Ricky Kasso was from Northport Long Island. In 1984 police of Northport received a anonymous phone call from a girl who overheard other girls talking about a body in a shallow grave in a small piece of woods called the Aztakea Woods. On the 4th of July police found the body of Gary Lauwers, over 2 weeks decomposed. The teen had been stabbed at least 32 times, 22 in the face. It’s alleged that Kasso also gouged out Lauwers eyes in the process. The total could have been higher but decomposition made it hard to tell. On July 5 Ricky Kasso, James Troiano, and Albert Quinones were arrested. Both Kasso and Troiano were high school dropouts and known drug abusers who lived in the streets in cars, garages, or at other friends houses. Troiano had a record of burglary arrests, but Kasso had more unusual charges. His most recent arrest was a charge of grave robbing, where he dug up a 19th-century grave where he took a skull and hand that he said would be used for a satanic ritual. After he was arrested for grave robbing, Kasso contracted pneumonia. While in the hospital Kasso’s parents tried to have him involuntarily committed but he was diagnosed as having antisocial behavior, not violent or psychotic behavior. Also months before the murder, Kasso went to the Amityville Horror house and celebrated Walpurgisnacht, which is a celebration on May 1 for the coming of spring and 6 months before All Hallows Eve for sorcerers and witches. Soon after they were taken into custody, they both confessed to the murder and Quinones was given immunity for his testimony. Kasso was also linked to a local satanic group known as the Knights of the Black Circle, which were known for animal sacrifices. On July 7, Kasso hung himself in his jail cell. When Troiano went on trial for second degree murder at the beginning of the next year, the case had been revised. The Knights of the Black Circle had nothing to do with this murder. There had been only one witness to the murder besides Troiano and Albert Quinones. Satanism was dropped from the murder testimony but heavy metal music was blamed big time as pictures of Kasso being arrested in the news papers and tv reports showed him sporting an AC/DC t- shirt.
The act that triggered the murder was Lauwers stealing ten bags of Angel Dust right out of Kasso’s denim jacket pocket. Kasso spent two months complaining about the rip-off. Lauwers returned Kasso’s 5 bags of Angel Dust immediately and said he would pay him $50 for the other 5 bags but failed to do so. This resulted in about 4 beatings of Lauwers. Then on June 16 Kasso decided to teach Lauwers a lesson. He lured Lauwers into the Aztakea woods by telling him they would get high, he would forgive him, and they would become friends. But when Lauwers was in the woods with Kasso, Quinones, and Troiano tripping on LSD, they tried to start a fire. All the kindling wood was wet so they couldn’t get it started, so Lauwers took off his socks and tore off the sleeves from his denim jacket and used them to start the fire. Kasso started harassing him saying they should use some of his hair for the fire and the two started to scuffle. Kasso bit Lauwers on the neck and stabbed him in the chest. Kasso stabbed him over and over again in the face and, as Lauwers tried to flee the woods, Troiano and Quinones chased him down and brought him back to Kasso. They also admitted to holding Lauwers down and eventually Kasso gouged out his eyeballs screaming “Say you love Satan.” Lauwers screamed “No! I love my mother!” Kasso eventually left Lauwers’ body in the woods covered with leaves. As the group were leaving, it was reported the Lauwers sat up and said “I love my Mother” over and over. Kasso went back and stabbed him until he was sure that Lauwers was dead then proceeded to shove stones in his throat. In the aftermath of this murder, Kasso bragged to all the teens around this town about the murder of Lauwers and said it was a human sacrifice because Satan told him to do it. There were instances that Kasso took other teens to see the body because they did not believe it. He also confessed Satan had shown himself to him as a crow and that the crow cawed at him and that was Satan saying this murder was a good thing. At the trial of Jimmy Troiano, Troiano maintained he was only a witness and didn’t participate in the murder. The jury found him not guilty of 2nd degree murder because of Albert Quinones state of mind during the murder, being that all 4 were tripping on LSD. It is also known that Troiano confessed, along with Kasso, but later recanted because Kasso had hung himself in his jail cell. At the urging of his council, immunity was granted to Quinones for his testimony against Troiano.
