Tag: homicide

From Substack: Alleged Killer Blogged About Bipolar Disorder

Alleged triple murderer Christopher Ferguson wrote of multiple hospitalizations for psychotic episodes.

CW: Descriptions of violent crime, mental illness.

“They say pictures are tombstones of moments, suggesting that the latter live more richly in the imagination.” – Christopher Ferguson.

Image of alleged killer Christopher Ferguson: Smiling African American man with short hair, mustache, wearing black hoodie in front of autumnal background.

Christopher Ferguson / Facebook

I put off writing this all day because I don’t want to seem sympathetic to a man accused of killing a 70-something married couple and a 97-year-old woman with exceeding brutality. I can’t bring myself to feel sympathy for someone who would do such a thing, mentally ill or not.

Still, there’s no doubt that Christopher Ferguson presents a troubling puzzle. Once you delve deeper into what he’s accused of doing and who he seems to be, so many questions arise.

Ferguson, who Newton Police believe stabbed and bludgeoned Bruno and Jill D’Amore and Jill’s mom Lucia Arpino to death early on Sunday, June 25, had a somewhat active Facebook presence (the profile was confirmed by the Boston Globe; you’re welcome to click through but note that social media profiles of accused killers rarely stay public for long). It revealed a man with a knack for wordplay—see the quote above, taken from this post—who appeared thoughtful and insightful. In comments, he replied warmly to friends and family, and they returned the warmth.

Christopher Ferguson seems to fit that old cliché often trotted out about certain accused multiple killers—a nice, regular guy from whom no one expected such nightmarish violence. Various Boston media interviews with people who knew Ferguson and his family support that view. Yet they also indicated that he needed help but couldn’t—or perhaps wouldn’t—get it, and they expressed dismay and disgust with the mental health care system in general.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ferguson was arraigned via Zoom. His attorney entered a not guilty plea. NBC 10 reporter Jodi Reed tweeted a brief account of the arraignment. “HAPPENING NOW: Christopher Ferguson has pled not guilty to charges including murder. He will not appear in the courtroom today and will be kept in a room below due to his behavior. Swearing could be heard from a courtroom computer before it was muted.”

ABC News detailed the nightmare that happened to the D’Amores and Lucia Arpino:

Police have described the crime as a possible “random” act of violence.

Ryan disclosed that an autopsy performed on Jill D’Amore determined she suffered more than 30 stab and blunt force trauma injuries, primarily to the upper part of her body and head. The prosecutor also said investigators found obvious signs of an intense struggle in one of the bedrooms of the D’Amore home, including broken furniture and a crystal paperweight covered in blood.

Ryan said video surveillance footage from a home near the D’Amore residence captured Ferguson in the neighborhood at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday shirtless, barefooted and walking with a staggering gait.

The report said Ferguson lived “four-tenths of a mile” from the D’Amores. I found evidence that he once lived at an address just across the street from a building where Lucia Arpino lived with her late husband Alberto years ago, but Newton isn’t that big—it may have been a coincidence.

While writing this, I discovered via his Facebook (it was also on his LinkedIn profile) that Christopher Ferguson once had a blog at BlackandBipolar.net. (It no longer appears to be live online, hence the archived link.) The blog’s tagline read, “Using my journey to inspire, educate, and entertain.” On his “About” page, Ferguson wrote that when he was “was an aspiring academic at UC Berkeley” between 2008 and 2010, he “learned that the demands of a combined, advanced, degree program do not mesh well with the dictates of a major(ly mismanaged) mental illness.” He continued:

Being black and having bipolar disorder are hardly the extents of my identity. It contains multitudes, which include, but are not bound by this reductive alliteration. However, insofar as the suggested themes are concerned, my interests within these subdomains are black popular culture, specifically within hip hop, and the fabric of black male identity formation. As it relates to psychology, my interests are several and include a fascination with its abnormal, addictive, and motivational domains. As a self-educated, growth guru, focus freak, efficiency aficionado, and specialization stickler, thoughts of these adjoining affinities occupy much of my headspace.

In an August 2021 blog post about sobriety and mental health, Ferguson wrote about how screen icon Samuel L. Jackson had “transmuted his well-documented struggles with crack addiction into acting.” He continued on to outline what he termed his own “mental health maelstrom,” writing, “I’ll recap for the uninitiated: five manic episodes (with psychotic features to boot) occurring at disturbingly regular 18-24 month intervals from 2005-2014 (ages 23-32) resulted in 11 commissions to the psych ward.”

Later in the post, he wrote that he was managing his mental health on a low dose of the atypical antipsychotic drug Abilify and did not fear a relapse.

Earlier, in 2020, Ferguson blogged about Kanye West, AKA Ye, the hip-hop and fashion mogul who has publicly struggled with bipolar disorder for years. In the process, Ferguson described his own experience with manic and psychotic states:

Kanye speaks of the undeniable synchronicity that I recall feeling while elevated as fuck. It is this overwhelming sense of oneness with everything that is presently happening to, for, around, and strangely through you. This feels wonderful, but the full-on fissure from reality that typically follows (called psychosis) feels terrifying.

[Kanye] further articulated the paranoia that can accompany mania with psychotic features, as it’s clinically described:

“When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything… Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”

It’s worth repeating that in detailing Ferguson’s writing, I’m not trying to establish sympathy for him. I’m pointing out the fact that he knew he was a very ill man and had taken multiple measures to fight the illness in the past—factors that could make his bipolar disorder a moot point in court. Which leads to the question: What changed? When did he stop fighting? Was it the self-consuming nature of bipolar disorder or an inability to navigate the clanking, the confusing, immensely frustrating bureaucracy of the American mental health care system—much less pay for the often extravagantly expensive medications? Maybe it was all of these things.

At this point, several families deserve answers to all these questions and many more. Friends and loved ones of Christopher Ferguson need answers, but more importantly, the D’Amores and Arpinos need them. They are enduring not just a cataclysmic loss of three beloved family members who should have been celebrating wedding vow renewals but also a very public loss, splashed across the regional and national news.

Soon I’ll write about why this particular crime has struck a chord with me. With True Crime Report, I’ve decided to approach stories in a less “newsy” manner and illustrate why they capture me personally, much as my late friend Michelle McNamara did so brilliantly in her instant true crime classic, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

Four Phoenix-Area Murders Possible Work of a Spree Killer

There may be a spree killer at work in and around Phoenix, Arizona. So far he’s killed at least four: Noted forensic psychiatrist Steven Pitt, who consulted in famous cases like the murder of JonBenet Ramsey; a pair of paralegals; psychologist Marshall Levine.

The combination of victims–all apparently shot, two in legal work, two in psychology–suggests a single killer with a grudge. It may be that he’s going down a list. Spree killers, even more than mass murderers (there is a difference) are often working directly from a grievance. With the world, with a profession, with any particular group of people. From AZCentral.com:

Police were still investigating whether Levine’s killing is connected to the other three.

The scene at Levine’s office, Peak Life Solutions, was secured with crime tape shortly before noon Saturday. Multiple police cruisers were parked outside of the office complex. Two cars were parked in the lot behind the tape.

This is a case to watch, to say the least.

Murdered Teacher Rachael DelTondo’s Death Called a ‘Crime of Passion’

Rachael DelTondo (KDKA)

The murder of teacher Rachael DelTondo wasn’t random, it was a “crime of passion.” That’s what investigators say—DelTondo likely knew the killer who pumped six rounds into her chest on May 13. CBS Pittsburgh quoted Beaver County DA David Lozier, who said investigators “could not be taking this more seriously.” Detectives are interviewing neighbors and studying any available surveillance and reportedly trying to crack her cell phone. While Lozier emphasized to the press that police are certain she knew her killer, he said nothing about a suspect.

In 2016 police spoke with DelTondo after finding her with an underage student. Lozier indicated that the incident has been completely mischaracterized and that she shouldn’t have been suspended from her job at Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. He said it was “shameful” that DelTondo “was painted with a police report that had been written that did not result in criminal charges.” He then said she was the victim of “a personal vendetta against her at the time.” Of course, that leaves a huge question dangling over what the public knows about the case so far: Whose vendetta? It would be interesting to know if the fiance who broke up with DelTondo after she was found with the student had any connection to Aliquippa police.

Source: [CBS Pittsburgh]

Murdered PA Teacher Was Suspended From Job Over Info Allegedly Leaked By Police

Rachael DelTondo, KDKA screengrab

This is strange. A teacher in Aliquippa, PA was shot six times in her driveway Sunday night. Rachael DelTondo had just come home from an ice cream shop, CBS reports, when someone opened fire, six shots to the chest. Here’s why it’s so strange: DelTondo was involved in at least two controversies, including one linked to the Aliquippa Police. In 2017, CBS Pittsburgh reported on a beef she had regarding a wedding dress. She later broke up with her fiance. CBS reports that after the breakup, someone leaked info known only to the Aliquippa PD regarding some kind of past relationship between DelTondo and an (ex?) student. She was suspended from her teaching job and Pennsylvania State Police launched an investigation into Aliquippa police. To state the obvious: no way this was a random homicide.

Source: [CBS]

Heads of Two Redheaded Women Found 150 Miles Apart

Houston PD

One was found on Lake Houston. The other close to Calcasieu Lake. Two locations, 150 miles, the heads of two redheaded women. The Houston Chronicle reported they had good teeth and their heads were in plastic bags. Perhaps stranger still, the heads reportedly weren’t far from RV parks. The women were around the same age, as well. One woman’s hair was dyed, as she had dark roots. Forensic examination determined she may have been hispanic. An official said the Louisiana head was “real similar.” Police already have an unknown person of interest: a young man driving a blue-green Chevy Silverado. It’s just too soon to say it’s the beginning of a trail of heads spreading across several states. Perhaps these women were targeted for something unrelated to similar appearance. But it’s still horrific, and strange.

[Chron.com]

Nature Unknown…

This is my latest for Real Clear Life, published last Wednesday. It’s about the Waffle House Shooting in Antioch, Tennessee. It took place just a mile from where I grew up, in the area where I built my sense of place and home. This is kind of personal, but also about the aftermath of something terrible, and what it feels like to be close to it, yet far away.

Tennessee Waffle House Shooter Travis Reinking In Custody

Travis Reinking under arrest (MNPD)

I grew up about a mile from the location of the Waffle House where Travis Reinking opened fire Saturday night, killing four. Naturally, I’ve paid extremely close attention to the hunt for Reinking. He was captured today by Metro Nashville Police. He was roaming in a semi-rural area a mile or two from the Waffle House. I’ll be writing more about this crime for Real Clear Life Wednesday, but had to say it’s been surreal hearing the name of the community where I lived from birth through age 19 mentioned so often on the news. When I was a kid, Antioch, Tennessee was Nashville’s forgotten outer rim. No one outside the city knew it was there, and Nashvillians, by and large, viewed it as a dangerous, redneck-filled no-go zone. It was where Nashville ended and the countryside began. Right now it’s home to a tragedy with a national profile. It’s very strange, and truly awful.

Texas Serial Criminal Anthony Shore Admitted to Golden State Killer Copycat Crimes Before Execution

Before his execution, serial killer Anthony Shore told investigators from the Texas Rangers about crimes he’d committed when he was a teen living near Sacramento in the 1970s—crimes he said were inspired by the rapist and murderer now known as the Golden State Killer. The Houston Chronicle reports Shore “admitted to participating in another serial crime, as a copycat of the East Area Rapist, a Sacramento-area criminal active in the late 70s and early 80s.” He claimed he began with groping women on bike trails. The Rangers report indicated he progressed to truly terrifying assaults. Via the Chronicle, a quote from the Rangers gives some idea of  the horrific acts to which Shore confessed. He said he bound a couple, then “made the man ‘watch’ as he sexually assaulted the woman.”

Shore was called the “Tourniquet Killer” and targeted women in and around Houston during the 80s and 90s. He was convicted of killing four. He was put to death on January 18, 2018.

Source: [Houston Chronicle]

My New Article For Real Clear Life…

For exactly one month in 1992, the I-70 serial killer calmly walked into businesses all along I-70—from Indiana to Kansas—and shot the lone workers there, often killing with a single shot to the head. He left almost no evidence behind. Read my latest here.

Teen Suspected of Murder Led Search For Victim

Victim Jeremy Sanchez

Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Sanchez was allegedly murdered by the friend who reported his disappearance. Stranger still, the so-called friend supposedly attempted to evade suspicion by helping search for the victim. He ended up finding Sanchez’s ‘s body and telling the victim’s dad. Sanchez’s absence from school was the first indication something was wrong. His parents looked to his friend–a still unnamed 16-year-old–for help. The suspect found Sanchez on the San Gabriel River Trail, reports the Washington Post. The teen was facedown by the river. The alleged killer’s odd behavior is reportedly what first drew police attention. Police say they believe it was a well-planned murder. [WaPo]