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In Memoriam:
George Del Vecchio
Executed by
the State of Illinois
on November 22, 1995.
The following
was written by Dolores Kennedy, a friend of George’s:
I met George during one of my visits to death row with ICADP. Bill Heirens,
an inmate serving a life sentence, was our common denominator as he
and George had been friends when they were at Stateville Prison together,
and I was Bill's friend and advocate. During the next dozen years or
so, I talked to George regularly on the phone and visited him when I
could. I asked him to write his thoughts for me about his first night
on death row. It was something he had been trying to put into words
for a long time. He recalled: "In that instant that I stood in
my death row cell that first night looking out the window, I think that
for me it was the closest I could ever come to knowing a bit more about
the agony of the cross of Christ. I felt utterly alone and hopeless,
abandoned by man and God."
In 1977, George was arrested for the murder of six-year-old Tony Canzoneri.
He was convicted and sentenced to death pursuant to a jury verdict of
death. He was also sentenced for burglary, sexual assault and rape.
It was not his first offense. At age 16, also on a drug high, he and
friends killed an elderly man. He was still on parole from this crime
when the Canzoneri murder occurred.
When I began working on this biography, I listened again to an audio
message we had recorded for his clemency hearing. “As a child,”
he recalled, “I knew more about pain and anger and fear than I
knew about love. So I sought relief through alcohol and drugs, which
only brought more pain and failure. The time came,” he continued,
“when I had no control over my life. The night I killed Tony Canzoneri,
I had taken great amounts of drugs and drink. I was out of my mind.”
George’s remorse over Tony’s death was compounded by the fact
that he had gone to high school with Tony’s dad, had helped the
family move into their home, and had always liked the boy. “I don’t
think I have the proper words to express the sadness, remorse and grief
in my mind and heart,” he said. “The more I learn from God
about the preciousness of life, the more my heart is torn to pieces.
If my death could bring Tony back, I would offer my life.”
George served 16 years on death row during which he read and studied,
became involved in religion and corresponded with numerous people in
the free society. “With the help of good friends who believed in
me and by the grace of my Lord, I am no longer slave to inner demons,”
he said. I was one of the friends who believed in George. At the end
of our frequent conversations, during which George inevitably touched
on the Italian food he missed, he would sigh heavily and say, “Dolores,
I want to go home.”
I spoke with George by phone a few hours before his execution. He was
calm and accepting. He thanked me for my friendship and told me that
he loved me. And then he was gone. George did not want to be buried
in a death penalty state, and so his grave lies in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
I like to think that he is home now, with the Lord he came to love so
well.
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