Don’t Look Behind You

Rose was not Catholic, there was no question that they would marry one day.

    Joe Tarricone in 1953, when he was 28. He’s wearing a “loafer jacket,” very fashionable for men in the fifties.

    Rose and Joe on their honeymoon. She was sweet and pretty and wore her hair in a “Betty Grable” pompadour. Joe was handsome. The future stretched brightly ahead of them, and they were anxious to have children. Joe was a man with itchy feet, and Rose wanted a home in one place, but they didn’t think about that then.

    A teenage Joe Tarricone with his parents at a beach cottage in New York State.

    Rose and Joe pose in a photo booth where pictures were four for a dollar. They had a lot of fun together and were so in love.

    Joe Tarricone was a great cook and his fellow soldiers appreciated the meals he prepared. He loved to cook as a civilian, too, and devised a way to make giant pizzas for his whole neighborhood.

    A very young couple—Joe and Rose Tarricone with their firstborn, their daughter Claire. Joe loved being a father and was thrilled when each of his seven children was born.

    Joe Tarricone with his first four children. From left, Aldo, Joey, Claire, and Gypsy as a baby. The photographer was obviously focused on the children in this picture.

    Joe wrestles with three of his seven children. He was always there for them—until one day he wasn’t. They searched for him for three decades.

    Joe and Rose Tarricone with their seven children: Claire, Aldo, Joey, Gypsy, Gina, Rosemary, and Dean. All the kids in the Tarricones’ Albuquerque neighborhood followed Joe as if he were their own special Pied Piper.

    Joe Tarricone was happiest when he was cooking for his family and friends—the more the better!

    One of the last photos ever taken of Joe Tarricone. He was an ebullient and magnanimous man who was unaware of the danger he faced from a surprising source.

    Rose Tarricone was Joe’s high school sweetheart, the mother of his seven children, but after thirty years, Rose wanted to put down roots, while Joe was always looking for the next place to move. Divorced, they remained good friends.

    Joseph Anthony Tarricone in a rare pensive mood. There wasn’t much that could get him down, but the end of an affair did. And then his eyes were opened.

    Dr. Katherine Taylor demonstrates where some of the buried bones in Puyallup would fit into a human body. Many of the bones had been sawed in two, and a number of them were missing completely.

    Dr. Taylor examined the shoulder blade and partial humerus bone of the nameless man found in Puyallup, Washington, and saw that a power saw had been used to dissect the body.

    Dr. Taylor assembles the bones found on a deserted property in Puyallup, Washington. It was like a puzzle for her—where she put together parts that resembled a full skeleton. This was the first step in a very long and tedious investigation. Was the deceased male or female? How long had the bones lain undetected in a shallow grave? In time, all the questions were answered.

    Renee Curtiss was in her twenties when she met Joe Tarricone. She had a pretty, guileless face then, almost pixielike. Joe loved and trusted her for a long time and took her into his business and his heart.

    Nick Notaro, Renee’s adopted brother, would do anything for his two sisters—anything. He had many secrets in his past, but they came to light because he was a very inept liar.

    Nick Notaro’s first wife, Vickie (left) and her daughter (right). Nick lied about Vickie’s sudden disappearance in Alaska. The last time she was seen was when she went to bring Nick home from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy. 

    Renee Curtiss, looking stunned, after she was arrested in Henry’s Bail Bonds in the Skid Row district of Seattle. Pierce County sheriff’s sergeant Denny Wood is on her right, and Sergeant Ben Benson is on her left. She expected to bail out of jail within hours.

    Renee Curtiss was living in this condo in Seattle with her husband, Henry Lewis, at the time she was arrested. She had a lovely home, and Henry was quite wealthy. At last, she seemed to have everything she wanted.

    Benson in Baltimore, Maryland, with a Baltimore detective and that city’s helicopter. Ben was trying to find one of Nick Notaro’s former cellmates.

    The author and Detective Sergeant Ben Benson at a party to celebrate the finished manuscript of
Don’t Look Behind You.

    Detective Sergeant Denny Wood, usually Ben Benson’s