Number’s up for ex-priest

Slain perv’s math-tutor lies

The disgraced former priest from New Jersey who was murdered at his Nevada home had a steady stream of young male visitors before he was slain, according to neighbors and a report.

John Capparelli (inset), 70, who died of a gunshot wound to the neck about three weeks after his name appeared on a list of 188 Garden State perv priests, claimed to have been tutoring the college- and high-school-aged men, NJ.com reported.

A next-door neighbor told the outlet Capparelli invited him and his wife over for dessert shortly after the expriest moved to the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson in 2016. Capparelli told the couple he was a retired math teacher and went to “great lengths” to explain to them “why he had so many young visitors,” the report said.

The neighbor said Capparelli would “routinely” have a couple of young male visitors every week for purported math-tutoring sessions and never mentioned his past life as a priest or any of the sex-abuse allegations against him, according to the couple.

The dessert was the only time Capparelli had the couple over.

Last week, police sources told Fox 5 that Capparelli had a history of hiring male prostitutes. Other neighbors said the defrocked priest would keep to himself and rarely interacted with his Bonner Springs Drive neighbors, many of whom are East Coast transplants.

John D’Angelo, who lives two doors down from Capparelli’s home, said the former priest would often ignore greetings from other neighbors while he was out walking his black Labrador retriever.

D’Angelo also said Capparelli had regular visitors and there were often many cars parked in front of the home.

Before his death, Capparelli was accused of sexually abusing at least two dozen young men as a New Jersey priest in the 1970s and ’80s.

Many of his accusers said he would ask them to wrestle in tight clothing while he took photos of them.

The Henderson Police Department has not released any updates related to the case, which is being treated as a homicide, and a department spokesman told NJ.com Tuesday they “have no additional information” to provide.

Capparelli’s body, which was discovered on March 9, was not identified by a family member until March 11, the Clark County Coroner told The Post. The former priest had a relative upstate, outside of Albany.

When reached by The Post last week, the relative said the family is grieving over his death and asked for privacy.