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Kenneth
FRIEDMAN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Kidnapping
- Robbery - Drugs
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: October 26,
1994
Date of birth: 1953
Victims profile: Peter
Kovach, 26, and Ted Gould, 29
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Torrance, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on December 2, 2005
Sentenced: Dec. 2,
2005, age 52
Crimes: Kidnapping, murder
Date of crimes: Oct. 26, 1994
Location: Galleria Telecom store,
Torrance
Victims: Peter Kovach, 26,
of Redondo Beach; Ted Gould, 29, of Redondo Beach.
Status: Set to leave County
Jail for San Quentin State Prison.
Friedman confessed that he and
three men kidnapped Kovach and Gould from the cellular telephone store
and took them to a nearby motel.
The leader of a drug outfit,
Howard Bloomgarden, wanted Kovach abducted and forced to turn over money
to the East Coast narcotics organization.
Friedman choked Kovach to death,
then ordered Gould killed because he was a witness. Gould, taken only
because he was working at the business, was an innocent victim.
Kovach and Gould’s bodies were
found dumped in San Diego.
Friedman, who also used the
aliases “Anthony Zito,” “Tony Russo,” “Anthony Stewart” and “Keith
Delellis,” previously was sentenced to two life sentences without the
possibility of release for a 1996 conviction on federal racketeering
charges. His brother, Gary, is serving three life terms in connection
with the killings.
Bloomgarden is facing trial.
Kenneth Friedman – white,
age 40
Sentenced to death in Los Angeles
County, California
By: A jury
Date of crime: 10/26/94
Prosecution’s case/defense
response: Kenneth pled guilty to kidnapping and strangling Peter Kovach
and Ted Gould to death. Kenneth’s brother and
Howard Bloomgarden led a drug ring, and they believed
Kovach stole money from them. They ordered Kenneth to kill Kovach.
Gould was merely an innocent bystander and pleaded for his life, and
Friedman responded by strangling him with a telephone cord. Kenneth was
convicted in 1996 on federal racketeering charges. After he exhausted
all his federal appeals he was brought to California on the state murder
charges.
Telling a
judge he won't fear death but will "embrace it," admitted double
murderer Kenneth Friedman was sentenced Friday to die for the 1994
strangulation slayings of two Redondo Beach men.
Friedman, 52, had pleaded guilty to killing one-time
drug dealer Peter Kovach, 26, and innocent bystander Ted Gould, 29,
after abducting them from a Torrance telecommunications store where they
worked. But the New York native hoped to be spared execution. Instead,
he'll join roughly 650 other people on California's death row.
