Bricca murders: A new push to solve Cincinnati’s infamous cold case
CINCINNATI —It's considered the most notorious cold case in Cincinnati. A husband, wife and their 4-year old little girl were murdered in their west side home 54 years ago.Gerald "Jerry" Bricca, 26, his wife Linda, 23, and their daughter Debbie, 4, were found slain inside their home Sept. 27, 1966.
One-on-one with neighbors of the Briccas
"The street was all lit up. Police cars and flashing lights everywhere," Julie Ress said. "It was close. That doesn't happen in our neighborhood, you know?"
Ress was a young girl at the time of the slayings, just 12 years old.
Judith Hemmer was newly married and friendly with her beautiful neighbor, who seemed to have it all. Hemmer recalls conversations she had with Linda Bricca on her front porch.
"She was outgoing and very confident. She had a beautiful smile, pretty eyes," Hemmer recalled.
But that night in 1966, everything changed.
The Cincinnati Strangler was on the loose. Four women had been raped and murdered. And then, the Briccas were found.
Jerry, Linda and Debbie were all stabbed to death inside their home along Greenway Avenue in Bridgetown.
"You've got a beautiful wife, a workaholic husband and (an) adorable child in a nice neighborhood," said J.T. Townsend, who admits he is obsessed with what happened that night.
He's a Cincinnati historian and author who's spent decades piecing together every detail of the Bricca murders, and writes about the terror in his book "Summer's Almost Gone."
Townsend walked WLWT's Sheree Paolello through that horrific night.
Jerry Bricca was last seen alive Sept. 25, 1966, as he placed garbage cans on the curb outside the family's home on 3381 Greenway Ave. On Sept. 27, concerned neighbors checked on the Bricca family after noticing that newspapers began piling up in the driveway, that the garbage cans had not been taken in, and that the family dogs had not been let outside.
"I think there's a disturbance in the TV room. Jerry goes down, is confronted. I think the adults are herded upstairs at gunpoint and then the killing started. Jerry undoubtedly was killed first -- 10 knife wounds, three to the throat. The throat is cut. Socks are stuffed in his mouth as a gag. A piece of tape is put around his mouth. Linda is stabbed on the bed, all wounds to the front -- six wounds. Debbie appeared to have been dragged away -- arms completely out, legs completely out. A stuffed animal (was) just out of her reach," Townsend said. "We lived up in the suburbs. My mom wanted to get Mace. People were getting guard dogs. We weren't even in the epicenter of the crime, really. It just wasn't supposed to happen here in Cincinnati."
Even though it's been five decades, Townsend believes this case can still be solved. He has five top suspects. Two are still alive.
"Be the suspect alive or dead, we need to close this case. You can close it with a dead suspect. You could certainly close it with a live one."
Townsend and his army of faithful west side followers on his Facebook page "Bricca Unlocked" say they won't stop until the evidence is retested.
One-on-one with J.T. Townsend, author of "Summer's Almost Gone"
That's where the county's top cop comes in.
"I remember this case because my grandfather was the sheriff and it would be nice to close the loop on this," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.
Deters is now retesting every piece of evidence in the Bricca case. Unfortunately, the ancestry group used to match DNA did not find a match in the Bricca materials submitted.
But Deters said there's still hope.
"There's still some hairs that may be tested and they're going be tested very soon," Deters said.
If the county gets a DNA match that they think is from a suspect who has already died, Deters said he's even willing to exhume a body.
Like any unsolved crime on his watch, this one has become personal for Deters.
"Sometimes, you think you've pulled off the perfect thing (crime), but sometimes, you just can't clean up good enough and we get them," he said.
Until that happens, Townsend's fight for justice continues.
"People just want to know what happened. Isn't that why you keep reading the book? You keep watching the movie and the TV show. You want to know what happened and why we don't know," Townsend said.