Police have arrested a suspect wanted for tasering a jogger in Forest Park on Friday and attempting to rape her. The victim, a 23-year-old female, was jogging in the park around 7:30 p.m. when she was tasered from behind by a man who then sexually assaulted her. Luckily, a couple walking their dog in the park happened upon the scene and scared the would-be rapist off. Today the NYPD announced that they arrested one Richard Kassebaum, 42, who made news in 1990 for killing his aunt.
Kassebaum was 19 when he was arrested for stabbing his 49-year-old epileptic aunt Barbara Jacoutot to death. She was found face up on her bed in her Flushing home; the Times reported at the time that "her clothes had been cut from her body with a knife, and she had been stabbed numerous times in the chest." According to the Times:
[Kassebaum's] father was a successful commodities broker for a Chicago-based concern who moved to the neighborhood more than 20 years ago... Richard was described by neighbors as a tall, handsome, athletic youth who was always polite and quick to offer help shoveling snow or raking leaves. Although he was not a good student, his neighbors said, he planned to enter the military after graduation.
'But in recent years, neighbors said, Richard began bringing friends home from school whom his parents did not approve of. For about a year, he shaved his head and dressed in a punk style, they said.
According to prison records, Kassebaum was convicted of manslaughter and released on parole in 2009. He's now charged with attempted predatory Sexual Assault, Attempted Rape and Sex Abuse.
