Ricky Kasso is famous for being an American self-acclaimed satanist, who started off life very well but ended up messing with the strong crowd, which led him to excessive substance abuse, committing murder, and eventually, taking his own life at the age of 17.
Ricky is the first child of Richard Kasso and his wife, Lynn. His parent did all they could to help him, to no avail. Consequently, they gave up hope on him, knowing they had lost their son to substance abuse and would never get their son back.
11 Things You Might Have Never Heard About Ricky Kasso
1. He Was Born on Long Island
Richard Allan Kasso Jr. was born on March 29, 1967, in Huntington, New York. He was the son of a local high school teacher, Richard Kasso Snr., who also doubled as a football coach at Cold Spring Harbor High School, and his wife, Lynn Kasso. He was the first of four children and had 3 sisters.
In an interview with Ricky’s parents, they revealed that he had always been a good kid. They described him as the “Greatest Kid in the World” who had big dreams. During his early years, he was a gifted student and an outstanding athlete.
2. He Started Doing Drugs In Sixth Grade
Up until the sixth grade, Ricky’s parents revealed that their son was doing ok. He took to drug abuse while and that was when everything took a turn for the worse.
His parents revealed that his attitude began to change around the seventh grade and a year later, he was caught stealing. Ricky’s behavior continued to go downhill from there.
Ricky started to abuse substances such as marijuana, hashish, LSD, PCP, and what was believed to be mescaline. His behavior was also affected by the intake of these substances, and he began to hallucinate at some point.
The distraught teenager not only consumed these substances but also started selling and distributing them to other teenagers and consumers around.
3. His Parents Tried to Help Him out of Addiction
Even after Ricky went out of control, his parents still did not lose hope in their once “Greatest Kid in the World”. They sought help wherever and however they could so he could get better, to no avail.
Richard Kasso Snr. and his wife admitted Ricky to the South Oaks Psychiatric Hospital in a bid to help him from his addiction and have him rehabilitated, but he would not cooperate with the doctors.
Another time, Ricky got sick with Pneumonia and had to be kept on admission at the Long Island Jewish Hospital. There his parents tried to convince the doctors to commit him to involuntary psychiatric care, which wasn’t successful as the psychiatrists concluded that his behavior was not psychotic but just antisocial. Ricky was then discharged after he completed his treatment for pneumonia.
His parents suffered the pain of seeing their only son go into the deep pit of substance abuse without any means of escape. They revealed that he once told them that he enjoyed the fantasy world of drugs, and they couldn’t stop him.
Ricky became underweight, paranoid, spoke with slurred speech, and suffered memory loss. It was at that point that they gave up hope on him because they knew they would never get him back.
4. Ricky Kasso Adopted the Nickname “Acid King” After He Went Wild
The teenager due to his huge appetite for hallucinogens adopted the nickname “the Acid King. Ricky consumed unimaginable amounts of LSD and PCP which left him always “high”.
His friends and acquaintances revealed that most of them have never seen Ricky sober.
5. He Was Thrown out of His Home as a Young Teenager
After trying their best with no success, Ricky’s parents had no option left but to throw him out of their house, as he posed not only a physical threat because of his angry outbursts, but because it broke their hearts seeing their child turn into a monster and a menace. Other sources report that he left home because he got tired of interventions by his parents.
He began to live in the Aztakea woods, which was in the neighborhood or in other people’s garage.
6. Ricky Kasso Dropped Out of School at 16
Due to his huge appetite for illicit substances, Ricky decide he wasn’t interested in school anymore and dropped out of high school at the age of 16.
Having a lot of time on his hands, he went into full-time drug peddling and usage. His friend confirmed that he would take about 40 tabs of acid every day, alongside PCP, cannabis, and any other substances he could find.
He became a dirtbag with who people hang out only to buy and do drugs.
7. He Was A Self Acclaimed Satanist
Before dropping out of school, Ricky had fallen in love with the occult and Satanism. He would go to the library and get books about the topic and read them. Soon after, he began to carry The Satanic Bible around. He would randomly scream “Hail Satan”.
Subsequently, he would take trips to the local cemetery with the motive of “communing with satan”. One time, with the help of his friends, Ricky dug up a grave in an old Revolutionary-era cemetery to get a skull for a ritual. He was caught and arrested.
Apart from chanting satan’s name and his trips to the cemetery, no one confessed to seeing him participate in any satanism rituals or harming anyone.
However, some sources reported that he was a member of an occultic group of about 20 teenagers called “Knights of the Black Circle”, who allegedly took drugs and tortured animals.
8. Ricky was a Huge Fan of Heavy Metal Music
Just like most Satanists, Ricky was obsessed with Heavy Metal music. He loved bands like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest. Although it is not known if any of these bands worshipped the devil, their album cover art was always dark, gothic, and satanic.
Dark and gothic weren’t new to heavy metal music lovers. It was often used to piss off fundamentalists and moralists. It has been associated with heavy metal and satanism.
9. He Indisciminately Stabbed his Friend to Death
Ricky killed his friend, Gary Lauwers on June 19, 1984. He invited Gary to go into the woods and get high with him, Jimmy Troiano, Albert Quinones, and some other friends and acquaintances. They made a bonfire and were said to have smoked 17 bags of PCP and large amounts of LSD.
After the party was over, the rest of the crowd left Ricky, Gary, Jimmy, and Albert. It was at this point that Ricky and Jimmy began kicking and beating Gary. It was said that Jimmy held Gary down, while Ricky stabbed him numerous times while screaming “Say you love Satan”.
Jimmy then helped him drag the body deeper into the woods where they covered it with some dirt. At that point, Gary was still alive and he moved. Ricky went back to him and stabbed him multiple times in the face until he confirmed that he was truly dead. He then threw the knife off a bridge.
Although Jimmy denied holding Gary down while Ricky stabbed him, he admitted to helping him drag the body away and claimed it was under the influence of the drugs he took.
It was later revealed that Gary stole some drugs from Ricky whom he thought was high and unconscious. The killing might have been a way of retaliation on Ricky’s part.
After agreeing to keep the murder of Gary a secret between the accomplices, Ricky couldn’t help but gloat about it, because he thought everyone underestimated him. He bragged to all his friends with no sign of remorse.
Many of those he told did not believe him because the story was too gruesome to be done, especially by Ricky. He decided to prove it by taking several of his friends to where he had dumped the body. Someone among them, presumably a girl, asked him to at least bury the body, as the smell was becoming too unbearable and noticeable.
Ricky took the advice and together with Jimmie, they dug a shallow grave where they dumped the body. Subsequently, they planned to move to California and start a new life.
10. Ricky Kasso Ended His Life at 17
An anonymous person, possibly from the people Ricky told about how he murdered Gary, tipped off the police. Gary’s body was discovered on July 4, 1984. An autopsy confirmed he died of multiple stab wounds on his back and face. He was missing an eyeball.
At the time of this discovery, Ricky and Jimmy had already arrived in Chicago. In Chicago, they changed their minds about moving to California. They sold some drugs, bought a car, and drove back to Northport. However, they did not know that the police had found Gary’s body.
They were both arrested while they were sleeping in their car. Ricky denied it at first but confessed. However, he never made it to trial. Ricky Kasso hanged himself in his cell on July 7, 1984, at the age of 17.
See Also: Franz Bardon- Biography, Wife, Children, 7 Sad Facts About The Occultist
11. He Has Inspired a lot of Artistic Works
The life and death of Ricky Kasso became a sensational topic in the arts industry. It became the topic behind many books, articles, movies, songs, and documentaries.
Some of the books inspired by the Acid king include Say You Love Satan, written by David St. Clair, and The Acid King, by Jesse P. Pollack.
Documentaries include The Devil Worshippers (1985), Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground (1988), Satan in the Suburbs (2000), Killer Kids (2012), and The Acid King (2019).
Similarly, movies that were inspired by his story are Where the Devil Dwells (1985), My Sweet Satan (1994), Black Circle Boys (1997), and Ricky 6 (2000) among others.
Music artists and rappers have written a lot of songs about him, and an American heavy metal band was even named after him. It is called Acid King, it was formed in 1993, and has written a couple of songs about him.
