Born in 1940, Biegenwald was the victim of severe, countless beatings from his alcholic father. At five, he torched the family home and was sent off for observation at the Pyschiatric Center in Rockland county, New York. By age eight, he was drinking and gambling, by nine, he had received a series of electroshock therapy treatments at New York's Bellevue Hospital. His next institutional stop was at the State Training School for Boys at Warwick, New York, where he was accused of theft and inciting other inmates to escape. On his visits home to State Island, he stole money from his mother, and at age eleven he sat himself on fire. He was released in time to graduate from eighth grade, at age sixteen.

Biegenwald dropped out of high school after only a few weeks. Soon after dropping out he left for Nashville, Tennesee, where he stole a car, and was arrested by federal agents for transporting the vehicle across state lines. In 1958, a few months after being relased from Kentucky officials, he stole another car on State Island and drove to Bayonne, New Jersey where he tried to hold up a grocery store. In the process, he killed Stephen Sladowski. Biegenwald and his male partner were picked up in Maryland two days later after Biegenwald shot a Salsbury police officer and fired a shotgun at state troopers who pulled him over for speeding. He was convicted of murder, and given a life sentence. Richard was released after serving only 17 years in 1974.

Back on the street, Beigenwald worked odd jobs, and met a pretty 16 year old girl who was a neighbor of his mother. The girl was a normal, outstanding student, who's parents were shocked when they found out she was engaged to a scarfaced ex-con who was more than twice her age. By this time, Richard had not reported to his parole officer since mid 1977, and was suspected in a rape as well. He was arrested in Brooklyn in June 1980, and married his girlfriend in the Brooklyn House of Detention.

The Rape charges were dropped when the victim failed to identify him in a lineup, but he still served six months for his parole violation. When released he moved into an apartment with his wife in Asbury Park, New Jersey. On January 4, 1983, the body of 18-year old Anna Olesiewicz was found behind a restaurant in Ocean Township, north of Asbury Park. She was shot four times in the head, and was fully clothed, with no signs of rape. After hearing about the murder, a friend of Biegenwald's wife notified police, claiming Richard as a suspect in the murder. She said that she had accompanied Biegenwald on several trips to the boardwalk, trolling for victims, and he had once shown her a young woman's body hidden in his garage, and even gave her a ring as a present that belonged to a victim.

On January 22, police surrounded his and Dherran Fitzgerald's apartments, surprising them. A search of the house turned up pipe bombs, pistols, a machine gun, knockout drops, marijuana, a live puff adder snake, and floor plans of various local business's. In custody, Fitzgerald began to tell of Biegenwald showing him a body in the garage, saying that she had been killed "for business reasons." He helped bury that body at the home of Biegenwald's mother, on Staten Island, accidentally uncovering a second dead body as he was digging the grave. Fitzgerald led police to the bodies of three more bodies.

As the investigation went on, charges were filed against Richard in the death of a prison escapee named William Ward, who was shot five times in the head and buried outside Neptune City, New Jersey. He was also suspected, but not charged in two additional murders.

Richard was indicted by New Jersey authorities on five counts of first degree murder. Fitzgerald turned state's evidence, pleading guilty on counts of weapons possession and hindering Biegenwald's arrest (helping bury bodies), and recieved 5 years for each count. Biegenwald was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of Anna Olesiewicz, and for the murder of William Ward, he recieved a life sentence.