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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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12-3-99 Playboy nabbed as third suspect in Island murder. Richmond Valley wife and mother was killed in a 1993 home invasion. December 3, 1999
By ROBERT GAVIN He reportedly dated Madonna and supermodels and was fast gaining a reputation as a mainstay on Miami's celebrity-filled club scene. But Chris Ludwigsen's days in the limelight may be over. The 28-year-old former resident of Eltingville and New Springville and reputed mob affiliate was named yesterday as the third suspect arrested in connection with the February 1993 shooting of Judith Shemtov, a 46-year-old homemaker slain in her Richmond Valley home during a home invasion gone bad. He has also been fingered as a culprit in a bank robbery inside the Staten Island Mall in December of 1992. Ludwigsen, who now lives in the South Beach section of Miami, turned himself in to authorities on Wednesday, police said yesterday. His capture ends a Hollywood-esque lifestyle. Ludwigsen, who authorities say changed his name to Chris Paciello, reportedly moved to Miami in the mid-1990s and opened a nightclub called Risk. In Florida, the one-time Staten Islander reportedly dated Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and supermodel Niki Taylor -- even getting into fisticuffs with Ms. Taylor's ex-husband in a bar three years ago, according to a published report. Ludwigsen's arrest comes after two reputed associates of the Bonanno crime family, Thomas Reynolds, 30, of Graniteville, and James Calandra, 29, of Arden Heights, were charged with Mrs. Shemtov's murder on Oct. 15, ending a six-year mystery behind her death. The October arrests were part of a federal racketeering indictment charging 14 reputed Bonanno members and associates with a host of crimes ranging from drug sales to murder. At least five of the alleged mobsters arrested have Staten Island addresses. Ludwigsen can now be added to the indictment. If found guilty of the charges, he faces life behind bars, authorities said. Police say Ludwigsen's arrest in the Shemtov murder brings an end to the six-year probe. "The investigators involved are extremely happy to bring full closure to the Shemtov family," said Deputy Inspector Charles Wells, who commands Staten Island detective operations. Mrs. Shemtov, a wife and mother, was drinking tea with her husband, Sami, when the doorbell rang at their home on Meade Loop in Richmond Valley on Feb. 18, 1993. Meade Loop is tucked away off Weiner Street, between Amboy Road and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway. Mrs. Shemtov and her husband of 13 months protected their expensive home with alarms and intercoms, but their guard was down the night of the murder. Authorities said the couple had their alarm and intercom turned off because their daughter, Arlyn Kidan, then 20, was waiting for her boy friend to arrive. When the doorbell rang, Mrs. Shemtov unknowingly opened the door to armed intruders plotting a heist. Less than two minutes later, she was shot once in the head with a .45 caliber automatic handgun. She died later that night at Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay. Probers do not believe the homemaker was an intended target, and they said her family did not have mob ties. Her husband, Sami Shemtov, an Israeli working in the electronic business, had just returned from a business trip to Cleveland. Authorities believe Mrs. Shemtov was shot by Reynolds after he and the other suspects invaded the home in search of a safe filled with money. Police sources said word got out that such a safe was in the house, and the robbers might have believed it contained $30,000 to $1 million. After the investigation into the crime began, the family put up a $15,000 reward for anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest and indictment of the killers. The first big break came, authorities said, as the NYPD's Intelligence Division, Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI investigated Bonanno crime family activities in Brooklyn. Investigators moved in on Ludwigsen following the arrests of Reynolds and Calagna. He now faces charges in connection with Ms. Shemtov's murder and the 1992 bank robbery. According to police, Ludwigsen and others cased the Chemical Bank inside the Staten Island Mall before they robbed it on Dec. 14, 1992. Investigators say it was no typical heist. As the branch was closed, with employees already inside around 9 a.m. that morning, the robbers smashed a window of the bank, using a sledgehammer, and entered with guns drawn. They then took night deposit bags loaded on a cart before escaping in a vehicle, according to Wells, the Island detective commander. Police sources report Ludwigsen has five previous arrests, including one from July 1997, when he was charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing someone three times in the neck in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. He was also charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in that incident. At the time of the arrest, Ludwigsen gave an Elizabeth Street, Manhattan, address. At the time of the bank robbery, federal authorities say, he was living on Wellington Court in New Springville. He also had given Staten Island addresses for previous arrests at Mercury Lane in New Springville and Eltingville Boulevard in Eltingville. Police say Ludwigsen was arrested for allegedly firing a handgun with three others in a dispute in August 1994 on Staten Island, and was charged with attempted assault and gun possession. In March 1992, they say, he was arrested here with four others for robbery and assault with a bat. In July 1991, Ludwigsen was charged here with grand larceny. And in September 1989, he was arrested here for assault on a police officer, authorities said. Those arrests occurred before he went to Miami. Ludwigsen's partner in the Risk club, Michael Caruso, reportedly testified at the drug trial of Manhattan club owner Peter Gatien that Ludwigsen beat him up, stuck a gun in his face and threatened to kill him in 1995, a published report said. Ludwigsen reportedly told a publication last year that he was "not a gangster," the published report said, and dismissed his partner's charges as imagination. Authorities say the Risk club later burned down, and Ludwigsen opened another nightspot in Florida, called Liquid. Now, he'll be heading back to Gotham. Ludwigsen was arraigned in Florida following his Wednesday arrest and has a detention hearing pending before he can be brought back to New York, authorities said. He was arrested following the investigation of a joint task force including the NYPD's Intelligence Division, FBI, DEA and Staten Island detectives. "This case is a prime example of the numerous benefits that can be realized when law enforcement agencies join forces in the pursuit of a common goal," said Wells. The investigation included the work of Sgt. Robert Losada and Detective Robert Walsh of the Staten Island homicide and shooting team and Assistant District Attorney Tim Koller of the Staten Island district attorney's office.
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