John Johnny Cokes Lardiere, 68, was fatally shot in the early hours of Easter Sunday, April 10, 1977, in the parking lot of the Red Bull Inn on Route 22 in Bridgewater, New Jersey. He was on a 26-hour furlough from the Clinton Reformatory for Women, where he was confined for contempt of court after refusing to testify before the State Commission of Investigation into organized crime. A patrolman arriving shortly after the shooting found Lardiere’s body on the pavement with the key to his motel room still in his hand.

An informant later identified the gunman as Michael Mikey Cigars Coppola, a reputed Genovese family soldier. According to that account, Coppola first fired a .22 with a silencer that jammed; after Lardiere taunted him, Coppola drew a .38 revolver from an ankle holster and fired multiple shots. The case remained unsolved for years until 1996, when a Lucchese member-turned-informant implicated Coppola. Coppola disappeared when the FBI sought a DNA sample and was arrested in Manhattan on March 9, 2007. He was later indicted on federal racketeering charges that included Lardiere’s murder; at trial Coppola was acquitted of the 1977 killing but convicted of other racketeering offenses.

Who in Bridgewater at the time might remember that night or the Red Bull Inn parking lot scene?