Town note
Also called Franklin Borough, New Jersey.
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FILE 702 / 22 May 2026 / 71 MIN / express
Franklin, New Jersey, also called Franklin Borough, in northwestern New Jersey, in Sussex County about 0:03:24
Also called Franklin Borough, New Jersey.
about 0:03:26Located in northwestern New Jersey, in Sussex County, about an hour and 15 minutes from New York City.
about 0:03:30Nicknamed the fluorescent mineral capital of the world.
about 0:04:54Sits on a rich ore body containing more than 150 minerals, many of them fluorescent.
about 0:05:09Also called Franklin Borough, New Jersey.
about 0:03:26Located in northwestern New Jersey, in Sussex County, about an hour and 15 minutes from New York City.
about 0:03:30Nicknamed the fluorescent mineral capital of the world.
about 0:04:54Sits on a rich ore body containing more than 150 minerals, many of them fluorescent.
about 0:05:0925 of its minerals are found nowhere else on Earth except northwestern New Jersey.
about 0:05:09Area code 973.
about 0:03:55"4,904"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:03:55
"$76,729"
Comparison: "slightly above the national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:04:17
"$207,500"
Comparison: "well below the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:04:24
3.1 / 5 · average of 4
“The town has 3.3 stars on Niche.”about 0:05:42
“Crime is mostly low, drug use and sale are prevalent, the police are good at their job and there is a strong sense of safety.”about 0:05:50
“A typical small town, very quiet, with few employment opportunities, a couple of supermarkets and a Walmart, and the Franklin Mineral Museum is worth a visit.”about 0:07:00
“The reviewer grew up there, found few employment opportunities and a mediocre school, says the area is not diverse, and that there is less for children to do than 20 years ago.”about 0:07:22
Franklin, also called Franklin Borough, lies in Sussex County in north-west New Jersey, about an hour and a quarter from New York City. Its population was 4,904. It calls itself the fluorescent mineral capital of the world.
A psychologist described a home plagued by infidelity, violence, substance abuse, gambling, criminal behaviour and suicide attempts. His father told him at seven or eight that he loved him the least of his three children and left when Tommy was about ten. His mother left a couple of years later to live with a boyfriend, leaving him with his grandmother, Bertha Lippencott, an addict, alcoholic and compulsive gambler whose house was filthy, chaotic and overcrowded. Tommy was smoking by eight, drinking by twelve or thirteen, and using pills, LSD and Fioricet. He wanted to be a mafia hitman and believed killing someone would get him in.
His father Arthur was violent and abusive, the family moved constantly, and he was bullied at each new school; a bully once pulled him off a school bus and broke his arm while the driver watched. By fourteen he was using drugs, and he attached himself to the older, charismatic Tommy.
No alarm sounded. He took three handguns, a .40, a .22 revolver and a .45, hid them under the bonnet of his blue Chevrolet Cavalier at a laundromat, and the next morning gave Conklin the .40 while keeping the other two.
On 18 April he told a teenage friend, Christine Slater, that he would order a pizza to a remote address and kill the driver to join the mafia. She thought he was joking and did not call the police. Conklin refused any part in it.
Four shops refused to deliver to Scott Road as too far out; a fifth took the order then cancelled. They rang Tony's Pizza and Pasta in Hardyston, asked whether Jeremy Giordano was working, hung up, then called back and ordered two large cheese pizzas to Scott Road, an empty, dark house on a country road, for 10.30 p.m. Jeremy Giordano, 22, delivered for Tony's. The owner, Giorgio 'George' Galera, 25, thought the call strange and rode along. His girlfriend Laura and their four-year-old daughter waited in the car park, with a camping trip planned for the morning. Jeremy drove his 1995 Pontiac Grand Am, George beside him.
Two bullets passed through Jeremy's neck and killed him almost instantly; two more struck his left knee. George was hit five times. The car rolled into a muddy patch. The pair dragged both men out face down, searched their pockets and the car for cash, and left the pizzas on the ground. They ran back to the Cavalier, told each other they loved each other, and drove off. Near eleven they stopped at a Presbyterian church, made the sign of the cross at the door and left.
On 20 April the Grand Am was still stuck when a 911 call brought a patrolman, who found both men face down in the grass and two pizzas beside them. Six spent .45 shells lay on the road, two more in the front passenger seat, and autopsies found two large-calibre bullets in Jeremy's knee and a .22 bullet in George's head. Tony's confirmed the order the next morning. Christine Slater heard the news and called the police, and a Scott Road resident reported a blue Cavalier with a loud muffler and one headlight passing twice. The search of his room produced both guns, bloodstained khakis, Galera's identification, gun magazines, a price list for crimes, lyrics about killing and five paper strips naming 'spots'.
The Galera family's civil claims against both men and Adventure Sports were settled for about $17 million. New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007.
April 19th, 1997 / Scott Road, Franklin Borough, New Jersey
As told in the episode, on 22 May 2026.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
business
about 0:30:08police
about 0:30:26crime scene
about 0:39:08business
about 0:40:22business
about 0:37:42church
about 0:48:34business
about 0:31:38home
about 0:37:10other
about 0:30:45landmark
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