It's really a bizarre tale. The author was into homosexual spanking ... which I don't have a problem with, but many probably would esp for a child's book writer.
He solicited two men that had planned to have sex with him and then rob him, however; when the author didn't stop spanking the one; he cracked him across the face. The other man then took several kitchen knives and they went to town on the writer.
It supposedly was a bloodbath and much of the reason the full story is not known is that one of the killers took a plea to keep it from being released...it involved mutilating the writer's genitalia in some way....
A recent article below:
http://www.miamiherald.com/new...ward/story/276607.html
Guilty plea entered in slaying of Curious George collaborator
Posted on Fri, Oct. 19, 2007
BY LARRY KELLER
The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH --
Rex Ditto pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in the murder of Curious George collaborator Alan Shalleck, a ferocious crime that was unusually gory, even by South Florida's lurid standards.
In return for his plea to first-degree murder and robbery with a weapon, Ditto, 31, received a life sentence without parole rather than a possible death penalty.
''You will die in a prison cell,'' Circuit Judge Edward Garrison told Ditto.
Ditto agreed to testify, if asked, against his co-defendant and former lover, Vincent Puglisi, 56. Puglisi is scheduled to be tried early next year. Assistant State Attorney Andy Slater said he hopes not to use Ditto because he has told conflicting stories in the past, including in a letter to Garrison.
''This is an exceptionally brutal, heartless, pitiless homicide,'' Slater said afterward.
''It was a horrible, horrible crime scene,'' said Robert Gershman, one of Ditto's attorneys.
Ditto and Puglisi met Shalleck, 76, after they responded to an ad he placed seeking spanking partners. They went to his Boynton Beach double-wide home on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2006, intending to rob him after Ditto had sex with him.
Shalleck co-edited about 30 books and 104 film shorts about the impish monkey who has been a favorite of children for more than six decades.
Ditto told police that Shalleck wouldn't stop paddling him when he asked him to, so he whacked him on the face with the paddle. He said after Shalleck grabbed his neck, Puglisi jumped in and started stabbing the older man with kitchen knives.
An autopsy found that Shalleck had 83 blunt force injuries and more than three dozen stab wounds, including to the abdomen, neck and groin. He also had 49 defensive wounds -- more stabbing injuries and lacerations incurred while trying to defend himself.
Why the savagery?
''I'm not sure there is a rational explanation why this happened,'' Gershman said.
Ditto and Puglisi planned to dump Shalleck's body in the Everglades, Ditto said. They were unable to lift his corpse into Puglisi's Ford Explorer, so they left it covered in trash bags in his driveway.
Then the men tossed the paddle and knives in Fort Lauderdale's New River, Ditto said. Puglisi allegedly pawned some jewelry the men stole from Shalleck, and Ditto tried to cash a forged check stolen from the dead man's checkbook.
Ditto took the plea deal in part to spare his parents, who live near Mobile, Ala., from hearing and seeing additional details of the grisly crime, Gershman said.
Although Ditto was declared competent to stand trial, he ''hears voices all the time'' and cut his own genitalia in jail, just as he had done to Shalleck, Gershman said.
Prosecutor Slater has offered a similar plea deal to Puglisi -- life in prison, rather than the death penalty, if he admits guilt. Puglisi turned it down earlier.
''At this time,'' said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Shari Vrod, ``we're still going to trial.''
He solicited two men that had planned to have sex with him and then rob him, however; when the author didn't stop spanking the one; he cracked him across the face. The other man then took several kitchen knives and they went to town on the writer.
It supposedly was a bloodbath and much of the reason the full story is not known is that one of the killers took a plea to keep it from being released...it involved mutilating the writer's genitalia in some way....
A recent article below:
http://www.miamiherald.com/new...ward/story/276607.html
Guilty plea entered in slaying of Curious George collaborator
Posted on Fri, Oct. 19, 2007
BY LARRY KELLER
The Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH --
Rex Ditto pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in the murder of Curious George collaborator Alan Shalleck, a ferocious crime that was unusually gory, even by South Florida's lurid standards.
In return for his plea to first-degree murder and robbery with a weapon, Ditto, 31, received a life sentence without parole rather than a possible death penalty.
''You will die in a prison cell,'' Circuit Judge Edward Garrison told Ditto.
Ditto agreed to testify, if asked, against his co-defendant and former lover, Vincent Puglisi, 56. Puglisi is scheduled to be tried early next year. Assistant State Attorney Andy Slater said he hopes not to use Ditto because he has told conflicting stories in the past, including in a letter to Garrison.
''This is an exceptionally brutal, heartless, pitiless homicide,'' Slater said afterward.
''It was a horrible, horrible crime scene,'' said Robert Gershman, one of Ditto's attorneys.
Ditto and Puglisi met Shalleck, 76, after they responded to an ad he placed seeking spanking partners. They went to his Boynton Beach double-wide home on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2006, intending to rob him after Ditto had sex with him.
Shalleck co-edited about 30 books and 104 film shorts about the impish monkey who has been a favorite of children for more than six decades.
Ditto told police that Shalleck wouldn't stop paddling him when he asked him to, so he whacked him on the face with the paddle. He said after Shalleck grabbed his neck, Puglisi jumped in and started stabbing the older man with kitchen knives.
An autopsy found that Shalleck had 83 blunt force injuries and more than three dozen stab wounds, including to the abdomen, neck and groin. He also had 49 defensive wounds -- more stabbing injuries and lacerations incurred while trying to defend himself.
Why the savagery?
''I'm not sure there is a rational explanation why this happened,'' Gershman said.
Ditto and Puglisi planned to dump Shalleck's body in the Everglades, Ditto said. They were unable to lift his corpse into Puglisi's Ford Explorer, so they left it covered in trash bags in his driveway.
Then the men tossed the paddle and knives in Fort Lauderdale's New River, Ditto said. Puglisi allegedly pawned some jewelry the men stole from Shalleck, and Ditto tried to cash a forged check stolen from the dead man's checkbook.
Ditto took the plea deal in part to spare his parents, who live near Mobile, Ala., from hearing and seeing additional details of the grisly crime, Gershman said.
Although Ditto was declared competent to stand trial, he ''hears voices all the time'' and cut his own genitalia in jail, just as he had done to Shalleck, Gershman said.
Prosecutor Slater has offered a similar plea deal to Puglisi -- life in prison, rather than the death penalty, if he admits guilt. Puglisi turned it down earlier.
''At this time,'' said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Shari Vrod, ``we're still going to trial.''