Peter Weinberger's house

This is the house where baby Peter Weinberger was kidnapped.

It is located at 17 Albemarle Road in Westbury on Long Island, New York.

At around 3 p.m. on July 4th, 1956, Betty Weinberger left her one-month-old son, Peter, in a baby carriage on the back porch of the property.

Ten minutes later, Betty returned and saw that Peter was gone. Inside the carriage, there was a handwritten ransom note demanding $2,000 ($22,000 in 2024).

Ransom

After contacting the Nassau County Police Department and weighing up the situation, the Weinbergers concluded that the only way to ensure Peter's safety was to pay the money as soon as possible.

The drop-off was supposed to take place at a signpost near the family home the following morning.

To avoid unnerving the kidnapper, the police asked the media not to report on the abduction for at least 24 hours. That way, they could make the exchange and get the child home safely before it became news.

Most outlets agreed to a self-imposed media blackout. The New York Daily News, however, ignored the request and ran the story on the front page of its evening newspaper.

The publicity resulted in a swarm of activity in the neighborhood, as journalists, TV crews, and photographers started gathering at both the Weinberger home and the drop-site.

In the light of the media attention, the kidnapper refused to show up.

When he didn't collect the money, the police held a press conference in which they claimed that Peter needed to drink a special baby formula that only a pharmacist could prepare. This was a lie, as no such formula existed.

The authorities hoped that the kidnapper would visit a pharmacy and request the milk, thereby drawing attention to himself. However, this strategy failed. Following the press conference, they received no reports of anyone looking for such a formula.

A few days later, the kidnapper called the Weinberger house and told Peter's father, Morris, to drop the ransom money at Exit 26 of the Northern State Parkway. Although Morris complied with his demands, he never showed up.

Later that day, he called the house a second time and accused the family of not sticking to the agreement. When the child's mother, Betty, told him that they had left the money at Exit 26, he immediately scheduled another drop-off. On this occasion, he directed them to place the cash in a blue plastic bag beside one of the signs at Exit 28.

For hours, an undercover police team posed as highway workers and kept the blue bag under surveillance. When the kidnapper was a no-show yet again, they looked inside the bag and found a second ransom note that repeated his earlier demands of $2,000.

FBI involvement

At the time, the FBI had to wait one week before it could legally join a kidnapping case. When that period passed, dozens of agents from New York City descended upon Long Island to take part in the investigation.

The FBI's handwriting experts analyzed the ransom notes and noticed that the offender's lowercase "m" looked like a "z" that had been turned sideways. 15 other letters of the alphabet also bore distinguishing characteristics.

Angelo LaMarca

Using this information, officials began trawling through thousands of public documents to find a match. Roughly five weeks later, a probation officer in Brooklyn came across the distinctive "m" in one of his documents. The handwriting belonged to 31-year-old Angelo LaMarca, a Plainview mechanic who had recently finished probation for a bootlegging conviction.

Two boys had said that they saw a shabbily dressed man driving a 1951 Plymouth near the Weinberger residence around the same time Peter went missing. They estimated that the man was roughly 5 ft. 9.

The blue bag that the kidnapper left on Northern State Parkway had been fashioned out of a car seat cover. When investigators brought the cover to auto dealers, they learned that it had been manufactured for Plymouth vehicles in the early 1950s.

Vehicle registration records revealed that LaMarca owned a 1951 Plymouth. Furthermore, his mugshot photo showed that he was 5 ft. 9.

Discovery of remains

Following his arrest, LaMarca quickly buckled under pressure. During his confession, he said that he left Peter alive in a wooded area off Exit 37 of the Northern State Parkway.

When LaMarca led them to the site, they found the infant's remains in a bramble patch that was roughly 150 feet south of the eastbound service road.

By that point, he had been dead for several weeks. The cause of death was determined to be a combination of asphyxia, starvation, and exposure.

Exit 37 provides access to Plainview, where LaMarca lived.

LaMarca told the police that he attempted to collect the ransom money. However, the heavy media presence had scared him away.

After the unsuccessful attempt, LaMarca panicked and made his way back home. While he was taking the exit for Plainview, he stopped on the side of the service road and quickly placed Peter in the woods.

LaMarca claimed that the infant was still alive when he left him.

During his trial, LaMarca pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His defense team argued that he had been suffering from temporary insanity due to financial issues. This strategy failed, however, as the evidence indicated he had planned the crime and taken several precautions to avoid detection.

In December 1956, LaMarca was convicted of felony first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

On the night of August 7th, 1958, he was executed by electric chair at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.