As He Tells the Story
By Kiki Pepper, Staff Writer
Thursday, March 27, 2025
STROUDSBURG — As he tells the story, convicted killer and Stroudsburg native Brian Esposito first remembers experiencing abuse from his father at the age of seven.
“He might have been drunk, though it was hard to tell because he was often inebriated when he got home in the evenings and never seemed to act like it. He smacked me in the back of my head with a shoe he was taking off. I had been telling him about a classmate who kicked one of the dodgeballs out of the playground, on purpose. Dad angrily said he didn’t want his son acting like a snitch.”
This reporter spoke with Mr. Esposito this past Monday and Tuesday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lewisburg. We met for two-hour blocks of time in the morning and afternoon of both days. Ten days prior, in a Stroudsburg District Court courtroom, Mr. Esposito had agreed to plead guilty for the October 2024 murder of Jenelle Alexiewicz on the condition, in part, that he be given the opportunity to speak with a reporter from the Stroudsburg Herald newspaper for at least eight hours. In courtroom pleadings, Mr. Esposito indicated a desire to “tell his side of the story” to his hometown newspaper, and have it published, “before the world forgot about him.”
Responding to my first question, Mr. Esposito admitted he had killed Jenelle Alekseweicz on the evening of October 4, 2024. As had been outlined during the trial by District Attorney Meredith Atkins, Mr. Esposito described trying to rob Ms. Alexiewicz, getting attacked by Hank Tilden (Ms. Alekseweicz’s boyfriend), and punching Ms. Alekseweicz in the side of her head during the ensuing scuffle. Ms. Alexiewicz died from her injuries three days later at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
On that Friday, Mr. Esposito had been looking to rob someone to pay off a Philadelphia-based bookie to whom over $2,000 was owed. (Mr. Esposito refused to reveal the name of the bookie for fear that doing so would result in his being attacked during his time in prison.) He described waiting outside of The Goat on Main bar, in Stroudsburg, and looking for someone “dressed like they had money.” He chose to rob Ms. Alexiewicz because she was “wearing lots of jewelry and seemed to be alone when she started walking down Quaker Alley, behind the bar.”
Early in my conversation with Mr. Esposito, it became clear he did not want to talk about his crime, his victim, or his punishment. The topic Mr. Esposito most wanted to discuss was his childhood, his relationship with his father specifically, and the impact his upbringing had on the man he has become. Many times, during our four conversations, Mr. Esposito used a phrase such as “That’s why I am who I am,” or “That’s why I did what I did.” He blames the influence of his father for many of the socially unacceptable behaviors he has demonstrated during the 34 years of his life.
Brian describes his late father Vincent (or “Vinny”) Esposito as being “larger than life,” with a “big personality.” Vinny often wore flashy clothes, a diamond ring, a series of fedoras (usually with a feather), and drove a jet-black 1992 Cadillac Seville that he made sure to buff and polish at least once a month. Brian “worshipped the ground” his father walked on despite the random beatings he would suffer. If anything, the sudden kicks and punches Brian received caused him to respect his father even more, leading him to conclude that his dad did not suffer fools.
Brian’s fear of being beaten by Vinny was mixed in with a desire for his father to be proud of him. He recalls being praised by his father, at age ten, when his elementary school principal called his mother to report Brian had been involved in a fight with a classmate after school. “Mom was pretty upset I had been brawling, but when Dad got home, he smiled, said ‘that’s my boy,’ and asked if I got in any good punches. While Mom kept trying to understand how I had gotten into the fight, Dad only cared how well I fared in the fight.”
Public records indicate that Vinny Esposito was born in Newark, New Jersey but moved to Stroudsburg before the age of ten. Dropping out of Stroudsburg High School at the age of 16, Vinny married Delores Arnone (also from Stroudsburg), at the Church of Saint Luke, when he was 18. Their son Brian was born five months later. Delores died in a car crash when Brian was eleven years old. Vinny was killed two years ago, during an altercation between two inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was serving a ten-year sentence for armed robbery.
Brian lived with Vinny during his teenage years, though his father was often away from home for up to ten days at a time. “I rarely knew where he had gone or when he would return. If he wasn’t there in the morning, I simply got up with the alarm clock, poured myself a bowl of cereal, and then walked to school, often on time. After school, Dad knew this guy who managed a boxing club over on Collins Street and I was allowed to use any of their equipment as long as it was not already being used by one of the members.”
“In the evenings, I knew how to microwave hot dogs or pizza from the freezer, which was always packed with the basics. If I ran out of milk, I could buy it at the corner store. I watched a lot of TV. As my dad had instructed, I did not tell teachers, friends, or neighbors that he was away, so no one worried I was not being looked after. What mattered to me was that he always did return, often with an old baseball card he had found or a crisp, new twenty-dollar bill.”
I asked Mr. Esposito to tell me more about the boxing club.
“I met some mean bastards during my time at that club. Every one of those guys had a chip on his shoulder but, because the guys knew my dad, they never caused me any trouble. Several of the guys were willing to spar with me, if they couldn’t find anyone else, and they taught me both how to throw a punch and how to take a punch.”
“While my dad was away one week, two of the guys from the gym offered me $20 to be their lookout while they committed burglaries over near the university. I was maybe fourteen. They asked me to blow a whistle if I saw any cops or cop cars coming towards the apartment building they had entered. It was such a thrill to be given that responsibility, to risk being caught and to get away scot-free. I acted as a lookout for them seven or eight times before one of them got sent away for hitting his girlfriend.”
I asked Mr. Esposito if his dad was aware of his early involvement in these crimes.
“My dad always told me to not take shit from anyone and at the same time he would urge me to stay out of trouble. He acknowledged he had made too many mistakes in his life and wanted to be sure I learned how to avoid them. In fact, one of the guys from the gym, Reginald something, told me straight out that he and Dad were selling stolen watches, but that he and all the guys from the gym understood how Dad did not want them involving me in their action.”
I then asked Mr. Esposito if, and why, he might have wanted to emulate his father.
“Of course I wanted to be like my dad. He was my dad. I suppose I could have found other role models, but I never encountered anyone who had more charisma than him. Everyone paid attention to him when he entered the room. Even when he explained how I should not do something he had done, like the time he was pushing around a neighbor who refused to lower his radio …I still wanted to act like he acted.”
During our conversation, Mr. Esposito was reluctant to say much of anything about Ms. Alexiewicz or her family. I asked several times what he might say to Jenelle’s parents and brother, or to her boyfriend. Each time, Mr. Esposito looked away from me and muttered “What can I say?”
My sense that Mr. Esposito was ashamed or embarrassed about what he did was confirmed when, at the start of our final two-hour session, he said, “I am so sorry for what I did to Ms. Alexiewicz. I had no intention of hurting her. I simply wanted to take her money and some jewelry and then run away.” He teared up at this point and needed a moment to compose himself. He then explained how he was defending himself from the punches being thrown by Hank Tilden and, when throwing a punch of his own, Ms. Alexiewicz was struck while stepping into the fray.
“I feel so guilty about what I did to her. I have so much regret. My right arm can still feel that punch landing against her head. She absolutely did not deserve her fate. She and her boyfriend were defending themselves from me because I, stupidly, had gambled my way into debt and couldn’t figure out any other way to pay it off. I will never forgive myself for what I did that night. Even if I could forgive myself, I wouldn’t want to.”
Mr. Esposito ended our conversation by saying he is happy he’s never had any children. “I am absolutely convinced that if I had fathered one or more children, they would have grown up to be someone like me, a petty thief who is addicted to gambling and unable to make good choices. As one of my former business partners once told me, I’m a ‘nasty dude.’ Thank goodness there are no children to follow in my footsteps.”
Mr. Esposito then surprised me by asking, almost pleading, that I use my position in the public eye to advocate for laws requiring individuals convicted of violent crimes to undergo a vasectomy. “Use me as an example if you want, but the world will be a better place if fewer children were out there wanting to be just like their ***-hole dads.”
I promised Mr. Esposito that I would share his story and his recommendation with the public.
Next week, we’ll hear reactions to Mr. Esposito’s story from Jenelle Alexiewicz’s family and former boyfriend.
NOTE: After this story was submitted for publication, the Stroudsburg Herald learned that Brian Esposito attempted suicide on Wednesday, using bed sheets to hang himself. He has now been placed in a special cell, is on a suicide watch, and will undergo a psychological assessment and receive aggressive mental health services.
[Image Credit : Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash]
by 
Bob Gielow
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