Author of The Regent, Mountain of Light, Centenarians, Lessons My Father Taught Me, Steel, Road to Rust, The Scottish Rite Cathedral (co-authored with Rob Cummings) and New Castle’s Kadunce Murders
Home›About the Book› New Castle’s Kadunce Murders: Mystery and the Devil in Northwest Pennsylvania (True Crime)
In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costala carny, petty thief and Satanist of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press. Author Dale Richard Perelman tells this tragic story.