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The Case of John Restivo
📻 Episode #547
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 16, 2025
About This Episode
On December 5th, 1984, the naked body of Theresa Fusco was pulled out of a wooded area in Lynbrook, NY - the 3rd in a string of recent disappearances, putting pressure on police to find the monster among them. The medical examiner determined that a rape lkely occurred and the cause of death was ligature…
The Case
On December 5th, 1984, the naked body of Theresa Fusco was pulled out of a wooded area in Lynbrook, NY - the 3rd in a string of recent disappearances, putting pressure on police to find the monster among them. The medical examiner determined that a rape lkely occurred and the cause of death was ligature strangulation. Dennis Halstead had been linked to one of the victims, and in a police interview about Halstead, John Restivo inadvertently mentioned an occasional employee John Kogut.
When police interrogated Kogut for 12 hours, during which interrogators lied to him about his failing a polygraph, Kogut signed a confession that was hand-written by one of the detectives. With the false confession, the trio were convicted and sentenced to 33 and a half years in prison.
John Restivo and Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Nina Morrison joined Jason at the Atlanta Innocence Network Conference to tell this amazing and terrifying tale.
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:57“Speaker 1: endured twelve hours of aggressive interrogation and eventually he cracked Speaker 1: and signed a confession that was handwritten by one of Speaker 1: the detectives. According to Kogo's false confession, the victim voluntarily Speaker 1: got into Restevo's van, where Cogd and Halsted stripped her Speaker 1: and Halsted raped her. Further into this coerce statement, he”
00:20:58“Speaker 4: this piece of rope would be taken into evidence and vouched, Speaker 4: and the police say it never was. Speaker 3: So this is information that. Speaker 4: Should have been turned over to the defense, and it Speaker 4: never was. And we never found out about this information”
00:35:55“Speaker 4: peow in the Philippines or a peow in Vietnam, and Speaker 4: and I got it in my brain, well, at the end. Speaker 3: Of the day, I don't belong here. But it could Speaker 6: John's too modest to talk about this, but I'm going Speaker 6: to say he also spent a lot of time when”
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← #546 David Smith #548 Jeff Boppre →
Also on the podcast: #52 John Huffington · #55 John Moss · #85 Jason Flom, John Grisham and Chip Harding with Jens Soering