Justice for the Palm Sunday massacre fell short
Astoria: “Lone survivor of 1984 massacre” (March 24) brought back memories of Christopher Thomas, set free after spending 34 years behind bars for one of the most notorious crimes New York has ever had. Even the hardened criminals on Rikers Island were horrified by the brutal murders of two adult females and eight children. I was a correction officer on duty that dreadful night when the news of the killings flashed on the television screen. The inmates watched in stunned silence, until a voice screamed out, “We’ll be waiting for your ass when you get here.”
Two months went by before an arrest was finally made. Thomas (second from right) was found in the Bronx House of Detention on an unrelated charge — sodomizing his mother. I just finished reading the details of his arrest when all of a sudden, Thomas was right in front of me. It was like he jumped out of the newspaper. He had the same devilish look and wore the same shirt as in his photo on the front page. I was working the elevator post inside Rikers Island Hospital, and a captain who escorted Thomas asked to be taken to the Protective Custody Unit, the only place that could save this shell of a man.
He was eventually convicted of a downgraded charge of manslaughter, an insult to every New Yorker. On his sentencing day, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ronald Aiello said, “Christopher Thomas belongs in jail for the rest of his life.” He compared him to “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz, saying, “I thought I had met the worst person in my life then, until I met you.” Aris Sakellaridis