The Murder of Paul Komyatti Sr.

This case is an example of a group effort when it comes to murder. This was not a bunch of teenage kids who had a beef against someone and a fight got out of hand. This was not even a situation where some underground crime group ordered a hit on someone. No, this was a case in which a woman, her son, her daughter and her son-in-law would all apparently basically sit around the table and plot the murder of her husband. It was said they actually had several ideas and had attempted at least a few but had failed. In the end they were finally able to commit the murder but obviously not without getting caught or I would not be here telling you the story.

On March 20, 1983 sixty-two year old Paul Komyatti Sr. would be murdered in his bed in his Hammond Indiana home. Within two and a half years his wife, son and daughter would be in prison and his son in law would be dead after the state had executed him. At the time of his murder Paul lived with his wife, Rosemary, his seventeen year old son, Paul Jr. and his Jason. I do not know how old Jason was at the time but I can tell you he was the son of Paul's daughter, Mariann and that Jason carried the Komyatti name. Mariann on the other hand lived in nearby Chicago with her husband, William Vandiver.

Paul Sr. has only been described as an alcoholic who would get “loud and violent.” It was said that he constantly belittled and verbally abused his wife and children. I never saw any allegations of physical abuse made. It is not clear on whether the prosecution agreed with this assessment of Paul Sr's behavior or if they even addressed it at all. By all accounts his murder had not occurred in a situation in which one of the others were in a position in which they needed to defend themselves. He was sleeping in his bed.

I did a little bit of research into another case and I have to wonder just how well known it was at the time of Paul's murder and if it had any impact on the decision to murder him. In 1977 about three hours away from Hammond, in Dansville Michigan a woman by the name of Francine Hughes set fire to the bed in which her ex-husband, who was living with her, lay sleeping. Francine would go on trial and be found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. It is thought to be one of the first ever cases in which the “battered woman syndrome” was used, let alone successful. By 1980 there was a book. There was also a television movie made about the case but that would not air until after Paul Sr was already dead. To be fair, in the Hughes case there had been several documented calls by the local police to the home revolving around the abuse. I am unsure if there was anything on record in the Komyatti case, and as I stated earlier I heard nothing about physical abuse which was very prominent in the Hughes' case. I only bring it up now because of the proximity and the media attention.

It not clear exactly when Rosemary reported her husband missing or under what circumstances she told the officers who took the initial report it had occurred. However, it was said that whatever the story was investigators did not seem to believe it and were immediately suspicious. It is then not completely clear what her next story was but she led investigators to Paul's body in May of 1983. It was said that Paul had been decapitated but beyond that I am unsure there was any other dismemberment. The body had been placed in trash bags and were found on the shore of Lake Michigan.

In June, Rosemary, Paul Jr. and William and Mariann Vandiver were indicted in the murder of Paul Sr. It appears that much of the information that investigators would get about the case came from William and Mariann. But, as is often the case in such matters, William would later change his story and attempt to minimize his role. According to William initially however the plan to murder Paul Sr. had been on going for some time. He claimed there were several attempt to poison him through his food and drink with rat poisoning. However, all it seemed to do was make him sick and they began to worry that he would go to the doctor and the poisoning would be discovered. The next plan was to use ether to knock him out and then inject air into his veins to cause his death. But, it appears they discovered that ether was not as easy to come by as they had believed. The last plan was to smother him in his sleep.

On March 20, 1983 Mariann and William waited outside the Komyatti home until Paul Jr. gave them the signal that Paul Sr. was in bed and asleep. The couple went inside and Mariann ensured that her son, Jason was asleep while William and Paul Jr. went into the master bedroom. While Paul Jr. held his father down William began to smother him with a pillow. Paul Sr. awoke and began to struggle. It was even said that he yelled out “Son, son, can't we work something out?” and repeatedly hollered for Rosemary to help him. At this point William pulled out a fish filet knife and began to repeatedly stab him. It was said that in William's confession he would say that he stabbed him over 100 times but the coroner would find nearly forty stab wounds. Ultimately the decapitation seemed to be what killed him.

William would claim that Paul Jr. gave him a “loan” of $5,000, although in fairness I am unsure where a seventeen year old kid, especially in 1983, would have had that kind of money. In addition William claimed that Rosemary gave him $1,700 and Paul Sr's truck. By the time William went to trial in December of 1983 he recanted his confession and blamed the murder and the decapitation on Paul Jr. It is not clear whether Mariann testified for, or against him at his trial but she did testify earlier that month against her mother and brother, but I will get to that in a bit. The prosecutor in William's case was asking for the death penalty and despite anything the defense apparently said it appears the jury did not buy their story. William was convicted on December 19, 1983. On January 20, 1984 the judge would sentence him to death. William decided he was not going to fight the sentence and waived all of his appeals aside from the initial mandatory appeal. He was quoted as saying “Well, I turned myself in. I admitted the crime. I see no sense in wasting everybody's time. The best that could happen, I would end up doing 45 years, and I'm going to die there anyway, so why- why prolong it? You know- you known there is no need. I'm going to die there regardless, so I don't see no sense in sitting there when it's going to happen anyway.”

On the day of his execution authorities brought his wife, Mariann, who was serving a prison sentence at another state prison, to the prison in Michigan City to visit with him. This was not something I had ever heard of being done before. Then again, in most cases in which a couple are both sent to prison one generally turns on the other and the relationship is over. On October 16, 1985 William Vandiver was placed in Indiana's electric chair in preparations for his execution. When all was said and done even the state would say things did not go completely as planned and many have called it a “botched execution.” William was only the second person to be put to death by Indiana since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. Only Steven Judy had preceded him. However, the chair itself had been used since at least the 1950's. The first jolt of electricity was given but William was still breathing. Some reports say that three more jolts were given while there are a few that say only two more. In the end William paid for the crime against Paul Komyatti Sr.

There was some discussion as to whether the murder of Paul Sr. was the only one in which William had participated in but I found nothing substantial to those claims. The rumor was that Paul Sr. had encouraged Mariann to divorce William because of his criminal past as well as his involvement in a possible murder in Chicago around the time of his own murder and had threatened to contact the authorities. In all the information I read I found nothing that stated he was a suspect in another murder and most indications are that his criminal past was little more than alcohol related charges.

Rosemary and Paul Jr. were tried together in the early part of December of 1983, it seems just before William's trial. Mariann agreed to testify against them and her charges were reduced to “assisting a criminal” to which she would receive a sentence of eight years. It appears that both Rosemary and Paul Jr. argued the same defense in saying that William Vandiver had “bullied” them into going along with “his scheme” and they remained silence because they feared that he would kill them also. The prosecution argued that the murder of Paul Sr. had occurred for insurance and “estate” reasons. The prosecution had at least one witness who testified that Paul Jr. had “boasted” about killing his father which disputed the idea that he was “scared” of William Vandiver. This may have been why William then changed his story when he went to trial and put more blame on Paul Jr. Once again the jury seemed to believe the prosecution and not the defense when they were convicted on December 7, 1983. They were both sentenced on December 28, 1983 to forty-five years on the charge of conspiracy to commit murder and fifty-five years on the charge of murder in the first degree. They appealed their conviction and sentence in 1986 but it was upheld.

As I do in just about every case I went to the Department of Corrections website to see what information I could gather there. For Rosemary it had stated that she was “deceased” and that her “earliest release date” was February 16, 2012. Upon further review it appears that this is the date of her death. Information on the Findagrave.com website indicated that she died in Indianapolis (although it did not say specifically where) after she had broken her hip. She was eighty-two years old. This indicates to me that she had remained in prison until at least her injury and either died in prison or still in the custody of the state in a hospital. I found no information about any parole hearings she may have had between the time of her conviction and the time of her death.

When it comes to Paul Jr. things seem a bit confusing. It appears as if he was released on parole in May of 2009. By July his parole officer was inquiring about allegations that he had recently driven to Michigan City. Paul Jr. only had a learner's permit and it appears that at some point he claimed to have driven to Michigan City alone to visit the local casinos there. This is not allowed on a learner's permit. He would later claim that he rode with another fellow ex-convict. Investigators found it interesting that he had visited Michigan City, where a maximum prison (one in which it seems he had been held) was located and that on the following day three inmates that he knew had escaped. By August the state had revoked his parole. This is when things get a little more confusing. It seems that Paul Jr. appealed the parole violation and while it seems the courts upheld the ruling it also seems as if the Parole Board either reversed themselves or he was simply released in May of 2010. This time he only made it a month before he was back in the news again.

On June 19, 2010 Paul Jr. was on a bicycle and was apparently highly intoxicated at the time. He had gone down the wrong way on a road in Indianapolis at a high rate of speed when he hit a pot hole. He flipped over the bike and landed it seems face first onto the ground. He suffered severe disfiguring injuries that included more than fifty broken facial bones, the lost of nearly a dozen teeth and it was even said his “nose was sheared from his face.” He was in a coma for nearly three weeks and by September of 2010 he had already endured seven surgeries and many more were expected. He proceeded to sue the City of Indianapolis but the case was thrown out when it was determined that his blood alcohol level and the fact that he was going the wrong way on the road were the contributing factors in the case.

It seems that by 2013 Paul Jr. was living in Wayne County Indiana, on the Ohio border, or at least he committed his next crime there. In October of that year he was convicted of charges of trespassing and attempted theft. He received a year in prison on each charge and was released in March of 2014. It seems he has somehow managed to stay out of the news, and prison since then.