Kill for the Thrill

“The book recounts a brutal string of murders committed by John Lesko and Michael Travaglia, who face the death penalty.” —TribLIVE

During the winter of 1979, southwestern Pennsylvania was rocked by a series of sensational murders, sparking a thirty-year criminal justice saga. A week of brutal, seemingly random killings culminated in the provocation and fatal shooting of Patrolman Leonard Miller, an officer new to the town of Apollo’s police force and only twenty-one years old. Little more than a year later, two men were convicted of the rash of homicides and sentenced to death—yet both are alive today. Incorporating details of the central characters’ personal lives as well as the state’s court system, criminologist Michael W. Sheetz here relays the awful story of the so-called “kill for thrill” crime spree with the drama of a novelist and the insight of an officer of the law.