Cape Cod Vampire: Tony Costa

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by tpksstories

by tpksstories

Antone Charles "Tony"Costa (August 2, 1944 – May 12, 1974) was an American serialkiller and carpenter who achieved notoriety for committing serialmurders in and around the town of Truro in 1969.

1969 murders

The case gained international attentionwhen district attorney Edmund Dinis, in comments to the media,claimed "The hearts of each girl had been removed from thebodies and were not in the graves...Each body was cut into as manyparts as there are joints." Dinis also claimed that therewere teeth marks found on the bodies. These claims produced a streamof national and international media outlets into local Provincetown,Massachusetts.

The media attention was so great thatKurt Vonnegut (whose daughter Edith had met Costa) compared him toJack the Ripper in an article in the July 25, 1969 issue of LifeMagazine which was included in his collection of essays Wampeters,Foma and Granfalloons. Vonnegut maintained a correspondence withCosta. The author said, "The message of his letters to me wasthat a person as intent on being virtuous as he could not possiblyhave hurt a fly. He believed it."

Costa was suspected of killing sevenwomen: Bonnie Williams, Barbara Spaulding, Sydney Monson, SusanPerry, Patricia Walsh, and Mary Anne Wysocki but convictedof killing only two: Walsh and Wysocki. On February 8, 1969, whilelooking for the bodies of Patricia Walsh and Mary Anne Wysocki,police discovered Susan Perry. Perry had been missing since theprevious Labor Day.

Perry's body had been cut into eightpieces. When Wysocki's body was found about a month later, her torsoand head had been buried separately. Not long after, Walsh and therest of Wysocki's body were found in a forest clearing that Costa hadused for growing marijuana. This "garden" ofmarijuana plants and the greater case inspired the true crime book InHis Garden, by Leo Damore.

Costa's account

Costa described the murders of Walshand Wysocki in his unpublished novel, Resurrection, written while hewas in prison. In his account, Costa and a friend named "Cory"were out with the two women consuming LSD and Dilaudid. Cory thenshot Walsh and Wysocki. Costa claimed he was able to subdue hisfriend and upon realizing that Mary Anne Wysocki was still alive useda knife to end her suffering. According to Costa, he and Cory buriedthe bodies.

The novel also describes the deaths ofSusan Perry and Sydney Monzon as due to drug overdoses. Costa claimsit was Carl who dismembered and buried their bodies and that he hadno knowledge until after their deaths.

Trial and imprisonment

On June 12, 1969, Costa was arraignedon charges of murder for three of the deaths. In May 1970 he wasconvicted of the murders of Mary Ann Wysocki and Patricia Walsh andsentenced to life in prison at Massachusetts' Walpole CorrectionalInstitution. Four years after his incarceration, Costa committedsuicide by hanging himself in his cell.