30 DECEMBER 12, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Execution of Ridgewood woman
The front page of the April 15, 1982 Ridgewood Times shows the photos of Ridgewood’s Margaret Barbera and her friend, Jennie Soo Chin.
Ridgewood Times archives
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
One of the most infamous murder
cases in New York City during
the 1980s involved a Ridgewood
woman at the center of a criminal
investigation against her employer,
who made sure a professional killer
silenced her for good.
On April 12, 1982, 38-year-old Margaret
Barbera, who lived at an apartment
on Grandview Avenue in Ridgewood,
went to enter her car parked at a lot
on the West Side of Manhattan. She
was then approached by a man later
identifi ed as Donald Nash (aka Donald
Bowers), who fatally shot her in the
head.
Weeks earlier, Barbera pleaded
guilty to federal charges for her role in
an embezzlement scheme with her former
employer, Candor Diamond Corporation,
owned by Irwin Margulies.
Barbera had agreed to serve as a cooperating
witness for the government.
As an investigation would later reveal,
Margulies hired Nash to kill her
and another employee to prevent them
from potentially testifying against him.
But Barbera’s death would come with
even more tragic consequences.
Three CBS employees were in the
parking lot and witnessed her execution.
When they went to intervene,
police later said, Nash turned his gun
on them, fatally shooting all three men
in the head before fl eeing.
Details of the case were documented
in a front page story on Barbera’s death
in the April 15, 1982, Ridgewood Times,
excerpts of which follows:
Barbera, who was 38 years old and
lived at 613 Grandview Ave. in Ridgewood,
was found shot in the back of the head in
an alley in Lower Manhattan. She had
pleaded guilty on March 29 to federal
conspiracy charges involving fraud and,
according to court records, had agreed to
cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s offi ce
in Manhattan in a continuing inquiry.
Miss Barbera’s lawyer, James R. Coley,
said last night that the U.S. Attorney’s
offi ce had rejected a request by Miss
Barbera in February to be placed in
“protective custody.”
“She was afraid because of the investigation,
and now fi ve people are dead,”
Mr. Coley said.
Miss Barbera and Mrs. Jennie Soo
Chin, the mother of four children, worked
for the Candor Diamond Corporation at
15 West 45th St. until last summer, when
the company discontinued doing business.
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, Joseph Valiquette, said
that “activities” at the Candor Corporation
were being investigated.
Federal authorities declined to provide
additional information about the
inquiry. But according to records fi led
in Miss Barbera’s criminal case in Federal
District Court in Manhattan and
other records fi led in a civil bankruptcy
procedure in the court, Miss Barbera had
knowledge of alleged embezzlements
in 1980 and 1981, totaling almost $6
million.
Miss Barbera, who was the controller
of the Candor Corporation, admitted in
her guilty plea that she had conspired
with unidentifi ed persons to defraud a
fi nancing company, John P. Maguire Inc.,
of 1290 Avenue of the Americas.
Last year, in a civil suit in Federal
District Court, the Maguire company
accused the Candor Company and its
president, Irwin Margolies, of turning
over to it “ fraudulent and fi ctitious” accounts
supposedly worth $6 million.
Detectives said last night that they
would question Mr. Margolies as part
of the investigation of the four murders.
But they refused to say whether he was
considered a suspect.
Miss Barbera’s body was found in
Franklin Place, a cobblestone alley between
White and Franklin streets, near
Broadway.
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