Taking A Look At Duck Island

During the late 30s and early 40s Duck Island was the place to go to hang out and forget about it all. A place full of nature and fun but it had a very unexpected twist hidden in the bushes. November 8, 1938, Vincenzo Tonzillo, 20, and Mary Myatovich 15, became the first victims of the phantom. Another couple down the walk heard the screams and found Tonzillo dead in a pool of blood, by their car. Myatovich however, was still inside the car as if she was planted there, bloody but somehow still alive. As she was rushed to the nearest hospital she regained consciousness long enough to tell police what had happened. She told police she ran from the attacker but he soon shot her, throwing her to the ground. Tonzillo was a married man, and Myatovich
father knew about this and his affair and told Tonzillo to stay away. People speculated the serial killer was her father but before they had a chance to talk to her again she had passed. On a cool crisp September Saturday night couple Frank Kasper and lover Katherine Werner visited Duck Island to get away from their families and enjoy some peace and quiet to spend alone with each other.
As they were sitting enjoying each others company and listening to the near by ducks, out from behind a tree came a man with a shotgun. A homeless man was looking for some change by a bench and noticed a ladies shoe, picked it up, then finding a body attached. The body belonged to Katherine and close by was Frank. Many people believed it was Katherine husband who killed them, but he has an alibi. When the police arrived the next morning they realized they have seen this
before. One shot to Mr. Kaspers face and neck killed him instantly he died at 28 years old. Mrs. Werner wasn't so lucky. She broke out of the car, she made it only a few feet before the gun went off blowing off her whole right arm one more pump of the gun and a squeeze of the trigger also killed her, she died at 36 years old. A year earlier a couple had been gunned down just down the road, the exact same way. The police had realized, they now had a serial killer on their hands who went after forbidden lovers. The two killings made people to scared, to nervous to step or drive anywhere near Duck Island.
The people of the town has set a one thousand dollar reward for the capture and or death of the person responsible. Passionate lovers soon found other hideouts and secret spots, but the gunman followed close behind. The following year two more couples parked on the new quiet roads were approached, shot and killed. The women victims of the two recent murders got away with only a shot to the shoulder blowing the arm off. The men of these murders were found dead.
Caroline Moriconi and Louis Kovacs didn't believe the stories about the killings, they would soon found out they were the wrong ones. On November 14, 1940, they were found dead in their car. The couple were also in an affair. They soon ruled out Moriconi’s husband for he has an alibi and Kovacs was not married. Caroline was 27 at death and Louis ended his life at age
35. The attacks stopped for a couple more years but soon started back up in 1942. March 7, 1942, another forbidden couple were interrupted by shot from the gun, hitting the left arm of 25 year old, John Testa. Antoinette Marcantonio fled from the car thinking she had gotten away. The gunman caught her and beat her with the end of his gun stock till it broke off. Something saved them that night because even with their severe injuries both where still alive. and were able to give police a slight description. He was a tall middle aged black man thats all they could get out of john and Antoinette before they were taken away by hospital staff to go for the night.
Police finally had a clue, the stock of the gun had a serial number, which could be used to track down who had started the killings. It took police and investigators a year and a half to trace the weapon. The shotgun had many adventures, first to a pawnshop then a soldier in a South Carolina Basic camp. The time the killings started Clarence Hall, 33, lived a few miles from Duck Island. Clarence was a sunday school teacher and was known in the community as a very nice but quiet man.
After Hall had gotten to come home from combat his close friends noticed something strange. After sunday school Hall would bring home a sixteen year old student from his class, soon people found out she was with child but no one could figure who but the man said he knew who the father was, it was Hall. In 1943, the army arranged for the rape and murder suspect to be transferred to Fort Dix where authorities questioned him. “I did those murders” he told the police the police where confused then he told them “The Duck Island Killings.”
On January 28, 1944 after days upon days of questioning and long nights of no answers Hall finally gave in. He confessed to the rape of Myatovich and the whole bloody story of why he staled stalked the people on lovers lane. He said he started as just going to watch couples for an experiment then realized they all had secrets to hide. He tells police over and over he didn't intend to kill anyone. Hall just wanted to go to the cars and rob them, but after seeing what crimes they were committing he had to do something about them.
It took the jury five hours to agree Clarence Hall was guilty. The prosecution said instant death for him but the jury had some remorse. Sentenced to life Hall didn't make it twenty years before running away and becoming part of civilian life and the man who committed the most violent on Duck Island died in 1973, of throat cancer. Today there is no room for forbidden lovers , a huge power plant now towers over the once lovers lane.