Trick-or-Treat for Murder

   

 On Halloween night 1957 just as they settled in for a night's rest, Peter and Betty Fabiano heard their doorbell ring at [approximately] 11:30 pm.  Believing that there were lingering candy chasers at the door, Peter journeyed down the stairs, grabbed the last few pieces of candy left from the night and opened the door.  Betty heard him utter, "Isn't is kind of late for this sort of thing?" The question was followed by a bang, a thump and finally a car speeding away.  Betty ran down the stairs to determine what the commotion was only to find her husband laying on his back with blood pouring out of his chest.......dying.  Peter died in the ambulance on its way to the hospital and it was determined upon arrival, that Peter died due to a .38-caliber bullet becoming lodged beneath his heart.

     Peter, a WWII veteran and hair stylist (who operated two salons in San Fernando Valley) appeared to be a model citizen, with no murderous enemies.  The only blemish on his record was a minor bookmaking charge from 1948, with that being said, initially it was difficult for police to determine the why and who regarding the 35 year old's murder.  It was a full two weeks before police officers uncovered a plausible suspect........Joan Rabel (40).  Rabel was a divorced freelance photographer that  worked in one of Peter's shops.  Upon being questioned by the police (as was Betty and ALL employees of Peter), Rabel proclaimed that the Fabiano's were "two of my closest friends".  That was [partially] a lie.  

     The Fabiano's had recently reconciled after a stent of living separately.  During the time of the separation, Betty Fabiano and Rabel became roommates and developed a friendship that (by all accounts) did not set well with Peter.  Upon the couple's reunion, Peter forbade ALL contact with Rabel, which sent her into a unshakable negative space. Especially since Betty (36) admitted that their separation occurred because of her relationship with Rabel. 

     On November 16th, Rabel was taken into to custody where her partial lies cast an even greater dark cloud over her head.  When asked about her whereabouts on Halloween night, she protested earnestly that she had not left her home and her proof  was her car that remained unmoved in front of her house.  That was another [partial] lie.  Police did confirm that her car did not move all night, but that Rabel did, courtesy of her friend Margaret Barrett's car that she had borrowed for the evening.  To explain that away Rabel said that she used the car to go grocery shopping.  With NO murder weapon and no eye witness to confirm or deny that Rabel pulled the trigger, she was released.

     On month after Rabel's release, investigators received an anonymous tip that led them to a rental locker at a department store which contained a .38 caliber pistol.  Ballistics confirmed that the pistol was indeed the murder weapon and a scan of sales receipts lead them to a meek LA Children's Hospital lab tech, Goldyne Pizer (42).  Pizer, unlike Rabel, had no poker face.  Through a sea of tears, she admitted to fatally shooting Peter......but because a woman had put a curse on her.  That woman that placed a curse on her was none other than Joan Rabel.

     According to Pizer, the three women had all been friends (for approximately 3 years) until Peter became uncomfortable with Rabel's closeness to Betty.  Once Betty was no longer a member of the trio, Rabel began ranting about him daily and the [now] duo became [increasingly] closer.  Pizer admitted that over that past few months leading up to the murder, Rabel had filled her head with tales of the "evil and vile" man "who was destroying everything around him". Pizer believed, without question, when she was told that Peter was cruel to his wife and step-children (Judy and Richard, from Betty's previous marriage). 

 

According to Pizer, "she said he mistreated his wife and that he was dealing in narcotics.......she told me he was always bothering her at home."

     Pizer began to hate Peter just as much as Rabel and confessed  to planning his murder alongside Rabel.  The two had considered using poison and a knife before settling on shooting him.  Rabel drove Pizer [several] times to his primary salon so that she would know what he looked like and provided the money for the gun used to kill him.  Pizer told the Pasadena gun salesman that she needed the weapon to protect herself, since she was a woman living alone...and he bought the story hook, line and sinker.....although she only bought 2 bullets.  

 

The murderous duo, planned the murder down to most of  the details.  Rabel borrowed Barrett's car, picked up Pizer and drove to the Fabiano home around 9 pm.  The two sat outside the home for more than 2 hours before Pizer dawned a Halloween costume (jeans, khaki jacket, hat, red gloves, domino mask and dark face paint) provided via Rabel in a paper bag.  After the bedroom light went out around 11:30 pm, Rabel looked at Pizer and said, "....go do it."  Pizer rang the doorbell twice and waited for Peter to open the door before removing the revolver from a paper bag.  Admittedly, she was trembling horribly, "I had to use the left hand to hold the right hand in order to pull the trigger."  

   After fatally wounding Peter with a single shot, Pizer ran back to the car, received a kiss and thank you from her Svengali and the two sped back to Barrett's house (where they left the khaki jacket in the car).  Upon parting ways, Rabel told Pizer, "forget you ever knew me" before Pizer cut up and torched the remaining components of the costume the following night.  It was also Pizer that hid the murder weapon in the pay locker.  

     Due to the confession made by Pizer (Rabel continued her stoic vow of silence), the duo was charged with first degree murder; to which Rabel plead innocent and Pizer, insanity.  On March 11, 1958, just before their trial was set to begin, the duo accepted a plea deal.  The charge was reduced to second degree murder with a sentence of 5 years to life.....which outraged the public.  A few years into their sentences, they were released.  As of 1971, Pizer was an officer in the Miracle Mile Chapter of the Professional Women's Club and died at the age of 83 (in 1998).  After her prison release, Rabel left no paper trail but is believed to have expired in her 80's as well.

    It has been widely speculated that Betty Fabiano was also involved in the planning of her second husband's murder, but no charges were ever filed against her.  She died in 1999 at the age of 81.