By Joseph Flammer
June 16, 2009 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1984 murder of seventeen-year-old Gary Lauwers
of Northport at the hands of self-proclaimed satanist, Ricky Kasso. For two weeks Lauwers decomposing
body was visited in the woods by local kids who swore a pact of secrecy.
Northport, an affluent, suburban, north shore village hugging the Long Island Sound, suffered much bad
publicity at the time of the incident. Reporters from around the world converged upon the community and
interviewed people on the streets about "The Acid King", as locals called Kasso. Photographers and video
camera crews recorded every satanic pentagram dug by knife point into the wooden gazebo at Cow Harbor
Park, where Kasso and gang often hung out in a LSD drug daze, listening to the heavy metal of Judas Priest,
ACDC, and Black Sabbath.
The Year Satan Came to Town
Ricky Kasso at the time of his arrest.
Fall, 2009
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Things had been out of hand between Kasso and Lauwers for some time. You see, Lauwers had stolen ten
bags of angel dust out of Kasso’s jacket pocket when Kasso was passed out at a party months earlier. That
was why Kasso often “beat the shit” out of Lauwers on the streets of Northport, said kids in the area at the
time. Kasso just couldn't let the incident go and Lauwers was the kind of weak-minded soul who subjected
himself to torture to be accepted by others, kids told a reporter from Rolling Stone.
In the woods Kasso started "beating the shit" out of Lauwers once again.
Kasso tried to force Lauwers to say “I love Satan”, but Lauwers would not, and instead said, “I love my
mother.”
“Say you love Satan!” Kasso shouted in his face, stabbing him again.
“I love my mother!” Lauwers cried.
Quinones said in an interview that as he watched the horrible scene unfold he saw the trees in the woods
bending over and bowing to Kasso.
The story goes that Kasso, Troiano, and Quinones were leaving the woods after hours of the gruesome
torture session - thinking Lauwers was dead - when Lauwers suddenly sat straight up.
Kasso turned back with the devil in his wild eyes and his glinting blade in his blood-stained hand to finish the
job.
Then came two weeks wherein Kasso invited friends – sworn to secrecy to The Knights of the Black Circle –
to visit the corpse of the boy he murdered. He bragged about his human sacrifice to the local kids.
Those who visited the woods stared at Lauwers as his body decomposed before their eyes in the June heat,
maggots rampaging the dead boy’s flesh under a thin layer of leaves and dirt. Possibly as many as thirty
teenagers saw the dead kid in the woods during those two weeks. Over time Lauwers' body hollowed,
collapsed and sank into the earth. Only the skeleton and a grotesque black spot where his blood drained into
the ground remained of Lauwers by the time a police dog found him on July 4th.
The only reason the police even found out about the murder was because a girl overhead other girls talking
about the obscene show going on in the woods, and she called police to report the dead body.
On July 5th officers found Kasso in a car where he sometimes slept, for he rejected living with his family.
Troiano was with him because he lived on the streets, too. Troiano had also dropped out of high school, and
at that point had already done jail time for burglary.
Kasso committed suicide in the Suffolk County Jail two days after he was arrested. He hanged himself with a
bed sheet tied to the upper bars of the cell door.
It’s probable that Kasso's suicide, and the secrecy pact of The Knights of The Black Circle, served as the
inspiration for the legend of the suicide pact made by three teenagers who hanged themselves from the
Northern State Parkway overpass on Sweet Hollow Road, Long Island's most visited haunted location.
-30-
bags of angel dust out of Kasso’s jacket pocket when Kasso was passed out at a party months earlier. That
was why Kasso often “beat the shit” out of Lauwers on the streets of Northport, said kids in the area at the
time. Kasso just couldn't let the incident go and Lauwers was the kind of weak-minded soul who subjected
himself to torture to be accepted by others, kids told a reporter from Rolling Stone.
In the woods Kasso started "beating the shit" out of Lauwers once again.
Kasso tried to force Lauwers to say “I love Satan”, but Lauwers would not, and instead said, “I love my
mother.”
“Say you love Satan!” Kasso shouted in his face, stabbing him again.
“I love my mother!” Lauwers cried.
Quinones said in an interview that as he watched the horrible scene unfold he saw the trees in the woods
bending over and bowing to Kasso.
The story goes that Kasso, Troiano, and Quinones were leaving the woods after hours of the gruesome
torture session - thinking Lauwers was dead - when Lauwers suddenly sat straight up.
Kasso turned back with the devil in his wild eyes and his glinting blade in his blood-stained hand to finish the
job.
Then came two weeks wherein Kasso invited friends – sworn to secrecy to The Knights of the Black Circle –
to visit the corpse of the boy he murdered. He bragged about his human sacrifice to the local kids.
Those who visited the woods stared at Lauwers as his body decomposed before their eyes in the June heat,
maggots rampaging the dead boy’s flesh under a thin layer of leaves and dirt. Possibly as many as thirty
teenagers saw the dead kid in the woods during those two weeks. Over time Lauwers' body hollowed,
collapsed and sank into the earth. Only the skeleton and a grotesque black spot where his blood drained into
the ground remained of Lauwers by the time a police dog found him on July 4th.
The only reason the police even found out about the murder was because a girl overhead other girls talking
about the obscene show going on in the woods, and she called police to report the dead body.
On July 5th officers found Kasso in a car where he sometimes slept, for he rejected living with his family.
Troiano was with him because he lived on the streets, too. Troiano had also dropped out of high school, and
at that point had already done jail time for burglary.
Kasso committed suicide in the Suffolk County Jail two days after he was arrested. He hanged himself with a
bed sheet tied to the upper bars of the cell door.
It’s probable that Kasso's suicide, and the secrecy pact of The Knights of The Black Circle, served as the
inspiration for the legend of the suicide pact made by three teenagers who hanged themselves from the
Northern State Parkway overpass on Sweet Hollow Road, Long Island's most visited haunted location.
-30-
Kasso, a seventeen-year-old high school drop out and drug dealer, who had only months earlier been
arrested for grave robbing after digging up a grave in a cemetery and stealing body parts so he could use
them in satanic rituals - now tripping on mescaline - stabbed Gary Lauwers in the face and neck as many as
32 times during a three hour torture fest. It’s said that Lauwers’ face was so disfigured that it was no longer
recognizable as a human’s face, but looked more like meat shredded on a butcher block.
Kasso gouged out Lauwer’s eyeballs with his blade, cutting into the very skull around the eye sockets. This
happened at night in Aztakea woods of Northport. The woods are located about ten minutes away by foot
from Cow Harbor Park where the stoners had been earlier in the night, hanging out under the gazebo near
the Long Island Sound, swallowing mescaline, drinking, cursing, listening to heavy metal - goddamn it all!
Two other acquaintances, James Troiano, 18, and Albert Quinones, 17, watched while Kasso tortured
Lauwers in the damp, dark woods to the light of a small camp-style fire. Quinones testified that Troiano
helped Kasso in his dirty work by holding Lauwers down so Kasso could beat, stab, cut, and even burn him.
But in the court trial that followed Troiano was acquitted of second degree murder by a jury because
Quinones’ testimony against him was obviously compromised by Quinones' ingestion of mescaline on the
night of the murder and therefore not reliable.
Earlier, while Lauwers was sill alive, the boys lit a fire using some of Lauwers' clothes, including his socks
and the arms of his jacket.
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” Lauwers asked Kasso before the killing got underway.
Kasso said he heard a crow cawing in the night woods and knew it was a messenger from Satan telling him to
kill Lauwers. He claimed he had even seen Satan in these woods on an earlier occasion. The devil appeared
as a tree with roots that rose out of the ground and glowed.
Kasso had read Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible and thought he understood it, perhaps he thought it even
held a message especially for him. Police found in Kasso's pocket a list of the names of dignitaries from hell
when they arrested him months before the murder for digging up a body from a nineteenth century grave in
a local cemetery and stealing a skull and a hand for his rituals. He and some other local kids supposedly had
formed a satanic cult calling themselves The Knights of the Black Circle. They reportedly performed animal
sacrifices, including killing cats, in satanic rituals.
arrested for grave robbing after digging up a grave in a cemetery and stealing body parts so he could use
them in satanic rituals - now tripping on mescaline - stabbed Gary Lauwers in the face and neck as many as
32 times during a three hour torture fest. It’s said that Lauwers’ face was so disfigured that it was no longer
recognizable as a human’s face, but looked more like meat shredded on a butcher block.
Kasso gouged out Lauwer’s eyeballs with his blade, cutting into the very skull around the eye sockets. This
happened at night in Aztakea woods of Northport. The woods are located about ten minutes away by foot
from Cow Harbor Park where the stoners had been earlier in the night, hanging out under the gazebo near
the Long Island Sound, swallowing mescaline, drinking, cursing, listening to heavy metal - goddamn it all!
Two other acquaintances, James Troiano, 18, and Albert Quinones, 17, watched while Kasso tortured
Lauwers in the damp, dark woods to the light of a small camp-style fire. Quinones testified that Troiano
helped Kasso in his dirty work by holding Lauwers down so Kasso could beat, stab, cut, and even burn him.
But in the court trial that followed Troiano was acquitted of second degree murder by a jury because
Quinones’ testimony against him was obviously compromised by Quinones' ingestion of mescaline on the
night of the murder and therefore not reliable.
Earlier, while Lauwers was sill alive, the boys lit a fire using some of Lauwers' clothes, including his socks
and the arms of his jacket.
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” Lauwers asked Kasso before the killing got underway.
Kasso said he heard a crow cawing in the night woods and knew it was a messenger from Satan telling him to
kill Lauwers. He claimed he had even seen Satan in these woods on an earlier occasion. The devil appeared
as a tree with roots that rose out of the ground and glowed.
Kasso had read Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible and thought he understood it, perhaps he thought it even
held a message especially for him. Police found in Kasso's pocket a list of the names of dignitaries from hell
when they arrested him months before the murder for digging up a body from a nineteenth century grave in
a local cemetery and stealing a skull and a hand for his rituals. He and some other local kids supposedly had
formed a satanic cult calling themselves The Knights of the Black Circle. They reportedly performed animal
sacrifices, including killing cats, in satanic rituals.
The Gazebo at Cow Harbor Park in Northport Village where "the
night from hell" started. This is where Ricky Kasso ate mescaline
before heading off to the woods to kill Gary Lauwers in human
sacrifice to Satan. High school students sanded off the graffiti and the
knife dug pentagrams from the gazebo's wood following Ricky Kasso's
arrest and subsequent world attention. Today the wood is smooth, but
the scars of indistinguishable carved images and words can be seen
right below the surface. Some things are not so easy to erase.
Photo by Joseph Flammer
night from hell" started. This is where Ricky Kasso ate mescaline
before heading off to the woods to kill Gary Lauwers in human
sacrifice to Satan. High school students sanded off the graffiti and the
knife dug pentagrams from the gazebo's wood following Ricky Kasso's
arrest and subsequent world attention. Today the wood is smooth, but
the scars of indistinguishable carved images and words can be seen
right below the surface. Some things are not so easy to erase.
Photo by Joseph Flammer
As night fell, Cow Harbor Park was transformed into
Satan's playground back in 1984. In the background
is the gazebo where Kasso met others before
starting for the woods for a night of terror and
murder.
Satan's playground back in 1984. In the background
is the gazebo where Kasso met others before
starting for the woods for a night of terror and
murder.
Signs the Northport Community has not forgotten the
horrific killing of Gary Lauwers at the hands of Ricky
Kasso are found at Cow Harbor Park. Written on the
wood support beam are the words, "Say you love Satan -
Ricky Kasso".
horrific killing of Gary Lauwers at the hands of Ricky
Kasso are found at Cow Harbor Park. Written on the
wood support beam are the words, "Say you love Satan -
Ricky Kasso".
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