Headlines

Thirty years ago today — July 17th, 1996 — Joseph John Savino Jr. was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for the murder of Thomas McWaters Jr., a wealthy farm owner in Bedford County. For a year, the story played out in local headlines: a farmhand, a lover, a robbery gone wrong. Then Joe was executed, and the story disappeared.

Two years ago, host Austyn Castelli — a forensic mental health clinician and distant relative of Joseph Savino — found his name buried in a facility records system where she works inside the Virginia prison system. She first learned about the story the same way the public first heard it: through newspaper headlines, court filings, and the official record that sent a man to the death chamber. It's the version everyone thought they knew.

It's also only part of the story.

Threat to Society is a documentary podcast investigating the case of Joseph Savino and the death of Thomas McWaters — a story about capital punishment, psychiatric testimony, and two men neither the courtroom nor the headlines ever fully saw. Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of violent death.

SOURCES

Jim Stratton, "Bedford Man Found Slain in His Home: Friends discover body of Thos McWaters; assailant at large," The News and Advance, December 1, 1988

Jim Stratton and Leslie Postal, "Slain Man's Housemate Arrested: Joseph Savino Charged with Forging Thos McWaters' Checks," The News and Advance, December 2, 1988

Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times, December 3, 1988

Audio: "Going Through a Prison Sally Port: A Rare Look Inside Perryville Women's Prison Lumley Unit," Blank Canvas Documentary — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1UPUKrg-Os

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