Douglas Domizio, Alan Gebhart, Anthony Geoghegan and Donald Mark were killed early one snowy Thursday morning when the car Douglas was driving swerved off Neperan Road and plunged into the Lower Lake in Tarrytown NY.
Domizio’s car after being pulled out of the water, where it had been first spotted by police at 4 a.m. It had crashed through a restraining barrier and was partially submerged upside down in about ten feet of water. Three of the bodies were still in the vehicle. One of the victims had apparently kicked out the rear window in a desperate attempt to escape. They had left Louis Martins bar in North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) and were apparently headed to the Saw Mill River Parkway for home.
He was born in Yonkers NY and was an apprentice electrician with Local 501 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union. He attended Saunders Trades and Technical High School and Westchester Community College before becoming an electrician. He was survived by his parents, James and Evelyn Johnson Domizio, his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Gaetano DiDomizio and Mr. and Mrs. John P. Johnson as well as his brother Raymond, all of Yonkers. Douglas enjoyed a traditional seven fishes dinner with family, then took his father’s Pontiac to go out for a while.
He was born in Hastings-on-Hudson NY on November 15th. He graduated from Hastings High School in 1967 and was a US Army private stationed at Ft. Jackson SC, home on leave for the holidays. He was survived by his parents Fred and Mary Waropay Gebhardt, a brother Paul, and two sisters Barbara and Phyllis, all of Hastings. Alan needed a ride to Tarrytown to deliver a present to a friend, but first attended Midnight Mass at St. Matthew Church in Hastings. A Requiem Mass was held for him there on Monday at noon.
He was born in Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland. His family immigrated to the United States and settled in Hastings-on-Hudson NY in 1957. He was a senior at Hastings High School and an employee of the local A&P supermarket. He was survived by his parents, John J. Sr. and Margaret Duggan Geoghegan, as well as a brother, John J. Jr. of the Bronx. Tony attended Midnight Mass at St. Matthew Church in Hastings. A Requiem Mass was held for him there on Monday at 10 a.m.
He was born in Hastings-on-Hudson NY on August 29th. He graduated Hastings High School in 1968 and was a sophomore at Westchester Community College. He was survived by his parents, John Sr. and Helen Cichocki Mark of Hastings, and his brother John Jr. Donald attended Midnight Mass at St. Matthew Church in Hastings. A Requiem Mass was held for him there on Monday at 11 a.m.
A Loathsome Death
Ciro ‘Jerry’ Vecchione was born in Italy on October 29th. He became an American citizen after his family immigrated to the United States. He served in the US military during World War II. He lived on River Road in Edgewater NJ and was the owner of Jerry’s Café tavern near Baldwin Avenue, a luncheonette on the United Fruit Company’s banana pier and a mobile lunch wagon for the Seatrain containment port operation, all by the Weehawken waterfront. He was murdered by Henry Mosiello and Arthur Lydecker in a brutal kidnapping and robbery assault – beaten, stabbed and left bound hand and foot in the trunk of his car, with a rag wrapped and taped around his head to slowly suffocate. The two had been looking for a suitable candidate to rob, often discussing their plans at the home of Lydecker’s sister-in-law Kathleen. She went out on a dinner date with Jerry in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Valentine’s Day, and afterwards asked to be dropped off at a friend’s house in North Bergen. It was there that he was first attacked, taken to Masiello’s auto repair shop in Union City, hit repeatedly (the autopsy revealed a fractured skull) to tell where he kept more money, and put into the trunk. The car was then driven to and left on the north side of the 14th St. Viaduct. They returned later to see if he was ready to talk, but found him dead instead. Mosiello and Lydecker got $365, a diamond ring and a camera for their efforts. They were tried separately with Lydecker testifying against Mosiello in the first, who was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Lydecker was subsequently convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to seven years. Initially considered a mob related hit – the Jersey Journal had first reported his legs, hands and neck had been tied such that he would strangle to death as he struggled with the increasingly tightening ropes. At some point the Union City police, Hudson County prosecutor’s office, NJ State Police, Bi-State Waterfront Commission and the FBI were all involved in the investigation. Jerry was survived by his brothers, Louis of Kearny and Carl of Guttenberg, as well as his sister and brother-in-law Edith and Victor Ricci, also of Weehawken.
And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. – Aeschylus