Widow seeks vindication as two Colombos go on trial for muder of her NYPD husband
She was cruelly dubbed the Black Widow after two of her five husbands were murdered.
But Kimberly Kennaugh is counting on Monday’s trial of two mobsters to bring justice for her slain spouse — an NYPD cop — and clear her name.
"I've been attacked as if I pulled the gun," she told the Daily News. "I'd walk outside my building with the bullet holes in the wall every day and there were detectives following me.
"There was "666" sprayed in red paint by somebody on the building wall. Somebody left a letter at my door that said, 'Are you happy now b----?' I felt the hatred."
Now, 15 years after her fourth husband, Officer Ralph Dols, was shot to death in Brooklyn, two Colombo family mobsters, Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli and Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, will appear in Brooklyn Federal Court to face a jury for a crime that defies even the twisted logic of the Mafia — killing a cop.
“I want closure for Ralph's family. I want closure for him," Kennaugh, 52, said.
"I want closure too," she added.
Federal prosecutors say Kennaugh's third husband, former Colombo crime family acting boss Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, ordered the hit on the 28-year-old Dols because he felt disrespected that his ex-wife had married a police officer.
But as the killing remained unsolved for more than a decade, questions arose about Dols' alleged involvement with steroids, illegal gambling and ties to both Russian and Italian organized crime.
Detectives also focused on Kennaugh, calling her the Black Widow because her second husband, mobster Enrico Carrini, was whacked in 1987 after they had separated.
Cacace himself had survived a Colombo war shooting in 1992. Kennaugh’s first husband, Thomas Capelli, was a Colombo soldier.
The NYPD refused to put up a memorial plaque for Dols in Police Headquarters, but his housing bureau colleagues did so in their Coney Island, Brooklyn, station where he was known as the "Gentle Giant." His locker remains a shrine in the Police Service Area No. 1 locker room.
"Ralph had that locker and no one else can ever use it," said Officer Anthony Cerenzio.
"I want his name cleared. It was unjust what they did to him," Kennaugh said.
But prosecutors are pinning Dols’ murder solely on Gioeli and Saracino, and charging that they acted on Cacace’s direction.
Gioeli is also being tried on five gangland killings and Saracino on three.
Cacace is facing the death penalty for ordering the murder and will be tried separately. He was asked after his arrest about being connected with the murder of a cop and replied, "I don't give a f---."
Ralph was just 17 and Kim nine years his senior when they met in a Brooklyn gym where they both worked out in the late 1980s.
Years later, Kennaugh was single mother of three after divorcing Cacace — or so she had thought — when she ran into Dols on Avenue U around Christmas.
"He said, 'Guess what I'm doing for a living? I'm a cop,’" she recalled.
She was having friends over for a Christmas Eve dinner party and invited Dols. After the other guests left, he and and Kennaugh had a toast and she thanked him for being her friend.
"He kissed me on the lips and said, 'I have to tell you something. I'm not that little kid anymore. I'm a man. I fell in love with you he first day I saw you and I've loved you all these years.' I was floored," Kennaugh said.
"Here was this young, good-looking guy from a great family. Why was he interested in me?" Kennaugh said. "I used to think he felt sorry for me."
Their relationship took off and they wed in Las Vegas in July 1995. But they later learned the marriage wasn't legal because Cacace had given Kennaugh bogus divorce papers to sign that were never filed by the gangster's lawyer.
Dols and Kennaugh were making plans to remarry at City Hall and purchase a home when Dols was ambushed in front of their Sheepshead Bay apartment building. By then the couple had an infant daughter, Gabrielle, who is now a teenager.
One confessed Dols assassin — Colombo soldier Dino "Big Dino" Calabro — is set to testify at the trial. Saracino's brother Sebastian is also on the government's lineup of cooperating witnesses.
Kennaugh said Dols appeared to her in a dream, reminding her that the trial would soon begin.
"He said, 'It's almost over,'" Kennaugh said. "And that it's no coincidence that it's starting on his birthday."
Kennaugh was not informed of the start of the trial, another snub that says she will look past because justice for Dols is the priority.
Kennaugh, whose fifth marriage ended in divorce, says her old life, a harrowing childhood with an abusive mother and a fascination with wiseguys, is history now.
She says she raised her daughter without financial assistance from the NYPD, and that her marriage to Dols was all too brief.
"He was the love of my life. We were madly in love," she said. "For the first time I had a man who took care of me right. He was a great husband and a great father. For the first time in my life things were right. And our normal life was taken away."
If she's not called as a witness, Kennaugh has mixed feelings about attending the trial.
"Do I want to sit across from the people who destroyed my life? I don't know if I can behave myself."
Years later, Kennaugh was single mother of three after divorcing Cacace — or so she had thought — when she ran into Dols on Avenue U around Christmas.
"He said, 'Guess what I'm doing for a living? I'm a cop,’" she recalled.
She was having friends over for a Christmas Eve dinner party and invited Dols. After the other guests left, he and and Kennaugh had a toast and she thanked him for being her friend.
"He kissed me on the lips and said, 'I have to tell you something. I'm not that little kid anymore. I'm a man. I fell in love with you he first day I saw you and I've loved you all these years.' I was floored," Kennaugh said.
"Here was this young, good-looking guy from a great family. Why was he interested in me?" Kennaugh said. "I used to think he felt sorry for me."
Their relationship took off and they wed in Las Vegas in July 1995. But they later learned the marriage wasn't legal because Cacace had given Kennaugh bogus divorce papers to sign that were never filed by the gangster's lawyer.
Dols and Kennaugh were making plans to remarry at City Hall and purchase a home when Dols was ambushed in front of their Sheepshead Bay apartment building. By then the couple had an infant daughter, Gabrielle, who is now a teenager.
One confessed Dols assassin — Colombo soldier Dino "Big Dino" Calabro — is set to testify at the trial. Saracino's brother Sebastian is also on the government's lineup of cooperating witnesses.
Kennaugh said Dols appeared to her in a dream, reminding her that the trial would soon begin.
"He said, 'It's almost over,'" Kennaugh said. "And that it's no coincidence that it's starting on his birthday."
Kennaugh was not informed of the start of the trial, another snub that says she will look past because justice for Dols is the priority.
Kennaugh, whose fifth marriage ended in divorce, says her old life, a harrowing childhood with an abusive mother and a fascination with wiseguys, is history now.
She says she raised her daughter without financial assistance from the NYPD, and that her marriage to Dols was all too brief.
"He was the love of my life. We were madly in love," she said. "For the first time I had a man who took care of me right. He was a great husband and a great father. For the first time in my life things were right. And our normal life was taken away."
If she's not called as a witness, Kennaugh has mixed feelings about attending the trial.
"Do I want to sit across from the people who destroyed my life? I don't know if I can behave myself."
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