Biker Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello, is convicted of murdering NJ radio host – April Kaufman’s doctor husband committed suicide while on trial for the hit job he ordered on her ‘because she threatened to expose an illegal drug ring he ran with biker gang’
Biker is convicted of murdering radio host who ‘was victim of a hit job ordered by her doctor husband because she threatened to expose an illegal drug ring he ran with gang’
Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello, 62, Tuesday, as convicted of murder, conspiracy, racketeering among other counts in the 2012 shooting of April Kauffman
Doctor’s wife and New Jersey based Radio DJ, April Kauffman ,was fatally shot inside her bedroom at her home in Linwood, New Jersey, in 2012
The man who allegedly planned the murder, her husband 69-year-old Dr Jim Kauffman, killed himself inside his jail cell in January 2018, while awaiting a murder trial
Francis Mulholland, the alleged gunman, died of a heroin overdose in 2013
The last defendant, Pagan Motorcycle Club chief, Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello, accused of purchasing the hit on behalf of Jim Kaufman, was finally convicted on Tuesday
April was allegedly killed her to prevent her exposing a vast opioid drug ring run out of her husband’s medical practice and distributed through the Florida based Pagan biker gang
Aguello’s ex-wife Beverly, had earlier being charged with collecting the cash payments from Dr Kaufman
Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello, who is the last surviving defendant in the murder case of New Jersey radio host April Kauffman was finally brought to justice on Oct 2, 2018
Jurors deliberated for just two hours Tuesday before agreeing to convict 62-year-old Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello of murder, conspiracy, racketeering and other counts in the 2012 shooting of April Kauffman.
Atlantic County prosecutors say Augello, who was also known as ‘Miserable’ and the woman’s husband, Dr. James Kauffman, wanted to stop her from exposing a drug ring allegedly run by the doctor and a motorcycle gang.
New Jersey radio DJ, businesswoman and community volunteer April Kauffman [photo], was shot to death at her home in 2012
She had asked him for a divorce and threatened to expose his illegal drug distribution ring.
The radio talk show personality was shot and killed at her home in Linwood NJ, but investigators did not make much progress until it was revealed that she found out her husband was running a drug ring out of his doctor’s office.
James ‘Jim’ Kaufman was later arrested and charged in her murder.
Two other people, Beverly Augello who allegedly acted as go-between for the cash payments and her ex-husband Ferdinand Augello were also arrested in connection with April Kauffman’s death. Prosecutors say Ferdinand Augello, hired a hitman on the doctor’s behalf.
Prosecutors say he Dr. Kauffman dispenses Oxycontin pills to gang members.
James Kauffman was arrested in June 2017, when he displayed a handgun while investigators executed a search warrant on his home and office.
He was finally persuaded by a hostage negotiator to surrender. He was charged with his wife’s murder earlier this month.
Jim Kaufman and another man Francis Mulholland identified as the trigger man, are now deceased leaving Ferdinand Augello to face restitution for the murder.
Ferdinand Augello appears in court in Mays Landing, New Jersey on Tuesday, Oct 2, where he was convicted by the jury for the murder of April Kaufman, six years earlier
These calls, Levy said, stopped the day before April was shot to death in her bedroom in Linwood, New Jersey.
Augello’s ex-wife, Beverly, said she picked up his alleged payment inside an envelope labelled ‘Fred’ from Kauffman’s office the day of the murder.
Related: James Kaufman, New Jersey doctor accused of arranging murder of radio host wife found dead in jail cell – apparent suicide
Kimberley Pack [right], daughter of victim April Kauffman [left], allegedly told police ‘you can go right over there, because that’s the person that killed my mom.’ at the scene, the day her mother died
‘April Kauffman, grandmother, friend, champion for veterans’ rights, murdered in her bed,’ Levy said. ‘And yes, this defendant was absolutely responsible for that.
‘When you move the pawns out of the way, all you have staring back at you is “Freddy crime wave”, “Miserable” Ferdinand Augello,’ Levy said.
‘The leader of a racketeering organization, hands dripping red with the blood of April Kauffman.’
Defense attorney Mary Linehan questioned the reliability of the state’s witnesses, including paid witness Andrew Glick, a former gang official turned informant.
‘This is for the media: I did not kill Mrs. Kauffman, nor did I pay anyone to kill Mrs. Kauffman’ – Murders suspect Ferdinand Augello, on social media
Linehan says the state’s evidence points to Glick as the perpetrator and called the state’s case ‘prosecution by multiple choice’.
Augello was said to be unmoved during the reading of the verdict, but as he was led away, he addressed the media, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
‘This is for the media: I did not kill Mrs. Kauffman, nor did I pay anyone to kill Mrs. Kauffman,’ he is quoted as saying.
Augello, a former president of the New Jersey Shore Pagan’s Outlaw Motorcycle Club, blamed Joseph Mulholland.
The other two defendants in the trial, are both now deceased. Alleged gunman Francis Hulholland [left] died of his opioid addiction in 2013, while Dr James Kauffman [right], died of apparent suicide in his jail cell in Jan 2018 before he coud be brought to justice
Mulholland, also a member of the motorcycle club, admitted driving the gunman, Francis Mulholland, to the Kauffman residence where the door was left open and April Kauffman was asleep in her bedroom.
Mulholland, an opioid addict, died of an overdose a year after the murder.
On January 26 2018, Kauffman, 68, was found dead in his cell at 9.20am in what authorities termed an apparent suicide at the county jail in Kearney.
According to NJ.com, Kauffman who was not on suicide watch, suffocated himself and a six-page suicide note was discovered.
Kauffman had long maintained his innocence, a stance his attorney, Louis Barbone, repeated just weeks before his death.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said on Tuesday: ‘Ultimately Dr. Kauffman was tried by a higher jury.
Related: Florida woman, Beverly Augello and her ex-husband, Ferdinand Augello arrested in drug and motorcycle gang-related slaying of New Jersey radio host, April Kaufman
The victim, April Kauffman seen [left] with her daughter Kimberley Pack, [right], was a popular radio talk show host in New Jersey and a veterans’ advocate
‘It cost him his life. He couldn’t live with the weight of the evidence that would have been presented against him on this date.
‘I don’t think much of Jim Kauffman,’ Tyner said.
‘I think of the victim, April Kauffman, all the family members that were affected by his actions. I think of his role in flooding the market with Oxycodone.
‘His legacy is all of the tragedy he left behind, the lives that were lost, and the people who were affected by his mispractice of medicine.’
In June, Kauffman’s daughter Kimberley spoke about her mother’s death, six months after her stepfather died.
Kimberley Pack talked about the moment she found out her mother was dead and the brutal accusation she made to police moments later.
When Pack received the phone call her mother was dead, she raced to her home on Woodland Drive in Linwood, New Jersey. When she was told by police April had not died by natural causes she told ABC she immediately knew who was behind it.
‘Well,’ Pack told the cop, ‘you can go right over there, because that’s the person that killed my mom.’
Pack says she knew from the very start her stepfather, a respected endocrinologist in the Atlantic County area, was behind her mother’s murder.
Kimberly Pack says the second she arrived at her mother’s home in New Jersey, she told the police her stepfather, respected local doctor Jim Kauffman, was behind the murder
Good times: Dr Jim Kauffman [left] on set with his wife, radio DJ, April [right], met while April’s daughter, Kimberly Pack, was still in high school and married a year later
Her daughter said she was initially happy for her mother, who had been unlucky in love, and hoped this time would be different for the radio host.
‘She did struggle in love because maybe she was looking for the wrong things,’ Pack told ABC.
‘I think she deserved love… I was hoping Jim Kauffman would make her happy.’
But later on into their relationship, April discovered that Kauffman’s tales of his time in the military, his Green Beret and serving in Vietnam were lies. Devastated, and perhaps feeling duped, she wanted out.
But when she gave Kauffman an ultimatum, threatening to out him as a liar if he did not let her leave, he threatened her right back.
Pack says her mother told her his response to her threats was: ‘If you tell anybody, I will go nuclear on Kimberly and the children’.
Murder plot mastermind Dr. James Kauffman was taken into custody June 13, 2017 after prosecutors said he bought a hit on his wife to protect his illegal drugs distribution business
Kauffman may have been more concerned about being outed over the alleged opioid drug ring he ran with the local Pagan biker group.
When she asked her mother what ‘go nuclear’ meant, April told Pack not to worry.
‘Don’t worry, he doesn’t have the balls to do anything,’ she told her daughter.
While Kauffman perhaps didn’t have the balls to do anything, police say he knew a lot of people who did.
Kauffman had allegedly been distributing OxyContin to the Pagan Motorcycle Club, and prosecutors allege he ‘propositioned a number of individuals to murder April Kauffman’, including Francis Mulholland.
On the morning of May 10, 2012, authorities say Mulholland was given a gun – and at least $20,000 in cash – to carry out the murder.
Kauffman was arrested in the summer of 2017 following an armed standoff with police at his medical practice, five years after the murder.
He was charged with murder in addition to racketeering related to the illegal distribution of narcotics through his former medical practice.
Authorities said he brandished a handgun as agents executed a search warrant and said, ‘I’m not going to jail for this!’ A hostage negotiator soon persuaded him to surrender.
On the last day of the trial, Pack sat in the front row and cried as the final verdict was read out in a case which went unsolved for almost six years.
At trial, testimony showed that the gunman left the Kauffman residence and took the Linwood bike path after murdering April. The gun was never found.
Photo of Dr. James Kauffman in court after his arrest. Kauffman made his initial court appearance shortly before he killed himself in January 2018. The man he allegedly hired to kill April died of a heroin overdose about a year after the killing.
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