Ashley Ellerin was twenty-two and had her whole world in front of her. She was a fashion design student working and living in Hollywood. She had a thing for dating young actors; she had been on a date with Vin Diesel and was now waiting for a young man called Ashton Kutcher to pick her up. They had texted throughout the day and he was coming over later.

Kutcher was late picking his new date up, two hours late. He had contacted her on several occasions to let her know, but did not get a response. Still, he went to her house and knocked on the door. There was no answer, he tried several times, but she still didn’t answer. He had been stood up due to being two hours late. He had one final look through the window before he left and saw wine stains on the carpet.

The following day, 22nd February 2001, Ellerin’s friend entered the house and saw the wine stains, except they were not wine; it was blood. She found her friend dead in the flat; she had been stabbed forty-seven times, some as deep as six inches. Ellerin had become a victim of The Hollywood Ripper.

Investigation

The police started investigating the murder. They discovered that Ellerin had been friends with a man they had nicknamed Mike the Furnace man. It did not take them long to locate Michael Thomas Gargiulo and bring him in for questioning.

As they brought Gargiulo in, police investigators from Illinois arrived. They stated that Gargiulo was a possible suspect in a murder in their state. This was the murder of eighteen-year-old Tricia Pacaccio in 1993. Pacaccio had been stabbed twelve times outside her house. Her father found her dead on the patio the next morning. The Pacaccio’s lived next door to Gargiulo at the time.

The police took DNA from Gargiulo and ran a test to match it to the murder of either female. A small amount of DNA matched that found on Pacaccio; however, the prosecutors reasoned that this small amount could have been transferred through casual contact. Gargiulo did not deny he knew the woman. None of the evidence matched the crime scene of Ellerin. He was released without charge.

The personal life of Michael Gargiulo

Little is known about the early life of Gargiulo or his family. He was born on 15th February 1976 and was one of seven children. He would later state that his father and older siblings physically abused him. Locally he was known as the school bully who had a quick temper.

He had grown up in Illinois, living next door to Pacaccio for much of his life. When his neighbour was stabbed, he moved to Hollywood in the 1990s to escape the police interest in him. He first worked as a bouncer in a club until he was fired for excess violence. He then went on to work as an air conditioning and heating engineer.

He moved close to where Ellerin lived and made friends with her. He had a boy next door look and was always offering to help his neighbours out. What, in truth, he was doing was stalking his victims to find the most opportune moment to attack. Whether he murdered Ellerin when he did to try and pin the crime on Kutcher or whether his jealousy at her dating another man was the motive for killing that night, he has never disclosed.

Moving and marrying

After Gargiulo was released with no charge, it was time to move again. This time he moved to El Monte with a girlfriend at the time. Living opposite him was a thirty-two-year-old mother of four, Maria Bruno. Gargiulo befriended Bruno and spent time helping her fix things around her house.

One night in December 2005, Bruno was asleep in her bed; a unknown assailant broke into her home and stabbed her seventeen times whilst she slept. He then removed one of her breasts, trying to remove her implants, before stuffing it in her mouth. He then left, leaving the body to be found later.

Two years after the murder of Bruno, Gargiulo met and married Ana Luz Gonzalez. Within their first year of marriage, Gonzalez would learn that her new husband was a wanted murderer and potentially a serial killer; she divorced him. Whilst living with Gonzalez, they moved to Santa Monica. Living opposite them across the alley was Michelle Murphy.

Murphy, who was twenty-six, woke up to a man sitting on top of her stabbing her. With strength she didn’t know she possessed, she fought her attacker off. He cut himself and fled the scene, leaving a blood trail behind him. The blood was enough to identify Gargiulo as the attacker and he was arrested.

Capture and trial

When the police arrested Gargiulo on 6th June 2008, they found other evidence in his car that linked him to the murders. The DNA examination on this occasion linked him to the two previous murders of Ellerin and Bruno; he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder.

The trial started in 2019 was met with much media attention because Kutcher would be giving evidence. However, in reality, Murphy was the star witness telling her story and the ongoing struggle she now has to put her life back together.

Gargiulo was convicted on 15th August 2019. He stated at the time that he was innocent of all charges; all evidence was circumstantial.

Judge Larry Fidler - Everywhere that Mr Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed him.

The sentencing of Gargiulo was delayed due to the pandemic. On 16th July 2021, the courtroom was again packed to hear the fate of The Hollywood Ripper. Speaking in defence of his father was his sixteen-year-old son, it is unclear which of his girlfriends was the mother of this boy. He said he did not want his father to get the death penalty and had been communicating with him since his arrest via letter.

The plea was not successful and Gargiulo was sentenced to death. However, it is unclear when this punishment will be carried out, as California has not killed anyone since 2006. In addition, the current state governor has suspended the death penalty.

Gargiulo also faces extradition plans to move him to Illinois to stand trial for the murder of Pacaccio. It is thought that Gargiulo could be responsible for up to ten murders and numerous rapes over a fifteen-year reign of terror, acting as a friendly neighbour to young women.