A PODCAST is closing in on fugitive and alleged wife murderer Joseph Maloney who has been wanted by the FBI for 57 years.
Maloney from Rochester, New York, has been on the run since 1967 when he was charged with first-degree murder after the death of his wife June Fisk.
Despite being caught 20 years later in 1985 in Ireland, living a new life with a new name, he evaded police once again thanks to an extradition failure.
He is still wanted by the FBI at the age of 88.
Paval Barter, the reporter and producer of the new RTE podcast Runaway Joe, dedicated to uncovering Maloney's whereabouts and getting justice for Fisk, spoke exclusively to The U.S. Sun about the case.
"Putting this podcast together, paints a picture of a man who managed to fool everyone, managed to con absolutely everyone and we hope to create a kind of 360 portrait of a psychopath," Barter said.
"What we are discovering from making this documentary is that June Maloney (nee Fisk) wasn’t the only victim of Joe’s actions.
"There are generations of victims.
"This case is gathering dust and what we are doing is blowing that dust off."
Throughout the series, listeners get to hear from friends of both Maloney and Fisk as well as law enforcement and attorneys who have worked on the case.
Fisk was 26 years old when she was allegedly poisoned at her son's 5th birthday party by her husband Maloney in 1967 after he spiked her Manhattan cocktail with methyl alcohol.
She had attempted to leave him numerous times and eventually succeeded in the year of her death when she moved into a two-bedroom apartment with their two children.
Fisk had fallen in love with another man, which left Maloney angry, his former childhood friend Neal Dunkelberg said on the podcast.
Before allegedly killing his wife with a fatal dose of poison, Maloney had reportedly attempted to stab Fisk through the roof of her convertible car, according to the podcast, though this charge was later withdrawn.
Fisk died in the hospital on June 5 after the poisoning left her in a coma.
The couple's children were put into the adoption system.
Maloney was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder but he escaped custody a month later and was not arrested again until 1986 after he was located in Dublin living under the name Michael O'Shea.
As O'Shea, Maloney had not lived the quiet life of a person in hiding.
Instead, he lived it up in Ireland — buying a mansion, launching a career in the Irish film industry, and marrying a woman called Sheila Chandler.
I just remembered this madman…a person that I wouldn’t like to be around - an uncomfortable feeling.
Margaret Fitzsimmons
Sheila married O'Shea in 1974 just months after meeting him and was left stunned by his abrupt arrest in 1986, which revealed his true identity and the murder charge against him.
Sheila died in 2010 in Ireland but anecdotal information collected by Barter indicates that "she was completely blindsided by his arrest," he said.
"Blindsided by the fact that he wasn’t who he said he was.
"In fact, the person who you are married to doesn’t even exist.
"She lived with him, she was married to him, she slept in a bed with him, she traveled with him, she owned houses with him, she worked with him and when he was arrested in January of 1985 she couldn’t believe that this could be true," Barter continued.
"That this man, not only was he not Irish, but he wasn’t the same age.
"Joe Maloney was born in 1935, Michael O’Shea was born in 1942, so he was actually 7 years older than she thought he was.
"He had a completely different history and backstory.
He hadn't been in the army. He had allegedly murdered his wife and he had been lying to her for 11 years.
"So if his wife of 11/12 years didn’t know him then who really did?"
His sudden arrest came in 1985 when Ireland and the US formed an extradition treaty, which law enforcement had been waiting for after finding that O'Shea's fingerprints matched those of Maloney during a DNA check following an incident at a house in Killiney in 1973.
"Maloney was a spoofer since day one," Jerry Johnston told the podcast.
Johnston worked in the film industry with Maloney in Ireland while he went by the name O'Shea.
Another acquaintance of O'Shea, Peter Collins, told the podcast that the lies Maloney told about himself were grand and ridiculous.
"He had the appearance of a 45/50 year old man but if you added up all of the things he had done he had to be 136 or 137," Collins said with a laugh.
However, former friend Margaret Fitzsimmons, who had dinner with O'Shea, noted the dark side of the man she knew as Michael.
"I just remembered this madman…a person that I wouldn’t like to be around - an uncomfortable feeling," she told the podcast.
"I did get a very bad feeling about him. [He had] a very wild sort of character," another woman who knew Maloney said.
Despite the second arrest, after 18 months in prison, he vanished again, this time for good as his extradition to the US was being finalized.
The eight-part podcast with a new episode every Friday has already received numerous tips as it appeals for information about the case.
According to the podcast team, it is the closest anyone has ever gotten to locating Maloney and getting closure for Fisk's family and friends.
"We’ve had a lot of tips coming in," Barter explained.
"As I said, he lived a larger-than-life existence in Ireland.
A lot of people knew him; a lot of people met him so we are uncovering more and more information.
"Certainly more information than the authorities had, the gardai had, and probably the FBI and the prosecutors' office in New York from tracking his movements and actions in Ireland.
"We believe that there are people out there who know where he went and have answers about where he went but have decided for one reason or another not to talk about it.
"It’s sad because the repercussions of his actions are continuing to this day so his ability to manipulate continues to this day."
However, when The U.S. Sun asked Barter if he thinks Maloney is dead, he warned that the man who would now be living under a third identity, perhaps with a whole new family, should not be underestimated.
"There is a very real chance that he is still alive," he said.
"He would be 88 and the one thing that I’ve learned from this story is not to underestimate him."
Anyone with any knowledge of Joseph Maloney aka Michael O'Shea or his wife in Ireland, Sheila Chandler O'Shea, is urged to contact the podcast researchers at: [email protected]
