On March 21, 1980, a 25-year-old woman named Julie Revsin was murdered just six hours before the mob boss Angelo Bruno was assassinated in South Philadelphia. As a result, her case was overshadowed and has remained cold since 1980.
Julie was born in May 1954 as the youngest of two sisters. She attended Northeast High School in Philadelphia, where she was a cheerleader and involved in the school choir. Julie’s classmates described her as fun, outgoing, beautiful, and gentle.
At the time of her death, she was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and lived with her 32-year-old boyfriend, Thomas (Tom) Wheelock, in an apartment building near the Penn campus. He was also a graduate student.
On the morning of March 21, 1980, Julie and Tom left the apartment together and went their separate ways. When Tom returned to the apartment at around 3:15 p.m., he found Julie dead on the bedroom floor.
The murder weapon, a butcher knife, was lying next to her body.
According to Julie’s death certificate, she bled to death from multiple injuries. Her throat was cut from ear to ear, and her wrists were slashed. She had also been stabbed in the left side of her abdomen. Her death was ultimately ruled a homicide.
She was found partially clothed, wearing only a blouse and socks, but there was no evidence of assault. Neighbors did not hear any screams that day, and there was no sign of forced entry.
With no clear leads, investigators focused on Tom. They took him in for questioning, but he had an airtight alibi. He was playing basketball at the Gimbel Gymnasium with roughly 20 other players.
The only suspect he could think of to tell investigators about was that Julie had broken up with a prior boyfriend, and he had been very unhappy about the breakup.
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He also described a chilling incident that occurred back in October, months before Julie was killed. Apparently, he woke up one morning and found all the kitchen knives in his apartment spread out on the living room floor.
He told his landlord about the incident and isn’t sure if it was connected to Julie’s death at all. Many of the Penn students living in the apartment building had complained about the building’s lack of security, even before what happened to Julie.
Following her murder, a reporter from The Daily Pennsylvanian looked into the complaints and discovered broken intercoms, no chain locks on apartment doors, and unsecured back doors.
As the years passed, updates on Julie’s case became fewer and fewer. There wasn’t much follow-up, and a person of interest was never identified. Her case went cold. It has been 46 years since her death.
The crime took place on the same day that notorious mob boss Angelo Bruno was shot in the back of the head while sitting in his car. It was all the media could talk about, causing Julie’s case to fall into the shadows.
Last year, a reporter and University of Pennsylvania alum, Matthew Algeo, stumbled upon Julie’s case. He launched a Change.org petition on Julie’s case, hoping to renew interest in it.
Anyone who might have information about Julie’s death can call the Philadelphia Police Department Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
