JUSTICE STORY: Deadly dad slaughters his wife’s family out of spite in New Jersey

A priest prays as relatives and townsfolk look on silently as the metal caskets of Theresa, John, and Marion Pioppi, along with Pearl and Michael Mazzoli. The murder victims were buried in Our Lady of Victories Cemetery in Landisville, N.J.
A priest prays as relatives and townsfolk look on silently as the metal caskets of Theresa, John, and Marion Pioppi, along with Pearl and Michael Mazzoli. The murder victims were buried in Our Lady of Victories Cemetery in Landisville, N.J.

This was one family affair no one would ever forget.
On the evening of Nov. 17, 1950, Ernest Ingenito, 25, decided he wanted to visit his young sons. The visit would end with five dead and four wounded.
He and his wife, Theresa “Tessie,” 23, had split. She was living with her parents — Michael and Pearl Mazzoli— on their farm in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, N.J.
At around 8:45 p.m., Ernie — disheveled and with a pistol in each pocket — pushed open the front door of his in-laws’ home, where Tessie was watching TV.
Ernie Ingenito
Ernie Ingenito (Leonard Detrick/New York Daily News)
“Do you still love me?” he asked. Tessie said nothing. He demanded to see his sons. She replied, “You can’t.” He had to have a court order to visit his children.
“If you don’t want me to see the kids, here’s what you’re going to get,” he yelled and started shooting. He missed Tessie but hitting her father in the head and abdomen. Michael, 51, was dead when he hit the ground.
Ernie got off a couple more shots, catching Tessie twice, but she would survive.
The deadly daddy abandoned his quest to see his boys and turned his attention to his next target, mother-in-law Pearl, 41. But she was gone, she took off when the shooting started. Of all his wife’s relatives, he hated Pearl the most. The feeling was mutual.
Theresa Ingenito as she recovered from her wounds in Newcomb Hospital in Vineland, N.J.
Theresa Ingenito as she recovered from her wounds in Newcomb Hospital in Vineland, N.J. (Leonard Detrick/New York Daily News)
She tried to hide it, but Pearl believed her only child made a poor choice for a husband, wrote Patricia A. Martinelli in her 2010 book on the case, “Rain of Bullets.” Pearl thought he was lazy, dishonest, and did not treat her daughter well. Rumors that he was physically abusive and running around with other women infuriated her. There were constant quarrels.
But it wasn’t just in-laws who brought out his demons. For Ernie, that came naturally.
Born in Wildwood, N.J., in 1924, Ernie was 10 at the time of his first arrest, the start of years of petty crimes and stints in reform school. At 17, he eloped with his 16-year-old girlfriend. After two stormy years, a draft notice freed him from the marital discord.
Army life, however, did not agree with him. He went AWOL, slugged a couple of military police officers, and was court-martialed. After his dishonorable discharge, he drifted around until he hooked up with Theresa in 1946.
When the bullets began flying, Pearl ran to her parents’ house across the street, screaming, “Ernie’s over there with guns!”
At home were Pearl’s mother and father — Theresa and Armando Pioppi — her two brothers, 46 year-old John, Jino, 31, and Jino’s pregnant wife, Marion. Jino and Marion’s three children, Jeannie, 9, Armando, 7, and Teresa, 13 months were also there.
Ernie battered down the door and started shooting. Theresa Pioppi, 67, died first, followed by Pearl — who was shot multiple times — and then Marion, 28. John was fatally gunned down outside, while trying to catch Ernie. The gunman even sent a couple of bullets into little Jeannie, but they did not kill her.
The body of Marion Pioppi sprawled out in her in-law's living room. Theresa Pioppi was left on the floor in an adjacent room.
The body of Marion Pioppi sprawled out in her in-law's living room. Theresa Pioppi was left on the floor in an adjacent room. (Leonard Detrick/New York Daily News)
The attack took about 15 minutes, but Ernie’s rampage was not over. He drove four miles to the home of his wife’s brother, Frank Mazzoli, 45, his wife, Hilda, 44, and their two children. He shot Frank and Hilda and fled. They would also survive.
It didn’t take long for state troopers to spot the killer’s car speeding away. They forced him off the road after a two-mile chase.
“I’m the man you want,” he said, holding his hands in the air. Troopers found four guns and 166 live bullet cartridges in his clothing.
“I done it, and that’s all there is to it,” he told police.
New Jersey State Trooper Leonard Cunningham with Ernie Ingenito, after Ingenito calmly admitted to killing five people.
New Jersey State Trooper Leonard Cunningham with Ernie Ingenito, after Ingenito calmly admitted to killing five people. (Leonard Detrick/New York Daily News)
He was tried in January 1951 for the murder of his mother-in-law. If convicted, the sentence was death in the electric chair.
His lawyer tried to evoke sympathy, referring to a sad childhood, a head injury from a fall out of a tree, and weeping during his closing statement. He also tried to place some of the blame on the victim’s abrasive personality.
On the stand, Ernie told the jury that he just wanted to see his kids on the night of the murders. He brought the guns along to scare his relatives. But something snapped when he heard Pearl say, “Throw him out.”
“After that, I don’t remember anything,” he said. “I don’t remember shooting anybody.”
Shooting victims Theresa and Marion Pioppi.
Shooting victims Theresa and Marion Pioppi.
The jury found Ernie guilty of first-degree murder but, in a decision that sparked outrage, they recommended mercy. Instead of the electric chair, he got life in prison. Four more life sentences, to be served concurrently, were added after a 1956 trial.

At the time, New Jersey did not have a provision for a life sentence with no chance of parole. Impossible as it may seem, the mass murderer was set free in 1974.

Still, that was not the end of the story.

“Ex-convict found guilty of molesting girl,” was the headline of a small item in The Record, of Hackensack, N.J., on July 14, 1994.

At 70, Ingenito was again in court, facing charges of sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s daughter, starting when she was 8. The abuse went on for years. To keep the child quiet, Ingenito read her a section about his family massacre in the crime encyclopedia Bloodletters and Badmen. He threatened to kill her and her mother if she squealed.

Off he went to jail again, sentenced to 223 years. He served about a year before death set him free in October 1995. 

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