Landlord Charged With
Murdering Tenant

Prosecutor: E-mail Prompts Break-In,
Confrontation

PHILADELPHIA - Prosecutors said they have charged a Montgomery County man's landlord and friend with killing him earlier this month.

According to authorities, 44-year-old Larry Reese faces charges that include second- and third-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with the April 30 killing of 54-year-old Louis Malachowsky in Abington Township.

Malachowsky's body was found the next day on a vacant lot along the 2200 block of East Butler Street in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. He had suffered a fatal blow to the head, an autopsy found.

Prosecutors said Reese admitted being angry with Malachowsky after receiving an e-mail from him. Reese told police he went to Malachowsky's apartment on the 200 block of Hamilton Avenue armed with a heavy insulator (an electrician's appliance he used in his employment with SEPTA) and his friend was asleep on the couch but awoke.

"There were some angry words and then the defendant just struck him with this insulator-type electrician's device," says Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman. "We had received information that the victim was trying to get money in some potentially inappropriate way from his landlord, from the defendant."

Reese told investigators that he doesn't recall what happened after Malachowsky threatened to call police. But Reese allegedly admitted "I must have" hit him, telling police that Malachowsky was "on the couch and mumbling" when he left.

Reese also admitted to police that he returned to the apartment a day or two later, found Malachowsky dead, wrapped his body in a blanket, put it in a trash can and drove it to Philly, dumping it in a vacant lot in the city's Frankford neighborhood.

In addition to his employment at SEPTA, Reese also served as an "Abington Township Special Police Officer," a volunteer group that provides supplemental traffic direction support at community events and for religious institutions, authorities said. He next faces a May 27 hearing.