Spaziano prepares for death
Dublin Core
Title
Spaziano prepares for death
Subject
Capital punishment
Spaziano, Joe
Description
Spaziano prepares for his execution by trying to mend relationships with family and making provisions for his daughter. Controversy over his case has grown since key witness Anthony Dilisio recanted his testimony. Dilisio speaks about his feelings of anger, guilt, and fear of retribution for testifying.
Creator
Rado, Diane
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-09-02
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
1 JPG
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
Florida
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Spaziano prepares for death
-Even though a witness in his case retracted key testimony, the convicted murderer reportedly fears the worst.
By Diane Rado
TALLAHASSEE - He has been on Florida's death row for nearly 20 years, outliving four death warrants and steadfastly proclaiming his innocence.
But even Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano knows the end is near.
Despite a stunning recantation of testimony from a star witness in his case, Spaziano is preparing for death in Florida's electric chair on Spet. 21, his attorney says.
"He's trying to take care of unfinished business; trying to make things right with some of his family members he's had fallings out with; trying to make provisions for his daughter (Now in her 20s)," said his attorney Michael Mello, who speaks to his client every day, twice a day, at 3 and 7 p.m.
Gov. Lawton Chiles has signed a fifth death warrant for Spaziano, the Outlaws motorcycle gang member condemned to die for the 1973 rape and murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts, 18. Her mutilated body was found partly covered with leaves and trash in a dump in Seminole County.
Only one person, WIllie Darden, his made it past the fifth warrant. Darden was executed on his seventh warrant in March 1988. Spaziano knows that.
"He alternates between sort of jocularity, joking around, and sort of what I characterize as white hot terror," Mello said Friday. "He talks about dying, how he wants his brothers and sisters in the (Outlaws) club to be there. He talks a lot about his family, his mother."
Mello said he has asked Spaziano's ex-wife to gather all the letters she has received from Spaziano over the years and send him all those in which Spaziano declares his innocence. Mello said e doesn't know yet what he will do with the letters.
Controversy over the Spaziano case has grown this summer, since witness Anthony Dilisio recanted his testimony of 20 years ago. Dilisio is telling reporters he now couldn't recall Spaziano taking him to the dump and showing him bodies of Harberts and another woman. The testimony was a key link between Spaziano and the crime scene.
Chiles canceled Spaziano's execution June 27 and ased the Florida Department of Law Enforecement to investigate. The controversy grew.
In fear that witnesses interviewed could be in danger, the governor refused to make public the FDLE report, which hi aides said reinforced Dilisio's original story and linked Spaziano to the murder victim.
Mello has asked the Supreme Court to open the secret investigation, allow a new hearing on the case and halt Spaziano's execution. The motions are pending.
Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the release of videotaped FDLE interview of Dilisio. In the interview, DIlisio clearly recants his prior testimony on the case and says police, not Spaziano, brought hiim to the dump where the women's bodies were found.
Dilisio, now 38, sits next to his lawyer in the tape, wearing a print shirt and speaking articulately, sometimes passionately, about the last 20 years of feeling angry, guilty, and afraid of retribution for testifying against Spaziano.
He was just a kid at the time of the Harberts murder, he says, taken out of juvenile detention and treated like a "king" by authorities when then manipulated him, hypnotized him, and possibly drugged him to get crucial testimony against Spaziano.
"I'm just totally disgusted you know, I'm just trying to look at this. I've got kids right now. I can't imagine somebody doing this to them. Something to my kids, using them, you know, for their own game like I feel was done to me," Dilisio says, "I coudln't imagine. It's insanity."
He says the case changed his life.
"This has been a pretty dramatic experience in my life. And I, and I mean I wish that it'd never happen to me, but it did happen to me. Okay, it did, it happened. And I'm tired of carrying it around."
-Even though a witness in his case retracted key testimony, the convicted murderer reportedly fears the worst.
By Diane Rado
TALLAHASSEE - He has been on Florida's death row for nearly 20 years, outliving four death warrants and steadfastly proclaiming his innocence.
But even Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano knows the end is near.
Despite a stunning recantation of testimony from a star witness in his case, Spaziano is preparing for death in Florida's electric chair on Spet. 21, his attorney says.
"He's trying to take care of unfinished business; trying to make things right with some of his family members he's had fallings out with; trying to make provisions for his daughter (Now in her 20s)," said his attorney Michael Mello, who speaks to his client every day, twice a day, at 3 and 7 p.m.
Gov. Lawton Chiles has signed a fifth death warrant for Spaziano, the Outlaws motorcycle gang member condemned to die for the 1973 rape and murder of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Lynn Harberts, 18. Her mutilated body was found partly covered with leaves and trash in a dump in Seminole County.
Only one person, WIllie Darden, his made it past the fifth warrant. Darden was executed on his seventh warrant in March 1988. Spaziano knows that.
"He alternates between sort of jocularity, joking around, and sort of what I characterize as white hot terror," Mello said Friday. "He talks about dying, how he wants his brothers and sisters in the (Outlaws) club to be there. He talks a lot about his family, his mother."
Mello said he has asked Spaziano's ex-wife to gather all the letters she has received from Spaziano over the years and send him all those in which Spaziano declares his innocence. Mello said e doesn't know yet what he will do with the letters.
Controversy over the Spaziano case has grown this summer, since witness Anthony Dilisio recanted his testimony of 20 years ago. Dilisio is telling reporters he now couldn't recall Spaziano taking him to the dump and showing him bodies of Harberts and another woman. The testimony was a key link between Spaziano and the crime scene.
Chiles canceled Spaziano's execution June 27 and ased the Florida Department of Law Enforecement to investigate. The controversy grew.
In fear that witnesses interviewed could be in danger, the governor refused to make public the FDLE report, which hi aides said reinforced Dilisio's original story and linked Spaziano to the murder victim.
Mello has asked the Supreme Court to open the secret investigation, allow a new hearing on the case and halt Spaziano's execution. The motions are pending.
Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the release of videotaped FDLE interview of Dilisio. In the interview, DIlisio clearly recants his prior testimony on the case and says police, not Spaziano, brought hiim to the dump where the women's bodies were found.
Dilisio, now 38, sits next to his lawyer in the tape, wearing a print shirt and speaking articulately, sometimes passionately, about the last 20 years of feeling angry, guilty, and afraid of retribution for testifying against Spaziano.
He was just a kid at the time of the Harberts murder, he says, taken out of juvenile detention and treated like a "king" by authorities when then manipulated him, hypnotized him, and possibly drugged him to get crucial testimony against Spaziano.
"I'm just totally disgusted you know, I'm just trying to look at this. I've got kids right now. I can't imagine somebody doing this to them. Something to my kids, using them, you know, for their own game like I feel was done to me," Dilisio says, "I coudln't imagine. It's insanity."
He says the case changed his life.
"This has been a pretty dramatic experience in my life. And I, and I mean I wish that it'd never happen to me, but it did happen to me. Okay, it did, it happened. And I'm tired of carrying it around."
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Palomo, Francisco
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Rado, Diane, “Spaziano prepares for death,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/197.