Washington Township outside Apollo.
Bernard and his wife lovingly tended the Travaglia homestead as it perched atop a hill in tiny Paulton. Trying to make it a safe and inviting home for their two boys, they both worked hard and long hours. From the well-manicured lawn to the garage and shop in the back, it was a picturesque testament to rural life.
While some sibling rivalry is typical in all families, the dissention that existed between Michael and his brother, Kenneth, was beyond what most would consider normal. Preceding him in school by a year, Michael always saw Kenneth as the favored son, and whether real or perceived, this partiality by Michael’s parents toward his older sibling created great pressures for him.
As a student, many of Michael’s teachers spoke fondly of him. Some even testified as character witnesses on his behalf during his trial. Whether it was his swimming coach or Michael Lamendola, his symphonic band instructor, they described him as well behaved, straight-laced and incapable of committing such heinous atrocities as the news accounts had attributed to him.
A neighbor to the Travaglia family once described him as a timid boy who, when visiting their home to play with their son, wouldn’t even come into the kitchen without permission.
Other neighbors described a far different boy. This Michael Travaglia tortured small animals and displayed a disturbing mean streak.
His school record at Kiski Area Senior High School was, like most of Michael’s early years, unremarkable. He graduated in 1976 and shortly thereafter began training as an airplane mechanic. Studying at the Allegheny County Airport near Mount Pleasant, just outside Pittsburgh, Michael had a knack for the mechanical. Doing well in school, his training moved along as planned until late 1979. It was then that Michael first met John Lesko.
In hindsight, one might be tempted to speculate on the effect that the ultra-strict upbringing of Bernard and Judith Travaglia had on Michael. Whether his escape from the heavy-handedness of his father might have lent a strong push toward his eventual collapse into total chaos is unknown. Many have made such speculation, yet none has hit upon the definitive answer. Perhaps, as with a great deal of human behavior issues, no singular answer exists.
Whether attributable to a newfound freedom or his newly formed friendship with John Lesko—with its concomitant orgiastic feast of drugs and alcohol—something changed in Michael Travaglia after his graduation.
Although more than fifty witnesses testified to Michael’s good character, many of Michael’s post-incarceration writings hint at a very different child—a child prone to drug and alcohol abuse at an early age.
A self-professed Satanist at the time of his arrest, Michael claims that incarceration, as it does for many, has changed him. One such change has been a turn toward Christianity.
As with any claim of prison conversion, strong skepticism is warranted. While his current religious beliefs are 180 degrees from what he claimed in 1979, whether this is genuine or artificial, society will never know. The blank stare of impending death often changes a person’s outlook.
In addition to, or perhaps because of, his miraculous turn toward God, Michael has married a woman he met in prison. He originally met his wife, Fran Andrasy, through her church, and she first visited him on Christmas Day 1990. Two years later, in a “contact” prison ceremony, Fran Andrasy became Fran Travaglia. Even though the couple has been married fifteen years, their union is anything but conventional.
As a death row inmate, Travaglia is not allowed contact visits. Therefore, visitation between Mr. and Mrs. Travaglia is limited to Bible study sessions conducted from opposite sides of bulletproof glass. Seated across from Michael, separated by two inches of Plexiglas, Fran reads passages from the Bible that she and her husband selected earlier. Sharing in this
Bernard and his wife lovingly tended the Travaglia homestead as it perched atop a hill in tiny Paulton. Trying to make it a safe and inviting home for their two boys, they both worked hard and long hours. From the well-manicured lawn to the garage and shop in the back, it was a picturesque testament to rural life.
While some sibling rivalry is typical in all families, the dissention that existed between Michael and his brother, Kenneth, was beyond what most would consider normal. Preceding him in school by a year, Michael always saw Kenneth as the favored son, and whether real or perceived, this partiality by Michael’s parents toward his older sibling created great pressures for him.
As a student, many of Michael’s teachers spoke fondly of him. Some even testified as character witnesses on his behalf during his trial. Whether it was his swimming coach or Michael Lamendola, his symphonic band instructor, they described him as well behaved, straight-laced and incapable of committing such heinous atrocities as the news accounts had attributed to him.
A neighbor to the Travaglia family once described him as a timid boy who, when visiting their home to play with their son, wouldn’t even come into the kitchen without permission.
Other neighbors described a far different boy. This Michael Travaglia tortured small animals and displayed a disturbing mean streak.
His school record at Kiski Area Senior High School was, like most of Michael’s early years, unremarkable. He graduated in 1976 and shortly thereafter began training as an airplane mechanic. Studying at the Allegheny County Airport near Mount Pleasant, just outside Pittsburgh, Michael had a knack for the mechanical. Doing well in school, his training moved along as planned until late 1979. It was then that Michael first met John Lesko.
In hindsight, one might be tempted to speculate on the effect that the ultra-strict upbringing of Bernard and Judith Travaglia had on Michael. Whether his escape from the heavy-handedness of his father might have lent a strong push toward his eventual collapse into total chaos is unknown. Many have made such speculation, yet none has hit upon the definitive answer. Perhaps, as with a great deal of human behavior issues, no singular answer exists.
Whether attributable to a newfound freedom or his newly formed friendship with John Lesko—with its concomitant orgiastic feast of drugs and alcohol—something changed in Michael Travaglia after his graduation.
Although more than fifty witnesses testified to Michael’s good character, many of Michael’s post-incarceration writings hint at a very different child—a child prone to drug and alcohol abuse at an early age.
A self-professed Satanist at the time of his arrest, Michael claims that incarceration, as it does for many, has changed him. One such change has been a turn toward Christianity.
As with any claim of prison conversion, strong skepticism is warranted. While his current religious beliefs are 180 degrees from what he claimed in 1979, whether this is genuine or artificial, society will never know. The blank stare of impending death often changes a person’s outlook.
In addition to, or perhaps because of, his miraculous turn toward God, Michael has married a woman he met in prison. He originally met his wife, Fran Andrasy, through her church, and she first visited him on Christmas Day 1990. Two years later, in a “contact” prison ceremony, Fran Andrasy became Fran Travaglia. Even though the couple has been married fifteen years, their union is anything but conventional.
As a death row inmate, Travaglia is not allowed contact visits. Therefore, visitation between Mr. and Mrs. Travaglia is limited to Bible study sessions conducted from opposite sides of bulletproof glass. Seated across from Michael, separated by two inches of Plexiglas, Fran reads passages from the Bible that she and her husband selected earlier. Sharing in this
Similar Books
