march 26th, 1995, when police discover a badly decomposed body near a highway overpass in rockland county, new york. the victim is identified at local transient, 39-year-old dana blaze demarco. dana was sort of a free spirit, described as an artist, a drifter, so it would be very likely that she would have come in contact with mcfadden. eventually, we would learn through the autopsy that she was also killed with blunt force trauma, a fractured skull was found. there s a couple of indicators from the crime scene that suggest that mcfadden is involved. one is the type of injury, the location of the injury, the severity of the injury. as i understand it, there was a piece of jewelry that was found with other jewelry possessed by mcfadden that belonged to dana. dana s body is found not far
arrested after mrs. rosenbaum s nude body was found tied up with a wash cloth stuffed down her throat. everybody agrees that the death was accidental. it wasn t intentional. but because of the laws of felony homicide, they tried all of us as adults. in the rosenbaum crime, he minimizes his role in this, that he didn t do it, he didn t commit the homicide, he didn t know this was going to happen, wasn t his plan, but that s very typical of an individual like this because really, they re looking out for their own best interests. so, very easy to blame everybody else. mcfadden s crime becomes a touchstone issue during then frank l. rizzo s campaign to become mayor. he vowed to the jewish community he was going to send me away for life. i was only 17 years old. i think that reggie felt that, in a sense, the system betrayed him because his
both pleasure that he died, finally he died, but also felt cheated. and i still had in me this desire to get back at him. if mcfadden s vengeful, it s not apparent. he seems to become a model prisoner, reverting to islam, taking college courses, and helping guards restore order during the notorious prison riots. he s a bright guy, he understands how you manipulate the system so that it works for you. mcfadden s good behavior seems to be motivated by his desire to get out of prison. from 1977 to 1992, he applies for commutation of sentence no fewer than eight times.
autopsy that robert silk had been violently bludgeoned to death. the crime scene is almost 50 miles north of silk s house, but six miles from where mcfadden lived at the time of the murder. how were you feeling when this was happening? were you angry with him? angry? i wouldn t say i wouldn t say the word angry. i think i didn t see him as a human being. he was just a jewish person. he wasn t a human being to me. they become a nonperson. and this is what has happened over the years when it comes to people that i feel as though either did me wrong personally or did my faith, islam, wrong personally. i think that he enjoyed that power and control, and clearly i think there are part of these crimes that s very exciting for him, you know, exert this control by inflicting tremendous injury, and selecting these
but is mcfadden ready? he became incarcerated at the age of 17, and i think there s a psychological component of him that has stayed stunted. and 24 years later, reginald is released. and what did we see? in a 90-day period, we see the sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and murder. mcfadden s downward spiral begins on december 7, 1994, in the long island village of elmont. how it came about is when my car broke down, right? this guy come driving up. and he seemed to be a nice guy, you know. he s saying to me, can i help you?