The Butcher: Dr. Anthony Pignataro

Red Collar

Catherine Townsend

History, Red Collar, Con Artist, Investigation, American Greed, Society & Culture, Blood Money, Love Detective, White Collar Crime, Catherine Townsend, Hell And Gone, True Crime, Fraud, Murder, Documentary, Red Collar Crime, White Collar, Red Collar Diaries

4.6 • 604 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Anthony Pignataro, plastic surgeon and inventor of the snap-on toupee, was maiming patients and poisoned his wife. What other secrets was he hiding in his basement operating room?

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was the summer of 1996, and 26-year-old Sarah Smith had her whole life in front of her.
0:10.6	Sarah was a young mother of two. She and her husband Dan were madly in love. They had a son and a daughter they both adored.
0:18.3	According to family and friends, Sarah was just a very happy person in general.
0:23.2	Sarah was also beautiful. She had blonde hair, big eyes, and a perfectly proportioned figure.
0:29.7	But everyone has that one little thing about their appearance that bothers them. And for Sarah,
0:34.6	that one little thing had always been her breasts. She thought they were
0:38.3	a little bit on the small side. So just a few weeks after giving birth to her son, David, Sarah
0:44.5	decided to treat herself. On August 25, 1996, Sarah went into the office of a local plastic
0:51.4	surgeon, 38-year-old Dr. Anthony Pignitaro for breast augmentation.
0:57.9	Dr. Pignitaro claimed to be a specialist in transambulical breast augmentation.
1:03.9	Normally, breast implants are placed above or below the muscle in the chest, but in a transumbical
1:10.7	procedure, the implants are placed through an incision in the chest. But in a transumbillical procedure, the implants are
1:12.7	placed through an incision in the stomach. Since the incision goes through the belly button,
1:17.7	a lot of doctors say that if they do it this way, there are no visible scars on the breasts or
1:22.5	under the arms. But it's a highly specialized procedure and not that many doctors offer it.
1:30.9	Dr. Pignitaro had his offices in West Seneca, New York.
1:36.2	He had started as a trained ear, nose, and throat doctor, then set up his cosmetic surgery office.
1:41.0	And in that area, Dr. Pignitaro had become somewhat of a minor celebrity. He offered tummy tucks, breast augmentation, and nose jobs.
1:44.8	And he was a familiar face around town where he drove a red Lamborghini. He was also an inventor.
1:50.2	One of his most prized inventions was a system of snap-on hair pieces that could be implanted
1:55.9	with screws in the skull. And not only did he invent this technology, he actually wore it. A lot of people remember
2:02.0	seeing Anthony drive around town in his red sports car with his full head of hair blowing in the wind.
	...

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