Tony Costa was born in 1944. His father died in World War II not long after his birth. At the age of seven, Costa reportedly told his mother that a man was entering his room at night, whom he later identified as his father, long since deceased: a sign of a troubled mind in the making.

In a 1969 Life magazine article written by famed author Kurt Vonnegut, a fellow Cape Cod resident, Vonnegut describes hearing Costa referred to as “a spoiled little boy” who “was never punished for anything.”

Vonnegut goes on to assert that his own daughter, then-19-year-old Edith, met Costa one summer when he invited her to go see his marijuana patch—an invitation she declined. In response to the news of Costa’s crimes, Edith told her father, “If Tony is a murderer, then anybody could be a murderer.”

Filmmaker, writer, and artist John Waters, who has been summering in Provincetown, Massachusetts for decades, writes about Costa’s string of murders in his 2019 book, Mr. Know-It-All. He describes speaking with local legend Victor “Moulty” Moulton, a member of the band The Barbarians, and asking if he knew Costa. “Very well,” Moulty replies. “There were many other girls killed, and nobody knows about [that].” Moulty goes on to say that Costa’s predatory ways were common knowledge around that area at the time, making his arrest unsurprising to those who had their eyes open.

According to the documentary Twisted - Tony Costa: "The Cape Cod Casanova, Costa was living in a boarding house at the time of the murders, and gave off an impression of being “a little bit off.” Other locals chimed in to say that he was a loner who seemed “a bit into himself,” and was known to have made a hobby out of taxidermy.

A divorcé and father of three children, Costa spent his time working odd jobs here and there, mostly as a carpenter or handyman. Two of his victims stayed at the same boarding house where Costa lived. He even helped them bring in their luggage. As Vonnegut noted, “Who says chivalry is dead?” Costa’s room at the boarding house was searched after his arrest, and a rope with red stains on it was discovered in the closet.

Though local accounts appear to disagree on their characterization of Costa, one thing is for sure: his deviant crimes would soon bring him out of obscurity as a local handyman, and launch him into notoriety as the reviled Cape Cod serial killer.

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