Police: Man who allegedly killed dad had mental illness

Jen Lawson

Friday, Jan. 23, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.

The 48-year-old man who allegedly slashed his elderly father to death with a butcher knife Tuesday was undergoing treatment for schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication, according to the police report.

Charles Anthony Greco was scheduled for an initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court this morning on a charge of murder of a victim over 65.

According to Metro Police paperwork obtained by the Sun, the department's 911 dispatch center received a call about 10:45 p.m. from someone at 205 Delamar St. The phone line was open and the call-taker said she could hear someone moving around inside the house, but no one spoke.

She dispatched patrol officers to the house, located near West Bonanza Road and North Rancho Drive. The officers were familiar with the residents because there was a history of domestic disturbances, the report says.

The two officers knocked on the door of the one-story, three-bedroom home and received no response, so they entered the house through an unlocked bathroom window.

They found Charles Greco hiding in the living room.

He said: "That demon in the back room was trying to attack me. He's not my father," the police report says.

Officers searched the house and found Charles Greco's father, 84-year-old Albert Greco, A Korean War veteran, dead in a bedroom. His body had been mutilated, the report says. A large butcher knife was on the floor next to his body. Police placed Charles Greco in handcuffs and put him in a patrol vehicle.

Albert Jeffrey "A.J." Greco, the victim's other son, arrived at the house shortly thereafter and found his home had been declared a crime scene.

A. J. Greco told police his brother Charles had been treated for schizophrenia for the past 26 years and had been violent when off his medication, the report says.

Police spoke to A. J. Greco's girlfriend, who said Charles Greco had been forced to go into a hospital just before New Year's Day to adjust to his medication. He had not taken his medication in the past few weeks and "was becoming delusional," she said.

Charles Greco had told her he was a Latin priest and that his father was "the holy ghost."

Police later took photographs of Charles Greco and found what appeared to be a bite mark on his right forearm and scratches to his face, neck, chest and back, the report says. A shirt with apparent blood stains was found in Charles Greco's bedroom.

The Greco death is the second case of alleged patricide Metro Police have investigated in the past two months.

On Thanksgiving Day, 33-year-old Bert Matthews was arrested for killing his father, Berter "Harry" Matthews, 61, and a family friend, Byron Zackler.

They were expecting relatives and the elder Matthews was cooking dinner when the son and father got into an argument. They had a volatile relationship, police said.

Bert Matthews pulled a gun from under his bed and told his father he was going to kill himself but, in a struggle over the gun, he shot his father in the leg, police said.

His father allegedly taunted him, daring him to shoot him in the head, so the younger Matthews did, police said.

Zackler, hearing the struggle from an adjoining room, told Harry Matthews to let his son kill himself, according to the police report. That enraged Bert Matthews, police said, so he reloaded the gun and shot the family friend.