totally insane. As darkness settled on the city, DeLeon claimed he moved Joey's body, now wrapped in a comforter, to the ledge of Rackover's fourth floor window, while Rackover moved the Mercedes-Benz into position on East 59th Street.

When Rackover gave him the class sign, De Leon pushed the body out of the window four floors. And nobody saw it? We're talking about an upscale apartment, midtown Manhattan, and nobody saw it? The Grand Sutton faces the Queensborough Bridge in Manhattan, and it was dark. It fell into an area where there may have been some bushes and concrete. And then when nobody was looking, after DeLeon came back down, they stuffed the body into the trunk of the car, and then they drove off. Larry had told them that they had driven the body down to Oceanport, New Jersey, and that they had deposited him in a wooded area behind a florist shop. It was an area that DeLeon was very familiar with.

He grew up in Oceanport, a Jersey Shore town some 60 miles from Manhattan. He admits to helping take the body and to participate in digging. I don't want to call it a grave because it's not a grave, a hole, and then dumping Joey's body in a hole. But right before they were gonna cover up the hole, Rackover took gasoline and started to pour it over

Joey's body and in fact, did light Joey's body on fire. After DeLeon's confession, police raced out to Oceanport and discovered Joey's burned body in a field behind the florist shop, exactly where DeLeon had said it would be. Two hours later, Sergeant Yoma and Castro arrived at Pat Cominelli's home in Stamford. You heard the car door close? I popped up and I saw Detective Castro. I already knew.

Yeah, that was it. What happened that night? Did you do it? James Rackover and Larry DeLeon were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. What happened early Sunday morning? Did you kill him? Did you stab him? Max Gemma, who remembered DeLeon insists had nothing to do with Joey's death, was arrested later, but he was not charged with murder.

He was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. Gemma was granted bail. All three men pleaded not guilty, even Larry DeLeon. He challenged his confession, saying police had ignored him when he informed them he had a lawyer. But the biggest shock was yet to come when it was revealed that James Rackover, who seemed to live such a charmed life, was not who he claimed to be. James Rackover wasn't really James Rackover was it? No. Hear more about Joey Cominale's life from his friends on Facebook at 48 Hours.

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As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. It just seemed like there was always more to learn about James, more terrible things. To the outside world, James Rackover was a wealthy young heir and would-be model living in the lap of luxury on Sutton Place.

But the man that Larry DeLeon claims is the ringleader in Joseph Cominale's vicious murder is not at all what he appears to be. James Rackover was not his real name. Detectives discovered James Rackover was not the son of celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover. Police say James Rackover is also this man, James Bowden from Broward County. He's an ex-con from Florida,

a world away from the understated wealth of Sutton Place. And James Bowden has a rap sheet dating back to his teens. He spent nearly a year and a half in prison for second degree burglary. Three months after his release, in September 2013, after moving to New York, he reportedly met Jeffrey Rackover at a gym. They were both working out, and they kind of hit it off. Surprisingly, the multimillionaire bachelor, then in his mid-50s, soon invited the 22-year-old James to live with him in his lavish Grand Sutton apartment on the 32nd floor.

And if anyone asked why the two were suddenly living together, Jeffrey explained it this way. Jeffrey Rackover told his closest friends and relatives that one day there was a knock on his door, and a young man was standing at the door and said, You don't know me, but I'm your son. Jeffrey even took the extraordinary step of allowing James to change his last name to Rackover. James claimed he was Jeffrey's biological son.

These are the documents for name change. They put this in a legal document. James Rackover said Jeffrey Rackover is his biological father. He lied in this document, didn't he? James lied in that document, and Jeffrey Rackover confirmed the information. Communale family attorney Bob Abrams says it was all an act. They're not related. They're not related. They are not related.

Abrams alleges there was a sexual relationship between the two, but Jeffrey's lawyer categorically denies it. What's more, James' defense attorneys, Rob Caliendo and Maurice Surcar, say they've only seen a father-son relationship. Jeffrey Rackover provided structure in the life of this young man. Jeffrey paid for James' education and helped him find a job. He even paid James' nearly $4,000 a month rent when, in early 2016, James moved into Apartment 4C at the Grand Sutton. After James was arrested for Joey Cominelli's murder,

Jeffrey paid, at least initially, for James' defense attorney. What does James Rackover face if he's convicted of all charges? He faces spending the rest of his life in jail. Charged with second-degree murder and other crimes, James is set to stand trial first, before Larry DeLeon and Max Gemma. Sercars has a unique strategy. He says James is guilty of covering up a murder,

but not of committing one. You are asking this jury to separate the murder from other pretty terrible acts, trying to cut up the body, getting rid of the body, burying the body, burning the body. It is tough, but they are separate things. They say it was Larry DeLeon who killed Joey. In October 2018, two years after Joey's murder, James Rackover's trial began. Opening statements today in the murder trial of James Rackover.

But Jeffrey, James' biggest supporter and surrogate father, did not appear in the courtroom. It was a much different scene for Joey, whose family and friends packed the courtroom every day. What's been the worst part? Every day. Pat was the first witness, and his emotional testimony quieted the courtroom. I know it affected the jury. It affects the jury in any murder case.

Prosecutors painted James Rackover as a monstrously callous killer, playing this phone call recorded in jail, where James brags to a friend. I don't know if you've been following, but I start trial in September, so I'm looking at being home around October-ish. My rep's going to be up there, bro.

My weight's going to be up when I hit the streets. They're going to be like, yo, this kid just beat this rocky and he's home? Oh, my God. Yeah, see? Prosecutors called to the stand women who had attended that party, Ben Estisi and Katie Conroy. But parts of their testimony helped the defense. Katie in particular said DeLeon was the one brandishing a knife.

He was using it to do coke off of. The women painted a picture of him being pretty quick to use this knife for any variety of tasks. James' defense lawyers also point out that he had nothing to gain, but everything to lose by killing Joey. James knew that if Jeffrey ever found out that a dead body had been discovered in his apartment, that was the end of their relationship. And that had to be factored into account as well when you consider why James felt so compelled to get that body out of the apartment. After more than a week of testimony, prosecutors had a strong case proving the cover-up, but there was nothing that directly pointed to James Rackover as Joey's killer. They seemed to need something, or someone, more.

And sure enough, they announced that they had a star witness who was going to take the stand. Hear more of James Rackover's jailhouse calls at 48hours.com. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X.

In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. Prosecutors hoped to seal James Rackover's conviction by unleashing an 11th hour witness, Louis Ruggiero, a close friend of James Rackover. The new witness turned out to be the troubled son of a very, very popular New York television morning anchor woman named Rosanna Scotto. Popular and well-connected. Good day, New York. I'm Rosanna Scotto.

Rosanna Scotto is as hometown as New York gets, and her 24-year-old son told the court that he met James because of his mother's friendship with jeweler Jeffrey Rackover. The day after Joey Cominelli's murder, Ruggiero said he was working out at the gym when James called him, desperate to talk. Lewis testified that James looked strung out. He had bags under his eyes, and he said that James told him, I've done something awful. There was a kid in the apartment, Lawrence De Leon got into a fight with him,

kind of knocked him out, and then James says, I got my own licks in there, and I didn't want a dead body in my apartment. So I slit his throat, we then put him in a comforter, threw him out the window, drove him 60 miles and buried him in a grave. And then he adds, don't worry about it because I bleach cleaned the entire apartment and nobody will know about it. Ruggiero testified he thought James was just making a sick joke. But the reaction in the courtroom was very different.

Gasps came out of half of the room that was filled with Joey's family and friends. You could see the jurors actually recoil when he used the word, I slid his throat. It was a stunning moment because Ruggiero was the first witness who directly implicated James Rackover in Joey Cominelli's murder. The testimony by Mr. Ruggiero was very damaging. But defense attorney Maurice Sercars maintains that Ruggiero's testimony was riddled with factual errors. Ruggiero testified that my client slit his throat. Joseph Comunale did not have his throat slit. Sircar stuck to his defense that Rackover is guilty of the cover-up, but not the murder. On cross-examination, the defense attacked Ruggiero. He had a lot of issues. Attorney Robert Caliendo. In the fall of 2016, he was in

the throes of as bad a drug problem as you could have. Ruggiero admitted on the stand that he had been spending $1,200 a day on marijuana, Oxycontin, Xanax, and cocaine. He never called police to tell them about James' confession. There were a number of reasons to think that Mr. Ruggiero might not be the person you want to hang the hat of a murder conviction on. The prosecution rested soon after Ruggiero's damaging testimony. The defense then presented only one piece of evidence,

the ring reportedly worn by Larry DeLeon when the fight broke out. And why is that ring so important? The ring had a sizable dent in it. And if you conclude that he hit Joseph so hard that he dented it, that certainly is a fact that we would want the jury to consider. And it certainly speaks to who might have committed murder and who might not have. In his closing argument, Sercars had one last surprise. He showed jurors four minutes of video where James could be seen in a building elevator, and then in Jeffrey Rackover's bedroom, where Jeffrey is sleeping. Surcars argued that in those four minutes, when James was not in apartment 4C, DeLeon alone killed Joey. Four minutes is plenty of time. But prosecutors have

a different theory, that James was looking for cocaine in Jeffrey's bedroom, didn't find any, and the fight broke out when he returned to Apartment 4C empty-handed. After 10 days of witness testimony and evidence, the jury got the case. Just gotta get justice. That's really it. Now it's a waiting game. Now it's a waiting game. On Friday, November 2nd, 2018, after nearly five hours of deliberations, the jury announced it had reached a verdict. The former James Bowden of Florida, now James Rackover from New York, was convicted on all counts for the murder of Joey Cominale. The verdict was greeted with relief and tears. I want to thank the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

I couldn't be more proud of the NYPD and all of Joey's friends and everybody else who supported us over the last two years. I can't wait to get these other two sons of bitches to go down just like this ass part of my language. This picture is me and Joey in Manhattan. Those who knew Joey best,

like girlfriend Alyssa Libretto... This is actually one of my favorite pictures. It just shows how much I love him. ...are left with their memories. I definitely thought I was going to marry him one day, honestly. He was just a beautiful person inside and out, and my life without him has been crazy. Joey's mother, Lisa, can barely speak about her only son.

So this was our last family photo together. What do you think when you take a look at Joey? Oh, just miss him every day. As a way of remembering Joey, some of his friends got tattoos with a number nine, which is the number Joey always wore when he played sports. I do have one. But of course, Pat Cominale just had to get the most elaborate tattoo. Can you see it?

So your son's always going to be with you. Yeah. I said, I don't want him. You better make sure it looks just like him. And it does. Honestly, I never saw the kid cry. Never one time. It's ironic.

I'm making up for it. He was a special kid. He really was. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. Paramount Podcasts