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Murder Sheet
The Murder of Joey Comunale A Conversation with Bob Hahn of Netflix’s “Homicide: New York”
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with a name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states.
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I'm Anya and we're going to talk to a seasoned veteran of the New York City Police Department about a murder case featured on Netflix's Homicide New York City.
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Content Warning this episode contains discussion of violence and murder.
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A young man from Connecticut went out for a night of fun in Manhattan. He was loved by his family and many, many friends. He hit up a nightclub in Chelsea on November 12, 2016. Then he went off to an after party on the opulent Upper east side. It should have just been another cool adventure in New York City, but it wasn't. Because that young man, 26 year old Joey Commonali, never came home. His case is the subject of an episode of the latest season of Homicide New York, a true crime docu series on Netflix. Homicide New York, which dropped its latest season just recently on March 25, 2026, delves into the cases and experiences of real detectives with the nypd. It's a great show and it's from Wolf Entertainment and Alfred Street. In other words, it's from Dick Wolf, the creator of Law and Order. Communali case is a twisting and twisted one. It features a totally bizarre celebrity connection and affluent individuals doing evil, awful things. It's one that is so strange it almost feels like fiction, but unfortunately it's very real.
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The Murder Sheet was recently able to interview Bob Hahn, one of the detectives who appeared in the series. He spoke to us about his work on the Communali case and his experience as a homicide detective working in Manhattan. He is now retired from the nypd. Bob got a Bachelor's of Science in Criminal justice from the John Jay College of Criminal justice in New York City. In 1994, he joined the NYPD. He retired there after 28 years. He worked at the Midtown North Precinct on patrol, which covers Times Square. He worked the Anti Crime Unit. He joined the Midtown North Precinct detective squad. In 2015, he joined the Manhattan South Homicide Squad, finally retiring in 2022.
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In our conversation, Bob talked about his years of experience with the nypd, what it was like working high profile homicides, and his work on the investigation into the disappearance and murder of Joey Communale. We really think you should watch it, so we're not going to get into all the details about how everything concluded, but we'll give you enough to give you a sense of what happened with the case. My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.
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And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.
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And this is the Murder Sheet.
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We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're the Murder Sheet.
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And this is the murder of Joey Communale. A conversation with Bob Hahn of Netflix's Homicide New York.
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Sam.
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Bob, thank you so much for taking the time for joining us on the Murder Sheet today. We really appreciate it.
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A
It's my pleasure to be here.
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B
I guess, to start off with, I want to talk a little bit about you and your career before we get into this really interesting case and this very cool Netflix series. Homicide New York, the new season coming out. What drew you to a career in law enforcement in the first place?
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I was going to college in New York City, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I took a class once, and I really enjoyed it, so I decided to make that my major and pursued it, going to John Jay College. One day when I was there, one of the girls I was going to school with was like, oh, you're taking the police test? And I said, I don't even know what you're talking about. She said, come on. And we went to the post office and filled out the application, and, you know, then I got a thing in the mail saying, hey, you know, the test is on such and such a date. So I went in and took the test. And back then, it was a little different. I mean, it took me three years to get hired from the time I took the test to go through all of the background and all of the requirements that you needed to have taken care of before you could get hired. And then they needed the room in the class. So I was hired in 1994.
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Wow.
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Tell me a little bit about your trajectory within the NYPD over the years.
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Yeah, so I, upon graduating the academy, I had gone to the Midtown north precinct. So Midtown north precinct is right in the middle of Manhattan. So basically, anyone that's ever been a tourist in Manhattan has probably walked through Midtown North. It covers part of Times Square, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, you know, basically from the Hudson all the way over to Lexington Avenue, and then from, like, 59th street down to 45th Street. So if you've gone to Manhattan, there's a more than better than good chance you have been inside the confines of Midtown North Precinct. So I started off on patrol there, I had gone to a unit at the time. I was the first guys that started under Giuliani as the mayor and Bratton as the police commissioner. So quality life became a big issue. The broken windows. After working there for a while on patrol, I went to a Unicola conditions unit where you would do. Basically your focus was on quality life crimes, public urination, public drinking, prostitution, you know, all crimes in. In that kind of vein. Then I had got to a Unicorn anti crime unit which is basically, you're in plain clothes and you're looking for felonies in progress. Done that for a number of years and I was fortunate enough to go to the Mid 10 North Detective Squad where I worked for 18 months as a white shield as a police officer conducting investigations. And after 18 months you get promoted to the rank of detective. So I had spent about another 12 years there working as a detective investigator. And then I wound up going to the Manhattan South Homicide squad where I finished my career with another six plus years or so.
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B
Yeah, that is so fascinating. That's a really interesting and varied career. And you mentioned the Manhattan South Homicide squad. My understanding from the docu series Homicide New York is that there's also the Manhattan North Homicide squad. Is that, is that correct?
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Yeah. So the police department breaks some of the boroughs up into north and south and Manhattan is one of. There's a Queens north and a Brooklyn north and south and Manhattan is one of them. So Basically anything below 60th street is Manhattan south and anything above 60th street is Manhattan North. So even though Midtown north precinct is in Borough Manhattan south, it's a little confusing, but yes. So anything below that time. So you'll hear that on the, on the series in season one and I'm assuming in season two also that there's a Manhattan north and a Manhattan South.
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I have to ask because this is just how my weird mind works, but are, are they rivals? Are you, I mean, is it south versus north or does that. Is everyone getting along?
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No, there's no rivalry at all. A lot of times we, you know, you don't really deal with Manhattan. You're in Manhattan North a lot because your victims may be from Manhattan north, but there's no rivalry at all with anything that I can ever remember. In any case, because it's. You're so busy working your own cases and everything else. You help out more than anything else and you'll need their help and they'll need our help, you know, in Manhattan north precincts and Manhattan North Homicide Squad you know, because if your victim is from there or your suspects are from there, you're going to spend a lot of time up there, and you're going to be getting a lot of local knowledge or information and. Or intel that only they may have, you know, regarding who you're looking for or what gangs or street crews might be working or just the people in general.
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So, yeah, the method helps to elaborate.
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Manhattan south is unique in it. It's a big, transient kind of community. I mean, you have people that come there for work from all over, from all the boroughs, from New Jersey, from Westchester, from Long Island. So, you know, you have, I mean, basically the city swells up, I think, about 4 million people a day. And, you know, during the course of the day and then deflates back to 8 million or whatever it is somewhere around those numbers. So in that. During the day, in that time period, you know, you have so many more, hundreds of thousands or millions of people that come through Manhattan south, you know, just in the course of a day that, you know, you spend a lot of your time investigating crimes. This is any detective there, but any type of crime, you're investigating it a lot of times outside of your jurisdiction.
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That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, for the listeners, when I was living in New York, I'm going from Westchester County, New York, on the Metro north and then the subway down to the financial district to work and then going back out. So if anything bad had happened to me down there, they would have had to also, you know, probably bring in people from Westchester or, you know, it just. It's a lot of people working there, as you said. I wanted to ask you, like, what is it? I mean, obviously, like, there's a Netflix docuseries about this, and there's so many. I mean, homicide detectives in New York are certainly a very popular subject in terms of fictional depictions as well. What was. What might it surprise people to know what it was really like to do that job for so many years and maybe how it differed a little bit from what you see on TV and movies?
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Well, it differs from TV drastically. So, you know, obviously TV is solved in an hour, you know, with commercial breaks. And all of your interviews are done in an hour, and all of your paperwork is done in an hour, and all of the testing or forensics or any type of, you know, examination of evidence that you have, it's all done in a short amount of time and then thrown together. Whereas in a real investigation, you are just, you know, going nonstop, especially the first few days, you know, and specifically Even in this case, I don't think I went home for two or three days in this case, you know, right off the bat. But that is not uncommon in a big case where you had a homicide. You know, you might be at work for the next two, three days straight. It's not a nine to five kind of job where at the end of the day you're like, okay, it's, you know, time to clock out. And, you know, we put everything on the side and pick it back up tomorrow. You go and go and go until you get something, you know, and whatever that is that you might get, you might have to work on that again and continue to go. So there's a lot of time. And this isn't just homicides. This is a lot of cases in Manhattan and Manhattan north and all over the city. There's a lot of time that you miss out with your family. There's a lot of time that you don't go home, that you're sleeping in a dorm room with all of the people you work with, and it's not that pretty. But, you know, you're crashing out there, and you're getting up and you're taking a shower, and you go into your locker and putting fresh clothes on because you brought all your clothes in for the week a lot of times, and then you're back at it again. And you might be there again working another, you know, 16, 20 hours and then staying there again and crashing out for a few more hours and going back to work. You know, wow. Sometimes these investigations, they just. There's so many things going on at one time that, you know, you have to. Somebody has to be doing it. So some guys are going over to here and like this case in. In particular, you know, you have a victim who's from Connecticut. You have a crime that occurs in Manhattan. You have a body that's discovered in South New Jersey. You have suspects that live in central New Jersey. So you have people going all over the place trying to gather evidence, and that's only what we know about. And then sometimes we have a lead or a tip that might take us in a totally different direction and send some people out on that. So you really have a lot of different people going to a lot of different places. Everyone's working, you know, all over the place, trying to bring it all together.
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Absolutely. I want to ask you about this case in particular. I don't want to get too in depth, because I do people. I want people to watch the Netflix show. I want people to watch the next Season of Homicide New York. But if you can kind of give us a bit of a synopsis of the kind of, you know, what brought detectives into this case and how you specifically became involved in the investigation into what happened to Joey Commonali.
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A
Most of the time it's, you find a body and then you realize, okay, this body, you know, and maybe you realize this right away or not something suspicious about this death and you start an investigation. Whereas in the case of Joey Kamin Ali, it went the other way. It's actually a missing person case. And that's how the 17th Precinct Detective Squad got involved because they were approached by the father and family members who said that, you know, Joey Commonality is missing and since he lived in Connecticut, the actual missing person cases goes back to Connecticut. But they had come down and asked me for assistance because they were able to determine that the last place that his friends had seen him alive was at the Grand Sutton at the home of our suspect. So they had gone over there, they had begun an investigation, and without getting into too much details because, you know, I too want everyone to watch it, they were able to determine upon their investigation that there was definitely something that happened in that building that led them to believe that there was a lot of foul play. So they had contacted the Manhattan South Homicide squad for assistance at that point, saying, okay, we have something more than a missing person. And then this is where the investigation is right now, and this is where it's kind of starting, you know. So we had responded to the grant, something, you know, to assist in the investigations.
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- [18:25]
B
Can you for listeners who may not be from New York City and may not be super aware, can you sort of scene set A little bit for this sort of party scene in the Upper east side culture that sort of, you know, Joey sort of went into going to these clubs, going out for a night of fun, and just maybe kind of tell us a little bit about that, the circumstances of his disappearance.
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Yeah, so he had started off his night with friends down in, I think, the meatpacking district at a bar, lounge club called the Gilded Lily. And that's where basically, you know, young, hip kind of kids, you know, if you want to call them a kid, but you know, young people, they would go. You could go out for the night and you might run into celebrities, you might, you know, you enjoy the night. Everyone's dressed nice, everyone's enjoying themselves, you know. And he had wind up meeting some people and then meeting some other people. And basically they had. One of the people turned out to be a suspect in the case, said, hey, why don't we go back to a friend of mine's house and have an after party? So that friend turned out to be James Rackover. That friend lived on the Upper east side. So. And that area is, you know, it's pretty well to do a lot of rich people, a lot of money. You know, if you looked at the apartments size wise, you wouldn't believe the amount of money they pay for the small amount of space you get. But they're very nice doorman buildings, security cameras, parking garages. For Manhattan, it's a beautiful apartment. Usually a lot of times they have nice views. So, you know, they're in. It's a safe area of town. So they had wound up going back to there. And if you were in Manhattan and you were young and you were hanging out all night and someone said, hey, you want to come to my friend's house, his apartment, and we're going to have an after party. And you were like, okay, on the Upper east side, that sounds great. And, you know, yeah, I would go too. You know, it sounded like a fine time.
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Yeah, I'm pretty paranoid. And I thought it didn't sound like inherently super risky behavior, especially since he knew some of the people there. So it, you know, that's what makes this story so troubling. It's like you can't really see anything that he did that was, quote unquote, wrong. I mean, it just seemed safe.
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No, I don't think he did anything wrong. I think probably 99% of the people out there that had gone out to clubs and bars and were with friends and someone had invited back to a party, they would have gone to that party also. I'm sure back when I was younger, I would have gone to that party too. Somebody said, hey, you know, I've gone to a lot of other places, you know, that were a lot worse than that, you know, for some kind of after hours party. But, you know, to go to a party like that, yeah, it would have been fine. It would have been great, you know, and it's, it's a story to tell at the least. And then maybe you make a friendship with someone who lives in one of these buildings and you're like, okay, exactly.
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Can you tell me about, you know, you were kind of coming into it from more of the, like, Manhattan Wide Homicide Division, the Manhattan south and whatnot. And, and then you're working with these detectives from the 17th precinc. Can you tell me about those kinds of collaborations where, you know, they're coming in from, you know, more of a specific geographic zone and then you're coming in with this sort of almost homicide specialty. How are you working together to work on a missing person's case like this one?
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So basically you have to understand that, you know, I worked in Midtown north precinct, Midtown North Detective squad. So if there was a case that came up in Midtown North Detective squad and I was working in Manhattan South Homicide, I knew all the people there anyway. And I had known people in the 17 squad and all of the other squads because you're always working with the same people. And a lot of these people you had known and worked with on other cases that might have overlapped or interjurisdictional for years. So it's not, you know, there's not too much of a chance that you're working with somebody you don't know or haven't worked with in the past. You know, and so when we had gone over there, we had already, you know, worked other cases in that command and worked with that detective squad and the people involved. So it wasn't, you know, it's not a problem. It's not like you're walking into somewhere where you're not familiar with then. It's not like you're working with people that you don't know. So it's very easy when they calling you up and they're like, hey, we got something. You know, you know that when they're making that call that they actually have something that there's something going on they need help with. So there's, you know, there's no type of conflict or anything else. It's, you know, you're getting that call and you're going there and you're like, hey, I know there's something happening there. Let's go see what they got. And when we arrived there and they told us what was going on and the backstory and what they had. Had been able to determine at that point, it was, as soon as we get there, like, yeah, there's definitely something going on here.
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When. When you get involved in the case, then what are the sort of things that, you know, you're focusing on and sort of the tasks you're tackling within this missing person's investigation that unfortunately does, you know, as people can imagine, does lead to a murder investigation?
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So in. In a case like this and in other cases that are similar, you know, you're. You have. Based on video, you have a specific time that you have this victim on video, and that's the last time you see that victim alive. And then you have the time of reports that he didn't come home. So you're basically working backward from the time that he's reported missing, and you're also working forward from the time you have him on video to see what's going on, to try and piece together what may or may not have happened to him and where he may be in, you know, missing first case. It's. You don't know. At the time that he's reported, could he have overdosed in a stairwell somewhere? Could he have fallen downstairs in the stairwell somewhere on the weekend and there's. Nobody uses the stairwell, and he's laying there and he had, you know, cracked his head open or become unconscious somehow, or, you know, elevator door opens up, there's no elevator, and he accidentally falls out an elevator shaft. You have no idea what could have happened. So you have to do a search top to bottom of the building and the rooftop just to see if he might be in a place that he shouldn't be, that he's just, you know, that there was no foul play, but he may be, you know, just hurt or injured and not able to tell anyone where he is, you know, so you do that full search. And you also, like I said, in this case, without giving too much away, they all came upon evidence that there was definitely foul play. And when you watch the episode, you'll see, yes, I think anyone would come to the same conclusion when you see what they had found. And then you have to go and start your investigation in a way and say, okay, there's definitely something going on. There's definitely signs of foul play. At this point, we need to focus on different things and, you know, interviews of witnesses and interviews of other people that are at the scene, you know, and suspects, also lead you into a certain direction, you know, because you start interviewing people. And if you determine at the time that no one is being truthful, or there's definitely things that are being told to you that are not truthful, then again, you know, you have to conduct your investigation and follow whatever kind of lead you may have.
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Absolutely. Yeah. A lot of very disturbing evidence and sort of a lot of twists in this case where, you know, it sort of goes from bad to worse as you're looking into it and getting more information, I guess, in terms of, you know, as you're piecing things together, what are you able to find out about Joey and what he was like as a person? He's the guy who's, like, the center of all this. He's missing, and it's not looking good. But what were you able to sort of piece together about him from, you know, talking with people who knew him and sort of looking at his life?
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A
Well, you know, Joey. So Joey is something, you know, you. You do what's called a victimology in a case. You do that to determine exactly what you're saying, what kind of person is he? And you talk to family, and you also run him in computer systems and you see, you know, does he have any kind of arrest record? Does he have warrants that he's out that are issued for him? Are there reports that he's made, or he is the suspect in? And also, when you speak to family members, you're like, what is he like? You know, in this case, you don't come up with anything that would indicate that, you know, Joey was wanted for a crime and he decided to run away or, you know, he's, you know, some kind of bad person, and he just doesn't want to have any kind of law enforcement interaction and doesn't want to deal with us. It was, you know, quite the opposite in that. And you have his family coming forward, and they're saying, listen, this is not just behavior that's, you know, not what he would do. This is definitely behavior he would not do. Like, not show up, not contact us, not call us, no matter what. He would contact the family and just to let him know he was okay or that, you know, everything was fine and that maybe he lost his phone. But when he doesn't contact them, then they know, okay? And speaking to everybody and running your checks, you know, you were able to determine pretty fast, okay, you know, Joey is Basically a good guy, not a problem. And that this is something that you would, you know, deem to be suspicious because he should be home, he should make contact with his family. And it's not just Joey, but also in a case like this, you Google people, you know, you, you know who you're dealing with and you know where you are. So if you have a suspect, you Google him and you'd be amazed right off the bat. In this case, you can Google Rackover, both, you know, Jeffrey Rackover and you know, his son. And you see pictures of them on red carpets and you see interviews with them and you can see the kind of life they live or at least the life they project as living. And, you know, you get some kind of idea of who they are or what kind of circles they run in. And in this case, yeah, you'll see that, you know, when you Google Jeffrey Rack over. Yes, you know, he's the jeweler to the stars. And you know, he sold Donald Trump engagement ring, you know, so you know what kind of circles he runs in and you know, what kind of money he may have. Especially as you're standing in the building, the lobby of the building that he lives in, you already know.
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B
But yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say, you know, there is this high profile name, as you said, Jeweler to the stars is what he's called Jeffrey Rackover at the center of this case. And this sort of what seems to be a father and son relationship at first, that I'm not going to say much more, but turns out to be a lot weirder than that.
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A
And, yeah, that's a good way to party.
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B
I don't know what else to say. It's not, it's not what people think when they think of a father and son relationship, but, you know, that's kind of at the center of this. Do you think that this, I mean, how quickly did this start to get a lot of media attention? I guess was that immediate or did, like the press find out over time that it involved this Rackover connection?
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A
I think in this case it was a little bit. When I say a little bit longer. I mean, a couple of days before it started to, you know, build up in the media. Because again, it started off as a missing person. And so there wasn't anything to, you know, for anybody in the media or anything else to determine. Okay. There was a crime that occurred here. It's right now it's just a missing person's. Case. But as time went on and as the media became more and more aware of what was going on, it did start building up. And hey, for the media, they do the same thing we do. They, you know, they put a name in Google and they're like, wait a minute, we have something. And that's why a case like this takes off so, so fast once they get wind of it and they see who may or may not be involved. Because they Google and they're like, we have the jewel of the stars and we have possibly his son is involved in this. And you know, they see, they go to the building and they see it, you know, that it's cordoned off and that there's a lot of police department vehicles there and they'll be able to make it determined that something's going on in there. And there are some, you know, just based on the location, also that there are some people of, you know, importance that may be involved in something that's going on.
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B
Yeah, I think, you know, violent crime, plus rich, affluent or even celebrity, an individual who has celebrity or is rich or whatever, that's going to be instantly a media story. Especially in New York City, which has such a, you know, media presence and is such a major media market. You know, what is it like to be a detective working on a high profile media case? You have to do anything differently. Are you kind of keeping that in mind as it's going on or are you just trying to basically block all that out?
- [32:07]
A
Well, you try and block it out, but basically, you know, you know that once you realize who you're dealing with, you know that once the media gets a hold of some kind of sniff that there's something going on, that they're going to be all over it and going to be contacting the police department. They don't contact us directly. They'll contact the public information Deputy Commissioner's office of Public Information and they'll ask questions and then that, you know, unit will contact the chief of detectives and they'll ask questions and, you know, some information will be released and some information obviously is held back. You know that they're asking questions. And then you're reading the stories too in the paper and you can read the story and you can see what's in the paper and you can see who's saying what to the media. Because, you know, if I'm reading a story and only select people know or it's in one of my reports, some information, but it winds up in the paper, I know that somehow it got leaked out to the media. It's not us leaking it. It's more than likely maybe somebody in the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information's office or somewhere else in that chain and they're, you know, giving out information that we probably would like not give out. That's what happens. Unfortunately, it's an unfortunate part of the, you know, investigation. So, you know, like I said, the media, yeah, it's, it's a lot of attention when you especially like when, again, when you deal with this case and you know that it's possible that you're a suspect's father, if you want to call them, that has a, the ability to maybe pick up the phone and call Donald Trump or call the mayor's office or call the police commissioner and he has that kind of influence, you know, then you know that you're dealing with the case and that, you know, you're going to get scrutinized a little bit more on and you might get phone calls, you know, from higher up saying what's going on, where is this investigation headed and what's happening with it. So you keep that in mind when you're conducting an investigation, but you also know you have a job to do. It can be very difficult, but over the course of your career, you have enough of these cases where they're, you know, front page news that, you know, after a while you just, okay, it's another one. So we know what to do and we know what, how, what's going to happen to us soon enough, you know, and the amount of calls that are going to come in. And so it's not that uncommon. Give you an example, I'm sure that nobody ever heard of the Pima County Sheriff's Office before Nancy Guthrie went missing, but now everyone knows it and they probably hadn't had a high profile case or dealt with anything anywhere near what they're dealing with now. But now they have. So it, you know, if you've never dealt with some, that kind of media attention and that kind of media scrutiny, it can be very difficult.
- [34:55]
B
Yeah, I imagine. And, and you know, and you've, you've done so many homicide cases over the years. But I'm curious, was there, I mean, you've outlined the sort of, the media, the, the, the celebrity angle here we've kind of alluded to without saying some unusual relationships in this and, you know, just a, a sympathetic man who's, who's missing and really, you know, didn't do anything wrong. Seemed like a very nice guy beloved by people in his Life, you know, so those are things that stand out about the case to me as a viewer, but to you as a detective working on it. Were there any other standout memories or sort of things that made this case distinctive for you within your career?
- [35:32]
A
Well, I mean, this. This is a, you know, definitely a case that stands out in my career, and I've had a few of them, but this is definitely one of the cases that stand out because of all of the things that happened. I mean, this is obviously a homicide that didn't need to happen. Not that any of them do, but this one didn't need to happen. And then when it starts getting investigated and as the viewers will see, there is some kind of relationship between the main suspect and his father that we're trying to determine. And that's one of the things that as you start doing, as you do a victimology on your victim, you also do a background on your suspects. And in this case, you know, you have a name and a date of birth, and you have a suspect, and as you start doing a background on him, you're like, wait a minute, that's not his name. That's not the name he was born with. Why does he have this name? And who is he? And the stories that come out and everything, and it just starts. Everything starts going in different directions. And then trying to find the victim in this case and piece together what had happened to him in the last, last hours of his life, and then what happened to him after he had been killed again is a whole, you know, a whole another story that, you know, it's just. Most homicides are over with in a matter of, you know, seconds or a minute. It's a shooting on a corner or a robbery bad, and your victim is laying there and your suspect runs away, and that's it. And you, you know, start your investigation on that. This is just so much to piece together and so much to try and figure out where everyone was and what everyone did afterward. And, you know, so much evidence in so many different places that you had to gather that, you know, it's a. It was a lot of work. You know, it's a lot of work putting it all together. And in the end, yes, and homicide cases, like most cases, but homicide cases don't end upon arrest. You know, a lot of people think, you know, maybe they see it on tv once you go and you arrest that person, and that arrest might happen in the first two days, three days, might happen in the first two hours. But sometimes that's almost the beginning of the case because you have to, you know, work to bring it to a successful prosecution. You know, the goal is not just to make an arrest in a homicide case. The goal is to investigate it all the way through for a successful prosecution, and that. That person that you have arrested is made to pay through the justice system for the crimes that he did. So, you know, you have a lot of work that you have to do after that, too. So it's just once you're done with that, and a lot of times you. You arrest the person, you put them in jail, and then you go right back and you're still working that case for however long it takes, and there's a lot of work to be done.
- [38:30]
B
Do you have any specific recollections that kind of stand out to you about the trial, that kind of was an aspect of the conclusion of this case?
- [38:38]
A
Well, I know there's. In the trial part, you know, as you'll see on the tv, they do have a surprise witness. Now, we. We had interviewed him prior to that, so we knew what he was going to say, but when we interviewed him, and I don't remember exactly when that was after. I mean, specific timeline, but it was like a month or two, I think, possibly after the arrests were made. When we interviewed the witness and when he tells us his story, we were like, whoa, you know, it was great information. And you're like, wow, okay. You know, coming forward, you're like, okay. But sometimes when you get a witness like this and he brings forward information, you know, now you have to go out and you have to vet the information he gives you, too, because you know that's going to happen in court. But you have to go out and you have to vet that information, whether it be through phone records, whether it be through video, you know, or other witnesses that may have seen something or heard something also. So, again, it's. It's more work. It's great to get that information, but it's more work you vetted out so that later on, you know, you can say, okay, he is telling the truth. Because you can't take anyone's word. You have to vet the information to make sure that that information is correct.
- [39:50]
B
What was it like to get to unpack this case and your memories of it? On this season of Homicide New York on Netflix.
- [39:58]
A
It's, you know, it's a lot. You. You have a lot of, you know, I don't say flashbacks, but you have a lot of recollections of the case and where you were when certain things happened during the case. Because there was a lot of, you know, in this case, kind of like a lot of, you know, surprises. Like all of a sudden you get new information and it leads you to something, and then you get other information and it leads you to something else. So a lot of kind of like big, you know, not big surprises, but, you know, big things that came up through, sometimes smaller things. And you go back and you remember, you know, oh, I remember this part. I remember that part. And you speak to the other detectives you worked with and you know, there was a lot of people working on it at the same time. And you talk to them and you're like, remember this part, Remember that? Yeah, I remember this. Or I was, you know, I was so tired. Like I said, I remember being there for two, three days working and being exhausted and going home and sleeping for four hours and waking up and coming back and working some more and, you know, and everyone running all over the place and everyone has different recollections about different things in the case, depending on what they did and what they had learned. So, you know, it's a lot. In this case, it's a lot. It was a lot of different things. So, you know, it's three, four days of really intense work that you're putting in before the, the actual arrests are made. And you know, there's a lot of things going on and it doesn't matter how tired you are or what's happening, you know, you know, you have to get a lot of work done, especially when you're at the point where I become involved in the case and you know, you know that there's a homicide that occurred or at least enough things that you are coming up with evidence that there definitely appears to be a homicide or at least appears to be a serious crime that happened inside of the, the apartment. And then, you know, you have to, you know, there's a lot of hurry up and wait, and then there's a lot of hurry up and go, go, go. You know, there's a lot of sitting around waiting for something to happen or waiting for certain things to happen, and then a lot of rushing around getting things done. So I think that's about any homicide.
- [42:12]
B
But you mentioned all this rushing around, you mentioned this days of work and like sleeping in a dorm and all of this. You know, is it possible to achieve a work life balance in the job or is it a job that does not lend itself very easily to, to having that?
- [42:28]
A
I think you, it's not very easy to having that. It's, you know, and you're wife or significant other and your family have to understand that, you know, there are times when you're going to go to work and you might not be home for two days or three days. There are times you're going to go to work and you know you're going to miss certain things. You know, you might miss a school play or something significant in your family's life. Now you're going to do everything. You can obviously be a part of those things in your, in your family's lives. But you know, there are times when you might get that call, you might have nothing going on all day and you're going to go home that night and it's something important in one of your family members lives and there's a homicide that occurs and now you have to go out on it and then you're like, okay. And you make the phone call and no, no one's happy. Nobody in your family's happy. But it is part of the job and it's part of the unit we chose to be in. And your family does understand, they're not happy with it a lot of times, but they do understand. And it's something that you, you live with and when you retire, you, you, you kind of have a little bit, you know, of normalcy in your life. Things that you didn't realize, you know, could be after, you know, I did 28 years and after 28 years, you know, I was sleeping normal. I was, you know, I'll go to bed every night by 9, 10 o' clock at night. Those are things that didn't happen to me for 20 something years. Waking up very early or waking up later, working a week of days, a week of nights, you know, and just if you went home, staying over in a dorm room or anything else, those things are all done. And now I have a normal life and it's good.
- [44:13]
B
Do you miss any aspects of that kind of rush of the job, of, of that intensity?
- [44:20]
A
Yeah, I mean I, I miss a lot of the investigative work and everything else. I don't miss not being home. I don't miss, you know, being up for two days straight or not sleeping a lot or anything else and not eating right. But I missed like when I read in the papers about a big investigation or a big case that happened. You know, there's a lot of times I'm like, I wish I could work on that, you know, that will, you know, it would be great. And you know, you do miss that aspect of it. At least I do. I can't say everyone does, but at least I do. So there are times when I'm like, all right, I wish. I wish I could be part of that again, you know, but again, I realize that the hours and the days off and, you know, the time you put in and the time you're away from your family, that sacrifice, I don't, I don't miss that.
- [45:09]
B
Absolutely. Well, this has been amazing. I really think I would stress to everyone, watch Homicide New York, watch this episode. Whereas Joey, it's really, really very gripping and very fascinating. We kind of scratched the surface and teased you all with a bit of the case, but I think, you know, you're going to have even more details and, and the outcome of what happened, and you're going to learn all of that and how detectives pieced it together. Bob, is there anything I did not ask you about, about this case or about your work in general or your time with NYPD or anything else that you wanted to mention before we wrap up?
- [45:44]
A
Yeah, I think, you know, and I, I don't know if this is on the show or not, but I did, you know, I want to bring the time. This is a great case. And this case boils down to almost like two sets of father and sons. And it's, you'll see it with the victim and his father, and they're not only father and son, they're almost like best friends. They're really close. And you, when you see Joey's father, Pat Commonali, talk about his son and talk about their relationship, you know, you can see how genuinely bereaved he is from the death of his son and the relationship that they had. And then you, as you'll see in this, the, the series, and then you look at your suspect, your perpetrator and his father, and you start to try and figure out what their relationship is. And that's the part where, you know, I guess the viewers will have to make their own determination because I think I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. But there is. It's two different sets of families that could be totally, you know, opposite from each other. And that's what you see in this case, you know, and they're both, you know, they're both kind of, well to do, and they're both father and son and both total opposites of each other. And that's one of the things, I think when you watch this, this episode, you kind of get a, you know, a sense of. And I, you know, I like to see what the viewers have to say about what they think the relationship between, you know, the rack overs actually is. So.
- [47:21]
B
Yeah, well said. And it is about two sets and it's, it's very, it's on one side. It's very nice. And honestly, hearing Pat Commonali talk about his son made me tear up. It's very, very emotional and very raw. You can tell even years later for, for him and his family. But the other side's pretty twisted. It's, it's very odd and unusual, but I'd be curious what people think too. But Bob, thank you so much for joining us today on the Murder Sheet. Was really great to talk with you about your career and we really appreciated you coming on.
- [47:50]
A
No, it was my pleasure to be here and talk to you and get to tell you a little bit about the case.
- [47:55]
B
Thanks so much to Bob for taking the time to talk with us. We really enjoyed the conversation. Check out Homicide New York on Netflix. The new season is out now and it's really good. The episode Where Is Joey? Is about the communal case that we just discussed. Watch it to learn more about the conclusion and what happened with everything. The series also covers a range of really interesting cases and it's a very well done docuseries.
- [48:17]
C
Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us@murdersheetmail.com if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.
- [48:38]
B
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- [49:01]
C
Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web@Kevin TG.com if you're looking to talk
- [49:12]
B
with other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.