← The Epstein Chronicles
The Epstein Chronicles
Mega Edition: The Murder Trial Of Nicholas Tartaglione (5/13/26)
00:44:16
Nicholas Tartaglione, a former Briarcliff Manor police officer in New York, stood trial in federal court for the 2016 kidnapping and murders of four men tied to a drug-trafficking dispute in Orange County, New York. Prosecutors argued that Tartaglione...
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Instacart makes grocery shopping easier. And just because you're not doing the shopping yourself doesn't mean you don't care how it's done. With Instacart Shopper notes, you can get particular about what you want right in the app. Like rotisserie chicken that's extra crispy steak with marbling the Romans would have loved, and lettuce you'd actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way you you can get groceries just how you like. Download the Instacart app and shop today. Early birds always rise to the occasion for summer vacation planning because early gets you closer to the action. So don't be late. Book your next vacation early on VRBO and save over $120. Rise and shine. Average savings $141. Select homes only. What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. Nicholas Tartaglioni, the man that was in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein when Epstein allegedly tried to commit suicide the first time around, is getting ready to finally go on trial for what the government says was a quadruple murder. But before we even get to that, I still have big questions about what the hell this dude was doing in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. And if that was all of it, it would be suspect enough. But folks, that's only scratching the surface. Not only was a man who was allegedly responsible for a quadruple murder put into a cell with a guy like Jeffrey Epstein, well, the footage from that time together in that cell just happens to magically disappear. And this comes after Jeffrey Epstein told people that his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglioni, beat him up. According to reports, the jail opened an investigation into those allegations and they eventually cleared Tartaglioni, setting the narrative that in fact, Tartaglioni is a hero here, folks, and he tried to save Jeffrey Epstein's life. Never mind the fact that this big, gigantic, muscle bound, crazy psychopath was in the cell with Epstein when Epstein was allegedly about to kill himself. So why would this guy even let him get to the point where he would have a noose around his neck if he planned on stopping him. Nothing makes sense from the time that Jeffrey Epstein was in the cell with Nicholas Tartaglioni. It never made sense then and it doesn't make sense now. And unfortunately, we're never going to know the real story because Tartaglioni, well, he's certainly not going to tell us. And Jeffrey Epstein is burning in hell. Oh, in the surveillance footage that's gone, that just happened to magically disappear, and we still have no explanation about it. Nobody got fired, nobody was brought up on charges. Who was in charge of the chain of custody? And whoever was in charge of that chain of custody, were they reprimanded? Do they still work for the jail? Oh, we don't know. Because anytime you ask questions, the government says, we'd love to help you out, but this is an ongoing investigation and we cannot give you those details as of now. And they'll keep doing that for, oh, I don't know, 80 or 90 years or so. I mean, you would think more people would be enraged about this situation right here with Tartaglioni than there are. People are just, like, ignoring this. And this is a very big part of this story. The fact that this dude was in the jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein, who should have been in a restricted area with nobody around him. Instead, he's on a tier in general population with a quadruple murderer. I'm sorry, but that seems like quite the coincidence to go along with all of the other stuff. So what was Tartaglioni doing in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein in the first place? I've said it once and I'll say it a million more times. I think Tartaglioni's job was to send a message. And that message was, one way or the other, you're going to die. Either you're going to kill yourself or me or someone like me is going to do the job, because there's no other reason that I can figure out why Tartaglioni, of all people, was in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. And unfortunately, even though this trial's coming up, I highly doubt we'll ever know. Today's article is from Fox News. Headline, Former NY Cop ex Epstein cellmate faces quadruple murder trial after bodies found buried at his home. This article was authored by Chris Eberhardt. The quadruple murder trial against an ex cop who shared a cell with Jeffrey Epstein and begins this week after four bodies were found buried in the backyard of his New York home in 2016. Nicholas Tartaglioni, 55, was allegedly selling cocaine, steroids and other drugs after his 2008 retirement from law enforcement when he accused one of his associates, Martin Luna, of stealing more than $200,000 from him, three federal prosecutors allege. And the guy that he accused and ended up killing, they all have cartel ties. So, you know, when Tartaglioni gets to prison, it's going to be a Rap for this dude. Imagine having the green light put on you by the cartel, as well as being a cop in prison or an ex cop, I should say. In prison. Yeah, that's not going to be a fun trip. What, you never seen the movie Tango and cash? On April 11, 2016, Tarot Taglioni allegedly lured Luna to a bar in Orange County, New York, where Luna was accompanied by his nephew, Miguel Luna, his niece's fiance, Urbana Santiago, and a family friend, Hector Gutierrez. All four men went missing after that, according to prosecutors, who said after Tartaglioni's arrest in December of 2016 that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then federal prosecutor Preet Bharaha called the alleged murders a gangland style execution. Miguel Luna, Santiago and Gutierrez weren't part of the alleged drug running operation, according to family and prosecutors. And, and that's true. They were there with their boy and they just happened to get caught up in this shit. And that's why the drug game is so dangerous. It's not just you that you're bringing into it. It's your family, your loved ones, your friends. Because at any point it could be on, right? Tartaglioni allegedly zip tied Martin Luna and dragged him to the property about 20 miles from the bar where he was allegedly murdered. Alleged co conspirators helped Tartaglioni force the three other men to the property where they were fatally shot and buried with Martin Luna. According to court papers and previous statements by federal prosecutors, Tartaglioni faces life in prison if convicted. Although prosecutors initially intended on seeking the death penalty against him, last year Attorney General Merrick Garland reversed that decision. Now, the cynic in me would look at that and say, was that some pay for play. If you do this job for us and you go and pass on this quote, unquote message for Jeffrey Epstein, we'll make sure that you don't get the death penalty. Now, look, I don't know if that's the case, right? But I don't put it past these people. That's where I'm at when it comes to all of this. And it's their own fault. They have not been transparent at all throughout any of this. And then to have the gall to tell me that the video disappeared, I'd be a lot more inclined to believe that if the government had a track record of being honest and transparent when it came to stuff like this, and they certainly do not have that track record, so why should I believe them? We're going to need video evidence at this point. And if you have that video evidence that that liar Bill Barr was talking about, let's see it. There is no reason under the sun, not one, why that video shouldn't be shown or at least be part of the public conversation. There's no national security risk here. Jeffrey Epstein's dead. So what are they so worried about? And why aren't they being open and transparent? Tartaglioni's case went from an alleged grisly drug related quadruple homicide in in lower New York state to national news when he became cellmates with Epstein in the Metropolitan Correctional center in Manhattan on July 23, 2019. Epstein was found in his prison cell, semi conscious and balled up in the fetal position with marks on his neck. And there were accusations that Tartaglioni roughed him up. Yeah, by Epstein himself. There's a lot of people, if you go back to that point in time when it was happening, that were convinced that Tartaglioni roughed him up. And I'm one of those people. I don't think Jeffrey Epstein tried to kill himself. Not this time. The second time around when he actually died. Look, that's up for debate. I haven't seen any video evidence one way or the other. There's a lot of questions that need to be answered, though, I'll tell you that much. But I'm very agnostic on all of it. I want to see the evidence. I'm not interested in the bs. I'm interested in the actual facts and what happened in that jail cell. He was questioned, but the former cop and his lawyer fought. The accusations and charges were never filed. A dark cloud of suspicion still lingers over the incident because video surveillance footage was mistakenly deleted by. By prison staff, and Tartaglioni was inexplicably found with a cell phone. Yeah, folks, nothing suspect about any of this. Just keep moving. If you think that this is suspect, then you obviously believe in Bigfoot, the flat earth theory, lizard people, all of it. Meanwhile, back in reality. The real conspiracy theorists at this point are the people who are denying that something is gravely wrong here. Epstein died of an apparent suicide the next month, on August 10, 2019. But Tartaglioni wasn't in the cell at that time. No, he was not. Epstein was alone in that cell, allegedly, when he allegedly killed himself. But I've always thought that Tartaglioni's role in this was to send a message. And if my theory holds, message well received. After Epstein's death, the former police officer requested a transfer to a different prison, claiming he was being harassed by prison guards, according to court documents. There were other allegations that Tartaglioni was assaulted by corrections officers, according to court papers. The clear message Mr. Tartaglioni has received is that if he conveys information about the facility or. Or about the recent suicide, there will be a price to pay. His attorney, Bruce Barkett, wrote in a letter to the judge. The continuing and seemingly unresolvable problems with the conditions of Mr. Tartaglioni's confinement, coupled with the unfortunate attempted suicide by a cellmate to which Mr. Tartaglioni is a critical witness, and the successful suicide of that same person makes his continued detention, as at the mcc, inappropriate. So the only witness, huh? For the first time around. And again, very convenient that the ca. That the cameras just happened to not be working. And whatever surveillance was taken, well, that was deleted. But there's nothing to see here. Everything is on the up and up. Jury selection in the quadruple murder case began in New York Federal court in Westchester county, just outside of New York City this. This week. Tartaglioni has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Well, you can certainly expect some updates from this trial, the same way we've covered some of the other trials in the past, because it's pretty interesting to me to see what happens with Tartaglione. These are serious charges that he's facing, and this man should go to prison for the rest of his life. And as far as what happened in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein, I'm convinced that he did rough up Epstein. And I don't care what he says or his lawyer or Bill Barr. Unless I see video evidence showing me otherwise, I'm going to continue to believe that Nicholas Tartaglioni roughed up Jeffrey Epstein in that jail cell. All right, folks, that's going to do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in the description box. What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. Nicholas Tartaglioni's trial is now underway in Westchester, New York, and his lawyers wasted no time telling the jury and everybody else that Nicholas Tartaglioni is nothing more than a fall guy. Now, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be too comfortable if this is what my lawyers came up with. You mean to tell me all you can come up with is saying that I'm the fall guy? How the hell are we going to convince the jury of that? And while it sounds great during opening statements, well, you're gonna have to prove that. Now, throughout the rest of the trial. And from what we know of Nicholas Tartaglioni and what he allegedly was up to, it's gonna be a long road for the defense. Today's article is from the Times Herald Record. This is a paid message from GoFundMe. Meet Juan Naula. When his son was hospitalized for a viral infection, Juan started a GoFundMe to pay for medical expenses. It was 5k to pay the bill for my son and I needed only 22 hours. It was amazing. People really trust on GoFundMe. How did Juan raise $5,000 in less than a day? He posted a short video on GoFundMe telling his story in 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Be specific, be quick and tell what are you going to be using the funds for? I was nervous to do it because it doesn't feel okay to ask money. But you shouldn't be nervous. Sometimes you just have to do it and see the results. We were able to save my son's life thanks to gofundme that we still have my son with us. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com gofundme.com this message reflects one person's experience. I drive my bus in a busy city. That's why road safety is so important to me. I know that I must slow down and be extra careful when I make a wide turn. Buses need more room than cars. Everyone can help keep our roads safe. Next time you're driving, remember to give buses plenty of time and space to finish turning before driving ahead. Let's all plan to share the road safely. Learn how at www.sharetheroadsafely.gov headline Tartaglione was the Perfect Fall Guy in Quadruple Homicide Ex Cops Defense says this article was authored by Jonathan Bandler. Ex cop Nicholas Tartaglioni was so enraged by what he thought was the theft of $200,000 by a double crossing partner in a cocaine trafficking operation that he strangled the man with a zip tie and then participated in the execution style slaying of the victim's two nephews and a friend because they were witnesses, a federal prosecutor said Thursday at the start of of Tartaglioni's trial on murder and drug conspiracy charges. And for Tartaglioni, the stakes couldn't be higher. This is a man who is an ex police officer who is now accused of killing a cartel associate. So when he gets to prison, and I believe that's where he's going, if there's any justice in the world anyway, then he's going to have a real bad time of it. He's going to have to go into protective custody and and shack up with the snitches and the chomos because if he's on the main line, he's going to be a target. Who is responsible for these murders? That man, Nicholas Tartaglioni, Assistant United States Attorney Jacob Fiddleman told jurors in opening statements. He and his enforcers executed the witnesses. The defendant is a murderer who is responsible for the brutal death of of four people. But a lawyer for Tartaglioni said he was uninvolved in any cocaine trafficking. That the cooperating witnesses who will describe the 2016 quadruple homicide and powerful motives to lie and will testify about a narrative crafted by federal and state law enforcement authorities convinced Artaglioni was guilty after the four victims disappeared. Yeah, they just came up with it out of the blue, and the bodies just happened to be found on Tartaglioni's property. And furthermore, this dude should be facing the death penalty. But Merrick Garland stepped in and said that he wouldn't face the death penalty. Was that a little bone thrown his way for roughing up Jeffrey Epstein? It wasn't the investigation that led to their conclusion, it was the conclusion that steered the investigation, ADA Lisenring told the jury, adding later that the people responsible are the government's own witnesses if their deed was ever uncovered. Mr. Tartaglioni was the perfect fall guy. You know, they love using this guy as a fall guy, huh? Throw him in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein gets roughed up, but, you know, just miraculously Epstein happened to try and kill himself that night. But there was no cameras pointing at the cell. The case background In 2015, Mr. Tartaglioni was running an animal rescue operation from a 160 acre rental property on Old Mountain Road in Mount Hope. He was living off a disability pension, car sales and the sale of steroids to fellow bodybuilders. And we all know people that are zipped up on steroids are always calculating and measured folks, right? The cocaine conspiracy began, Fiddleman told the jury, when a farmhand of Tartaglioni's, Marcos Cruz, introduced him to Martin Luna, who ran a construction business in Middletown. The plan was for luna to take $200,000 from Tartaglioni, buy cocaine in Texas, and have his construction partner, Jason Sullivan, store the drugs in his Florida home and arrange for the drugs to be sold there. And then with the proceeds, the process would be repeated. And that's how it works. So you get your first package, you sell that package off, right? You pocket a few bucks as profit, and then you reinvest the rest into another package. But the second time Luna went to Texas, he claimed that approximately $250,000 was stolen. Tartaglioni had an associate and fellow bodybuilder, Joseph Biggs, try to pressure Luna to repay the money. When Luna broke off communication, Tartaglioni determined he had been double crossed. Fiddleman said, and unfortunately, in the drug game, this is relatively common. You go into business with somebody, things go south. Either they get robbed or they steal the money, whatever. And now you're in a position where you have to take retribution. So if you're not willing to go that next step and. And be a violent, disgusting animal, then the drug game's certainly not for you. And Mr. Tartaglioni obviously had that kind of violence inside of him and was ready to do what he had to do, at least in his mind. What happened? April 11, 2016. He used Sullivan to help trap Luna. Sullivan told Luna that there were a series of construction estimates to get done in Orange county on April 11, 2016, but the last one was fake. It was an estimate at the Liquid Lounge, a strip mall bar in Chester owned by Tartaglioni's brother. But when Luna arrived that day, he had three others with them. His nephews Miguel Luna and Urbano Santiago, and family friend Hector Gutierrez, all three of whom, Fiddleman said had nothing to do with the cocaine conspiracy and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine you go roll with your cousin or your friend, and you think you're going to do a job inspection, and before you know it, you're caught up in a cocaine conspiracy that ends up with you getting killed. Yeah, I'd say that's wrong place, wrong time. Biggs and another bodybuilder, ex Haverstraw cop Gerard Benderoth, were waiting for Luna at the bar and restrained all four at gunpoint. Fiddleman said Tartaglioni then arrived and beat and screamed at Martin Luna in the bathroom for over an hour, even bringing one of the nephews in to watch. Now, I want you to keep in mind as we're going through this, that this is the man that they thought would be a good idea to throw into his cell with Jeffrey Epstein. Finally, Fiddleman said, Tartaglioni strangled Luna with a zip tie and drove his body to the Mount Hole property. Fiddleman said the other enforcers then brought the three other men to the property. Where each was forced to kneel on the ground and were each shot in the back of the head, one by Biggs, who then turned the gun over to Tartaglioni. Fiddleman said Cruz, who allegedly helped bury the four men and filled in the large grave, led authorities to the site eight months later. The bodies were dug up on December 20, 2016, the day after Tartaglioni's arrest. First witness Kevin O' Keefe the trial's first witness, New York State Police senior investigator Kevin O', Keefe, was a member of the crime scene unit that dug up the bodies. He detailed the discovery of two pieces of a large zip tie that was found in the grave, which prosecutors contend was used to kill Martin Luna. The jury will hear from Biggs, Cruz and Sullivan, but not Benderoth. He shot himself in his car in Havistra on March 8, 2017, as FBI agents were approaching to arrest him. Lisenring acknowledged that Tartaglioni sold steroids, but insisted he wasn't involved in the cocaine trafficking. Nah, I'm not involved in any of this. What do you mean, only steroids? He surfaced in the case, she said, only because a car he had sold Cruz that Cruz gave Martin Luna was pulled over in Houston for speeding, and police found a dugout tire that is typically used to transport drugs. When they learned the owner of the car was still listed as Tartaglioni and that he was the subject of a New York State Police investigation into steroid sales, they began a cocaine trafficking investigation dubbed Operation Italiano Buttis, Lisenring said, with Tartaglioni the suspected ringleader and Luna and Santiago the drug mules, even though no drugs had been recovered. She went on to say that Cruz had unfettered access to Tartaglioni's entire property. He regularly used the heavy machinery that dug the large grave and filled in the hole to cover the bodies. And all that could have been done without Dartaglione's knowledge became because the burial site could not be seen from the house. And when Cruz at one point admitted to killing the four men, she said investigators didn't believe him and threatened him and his family with deportation until he implicated Tartaglioni. Yeah, I don't buy that for a second, honestly. I mean, it's not past the police to do something like that, but it sure seems convenient here. Big's motivation to lie was was the strongest, Lizarding said, because he faced the prospect of the death penalty as one of the killers before cooperating Tartaglioni's career history. Tartaglioni has a checkered career in law enforcement, working first in Mount Vernon for just a year in 1993 before transferring to a job in his native Yonkers. But he lasted there for just 13 weeks and took a job in Pauling with, where he fought to form a police union before leaving in early 1996 and joining the Briarcliff Manor Police Department. Look, if you get kicked off one police department, you shouldn't get a job at another one. And this guy was notoriously a bad cop. He's somebody that grew up in the same area where my parents grew up and where I lived for the first 11 years of my life. And in fact, his family lives like, two streets from where my uncle was living before he moved up to the Catskills. So Tartaglione and his brother were known in the, you know, neighborhood or whatever. And Tartaglioni has always been known as a shitty cop. He faced perjury charges three years later over a DWI arrest that he made. He was acquitted in the criminal case, but fired on departmental charges. However, the village was forced to bring him back, and in 2003, when he sued over the dismissal. During that time, he faced an FBI probe related to allegations of excessive force, but was never charged. The village did pay out a $1.1 million settlement over a local gadfly's federal lawsuit alleging he had been roughed up by Tartaglioni on more than one occasion. Tartaglioni worked just several months in 2003, but before injuring his elbow when he was hit by a passing car. He never returned to active duty and retired on disability in 2008. He later won a ruling that he had become fit to work again, but was never hired. Bro, you weren't hired because you're a scumbag, and you see how the system works. If you're part of one of these police unions, forget it. Even if you're a piece of shit, they're going to defend you to the nines. And that never really sat right with me. If somebody's a scumbag, I don't care if they're a part of your group, part of your union, whatever. You have to take action and get rid of that person, not cover up for them. Testimony and evidence. Fiddleman acknowledged that the government's key witnesses are criminals. One, Biggs, even a murderer, who had all pleaded guilty in the case and were testifying in hopes of a more lenient sentence. But he told jurors their job would be to determine not whether you like these men or. Or what they have done, but whether they are telling the truth. And he said the testimony would corroborate other key evidence in the case that include surveillance video from outside the bar, cell phone data tracing the route the key players took between the bar and Mount Ho property, and blood found on the baseboard of the bathroom floor that met that matched Martin Luna's DNA. Lies and Ring countered that the DNA would be unreliable because police had mishandled evidence allowing for cross contamination. And she suggested that the cell phone data had been cherry picked to fit the government's narrative. For three years, Tartaglioni faced the specter of the death penalty until Attorney General Merrick Garland decided late last year that prosecutors would no longer pursue capital punishment in the case. If convicted, Tartaglioni faces life in prison. The trial before U.S. district Judge Kenneth Karras resumes Friday and is expected to last about a month. So imagine Merrick Garland stepping in here and taking the death penalty off the table. That makes you wonder why. What did Tartaglioni do that gets him the benefit of not having to face the death penalty after murdering allegedly four people? I mean, I'm sure it has nothing to do with his time at mcc, right? And I'm also sure that the reason he was in that cell with Epstein was just a mistake, a mix up, and just human error, because that's the narrative that they've pitched us from the very beginning. But I ask you once again, does anybody out there think that that narrative is even worth listening to at this point? Considering what we know about Tartaglioni and how procedure works in prison or jail, do you really think that there is any way in hell that that this man that we were just talking about should have been in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein ever? Epstein should have been in there with another sex offender, somebody who is working as a jailhouse snitch, whatever. But certainly not in there with one of these juiced out gorillas who's facing four murder counts. That's called a guy with nothing to lose, folks. So why in the hell would you put him in a jail cell with a high profile inmate L. Like Jeffrey Epstein. You know, instead of getting to the very bottom of all of it, why don't we just start there? Can anyone in the government at least give us a reason why Tartaglione, of all people, was in a cell with Epstein? Well, three years later, and we still don't have any of those answers, so I'm not holding my breath. Either way, we'll continue to cover this Tartaglioni trial and see where it all ends up. Because this is the man right here, this, that certainly knows more about what happened in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein than he's ever let on. Alright, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in the description box. What's up everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're gonna get a Nicholas Tartaglioni trial update as one of his co conspirators testifies against them. So let's get into the article by the Lohud and let's see what Jonathan Bandler has for us. Headline Bodybuilder Details Strangling Fatal Shootings in Tartaglioni Quadruple Murder Trial. So is it any shock that Tartaglioni is accused of strangling somebody here? Considering what happened to Jeffrey Epstein in that jail cell, I mean, you know, just another coincidence, right? One man, Martin Luna, was already dead over a $200,000 drug debt, his body wrapped in a blue tarp. His two relatives and a family friend, their hands tied, knelt on the ground as ex cop Nicholas Tartaglioni told them everything would be okay. But Joseph Biggs, a bodybuilding enforcer who collected debts for Tartaglione, detailed for a federal jury Wednesday how the man would not leave that mountainside clearing in Orange county alive seven years ago. He said he shot one of them in the head, handed the black revolver to Tartaglioni and turned away, hearing two more gunshots as the other men were killed as well. And you'll see that a lot when somebody's going to be involved in a murder. Everybody there has to kill somebody so that they all take part, right? With the thought being if everybody takes part in the murder, nobody's gonna snitch. But we know that that's not the case, especially here, considering Biggs snitched on his boy Tartaglioni quick as hell. And when you're looking at a life sentence, yeah, it's time to start talking. He said he had resisted moments earlier when his fellow enforcer, another ex cop named Gerard Benderoth, told him he was going to get his hands dirty and demanded he take the gun. Benderoth told him he had two choices. Either you leave here with us or you stay with them. Biggs recounted him saying. So he's saying, according to Biggs here, that he was bullied into this and told that if he didn't pull the trigger that they'd kill him. Too. And while I don't know how much I buy of that, it's certainly possible, but if I was on the jury, you'd really have to convince me of that. Biggs as a key witness Biggs testified as the main cooperating witness against Artaglioni, who is charged with murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy in the April 11, 2016 murders of Martin Luna, 41, his 25 year old nephew, Miguel Luna, his niece's husband, Urbano Santiago, 35, and Hector Gutierrez, 43. Biggs St. Said Tartaglioni strangled Martin Luna to death hours earlier at a Chester bar where he had been lured. And the others, who had not been expected to show up with Luna, were killed on the property Tartaglioni rented at the time in Mount Hope. The bodies were not discovered until eight months later. Yeah, kind of hard to find the bodies when they're buried in a place like that. Unless you have somebody who's going to kill give you the information, right? Somebody who's going to work with you as an informant. But unless you have that, it's very difficult to recover bodies that are buried in this kind of manner, especially on a property like this that's so sprawling. Unless you have an informant, there's literally no way you're ever going to find those bodies. Biggs is the only eyewitness account of the killings the jury will hear. Benderoth, the man he said helped him and Tartaglioni ra restrain and kill the four men, fatally shot himself on March 8, 2017, as FBI agents were approaching his car to arrest him. Benderoth had been a police officer in Haverstraw and New York City and was a strongman competitor known as the White Rhino. This is a big dude right here. And I remember when I was first looking into Tartaglioni, reading about Benderoth and how he killed himself with when the FBI was rolling up on him, he knew he was cooked. He knew that he was guilty of these crimes and he knew that if the FBI was on to him, then the jig was up. And this was a gigantic man. Imagine being the EMS people that had to come and pull him out of his car after he killed himself. You need a Crane. Biggs, now 61, lived in Nanuit and was a security guard at the Greenberg Graham School in Hastings on the Hudson when he was arrested in the parking lot there in June 2017. And all of these places are in my neck of the woods where I grew up. I grew up in South Yonkers, the South Bronx, before moving to Las Vegas. And this is literally like 15, 20 minutes away from where I used to live. Big's background he said he was a drug addict from his teenage years until his late 20s when he stopped at the time his youngest child was born. He supported his habit with armed robberies and burglaries, but avoided any criminal record. He said that he had been sexually abused by a coach when he was 14 and called himself a garbage head after that, taking cocaine, heroin, lsd, marijuana, anything to just not feel like me. Look, I have a lot of sympathy for people who are a abused sexually especially, but that doesn't give you the COVID later on. If you come out here and you're murdering people, you still have to answer for what you did. Sure it sucks that you were abused and I'm sure the jury is going to take that into account, but that doesn't mean you're getting off scot free. He said he met Tartaglioni through the local gym scene in Rockland and began buying steroids from him on a regular basis around 2006, usually in the parking lot of the McDonald's in West Nyack. A friendship developed, and Biggs said that around 2013, Tartaglioni started using him and Benderoth as enforcers to collect debts from steroid customers. Their typical approach, Biggs said, was to confront the customer as they left the gym, box them in between parked cars and demand the money. If they didn't pay up, he said, we take him somewhere where the money was. Biggs acknowledged the complicated relationship with Benderoth, including consensual sex between the two, even after a bizarre incident in the married ex cop's bedroom that ended with Benderoth sexually assaulting him. He had gone there because Benderoth asked him if he wanted to engage in a threesome with him and his wife. Once in the bedroom, though, the wife was not there and Benderoth came onto him. Big said he tried to step away, but Benderoth began beating him, pinning him to the ground and forcing him into sex. Yo, this is all brand new to me. I didn't know these dudes were out here raping each other and shit. Jesus. But again, it goes to show you, this Nicholas Tartaglioni dude should have never been in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. I put myself in a situation, he told Assistant U.S. attorney Maureen Comey. I didn't see it coming. Despite the violence of it, Biggs acknowledged having sexual contact with Benderoth on other occasions and said he never told anyone about it until his arrest in March 2017 because he was embarrassed. He did scale down his collections with Benderoth, though, he said because he was more profitable to get a package of steroids from Tartaglioni as compensation for the collections than than the cash Bender Roth was giving them. Almost always it's going to be more profitable if somebody is collecting their bounty, if you will, in drugs rather than money, because the drugs are plentiful, right? The drug dealers are getting them at a wholesale cost. It's almost like booze at a bar. The shift to cocaine. He said he Learned in late 2015 that Tartaglioni had taken up cocaine trafficking and investing in the purchase of cocaine in Texas and having it sold in Florida with the help of Luna, Luna's boss, who who lived in Florida, Jason Sullivan, who Biggs knew just as Jay and Marcos Cruz, a farmhand of Tartaglioni's. But in early 2016, Tartaglioni asked for his help getting more than $200,000 back from Luna, who claimed that the second time he went to Texas the to buy cocaine, the people he paid took off with the money and never gave him the drugs. He said he met with Luna and Cruz, but soon Luna broke off communication. Tartaglioni then sent both Benderoth and Biggs to find Luna, but they couldn't. My guess is Luna burned them, right? Luna probably took this money and thought he was gonna get away with it. Well, this is the narco game and people aren't just going to Forget about a $200,000 debt. What Biggs testified about the killings on April 11, 2016, with the help of Sullivan, they lured Luna to the Liquid Lounge, a bar owned by Tartaglioni's brother in a Chester strip mall. Biggs said they had Benderoth meet Luna at the door because the two men had never met. Luna had been expected to come alone, but he brought along Miguel, Luna, Santiago and Gutierrez. Once they entered, Big said Luna recognized him and bolted for the emergency exit, but it had been blocked and he bounced off the heavy door. Benderoth then ordered everyone onto the floor at gunpoint. As Benderoth kneeled on Luna's back, Big started duct taping the other's hands, he said. The three men were put in the office and Luna was seated on a chairman in the bathroom, his hands bound behind his back. And remember, this is the guy they put into a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. Just keep that in mind. When Tartaglioni arrived, Biggs said he went into the bathroom to confront Luna. Biggs said he stayed in the office watching the others, but could hear the smacking sounds of Luna being beaten and Tartaglioni demanding his money. Big said he didn't know any of the others, but they described Santiago as the other captive, who was then put into the bathroom as well. While Tartaglioni continued to beat up Luna, Biggs said he heard a gasping, choking sound for about 30 seconds and looked in to see Martin Luna lying motionless on his side, bleeding from his head. Santiago looking very scared. Tartaglioni went to his car to get a tarp, and Biggs was directed to wipe up a blood streak. Biggs said he helped Tartaglione carry the body to the car because he spoke Spanish. Biggs was also tasked with making sure Santiago complied. When he was directed to call a relative to say there was a problem and he had to go to Mexico. After Tartaglioni ended the call, Big said Santiago told Tartaglioni he was going to get him the money. When Tartaglioni drove off with Luna's body, Biggs said he urged Benderoth that they should just leave, that the police could show up because someone from the Chinese restaurant next door had heard noises and was asking what was going on. They soon drove the other men to Tartaglioni's property on Old Mountain Road in Mount Hope. Look, they had a chance right there to get done with all of it and call the cops and. And turn into Artaglioni. They didn't. They continued on with their mission and even brought the victims to a new location. While Biggs said he did not watch the second and third man get shot, he suggested Tartaglioni and Benderoth had each shot one of them because he had given the gun to Tartaglioni. But Benderoth was holding it immediately after two gunshots, he said he was directed to cut the duct tape off the men's hands, and Tartaglioni got a backhoe to start digging a hole, and the bodies of the three men who were shot were thrown inside, but they had to stop digging because a piece of the backhoe fell off. When Benderoth told him to get in the hole and retrieve the broken piece and looked at Tartaglioni, Biggs got the impression he wanted to kill him. But Tartaglioni shook his head and hands indicating no. Biggs said, hell of a group of friends, huh, guys? Sexually assaulting. You gonna kill you real great group of dudes you decided to throw in with. Before Luna's body was thrown into the hole on top of the others, Big said Tartaglione cut a zip tie from around Luna's neck. They shoveled dirt onto the bodies until nightfall. Tartaglioni then threw the dead man's wallets and other belongings into a furnace near the house. Biggs said he and Benderoth were sent to pick up crews so they could use a key fob taken from the dead men to find a car they had arrived in and and move it as far away from the bar as possible. They didn't manage to find it. On their way back to Rockland county that night, Biggs said Benderoth threw the spent shell casings and remaining bullets from the black revolver out the window on the New York State Thruway. He wasn't sure if he threw the gun out as well. Biggs guilty plea and cooperation. Biggs has pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in hopes of some leniency from a mandatory sentence of life in prison. That's the only incentive he needs, he suggested, to testify truthfully. I'd like to hold my grandchildren, he said. Well, guess what, dude? You shouldn't have been involved in killing these guys. I know you have a sob story and all of that, but guess what? The buck stops with you. Self responsibility. Get some. But he acknowledged on cross examination by defense lawyer Bruce Barkett that his truthfulness and cooperation are for the lawyers relying on him, the prosecutor said. To determine. The defense maintains that Tartaglioni was framed for the murders, that the drug conspiracy had involved Luna, Cruz, Sullivan, Biggs and Benderoth and not Tartaglioni. Barkett cited the fact that Tartaglioni never had a burner phone like Biggs and Sullivan and. And that it was Sullivan, not Tartaglioni, who had access to the money and the cocaine in Florida. It's always somebody else, right? And whenever somebody's doing the not me routine of defense and not bringing receipts, I automatically default to them lying. Barkett questioned Biggs about the contacts in his burner phone that showed Jay Sullivan and Marcos Cruz with dollar signs next to their names. And he suggested that that it was actually Biggs who had strangled Martin Luna. He cited an incident for which Biggs was arrested in 2015 for squeezing a man's neck until he lost consciousness after his daughter had claimed the man assaulted her. And he got Biggs to concede that five to 10 times he had acted similarly to try to get people to pay their debts. Boy, that's ironic, huh? Barkett's out here accusing this dude of being a strangler. Meanwhile, we all know that Tartaglione strangled Jeffrey Epstein in that jail cell the Defense maintains details had been fed to the cooperators to fit their narrative of the case. Biggs conceded to Barkett that a New York State Police investigator had told him that he thought Tartaglioni had snapped and something bad happened and that Luna had been killed by Tartaglioni. On redirect, Comey asked Biggs if a law enforcement agent had ever told Biggs to frame Tartaglioni. They had not, he said. If you tell a single lie, what happens? She asked. I go to jail for the rest of my life, and that's no joke. If you're a witness and you tell a lie on that stand, forget it. All deals are off and you're going to prison forever. So the whole entire account here by Mr. Biggs smacks true to me. We know that Tartaglioni is guilty of this. Come on. Several people have already said so, and the evidence is just a mile high. So I have no doubt that Tartaglioni is going to be found guilty here. But the question still remains. What was he doing in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein? And will we ever get an answer to that question? Alright, folks, that's going to do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in the description box.