FRANKLIN, New Jersey – In April 1997, two pizza delivery men, Georgio Gallara and Jeremy Giordano, from Tony’s pizzeria were lured to an abandoned property where their lives were tragically cut short. Little did they know, the drop off would be their last as they were used as bait by two blood-thirsty teenagers who decided to kill them just for the thrill of it. The shocking case of “Pizza Killers,” Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland, shook not only their local community but also the world.
What makes the case even more shocking is that other pizzerias had been called but refused to deliver to the address. The two tragic men had only gone together to the address because they too had been suspicious. Armed with guns, Koskovich, 18, and Vreeland, 17, unleashed a hail of bullets on the unsuspecting delivery men as they rolled down the window to tell the boys how much they owed. The motivation of the teenagers was chillingly simple – they just wanted to see what it would be like to kill.
The murderous pair not only killed them but also dragged them out of the car and searched their dead bodies for money before leaving the pizzas uneaten beside them. It was later determined that Koskovich fired the fatal bullet that claimed Giordano’s life, and Vreeland killed Gallara with a single bullet to the back of the head. A friend of Koskovich told police he had confessed that he’d always wanted to kill a pizza delivery person.
At his trial, Koskovich was spared the death penalty and received a sentence of 30 years to life in state prison on top of 40 and a half years imposed on him after his 1999 conviction of various crimes in the double murder. Meanwhile, Vreeland was sentenced to at least 51 years in prison. The court heard both boys had troubled childhoods and had been involved in taking drugs, shedding light on the backgrounds of the teenage killers.
The case of the “Pizza Killers” is a saddening example of how the thrill-seeking attitude of two young individuals led to the senseless murders of two innocent men, sending shockwaves through the community and around the world.