NEW YORK – Nicholas Tartaglione is an ex-cop with the Briarcliffe Manor Police Department in Westchester County, New York. He was also a short-term cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein. Now the quadruple murder suspect is going to trial this week after four bodies were found buried in the backyard of his home in 2016.
Tartaglione, 55, was reportedly trafficking cocaine, steroids and other illegal narcotics after his 2008 retirement from law enforcement. He accused one of his associates, Martin Luna, of ripping off more than $200,000 from him, according to federal prosecutors.
Tartaglione allegedly lured Luna to a bar in Orange County, New York, on April 11, 2016. Luna was accompanied by his nephew, Miguel Luna; his niece’s fiancé, Urbano Santiago; and a family friend, Hector Gutierrez, Fox News reported.
All four people went missing after that. Investigators concluded that Tartaglione was involved in kidnapping and murdering the victims.
“While all murders tear at the fabric of our communities, when the alleged perpetrator of a gangland-style, quadruple homicide is a former police officer, that strikes at the heart of civilized society,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a 2016 news release.
Another behemoth strongman and former NYPD cop, Gerard Benderoth, 48, was part of the quadruple homicide and cocaine conspiracy tied to Tartaglione.
Gerard Benderoth (Matthew McDermott via New York Post)
Benderoth committed suicide in front of FBI agents in March 2017 as they were about to arrest him, reported The New York Post.
“If this guy put a bullet in his head rather than go and talk to them, he must have been in deep,” a law enforcement source told The Post at the time.
When Tartaglione was initially arrested, federal prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. However, things have changed and the accused killer is now facing life in prison.
