People Magazine Investigates: Who are the alleged victims of the Hollywood Ripper aka Michael Gargiulo?

Convicted serial killer Michael Gargiulo, better known as the Hollywood Ripper, was found guilty by a California jury of two murders and one attempted murder and was sentenced to death.

Most of Gargiulo's killings occurred in the 2000s while he was living in and around the Hollywood area of California. The case took a big hit with the murder of Ashley Ellerin, who was a fashion student set to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher at the time.

Maria Bruno was found dead under similar circumstances in 2005, which was followed by an attack on Michelle Murphy, who survived.

ID's People Magazine Investigates revisits the crimes of Michael Gargiulo aka the Hollywood Ripper in an episode of the same name. The synopsis states:

"A woman is murdered the same night she's supposed to go out with rising star Ashton Kutcher, and police believe the clues point to a serial killer; as the number of victims climbs, one brave woman manages to survive."

He was also charged in Illinois for the killing of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, which occurred over two decades ago in 1993. She was fatally stabbed on the back porch of her family's Glenview, Illinois home.

---

From Illinois to California, "death and destruction followed" Michael Gargiulo aka the Hollywood Ripper

At Michael Gargiulo's Los Angeles trial, the judge who sentenced him to death said that "everywhere that Mr. Gargiulo went, death and destruction followed him."

Gargiulo's case received added wide-spread media attention because one of his victims was scheduled to go on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher, who also testified at the trial, before she was killed and found with over 40 stab wounds.

In August 2019, a jury found Gargiulo guilty of the 2001 and 2005 murders of Ashley Ellerin, 22, and Maria Bruno, 32, who were found stabbed multiple times in their homes in the Los Angeles area.

He was also convicted of Michelle Murphy's attempted murder in 2008 after she was repeatedly stabbed in her Santa Monica home, but survived. This proved crucial once it led to the arrest of the serial killer.

Moreover, the Hollywood Ripper remains charged with murder in Illinois for the 1993 stabbing death of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio outside her Glenview home. Gargiulo, who was only 17 years old at the time, was a friend of the victim's brother and lived next door to the Pacaccios.

When Michael Gargiulo first encountered Ashley Ellerin, he was 24 years old and had stopped to see if she needed assistance changing a flat tire. Later, Ellerin's friends informed authorities that the killer, who lived less than a block away, would frequently drop by her home without notice and lurk around her house at strange hours. She was found with 47 stab wounds in her home in February 2001.

At the time of the murder, Ellerin knew former That '70s Show star Ashton Kutcher and had planned to go on a date with him the night she was murdered. In a later testimony at Michael Gargiulo's trial, Kutcher claimed that when he arrived at Ellerin's house that evening but she didn't answer the door, he assumed she had set him up because he didn't know she was murdered.

Afterwards, Gargiulo reportedly moved to a gated apartment complex in El Monte, where on December 1, 2005, he fatally stabbed Maria Bruno, a neighbor.

Then, on April 28, 2008, Michelle Murphy was asleep when she was attacked and only woke up to find a man stabbing her arm. A struggle occurred between the two which led to the assailant, later identified as Michael Gargiulo, cutting himself before he fled the scene. Gargiulo's DNA was found on Murphy's bed and the sheets, which were then used to establish a connection between the killings.

---

Learn more about the Hollywood Ripper's case on ID's People Magazine Investigates.