October 31st, 1957 – Halloween Night
Peter sat up in bed. The doorbell was ringing, over and over again. He blew out his breath. What kind of kid went trick or treating this late?
Peter stood up and began to make his way downstairs. As he did, the doorbell came again. It couldn’t be kids. It was way too late. What kind of kids were out this late?
Still, maybe it was. Maybe their parents had to do something earlier in the evening and, feeling guilty, decided to take their kids around for some last-minute trick or treating. Peter sighed and grabbed the bowl of candy that he and his wife had left near the front door.
He supposed it wasn’t going to hurt anything. Besides, if it were someone else he could always put the candy down. Smiling, he opened the door and asked, “It’s a little late for this sort of thing, isn’t it?”
There was a loud popping sound as he felt a sudden pain in his chest that burned like fire. He felt himself falling, the bowl dropping to the floor, candy spilling everywhere. Everything happened so fast. Peter hit the floor hard, but he hardly felt it.
He lay there, staring up at the ceiling. He was vaguely aware of footsteps coming down the stairs, but it seemed so far away. Gradually, the edges of his vision began to dim, and then all faded into darkness.
This is John Brassard Jr, and these are Strange and Dreadful Things, the podcast where you hear tales of true crime, dark history, and the paranormal that your grandma didn’t want you to hear.
Betty Fabiano wanted to go back to sleep, but she couldn’t. Who went trick or treating so close to midnight?
Betty and her husband, Peter, had just been drifting off to sleep when someone rang the doorbell at the front door. They were both surprised that someone would be trying to get candy so late.
Peter had gone downstairs to answer the door. As she laid there, she could her him padding softly down the stairs and then across the room to the door.
A moment later, she heard the door open. Peter said, “It’s a little late for this sort of thing, isnt’ it?” Betty heard someone answer, “No.” It was too quiet for her to determine if it was a man or a woman.
Then came the popping sound. She immediately recognized what it was: a gunshot. She heard a heavy thud as something fell hard.
In a flash Betty flung off her covers, jumped out of bed, and ran downstairs. There, lying in the hallway, was Peter, a bloody hole in his chest. A moment later, her daughter, Judy, came into the hallway. She had heard the gunshot, too, and came out to see what was going on
As Betty went to Peter’s side, Judy ran to the home of Bud Alper, a policeman who lived nearby. When he answered the door, she explained what had happened. He quickly called the police station, then followed Judy back to her house to help.
A short time later, other police officers arrived at the Fabiano home, along with an ambulance for Peter.
He was taken to Sun Valley Hospital, but, unfortunately, it was too late. Peter had been shot in the chest, with the round going straight into his heart, mortally wounding him.
While no one had seen the killer, one teenage boy returning from a party about the time of the murder had seen a car speeding through the area.
Detectives theorized that they might have worn a Halloween costume of some kind. They believed that it gave the killer a reason to be in a disguise of some kind that hid their faces from any potential witnesses.
The murder weapon was not found at the scene, suggesting that the killer had taken them.
A check into Peter’s background also revealed very little.
Peter Fabiano had been born in Lansing, Michigan in 1922. After graduating high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps and settled in Los Angeles, California when he was discharged.
The only legal blemish on his record was a conviction for bookmaking, which is betting illegally on the outcome of an event, like a professional sports game. Peter was fined $100 and spent 6 months in the Los Angeles County Jail.
In 1956, Peter and Betty got married. She had been married once before and had two older children, Judy, 15, and Richard, 17. By all accounts, the couple were extremely happy together and the two children had no problems with their stepfather.
Richard had been living at home but had recently joined the United States Navy. The night of the murder, he had left earlier in the evening to take a bus back to San Diego, where he was stationed.
The couple was financially stable. Peter was an award-winning hair stylist who owned his own successful beauty salon in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles. Betty also owned a successful beauty salon in North Hollywood.
Judy had attended a Halloween party earlier that night, and Peter had picked her up at about 10:30 pm. They had then stopped and got sandwiches and went back home. Peter had gone to bed shortly after, staying there until awoken by the doorbell a short time later.
There was seemingly no motive for the crime – nothing was stolen, the marriage was stable, the business was doing well. By all appearances, this seemed to be a random crime. There had been no witnesses to the crime and no evidence left at the scene.
All there was left to do was to wait and see if any leads would reveal themselves. Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long.
On Wednesday, November 13, just a few weeks after Peter Fabiano’s murder, police arrested Joan Rabel, a freelance photographer who had worked part-time at Fabiano’s beauty shop.
When police had questioned her about the murder, Rabel said that she had been at home when Fabiano was killed. However, detectives learned that she had borrowed a car to use during that same time.
Margaret Barnett, a friend of Rabel’s, said that Rabel had asked to borrow her car the night of the murder. When Rabel returned, Barnett noticed that an extra 37 miles had been added to the odometer. When talking to the police, Rabel insisted that she had only driven a total of four miles.
Neighbors in the Fabiano neighborhood told police that they had seen a car that looked like Barnett’s in the area on Halloween. Police chemists also found sand in the vehicle that was very close to the soil around Peter’s house.
She had been to the Fabiano home on several occasions and stated that she considered them to be close friends. She adamantly denied murdering Peter Fabiano.
When detectives questioned Betty about Rabel, she confessed that she and Peter had recently recovered from a rough patch in their relationship. She implied that the difficulties in their relationship had been a result of her friendship with Joan Rabel. As they began to reconcile, Peter told her that he wanted her to end the friendship with Joan.
Betty agreed, and hadn’t spoke with Rabel since that time. Detectives realized that if Joan had been upset about how all of that had turned out, then it gave Rabel a motive for murdering Peter Fabiano.
A few days later, even more shocking news came when police arrested a second woman in connection with the murder.
Goldyne Pizer, a friend of Joan Rabel, had confessed to murdering Peter Fabiano on Halloween night.
The divorced 43-year-old had known Rabel for three and a half years. They had met at a party where Rabel was taking pictures. She had photographed Pizer and her date. The two had struck up a casual conversation, which led to them becoming friends.
Pizer was impressed at how intelligent Rabel was. She said, “She knew so much about culture, art, music, all that sort of thing.”
About a year before the murder, Rabel had started talking to Pizer more often. About three months before the murders, Rebel began to tell her about Peter Fabiano. She told police that Rabel had convinced her that Peter had been abusing Betty and was dealing drugs. He was an evil, wicked man, and he needed to die. He had even threatened to hurt Rabel if she intervened in his relationship with Betty.
At first, Goldyne had refused. She was a quiet woman and had no desire to kill anyone, let alone a stranger. But over the course of several weeks, Rabel kept trying to convince her that it was the right thing to do.
The more Rabel told her about Peter, the more Goldyne disliked him. Gradually that simple dislike grew into an intense hatred, and she agreed to murder Peter.
At first, they debated what the best method to kill him was. Eventually, they decided that shooting him was the best method. Goldyne asked a male friend about what gun he would recommend for home defense. He suggested a Smith and Wesson model revolver.
A few days later, her and Rabel went to a gun shop in Pasadena, California, and bought the gun.
After some more discussion, Rabel and Pizer decided to kill Peter Fabiano on Halloween night. Pizer could wear a disguise and no one would ever question how she looked.
On Halloween night, Rabel gave Goldyne a set of man’s clothes – a red shift, blue jeans, gloves, and a khaki jacket. She then handed over a Halloween mask and some make-up to further hide her identity. They then took the car that Rabel had borrowed and drove to the Fabiano residence. The gun was put in a paper sack.
For the next several hours, the two of them sat in the car, watching the house. When they saw the bedroom lights turn off, they knew that it was time. Rabel helped Pizer put on her mask, and then Goldyne walked to the front door of the Fabiano house.
She stood there, terrified. Her hands shook, and she could feel her heart hammering. She rang the doorbell and waited, the paper sack containing the revolver in her other hand.
Finally, Peter answered the door, holding the bowl of candy. Smiling, he asked her, “Isn’t it a little late for this?”
Goldyne replied, “No.” Her hands shaking, she then removed the gun from the sack, held it in both hands to steady her aim, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit Peter square in the chest, and he fell back into the hallway, eyes wide.
Goldyne turned and walked straight to the car. When she sat down, Rabel kissed her and thanked her for killing Peter. They returned the car to Margaret Bennett, leaving it parked outside of her house. The khaki jacket was left in the car.
Before they left, Rabel told Pizer, “Forget you ever knew me.” She then left, and Pizer hadn’t seen her since.
The next day Pizer burned the rest of the clothing. A few days after that she put the gun in a storage locker in a downtown Los Angeles office building.
Police were able to find it using Goldyne’s directions. Forensics definitively proved that it was the same gun that had killed Peter Fabiano.
In an interview with the press, Pizer meekly told a reporter that “I’ve always been the kind of person who’s faithful to her friends. Joan was my friend.”
She went to say that she had urged Rabel to contact the police, but she had never done it. She was worried about her friend. Rabel kept telling her all the horrible things that he was doing, and how much he hated Joan. She described the influence that Rabel had over her almost like being under some kind of spell.
Pizer said, “I’ve never hurt anyone. But I’d do anything for a friend.”
Now that everything was said and done and she was sitting in the Los Angeles County Jail waiting to stand trial for murder, she regretted everything. She wished that she had called the police herself instead of allowing herself to be talked into murdering a man that she had never met. A man that she now realized was nothing like what she had been told.
Pizer explained that now she saw the truth about Joan Rabel. She had coldly used Pizer to murder Peter Fabiano.
In a separate interview, Betty Fabiano said, “Joan is cold, cruel and inhuman, with no heart. Even now I am sure she has no feeling of regret.” She believed that the only one that always saw Joan Rabel for the kind of person that she was Peter.
Joan Rabel and Goldyne Pizer were both convicted of the murder of Peter Fabiano and sent to prison. Pizer was eventually released and lived quietly the rest of her life in Los Angelese, passing away in 1998 at the age of 83. Although it is assumed that Joan Rabel was released, her ultimate whereabouts are unknown.
There is one more part to this story that I wanted to address.
There are many claims that Joan Rabel and Goldyne Pizer were lesbians. Unfortunately, I could not definitively confirm that, which is why I didn’t include it in the narrative of this story.
Honestly, though, if it is true, it makes a lot of sense.
Being openly gay in Los Angeles in the late 1950’s was far from the norm. People who were gay didn’t talk about it. They could be ostracized and even openly harassed by friends, family, co-workers, and even society in general. It’s not a lot of fun being an outsider like that, so for many gay people it was far easier to hide that part of their lives or suppress it altogether. Betty Fabiano became friends with Joan Rabel, who might have been a lesbian. Over the course of their friendship, Betty might have discovered that she had feelings for Joan – and other women in general – that she wanted to explore further. Joan liked Betty and was okay with supporting that.
Unfortunately, Peter Fabiano finds out. He finds out that Betty and Joan are doing more than playing Bridge on Saturday night, and it makes him angry. His wife is having an affair with another woman! They talk, they shout, they fight, they cry. Eventually, they reconcile and decide to get back together. But, there’s one stipulation – you can’t see your girlfriend anymore.
It makes sense. If your significant other was having an affair, would you want the two of them to hang out together?
Hell no. Well, for a lot of people. Others, well…I’m not going to talk about that.
Anyway, Joan is hurt, she’s angry. She was in love with Betty. She thought that they might spend their lives together as “roommates.” The more she thinks about it, the more she comes to hate Peter Fabiano.
That’s when Goldyne Pizer comes in to the picture. The claims are that she was also a closeted lesbian. Her and Joan also end up playing “Bridge” on Saturday nights, but Joan has ulterior motives in mind. Joan knows that Goldyne will do anything for her, so she’s going to take advantage of that and use her to kill Peter Fabiano.
It all makes sense. And I can totally believe it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find that definitive evidence that confirmed it all, just claims and theories. It’s not that I can’t believe it, it’s just that I can’t support it with any of the evidence that I could find. If any of you out there in listener land can point me to a smoking gun, let me know.
But all of that aside, I want to take a moment and focus on what is really important at the heart of this story. Someone was murdered. Someone else prematurely ended their lives.
Honestly, if Betty and Joan were sleeping together, Peter might not have even cared that his wife was at least bi-sexual. He was a male hairdresser in Los Angeles in 1957. He wasn’t exactly conforming to a stereotype himself. Peter regularly did Betty’s hair, which definitely was not the normal thing for most husbands to be doing back then.
Peter loved Betty and wanted to reconcile his relationship with her. She agreed. And they were happy.
Joan Rabel could have left. She could have walked away and had a new relationship with Goldyne. But she didn’t. She decided to cause a murder instead.
Sources
Seek Spook Murderers of Valley Businessman. Valley Times, 11/1/1957
Clue Hunted in Murder of Former Lansing Man. Lansing State Journal, 11/2/1957
‘Trick or Treat’ Slaying Motive Remains Mystery. The Los Angeles Times, 11/2/1957
Trick-Treat Caller Slays Valley Man. Los Angeles Mirror, 11/1/1957
Woman Held in Valley Trick-or-Treat Slaying. Valley Times, 11/13/1957
Woman’s Arraignment Set in ‘Trick or Treat’ Murder. Valley News, 11/21/1957
Two Held in H’Ween Death. Los Angeles Mirror, 12/7/1957
Woman Admits ‘Influence Murder’ of Man She Had Never Seen Before. Los Angeles Times, 12/7/1957
Klein, Doris. Mrs. Rabel’s Friend Tells ‘Treat’ Killing. Valley Times, 12/7/1957
Prison Terms for Halloween Killers. Valley Times, 4/18/1958
The Trick-or-Treat Murder of Peter Fabiano. The True Crime Edition, 9/30/2023