Shivangi Sinha
In November 2016, when Joey Comunale, a Stamford graduate, went missing, the police traced the time just before he did. On that night he had disappeared, he had spent time with Lawrence Dilione and James Rackover at The Grand Sutton in Manhattan, New York, and had only met them that night. At first, both of them claimed to have no knowledge about what transpired, but as evidence emerged, it became clear that they had the means and motivation. In Netflix’s ‘Homicide: New York’ season 2, episode titled ‘Party Monster,’ the details of the legal case against them and what followed for them are shown.
Larry Dilione and James Rackover Partied With Joey Comunale Before He Went Missing
James Rackover was born in the early 1990s and grew up in Florida. He was originally named James Beaudoin II, and not much is known about his childhood or the kind of upbringing he came from. In Florida, he had several criminal records, ranging from burglary to drug-related charges, but he moved to Manhattan, New York, in the mid-2010s. He was introduced as Jeffrey Rackover’s acquaintance using his surname, and Jeffrey told people that James was his son. However, later police investigation showed that there was no biological relationship between the two. Jeffrey was the one who gave James an apartment in a luxury fourth-floor unit at The Grand Sutton. By March 2015, James had officially changed his surname.
Lawrence “Larry” Dilione had grown up in Oceanport, New Jersey, but by 2015, he had moved to Jersey City. He also came from an affluent family and became a close friend of Rackover. The two of them often went around town and made the most of their time in NYC. On the evening of November 12, 2016, Dilione and his roommate, Max Gemma, went to a bar where they met a few girls and Joey Comunale as well. They all decided to go to an after-party, which was being hosted by Rackover at his apartment. A little after midnight, the girls left the party, and Comunale and Dilione went down to drop them. On November 14, Comunale was reported missing by his family. The police’s initial investigation led them to the apartment where he had last been seen.
Larry Dilione and James Rackover Pinned the Blame on Each Other For the Killing
At first, when the police spoke to James Rackover, he said that his friend Lawrence Dilione had brought a guy over, but he did not know him and did not know where he went after he went down to drop the girls off. Dilione said something similar, claiming that he did not remember if Comunale had left the girls in their Uber or if he had walked off to buy cigarettes, but he insisted that Comunale did not come back with him into the apartment. However, when the police checked the surveillance footage, they discovered that both of them were lying. Comunale was seen walking back into the apartment with Dilione.
Shortly after, the police also found bedsheets and towels soaked in blood in the building’s trash. The blood on them matched Comunale’s. They also discovered his ID and credit cards in the trash. The police also brought in cadaver dogs, which alerted them to a black Mercedes-Benz that Rackover drove and which was registered in the name of Jeffrey Rackover. The police discovered that the latter had been driving on a suspended license and arrested him. They also brought in Dilione for questioning, and when pressured, he told the police to find Comunale’s remains in Oceanport.
According to him, after they had dropped off the girls, a fight broke out between him and Comunale over things like alcohol and other items brought for the party, and he punched him. He claimed that Rackover then told him he could not go behind bars if the Stamford graduate pursued charges, and so he stabbed him multiple times. The police also obtained surveillance footage showing both Dilione and Rackover carrying the remains and tossing them out of a window before driving off in a car. They had also attempted to burn the remains in a shallow grave using gasoline, but the attempt had not been entirely successful.
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After the recovery of the remains, both James Rackover and Lawrence Dilione were charged with second-degree murder, concealment of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and hindering prosecution. Rackover’s trial began in October 2018, during which his defense claimed that he had merely helped dispose of the remains and had not been the attacker and blamed Dilione for the crime. The prosecution argued that both of them had worked together. The prosecution also presented Louis Ruggiero as a witness, who testified that Rackover had boasted about the crime in front of him.
Taped recordings were also presented in which Rackover could be heard bragging about the crime he had committed. In November 2018, he was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to the maximum of 25 years to life for murder. In January 2019, Dilione pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was given a 23-year sentence. Rackover is now 35 years old and is being held at the Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County, New York. 37-year-old Dilione is incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, and will be eligible for parole in 2036.
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