0:00

Okay, yes, this is recording, I hope.

0:03

Uh, you think, you know, after doing, like, I

0:05

think it's 70-something episodes of the podcast, I would

0:07

have figured this out by now, but nope! Uh,

0:09

not yet, folks! Look forward to me fucking this

0:11

up yet again! So, yeah, you know, here,

0:13

let's get into it! Hello there! Yep,

0:15

that's what I was supposed to say. Hello there!

0:17

Uh, hey you and welcome! My name is Mike,

0:20

and you know what? Yeah, I'm on my, I'm

0:22

on my lonesome today. Yep, it's feeling, feeling very

0:24

quiet here, and uh, that chapter ops is here,

0:26

uh, you know, um... It's

0:28

very, very quiet, I don't like it, it's cold,

0:30

it's just, whoa, whoa, burr, you know what I'm

0:33

saying? Yeah, Keith abandoned me. Well, you

0:35

know what, let me rephrase that, folks, because

0:37

you know what? He abandoned you too. He

0:40

truly did, I couldn't believe it, I couldn't

0:43

believe what he did. He abandoned us all.

0:45

What a guy! You know, to do this to

0:47

us, huh? He just had, he

0:49

just... I'm, I'm shaking with rage right

0:51

now. He just had to go on summer

0:53

vacation with his family, if you can believe

0:55

that. What an asshole. For two whole weeks.

0:58

Frankly, folks, I can't even speak, I'm, I'm

1:00

shocked. He's a betrayer. What else would you

1:02

call this? Other than, other than, just straight

1:04

up treason for what he did to us.

1:06

So I guess I'll have to riff by

1:08

myself for this one, actually. How

1:10

are you? How are you, listener? How are you doing? You know, we can

1:12

shoot the shit. You and I, you and I shoot the shit, you know,

1:14

it doesn't make jokes, we can make jokes and stuff. Okay,

1:17

good duck. Uh, let's get into this

1:19

whole episode of the That Chapter Story,

1:21

uh, story of stories, funnily enough. Um,

1:23

this is a case that people were

1:25

asking me to cover for literal years.

1:28

This involved a frat boy, a weird

1:30

ass relationship, and New York City,

1:33

if you can believe that's the

1:35

big Kahuna burger, or something like

1:37

that. See, in New York, a couple

1:39

of boys were on a night on the town,

1:41

party central. However, things would get

1:43

real nasty real quick in an

1:45

apartment in midtown Manhattan. What

1:47

really happened to only the people who were there, no. There

1:50

were and are a lot of secrets

1:52

analyzed that led to murder. Let's

1:56

give it one of them damn goos. Man, this

1:59

is so weird, by the way, doing a- podcast by myself.

2:01

I don't like it. So today we're

2:03

telling a story set in New

2:05

York and our central character is

2:08

a guy named Joey Cominale. Joey

2:10

Cominale was born on March 9th

2:13

1990 to Patsy and Lisa Cominale

2:15

in Stanford, Connecticut. He had

2:18

one sibling, a younger sister by the name

2:20

of Alexa and and Joey was always described

2:22

as a kind kid. His relationship

2:24

with his family tight-knit and with his dad

2:27

even more so they were the two best

2:29

friends that anyone could have. Joey

2:31

graduated from West Hill High School in 2008

2:34

in Stanford before heading off to

2:36

Hofstra University in Long Island, New

2:38

York. Just over an hour's drive

2:41

away from his family home in

2:43

Stanford. He graduated from that university

2:45

in 2012 with a degree

2:47

in legal studies. I'm talking business.

2:49

He was, you know, numbers and

2:52

other business things. After

2:54

graduation he moved back to the

2:56

family home briefly before securing a

2:59

sales job at Triad Security where

3:01

his father Patsy worked as president

3:03

of Global Security Solutions. Look at

3:05

you. Joey worked at a

3:08

different office however in Elmsford, New York.

3:10

He moved away from the family home again

3:12

to a condominium that was owned.

3:15

Man, his family had, his family got

3:17

him a job, his family got him

3:19

a condo. Hey listen, what's not to

3:21

like? It was a town home called

3:23

Chesterfield Condominiums and Joey had

3:25

an on and off again girlfriend with

3:27

whom he had started dating during his

3:29

time at Hofstra University. Her name was

3:31

Eliza. Joey Now, he was a

3:33

real guy's guy so to speak.. I Want to

3:35

say jock. I Don't know if that's not a

3:37

derogatory term per se, but kind of stuck with

3:39

me. See He played hockey, baseball, he was part

3:42

of the fraternity at university and you look at

3:44

pictures of the guy, he was pretty jacked. but

3:46

Jock can also sort of mean you know, kind

3:48

of like a dickhead, like a bit of an

3:50

asshole. but but Joey not him. Now He didn't

3:52

have a mean bone in his damn body. In

3:55

Fact: many of his frat brothers would say he

3:57

wasn't the guy he would get in your face

3:59

like ever.. Wasn't a bad

4:01

confrontation or altercation. He. Raised

4:03

me I was. I didn't like disagree.

4:06

Just one is a well enough alone.

4:08

stews. Very agreeable fellow. Just kind of

4:10

got on with everybody else. So.

4:12

Our Tail today takes place in an

4:15

affluent neighborhood in New York City Manhattan

4:17

Smooth as a way. More specifically me.

4:19

Upper East Side. The originally a high

4:21

class residence upper East Side. it was

4:23

a succession I think so. or setting

4:26

up or I said, i never know

4:28

what you did, We will that here.

4:30

Ten these Roosevelt's Rockefellers. well maybe out

4:32

so much anymore. but back in the

4:34

day, that's what I'm talking them. big

4:37

name neighborhoods you've probably only seen in

4:39

movies or celebrity magazines. Lenox Hill, Carnegie

4:41

Hill, Yorkville. Ah, day sounds. Descend

4:43

expects just from the name is hop new

4:45

and as well as celebrities of course as

4:48

you can imagine like Mariah Carey, Bill Murray,

4:50

Glass Paltrow, Just Nemazee, We Will lives there

4:52

and of they were. there are jokes I.

4:56

Just dipped in my estimation. So.

4:58

Being part of, you know, Manhattan, there's

5:00

no shortage of anything near by. Really

5:02

Central Park. Strike their ivory. Going to

5:05

museums, coffee shop stores, high end restaurants,

5:07

whatever you need posts a boatload of

5:09

people. I mean, well, yeah, eight million

5:11

right there. So. That takes his

5:13

to November twelve to twenty six. Scene

5:15

and life for Joey was elegant. He

5:17

had the nice condo or either the

5:20

family own place. He had a decent

5:22

job. What? satellites? It. Was on

5:24

Saturday, nice November twelfth, Twenty six seen

5:26

that Geo Eve and long time on

5:29

again. Off again girlfriend. allies that they

5:31

had a falling out and they decided

5:33

to take yet another rates. Data

5:36

history breaking up and getting back together. But

5:38

no one could have foreseen that this would

5:40

be the end of that cycle. Forever.

5:44

Like. Most typical young men After break

5:46

out the since they would allied skill

5:48

I get some drinks turn up the

5:51

slack economic see so that the Moose

5:53

yeah I'm saying. That's exactly what's

5:55

your we did. he took the subway to

5:57

chelsea in new york he met up with some

5:59

friends club called the Gilded

6:02

Lily. Now with that place, the Gilded Lily,

6:04

it's closed today. I can just see it's

6:06

closed. I'm not sure when if it was

6:08

a victim of COVID or whatever, but I'm

6:10

kind of looking into it. Looking into the

6:12

reviews? It seems like

6:14

it sucked asses. You know, just really sucked

6:16

asses. It's a, you know, the bouncers were

6:19

assholes, only the cool kids were allowed in,

6:21

which I mean, come on. Of course what

6:23

I mean. I would be allowed in. Guys,

6:25

what are you talking about? I'm glad it's

6:27

closed. It looks like it sucks. So

6:29

him and his boys were having

6:31

a fantastic time at this place. I mean,

6:33

they must have been, well, I

6:36

mean, they were pretty well off. It seems like you

6:38

have to be very well off to have a good

6:40

time at this place. And they ended up staying in

6:42

the Gilded Lily tale closing time. CCTV

6:44

showed Joey and his friends spilling out onto

6:46

the street and then lingering outside at front

6:48

and chatting to other people. You know, everybody's

6:50

had a glass of sherry or two and

6:53

it's pretty wasted, but they're all having a

6:55

good time. No one, you know, at this

6:57

stage is ready for the night to end.

7:00

Joey was seen chatting with Tree. Nice.

7:02

Tree young ladies with his friend that

7:04

Joey had gone out drinking with his

7:07

friend was named Steven Nassau. So

7:09

Joey and Steven talked to these Tree, Tree

7:11

young ladies. And then guess what

7:13

happens? These two other men, completely

7:16

unknown to Joey and Steven, join

7:18

in on the conversation. It

7:20

was closed to 4 a.m. but as I said,

7:22

no one was ready for the night to be

7:24

over. The new men that stepped

7:26

into the conversation then just happened to mention to

7:29

the gang, hey, let's take

7:31

the party over to my friend's penthouse.

7:33

We can keep it going over there.

7:35

Now, expensive penthouse, that is with a big

7:38

ol' E and a big ol', much like

7:40

myself, P. The guy who

7:42

lived there, his dad, apparent micro celebrity,

7:44

a jeweler to some of the biggest

7:46

names in showbiz. He had a, he

7:49

had like a showroom on Fifth Avenue

7:51

if you needed, if a

7:53

celebrity or somebody very important, quote unquote important,

7:55

was getting a diamond engagement ring, they would

7:57

get it from him. And so, you

7:59

know, chatting away making plans for

8:01

some after drinks going over to this

8:04

guy's apartment continuing to party and

8:06

then joey's friend steven he asked to borrow joey's

8:08

phone just for a moment just needed to make

8:10

a very very quick call steven got

8:12

the phone off joey turned away for just and

8:15

talking a handful of minutes to make

8:17

a quick call at 4am but when

8:19

he turned back to the group to

8:21

return joey's phone they were gone

8:24

he was standing there pinks assholes

8:26

f***ing hell joey the other two

8:28

new guys and the girls were

8:30

all gone so someone who's nearby

8:32

just mentioned him that joey delves

8:35

jumped into a cab with this group to

8:37

attend this after party at a swanky penthouse

8:39

in the upper east side and off they

8:41

were never to be seen again he didn't

8:43

even let him know and joey didn't even take his phone so

8:46

steven fss thanks lads he heads home

8:48

by himself joey's phone in his pocket

8:51

with you know pearlescent hills for turning

8:53

to his friend tomorrow

8:55

morning sundays were fantasy

8:57

football day for pat commie nalley and his son

8:59

joey joey never missed that mad for the fantasy

9:02

football getting those you know points you gotta gotta

9:04

get those points make sure you get that running

9:06

back in the first round it

9:08

was tradition and even then joey would

9:10

always communicate and be in touch with

9:12

his dad for a day of football

9:15

that sunday you know it's getting to midday

9:17

football's about to start joey didn't show up

9:19

no phone call no text no nothing and

9:21

so is that pat was like okay weird

9:23

kind of unlike my dear son he wasn't the

9:26

kind of kid to just flake without a call

9:28

letting you know what was up so weird

9:31

and then that kind of pit feeling in your stomach

9:33

where you can just feel something heavy there

9:36

that's what pat had when he picked up

9:38

the phone to call his son see

9:40

the voice on the other end wasn't

9:43

his son it was his son's friend

9:45

steven steven then told pat that joey

9:47

had stayed in the city steven

9:49

had borrowed his phone and joey had taken

9:52

off before he could return and steven you

9:54

know he hadn't heard from joey since pat

9:57

knew instantly someone was up and told

9:59

steven Quote, well, something

10:01

is wrong then. All

10:04

feet were on the ground at that

10:06

moment looking for Joey. Like almost weirdly

10:08

alert from the very get go.

10:10

It was almost bizarre how quick Pat was

10:12

like, shit's getting pretty real and shit's not

10:14

going good. Pat, he headed over

10:16

to Joey's condo and as a family owned

10:18

Joey's condo, he had a key, he let

10:20

himself in, it was empty. Joey

10:24

had never come home that night.

10:27

See, one of Joey's friends, another guy

10:29

who had been alerted to Joey being

10:31

missing, Max was his name. They're all

10:34

kind of freaking out and worried about

10:36

Joey and how can they even

10:38

attempt to start looking for him. Well, Max

10:40

had a really, really good one. They're all

10:42

completely baffled. They didn't even know where to

10:44

begin to look for Joey. And hey,

10:46

if you haven't noticed, New York is a big old place. So

10:49

where the hell had he gone? I mean, someone mentioned

10:51

something to Steven, but sure, he was tree sheets

10:53

to the wind. And basically all he got was

10:55

they'd gone to a penthouse in the Upper East

10:58

Side. So Max's novel

11:00

idea, let's check social media. Let's

11:02

look at Instagram, right? You know,

11:04

let's do a location tag and

11:06

scour photos from the Gilded Lily the night before. And

11:09

the Gilded Lily, it seems like the kind of place

11:11

where if you go there, you're gonna take pictures on

11:13

Instagram and you're gonna tag it on Instagram. You won't

11:15

be able to know you went to the Gilded Lily.

11:18

And success. That

11:20

is when they find photos of the

11:22

two men that had invited Joey to

11:25

the after party. And

11:27

so true to this like kind of

11:29

weird game, you know, six degrees of

11:31

separation style game via Instagram tags and

11:33

who followed who, they were

11:36

eventually able to track down one of

11:38

the guy's name and

11:40

his phone number. Enter

11:42

in Larry De Leon. By the way, I don't

11:44

know if I'm, I'm probably

11:47

butchering that, but this

11:49

is one of those cases where these people kind of

11:51

suck, so I do not care. Larry,

11:54

28 years old at the time.

11:56

And he came from Mu'a, his

11:59

family bread, turbid. horses and he

12:01

himself worked in real estate which kind of

12:03

probably just means like money laundering for the

12:05

rich and famous. You'll see a

12:07

trend here is that they all had a lot

12:09

of status, wealth and there's a lot of name-dropping

12:12

in this circle of friends. Now Larry,

12:14

bit of a hothead if you know what I

12:16

mean, he was allegedly on the Royds and according

12:19

to some had a very short fuse and hey

12:21

I mean on the Royds he also had a

12:23

very short penis. He had a

12:25

few misdemeanors from bar fights already

12:28

and disorderly conduct. So Joey's

12:30

friend Max tracks down Larry's phone number and

12:32

gives it to Patch right this is who

12:34

one of the guys Joey was seen in

12:36

let's see what he knows and what he

12:38

can tell us and so Patch gives

12:41

him a ring immediately and

12:43

wouldn't you know it Larry answers and said oh

12:46

who Joey Joey who don't

12:48

know where he went I haven't seen him

12:51

I haven't seen him at all in fact

12:53

maybe he was here partying last night but

12:55

you know in the early morning hours after

12:57

the party at the penthouse had winded down

12:59

Joey and Larry did walked the tree ladies

13:01

you know that had gone back to party

13:03

with them out to a waiting uber and

13:06

then Larry said that Joey said something about

13:08

going to get cigarettes and didn't

13:10

come back to the apartment with Larry. Last

13:12

he's seen out on the street that

13:15

was it. So while

13:17

Pat was calling and dialing up every

13:19

friend he knows of Joey's Max,

13:21

very good social media use frankly

13:23

like genuinely tracked down another person

13:25

in his Instagram detective work and

13:27

Max found one of the girls

13:29

that Joey had been chatting to

13:31

that night that had gone back

13:33

to the party with Joey. Stephen

13:36

then who was there with Joey that night confirmed

13:39

we said yeah I saw her outside the gilded

13:41

looey. So they then got

13:43

a hold of her and she said yep

13:45

herself Joey these two other guys we went

13:47

to party at a penthouse then we you

13:49

know the girls they were leaving Joey and

13:51

Larry they walked him from the penthouse down

13:54

to the street to an uber and then

13:56

she said that as she was waving goodbye

13:58

from the you know the moon moving car,

14:01

it looked to her like

14:03

Joey was going back into

14:05

the building with Larry. When

14:08

I remember, Larry was saying, Joey, you know,

14:10

they walked girls out and then Joey left

14:12

by himself. Something about going to get cigarettes

14:15

or something. Well, someone's

14:17

lying like a rug over here. So at

14:19

the back, this made more sense that Joey would

14:22

have gone back inside. Basically, for the simple reason

14:24

that Joey never bought a pack of smokes in

14:26

his life. Like Larry was saying, Joey left to

14:28

get cigarettes? No, he wouldn't. He doesn't, he doesn't

14:30

smoke. Okay, he doesn't smoke. Sure,

14:32

he bums the odd cigarette from time to time,

14:35

you know, when he's drunk at a party or

14:37

something like that. Drunk smoking, social smoking, whatever you

14:39

want to call it. But he'd never like taken

14:41

up smoking to the point of buying cigarettes himself.

14:44

He would just bum them off other people. Pat

14:46

knew he wouldn't do that. That ain't as Joe. Joey's

14:49

dad at this point, done fucking around. He

14:51

then decided to file a missing person's report.

14:53

Someone's lying and you got to get the

14:55

police in at this point. The

14:57

police called Larry Dillion as well and Larry

14:59

stood by his story. He had no clue

15:01

where Joey was. He was like, you know,

15:04

he was going to a nearby bodega or

15:06

something to go get smokes. And that was

15:08

it. He said that was the last you've

15:10

seen of him. But Larry does

15:12

willingly give the police the name

15:14

and number of two other men

15:16

that were there that night as

15:18

well. He also confirms the

15:20

address of where this

15:22

after party took place. Larry

15:26

gives them two names. Two of the

15:28

other guys who were there that night.

15:30

One is in fact Larry's own roommate,

15:32

Max. Another

15:34

story here of wealth and privilege. Max

15:37

is software engineer. His mom, a previous

15:39

mayor of their hometown in New Jersey,

15:41

again, hung out with the likes of

15:43

the rich and famous or more specifically

15:45

spoiled to Nepo babies of the rich

15:47

and famous. I mean, you can kind

15:49

of see everybody here is this rich

15:51

trap, trap bro type, yachus, lacrosse, rohibnal.

15:54

So Max was the other guy who was

15:57

there at the gilded lily that night. It

15:59

was Larry. Max Joey and Tree

16:01

Girls got a cab to another friend

16:03

says the other guy that

16:06

was there was James rack over He

16:09

was the host of this party

16:11

this after party and resident of

16:13

apartment 4c at the Grand Sutton

16:16

Apartments, I mean to

16:18

look at pictures of the the Grand Sutton apartments.

16:20

It looks it looks pretty It

16:23

looks pretty nice. I'm not gonna lie. I'm looking at pictures of

16:25

them here right now You know

16:27

it's on so it's on the Upper East Side Kind

16:29

of like not quite the Upper

16:31

East Side really I mean it's like halfway

16:33

between Midtown and the Upper East Side It's

16:35

right off the one of them bridges. I

16:38

know New York's got like a million of

16:40

them the Queensborough bridge There you go, but

16:42

uh yeah, it's like definitely one of those

16:45

whoa boy Man

16:48

listen, I don't think I can even afford to

16:50

walk in the front door by the way James

16:52

rackovers You know the after party wasn't actually in

16:54

a penthouse at all from reports There's a one-bedroom

16:56

apartment that had a street view so that means

16:58

an extra chiching Although that didn't

17:00

seem to matter as all the witnesses who went

17:02

to that after party say that well regardless They

17:05

had a smashing goods on they drank they

17:07

did some of the devil's downjours if you

17:10

can believe that there was even a striptease

17:12

Competition I'm shocked. I'm shocked at this, but

17:15

anyway. Let's get back to it Let's see

17:17

let's think with James rack over for a moment

17:19

the guy who lived in that apartment so

17:22

James rack over was the son

17:27

of Jeffrey rack over as I

17:29

said previously Jeffrey rack over Celebrity

17:32

jeweler he actually lived in the same building

17:34

But just on a on a on a

17:36

much better apartment and a higher floor So

17:39

James was an inspiring model, and

17:42

he worked in insurance at the time on

17:45

the night in question He had attended a friends

17:47

giving and had been home by 930 p.m. A

17:51

woman he had been seeing then came over for

17:53

a little late night delight and had fallen asleep

17:56

James then got up and watched the UFC

17:58

fight, and that's when he received a text

18:00

message from Larry about coming over for a party.

18:02

See, Larry just texted him as they were leaving

18:04

to Gilded Lily saying, Mind if we come over?

18:06

James said, Hell yeah, he kicked this girl out

18:08

and he said, Come on out! Just like, by

18:10

the way, already in the wee hours. It's very

18:12

like 4 o'clock in the morning already, but he

18:15

was still like, Come on, come over. Let's

18:17

have some, let's have a little bit of party time. When

18:20

questioned by the police, James also confirmed

18:22

that he did host the party. Joey

18:25

did attend, but just like Larry, not

18:27

sure where he is now. He left

18:29

something that Sig's never saw him again.

18:32

Now remember Joey had no prior relationship with

18:34

these three men. Joey had never met, never

18:37

met this other Max guy, this Larry

18:39

guy, or this James guy, literally just

18:41

some random guys he met when he

18:44

was drunk. So that left an uneasy

18:46

feeling for Joey's dad, Pat, because he

18:48

knew his son and he knew his son well, and

18:50

he wouldn't have liked his son hanging out with these

18:52

people. So then the investigator,

18:54

the detective, and Pat went for a

18:56

drive to the Grand Sutton Apartments, and

18:58

there they decided, Hey, listen, let's just

19:01

go straight to the source. They decided

19:03

to check in directly with security and

19:05

asked to see footage, to see CCTV

19:07

security footage from the night before. When

19:10

they got to the early morning, they

19:12

did indeed see Larry and

19:14

Joey escorting the three women to

19:16

their Uber out front. But

19:19

then they also saw both

19:21

men walk back inside the

19:24

building. The women were

19:26

telling the truth. The lads, not

19:29

so much. Something must have

19:31

happened. So Larry was lying. But

19:33

why? So understandably so. Pat did a

19:35

run up to apartment 4C and confronted

19:38

whoever he could find in there, demanding

19:40

to know where Joey was. It

19:42

took some talking, but eventually the lead

19:44

investigator convinced Pat, head back to the

19:47

precinct, wait for developments there, let the

19:49

police take over. So Pat agreed

19:51

and was just kind of standing

19:53

outside the building, just like, as you

19:55

can imagine, incredibly anxious, frustrated, and scared

19:57

for his son. And as he was- outside

20:00

the building and on his phone he was kind

20:02

of hoping maybe that he might get a call

20:04

from his son. That's when he

20:06

noticed the building porters taking out

20:08

bags of garbage at the side

20:11

of the Grand Sutton apartments. This

20:14

immediately clicked with Pat

20:16

who ran back inside and told the investigator

20:18

he can't let the city collect the garbage

20:20

they need to search it. And I mean

20:23

hey listen, I've seen enough and you probably

20:25

have to of these true crime stories to

20:27

tend to agree. Joey did not just vanish

20:29

and if they're saying they don't know where

20:32

he was well not good they're probably hiding

20:34

something they're probably hiding it in the trash.

20:37

And it was a good thing they did

20:39

search the trash because what they

20:41

found sealed the deal and

20:43

changed everything. This was not

20:46

a missing person's case anymore. This is

20:48

more than likely a homicide investigation. By

20:51

the way just gotta give a huge shout

20:54

out to Joey's dad Pat and Joey's friends

20:56

Max. It was basically because of

20:58

them that they were able to make progress

21:00

on this case. His friend Max was able

21:02

to find via Instagram the idea to check

21:04

Instagram see if you could find out who

21:06

Joey had gone with and then Pat was

21:08

the one who had a bright idea to

21:10

check the garbage bags. If

21:12

left to the police they probably would have been long gone because

21:15

inside those trash bags they found Joey's

21:17

bloody clothes, his driver's license and a

21:20

chain necklace he always wore that Pat

21:22

had given him and it was

21:24

covered in blood. Police

21:27

also tracked James Rachover taking

21:29

his father's Jefferies Mercedes Benz

21:31

for a drive that same

21:35

early morning. Joey wasn't

21:37

seen on surveillance again leaving the building

21:39

or in the elevator nowhere so

21:42

if he was not in that apartment anymore he

21:45

didn't walk out of there. And

21:47

at this point it's been a couple of days and there was still

21:50

no sign of Joey coming out. Who

22:00

knows these things? I'd like to

22:02

say he had a guilty conscience and knew what was the right

22:04

thing to do, but hey I don't want to give him that

22:06

much credit. Two days after

22:08

Joey's disappeared, Larry decided he was ready

22:10

to talk. He came into

22:12

the police station, he was looking nervous, sweaty

22:14

like he hadn't slept, and it was obvious

22:16

he had something big to say. Eventually,

22:19

he got it out. The

22:22

whole thing. What happened

22:24

to Joey and the events that night that

22:26

led to where they are now. Larry

22:29

then, hmm, let's say

22:31

it this way, Larry takes some true events of

22:33

the night. Having a

22:35

good time, oh doing a little bit

22:37

of dancing at the gilded lily, having

22:39

a few scoops there, meeting Joey outside

22:41

the bar after living all kicked out

22:43

in its clothes and then having the

22:45

inspired ding ding bright spark idea of

22:47

moving the party to James' apartment. He

22:50

texts James, hey bro, you up? You want a

22:52

party? James says hell yeah. They

22:54

head off. The girls, the cocaine,

22:57

the schnuckda. All of it. He

22:59

said it was pretty kosher and lighthearted, they were having a good

23:01

ass time. In James' apartment, they were

23:03

dancing, they were bopping, they were strip teasing,

23:05

they were doing shrugs, they were listening to

23:08

music. There was no bad luck, no fight

23:10

or anything for those hours the girls were

23:12

there. Maybe it was the shrugs, mixed

23:14

with the boods, and the roids Larry was on. But

23:17

once they got back to the

23:19

apartment, after walking the girls to

23:21

the Uber, Larry would say Joey's

23:23

demeanor changed once they got back

23:25

inside. He said

23:27

Joey got in his face, all of

23:29

it in his grill, and said something to the

23:32

effect of, quote, I brought the cigarettes, James brought

23:34

the coke, what did you bring?

23:37

Like that Joey wasn't lying, maybe Larry was

23:39

a leech and using the

23:41

guys for a good time, which sounds

23:43

kind of weird. That's when

23:45

Larry said he went into Hulk mode. Well,

23:48

okay, maybe not really Hulk mode, but he

23:50

did say he got triggered. And according to

23:52

Larry, he didn't even hesitate in taking Joey

23:55

down, pounding him to the floor like a

23:57

move out of a UFC fight. Joey

24:00

was down Larry he

24:02

just kept going punching him over

24:05

and over Larry said then

24:07

James joined in he was also

24:09

hitting Joey and Larry told detectives

24:11

that Joey it was grim he

24:13

was gurgling he was struggling to defend himself and

24:17

Was was unable to it was not in

24:19

a good way and the whole time this

24:21

was going on their other friend max Gemma

24:23

he was sleeping on the couch Max

24:26

then wakes up to all the suffering and

24:28

obviously like what what the shit are you

24:30

doing? James and Larry just

24:32

told max leave don't get involved

24:34

be on your merry way Larry

24:37

and max they were roommates so anyway max does

24:39

just that he leaves them

24:41

he leaves James and Larry as they

24:44

were beating Joey to death Didn't

24:47

call 911 once he was at a department

24:49

didn't didn't talk to the security at the front desk at

24:51

the grandson Doesn't flag then help on

24:53

the street. Nope just strolls out Didn't

24:55

see anything tries to immediately wash it from

24:58

his brain So

25:00

back inside the apartment James it

25:02

said he was the one who escalated the beating

25:04

to murder He

25:07

took out a pocket knife that they had

25:09

been doing coke off of all night, and

25:11

he stabbed Joey stabbing him 15

25:13

times I Kind

25:16

of you know find any real information as

25:18

to what Larry was doing while James was

25:20

stabbing Joey's death just kind of Watching don't

25:23

think he tried to really stop him did he go

25:25

to the bathroom do more drugs cuz I barely they

25:27

were doing all their drugs Then

25:29

after the stabbing James dragged Joey to

25:31

the bathroom where he tried to dismember

25:33

him with a serrated knife I

25:36

don't know how he expected that to go I'm

25:39

guessing it didn't work so Larry

25:41

and James then pivoted to a cleanup Using

25:44

bleach and paper towels they started the

25:46

massive operation to clean up the murder

25:48

of Joey That's when

25:50

Larry got that very first call after

25:52

the scouring and the six degrees of

25:55

separation on Instagram Remember Joey's

25:57

friends tracked him down and then Larry

25:59

told old Pat straight up, he had no

26:01

idea where Joey was, last he had heard

26:03

he had left to go get sicker at

26:06

the corner of the nearby bodega. The

26:08

entire time he was on the phone to

26:10

Pat, he was standing next to Joey's

26:12

dead body, cleaning up his blood. And

26:16

so they finished cleaning up and Larry

26:18

fielded constant calls then coming from Joey's

26:20

family and friends and eventually the cops.

26:23

Now though they still needed to get rid

26:25

of the body. They were

26:27

seen on surveillance walking around in

26:29

the basement of the apartments. Larry

26:32

and James were just seen walking basically

26:34

everywhere on the ground floor and underneath.

26:36

Larry would say they were trying to

26:39

find a way to get

26:41

the body out of the building without being seen. Essentially

26:43

they were scouring every single way entrance and exit. Do

26:45

you think we can carry a body out this way

26:47

without being seen? Could we do it this way? Could

26:49

we do it this way? And eventually they

26:52

were like no. Everywhere there's either

26:54

a person, it goes directly onto the

26:56

street where there's a New York City, there's gonna be a

26:58

lot of people walking around or you

27:00

know there's a camera or CCTV

27:02

or something. So they came

27:05

up with something that was, I would

27:07

say ingenious but it's more like

27:09

what's the opposite of ingenious? In

27:12

dumb. In stupid. It's in

27:14

stupid. That's it. That's what it is.

27:17

They wait until it started to get dark outside.

27:19

They killed him in the very early hours, they

27:22

kept him inside the entire day and then when

27:24

it started to get dark out again, they

27:26

wrapped Joey's body up in a

27:28

comforter. James then got in his

27:31

dad's mercedes, drove it around to

27:33

the street underneath his apartment window.

27:35

James back over his apartment was four

27:38

stories up. When James then gave

27:40

Larry the go ahead, Larry

27:42

lifted and pushed Joey's body out

27:44

of the window, still wrapped in

27:46

the comforter letting it fall four

27:49

stories to the bushes below. This

27:51

is the middle of Manhattan and frickin'

27:55

James back over his apartment was a street view,

27:57

street facing apartment so this is on the middle

27:59

of the street. What that? Once

28:01

there, they quickly managed to transfer it to

28:03

the car, and then speed off. It's

28:06

actually a gravel and nobody saw them, and

28:08

not- well, who knows if somebody saw them,

28:11

but not one witness would come forward later

28:13

on, and there's no CCTV that caught this.

28:15

It's kind of unimaginable that

28:17

somebody didn't see them doing this, but

28:19

hey, I mean, it's probably New York City, so they

28:21

probably seen weirder shit that very same day. Who knows?

28:24

Once they had Joey's body in the car,

28:26

they went to Ocean Point, New Jersey, which

28:28

is about- about 60 miles away. They

28:31

dumped Joey's body in a wooded area behind

28:33

a forest's shop. Larry, he was familiar with

28:35

the area as he had grown up there,

28:37

and well, that's the only reason I could

28:39

find why they picked that spot. They knew

28:41

it would be secluded. There,

28:43

they dug a hole, placed Joey's body in

28:46

it, and before leaving, dumped gasoline on

28:48

his body and set it on fire.

28:51

Recounting the night's events and confessing his

28:53

crime, the police raced to that very

28:55

area that, you know, behind a forest's

28:58

store, and Joey's body was

29:00

exactly where Larry said they would find it.

29:03

Larry and James were arrested for

29:05

second-degree murder, and Max, who had

29:07

left after the beating before the

29:09

stabbing, he was also arrested and

29:11

charged with hindering prosecution and tampering

29:13

with physical evidence, basically by not

29:15

coming forward and telling what

29:17

he had seen. And you know what? You

29:19

think that was it? You think that was it? Just

29:22

this served, and hell, made these

29:24

two men rot in prison. But

29:26

there's- there's kind of like this really weird

29:28

wrinkle to this story. See,

29:31

James Rockover lived in,

29:34

you know, this fourth floor apartment in this

29:36

very fancy building, and it was owned- the

29:39

apartment was owned by his dad, Jeffrey Rockover, who

29:41

lived in the same building, but on like the

29:43

32nd floor. Um,

29:46

actually, I kind of misspoke there because James was

29:48

not Jeffrey Rockover's son.

29:51

See, James Rockover, his real name was

29:54

actually James Beaudouin II, if you can

29:56

believe that, another verse, the second. Born

29:58

March, and

30:00

James was actually an ex-felon

30:02

from Florida with a long

30:05

list of convictions. He

30:07

was released from prison in 2013 and after serving 1.5

30:09

years for armed burglary, well

30:14

from there he decided to relocate

30:16

to New York City. New York

30:18

City! Where he met the jeweler

30:20

of the stars himself, Jeffrey Rakover.

30:22

There's two stories of how they

30:24

met. Jeffrey would say he

30:26

met young James at a health

30:29

club, which sounds like one of

30:31

them saunas where women are allowed.

30:34

But James would say that they met at a

30:36

dinner and he was introduced via a friend. Kind

30:39

of the less seedy introduction

30:41

I guess. You probably would once say

30:44

that. Anyway, Jeffrey Rakover

30:46

as he said this rich famous

30:48

jeweler, he decided to take James

30:50

under his wing. He even allowed

30:52

him to live in the apartment

30:54

he owned in grandson apartments. And

30:56

eventually James even changed his last

30:58

name to Rakover. Jeffrey meeting at

31:00

these upper class clubs and societies,

31:02

began introducing him to others as,

31:04

oh look at this is my

31:06

long lost son James Rakover, wouldn't

31:08

you believe? They invented this story,

31:11

Jeffrey and James, that Jeffrey

31:13

had a fling with James' mom decades before

31:16

and they suddenly had just reconnected. You know,

31:18

oh my son he came up from Florida,

31:20

I didn't even know he existed till now.

31:23

Then yada yada yada. Basically James was

31:25

adopted by Jeffrey. Now, know what you're

31:27

thinking, hey listen, we're all thinking it.

31:30

There was definitely some sexual relationship

31:33

here for sure. You

31:35

know, transactional if

31:38

you will. Now Jeffrey swears up and down

31:40

that it was just a father-son dynamic and

31:42

James swears that too, but I mean they

31:44

would say that. It seems

31:46

Jeffrey kept introducing James to people

31:48

as his son, so that people

31:50

wouldn't think they were doing some

31:52

weird stuff together. Hey listen,

31:55

people won't think we're gay, being gay together, if I

31:57

just tell everybody your son, right? But I

31:59

mean, yeah. Come on. This

32:01

is, let me read you a little quote

32:03

from this Vanity Fair article. In

32:05

this gay for pay narrative,

32:08

accusing Jimmy of exchanging sexual

32:10

favors with affluent men in

32:12

return for profit, social status,

32:15

and illegal substances. They

32:17

called James Jimmy there, but that's James Rockover,

32:19

James Bodoo, and whatever you want to call

32:21

him. Even his ex-girlfriend from Florida would say,

32:24

yeah he was straight, but you know, him

32:26

being like gay for pay, being gay

32:28

for upper-class rich men to, you know, get

32:31

all this free shit, you wouldn't put it

32:33

past him. I mean,

32:35

why else would this rich shooter who

32:37

was unmarried suddenly adopt, quote unquote, this

32:40

young, good-looking fellow who's willing to

32:42

do anything for a little bit

32:44

of cheddar cheese? Hey, I mean, yeah,

32:46

20 books is 20 books, doesn't matter where you're getting it from,

32:48

and he was likely getting a hell of a lot more than

32:50

that, including for free, and

32:52

apartments in New York City. And he was trying to

32:54

be a model, so he's probably like a good-looking, at

32:56

least to some extent. Now, you

32:58

might ask, why am I bringing all this stuff

33:00

that's wrong private business? Well, that'd become a major part

33:02

of the prosecution's case. By the way, the

33:05

name change from Bodoo into Rockover,

33:07

it was never illegally binding. They would

33:09

display forms, it was fake, just like

33:11

their relationship. But Jeffrey would

33:13

pay for James' education, his monthly rent,

33:16

and his monthly rent at that place

33:18

in Grand-Sutton, it was $4,000 a month.

33:22

So not cheap. And

33:24

was he doing all that out of the goodness of his heart?

33:28

Goodness of his balls, more like. After

33:30

James' arrest, Jeff initially, Jeffrey initially, he did

33:32

pay for his defense, and he probably would

33:34

have been able to get him an amazing

33:37

lawyer, but soon his support wavered, as more

33:39

and more damning evidence would come to light.

33:42

When the trial finally started in

33:44

2018, Jeffrey was nowhere in sight

33:47

to support his, quote, It's

33:50

rumored he cut ties with James around this

33:52

time. and

34:00

James murdered Joey. Larry

34:03

said Joey got in his face for no good

34:05

reason and he suddenly snapped and then James for

34:07

some reason brought out a knife. But

34:09

when all this came out in the press in

34:11

New York City, well it's said that the two

34:13

boys, James and Larry, they tried humping Joey Camino

34:15

and well, Joey wasn't into that sort

34:18

of thing so they killed him. The

34:20

prosecution would paint James and Larry as two

34:22

guys who were gay together who were lovers

34:24

which I think that all stems from James

34:26

and Jeffrey having a weird relationship so therefore

34:28

James must have had one with Larry too.

34:30

I mean James rack over everybody, it was

34:32

a name in the papers all the time

34:34

so being able to paint this is kind

34:36

of weird and sort of seedy. It's gonna,

34:38

gonna, you know, get a lot of attention.

34:41

They did show texts at trial where

34:44

both James and

34:46

Larry would text I love you to

34:48

each other which is, hmm, but I

34:50

mean hey come on, what's an I love you amongst the boys?

34:53

Later though the prosecution would say now they just

34:55

killed him over some cocaine. That

34:57

was it. They were running out of Bolivian

35:00

marching powder so they started fighting over it

35:02

and eventually the two of them killed Joey.

35:05

James would say he didn't kill Joey by the

35:07

way, he wasn't even there for the murder. He

35:09

may have helped clean up but Larry was the

35:12

one who did the killing. Regardless

35:14

at the end of the trial, James

35:16

was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced

35:18

to 28 years and

35:21

Larry who pleaded guilty to manslaughter

35:23

got 23 years in prison. Max

35:25

by the way, the other friend who was there

35:28

to sleep and do a tune on the couch

35:30

who laughed after the beating, he pleaded guilty to

35:32

hindering the prosecution and tampering with evidence and did

35:34

six months in prison for that one. And

35:37

so ends the story of Joey Kaminali,

35:40

a good-ass dude who came to a

35:42

horrible end surrounded by, well,

35:44

some real assholes. Thank

35:47

you so much for listening folks. Keith will

35:49

be back next week or perhaps the week

35:51

after so look forward to that or pay

35:54

or or credit who knows I'm not going

35:56

to tell you what to do. Now before

35:58

I go Keith if you're listening to

36:00

this and I know that you are. Get

36:02

back to work. You know I never would

36:05

have sanctioned your vacation, I wouldn't allow it so I

36:07

demand you return at once and you can laugh at

36:09

my jokes on this podcast. No

36:11

more, I'm not allowing him to go on vacation again.

36:15

I forbid it. I decided I forbid

36:17

it. As always do check out new

36:19

videos on the That Chapter YouTube channel

36:21

every single Tuesday. Every single Tuesday

36:23

there's a brand new video up there and there's

36:25

a new podcast out every single Monday so give

36:27

it a go wherever you get your

36:30

jokes but um yeah here listen that

36:32

kind of the podcast just sort of ends. Um

36:35

alright um. See ya! Asky

36:37

says and uh thanks bye.