Black Widows: Kiss, Marry, Kill - Who was Andrew Vlasto and how was he murdered?
Andrew Vlasto was 85 years old when he was poisoned by his wife of three months, Sylvia Mitchell, who was 57 years younger than him. He died at a hospital on November 10, 1993, about three weeks after the incident occurred. The elderly man belonged to a renowned Greek-American family, known as the founders of Atlantis, the first Greek-language newspaper in the United States.
Mitchell was sentenced to five to 15 years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter, grand larceny, and perjury in the case. Although her current whereabouts remain unknown, ID's Black Widows: Kiss, Marry, Kill will revisit the decades-old murder case of Andrew Vlasto in an upcoming episode this Thursday, September 29, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
The official synopsis of the episode titled Gypsy Hustle reads:
"When 85-year-old bachelor Andrew Vlasto meets a mysterious woman at his local diner, he thinks the gorgeous young woman is his perfect match. But, as his life starts to take chaotic turns, his family wonders if a con artist is manipulating him."
This article further discusses Andrew Vlasto's life and his murder from poisoning.
Andrew Vlasto was an editor at Atlantis until it ceased publication in the 70s
Sources state that Andrew Vlasto lived in Greece until the age of 37, where he worked as a banker and lawyer. In 1947, Vlasto came to the United States and joined Atlantis, which was started by his family in 1894. He worked for the Manhattan-based family newspaper as an editor and production supervisor until it closed in 1973.
Vlasto was a gray-haired and moderately built man who remained a bachelor for most of his life until three months before his death in 1993. After retiring in 1989, he sustained modestly on his $500,000 retirement fund. He lived in a one-bedroom rented apartment in Chelsea for $252 per month.
According to the New York Post, Andrew's nephew James Vlasto claimed that his uncle never even tipped the counter staff at the Greek restaurants he frequented. James said:
"He was rich because he lived very frugally."
He managed without a TV and instead, preferred reading and playing the piano in his flat as a pass time. The elderly man lived the life of a bachelor until 1991 when he met the gorgeous Sylvia Mitchell at a Chelsea McDonald's.
Although Mitchell initially started working for him as a housekeeper, she eventually became his wife following a secret wedding ceremony two years later, leading to a marriage of three months.
Three months after a secret marriage, Andrew Vlasto wound up at a hospital in 1993
Andrew Vlasto's nephew, James, received a call from the former's neighbor in October 1993, informing him that his uncle had been admitted to Bellevue Hospital Center. James and his brother George, upon their arrival at the hospital, discovered that their uncle had been secretly married to a woman named Sylvia Mitchell for about three months.
Reportedly, officials at the hospital denied the brothers access to see their uncle, claiming that his wife had forbidden anyone else from visiting him. Vlasto died on November 10, 1993, about three weeks after he was brought to the medical institute.
Despite Mitchell's protests, an autopsy of his body was carried out. This revealed that Vlasto died of a toxic infection and pneumonia aggravated by an overdose of opiates and barbiturates, which were not administered by hospital staff. Additionally, he was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease during the autopsy. It was alleged that Mitchell drugged him to acquire his half-million retirement fund.
The Chief investigator in the case, Dan Castleman, reportedly said:
"We believe she was poisoning him even then. It’s been our theory that she only wanted to keep him sedated so she could rip him off, but that she miscalculated, and gave him too much – Valium, Tylenol with codeine and phenobarbital."
Castleman added:
"It was a very difficult job, number one trying to prove what actually killed him, and number two, linking her to that cause of death."
Black Widows: Kiss, Marry, Kill on ID airs this Thursday, September 29, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
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Adelle Fernandes