#547 Jason Flom with John Restivo

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On December 5th, 1984, the naked body of Theresa Fusco was pulled out of a wooded area in Lynbrook, NY - the 3rd in a string of recent disappearances, putting pressure on police to find the monster among them. The medical examiner determined that a rape lkely occurred and the cause of death was ligature strangulation. Dennis Halstead had been linked to one of the victims, and in a police interview about Halstead, John Restivo inadvertently mentioned an occasional employee John Kogut.

When police interrogated Kogut for 12 hours, during which interrogators lied to him about his failing a polygraph, Kogut signed a confession that was hand-written by one of the detectives. With the false confession, the trio were convicted and sentenced to 33 and a half years in prison.

John Restivo and Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Nina Morrison joined Jason at the Atlanta Innocence Network Conference to tell this amazing and terrifying tale.

To learn more and get involved:

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Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Michael Lewis here. My best-selling book The Big Short tells the story of the build-up and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. Now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Big Short Story, what it means to bet against the market,
0:23.1	and who really pays for an unchecked financial system,
0:26.1	is as relevant today as it's ever been.
0:28.7	Get the Big Short now at Pushkin.fm slash audiobooks,
0:32.3	or wherever audiobooks are sold.
0:41.0	I'm not today with a major announcement with my longtime producer, Connor Hall,
0:46.5	in a decades-old murder case that we covered back in 2020.
0:51.8	Yeah, this was the wrongful conviction of three men, John Restivo, who we got to talk to Dennis
0:58.3	Hallstead and John Kogan.
1:00.7	And they were all convicted of a 1984 rape and murder.
1:04.1	And then they were cleared by DNA testing and eventually released in 2003, while the actual
1:08.9	perpetrator this entire time has remained free up until it appears,
1:13.1	at least yesterday, October 15, 2025.
1:16.3	They arrested an alternate suspect, a now 63-year-old man named Richard Biladot.
1:22.2	Richard Biladow, and what's extraordinary about this case, first of all, it feels close
1:27.4	to home because it is close to home.
1:29.1	This happened in Long Island. This was a 16-year-old girl named Teresa Fusco who had left her job,
1:35.6	working the snack bar at a roller rink in Lynnbrook, Long Island, right?
1:39.4	Yeah, I remember going to birthday parties at that skating rink. It was called hot skates.
1:44.4	Wow. Yeah, kids' birthday parties. And then rink. It was called Hot Skates. Wow.
1:45.0	Yeah, kids' birthday parties.
1:46.3	And then this is going on.
	...

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