The Assassination of April Kauffmann

apropos of nothing

It's a rare day when a radio DJ gets assassinated. Sure AM talk radio gets heated sometimes but the AM radio audience is aging. 80 year olds just are typically not able to engage in much more than tough talk. Even the median age of an AM listener by TSL is over 50. [SOURCE]  (Not to belabor the point but studies that show the majority of radio listening is at home or Gen Z are radio fans are not really plausible when the opposite is shown to be true in studies about boomers.) [SOURCE] But in researching this I found a shocking number of murdered DJs. I would not have rated it a dangerous vocation but apparently that is the case.

Anyway back to DJ assassinations. The most famous one was Alan Berg, people seem to know that name. He was killed by Neo-Nazis in 1984. [LINK] But maybe we need to define our terms a bit. It's all too easy to find DJs who are bumped off by their domestic partners, even in a premeditated fashion. In 1989 Alberto Martino a DJ at WIBF was killed by his girlfriend Lydia Alvarez. So was Mike Webb in 2007 by his partner Scott White. The murder of Stephon “Juan Gatti” Edgerton of WGOV remains unsolved. John O'Leary of WWWW and WCSX in 2021 also by his partner. More recently in 2022 Tasheka 'TySheeks' Young at WJGL was allegedly killed by the father of 2 of her kids Bursey Armstrong. In 2023 Gaby Ramos of 1550 KMRI-AM was killed by her ex-boyfriend...the list goes on. So lets limit this to premeditated murders which display at intent to achieve political or financial gain. We are excluding so-called crimes of passion, crimes of opportunity and by extension this also excludes murders with no motive at all, as in the bizarre case of the murder of WEAA's Tyra Womack in 2020.   

Not this WIBG.

Motive is difficult to parse. In other words "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" Despite all that complexity I have found one more case in the U.S. of a radio DJ who was clearly assassinated in that very sense of the word. The story is so riveting it's made it to the murder podcasts. [LINK]

Radio talk show host April Kauffmann of WIBG was murdered in 2012 insider her home in Linwood, NJ. The circumstances are strange to say the least. First let's establish that we're talking about 94.3 WIBG-FM in Avalon, NJ. They acquired those calls in 2009, having spent the prior decade as WILW and WWZK respectively. They've not held a single brand or call sign for even a 10 years stretch to it doesn't really merit digging into. However, they have been using the "Wibbage" branding and a vaguely echoic classic hits format since 2009 in an homage to the original "Wibbage."  Let's get back to that murder story.

 

In the original story, April's husband Jim, a 68-year-olddoctor, left for work at 5:30 AM, before the murder. But pathologist Dr. Michael Baden put the timing earlier, around 2:00 AM which would implicate the husband. Strangely the Prosecutor’s Office never acknowledged that Baden’s opinion was sought, nor that the pathologist put Kauffman’s time of death in conflict with her husbands version of events. Instead of a simple, the-husband-did-it tale, the prosecutor Damon Tyner, put forth the states version of events with assistance from the FBI for which they indicted 7 people. More here.

• Ferdinand Augello, 61, Petersburg, NJ - Charged with 1st degree Leader of a Drug Trafficking Network, 1st degree Racketeering, Murder (April Kauffman), Attempted Murder (James Kauffman), Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Joseph Mulholland, 52, Villas, NJ - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Beverly Augello, 47, Summerland Keys, FL - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Glenn Seeler, 37, Sanford, NC - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Paul Pagano, 61, Egg Harbor Township, NJ - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Tabitha Chapman, 35, Absecon, NJ - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance
• Cheryl Pizza, 36, Murrells Inlet, SC - Charged with 1st degree Racketeering, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance

According to Tyner, Kauffman planned his wife's demise after she threatened to divorce him and expose his illegal drug operation which involved the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. We are short on first person information as the supposed trigger-man, Ferdinand Augello, died of a somewhat suspicious drug overdose a year after the killing. Then Dr. James Kauffman committed suicide while in jail in 2018. But according to their version of events James paid the Pagan's over $20,000 to do the job.  A grand jury indicted the seven and after the The remaining six defendants face racketeering, conspiracy and drug distribution charges. [SOURCE]

But years later, without those two key figures, the judicial process ground to a halt. Anecdotally, we learn that Kauffman was a volatile character, lied about his military service, in that he had none; that he made hundreds of calls to a "burner phone" in the months preceding the murder; that he tried to collect on April's $600,000 life insurance policy while in jail,  It is also theorized that what may have driven Kauffman's suicide was a brewing civil case he was even more likely to lose. [SOURCE] It has been reported that when his office was raided he brandished a Ruger 9mm handgun and engaged in a 45-minute standoff with authorities threatened to shoot himself and police.  Inexplicably Tyner described the the raids as unrelated to the slaying of April Kauffman. Even his own step-daughter thought he was guilty.

As for her radio career it's hard to find much. April Kauffman hosted "The King Arthur Show" on radio station WIBG for "several months" according to news sources. She took over the Saturday Morning program from Frank Pileggi who was the Manager of a local Pub. Even a book about the murder, Doctor Dealer by George Anastasia failed to add any color to April's professional career. At 47 years old I presume she had worked in broadcasting elsewhere. 

DJ Alan Berg Esquire

Esquire is a term of British origin with Latin roots in the word scutarius in the sense meaning "shield-bearer." It's an unofficial title of respect, or high social status. Here in the U.S. it's used mostly by lawyers. I apply it to Alan Berg in both senses of the word, with no irony. Alan Berg was an attorney and radio talk show host. He was assassinated June 18, 1984 by Christian White Supremacists attached to the Christian Identity Movement.  Gifted with a dark sense of humor he once said:

"Hopefully, my legal training will prevent me from saying the one thing that will kill me." 

He passed the Illinois bar exam at the age of 22 in the year 1956. He practiced law in Chicago for 10 years, once defending none other than comedian Lenny Bruce.  . He had no intention of going into radio. But then he began to have grand mal seizures. Stricken with neuro-muscular seizures he became an alcoholic. His wife convinced him to go into rehab in Denver. After rehab the cause was diagnosed as a brain tumor. It was successfully removed but left large surgical scars covered with a bowl haircut. None of that has anything to do with the radio-theme here except that it's how he ended up in Denver... which is how he met Larry Gross, (Son of radio man Jack Gross) a talk show host at 1150 KGMC-AM in Englewood. Berg guested on Gross. When Gross left for a gig in San Diego at KNSD-TV, Alan Berg took over his radio slot.

In 1977 KGMC, which changed its call sign to KWBZ, (now KNRV) and owner Robert Bruce McWilliams and Lee Mehlig sold out to Grady Maples. Maples didn't take to Berg's aggressive, inflammatory style and liberal politics. They made his childhood nickname "Bambi" all the more ironic.  Berg crossed the street in 1977 landing at 630 KHOW-AM Denver. It was in the studio of KHOW that KKK leader Fred Wilkins threatened to kill Berg. Death threats aside, KHOW is the far bigger station so ultimately it was a coup for Berg... except that they fired him a few months later. (Some versions say he quit.)  He went back to KWBZ now owned by John Mullins Jr.  His new slot was mornings, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. He ramped up his show and began to get more threats from White Christian Supremacy groups such as the KKK, the Arizona Patriots, and a few Christian Identity Groups, most notably Brüder Schweigen (aka The Order) led by Minister Gordon Kahl. Alan stayed at KWBZ stayed until 1980 when the station flipped to Oldies.

He was unemployed for a stretch in the early 1980s but was rescued by an offer for an afternoon slot at the biggest AM station in Denver, the 50,000 watt 850 KOA-AM. He continued to be inflammatory and outspoken. He was suspended in 1982 for berating Colorado Secretary of State Ellen Kaplan. The suspension was brief, but Berg returned somewhat calmed, still bullish but less abusive. Berg's popularity grew. In June of 1984 he was interviewed on the TV Program 60 minutes. His success only served to further inflame the KKK and Brüder Schweigen. On June 18th at 9:30 PM Berg was shot in his own driveway 34 times with a semi-automatic Ingram MAC-10. He was 50 years old. More here.

The killing attracted the ire of the FBI who mercilessly raided the bunkers of Christian Identity Groups (CID) in the Midwest and North West.  they arrested more than 25 members. In 1987 four members of The Order were indicted by the FBI but only two were convicted of violating Berg's civil rights shooter Bruce Pierce and getaway driver David Lane. Lookout Richard Scutari was acquitted but later served time for racketeering. Jean Craig, who stalked Berg to plan the hit was also acquitted. their combined sentences add up to over 500 years in prison. More here.