Double Date: The Celia Censki Story

Miss Celia Censki

Celia Josephine Censki, a native of Suffield, Connecticut, lived with her parents and siblings at 92 Oak Street in nearby Windsor Locks. She was employed by the Montgomery Company, working in its namesake mill as a machine operator in the department that made decorative and electric tinsels; her older brother, Benjamin, also worked there.

On Sunday, January 16, 1955, Celia's older sister, Ann, went to the Thompsonville Hotel in Enfield, Connecticut, to meet two men from Springfield, Massachusetts: Joseph C. DeMaio and Gerald J. Celetti. The hotel was a place Ann knew well. She met the men around 3:30 p.m. They stayed there until about 5:45 p.m. when DeMaio convinced Ann they should pick up Celia in Windsor Locks for a double date. 

After picking up Celia, they went to Springfield and some area nightclubs. Around eleven o'clock, Celia said she was ready to go home. They stopped or were already at a restaurant near the Massachusetts-Connecticut state line, presumably in Agawam. Ann and Celetti stayed at the restaurant while DeMaio was to drive Celia home. 

DeMaio returned to the restaurant about an hour later, alone. 

He told Ann and Celetti that Celia got out of the car and disappeared when the pair went parking at a canal off Quarry Road in Suffield. The three returned to the spot to look for Celia, but there was no sign of her. Thinking she may have gone home, they drove to her house. Ann went inside while DeMaio and Celetti waited in the car. When she went outside to tell them that Celia was not there, she was surprised that the men had driven off.

Joseph C. DeMaio

Worried about her sister, Ann walked to the Windsor Locks police station, where she recounted the night's events to officers. She then went home and went to bed. 

Later that morning, Ann woke up and found Celia's bedroom still empty. Fearing the worst, she returned to the Windsor Locks police station and reported her missing. 

Police in Windsor Locks immediately notified their counterparts in Suffield. Police there had begun a search after finding a silk stocking, a pair of panties, a gold earring, and part of a brassiere on the bank of the canal; some of the clothes were bloodstained. They started dragging the five-mile partially frozen-over canal but only got a short distance before thick ice prevented them from going further, and their boats began to freeze in the water. They halted their search around ten that evening, deciding to drain the canal instead, a seven-hour process. 

Earlier that afternoon, Connecticut State Police joined the investigation and issued a 16-state alarm describing Celia as a 20-year-old female, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 135 pounds, with long black hair and brown eyes. 

Police wanted DeMaio and Celetti as persons of interest; even though Ann's story primarily implicated DeMaio, they obtained warrants charging both men with assault and attempt to commit rape after finding out that each one had criminal records in Massachusetts: DeMaio for a growing laundry list of crimes, Celetti for assault and battery. (DeMaio's police record dates back to 1937-8.)

Police released a description of the men, believed to be in their mid-thirties, and enlisted the help of the FBI.

Suffield and Connecticut State Police officers traveled to Springfield with Ann to search for the men. They stopped at Pioneer Valley Construction Company, where DeMaio was employed part-time but had not shown up for work. Celetti was unemployed, so they visited his home where he lived with his pregnant wife and two children; he was not there. 

On Tuesday, Suffield police and firemen were still searching the canal when they pulled Celia's badly bruised, half-nude body from the bottom; they obtained new warrants, one charging DeMaio with homicide and one charging Celetti with abetting in a homicide.

That evening, a New Jersey state trooper made a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike near Hightstown. Fear overcame the driver, who blurted out, "I didn't mean to do it, officer." 

After identifying the man as Joseph DeMaio, the officer took him into custody and notified the Suffield Police Department, which made the trip to New Jersey to pick up the wanted man, who waived extradition to Connecticut. 

Gerald J. Celetti

Several hours later, Celetti turned himself in at police headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, having hitched a ride there. 

A Connecticut judge held DeMaio without bond at Hartford County Jail pending trial in Superior Court in April; Celetti eventually made bail.

On Thursday, the coroner announced Celia's cause of death as drowning. He stated that no rape occurred but concluded that DeMaio's criminal actions resulted in her death.

Based on courtroom testimony and the corner's inquest, it is believed that Celia resisted DeMaio's advances, and in doing so, he hit her in the face and tried to rape her. Crying and hysterical, she fled the vehicle on foot; he may or may not have chased after her. 

Evidence suggests that in the dark of night, distraught and in unfamiliar territory, Celia ran through the underbrush and fell over a 25-foot-high embankment and into the canal's icy water, where she drowned. 

Celetti made various statements about the sequence of events after he and DeMaio dropped Ann off; much did not add up. But, it appears that after leaving the Censki home, DeMaio and Celetti drove to New Jersey to visit DeMaio's brother and then went to his aunt's house in New York City. 

On Tuesday, they read about Celia's death in a late-edition newspaper they picked up in Times Square, and in learning that the police were looking for them, they panicked and hightailed it back to New Jersey, parting ways in Newark. 

On May 5, 1955, a judge sentenced DeMaio to 10 to 20 years for manslaughter, thanks in part to Celetti who turned state's witness. 

 

Montgomery Mill

 

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Edited Out/Author's Additional Rough Draft Research Notes

DeMaio's story, according to a police officer: When he caught her, Celia scratched his face and pulled his hair. He then punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground and causing her to bleed. DeMaio returned to the car to get her a handkerchief, at which point Celia got up and ran away.

DeMaio's father was an olive dealer. He murdered a young woman who worked for him in 1938. His son, a witness to the slaying, helped hide the body in an olive barrel. The elder DeMaio paid someone fifteen cents to get rid of the barrel. 

In 1946, DeMaio and another man broke into Industrial Food Service, Inc. and stole a safe, 15,000 candy bars, and a truck. A judge sent him to prison for 3 to 5 years. On December 20, 1945, he broke into a West Springfield home and stole $1,100.

DeMaio is believed to have been released from prison by 1966 - when he was arrested for breaking into businesses in Springfield and stealing safes. 

Gerald Celetti ran as a Democrat for public office in 1951. Police arrested him following a probation violation in 1975. He died in Springfield's Mercy Hospital in 1985 following a long illness. 

It is believed that Ann died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2016. At the time of her death, no one came forward to claim her body. 

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