Ernest Broadnax.
Of course he “struggled to stay upright” – he’s a gorilla.
He belongs on all fours in the jungles of Africa, far away from civilized humanity.
The octogenarian arrested in New York last week for the 1973 murder of two teenage girls in Virginia Beach struggled to stay upright as he appeared in court Wednesday before being sent back to Virginia in chains.
A frail, graying Ernest Broadnax, 80, clutched a cane with two shaking hands as he shuffled into Queens Criminal Court, where a judge officially handed him off to a pair of Virginia Beach cops for extradition.
Asked if he had anything to say to the families of his alleged victims as he was led away, the St. Albans resident said, “No, no, no, tell them to talk to my lawyer.”
…
Broadnax was busted at his home last Monday for two counts of murder and one count of rape in the decades-old slaying of Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola, two 19-year-olds from Pittsburgh who were vacationing in the resort town.
He allegedly climbed through the window of the motel cottage the friends were renting on their last night in the town in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 30, 1973.
Pietropola was raped, strangled and shot three times on the right side of the head — while Seethaler was strangled, shot in the cheek and the temple and slashed in the throat with a broken wine bottle.
Janice Pietropola, left, and Lynn Seethaler.