New York Poker Player In Murder-Suicide

A part-time poker player from New York state has killed himself after murdering his estranged wife and attempting to kill his current girlfriend...

34-year-old Vincent Maiolica, from East Meadow in New York, committed the murder-suicide on March 12th in Massapequa Long Island, New York, audio of his savage attack caught on a neighbouring CCTV camera.

According to Nassau County Police Department, Maiolica savagely stabbed his wife, 29-year-old Irene Spantopanagos, to death and attempted to murder a 22-year-old woman, believed to be his new partner.

After neighbours alerted the police, all three were found covered in blood, some reports stating that Maiolica had hanged himself.

Irene Spantopanagos, who had a 17-month-old child with Mailoica, was pronounced dead that day, with Maiolica dying the following day in hospital. The unnamed 22-year-old is still in critical condition in hospital.

A GoFundMe page organized to help Irene Spantopanagos’ family with expenses described her as:

“Irene’s pure heart and personality touched all who were fortunate enough to know her. Thank you for the love and support you have shown to our family during this horrific time. We appreciate all the love and support that has been given to us. Please pray for all of Irene’s family and friends and especially for her baby girl.”

Maiolica has a Hendon Mob listing of eight recorded cashes totalling $27,532, which includes a $15k min. cash at the 2015 WSOP Main Event. His most recent cash comes from the 2020 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, in Hollywood, Florida.

A 2plus2 forum thread links to a previous incident in which Maiolica was the victim of an assault outside a Long Island restaurant in 2013.
Last year, a poker-playing DJ and TwitchTV streamer, Mario 'YouPayMyF458' Zwanzleitner, also murdered his partner before taking his own life.

The 32-year-old had already served a prison sentence for the attempted rape of an 86-year-old woman and his FB page was described as “a mix of conspiracies/delusion (Covid-politics/rigtard posts), narcissism, xenophobia and catastrophically low intelligence.”

Zwanzleitner’s live tournament record stretched back to 2007 with a total of $83,895 in earnings.