The CBS Murders: Donald Nash

 

Donald Nash (born Donald J. Bowers; December 9, 1935 – June 2, 2016) was an American criminal, who in 1982 committed two murders for hire and also killed three bystanders, and later killed a fellow prison inmate.

Early life

Nash lived in Keansburg, New Jersey. He was born Donald J. Bowers and legally changed his name to Donald Nash in 1978. He held several odd jobs, including taxi driver and construction worker. Between 1952 and 1982, he was arrested seven times in New York and New Jersey. In 1981, he was convicted in New York of using forged documents to obtain a taxi medallion but failed to appear for sentencing, resulting in a fugitive warrant for his arrest.

Crimes

Background

Irwin Margolies was co-owner (with his wife Madeleine) and CEO of Candor Diamond Corporation, which traded in diamonds. In 1981, Candor Diamond went bankrupt, owing $5.7 million to financing house John P. Maguire and Co. The US Department of Justice investigated, suspecting fraud by Margolies. Margaret Barbera was the comptroller of Candor Diamond and was involved in Margolies' fraud. She made a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one count of fraud, with a recommendation of no prison time, in return for her cooperation against Margolies. Prosecutors allegedly told Margolies that Barbera and another woman employed by Candor would testify against him.

Margolies then hired Nash to eliminate the potential witnesses, paying him $8,000 for each killing.

Murder of Jenny Soo Chin

Jenny Soo Chin was a former Candor bookkeeper and friend of Margaret Barbera. On 5 January 1982, she visited Barbera in Ridgewood, Queens. When she left, a man in a ski mask forced her into her car and then drove away. Chin was never seen again; the bloodstained car was found nine days later. The casing from a spent .22 cartridge was found in the car.

Murder of Margaret Barbera

On 12 April 1982, a group of CBS Television technicians (Leo Kuranuki, Robert Schulze, and Edward Benford) left work together. They walked to their cars in the rooftop parking garage at Hudson River Pier 92. There they saw a man in a ski mask loading a woman's body into a white van. They tried to intervene, and the masked man killed them, with one .22 bullet to the head of each. The killer chased one victim 150 meters. A fourth CBS employee, Angelo Sticca, had lagged behind; he saw the killings and fled in his car. The killer then escaped from the garage in the white van.

Investigation

Police initially suspected the killer acted for some organized crime group.

The killer left .22 shell casings and discarded shoes and sunglasses at the murder scene. Barbera's body was found in lower Manhattan; she too had been shot in the head with a .22 bullet. Police now connected the garage killing to the disappearance of Chin. The spent cartridge from Chin's car was fired by the same gun used in the rooftop killings.

Since Barbera was a witness in a federal trial, the FBI joined the investigation. Nash became a suspect when investigators found he had rented the parking space adjacent to Barbera's, using his former name "Donald J. Bowers". FBI divers searched Waackaack Creek, near Nash's home, and found two more .22 shell casings which matched those from the murder. Yet another matching .22 shell casing was found in the home of Nash's nephew, Thomas Dane.

Nash was arrested a week later by Kentucky State Police near Frankfort, Kentucky, driving the getaway van, which had been repainted black. He was held on a fugitive warrant from the forgery conviction.

Trial

Nash was charged in state court with the murders of Barbera and the three CBS employees and conspiracy to murder Chin and Barbera.

The prosecution presented 136 witnesses, including Thomas Dane, who testified under immunity. They showed that Margolies had paid Nash $16,000 for killing Chin and Barbera, and an additional $5,000 because of the killings of the CBS employees. Nash's attorney, Lawrence Hochheiser, presented only one witness, an ophthalmologist who testified that Nash was nearly blind in one eye and had possible glaucoma. Hochheiser argued that Nash's poor vision "made him an unlikely hitman." Nash was found guilty of all charges on 24 May 1983. He was sentenced to 100 years imprisonment.

Margolies convictions

In November 1983, Irwin Margolies, who had paid Nash for the murders, pleaded guilty to federal fraud and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. His wife Madeleine pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to three years. Margolies was subsequently charged with the murders of Chin and Barbera, as well as conspiracy to murder them. Margolies was also charged with attempted murder for hire of David Blejwas, the attorney representing John P. Maguire and Co., the fraud victim. His former attorney, Henry Oestericher, testified under immunity that he had been the go-between.

On 21 June 1984, Margolies was convicted of the murders and conspiracy. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 25 years for the murders, and a concurrent term of eight years for conspiracy, all to be served after the federal sentence for fraud.

Murder of Roy Tucker

Nash was held at Auburn Correctional Facility and worked in the kitchen there. Roy Tucker, a murderer serving 25 years, was transferred to Auburn from Attica Correctional Facility in May 1994 and also worked in the kitchen. On 17 October 1994, as Tucker and Nash were preparing meals for other prisoners, Nash slashed Tucker to death "with a 12-inch board spiked with razor blades".

Later developments

According to New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision records, Donald Nash, (Department Identification Number 83A4150) was marked as deceased on June 2, 2016.

An American author, Richard Hammer, wrote a book titled The CBS Murders which was originally published by the New American Library (NAL) in 1988. The book covers the story of the murders of the CBS employees.

Books

Hammer, Richard (1988). The CBS Murders. New American Library. p. 238. ISBN 9780451155443. Retrieved 2020-06-28.