Clara Toriello  (1952-1972) Section H - 74

 Clara Toriello lived at 97-21 103rd Street in the Ozone Park section of Queens, New York. She was engaged to a New York City patrolman, Joseph Caparosa of the 105th Precinct. 

 On April 13, 1972 Clara was  stabbed to death by an intruder while she slept in her ground floor bedroom. She had been stabbed four times. She was wearing a portable hair dryer hood while she slept and it was still running when she was found at 7:10  in the morning by her sister, Mrs. Joseph Mezzapella. A chair was found under the open bedroom window, facing the back yard. There were no indications of a struggle and no items were stolen.

She turned out to be the third victim of a similar killing spree. From September of 1970 until the spring of 1972, four women were killed in the same manner. None of the victims were sexually molested but there were signs of sexual perversion.

The other victims were; Areti Koularmanis,  aged 23, of 114-06 88th Avenue, Camille Perniola, aged 17, of 90-27 143rd Street, and Deborah Januszko,  aged 15, who lived at 169-14 88th Avenue. In between this time there also several attacks in the same way that were not fatalities.

 In August of 1972,  a 31 year old former mental patient from Creedmore was arrested and charged with the murders and assaults. Joseph Baldi of 88-14 170th Street  lived only 50 feet from his last victim, Deborah Januszko. Baldi was  a hulking suspect, 6 feet 4 inches and over 200 pounds and had a record of being in and out of mental institutions for over ten years.

In September of 1971, Baldi had fired shots at a police officer who surprised him at a break-in at a women’s home and was committed for psychiatric observation in October and then transferred to Creedmore in November. By “mistake” he was released on January 21, 1972. The doctor who signed the release papers was unaware he had attempted to  kill a police officer.

According to the Department of Corrections web site, he is now at Sing Sing and  since January 23, 1975 is serving a 25 year to life sentence for murder, attempted murder, burglary (2d degree) and criminal possession of a weapon (3d degree).  He became eligible for parole in 1997 and his next parole review is in February of 2009.