This is 5 minutes from me. I did my student teaching at Ocean Township High School, when I lived here. Right out of The Sopranos
OCEAN TOWNSHIP -- The grandson of a legendary Shore area organized-crime figure was charged yesterday with stabbing his elderly grandmother and his girlfriend to death inside the home the women shared, police said.
Police discovered the dismembered bodies of Julia Miraglia, 88, and Leigh Martinez, 31, inside the Lakeview Avenue home. Rosario "Russell" Miraglia III was outside, covered in blood.
Miraglia, 31, was charged last night with two counts of murder and was being held at the Monmouth County Jail in Freehold Township in lieu of $2 million bail.
He is the grandson and namesake of the late Rosario "Babe" Miraglia, a longtime organized crime figure who controlled a $10 million-a-week gambling empire that stretched from the Shore to New York. The elder Miraglia was considered the patriarch of numbers running in Monmouth County.
The suspect called 911 shortly before 10 a.m. yesterday and told police that they could find two bodies inside the home. When police arrived, they found him out front, covered in the women's blood, said Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye.
Inside the home, Kaye said, investigators discovered a particularly gory scene. Both Martinez and Julia Miraglia were decapitated and both women's hands and feet had been hacked from their bodies with a meat cleaver. Their hands, feet and heads were found in close proximity to their bodies, Kaye said.
Earlier yesterday morning, Julia Miraglia's brother-in-law stopped by the home with coffee and doughnuts, Kaye said. The brother-in-law, Jules Martelli, 84, knocked on the door.
Miraglia answered the door covered in blood.
"He (Martelli) says, 'What happened?,' Kaye said.
"Russell: 'You don't want to go inside.' "
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This message was edited by Mike Teacher on 6-9-04 @ 4:48 PM