Episode 351: Slanz Bilello

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On August 21, 2023, a 53-year-old husband and father fails to return home from work not far from Oakland, Maryland. News eventually reaches his family that he’s been involved in a terrible incident. While driving home, the crane operator’s vehicle skids off the road and ends up in a ravine, his life hanging in the balance. The man is taken to the hospital, where he tragically dies. But it’s not injuries from the car crash that have claimed his life. The reason the victim ran off the road in the first place was a gunshot wound to the head. But exactly who is responsible and how it all unfolded remains a mystery. In episode 351, Jac and Alexis detail the heartbreaking unsolved homicide of Ascenzio ‘Slanz’ Bilello, exploring the questions around the events of that night, the subsequent police investigation, and how his family continues to deal with the trauma of his senseless loss.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first degree.
0:02.0	First degree.
0:03.0	First degree.
0:04.0	First degree.
0:05.0	First degree.
0:06.0	First degree.
0:07.0	The first degree.
0:08.0	You see it on the news.
0:10.0	You see it on the paper.
0:11.0	You see it on Facebook.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:16.0	You know, we're starting to get, like, quick updates after that.
0:23.9	Like, she gets to the hospital.
0:25.1	They won't let her see him.
0:26.8	And she's like, you know, I think something's wrong.
0:29.5	And then, like, she literally calls me and she's like, they just told me that there's a bullet
0:36.6	in Slants slices head.
0:37.7	I was like, what are you talking about?
0:40.8	And, like, even then, I was thinking, okay, people get shot.
0:45.6	Like, how, you know, like, you just have a million questions.
0:48.1	You're like, this is crazy.
0:49.9	And are they sure?
	...

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