FILE 572 / 15 February 2025 / 72 MIN / express

Murderous Male Stripper

Wantage Township, New JerseyListen

The town

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Wantage township, New Jersey, to be exact ... This is in Sussex County about 0:03:17

History, in brief

Town note

One of the original 104 New Jersey townships.

about 0:05:12
All 4 history facts

Town note

One of the original 104 New Jersey townships.

about 0:05:12

The figures, as told

Money

Median home value$300,000
Median household income$88,563
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2025

Population

"10,831"

No direction stated.

As told in 2025 about 0:04:10

Median household income

"$88,563"

Comparison: "national average of about $69,000". No direction stated.

As told in 2025 about 0:04:29

Median home price

"$300,000"

Comparison: "lower than the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2025 about 0:04:32

The reviews

3.5 / 5 · average of 4

5 stars

“Beautiful, quiet rural town with rolling hills, farm animals, wildlife, historic sites, vintage boutiques, fishing, hunting and hiking to the High Point Monument, less than an hour from major cities.”
about 0:05:20

3 stars

“Rural and away from the hustle and bustle, but you need to drive as all the stores are 20 minutes away, there is no public transport in the county and it is not a good area to retire in.”
about 0:05:56

3 stars

“Grew up here and likes seeing the animals everywhere, but you have to get used to the farm smell and you cannot really walk from place to place.”
about 0:06:27

3 stars

“Only a few restaurants, Mexican, Greek and an inn, and two diners; no Italian place.”
about 0:06:57

In New Jersey

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  4. The Disappearing CheerleaderHanover Township, New Jersey · 7 January 202151 km / 32 miShow on map
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The story

Elizabeth Lott was born in West Virginia in 1937, one of thirteen children of a coal miner. She married young, had two children, Joseph and Virginia, and was divorced by the early 1970s, after which she put herself through college and became a professor of economics at Pace University in New York. She put Joseph through medical school and Virginia, known as Gina, through law school. In the late 1990s she bought a forty-acre estate outside Wantage Township, New Jersey, described as her dream home, isolated from the other houses, and she hoped her children would eventually build homes on the land.

The relationship was on and off for twelve years. He had another girlfriend early on, called Gina obsessively at work and even rang her boss to check she was there, and lied about having been married before. At his first Thanksgiving with the family he spat out Elizabeth's cooking and told her it was gross because she had used salt. Elizabeth disliked him from the start; Gina later said her mother thought he was controlling and stalking her, and worried that he was sleeping with people for money. Elizabeth allowed him to visit the house only two days a week and never when she was out.

They had two sons, the first born in 1999 and the second in 2003. The night before the first boy's baptism Gina found a naked woman hiding under the baby's crib. Gina graduated from law school in 2003. In the summer of 2004 Elizabeth called him a bum and he called her a fat pig.

On 24 September 2004 Gina and the boys were at a family dinner at an uncle's house in Totowa. The manager fired him. At about ten o'clock Gina, driving home and unable to reach her mother by phone, arrived to find the sliding door open and Elizabeth face down in the family room with a heavy wooden folding tray table on top of her and her glasses broken on the floor. She could not make her mobile phone work, used the landline, and was told to start CPR; when she rolled her mother over she saw the wounds and realised someone had done this. She grabbed the children and ran out. Elizabeth had been struck with the table while lying down; her skull was fractured in a mosaic pattern on the right side with force comparable to a car crash.

A neighbour took the older boy and rang the Phone Booth Bar. At the police station he denied the killing, said he had never left the bar, then said he had gone out for twenty minutes, then insisted he had never left the car park. He asked Gina about his visitation two days later.

Gina is now practising family law in New Jersey.

The case

Murder of Elizabeth Lott

Victims

Elizabeth Lott (67). Professor of economics at Pace University; born in West Virginia in 1937, one of 13 children of a coal miner; Gina's mother

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 15 February 2025.

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Gina Leota. Elizabeth's daughter, on-off girlfriend, lawyer; found the body
Joseph Leota. Elizabeth's son, Gina's brother, doctor
Brian Shell. man who said he had a sexual relationship with and that admitted intending to kill Elizabeth

The timeline

  1. 1937 Elizabeth Lott is born in West Virginia, one of 13 children of a coal minerabout 0:09:55
  2. October 1960 is bornabout 0:12:49
  3. October 1969 Virginia 'Gina' Leota is bornabout 0:09:18
  4. early 1970s Elizabeth and her husband divorce; she raises the children alone and puts herself through collegeabout 0:10:39
  5. 1992 Gina, a social worker, meets , a male stripper nine years olderabout 0:12:55
  6. late 1990s Elizabeth buys her dream home, a house on forty acres, isolated from the other homes (Lott house)about 0:11:53
  7. 1999 Gina and first son is bornabout 0:20:14
  8. 2003 Gina graduates from law schoolabout 0:22:24
  9. 2003 Gina becomes pregnant with their second sonabout 0:23:17
  10. summer of 2004 Elizabeth calls a bum and he calls her a fat pig during an argument (Lott house)about 0:30:18
  11. September 24, 2004, 6.01 p.m. arrives late for his bartending shift (Phone Booth Bar)about 0:39:26
  12. September 24, 2004, 7.51 p.m. leaves the bar claiming he is ill (Phone Booth Bar)about 0:39:43
  13. September 24, 2004 Elizabeth is struck repeatedly with a wooden folding tray table and killed (Lott house)about 0:53:37

Places and phrases

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode