expecting it. i don t think too many people realize what he was capable of doing. before he dated tracy whitehead, joe palczynski s girlfriend was 16-year-old stacy culotta, the daughter of diane and vince culotta. he used to tell her all the time if she broke up with him that he d set the house on fire with us in it. it was a chance encounter at a local gas station that brought stacy culotta and joe palczynski together in july of 1996. early on, joe showered her with gifts and his undivided attention, as he did with most of his girlfriends. i am trying to look at it from my daughter s point of view or any 16-year-old s point of view, is that here is a guy, you know, an older guy that is driving around in a sports car, clean-cut, well dressed, flashy and telling you what you want to hear, and buying you what you want to buy. despite the protests and suspicions her parents and friends have about joe, stacy
holding thousands of gallons of fuel in melbourne, australia during a delivery to a gas station. the driver is hospitalized in critical condition. we ll see you after the next show. at the center of any criminal investigation is a dark heart and the iron hand of justice. after taking his girlfriend hostage and killing four other people, joe palczynski became the subject of one of the largest manhunts in maryland s history. many of his ex-girlfriends and their families locked their doors and went into hiding, thinking any one of them could be his next target. as it turned out, they had reason to be afraid. palczynski s reign of terror was far from over. joe palczynski remained at large
into palczynski s background. this was obviously a very dangerous individual. this was a guy who was willing to stop at nothing. and from that moment on, this became a paramount story in this region. joe palczynski had been in the custody of the baltimore county court system only several weeks earlier, after tracy whitehead had him arrested for beating her up. but despite his clear pattern and 13-year record of domestic violence, he was released on bail. carol alexander says the legal system should have seen it coming earlier. i think it would not have taken anything but good common sense to look at this guy s history and say, we have a big problem. this is victim number six. we need to act. she faults the police and court system for the way they handled joe s last arrest and bail. they took a look and said, in
need you to release the hostages and come out as soon as you can. i need to you come out right now. i m here for you. bill toohey is the spokesman for the baltimore county police department and was immediately on-site for the standoff. joseph palczynski and television had this were obsessed with one another. joe palczynski wanted television. television wanted joseph palczynski. when he started taking people hostage, the first thing he did when he went into that house was turn on the television. the palczynski murders, kidnappings, two-week manhunt and hostage standoff had become a media circus. when he was on the run, he had with him a portable two-inch television set and a stack of batteries. when he went into the motel the second night out with tracy whitehead, the first thing he did was to turn on the television and saw his picture on the 11:00 news. the television, conversely, just descended on us, and television from everywhere. at the news conference after this happened
something like that. palczynski s mother, pat, had bailed him out of jail, and she could see joe was at the breaking point. i knew something bad was going to happen. i knew i thought he was going to kill himself. needing a sanctuary from her abusive live-in boyfriend, 22-year-old tracy whitehead had moved in with her friends, gloria and george shenk. they all knew that palczynski had a violent temper, but no one expected murder. four nights after moving in, tracy is watching television with the shenks in their family room. gloria shenk is on the phone talking to her son. and all of the sudden, here comes the sliding door. slammed it, and i looked back, and he was standing there all in black with two big guns wrapped around him, and he said, gloria, put the phone down and he said, tracy, you are going with me. almost immediately palczynski