With the recent passing of original Kiss guitar player Ace Frehley, I've found myself lamenting the fact that while I saw Ace's band a few years back, I never caught him with Kiss. He had just quit the band before I went to their concert in 1983, supporting the "Creatures of the Night" album. This would be their last tour before removing the trademark make-up [and then putting it back on many years later]. Instead of Ace, there was this small, androgynous looking guy wearing some type of ancient Egyptian themed make-up. This guitar player was, of course, Vincent Caruso, aka Vinnie Vincent.
THE ORIGINAL SIN
[Although Ace is pictured on the cover of the original October 1982 release of "Creatures of the Night", he apparently had very little to due with the album, and was on his way out]
The story of how Vinnie Vincent ended up in Kiss starts with the exit of Ace, who formed a sort of 2 man faction [with Peter] against "the other 2 guys" [Gene/Paul]. Most fans have heard the dramatic tales of tension within the group that began towards the end of the 1970s, but the first major manifestation of this tension seemed to take form of the expulsion of original drummer Peter Criss in 1980. The Gene/Paul explanation involved in large part the idea that Peter couldn't control his drinking and drug use, which compromised his performance and other aspects of the band. Peter's view seems to be that Paul/Gene wanted more artistic/financial control. Whatever the case, the 1978 car accident which left Peter's hand badly injurely was likely a major reason he barely played at all on the albums "Unmasked" and "Dynasty." [This "accident" will be referred to again in part 2]
The departure of Peter Criss in 1980 left Ace "on his own" in dealing with the Paul/Gene faction of the group, which meant he probably wouldn't be sticking around much longer either.
In 1978 Ace Frehley married Jeanette Trerotola. The following year, rumor has it he started dating Robert Plant's former mistress/groupie Audrey Hamilton. In 1980, Ace had a child with the former, while rumors persist that he also fathered a child with Hamilton. Needless to say, Ace's personal life probably contributed to some of the turmoil that lead to his exit from Kiss. [Incidentally, Peter Criss got divorced and re-married around this same time].
Potential personal turmoil aside, the Ace/Peter faction have held over the years that their main gripe was that the band was getting too soft and commercial, and that the Gene/Paul faction was mainly driving that. Based on the music Kiss put out in the late 70s, Ace and Peter certainly had a point. Kiss was getting more commercial and wasn't rocking as hard. But perhaps it wasn't just that Paul and Gene were merely "exerting more control," but that Ace and Peter were exerting less, due to their very real pre-occupations in their personal lives [Gene would follow suit in a way, when he later started getting side-tracked during his failed attempt to make it in the film business].
Before leaving the group, we are told Ace declined a 15 million dollar contract offer with Kiss in 1982, opting instead to quit and accept a share of the band's profits until 1985. While it's hard to believe things got so bad for Ace in the group that he'd turn down a 15 million dollar contract [especially given his "situation" with the ladies in his life and the baby(s)], 3 straight years of income for doing basically nothing wasn't too bad of a severance package. But was there another reason Ace needed to leave the group? One we may not have considered that would have made this 15 million dollar contract offer "unsignable?" We'll come back to that in part 2.
In 1980 Eric Carr [Paul Charles Caravello] officially replaced Peter Criss. It's interesting to note that Eric's "last name" has the word "Car" in it. It was a car that supposedly lead to Peter's injured hand, which arguably lead to his ultimate ejection from Kiss. There is also the curious fact that Eric was the 2nd person named Paul, by birth, to give up their real name in the group, while Stanley [Eisen] would remain the sole member of Kiss allowed to use the apparently coveted stage name of "Paul." [see my video "Paul and the eye of Horus" on Youtube/Rumble]
When Vinnie Vincent replaced Ace in 1982, he also became a father [to twins, birthed by his wife AnneMarie Peters Cusano]. Although brand new to the band, he too refused to sign a contract. Vinnie would later state "I had a family...I had twins that I didn't know I was gonna have, and there was no money to take care of them, and there was no money to buy a home. We were living with relatives..." While $550 per week as a "hired gun" wasn't exactly crazy money in 1982, is wasn't too bad either. $550 in 1982 would be about the equivalant of $1846.50 in 2025 money, adjusted for inflation. That works out to about $88,632 per year. Not too bad for the new guy in a band that was considered somewhat on the decline. But why would he settle for a semi-perminent position in Kiss and a hired gun wage when the opportunity to become a full fledged member was being offered? Perhaps there was something in the fine print rendering the contract unsignable?
[V.V. offers these miniature Jackson Rhoads guitars on his website, signed by himself, for $5500-$8500]
In the same year V.V. joined Kiss, Randy Rhoads died. Randy was known for playing signature Jackson "Rhoads V" style guitars, the first of which was named "The Original Sin." Randy nicknamed this guitar "Concorde," which is a type of supersonic aircraft [Ironically, Rhoads would allegedly be killed in an aircraft accident]. There were a couple prototypes made for Randy which he never got a chance to properly evaluate. These would become the first Jackson guitars offered to the public. Vinnie Vincent was the first professional guitarist to be offered an early Rhoads guitar by Jackson after Rhoads' death, which he used on the Kiss "Creatures of the Night" and "Lick It Up" tours from 1982 until 1984. This created an interesting continuity between Randy and V.V. which we will contemplate further later.
Following his departure from Kiss in mid-1984, Vincent used the money he made from his tenure in the band to take a long vacation, traveling the world for a full year and visiting places like Tahiti, Philippines, Mozambique, India, and Europe, including a visit to the small town of Mora in Dalarna, Sweden. I'm wondering where his wife and twins were at this time? Was he paying alimony? It seems his concerns about money and not getting enough through his contractual offers didn't prevent plenty of it from ending up in his pocket, which was promptly blown on what appears to be an insanely expensive trip! And what was he doing all that time in all of those places?
[Vinnie Vincent Invasion, featuring future members of the band Slaughter]
The story behind the Vinnie Vincent Invasion's rapid rise and fall is rather involved and convoluted, but overall it seems to encapsilate the unfortunate stereotypes typically attributed to Vincent. The band was handed a major record deal by Chrysalis, played all over MTV, toured, sold quite a few albums, then began to self-destruct due to Vinnie's apparent fallout with the record label. As a result, in 1988 Chrysalis Records took the $4 million contract away from Vinnie Vincent for exceeding his credit line with the label, and transferred the contract to former members Slaughter and Strum, who went on to form Slaughter [Slaughter ended up selling millions of albums in the 90s].
Other than filing for bankruptsy in 1989, Vinnie seemed to keep a pretty low profile until 1992, when he was asked by Kiss to participate in the recording of their album “Revenge.” This was quickly followed by another fallout between the 2 camps, with Gene Simmons basically stating that Vinnie went right back to his old tricks [Gene has been quoted stating that V.V. attempted to sue the band at least 14 times, losing 100% of the cases.]
A TRAGEDY FULL OF MYSTERY
[V.V. with first wife AnnMarie Peters Cusano, with whom he had twin daughters]
[V.V.'s twin daughters and AnnMarie]
[V.V. and his 2nd wife, Diane Kero circa 1996]
It's not real clear what went on between V.V. and his first wife AnneMarie, other than the fact they had twin daughters together. Clearly they had broken up by 1995 when he met his 2nd wife, Diane Kero, at a Kiss convention in Chicago.
According to a fan commenting on youtube, Vincent had began promoting an infamous box set at this same event, for which he was charging $120 to PRE-ORDER. According to www.nashvillescene.com, fans who purchased the package have instead received letter upon letter from Metaluna [VV's label] espousing myriad production excuses [for not delivering the product]. Yet while Metaluna had a no-refund policy, the letters did offer other opportunities to purchase Vinnie Vincent keepsakes like signed guitar catalogs ($150), or his "personal favorite [guitar] pick" from the "Creatures" tour ...for $1,000. To this day, this box set has never seen the light of day. Whatever Vinnie does have is currently being sold at OUTRAGEOUS prices on his personal web page as of the day I type this.
[Ace pictured with Diane Kero and a guy named Gordon, circa 1992. Interestingly, Diane Kero was Ace Frehley's girlfriend for a couple years back in the 1970s [and possibly later].
Vincent and Kero were married in 1996, the year after they'd met at the aformentioned Kiss convention. V.V. also released a new recording at this time, which was an EP entitled "Euphoria," simply under the name Vinnie Vincent. It was recorded in the early 1990s with Vincent on guitar and bass, former Vinnie Vincent Invasion vocalist Robert Fleischman [formally of Journey], and drummer Andre LaBelle. These sessions were paid for by Enigma Records who were to release the full record, but Vincent ended up dissatisfied with the final product. For reasons unknown, Vinnie Vincent overdubbed LaBelle's drums with a drum machine before releasing it himself.
[Feb 15, 2003 — In December, a jury convicted [Gregory] McArthur, 43, of felony murder, manslaughter, larceny and kidnapping in [AnnMarie] Cusano's death. On Friday, Superior Court ...]
We're not sure how long V.V. was with his first wife, AnneMarie Peters Cusano, but they did have twins right about the time he joined Kiss in 1982. AnneMarie went missing on January 2nd, 1998. Although it's never explicitly stated anywhere that I could find, we assume the twins stayed with her in Shelton, Connecticut, while Vinnie resided in Tennessee.
There are multiple versions of this story, but court records and mainstream news reports generally say this: The twins, who were 15 at the time, were staying with friends, while AnneMarie, who kept her ex husband's last name, went out to meet a client at 550 Prospect Ave in Hartford. Although she seemed to have a pretty good day job at Executone, she was some sort of call girl by night, a job which she apparenltly began just a few month prior to make some extra cash. We are told her kids knew about it, but few others did.
NOTE: This was 1998, not everyone had cellphones yet. In fact, one news article states that AnneMarie did not respond to her BEEPER when her kids called it. Nobody has beepers anymore because cellphones rendered them obselete. So it is important to remember that anytime calls are made in this story, we're most likely talking about LAND LINES, not cell phones. Beepers/pagers cannot make calls, they can only recieve "beeps" or "pages."
Annemarie went to go meet a client around 11pm. She left all her lights on, left the radio on, left behind a half empty glass of wine, her purse, and generally indicated she'd only gone out to run a quick errand. At least, that was the impression her brother-in-law [Richard Chaco] had when he went to check on the apartment the following morning. How he knew she only had $15 cash in her wallet when she left is never explained, but he is quoted as stating as much in news reports. Some reports even stated that the wallet was left behind along with her purse.
AnneMarie arrived at the client's 550 Prospect Ave unit, which was inside a boarding house, at about 1AM. It's never explained why it took her 2 hours to arrive despite Hartford only being about 55 minutes from her home, but her client, Gregory McArthur was covered in blood when she arrived. This is because he went and tried to steal some drugs just before she got there, and the dealer slashed him with a knife. Instead of going to the ambulance, he stopped off at an aquaintance's house who helped clean him up a bit. But clearly, he was quite a mess and AnneMarie promptly called her "pimp" Richard Gladstone to inform him she was cancelling her appointment and on her way out.
At this point, McArthur, who had only recenlty gotten out of prison, attempted to prevent her from leaving. A struggle ensued, and he got her in a headlock, which he did not release until she stopped breathing. He then put her body in her car, a 1991 Mazda 626, and drove out to 666 Boston Neck Road in Suffield where he disposed of her body. He then went and "rented" the car out to a couple drug dealers in exchange for $50 worth of cocaine [or more likely, crack]. The dealers then drove him out to a "crack house" and were to pick him up in the morning. When they went to pick him up, he was gone. The drug dealers abandoned the car a few days later after catching wind that it belonged to a missing person.
Gregory McArthur was on the run for a couple years until he was arrested in Boston on September 1st, 2000 for a seperate crime. At this point he was questioned regarding the disappearance of AnneMarie Cusano and he confessed to killing her, though he gave at least 4 different accounts of what happened. He did lead investigators to her remains which had gone undiscovered since her initial disappearance back in 1998. The trial revealed that McArthur "stole" an American Express card from AnneMarie Cusano belonging to Vinnie Vincent. Macarthur was sentenced to 60 years in 2002.
The owner of the escort enterprise employing AnneMarie was a man named Richard Gladstone, who we are told was behind one of the biggest trafficking rings in the area for years. AnneMarie was not the first one of his "employees" to disappear and then later turn up dead. He was eventually arrested but fleed before he could be brought in to face jailtime. He was caught a few months later staying under an assumed name in a cheap hotel in Tennessee - the same state Vinnie Vincent was residing at the time.
Now obviously, there are many questions here, but the one I want to focus on is whether Vinnie Vincent had a motive to take his ex wife out. It's a terrible thought, and it may be the furthest thing from the truth. But when it comes to motive, he likely had a pretty strong one: to get out of alimony payments.
[V.V. arrived in a pantsuit, makeup, and wore a wig at some sort of private 2018 event, which can be found on youtube]
V.V. is notorious for claiming everyone is trying to rip him off while constantly tryng to rip everyone off around him! Clearest example would be his compulsive attempts to sue Kiss for "unpaid whatevers" only to fall flat on his ass and create more debt for himself in the process while playing victim. There's also the infamouse box set he never delivered to fans who pre-paid, which he allegedly apologized for while also offering these fans an opportunity to spend hundreds more on signed picks and other novelties.
Then there's the visibly verifiable sex transition V.V. seems to have been quietly undergoing while never verbally addressing or acknowledging it - accept to say that he seemed amused by the mystery it inspired from the fan's perspective. As these types of transitions can be very expensive, this could likely have further contributed to his financial desperation. The thought also occurred to me...was this perhaps part of V.V.'s failed attempt to sort of "disappear" and become unrecognizable - so that he could hide away from fans or whoever else he ripped off?
The fact AnneMarie's murderer [who was convicted by confession and circumstantial evidence only] was in possession of Vinnie Vincent's American express card is an alarming fact that I don't think enough questions are being asked about. For starters, this fact came out during the trial a couple years after AnneMarie's disappearance. Did McArthur still have the card up to the time he was arrested? Was the card still being used? I'm sure these questions have answers, but I've never read a peep about it. Another question is, what was AnneMarie doing with one of V.V.'s American Express cards, presuming she had it at all in the first place? Vinnie Vincent's participation in the investigation of his ex-wife's disappearance is conspicuously absent from all news reports and even court transcripts that are publicly available. That doesn't mean he's guilty of anything, but it just leaves a whole lot of unanswered questions, inviting curiousity and speculation. And rightly so!
The final fact of note is Gladstone's eventual capture in Tennessee, a couple hours drive from where V.V. lived. Could be entirely coincidental, but I wonder if an investigation was ever conducted to see if Gladstone and Vincent had any connections? I imagine this would have come out if so, but who knows?
DEAD DOGS TELL NO TALES
[A May, 2011 TMZ headline read: "Ex-KISS Guitarist — Blood, Cuts, and 4 Dead Dogs."]
From Nashvillescene.com:
...Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, the department sent a tactical team to Cusano's Smyrna residence to arrest him, after his wife Diane showed up at the sheriff's office "covered in blood and possibly intoxicated."...The 44-year-old Mrs. Cusano alleged to Sheriff Robert F. Arnold that her husband had smacked her in the face, grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the floor (four times) and dragged her through a pile of broken glass following an argument over his conversing with another woman...Cusano was arrested and charged with aggravated domestic assault. A subsequent search of the home — secluded at the dead end of a wooded, suburban Middle Tennessee road and confined by a high privacy fence — revealed the bodies of four dead dogs entombed in above-ground containers...Diane told Rutherford County Pet Adoption Welfare Services that one of the couple's "aggressive" dogs killed the entombed canines. PAWS' decision not to pursue an investigation, as well as memorials reportedly inscribed on the unfortunate tail-waggers' makeshift tombs serve to substantiate that claim, which Vincent later underscored in a posting on his YouTube page.
Vincent's other claims about the incident, however, aren't quite as credible. In a follow-up YouTube posting, Cusano said he was "happy to announce that all charges alleged against me were dropped and the case dismissed." He also claimed he'd been exonerated, saying he'd been "falsely charged."
That isn't true. According to a pretrial agreement filed June 13, a Rutherford County judge "retired" Mr. Cusano's case for a year under the condition that he complete eight hours of anger management counseling before a Dec. 5, 2011, scheduled court appearance. According to the agreement, Cusano can eventually petition the court to have the case dismissed.
About 3 years later in January 2014, Rolling Stone reported that V.V.'s wife Diane Cusano passed away due to conditions stemming from chronic alcoholism. She was 47-years-old. There is very little information about this online, but it certainly feeds speculation that something is very wrong with Vinnie Vincent. Sure, bad things happen to all of us, but 2 dead wives?
REAP J LAM
In part 2, I will consider all of the above through the lense of my "Reap J Lam" theory, which basically states that dark occult forces are behind the entertainment industry and that human sacrifices are either written into contracts or are otherwise required as part of "the deal."
Related:
Sources: Wiki, caselaw.findlaw.com, kissasylum.com, casemine.com, Blabbermouth, Rolling Stone Magazine, TMZ, nashvillescene.com, youtube
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