Sullivan gave awards to the officers and to St. James honoring their work in the case. Zive received a bouquet of flowers.
NORTHAMPTON - More than 30 years after his murder, Leslie Zive showed he could still pack a room as prosecutors, police officers and family members gathered at the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office to remember his killing and the marathon murder trial that ensued.
Zive went off to work at Merrigan’s Pharmacy in Easthampton on June 8, 1980, never again to be seen alive by his wife and three sons. The 35-year-old Longmeadow resident was found dead in the pharmacy’s cellar later that day with a gunshot wound to the head. In the course of an investigation that spanned five states, police arrested Emilian Paszko, 28, a Chicopee man with an addiction to prescription drugs. The resulting seven-week-trial, one of the longest in the history of Hampshire County, resulted in Paszko’s conviction for first-degree murder.
That verdict came down on May 30, 1981. To commemorate its 30-year anniversary and to remember Zive, Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan invited some of the principal players in the case to his offices Friday. In attendance were Edith Zive, the victim’s widow, as well as attorney William St. James, who successfully prosecuted the case with David Ross, now a district court judge. Also there were retired Easthampton police officers Richard Lavalle and Jack Ramsay, whose work helped crack the case.
Sullivan, who was elected district attorney last November, made good on a campaign promise to St. James to commemorate the trial and all the hard work it involved.
“You can only imagine the amount of time and effort that went into prosecuting the case,” Sullivan said.
View full sizeA newspaper clip from the May 30, 1981 edition of the Springfield Sunday Republican on the murder conviction of Emilian Paszko in the death of Easthampton pharmacist Leslie Zive.St. James, who was First Assistant District Attorney at the time, called the trial the major case of his 44-year career. He and Ross, who was not in attendance, have remained close to the Zive family, attending the weddings and bar mitzvahs of his three sons and supporting Edith Zive throughout the years. Zive recalled telephoning St. James for help once when her insurance company was refusing to pay a claim. St. James showed up at a hearing scheduled the day before the July 4 holiday, told the company officials how he got to know Zive and assured them he would go to any length to help her.
“Needless to say, the claim was settled,” Zive said.
Ramsay and Lavalle took the occasion to remember their late colleague Thomas Andresczyk, an Easthampton police sergeant who also worked the case. Ramsay recalled the time he and Andresczyk were searching for the murder weapon in a swamp outside a Michigan motel, using a high-powered magnet tied to a rope.
“Tommy swings the magnet and we both see a gun stuck to it,” Ramsay said.
The officers excitement dimmed when they saw the gun was a revolver, not the automatic they were looking for. Then they realized that Andresczyk’s holster was empty.
“The magnet sucked it right out,” Ramsay said.
Police later found the murder weapon in Vermont with the help of Paszko’s sister-in-law.
Sullivan gave awards to the officers and to St. James honoring their work in the case. Zive received a bouquet of flowers. In return, she gave Sullivan a collage of her family that included a photograph of a memorial to murder victims in Boston that bears a stone in her husband’s name.
Paszko is still alive and serving his sentence in a maximum security prison, according to Sullivan.