To his friends and neighbors, Angelo Desideri was a humble man who lived a quiet life. The fifty-seven-year-old Phoenix socialite was a wealthy businessman and philanthropic benefactor of many social causes. Angelo, who owned a small shopping center and Italian import store, was almost generous to a fault. Everyone appeared to like the devout Roman Catholic and lifelong bachelor.

Affable Angelo, however, may have lived a hidden life unbeknownst to friends and acquaintances. His efforts to end his darker life may have cost him his real life.

Angelo Desideri

On the morning of June 6, 1988, a neighboring shop owner was surprised to see that Angelo had not opened the import store. After calls to him throughout the morning and early afternoon went unanswered, Angelo’s friend, Stan Eggleston, drove to his house to check on him. When he arrived, he found several things disturbing, including the home’s burglar alarm being off.

Sensing something was amiss, Stan called the police. He and the responding officer entered the home.

Stan Eggleston 

Angelo’s Friend

The house was in order and it appeared that Angelo had been interrupted while preparing lunch, as food was found on the stove and in the microwave. In the living room, two new pairs of pants were found next to a shopping bag. A receipt showed Angelo had purchased them from an area store the previous day.

It also appeared that Angelo had been paying bills as several, in typical Angelo fashion, were laid out neatly on the kitchen table. In atypical Angelo fashion, however, his car cover was sprawled on the garage floor. The meticulous Angelo always neatly folded it when he took it off.

Other than his car, the only items determined to be missing from Angelo’s home were his attaché case and some jewelry.

Angelo Is Not At Home

Neighbor Lew Dean had seen Angelo’s Cadillac speed away from his home the previous day. The car sped out so fast that Lew caught only a glimpse of the driver, but he did not believe it was Angelo because the man behind the wheel appeared taller and had not waved, as Angelo always did.

Lew Dean 

Angelo’s Neighbor

At 6:32 p.m. on June 6, only a few hours after Stan Eggleston had checked on his friend, Angelo’s car was found ablaze in a vacant lot in San Diego, three-hundred-fifty miles west of Phoenix. The fire was started by an accelerant.

Two people recalled seeing the car only minutes before it was torched. Both recalled seeing a man resembling Angelo nearby, but neither could be certain it was he.

Angelo’s Car Is Fond In Flames

The attaché case and missing jewelry from Angelo’s home were not in the car. The only item in the trunk was the car’s jack. The vehicle appeared to have been meticulously washed and cleaned and showed no signs of forced entry.

Investigators hit a dead end in trying to retrace the car’s route from Phoenix to San Diego. Angelo’s credit cards had not been used, and no gas station attendants or car washers along several routes between the two cities could remember having seen him.

A break in the case did not come until nine months later.

No Trail Of Angelo

On March 16, 1989, thirty-four-year-old Guiseppe “Joe” Calo, was charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery and burglary. Calo, owner of Phoenix’s Michelina’s Italian Restaurant and a business associate of Angelo Desideri, told police he had information on the businessman’s disappearance.

Calo and forty-one-year-old James Majors, a painting contractor, had previously worked together in construction, and Calo claimed his former business associate was responsible for Angelo’s vanishing. At the time of Calo’s arrest, Majors was jailed in California on several counts of murder in unrelated cases.

On the afternoon of June 5, 1988, Calo told authorities that Majors had gone to Angelo’s home and asked him for a glass of water. Once inside, Majors took Angelo at gunpoint, robbed him, and then took him hostage, driving his Cadillac into the desert. Somewhere between Phoenix and San Diego, Calo claimed, Majors murdered Angelo, buried his body, then drove Angelo’s Cadillac to San Diego, where he set it on fire.

                                      Joe Calo                    James Majors

In searching a storage locker rented by James Majors, police recovered stolen items from multiple people, including Angelo Desideri’s missing attaché case and jewelry.  In addition, entries in the diary of Majors’ wife confirmed Calo’s claims.

Angelo’s Items Are Located In Majors’ Locker

On April 29, 1989, over ten months after Angelo Desideri’s disappearance, his remains were found by campers. They were buried beneath a tree in the desert near Jacumbra, California, a mountainous area approximately forty miles east of San Diego. He had been shot to death with a .32 caliber gun.

Angelo’s Ashes Are Found

Joe Calo told investigators that Angelo sold drugs and kept records for a drug-trafficking operation run by Romano Sbrocca, owner of Ernesto’s Italian restaurant in Scottsdale.

Calo, also a drug runner, claimed Sbrocca ordered him to kill Angelo for wanting to leave the crime ring and because he was afraid of his talking to the authorities. Calo says he instead hired Majors to murder Angelo.

Romano Sbrocca

Joe Calo was also convicted of Angelo Desideri’s murder and six other contract killings. He was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2010.

Investigators believe Calo’s claim that James Majors murdered Angelo, but he was never charged with the crime because he had received the death penalty for a triple murder in California. Majors died in prison in 2017, while still on death row.

Romano Sbrocca was also never charged in connection with the murder of Angelo Desideri because prosecutors say the evidence against him was not strong enough. He died in February 2018.

Suspects All Deceased

James Majors is mentioned as possibly having involvement in the murder of Jeanne Tovrea, another wealthy Phoenix socialite about whom I have written. She was shot to death in her home on April 1, 1988, two months before Angelo Desideri’s disappearance.

Here is the link to my write-up on Jeanne Tovrea.

Hap’s Hitman?

Angelo Desideri’s murder has been solved, but he remains a man of mystery. He frequented Joe Calo’s Michelina’s Restaurant often, but investigators were never able to prove or disprove Calo’s contentions that the wealthy socialite and businessman was a drug runner.

Angelo Is A Man Of Mystery

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/221059564/angelo-desideri

SOURCES:

• Arizona Republic
• Associated Press
• Phoenix New Times
• Prescott Courier
• Roanoke Times
• Unsolved Mysteries