49 years ago this month, the Gerald Bricca family was murdered in what would become the most notorious and obsessive cold case in Queen City history.
Jerry Bricca, wife Linda, and daughter Debbie were found stabbed to death on Greenway Avenue in the Bridgetown neighborhood of Cincinnati. Going down between the 4th and 5th murders of the “Cincinnati Strangler”, this grisly triple homicide pushed a city already on edge to the breaking point.
The young family was slain on Sunday night September 25 1966, sometime between 9-11PM. Two nights later, concerned neighbors discovered their bodies after noticing the lack of activity at the house. Detectives were already 48 hours behind the killer.
Several factors indicated the assassin knew the victims. There was no forced entry, a carving knife matching the wounds was missing, and the house was ransacked yet nothing taken. There were no defensive wounds or signs of a struggle. The Briccas’ two dogs, known to be aggressive, were found locked in the basement. Investigators theorized that 4-year-old Debbie was murdered because she could identify her parent’s killer…or killers.
Over 300 people were interviewed in connection with the case. Eventually, the focus narrowed to a married man known to be romantically involved with Linda Bricca. This man hired a lawyer after his second interview and refused any further cooperation. By early 1967, Bricca investigators and their prime suspect retreated into a lingering psychological stalemate that was never broken.
Five decades later, this unsolved crime still haunts anyone who dares to remember it. Because there is something sinister at the heart of these murders – a motive so twisted that the line between passion and insanity was obliterated.
Consider an investigation that became an ominous impasse when detectives were engulfed by a case beyond belief…
Or a prominent prime suspect who lawyer-ed up and lived the rest of his life under a cloud of dreadful suspicion…
And a community so passionate about this grim and terrible crime that the rumor mill is still spinning after almost 50 years…
Armchair detectives know that every good mystery has a wild card. So is there a clue, motive, or secret ready to drop in from left field? Because the key to understanding a crime is to expose the skeletons that spawned it.
Today, the Bricca mystery lingers in cobwebs and survives on whispers… a terminal case with a fading pulse.
But for those who have kept this slaughtered family in their memories, it will never be too late to learn the truth…
-JT