Cheaters slain on lovers lane on Duck Island near Trenton, N.J.

Between 1938 and 1942, a phantom gunman would snuff out the lives of three amorous couples seeking privacy on the island, which was the eerie setting for the 1936 Ellery Queen thriller “Halfway House.”

On the cold, rainy night of Nov. 8, 1938, Vincenzo Tonzillo, 20, and Mary Myatovich, 15, became the first to die.

Another pair of smoochers heard a scream. When they investigated, they found Tonzillo lying dead in a bloody puddle outside the car.

Myatovich was on a seat inside, bleeding, muddy, but alive. Rushed to a hospital, she regained consciousness just long enough to tell her father and police what had happened. She said that soon after the couple had parked a “short, stocky colored man” with a 12-gauge shotgun appeared at the window and demanded money. When Tonzillo refused, the stranger shot him.

Myatovich bolted, but she was not fast enough. The attacker shot her in the buttocks and raped her.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/justice-story-cheaters-slain-lovers-lane-duck-island-trenton-n-article-1.989759