Murder in the Hamptons // 450
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Happy Halloween. Even though this is coming out the day after Halloween, we're recording it on Halloween. Happy Halloween, everybody. Hope you had a great time. It's Halloween for us here in the past. We're having a little party tonight. We're going to be having a little party tonight.

We're so excited. I made some really fun, like spooky shots and batch cocktails. Would love to know what you guys are doing. So make sure you comment on this post and let us know. I also want to mention we just released in the past week two new bonus episodes. One of them was a lot of fun to do.

Every October, we like to do one of our bonus episodes as like a spooky listener tales where they're near-miss experiences in the true crime realm. And I actually told a story of my own that happened right before I met Heath. And it was a lot of fun. So check it out. That episode is called My Watcher. And then also go check out our other bonus episode that we just released. It's on Wales' most prolific serial killer, The Man in Black. And we just released both those episodes yesterday.

You can subscribe over on Patreon.com slash Going West podcast, or you can subscribe on Apple. It's so easy. Yeah, we officially have 121 full length ad free bonus episodes of stories from the U.S. and also some outside of the U.S. So give it a go.

Alright guys, with that, this is episode 450 of Going West, so let's get into it. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. But these aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized.

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In October of 2001, a 52-year-old man was found bludgeoned to death in his East Hampton home after missing a work meeting in the city. Just days before finalizing their divorce, investigators were keen on questioning his wife along with her suspicious electrician boyfriend.

But were they involved or was someone else out to get the powerful investment banker? This is the story of Ted Ammon, also known as Murder in the Hamptons. Robert Theodore Ammon, who went by Ted, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 30th, 1949 as the second child born to loving parents Betty Lee and Robert.

Ted's father, Robert, worked as a pension coordinator and his mother, Betty, was a homemaker. By all accounts, the Ammon family led a traditional suburban all-American life. Although Ted was born in Pennsylvania, when Ted was a tween, the family moved to East Aurora, New York, which is a quaint historic town just outside of Buffalo.

As a child, Ted took piano lessons and really thrived on the keys, but I mean, he was like that with pretty much everything he took up. Like, he could, he really could do it all. According to the fascinating book on Ted's life called Almost Paradise by Kieran Crowley, Ted had an almost photographic memory. He could learn any piece of music and memorize it with ease, and his early passion for piano gave him a lifelong love of jazz music.

Aside from musical talent, when Ted became a teenager, he proved to be an amazing athlete on his high school's football and swimming teams. He was a handsome, popular guy at school who had a ton of friends and seemingly always had a girlfriend on his arm. Ted was intelligent and had dreams of one day accomplishing a successful career as a businessman at a major corporation. And even as a teen, he aspired to live an upper middle class life of his own someday.

After high school, Ted attended Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, majoring in economics. Now, visually, Bucknell is a classic East Coast-style campus flocked with lush trees that turn shades of yellow and red in autumn when this story takes place. And Ted flourished at Bucknell and graduated from the esteemed university in 1971.

Upon graduating, Ted entered Bank of America's executive training program where he met a woman named Randy Day. They turned into this total power couple getting married in 1973 when Ted was 24 years old.

Shortly after their wedding, Randy took up a job in England, so the two relocated to the UK. And while in England, Ted set out on a mission to take the New York bar exam, and reportedly, the English bar as well, even without a law degree. Remember, he majored in economics. As most of us know, the bar is even difficult for people who do have a law degree. So the fact that he was going after it without one...

shows you how smart this guy was. - Well, and it also just shows us how ambitious Ted really is. - Yeah, clearly he was a go-getter and he was so insanely smart. So on his first try, he passed the bar.

Ted and Randy were proving their career successes across the pond, but they eventually moved back to the U.S. and landed in New York City. But after nine years together, Randy and Ted's marriage fizzled out and they agreed to get a divorce.

At this time, Ted began working for a law firm in New York, and in the early 1980s, 35-year-old Ted was recruited to work as an associate at Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., also known as KKR, which is a private global investment firm specializing in leveraged buyouts. Ted's career at KKR was blossoming quickly, and the hardworking associate-turned-partner earned multi-millionaire status.

He worked at KKR from 1984 to 1992, but shortly around the time that he started working at KKR, he was looking to buy an apartment in New York's elite Upper East Side. Thus...

Ted got in touch with an estate agent, California-born Jenna Rosa Rand, who is a very pivotal part of this story. And I just want to give a little heads up. There is a decent amount of setup and backstory in this episode today, but it's all very important to where the story goes. And a lot of it is super interesting because there's a lot of scandal. There's a lot of success. There's a lot of hard work.

Lots of relationships and affairs. There's a lot that we're gonna get into. Yes, we are talking about love and money, my friends. So the two arranged a meeting to view an apartment for Ted in his desired neighborhood. And to Generosa's dismay, Ted actually forgot that he was supposed to meet her and was a no-show at this appointment. So Generosa called Ted after he missed his appointment and kind of went off on him regarding his absence.

Although her approach was aggressive, Ted was almost intrigued by the approach of this unknown estate agent, and he asked her out on a date. Yeah, he kind of likes her feistiness. Yeah, he's like, oh, she's a tough woman. All right, sounds good. So when Ted and Generosa met, it was seemingly love at first sight. They seemed to work really well together.

Ted was tall, standing at 6'4" with a full head of chocolate brown hair, had a charming smile, and he had a muscular build. Because he loved working out and eating a very clean and all-organic diet. Generosa in her late 20s was a petite, blonde, blue-eyed bombshell. So this turned into a hot and heavy romance.

They eventually moved into a townhouse in the Upper East Side, but Ted admittedly wasn't ready to dive into a new marriage, which really upset Generosa, and the couple decided to split up because of it. Which I feel like is fair. He was married for nine years. You know, that's very common to not want to jump back into another marriage. Exactly. But seven months after their initial split, they ran into each other at a New York art gallery and rekindled their relationship.

Now, Generosa admittedly did not want to take Ted back unless he was ready to commit and give her an engagement ring. So, Ted proposed. After a four-month engagement in February of 1986, the couple hosted an elaborate 80s fairytale wedding.

Now, before we dive into their life together, let's take a step back and get to know Ted Ammon's second wife a bit, because it is important to this story, as Daphne mentioned. Generosa Rand was born on March 22nd, 1956 in Long Beach, California, which is an urban oceanfront city just south of Los Angeles, though we will add that some reports state she was born in nearby Laguna Beach.

Janarosa's mom, Marie, who also went by Babe, we're going to call her Babe, everybody else did, who had three children from previous relationships, was living in Long Beach in the early 1950s and reportedly would go out drinking and dancing, often leaving her kids unattended with a relative when she did so. At this point, still before Janarosa was born, Babe's two eldest children were no longer living with her, but her third born, Dolly, was.

So on one summer night in 1955, Babe dropped three-year-old Dolly off at her brother's house and hit the town. It was this night that Babe met a uniformed Italian sailor named Generoso, and their time together could best be described as a week-long one-night stand.

When the passionate fling came to a close, Babe watched her Italian lover depart from the Long Beach port, blew him a kiss goodbye, and a month later, she discovered she was pregnant.

Babe sent letters to Generoso, writing him about the imminent arrival of their love child, but sadly, she never heard from him again. So when their baby girl was born, Babe named her after the man who had impregnated her. Hence her name, Generosa, after Generoso.

At the time of this short affair, Babe was still married, and although she was estranged from her husband, to avoid any issues, she did give Generosa her current husband's last name, which was Rand. Growing up, Generosa was overall a happy kid and grew very close with her sister, Dolly. The sisters leaned on each other in the early days and stuck together while their mom indulged in her party lifestyle.

When the girls were young, they moved with Babe to their uncle's house in Oceanside, California, which is a couple hours drive south from where they were living in Long Beach. Although Babe did love her kids, her social life and alcohol use proved to be a main priority. Now, Babe and her youngest daughters were living with family, and it was at this time that 8-year-old Jenna Rosa was sexually abused by an unnamed adult male in her life.

There were several adults coming in and out of the house regularly, so it's difficult to speculate who committed this horrible act. But it's sufficient to say that, of course, the abuse deeply affected her. To make family matters worse, when Jenna Rosa was 10, her mom, Babe, was diagnosed with cancer.

The disease had spread all over her body and not long after, Babe died after a short battle with cancer. And her two young daughters were forced to live in various different households for the rest of their youth. And as if the loss of her mother wasn't bad enough and everything else that she had gone through, when Generosa was 17, her beloved sister Dolly was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

After years of foster homes, Jenna Rosa enrolled at the University of California, Irvine. And once she graduated in 1981, she decided that the fast-paced lifestyle of New York was what she wanted most. So she made the move on her own and began working as an apartment agent, which is often considered an entry-level job in the real estate world. But nonetheless, she was working and providing for herself. And she was working towards, you know, this bigger goal.

After many misfortunes, abandonment, and abuse in her young life, Generosa decided that she would take life by the reins and obtain full control of her circumstances. And she was really thriving in New York. So by the time Generosa married Ted Ammon in 1986, the 30-year-old was living the kind of life that she always dreamed of.

She was married to a handsome, wealthy New York elite, and while she was working in real estate when she met Ted, her passion was making art. So, at this point, reports state that Generosa stopped working in real estate to focus on her artistic passions. Because being married to Ted meant that she could do that. The couple was living on Fifth Avenue for a while, and moved somewhat frequently to new townhouses in the city.

As they moved around, Generosa decided to kind of combine her interest of real estate and art by decorating the interiors of their homes. And she actually really was good at decorating, and aside from her at-home interior ventures, Generosa still continued her art projects. Using unique materials, she created sculptures that covered the walls of their homes.

But unfortunately for Generosa, no galleries ever acquired her creations. But Ted still purchased her a loft in Soho where she could work on these projects. I mean, Generosa really wanted to be prevalent in this New York art scene and would mingle with local artists at gallery events and art exhibits around town because the Ammons were quite social and often hosted dinner parties at home as well. But it seems that they lacked a solid and consistent friend group.

Although Generosa was living the high life in New York City, her strong personality would often manifest into what many described as "childish outbursts." While Ted's was casual and laid-back in comparison, and other couple friends would notice that Generosa would shun people from her life sometimes without any explanation at all. While Ted loved his wife and clearly had a soft spot for her good side, he admitted to friends that he was constantly trying to avoid her emotional blow-ups.

And, in an attempt to escape the chaos of Manhattan, the couple would take weekend trips to the picturesque terrain of upstate New York, where Generosa took up horseback riding. And clearly enjoying their stints outside of the city, in 1990, the couple purchased a home on Middle Lane in the upscale town of East Hampton. Now, the Hamptons are an elite grouping of small towns, known to be occupied by the rich and famous.

And nowadays, countless celebrities, wealthy business magnates, and even politicians alike reside in the Hamptons. And it's a popular safe haven where New York City dwellers own vacation homes. The Ammons East Hampton home was, at the time, a $2.7 million shingled estate on a sprawling property, which is currently actually worth around $10 million.

And this new home was the source of Generosa's latest project. I mean, she jumped right into a massive home renovation. Her meticulous nature and obsession with perfection became as clear as ever with the Hamptons' house. The house was gutted, and Generosa envisioned a redesign from the ground up.

The Ammons hired a large crew to get the renovation underway, but many accounts from workers portrayed Generosa in an extremely demanding light. And here's a good example of that. She once hired a team to plant 600 tulips in the yard.

And once they were planted, she got on her hands and knees and angrily ripped them from the ground, claiming that they were not the ideal color in the morning light. Okay, that's a little nutty. Well, she also took full responsibility for the entire home project and even discredited the architect who had labored on the job. Like one day she called him to demand that he stop taking credit for working on the house.

While Generosa was occupied with the renovation and the Hamptons, Ted was still partner at KKR and the early 1990s provided the Ammon family with very exciting changes. While Ted was having major financial successes at KKR, his life on Wall Street was proving to dissatisfy him. And in 1992, to much surprise, Ted left the company.

Prior to this, Ted really wanted a child. And although Generosa wasn't known to be super maternal, they had still been trying to conceive, which was honestly a big challenge for them because when she originally did become pregnant,

Unfortunately, the pregnancy became life-threatening and she was left with no option but to terminate the pregnancy. After many bouts of IVF proved to be unsuccessful, Ted and Generosa turned to adoption. And they were thrilled when two-year-old twins, Gregory and Alexa from Ukraine, entered their family. And Ted really loved being a dad. He was known as a doting father that would often miss work meetings to take the kids to things like baseball games.

In 1995, Ted started his own company called Big Flower Press, which became a leader in the printing of advertising inserts for newspapers. Big Flower Press, which was later changed to Virtus Holdings Inc., became majorly successful and eventually grossed $2 billion in annual revenue.

Ted's company thrived for several years, and by the late 90s, his business was booming. So he had a lot on his plate work-wise, and that wasn't the only reason that this was happening, but his relationship with Generosa was just not going in a good direction. He was becoming very unhappy with her business.

They did try marriage counseling, and in 1999, as kind of a last-ditch effort, the family relocated to Surrey, England. So this is Ted's second time moving to the UK. Well, they mentioned to loved ones that this fresh start in the English countryside was just to benefit the kids. But it was clear to friends and family that it was a final attempt to save their marriage.

They kept the Hamptons estate but sold their properties in New York City and moved into the new 22-bedroom manor house in Surrey, which of course, Generosa remodeled. When the family moved to England, Ted had to remain in New York City part-time since he was trying to sell his company, but he would often fly home to Surrey on the weekends. Which sounds absolutely exhausting. Yeah, I mean, this guy is just going back and forth.

But because he was often gone, one day in Surrey, Generosa was snooping through Ted's desk and found out that he had recently contacted a divorce lawyer in London. So she confronted her husband about this, and he actually admitted to it, but told her that he wasn't planning on taking action in a divorce, that he was just kind of looking.

but in typical Generosa fashion, she decided that she was going to take things into her own hands. So she actually contacted her own divorce attorney and learned that divorcing Ted in New York opposed to England would be much more beneficial in terms of finances and custody.

So, after about a year in England, she took the kids stateside and preemptively filed for divorce. Now, Ted was kind of hesitant to agree to this divorce because he realized that it would likely affect him seeing his kids, which really, really mattered to him. You know, Ted was just this great guy and a great dad, and he absolutely loved his kids.

While separated, Ted bought Generosa and the kids a townhouse on the Upper East Side, and another home means, you guessed it, another renovation from Generosa.

During the construction of the new Manhattan home, Jenna Rosa and the twins were staying at the Stanhope Hotel. And her suite alone cost over $1500 per night. And this was back in 2000, so as you guys can imagine, it's almost twice that now due to inflation. And Ted had to pay for that. Exactly. Well, the estrangement conjured another level of desperation in Jenna Rosa. And she began to believe that Ted was cheating.

So she hired a private investigator to spy on him. And guess what? Her suspicions were proved right, because Ted was having an affair with a successful, attractive banker named Lori Finkel.

Lori, who had children from a different relationship, became pregnant during the affair with Ted. And it was speculated that the love child belonged to Ted, which he denied. So feeling furious and scorned, Generosa channeled her anger into the townhouse renovation. And while staffing the project, she was introduced to an electrician for the job. This is when she met Daniel Pelosi.

Danny can hardly be called an electrician, considering he was not licensed to do the job, but with three kids of his own, he was going through a divorce when he met Jen Rosa, and he needed the money. Danny was a high school dropout, had several DUIs under his belt, and by all accounts, severely abused alcohol. Danny was a high school dropout, had several DUIs under his belt, and by all accounts, severely abused alcohol.

Danny was tall with a greasy comb over and his demeanor and personality replicated a character straight out of Goodfellas to give you guys a visual. Yeah, he was just kind of a wise guy. Yeah, and he and Generosa started up an affair of their own and he moved into the Stanhope Hotel with her. Again, where she and her kids were staying during the townhouse renovations. During their stay at the Stanhope,

They would rack up daily breakfast charges of $500, pay the bellman $50 each time the dog needed to be walked,

And these fees, along with other massive expenses spent at the Stanhope, totaled upwards of $70,000 a month. All on Ted's dime. I mean, what are they eating at breakfast that's going to cost them $500 fucking dollars? I don't know. I love a hotel breakfast, but damn. I mean, I do too, but $500, that's a lot.

So, I mean, it's clear that her spending was outlandish, which aside from the hotel stay, by the way, included $50,000 annually for a bodyguard, $50,000 for a housekeeper, $50,000 for a chef, $50,000 for a driver, $30,000 for a gardener, $100,000 for an assistant.

and $60,000 in residential maintenance. And that didn't even include the mansion that they still owned back in England. Remember the 22 bedroom manor.

While cycling through divorce lawyers, Generosa was trying to see how she could get the most money out of her impending divorce. During this time, Ted was still able to see the kids and would often pick them up from the Stanhope, which would send Generosa into a rage each and every time. It kind of seemed like she was using their young children as pawns and eventually denied Ted from seeing the kids at all while attempting to completely alienate them from their father who loved them.

And by August of 2001, Ted was sick of it. He hated knowing his kids were in the company of Generosa's new boyfriend. And he knew that his estranged wife was becoming more and more unhinged. So Ted decided to cut off Generosa's allowance, which forced her, Danny, and the kids to leave the Stanhope.

Now with this cutoff, the divorce battle was in full swing. And between custody agreements and working through financials, it was a highly stressful time for everybody involved. However, the circulating drama of this high-profile New York divorce came to a screeching halt on September 11th, 2001. And of course, you guys know exactly why. The city that they called home for so many years was under attack, and this affected Ted deeply.

Despite the horror of the events in New York City, Ted was reportedly happier than ever. With the finalization of his divorce looming, Ted was proposing business deals and had even gotten heavily involved with philanthropy work. He was hoping that once the divorce was finalized, he would be able to live a peaceful life again, see his children regularly, and begin healing as a family.

A couple of weeks into October 2001, the terms of the divorce were settled, and the last thing to do was sign the papers.

According to reports, Generosa was set to receive $40 million, which was half of Ted's $80 million fortune. I mean, goddamn. Especially just because, you know, she is just seemingly taking and taking and taking and has been for so many years, and he's working his ass off over there being a good guy, and she just wants as much as she can get. Well, in addition to the $40 million settlement, per the agreement,

Generosa would also be entitled to the Upper East Side townhouse. While still wealthy, Ted had just lost a large sum of money entangled with bad investments, which had lowered his net worth to the $80 million that I just explained.

And believe it or not, Generosa was displeased with the $40 million settlement amount and demanded that she receive the manor in England as well, which was set to be sold. I mean, not surprising, but so gross. So by now, Ted had sold Big Flower Press and was the founder and chairman of Chancery Lane Capital LLC, which was a private equity investment firm.

On Friday, October 19th, so a handful of days after the divorce documents were completed and ready to be signed, Ted decided to take a little solo cruise by himself in his Porsche to the Hamptons house on Middle Lane for the weekend. As Ted made his way from Manhattan to the edge of Long Island, unbeknownst to him, this would be his final journey along this route.

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Go to shopify.com slash going west to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash going west. On the morning of Monday, October 22nd, 2001, Ted's business partner, Mark Angelson, realized that Ted hadn't showed up to a scheduled meeting.

While this wasn't completely out of character for Ted, later in the day, Mark learned that Ted failed to make after-school arrangements for his twins, Gregory and Alexa. I mean, like we said, Ted would maybe sometimes here and there miss a meeting because he was doing something with his kids, but he also didn't just, like, fuck off meetings all the time. You know, this was only once in a while. Yeah, absolutely. But when it came to his twins, I mean, they were, you know, his pride and joy,

So this kind of put a pit in Mark's stomach. Yeah, because he's like, okay, this has happened before, but especially without warning, without saying anything, like what's going on? Like, where is Ted? So Mark frantically called Ted's cell phone and the Hamptons' house phone, but became even more nervous when his calls went without answer.

So Mark, along with Ted's personal chauffeur Milton, jumped on a corporate helicopter from New York City and flew to East Hampton. The two arrived in the Hamptons at about 5 p.m. and rushed to Ted's Middle Lane home.

Now, the alarm was not set because multiple doors and windows were opened. And when they entered the home, they noticed Ted's three beloved dogs were in the house, but they were seemingly hungry and disoriented. Meaning that they probably had not been fed in a couple days. Yeah, which is obviously very concerning. Like, what is going on here? They're not seeing Ted. They're just walking through the house, calling Ted's name multiple times.

And as they made their way through the French double doors of the master bedroom, they came upon a grisly scene. The men discovered a blood-soaked massacre in the bedroom, and amongst it, Ted's nude body laid lifeless on his bed.

there were visible head wounds, making it clear that Ted Ammon had been violently bludgeoned to death. So upon this horrific sight, Mark called 911.

And this was just a really strange scene to come upon because obviously Ted was a powerful man. He knew a lot of people, but it didn't make any sense to them why this would happen, how it happened, who did it. They didn't know when it happened. And it is important to note, even though Heath kind of touched on it earlier, that Ted was sizable and brawny in stature. So some also questioned how a man with his build wasn't able to even slightly evade the attack.

However, it is believed that Ted was most likely attacked in his sleep and marks on his neck were consistent with a taser having been used to incapacitate him. After the 911 call was made, detectives arrived to the East Hampton home and while it wasn't apparent that a robbery had taken place, they tentatively concluded that Ted had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Following the discovery of Ted's body, considering the prominence of the victim and the rarity of such a crime in the area, East Hampton was flooded by news on this story. Now, regarding home security and cameras, obviously, Ted made so much money, even though it was the early 2000s, he would have been able to have a security system and cameras. And he did. That's the thing, is he did. There was a security system. And a few days after Ted's death,

the employee from that security company who installed it went to the home to show detectives where the system was located. Now, interestingly, the system was hidden behind a triangular-shaped panel in a small area upstairs. Well, it had been. You see, when the employee brought detectives to the spot that it had previously been installed, the system was gone.

There was nothing but hanging wires in its place, proving that the equipment had been removed. Prior to Ted's death, Danny and Generosa spied on Ted via the cameras while he was in the home. Allegedly, even when he was having sexual encounters. Like, I don't know why they would do this. It's such an invasion of privacy, especially because like,

Generosa is still his wife. They're in divorce proceedings. Why is Danny privy to this footage? Why is she, Generosa, even privy to it? Why are either of them having access to this? Yeah, I mean, they are in the final days of this divorce. Like, all they have to do is sign the papers.

and then they're not married anymore, so that definitely proves your point. Like, what are they doing spying on him? Right, so the missing surveillance equipment was majorly suspicious because only a few people were even aware of its existence at all. Jen Arosa and Danny Pelosi being two of those people. Well, let's kind of dive into Ted's last days alive to understand his whereabouts and try to figure out what happened to Ted on that fateful October weekend.

As mentioned, he got to the Hamptons on Friday, October 19th. The next day, Ted called his sister Sandy and said that he planned to take a beach stroll with his three dogs and just kind of reflect on the chaos of the divorce drama that had been absolutely plaguing him for a long time.

Ted made plans to see Laurie Finkel, who was the banker that he was having an affair with when Generosa discovered that he was cheating, because Laurie, who had a lucrative career of her own, was still seeing Ted at this point.

Lori did admit that they dated throughout Ted's separation from his wife and they consistently got together about twice a week and she also owned a Hamptons home, so she was in the area. Which makes sense, you know, Generosa is with somebody else, they are getting a divorce, Ted and Lori had a great relationship. Yeah, no problem there. Yeah, everything was good between them. So on Saturday afternoon, Lori had gone over to Ted's at about 2 p.m. where the two were intimate.

After spending about an hour at Ted's home, Lori left and went back to her place nearby. Then, soon after leaving, Ted called her on her cell phone and during their conversation, mentioned that the yellow flannel sheets on his bed were not comfortable,

Right, so at that point, Ted headed into town and spent around $800 on a set of designer bedding.

Now, according to prosecutors, those sheets were bloody during his murder, but then removed and discarded by the killer. Between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. that evening, Ted went to the Farmhouse Restaurant in East Hampton. He sat alone at the bar, drank three glasses of Chardonnay, and had tuna with rice and asparagus. Yeah, it's the details, guys.

He stayed until about 9:30 p.m., and then a little before 10 p.m., Ted called Lori again, who was out to dinner at a different restaurant in town. Ted left a message on her cell phone when she didn't answer, stating that he was at Two Mile Hollow Beach, which he said may have been a gay beach. Ted explained that some of the guys at the beach scared him for whatever reason, so he just decided to go home. After dinner, Lori called Ted back, but at that point, he didn't answer her.

When she continued calling him the next day without an answer, she and an unnamed male drove over to Ted's house to check on him. Now, when they arrived, Lori claimed that she stayed in the car, but the unnamed male, who Lori referred to as a friend, exited the car and walked up the driveway before heading back to the vehicle with Lori. The friend said that he didn't see anything odd and mentioned that Ted's cars were in the driveway and just kind of assumed that Ted had gone for a walk with his dogs or something.

Of course, at this time, Lori and that friend had no idea that Ted was dead inside that house because it was presumed that he was slain in his home sometime late on Saturday night. So the previous evening. As the investigation was well underway in late October of 2001, Ted Ammon's funeral service was held at Alice Tully Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The service was attended by nearly a thousand supporters, including friend and former president Bill Clinton. Ted's children, Gregory and Alexa, were also, of course, in attendance, but Generosa was banned from attending. And since the divorce was not technically finalized yet, and you remember it was about to be, Generosa was entitled to everything.

Only a few months after Ted's death in January of 2002, Danny and Generosa got married at Queensborough Hall. Yeah, that happened fast. Yeah, I'd say. And after their courthouse wedding, they moved with the twins to the England mansion. But after only a month, Danny had to return to New York where he faced DWI charges and spent four months locked up.

Generosa had hired a British nanny named Catherine Main, who also served as a manager of the Ammon Surrey estate. But once Danny's short sentence was completed, Generosa, the kids, and the nanny moved back to New York to be with Danny. Danny and Generosa then purchased a $700,000 home in Centre Moriches, which is a hamlet on Long Island.

They were hardly getting settled in their new home when in May of 2002, Generosa was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Within just a few weeks of the diagnosis in June of 2002, Danny and Generosa decided to separate just six months after their wedding.

Because in the wake of her cancer diagnosis, Dani had been spending her money frivolously, going on major spending sprees. And then over a year later, on August 22nd, 2003, a little over a year after being diagnosed, Generosa died from breast cancer at 47 years old.

Now, in her will, Generosa had originally planned to leave a majority of her $35 million estate to Danny, but then changed her mind when their marriage started going south prior to her death. So Generosa actually cut Danny out of her will, leaving almost everything to her children, plus a hefty $1 million to Catherine, the nanny.

At the time of Jenrose's death, she hadn't said anything about knowing who killed her late husband, Ted. And before her death, police had not publicly listed any potential suspects. Still, almost two years later, even though it seemed like a pretty simple investigation...

Which brings us to March 24th, 2004, seven months after Generosa's death when, surprise surprise, Danny Pelosi was arrested for the murder of Ted Ammon. Then, in October of that year, his trial began. Autopsy photos were shown in court, proving the intensity of the wounds that Ted suffered, and just how personal this attack really seemed to be.

The autopsy determined that he received 30 blows to the head with a metal object, which was determined to be the murder weapon. Aside from the head trauma, Ted had fractured ribs, punctured lungs, and even fractured hands, which would point to him possibly trying to defend himself during this attack. Most damning was the mark on his neck where his skin had been burned away by the stun gun.

Now, as we mentioned, this was most likely done to prevent Ted from fighting back, despite his fractured hands. The killer tried to incapacitate him slightly, and this is why Danny didn't have any defensive wounds. While the stun gun and the murder weapon were never found, Danny admitted to owning a different stun gun,

and turned it into investigators. Well, also important to mention, Danny had another taser and his brother, Jim, later admitted to picking up this taser from Danny and dropping it in a police precinct drop box that let you drop weapons off, no questions asked, to be melted down, which feels insane to offer.

But the thing is, is that Jim was actually an NYPD officer, so that's why he had access to this box. And he claims that he didn't know that Danny had used it in a murder and also didn't believe Danny was the killer, saying, quote, my brother might be a fuck-up, but he's not a murderer. Uh, yes he is, and he's a piece of shit. Well, also, Jim died at the age of 36 shortly after this from natural causes, so...

I don't know how much evidence he was even privy to, but he was shocked and pissed off when he found out why...

Danny was asking him to get rid of this taser when he found out that, wait, are you connected in this murder? Yeah, I mean, I don't know why you would ask your brother to drop this weapon off at the police station. Because he's trying to use his family to help him get away with the murder and even his cop brother. Well, yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I do know why. It just seems dumb.

Now, the surveillance system in Ted's home was brought into question as well. You know, the one that was missing from the home when the murder happened. Well, the prosecutor revealed that Danny had access to the system via a rapid-eye computer program.

So the alarm was deactivated on October 20th, 2001, which again was the day that Ted was killed. So it was believed that Danny was the one to do this in order to get into the house and kill Ted. But what was Danny's alibi? Well, Danny's sister testified that on the night of the murder, he had driven from the city to Long Island, which is where the Hamptons also are, to retrieve items from her house.

Danny said he and his friend Chris went out to get some beer early in the hours of Sunday, October 21st. So after Ted's murder and Danny's niece testified that he returned home between 3 to 4 a.m. that morning. So, I mean, that's hardly a solid alibi. Yeah, it's like basically not an alibi at all. Like he saw his sister on Long Island where the Hamptons also is then he.

He went out for drinks a few hours later and then he returned at 3 to 4 a.m. Yeah, there's a lot of time missing. Absolutely. Which is why, despite these accounts, several people close to Danny testified against him in his trial, including his own dad. On the stand, his father recounted a conversation that they had the day after Ted's murder.

Of course, this is before Ted's body had been found the day before. Danny's father said that Danny approached him asking, if someone wanted to get rid of something, what could you do? Which is really vague. Like, what if I just came up to you and was like, if I wanted to get rid of something, what could I do? What do you mean? What are we talking about? Did you want to get...

piece of get rid of a piece of garbage? Did you want to get rid of some furniture? Sell your car? What are you talking about? You like what? Yeah, it's so vague. And so he kind of hinted at getting rid of something that he wanted to be destroyed. Right. So by the way, his dad was not a cop like his brother, Jim. He was a retired banker. So why he asked him this, you know, maybe he was just looking for general advice. But I mean, his dad,

I mean, I can kind of understand why Danny went to his dad. Most young men go to their dads for advice, but...

I mean, his dad was a banker. He's not that young, by the way. Yeah, I mean, that's true. But also, you know, just the fact that his dad is now saying like, yeah, we talked about like throwing shit into the ocean. It's like maybe his dad was just kind of covering his own ass as well. Well, we know that, you know, he went to his dad about this and then he went to his brother asking his brother to get rid of a taser. So his family is explaining this, coming forward and saying this. It's not looking good.

Good for Danny. Danny is telling people in so many ways what he did. I guess Danny probably just should have shut his mouth and maybe did the work himself, but this is what got him caught. Like I said, multiple people testified against Danny. One of them was also Catherine, that English nanny, and she testified against him saying that one night Danny stumbled home drunk and detailed how he committed Ted's murder.

So Catherine is saying he told me that he killed Ted. And then the next morning, probably regretting his drunken confession, Catherine says that he threatened her and said, I'm going to kill you. So after a two month trial, jurors took three days to make their decision. And on December 13th, 2004, the

The verdict was read. With money as the motive, Danny Pelosi was convicted of second-degree murder for the killing of Ted Ammon, and he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. However, he will be eligible for parole on October 14, 2031, when he is 67 years old.

Well, in addition to Danny's conviction, his friend Chris, who was with him that night, was charged as an accomplice in Ted's murder. In 2006, about two years after Danny's trial, Chris took a plea deal and testified that he and Danny had gone to the Hamptons' house the night of the murder, finally confessing to something that Danny just could not. Chris claimed that Danny went to the house to discuss the divorce with Ted.

He also said that while he apparently personally never went into the house, Danny ran from the home with blood on his clothes. When Chris asked Danny what happened, Danny allegedly said, quote,

I had a fight with Ted. I think he's dead. And this is Chris saying that this wasn't premeditated, but I feel like, I don't know, personally, I feel like it likely was. I mean, he wasn't convicted of first degree murder, but I just think about how the security system was turned off and why is Danny going there at all? Like he and Ted are not friends. Why are you going to Ted's house to talk about the divorce? That's between Ted and Generosa.

Yeah. And the other part of this that kind of is concerning to me is the fact that this happened right before those divorce papers were signed, which means that, you know, Ted would have most likely been able to keep half of his estate, uh,

But now that Ted was dead, all the money was up for grabs. And we know that Generosa wanted more money and that Danny is also a very greedy, greedy, scummy person. Well, it's really hard to say whether or not Generosa was involved in any of these plans because she did die shortly after this, but...

I don't know. I mean, maybe this was a plot between Danny and Generosa to just get all the money and supposedly live happily ever after, and then that just didn't happen. Well, and the murder weapon was never found, so I also wonder...

Where did this weapon come from? Was it in the house? Did Danny have it with him? Why did he have a taser with him? Like if he brought the weapon and the taser into the house, which we know he would have brought the taser in at least. That's why I wonder if it was premeditated. Because why do you just have a taser in your pocket? You know what I mean? Yeah, no, you wouldn't. And that's why I truly believe that this was premeditated. I think Danny kind of got off on that a little bit of having to not...

go down for first degree murder. Yeah. And I also do wonder, of course, how much Jen Rosa did or didn't know. Obviously the charges were brought down seven months after her death. So she wasn't able to explain her side or tell a story or whatever. And obviously Danny is not saying that he did it. So he's not telling us what really happened, but you know, it would be crazy to think if they, cause my,

murder is useless all the time. We talk about this, of course. Nobody should murder for any reason. But if they were in on it together and they said, well, let's kill him so that we can get all the money, then they get married. They separate only six months later. And then a year later, Generosa dies. Like then this and Danny gets none of the money. Right. Then this would be truly the most useless murder ever. Yeah. I mean,

Killers usually kill people thinking that they're going to get away with it. You know what I'm saying? Right. True. And that's just it just wasn't going to happen here. Also, another reason why I do suspect Generosa is because she told the kids the kids said this later in an interview that she had told them that their dad, Ted, killed them.

killed himself. So I understand maybe not saying that, you know, your dad was murdered so that they're not afraid, but to say he killed himself, like that is a weird choice instead of to say, oh, he died of natural causes or whatever, and then later tell them the story. But to say that he took his own life,

He's really suspicious, but Danny has continued to claim his innocence in the murder of Ted Ammon, and he has even pointed the finger at several different people. Yeah, I mean, at one point, Danny even claimed that his late wife, Jenna Rosa, hired a hitman to kill Ted.

Which maybe Danny was the hitman. Probably. But the twins who once adored Danny believe that he was guilty of this murder and are utterly disgusted that they ever told Danny that they loved him. Well, and let's talk about what happened to the kids because by age 13, they had both lost their parents. And although Generosa stated in her will that the kids were to be raised by their nanny,

after a heated court battle, Ted's sister Sandy won custody of her niece and nephew and raised them in Huntsville, Alabama, finally giving them a chance at a loving and stable home. Unfortunately, due to years of parental alienation on their mother's behalf, Ted's kids, who were only 11 years old at the time of Ted's death, were not on good terms with their father when he was killed.

But as the twins grew up, Sandy continued to remind them that their father loved them and that they were his greatest achievement. In 2012, so 11 years after the tragic murder of their dad, twins Gregory and Alexa Ammon, who were now about 20 years old, released a documentary on this case. The film was aptly named after the address where their father's murder took place, 59 Middle Lane.

And in the film, the twins visit the East Hampton Manor where the murder unfolded. And they also document as they head to their birth country of Ukraine to meet their biological family. And the documentary premiered at the East Hampton Cinema as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

The murder in the Hamptons remains one of the most notorious scandals in an otherwise idyllic, peaceful East Coast community, with the murder of Ted Ammon devastating family, close friends, and the neighborhood alike.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a wild story. What a wild ride.

If you want to see photos from this case, head over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. And we're also on Facebook, as I always say. Yes, we will post a bunch of photos regarding this case. Thank you guys so much for tuning in.

Truly such a wild story. And at the end of the day, just nobody benefited from this. It's so sad that all of this happened. Like what an all around devastating story. So we love you guys so much. We'll see you next week. Again, happy belated Halloween. And we'll see you on Tuesday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

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