Kill for Thrill (12 page)

12. The infamous Edison Hotel still stands at 135 Ninth Street in downtown Pittsburgh, and with the exception of the revamped club in the basement, it has changed very little since the murders in 1979.

13. The historic Harris Theatre on Liberty Avenue as it appears today. It is located approximately two blocks from the Edison Hotel, and its appearance is nearly identical to the way it would have looked during the era of Lesko and Travaglia’s murder spree.

14. The spiraling driveways of the Smithfield-Liberty Parking Garage, where Marlene Sue Newcomer’s body was found inside her abandoned Dodge Ramcharger, adjacent to the Gimbels Department Store. The Smithfield-Liberty Garage is located approximately three blocks from the Edison Hotel.

15. The sluice gate of the Loyalhanna Dam in rural Westmorland County, Pennsylvania, where Peter Levato was beaten and shot to death.

16. Looking south from the Loyalhanna Creek bridge at the wooded area where Peter Levato’s body was recovered.

17. The breast of the Blue Spruce Lake Dam. During the winter, the surface of the lake is frozen solid, and the hole through which William Nicholls’s body was shoved would have been located approximately twenty-five feet from the concrete retaining wall.

18. North Plaza at the corner of North Astronaut Way and First Street in Apollo as it looks today. On January 3, 1980, Leonard Miller’s cruiser was parked in front of the Stop-N-Go (Cogo’s today). Travaglia, Lesko and Rutherford sped through this intersection, prompting Leonard Miller to give chase.

19. Cooper Trailer Sales is largely unchanged since Lesko, Travaglia and Rutherford abandoned William Nicholls’s Lancia in the parking lot shortly after shooting Leonard Miller on January 3, 1980.

20. William Nicholls’s 1977 silver blue Fiat Lancia after the Pennsylvania State Police recovered it on January 3, 1980.
Photograph courtesy the
Valley News Dispatch,
Tarentum, Pennsylvania
.

21. The location in which Leonard Miller was gunned down on January 3, 1980. This photo was taken shortly after the murder in 1980, looking east down Route 66 toward Greensburg.

22. The location in which Leonard Miller was killed as it appears today. Gianini’s Hotel still stands on the right, and Naser’s Meat Packing is located directly to the left outside the frame of the photo. This photo was taken looking east on Route 66 toward Greensburg.

23. The location in which Leonard Miller was killed as it appears today, looking northwest toward Apollo, Pennsylvania. Nasar’s Meat Packing is visible to the right.