A look back at a brutal South Jersey massacre

On November 17th, 1950, Ernest Ingenito shot nine people, killing five of them, including his wife in Franklin Township in Gloucester County.

According to Murderpedia.com, Ingenito had a checkered life that included reform school as a youth and a military prison sentence as an adult. In 1950, he and his wife Theresa were living with her parents in Franklin Township but Ernest got kicked out when his father in law found out Ingenito was cheating on his daughter.

Ingenito came back to his father-in-law’s house on the night of November 17th armed with two pistols and a rifle. When he confronted his wife, her father got in between them and Ingenito shot him twice, killing him. Murderpedia.com reports that Ingenito shot his wife twice, but she survived. His mother in law ran across the street and Ingenito followed her, shooting and killing her; he shot four more people there, killing three of them, including a pregnant woman. He then drove to his wife’s uncle’s house; Ingenito shot both the man and his wife, but they survived.

He was arrested that night by the state police. He was tried and convicted of the murder of his mother in law; he wasn’t tried for the other four murders for five years. The judge allowed Ingenito to serve all five life sentences concurrently. New Jersey did not have a sentence of life without parole at that time, so even though he murdered five people, he was paroled in 1978.

He lived in Trenton until 1994 when he was arrested for the sexual assault of an eight year old girl. He died in 1995 while he was in custody.

More from New Jersey 101.5