Spank the Monkey

Puglisi told police he had met Shalleck a year before the murder after reading the "catchy" spanking advertisement in 411 magazine; Puglisi was "curious to see just how kinky he was," so he got together with Shalleck on a few occasions.

Both agree that upon arriving at the trailer, around 11 p.m., they watched a porn video. Ditto says it depicted older European men spanking white teenaged boys. At Shalleck's behest, Ditto stripped down to his white silk women's underwear and bent over his host's knee. Then, the man they knew as "Jay" slipped off Rex's underwear and began smacking him, first with his bare hand and then with a wooden paddle.

Ditto eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Puglisi turned down a plea and is expected to stand trial in April, when Ditto has agreed to testify against him. Puglisi's attorney advised him against granting an interview to New Times. Meantime, Ditto agreed to discuss Shalleck's murder with New Times at Everglades Correctional Institution, which is nestled amid the sawgrass near the Miccosukee casino in Miami.

A burly inmate with tattooed arms and a female corrections officer stood watch as a wiry-built Ditto shuffled into a large meeting room wearing royal-blue canvas loafers, baby-blue scrubs, and a flimsy black yarmulke. The seductive face from the booking mug shot had gone gaunt and was partially obscured by a thin beard. His tousled locks had been shorn. Prison had erased Rex Ditto's good looks.

According to Ditto, after a few minutes under an oar-like paddle, he couldn't take any more corporal punishment. But when he asked for a timeout, Ditto says, Shalleck told him he'd have to withstand the thwacking "till the sun comes up." That's when Ditto, who says he's a diagnosed schizophrenic, claims to have heard voices. He's a nasty man, they said. Hit him in the head.

Ditto grabbed the paddle and clobbered Shalleck in the forehead. A pissed-off Shalleck began choking him, Ditto says, and the two fell to the floor while they struggled. Ditto says when he hollered for help, Puglisi came with a kitchen knife and began stabbing Shalleck. As the assault dragged on, Ditto says, he decided it was time for a mercy kill; he plunged a knife in circular pattern all around Shalleck's genitals, aiming for the kidneys. Shalleck was stabbed in more than 40 places, including the anus.

In his statement to police, Puglisi said he never struck Shalleck. Rather, he witnessed Ditto bludgeoning Shalleck repeatedly over the head with the paddle, then held the victim down while Ditto fetched a steak knife. He watched Ditto take up blade after blade, each of which either broke or bent under the pressure of the thrusts. And as he punctured the old man, Ditto repeatedly said, "The son of a bitch won't die." All the while, Shalleck begged for his life.

Robert Gershman, Ditto's attorney, says he thinks the men were equally culpable — and that life in prison was the best deal Ditto could hope for in a death penalty case. "This is probably one of the most gory and gruesome scenes anyone will ever see," Gershman says, remembering the crime scene photos. "The bathroom was covered in blood from floor to ceiling, and there was a handprint smeared down the length of the wall. It was like something out of a horror show."

Ditto and Puglisi dragged Shalleck's body out to their car. They planned to transport it to the Everglades, leave it for the gators. But they got spooked and took off when a security guard drove by. Then they dumped the bloody knives and paddles in the New River in Fort Lauderdale and burned some of Shalleck's belongings in their backyard in Oakland Park. Their haul was meager: $80 in spare change wrapped in paper, some jewelry, and a check they forged to themselves for $450. Shalleck's checkbook showed only $500 in his checking account at the time of his death.

Five days after Shalleck's murder, Curious George made his big-screen debut in a long-awaited Universal film produced by Ron Howard. One of the scenes, when the monkey climbs onto a dinosaur skeleton in a museum, was borrowed from a story line developed under Shalleck's direction.

In the months leading up to his death, friends say, Shalleck was trying to find a lawyer to help him fight for a payout from Houghton Mifflin and Universal, but to no avail. The movie earned $14.7 million on its opening weekend at the box office. Shalleck and his heirs wouldn't be seeing a piece of that action.

Alan Shalleck's two sons arranged for their father's burial in Westchester County, New York. The wooden casket was interred on February 14, 2006. There was two feet of snow on the ground that day, David Shalleck says. The funeral wasn't well-attended.