Paranormal Universe with Kathy Kelly

Tony 'Chop Chop" Costa

October 01, 2019 Kathy Kelly Season 3 Episode 8
Paranormal Universe with Kathy Kelly
Tony 'Chop Chop" Costa
Show Notes Transcript

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you were listening to paranormal tales from the Tower. My name is Kathy Kelly, and this episode is Tony Chop Chop Acosta. Sometimes when you start digging for something, it starts digging up to meet you. That's kind of how I felt when I spent a few days looking into the Tony chop chop murder case on Cape Cod. Enough time has gone by that I felt totally comfortable looking at it in a place that I know pretty well among people that I'm familiar with, if not close to. I'm not sure I was right, though distance in time may make something seemed less riel less tragic. But that's just it. It's just scenes, not EAS or Waas. It doesn't actually lessen the tragedy. I'd heard the story of Tony Chop Chop many years ago in passing serial killers and haunted houses have a way of finding me exorcises, Um, seek me out to People like to share these things with me, probably in the hopes of telling me something new or maybe even finding out something new themselves. It's kind of like asking someone in Sweden if they know all off, sure, they no doubt no end all off, but the odds of them knowing your Olaf are slim. Maybe that's the strange. After all, I do research pretty much every place I go for ghosts and hauntings and weird shit. So of course I had heard of Tony Chop Chop, but the story was so run of the middle serial killer for me at the time that I'd only done a very cursory read on it. How jaded can I pay this serial killer isn't what sexy enough. Freaky enough, I don't know. But it's true. Of course, I didn't read very deeply into it. Every serial killer is devastating because they kill people, and honestly, that's enough. The story of Tony Chop Chop is important, but least of all because of him, I'm older now. I don't know about wiser, but I'm interested in stories from a different place, a different perspective, not necessarily the titillation factor or the gore or the weirdness. Obviously, that still interests me, but what struck me about Tony Chop Chop or Antoine Acosta was the location. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. You guys know I spent a lot of time up there. It's a place that I've come to know, and it's a place that I love, and it's a place that I kind of thought I knew. But if nothing else, what you learn when you read history is just how little you really do know. Let's get the name out of the way. It's not a great one. It's lighthearted, and it's buffoonish. Considering the guy was responsible for at least four and up to eight gruesome murders, it feels a little cavalier. But in the end, it's accurate. Anton cost It was born on August 2nd, 1944. He started out at a disadvantage. Is his father had died before his birth. Senior was killed in action in the Pacific during World War Two. Cost his mother remarried and had more Children with her new husband. Their lives were not ideal Cost a claim that he was physically abused during his childhood by his stepfather. It may be true. Who knows? It seems entirely possible, even likely, as a little boy costume made another clean one that stranger than the others. He told his mother that a man used to sneak into his room at night and watch him. When pressed to identify the man, he pointed to a picture of his deceased father and identified him as the night visitor. Was it the hopeful musings of a sad and frightened child if he was being abused? It doesn't seem like a huge stretch that he would think his real dad was watching out for him, or that he might hope that Israel dad Waas. Yet the implication from the people who spoke of this was not that Tony felt safe or reassured, but that he was frightened of the visitor. Did you see a ghost? Seven years of age is right in that sweet spot for paranormal visitation. It's hard to know, but someone was interrupting his sleep at night, and it's hard not to feel sorry for the kid that he waas cost. I was always a little off. He was a dedicated predator, even in his youth. When he was 16. In 1961 Costa traveled from Cape Cod to Summerville, Massachusetts. That's not a little distance when you're 16 years of age. While he was there, he peeped in the window of a teenage girl. Eventually, he broke into the apartment that she lived in and snuck into her room. She was awakened to him, standing there, leaning over her bed, staring down at her. That is an incredibly brazen thing to Dio. It makes you think that either he was super bold or super stupid or or both that's dangerous. The girl started screaming, cost. It took off. Now, generally, that's what the interaction between the two would probably end. Peeping Tom gets caught and runs away, no doubt counting his lucky stars that he didn't get caught by the police. Peeping Tom finds another window in which to peep, but that's not what happened. Tony went back, and when he went back, he tried to drag her down the stairs and take her away with him. Let that sink in. He climbed in her window. He grabbed her by the hair. He dragged her out of her bed and through the bedroom door and down the stairs towards the front door, Onley that her neighbors heard the ruckus and intervened to help her. Did he stop? What was he planning on doing? Acosta, not yet 17 years of age, was arrested and convicted of burglary and assault. He was sentenced to one year of a suspended sentence and three years of probation. In hindsight, that's pretty frustrating. Not long after, at the age of just 18 Tony married a 14 year old and proceeded to have three Children. Pardon me while I retch. Not everything has changed in the past 60 years for the good, but laws about consent and age. Definitely our holy moly. As you can imagine, it was not a perfect union, and after about just four years, it dissolved is recorded that his drug use intervened in their happiness. And I'm sure that's what went wrong. Hopefully, you could hear my eye roll. Costas still had not found what he was looking for, but he knew it was female, and he knew he liked to get high. In 1966 he picked up Bonnie Williams and Diane Federer off. He brought them home and announced that he was leaving Cape Cod and heading out to San Francisco. The Haight Ashbury and the girls were heading to Pennsylvania. He was gonna give them a ride on his way. It's probably not a surprise anyone. That body and Diane never made it home to Pennsylvania cost a claim that they changed their minds and rode all the way with him to California. Yet they were never found in California. In fact, they were never seen in California. In fact, they were never heard from again. Costa did not stay long in California. I wonder why, but came back to Cape Cod and promptly shot a female friend with an arrow while they were walking in the woods. Helps. She didn't die any apologize, claiming it was an accident cost. It was attractive. There are many mentions of that, but he must have also been very charming. In some ways, he always had girlfriends and women waiting to spend time with him. By 1968 his marriage was over, which was probably the best gift his wife could have ever asked for in January. You, in fact, California, never want to be alone long. He met Barbara Spalding, and they began dating on the day that costs a left to return to Massachusetts. Spaulding dropped her kid off with relatives and apparently wrote off the destiny because she was never seen again. Cost A, however, made it home Massachusetts just fine, albeit alone. In May of 1968 he broke into a doctor's office and stole about $5000 worth of supplies, including scalp ALS. He had a curiosity easy. About a week later, a teenager in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Sydney Mon zone, went missing. It was noted, Achieve. Been spending a lot of time with Tony Acosta. Still, she had finished her shift at the MP and had left her bike leaning against the fence. Custom was a problematic guy, apparently, to get along with and unless he decided you were girlfriend material. Then he seemed charming fun, But everyone else he was stubborn and know it all. An acquaintance set of him. Quote. There was no middle ground with him. He just kept at you. That's why people left him alone. They were just tired of his shit. And although he worked in construction, he had a big sweet side gig growing weed in the woods along the Cape A couple of weeks after Mon Zone went missing. Costa, Footloose and fancy free once again since his divorce had a new live in girlfriend, 17 year old Susan Perry, Susan Perry had not had an easy life, either. She was described as a lonely girl with few people in her life who loved her. Her parents had divorced, and she was an easy target for an older man giving out attention. Sadly, she did not last much longer than the others, after only about 10 days cost to started telling people that she'd run off to Mexico cost. His work was made easy by the strange relationships many of these young women had with her family's Man's own sister thought she'd gone to Europe with a girlfriend, and Perry's mother assumed she just moved to another town. Cost. It was renting a room at this point and on paying child support once again. In January of 1969 he met two young women, one a registered nurse and the other college senior, Patricia Walsh. And Marianne was sake, had visited Provincetown in the summer and had decided later to take a weekend getaway. During the winter months, Thes two young women were not the castaway types that cost. I had met before. They had families that paid attention to them and jobs and responsibilities, and also they had a car. They bumped into the Cape Cod Casanova, as Kurt Vonnegut would call Acosta at the rooming house. They were all staying at Mrs Morton the woman who ran the place introduced them. The day after they checked in, Mrs Morton found a note taped to the girl's door asking them for Mariah to Truro and signed Tony. He was seen sitting in the back seat of the Volkswagen that day, and, in fact, he flagged down a friend who was carrying a paycheck forum. The two women were giving him the lift that he had asked for a lift to Truro, a town about 15 or 20 minutes away. Truro, where Tony Costa kept his garden. His garden consisted of marijuana plants. Of course, he planted more than pot there as well. The Volkswagen was seen later that day and subsequently in Tony's possession. But the two young women never, ever were seen again. They missed dates and appointments, and on the Sunday afterwards, the Sunday after they gave him a ride, Mrs Morton found a note pinned to their door. This time it purported to be from them, and it read, Quote, we're checking out. Thank you for your many kindnesses. Marianne and Pat End quote the paper was the same as the note from Costa a few days later caused it, inquired at a local auto body shop about painting a Volkswagen. He wanted it, Ah, bright and interesting color that Volkswagen was seen driving intro later and cost to ask some friends from Boston to write out to trail with him because he had a Volkswagen that he had parked in the woods for about a week and he wasn't sure if it would start. You did. By this point, things were unraveling. Cost offered to sell some friends a 22 caliber Ghani had buried in those very same Ciara woods near his garden. He inquired around Boston about getting a fake driver's license and bill of sale. He told friends the girls had given him the car and left for Canada. Finally, he drove the car to Vermont, rented a parking space for it and tried to register it in his own name. These were, as you can imagine, red flags. It was 1969 and no one actually knew there were killings going on right away. Remember both Susan Perry in Sydney Mon zones. Family believed that they had left town, but Marianne and Patricia were not local girls with an itch to travel, and people started looking for them. And that's when his house of cards began to fall and the true horror of who and what he waas was revealed. Tony kept the garden all right, but it wasn't only Weed. When officials started looking for the two women from Providence, Rhode Island, they went out to the spots in the woods where the car had been. It was close to the old tour, a cemetery. Now this cemetery is off Road six, but it's not visible, and it's not an easy spot to reach if you don't know where it is. But if you d'oh! A few minutes off roading should get you there, it's an old cemetery, and it has old graves. There are still some new ones, too, but it's definitely isolated. It's definitely local. There's a holding chamber in the cemetery made of brick. This would have been used as a storage facility for winter months, when the ground was too frozen to dig new graves. If a member of the community died in these months during the years before refrigeration and formaldehyde before Corp preservation, they would have been stored here in a root cellar of sorts until the spring when the thaw would allow them to be properly interred. If you walk into those woods today and cross through the gates of this old cemetery, you'll see that brick arched roof built right into a soft rise in the ground. Just a zit. Always waas, just as it always has been, with a stiff metal door to keep out critters and perhaps to keep the dead from rising in 1969 this would have been relatively obsolete for Tony. It offered a private space to do his evil deeds. Tony wasn't just a killer. He was curious. He had curious tastes and strange desires. In the middle of February, the remains of a young woman were found near this old cemetery. She had been dismembered. Actually, at the time, it was said that there was many pieces that they're bored joints in the body. Maybe this is overstating. Susan Perry was an eight gruesome parts when they found her in Tony's Garden. Later, they found the rest of his victims in varying states of dismemberment. In the same clearing were found the head and torso of Marianne with sake. She had been killed, however, with a gunshot to the head. So had Patricia Walsh, but her body had been further interfered with and was missing organs. Finally, Sydney Mon zone was found as well, and in much the same condition. They had been murdered, dismembered, and in some cases there was evidence of cannibalism on some evidence of other perversions. Acosta quickly became suspected, as this was his garden. He was arrested and tried in the case was such that it intrigued people like Kurt Vonnegut, who compared Acosta to Charles Manson and maintained a correspondence with him and, of course, cost a maintained his innocence. He wrote a novel about his story, and in it there was a man named Carl. Karl, it seems, was his friend his constant companion. But he was the one who did all of the bad things that happened. None of the events were intentional. The women had all overdosed while doing drugs with him in Carl and Carl had disposed of their bodies, shooting some of them in the head just to make sure that they were truly dead before cutting them up and planting them in the garden. Carl, perhaps a person, I guess, perhaps an alter ego, maybe a last ditch effort to stave off a life in prison. Who knows? But four years into his life sentence, Costa apparently committed suicide. It is strange, and some don't believe it was suicide because Costa adamantly professed his innocence. He truly seemed to believe what he was writing and saying, We all ask these questions when we delve into the psyches of human monsters thes minds that are so alien, so free of human emotional constraint and so devoid of empathy. They make us question whether evil as a literal, powerful and sentient force does it exist. Is it there? This man who has a child was visited at night by a dark figure he thought was his father. Was he destined for this? Was there a moment in his life when something could have changed? And it all could have been different had he not walked into the woods and found his garden and found this work shed with these women? All of these women have lived. I don't know if there's an answer, but I do know that Tony Chop Chop Costa, as he was named, still lingers in Provincetown and Charo, if only as a horrific memory on the massive dunes in the back roads in the cemetery where he's buried. There are some who say he still walks, some who say that his crimes were too great for heaven or hell to collect him. Tau house him, perhaps. Or perhaps it's the scar left in a small town where people know each other's business but try desperately to tend only their own. If you decide to try to find Tony's grave, you can. He's buried in an unmarked spot, but a little sleuthing in a little knowledge of small town life. Well, that should get you there if you decide to walk through that cemetery where he's buried, which is not the one that house is his workshop. Take a good look around as you stand in his grave site. If you look toward the rolling hill just about 50 feet away, there's another grave. A small plaque flat to the ground where the road crosses the cemetery and it just rises to meet a chapel. That grave belongs to Susan Perry. She was 17 when she met Tony Acosta. She was 17 when she died, and she is buried in eight pieces 50 feet from our killer. That is small town life. If you wonder if the cemetery is haunted, well, it depends on who you ask. If you wonder why the cemetery is haunted. Well, perhaps these small town stories will give you an inkling. Perhaps those 50 feet, those mere 50 feet between monster and pray. We'll give you one answer. Thank you for listening to Paranormal Tells the Tower. My name is Kathy Kelly. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope we hear from you. You could visit us at www dot paranormal books. NJ dot com. Hit us up on any of our social media And, of course, send me an email that Kathy with a K at paranormal books, NJ dot com. I'd love to hear from you.