Murder of Peter Weinberger

Murder of Peter Weinberger
Victim Peter Weinberger
Location	Westbury, New York, U.S.
Date	Abduction: July 4, 1956 Abandonment: July 5, 1956 Death: c. July 12, 1956 Discovery of remains: August 24, 1956
Attack type	Child murder by suffocation,[a] infanticide, child abduction
Victim	Peter Weinberger, aged 1 month
Perpetrator	Angelo John LaMarca
Motive	Ransom to pay off personal debt
Verdict	Guilty on both counts
Convictions	First-degree murder, kidnapping
Sentence	Death

Peter Weinberger (June 2, 1956 – c. July 12, 1956) was a one-month-old infant who was kidnapped for ransom on July 4, 1956, in New York state. The case gained national notoriety due to the circumstances of the kidnapping and the victim's family, as unlike many ransom victims, Weinberger was not from a wealthy and prominent family, but from a suburban middle class family.

As was required by law at the time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was required to wait for seven days before they had the jurisdiction to involve themselves in the investigation into the Weinberger kidnapping. The investigation took approximately six weeks, during which state and federal authorities reviewed millions of documents and public records in their attempt to locate the identity of Weinberger's kidnapper. The investigation led to the arrest of then-31-year-old Angelo John LaMarca, who eventually confessed to kidnapping and abandoning Peter Weinberger due to mounting debts and financial difficulties. While LaMarca claimed to have abandoned Weinberger alive, investigators found Weinberger dead from asphyxia, with starvation and exposure being contributing factors.

During his highly-publicized trial in Nassau County, New York, LaMarca attempted to attribute the murder to a state of temporary insanity caused by stress around his financial problems. He was convicted of first degree murder and kidnapping and sentenced to death. After spending over eighteen months on death row, LaMarca was executed in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair in 1958.

Subsequent to the case, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to reduce the Federal Bureau of Investigation's waiting period in kidnapping cases from 7 days to 24 hours.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).