Western Pennsylvania 'kill-for-thrill' murderer Michael Travaglia dies in prison
The attorney for Michael Travaglia, the “kill-for-thrill” murderer who died in prison Monday of natural causes, says he was a changed man, but former Apollo Mayor William Kerr hopes he will prove it in the afterlife.
Travaglia was one half of the notorious “kill-for-thrill” murderers along with John Lesko.
Lesko and Travaglia were convicted of killing four people over an eight-day murder spree that ended Jan. 3, 1980.
State Corrections Department officials confirmed that Travaglia, 59, formerly of Washington Township, died of natural causes. He had been housed at the state prison in Greene County.
Lesko and Travaglia were Pennsylvania's longest-tenured death row inmates.
Travaglia had been on death row since 1981, following his conviction in the fatal shooting of Apollo police Officer Leonard Miller.
The 21-year-old rookie was working his third day on the job when he was gunned down by Travaglia as he and Lesko returned from an icy Indiana County lake where they killed and dumped the body of another man.
Kerr was the 27-year-old mayor of Apollo at the time.
“Leonard Miller paid the ultimate sacrifice at the hands of Michael Travaglia, a stone-cold murderer,” Kerr said Tuesday. “Michael Travaglia professed to be a born-again Christian, and it is my hope Michael Travaglia will ask Leonard Miller for forgiveness.”
Kerr recalled his last contact with the young officer during a New Year's Eve party just days before he was gunned down.
“He loved life and loved people, and he loved his community,” said Kerr, who is superintendent of Norwin School District.
“In the past 50 years, certainly, it is the most serious crime we've had simply because of the number of victims who were killed in, essentially, a week,” Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said.
Lesko and Travaglia, drifters who came together in downtown Pittsburgh, first picked up Peter Levato, 49, at a strip club and tortured him during a drive out to the Loyalhanna Dam, where they eventually shot and killed him Dec. 27, 1979.
Days later, on New Year's Eve, Lesko and Travaglia were hitchhiking back to Pittsburgh from Delmont.
They were picked up by 26-year-old Marlene Sue Newcomer of Leisenring, Fayette County. Her body was found in a Pittsburgh parking garage.
William Nicholls, a 32-year-old church organist from Mt. Lebanon, was drowned by Lesko and Travaglia in an Indiana County lake.
As Lesko and Travaglia drove back toward Pittsburgh, they tried to lure Miller away from an Apollo convenience store they planned to rob. As the young policeman approached their car, Travaglia shot and killed him at Lesko's urging.
Lesko was resentenced to death in 1995. He continues to appeal that sentence.
Travaglia was resentenced in 2005. Last year, his new lawyer sought to again have the death penalty overturned .
An appeal hearing in Westmoreland County scheduled for this past spring was postponed because of Travaglia's deteriorating health.
Defense attorney Jeff Miller, who had represented Travaglia for the past several years, said his client's reputation as a killer was far different from the man he came to know.
“I realize it is difficult for people to hear about all the crimes for which he had been convicted, but they don't have contact with him. It's easy for people to forget there are folks he loved and that he was loved by people,” Miller said.
Travaglia is survived by his wife, Frances, a New Kensington hairdresser whom he married in 1992 following a courtship that started as they exchanged letters as he awaited execution and later through in-person visits at the prison.
She testified on his behalf at Travaglia's 2005 resentencing trial but declined to make any comment about her husband's death Tuesday.
Tracy Shawley, public information officer at the state prison in Greene County, said Travaglia died Monday morning in Washington Hospital in Washington, Pa., where he had been since Aug. 22. Travaglia, who had been ill for months, had been in and out of the hospital for much of the past year, she said.
Travaglia had been an inmate on death row there since 1998.
Lesko is being held on death row at the State Correctional Institute at Graterford, near Philadelphia.
Travaglia and Lesko were each sentenced to death following a 1981 trial in Westmoreland County for Miller's murder. They also were sentenced to serve life prison terms for each of the other three murders.
“I hope (Travaglia's death) gives peace to everyone,” defense attorney Miller said. “Not only to the people who wanted to see him dead, but to those who loved him and gave him fulfillment in his life.”
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.
