Tony Costa, Cannibal and Leather Goods Maker

[STsFirstmate]

Back in the late 60s on Cape Cod a local kid in Ptown to began to reveal a very dark side.
The women he became involved with didn't last long. They all just disappeared. Given the the times young people were always splitting for here or there out to San Francisco etc. Plus Ptown has a really old Portuguese American population like Tony Costa and a very transient population that comes for the season or a week or weekend and then they are gone.
Tony dealt drugs and he had stall selling leather goods in a indoor market sort of deal. He sold wallets and belts and purses etc that he made.
He was a big good looking kid from a good extended family.
He was in and out of trouble but no one thought he was dangerous.
Two tourists, young woman from NY, disappeared after staying at a local bed and breakfast. Tony was seen with them but said they told him they were going to Canada.
Nothing happened for months. Finally the boyfriend of one of the girls was discharged from the Army and came to town asking questions and looking. He found their VW abandoned and concealed on a lonely road in Truro, one town over with lots of isolated sandy roads. Again the police talked to Tony but this time with pressure from the young soldier they actually began to search and found their bodies.
Because of the snow they were still somewhat preserved and they determined they had partially dismembered, bites taken out of the body with human teeth and parts had been skinned.
A closer look at some of Tony's personal leather goods revealed his wallet, key chain and other items were made from the girls skin. He confessed and the list of his victims grew to include several exgirl friends. The police have been rightly held accountable by the towns people and victim's families for not aggressively investigating their disappearance.
Tony did commit suicide in his cell but not with a belt as this article says. They would never allow a belt in prison. He used a guitar string and it almost severed his head from his body.
I knew his cousins and uncles but they would never speak about it. The police chief, who became a friend said he was one of the funniest most likable people he ever met. He said the State Police bringing him to and from the court house ended up all really liking the guy and having lots of trouble believing he actually did it.
There is a great book about ti called "In His Garden".
For some reason the missing Cape Cod woman in the news recently made me think about Tony and his crimes.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/in...mal_5?blog=130
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Costa
Regards,
Mary

[hrhdiesel]

Wow, I have never heard of this case before. I found it facinating - thanks for sharing it Mary.

[NOVSTORM]

Weird isn't it that a man that can kill so easily can be so sweet and friendly??

[STsFirstmate]

Weird isn't it that a man that can kill so easily can be so sweet and friendly??

His family were all hardworking fishermen and they owned the local Ace hardware and Marine store.
They were really nice people.
Blatant generalization coming so if it offends anyone I am sorry. All the young Portuguese American guys down there were so handsome and smoking hot with that black shock of hair and good looks and they all seemed to be in super shape and loved to have a good time so I can see why he was liked.
This is a typical looking young guy from the area. He is an America class competitive yachting sailor.
Regards,
Mary

[stacebabe]

Yum!

(((driving down to P-town is now on my list of things to do by the end of this summer)))

[STsFirstmate]

Yum!

(((driving down to P-town is now on my list of things to do by the end of this summer)))

There are plenty of cute straight guys among my gay brothers down there trust me!
The best time to visit Ptown is my opinion is post labor day. The crowds are gone and you can the beuatiful old girl in all her pilgrim glory.
I loved it there and was sorry to leave.
My home bordered the Mayflower Cemetery but that is a story for the Ghosts and Hauntings thread.
regards,
Mary

[Nessa]

Holy shit. Great post!

[stacebabe]

The last time I went down it was early September, it was absolutely gorgeous out!! It's almost a 100 mile drive for me though, that's the total suck part!

There are plenty of cute straight guys among my gay brothers down there trust me!
The best time to visit Ptown is my opinion is post labor day. The crowds are gone and you can the beuatiful old girl in all her pilgrim glory.
I loved it there and was sorry to leave.
My home bordered the Mayflower Cemetery but that is a story for the Ghosts and Hauntings thread.
regards,
Mary

[neilmpenny]

Reminds me of the concentration camp commandants wife who made the lampshades from human skin.

[tarsier]

So I've got to ask; is it technically "leather" if it's human? I thought leather was strictly cowhide like kid is goat and buck is deer. Or is leather a larger grouping of any animal hide? sorry these things bother me.

[neilmpenny]

So I've got to ask; is it technically "leather" if it's human? I thought leather was strictly cowhide like kid is goat and buck is deer. Or is leather a larger grouping of any animal hide? sorry these things bother me.

Damn good question!

The skin of an animal, or some part of such skin, tanned, tawed, or otherwise dressed for use; also, dressed hides, collectively.

[STsFirstmate]

The last time I went down it was early September, it was absolutely gorgeous out!! It's almost a 100 mile drive for me though, that's the total suck part!

I lived there for almost 15 years and I worked in Lexington Ma. I drove the 128 miles a couple of days a week and also kept a small place in Southie for the nights I didn't feel like driving home. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth!
regards,
Mary

[AFoolandHisMonkey]

Great post! "In His Garden" was the first true crime book I ever read (as a kid, of course), followed closely by "Helter Skelter".

[GrinReaper]

Back in the late 60s on Cape Cod a local kid in Ptown to began to reveal a very dark side.
The women he became involved with didn't last long. They all just disappeared. Given the the times young people were always splitting for here or there out to San Francisco etc. Plus Ptown has a really old Portuguese American population like Tony Costa and a very transient population that comes for the season or a week or weekend and then they are gone.
Tony dealt drugs and he had stall selling leather goods in a indoor market sort of deal. He sold wallets and belts and purses etc that he made.
He was a big good looking kid from a good extended family.
He was in and out of trouble but no one thought he was dangerous.
Two tourists, young woman from NY, disappeared after staying at a local bed and breakfast. Tony was seen with them but said they told him they were going to Canada.
Nothing happened for months. Finally the boyfriend of one of the girls was discharged from the Army and came to town asking questions and looking. He found their VW abandoned and concealed on a lonely road in Truro, one town over with lots of isolated sandy roads. Again the police talked to Tony but this time with pressure from the young soldier they actually began to search and found their bodies.
Because of the snow they were still somewhat preserved and they determined they had partially dismembered, bites taken out of the body with human teeth and parts had been skinned.
A closer look at some of Tony's personal leather goods revealed his wallet, key chain and other items were made from the girls skin. He confessed and the list of his victims grew to include several exgirl friends. The police have been rightly held accountable by the towns people and victim's families for not aggressively investigating their disappearance.
Tony did commit suicide in his cell but not with a belt as this article says. They would never allow a belt in prison. He used a guitar string and it almost severed his head from his body.
I knew his cousins and uncles but they would never speak about it. The police chief, who became a friend said he was one of the funniest most likable people he ever met. He said the State Police bringing him to and from the court house ended up all really liking the guy and having lots of trouble believing he actually did it.
There is a great book about ti called "In His Garden".
For some reason the missing Cape Cod woman in the news recently made me think about Tony and his crimes.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/in...mal_5?blog=130
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Costa
Regards,
Mary

Gosh, First Mate aka Mary.
Your 6 degrees of who you know whenever you post on here never fails to impress me.
Is there anyone you don't know or any situation that has someone where your not connected in any way?
(Don't mean any offense or to seem sarcastic in any way: You just seem to have a lot of connections and it always surprises me whenever you post it.)
Heck, we might know someone who knows someone etc. etc.
Cheers and keep posting.

[STsFirstmate]

Gosh, First Mate aka Mary.
Your 6 degrees of who you know whenever you post on here never fails to impress me.
Is there anyone you don't know or any situation that has someone where your not connected in any way?
(Don't mean any offense or to seem sarcastic in any way: You just seem to have a lot of connections and it always surprises me whenever you post it.)
Heck, we might know someone who knows someone etc. etc.
Cheers and keep posting.

Well I think some of it is where I have lived,
Kentucky, Ohio, Boston, Ptown and New York (Queens and Long Island).
Ptown is a celebrity playground. The famous play there in the summer and some of them live there year round, the late Norman Mailer, most of the B52s one summer, the Indigo Girls (at least one of them), Louden Wainwright III father of Rufus ( I remember him as a little kid), Roy Cohen (shuddering) died shortly after we moved there and had met them. Barney Frank visited our church for services and the late Gary Studds was a neighbor. There are only 5,000 people in the town off season.
NY , other New Yorkers here on the forum will likely agree that depending on where you go in the city, West Village, DUMBO etc you are going to always cross paths with famous people. Even out on the Island I have stood in line at my bank behind Suzie Essman (spelling) and run across the various Baldwin boys in their native habitat while visiting at the All American Franks and Burgers one town over.
We ended up chatting with the guy who plays Dexter when he was still on Six Feet Under while freezing our butts off waiting to be let into the Angela Langsbury, Marion Selden play Legends. I would bet long term New Yorkers can put my bumped into stories to shame.
Also I am old and I have had the good fortune of an interesting set of careers. Worked my way through college as a paramedic and a bartender in an Irish pub.
I got a Mechanical Engineering degree from UC in Cincinnati. Nothing special just a piece of paper but it has kept me fed.
I raised horses for a few years on a small farm while working full time as an engineer. Never made a penny I suspect but hey I can say I went to a sperm auction.
I worked as an Engineer for Kenner Toys ( a very bad idea) a company no longer around that made dosimeters and Geiger Counters for measuring radiation ( that got me to Three Mile Island and into Fernald more than once along with other Nuclear sites.
I moved to New England during the Reagan Star Wars years and got to work in a dedicated research facility owned by Phillips dedicated to Infrared application development from there I moved on to microwave devices at a facility that specialized in defense and space applications. That gave me exposure to the shuttle components, the stealth bomber program etc. I volunteered to become a Naval weapons qualified solder inspector and that gave me the chance to play on ships and planes and to eventually act as a civilian technical rep to the Navy and Marine Corp.
It was a former Marine Colonel who befriended me and when he separated from the Corp and went private he brought me out of hardware and into software. It was a life changing opportunity for me.
I went from there to join a start up with three other guys and that was 15 years ago. That company was acquired by a German company seven years ago and they took it public. I stayed on to run the training and consulting arm of the business. We have 2,000 clients from car and truck manufacturers to insurance companies. We help them understand and comply with international and government regulatory and governance requirements.
I get to travel as much or as little as I want to now and am blessed with a great staff that does most of the heavy lifting.
My wife is a working SAG , AFTRA actor so she keeps me plugged in a bit as well.
I guess my message to young people is get off your ass and get in the game. Roam beyond the familiar and if what you do every day doesn't make you go Wow once in a while or make you nervous keep searching and educating yourself till you find something that does.
If you see someone that looks interesting talk to them ( unless they are talking to themselves).
Volunteer, do stuff, scare yourself , keep reading, travel to places you can't pronounce.
My great grandmother never traveled more than 100 miles from where she was born. Now that makes me sad.
There you go more than you ever wanted to know about me and definitely off topic.
Regards,
Mary

[LoveRats]

What makes a fella look at a girl and think, "Gee... she'd make a FINE wallet!"