Eyewitness

The True Story of the Northport Aztakea Woods Murder

De: Albert Quinones

Narrado por: Allison Hart

How one night in the woods with my two best friends Ricky Kasso and Gary Lauwers changed my life forever.

Albert was born in Smithtown New York. He graduated from Northport High School, class of 1986. He put hours of studying into enlisting himself in the United States army as a combat engineer from 1986. He received an honorable discharge in 1994 and received many army achievement medal, passed down from President George Bush. Then he went to Briar Cliff college as a computer networker, programmer and reserved his associates degree. He ran a repair shop at Meineke in Queens, New York. Albert Quinones moved on to being one of the carpenters in the 1556 labor union as a shop steward. Albert Quinones eventually went on to having his own construction company: Five Boroughs Construction Group.

©2023 Albert Quinones (P)2023 Albert Quinones

I’m not sure how to review this one.

I’ve been following this case since the day the story broke. I grew up and lived about 20 minutes from Northport. My friends and I were the same crowd. Every town on Long Island had its group of stoners, burnouts, etc. so seeing kids with AC/DC and Grateful Dead shirts on the cover of Newsday caught my attention instantly. Then reading about the life and drug culture these kids were living made me really interested. Again, my friends and I were living the same life. Drinking, smoking, tripping, and cranking rock and roll. Having bonfires in the wooded areas, hanging around the old head shop. It was all too familiar. Obviously the murder is where the similarities stopped. But I could imagine it. Being out of your mind on several hits of mesc or acid while all control is lost. How would I have handled it? What would I have done? That’s why I always hoped Albert would write a book. He seemed the most sincere just from reading about the case, their lives, the murder, and the trial. He seemed genuinely freaked out. I’ll never forget him saying something about having nightmares or thoughts of Gary’s corpse knocking on his window or calling out to him from the woods. So I always hoped for a book from him. Well I got what I hoped for but have to say I’m not really as satisfied as I thought I’d be. There’s some little things, which make me wonder about the bigger things. Just things, like he mentions smoking a blunt. In 1984 on Long Island, blunts weren’t in existence yet. He also Mentions something about hits of acid for $20. No way. Acid back then was maybe $4, or 2 for $5. Even if someone was selling it expensive it would still be under $10. At another point he mentions being born again but then talks about going to a party to drink and pick up girls. Again, these are little things but if they don’t add up it makes me wonder about all the stuff I don’t know. For years we’ve heard it was over Gary stealing angel dust from Ricky. There’s no mention of dust in this book. Tripping and smoking dust would put you in a mindset where murder could definitely happen. The whole description of the murder comes off as…I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Albert was. And I certainly don’t want to accuse him of lying. I don’t know, I’m glad to hear Albert seems to be doing well but this book makes me have more questions than anything. Also I didn’t enjoy the narrator.