On the evening of Sunday, August 25, 1963, a group of revelers drove into the small town of Lodi, New Jersey, bound for a local tavern called the Angel Lounge. Hours later, bullets ripped through the smoky air of the bar. When the carnage ended, two Lodi police officers were dead. Their killers had escaped. The close-knit community of Lodi, shattered by the crime, would never be the same. Nor would the families of the victims: Sergeant Peter Voto, who left behind a wife and three children, and 22-year-old Gary Tedesco, whose career in law enforcement had barely begun when his life was brutally cut short. The people of Lodi vowed that the killers would pay for what they had done. One of the hoodlums was shot and killed two days after the murders. The other, Thomas Trantino, was imprisoned and sentenced to die for his crime. But Trantino would not be put to death in New Jersey; nor would he spend the rest of his life in prison. After being incarcerated for almost 40 years, and earning the distinction of being the longest-serving prisoner in the New Jersey penal system, Thomas Trantino ultimately walked out of prison a free man.
The murder of the policemen in the Angel Lounge remains one of the most notorious crimes in New Jersey history, yet there has never been an in-depth examination of the case and its aftermath -- until now. Night of the Devil takes readers inside the crime, from the blood-spattered Angel Lounge to the courtroom where Thomas Trantino presented testimony that would keep him locked up for decades. As they trace Trantino's tortuous path from death row to freedom, readers will be forced to confront their own attitudes about punishment and justice. How could a man who shot two policemen in cold blood -- a man who was supposed to die for what he did, whose despicable act inflamed the passions of politicians, judges, and entire communities -- ever be allowed to walk among us again? When the rules say it is time for a guilty man to go free, should the rules be changed to keep him imprisoned? Where do victims' rights end and prisoners' rights begin? Night of the Devil probes the answers to these questions, raising issues that compel readers to reevaluate their feelings about America's criminal justice system. Thomas Trantino's quest for freedom came to an end a generation after he committed a horrible crime. Did he serve more time than he should have? Or could no amount of time ever make up for what the people of Lodi lost in 1963?
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