Bad Decisions and Ruined Lives

Patricia Columbo: Then

Patricia Columbo: Now

It's been almost 40 years since Patricia Columbo lived outside the walls of a prison. On May 4, 1976, she and her fiance, a man named Frank Deluca, murdered her parents Frank and Mary along with her brother Michael in their home in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. And on May 15, 1976, they were arrested for the brutal crimes.

Why did they do it? Columbo's parents, while not ultra-rich, had ample financial resources that Deluca believed Patricia could inherit if her parents died. In order to make that happen, they cooked up a scheme to murder Patricia's parents and make it look like a mob hit. Why did they murder Patricia's 13-year-old brother? To cut him out of the inheritance.

Patricia was only 20 years-old at the time of the murders. Her fiance was much older at 37. How did they meet? Patricia worked as a waitress in a restaurant near a Walgreens Pharmacy that Deluca managed. When Deluca visited the restaurant, he became physically-attracted to the then 16-year-old waitress and he seduced her.

At that time, Deluca was a married man with five children. He also liked sex and he enjoyed seducing impressionable young girls such as Columbo to satisfy his gargantuan libido. Evidently, Deluca's wife was aware of her husband's philandering and she threatened to divorce him unless he stopped cheating on her. When she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Patricia, she kicked him out of the house and filed for a divorce.

That's when Deluca proposed marriage to Patricia. Patricia's father, an overly protective parent with an Italian temper, hated Deluca because Deluca was a married man whom he knew wasn't in love with his daughter and was merely using her for sex. In fact, he confronted Deluca on one occassion with a shotgun and threatened to kill him before he shammed the gun into Deluca's mouth, shattering some of his teeth.

Why did Deluca propose marriage to the much younger Columbo? It's not hard to figure out. Deluca was faced with the prospect of paying child support and alimony for his five kids and soon to be ex-wife. That was a frightening scenario for someone who didn't have a lot of money. And so, marriage to Patricia and the murder of her parents became Deluca's solution to try and get his hands on the Columbo inheritance.

Fortunately, for Patricia, they didn't get away with it or she would've undoubtedly suffered the same fate that Drew Peterson's third and fourth wives (Kathleen Savio, Stacey Peterson) suffered. Deluca would've killed her and then taken the inheritance money. That's why he wanted to marry her.

Patricia herself wasn't an angel. Though intelligent, she was rebellious and she caused her parents a lot of grief. She likely saw Deluca as a ticket to her freedom from strict, domineering parents. And she willingly went along with Deluca's murderous plans. What led to her arrest? Besides the forensic evidence that tied her and Deluca to the crimes, she showed practically no remorse for her family's fate during interviews with the police following her arrest on May 15, 1976. And she's been behind bars ever since then.

What's the point of all this? I wrote to Patricia and sent her some of our website and weblog material. She responded with a kind and thoughtful letter, explaining that she had accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior while in prison. Here's some of what she wrote: "I am a born-again Christian and I am very honored to be one of four (women) on our prison praise and worship team that ministers to these women on the maximum security unit and our favorite; the new arrivals to the prison. It is any opportunity to make contact with the women when they are scared and broken."

Certainly, there are some folks who still believe to this day that Columbo's nothing but a con artist who'll say anything to fool people. One of those people is Lake County, Ill. Undersheriff Ray Rose who was Elk Grove's Deputy Chief of Police in 1976 when Columbo and Deluca committed the murders. Rose was one of the first investigators to arrive at the horrific crime scene and it's still etched in his mind.

Rose also serves on a 12-member Illinois Prisoner Review Board that is tasked every four years with determining whether Columbo should be granted parole. In Rose's opinion, that should never happen: "When you see people who've been murdered, what makes this so grisly is that it's an entire family. When you think about that … you can't forget. It's like we're speaking on behalf of the family because they're not here to talk for themselves."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-02/news/ct-x-n-columbo-parole-20110302_1_frank-columbo-patricia-columbo-mary-columbo

I can understand where Rose is coming from. When you see the bodies of three human beings who were mutilated like animals, you never forget that. It haunts you forever. And it will haunt Rose until he takes his final breath. And as long as he's able to, he'll recommend that Columbo never be allowed to go free.

I believe that Columbo should be paroled. She's not the same person she was in 1976. She's changed. In 1976, she was a gullible and rebellious young lady who was charmed by a despicable person who used her--first for sex and then for murder. She's paid dearly for that. She made a terrible decision that ruined her life and destroyed her family. And I think she'll be the first to admit that.

And I think that there are people who are more deserving of her prison cell these days than her. And so, I think she needs to be allowed to live the remainder of her life outside of those prison walls in Lincoln, Illinois.

Concerning forgiveness, for everyone--even a murderer--who comes to Christ in repentance and truly confesses their sins in contriteness, God says this: "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:12)