Ricardo Caputo

[ForeverPluto]

Does any one have any updates on this creep? He would get romantically involved with women, one of which was a psychiatrist and he savagely beat them to death? He gave me chills and I hope he was caught. Thanks

[Kane]

Originally Posted by ForeverPluto

Does any one have any updates on this creep? He would get romantically involved with women, one of which was a psychiatrist and he savagely beat them to death? He gave me chills and I hope he was caught. Thanks

He surrendered in 1994. So he's been off the streets ever since.

A book was written about the case: "Love Me To Death," by Linda Wolfe.

Here's a link on the book:

http://www.lindawolfe.com/work2.htm

[ForeverPluto]

Originally Posted by Kane

He surrendered in 1994. So he's been off the streets ever since.

A book was written about the case: "Love Me To Death," by Linda Wolfe.

Here's a link on the book:

http://www.lindawolfe.com/work2.htm

Thanks! Glad to hear he';s off the streets. That guy was scum!

[Zero]

I don't know if this has ever been posted or if anyone else knows but Richard Caputo is dead. I found a link to a news article which states that he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1997 in Attica at the age of 48. Now he's rotting in hell. Thank God!

[kadrmas15]

Well he might not necessarily be rotting in hell, it depends if he asked for forgiveness or not. I am glad he surrendered and was taken off the streets. I believe he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Natalie Brown's slaying and was given a sentence of 8 to 25 years I think and I think he plead guilty to Judith Becker's slaying as well and was sentenced to 25 years to life in that one I think.

[CanadianUMFan]

Originally Posted by kadrmas15

Well he might not necessarily be rotting in hell, it depends if he asked for forgiveness or not. I am glad he surrendered and was taken off the streets. I believe he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Natalie Brown's slaying and was given a sentence of 8 to 25 years I think and I think he plead guilty to Judith Becker's slaying as well and was sentenced to 25 years to life in that one I think.

I just saw the segment today and found it interesting that Caputo, who was living in Argentina at the time of the original airing of the UM segment, flew to New York and surrendered on his own. He had been married and had several children IIRC. It was said on the UM update that Caputo was worried that he might kill again and wanted to be stopped. One would think that he could have very well remained a free man in Argentina if he had not turned himself in.

[sdb4884]

Thank god he is no longer with us.

[Wamisto]

Originally Posted by ForeverPluto

Thanks! Glad to hear he';s off the streets. That guy was scum!

A scum who could wheel up successful, attractive young woman after successful, attractive young woman.

I don't know how men like that do it - or what goes through (or doesn't go through) the heads of some women. His psychologist, for one, should have known better.

[rhzunam]

The Ricardo Caputo case is/was super interesting to me. It's one of the cases I had remembered the most especially the young student, Laura Maria Gomez, he killed in Mexico City. The picture of the alerta newspaper haunted me. The weird thing is that I endend up being in almost parallel situation but switched (minus murder and all that tendencies) And weirder still that during that time I never thought about the case.

[MegtheEgg86]

"I will grow you the biggest tomato!"

[rhzunam]

Looking at the segment again, I have to agree with the cop and disagree with the sister. It does look like the therapist and Caputo had a romantic relationship or at least she liked him.

[mattc]

Yeah, this guy was totally sick. It's like he dated women solely to kill them, and not just to kill the, but to brutally beat them to death

I also agree with rhzunam, that he and the psychologist were definitely dating. It always struck me as odd (and somewhat sad) to see her sister denying the relationship, even though it was blatantly obvious that they were romantically involved. I guess if they family accepts that she and Ricardo were lovers, then they would be accepting that she made a major professional mistake.

[kadrmas15]

Hmm, yes, I mean I guess I could be wrong, but yes, to me anyway it was VERY obvious that Judith Becker and Ricardo Caputo were romantically involved. Yes, I too found it sad, I mean it was like her sister had convinced herself and spent a lot of time convincing herself that her sister and Caputo were not romantically involved. But I guess it made it easier for her family to deal with the situation by denying that Judith Becker and Ricardo Caputo were lovers.

Looking at it, Judith Becker at the time she first met Caputo was relatively young. In fact I got the impression she had only been in the psychology field a year or two before she met him. She was 26 when she met him, so that tells me she had not been in the field all that long. I mean clearly she had a Bachelor's Degree but I think you have to have a Master's Degree to officially be considered a psychologist and that takes two or three years to complete so if she got her Bachelor's done at age 22, she was 24 or 25 when she completed her master's.

But yeah, I think she was young, relatively inexperienced as a psychologist as she had not been in the field that long, attractive and I think easily fooled by Caputo. I mean, she was bringing this guy home to meet her family and lying to them, she was introducing Caputo as a co-worker when in fact he was her patient and a patient of the Matawan State Hospital. Plus when Judith Becker got a job at a Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital, she was instrumental in getting Caputo transferred to that hospital which was much less restrictive and had much less security, even allowing patients to leave the facility to wander around NYC during the day. Becker and Caputo were frequently seen walking in the park and clearly he had been in her apartment before. It was not the first time he had been in there.

Now, looking at this case, it is interesting that Caputo was deemed incompetent to stand trial. I mean clearly there was something wrong with this guy mentally, that is obvious. However it is also obvious that while he was insane, that he was not insane in the criminal sense. He knew what he was doing was wrong, he just had this desire to kill for some reason when he lost his temper. However this case reflects how the old laws were.

These days while there are people found incompetent to stand trial and while there are people found not guilty by reason of insanity, it is a lot less common than it once was. That is because, prior to the early 1980's, in these cases, if a defendant put on an insanity defense it was the burden of the state to prove that the defendant was not in fact insane. That is hard to do, thus you saw a lot more cases of people being ruled incompetent to stand trial and a lot more not guilty by reason of insanity verdicts prior to the early 1980's.

After John Hinckley Jr was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted murder of President Reagan in 1982, the general public was so angry that they demanded the laws be changed. So the laws were changed in oh 1983, 1984, somewhere in there. So whereas before the laws were that the burden was on the state to prove that the defendant was not insane, the new laws stated that the burden was on the defense to prove that the defendant was insane.

[mattc]

Originally Posted by kadrmas15

Hmm, yes, I mean I guess I could be wrong, but yes, to me anyway it was VERY obvious that Judith Becker and Ricardo Caputo were romantically involved. Yes, I too found it sad, I mean it was like her sister had convinced herself and spent a lot of time convincing herself that her sister and Caputo were not romantically involved. But I guess it made it easier for her family to deal with the situation by denying that Judith Becker and Ricardo Caputo were lovers.

Looking at it, Judith Becker at the time she first met Caputo was relatively young. In fact I got the impression she had only been in the psychology field a year or two before she met him. She was 26 when she met him, so that tells me she had not been in the field all that long. I mean clearly she had a Bachelor's Degree but I think you have to have a Master's Degree to officially be considered a psychologist and that takes two or three years to complete so if she got her Bachelor's done at age 22, she was 24 or 25 when she completed her master's.

But yeah, I think she was young, relatively inexperienced as a psychologist as she had not been in the field that long, attractive and I think easily fooled by Caputo. I mean, she was bringing this guy home to meet her family and lying to them, she was introducing Caputo as a co-worker when in fact he was her patient and a patient of the Matawan State Hospital. Plus when Judith Becker got a job at a Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital, she was instrumental in getting Caputo transferred to that hospital which was much less restrictive and had much less security, even allowing patients to leave the facility to wander around NYC during the day. Becker and Caputo were frequently seen walking in the park and clearly he had been in her apartment before. It was not the first time he had been in there.

Now, looking at this case, it is interesting that Caputo was deemed incompetent to stand trial. I mean clearly there was something wrong with this guy mentally, that is obvious. However it is also obvious that while he was insane, that he was not insane in the criminal sense. He knew what he was doing was wrong, he just had this desire to kill for some reason when he lost his temper. However this case reflects how the old laws were.

These days while there are people found incompetent to stand trial and while there are people found not guilty by reason of insanity, it is a lot less common than it once was. That is because, prior to the early 1980's, in these cases, if a defendant put on an insanity defense it was the burden of the state to prove that the defendant was not in fact insane. That is hard to do, thus you saw a lot more cases of people being ruled incompetent to stand trial and a lot more not guilty by reason of insanity verdicts prior to the early 1980's.

After John Hinckley Jr was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted murder of President Reagan in 1982, the general public was so angry that they demanded the laws be changed. So the laws were changed in oh 1983, 1984, somewhere in there. So whereas before the laws were that the burden was on the state to prove that the defendant was not insane, the new laws stated that the burden was on the defense to prove that the defendant was insane.

Well put! I agree with everything you just said. It's funny, but my law school dissertation was on the insanity defense, and you're absolutely right that the Hinckley pretty much single handedly re-wrote the laws because the public was so outraged.

One point though with this case: From what I remember, even back then, when an accused is found incompetent to stand trial, it usually means that they will eventually stand trial when they are deemed "competent" again. That makes this all the more chilling, as you reminded me while reading your post. Basically, if it had not been for Becker (as sad as it is to write) transferring him to the NY hospital, she and the other victims might still be alive.

One thing I was wondering though: I wonder how he was able to still be considered "incompetent" to stand trial, while at the same time be deemed appropriate for a transfer to a minimum security hospital? Apparently Becker must have convinced the powers that be that his well-being would improve if she remained his psychologist. Very scary.

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

"I will grow you the biggest tomato!"

I always found it very interesting that he actually turned himself in out of fear that he would kill again. It seems that he recognized himself what a monster he was. I wonder if he has more victims than we know of.

On a side note, I think this has to be one of the most eerie cases to me. Imagine dating a guy, thinking he's pleasant and charming and then out of the blue he snaps. The college student he dated had been with him for about two years before he killed her. He was obviously outwardly charming to have dated so many women and his first victim's brother mentioned how likable and nice he was. That, to me, is pretty terrifying.