His killer past

Beloved, hardworking father is charged with
stabbing woman 19 times in 1976 Jersey slaying

BY NICOLE BODE, PETER KADUSHIN and NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

To his friends and neighbors, Thomas Atkinson was a popular, hardworking dad who organized block parties and installed a basketball hoop on his Bronx street to help keep local kids out of trouble.
But to cops he's a killer who stabbed a New Jersey woman to death as a teenager three decades ago - a brutal and random crime he kept secret even from his live-in girlfriend of 25 years.

Bergen County prosecutors charged Atkinson, 44, with first-degree murder in the savage slaying of Joyce Paneck-Saglimbene, 27, a "beautiful and friendly" blond executive secretary who was engaged.

They want Atkinson, who was just 13 when he allegedly became a killer, tried as an adult. But it's possible that because he was a juvenile at the time he could face as little as three years behind bars.

"I'm still in shock. How could he live with this [secret] his whole life, and then start a family and get married?" asked the victim's stunned brother Richard Paneck, 51. "He has to face it now. It's going to destroy his family like it destroyed mine."

Atkinson's longtime lover, Gail Connelly, 48, said she had no clue "because we never talked about any of this. When you're with someone for 25 years, you think you know everything about them, so I'm at aloss."

Speaking in the living room of her Bronx apartment, Connelly called Atkinson "a calm man who isn't ever violent. So I don't think he did it.

"But if he did I'd forgive him because he was just 13."

She said she had only talked to Atkinson by phone since his arrest, adding, "Once I see him face to face I'll know. He'll tell me the truth.

Prosecutors said Atkinson viciously stabbed Paneck-Saglimbene 19 times during a bungled mugging in an Englewood, N.J., garage after she walked to her car during her lunch break to drop off a new houseplant.

Atkinson, who now works for an upscale caterer but spent 15 of the last 30 years behind bars for crimes ranging from burglary to assault, pleaded not guilty in Bergen County Family Court. He is being held in lieu of $2 million bail.

"There wasn't one aha! moment in the reinvestigation. It was a combination of everything," explained Michael Mordaga, chief of detectives at the Bergen County prosecutor's office.

"We reinterviewed witnesses in this case. And there is physical evidence. There will be DNA testing involved," he explained, declining to elaborate.

Newspaper reports on the May 14, 1976, slaying said police questioned a witness who recalled seeing a youth loitering in the vicinity.

Cops described the suspected killer as a black teen with thinning hair, a medium build and about 5-feet-10 - a description that fit Atkinson.

Investigators never found the knife, only the victim's bloody purse empty of cash across the street.

"I do not know why he was not charged in 1976. He was a suspect," said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli. "He was not the prime suspect, [but] witnesses had him on the scene in 1976. He did provide a statement."

Molinelli said he will seek to try Atkinson as an adult though he allegedly committed the crime as a juvenile. The Bronx dad faces three years to life in prison, if convicted.

"My dad didn't do it. It's bull----," said Atkinson's son Marcus Connelly, 19. "He's a very good person. He helps people, he gives to charity. He's had his life on track ever since I've known him."

Friends at Atkinson's job and in his Morris Heights apartment building were equally shocked.

They had no idea about the killing, no idea of his criminal history - which includes an assault with intent to commit rape rap as a juvenile.

"You think you know somebody and then these types of accusations are made. It's very hard. We're all shaking our heads in disbelief. He was respectful and hardworking, always on time and taking pride in his work," said his boss Randy Zablo, the owner of Foremost Catering in Moonachie, N.J., where Atkinson has worked since February 2004.

"He's a great guy," said neighbor Pearl Roberts, 59, head of the building's tenant association.

"Thomas helped us all. He would look after everyone's kids on days off without a problem or incident."

But when Atkinson was a kid, authorities offered this warning, citing his "extensive" juvenile record: "He has displayed a constant anti-social behavior with no indications of change. Continued criminal activity seems to be assured."

Originally published on August 23, 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/445861p-375410c.html