Blood brothers

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

They grew up on a street out of a ‘60s family sitcom: Two New Jersey brothers Andrew and his kid brother Rob— riding bikes, playing touch football till it got dark.

They were, oblivious, thankfully, to what fate had in store for them, the Kissels.

Danny Williams, childhood friend: It’s unbelievable. It’s just like out of a movie really. It’s like a horror movie.

On drowsy days the brothers played cutthroat Monopoly, passing "Go," piling up properties, and raking in the cash.

And as grown-ups that’s what both of them became, masters of real life Monopoly—buying big properties and savoring the perks that came with rolling the dice.

They had smart marriages, splendid cars, vacation homes, even a mansion and a yacht. One brother, Rob, playing according to the rules.

Michael Paradise, Rob Kissel's college friend: He didn’t necessarily want to just earn money. He was a very humble person in many respects.

The other, Andrew, was taking shortcuts, the end always justifying the means.

Brian Howie: He never could kind of mesh the making of money with being happy. They weren’t...it was like he was chasing something.

But when it comes to tallying the winning and closing accounts, it isn’t Monopoly but another rainy day board game altogether: Clue. It better speaks to their brief lives—and deaths—so eerily similar.

Rob, in the bedroom, with a blunt object, and Andrew, in the basement with a knife.

And a story lies therein.

It’s a story of dizzying ambition that leads to Hong Kong—the smartest streets of Manhattan, and the backcountry of wealthy Connecticut.

But let’s start where it began, in that New Jersey suburb with Danny Williams, a boyhood friend who knew both brothers back when.

Danny Williams, childhood friend of Rob and Andrew Kissel: You know Andrew and Robert were two different people....

Rob, he recalled, as the better athlete, the friendlier of the pair. He was outgoing. Andrew, was a different cat altogether.

Williams: With people he was a little bit a little bit shy, I think. more shy than Robert, I think.

Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent: Did Andy have to work a little harder at being liked or likable than Rob?  Did it come more easily to Rob?

Williams: Yeah, I…  think that’s exactly right.  I think it did come easily for Rob. he was more approachable.

Different as they were in temperament, they shared a gift for math. 

Williams: I remember going to a Yankee game for example Robert, he’d bring a pad and he’d write all the stats down and he’d keep records of who who’s got the runs batted in and all that ... an you know Andy would do the same thing.

There wasn’t much doubt that the brothers would both turn to careers in business.  Andy was the first out of the box with a retail car accessories shop.  It was a bust.

Williams: I think he wanted it so bad. But the customers weren’t coming in, you know? I think it lasted maybe a year and a half.

Always the more cautious younger brother, Rob set out on a more conventional path to success, college, then business school...

Michael Paradise, Rob Kissel's college friend: I think Rob was more studious and understood that it took a great deal of hard work to succeed. And I think Andrew was in a rush.

College Buddy Michael Paradise says he was struck by Rob Kissel’s methodical approach to everything, studies, sports… even dating. 

Paradise: He was attractive; he was funny; he was smart.  He had a great future ahead of him, athletic.  You can do down the list and check them off.

And the woman who would become his fiancee was a fun-loving restaurant manager from New York City:  Nancy Keeshin.  Rob’s college friend was there at the beginning  in 1987 when Rob and Nancy—both in their 20s—met and made sparks during a Club Med vacation in the Caribbean.

Paradise: She was artistic. She was funny.  She was friendly.  She was outgoing.  And she seemed to love Rob incredibly. 

in just a few years, the handsome young couple was married and started a family in the big city — Rob, with his knack for tracking baseball stats, was a natural at the real thing:  Wall Street banking.  By the mid-1990s he was well into a career that would make him millions.   Yet, New York neighbor Roz Lichter says Rob Kissel never lost his down to earth style. 

Roz Lichter, New York neighbor: He wasn’t flamboyant. I think what he was interested in was making that career you know, going up that ladder as an investment banker.

If anything, says Roz, it was the missus who relished the perks of the job.

Lichter: Rob’s wife Nancy was really into money. Loved money. loved money.

And wasn’t afraid of flaunting it either. The New York neighbor recalls one particularly catty remark from the banker’s wife.

Lichter: One day she was wearing this great beaver coat.  So I said, ‘Nancy, this is a great coat.’  And she said, ‘It is a great coat... but you’ll never be able to afford it.’

Murphy: Is that what she said?

Lichter: Yeah. And I said ‘What a strange thing to say to somebody.’

Murphy: You’re giving her a compliment and...

Lichter: Yeah.

Murphy: A little upside the head.

Lichter: Right.

But if Nancy could be fast with a buck and a barb, her friend says conservative Rob was also quick to wag his finger at her.  Liz Lacause remembers one incident between the couple.

Elizabeth Lacause, Nancy Kissel's friend: We would just be in the neighborhood and, you know, ring the buzzer to see if they were home.  And we’d go up and and walk in on them.  And it was obvious that they had just had an argument.

Murphy: Obvious how?

Lacause: There would be a tension. And Nancy would kind of look at me and roll her eyes and say ‘money.’

Hillary Richard, friend: She had a lot of clothes. She had a lot of shoes; she had a lot of nice stuff...

Another friend, Hillary Richard, agrees that Nancy liked to strut her husband’s success.  But she says Nancy was also quick to share her good fortune—buying unexpected gifts for others.  Though Richard does admit that, every now and then, a sudden, unpleasant streak would show itself.

Richard: She was one of those people who had the ability to basically cut someone out of their lives completely, entirely, absolutely... as if they no longer existed without what appeared to me to be much of a reason whatsoever.

But was that ‘on-off’ switch a simple quirk or a shadow of something more troubling?  It depends whom you ask.  One thing is certain, though:  given time and just the right circumstances, Nancy Kissel, a fun-loving live-wire would give all who thought they knew her—the shock of their lives.

MORE FROM THE MILK SHAKE MURDERS

The Milk Shake Murders Section Front

Why did two brothers die violent deaths? Kissel family photos Crime scene photos Video: Remembering Rob Kissel Video: On Rob Kissel's concerns about safety Video: Who is Nancy Kissel? The Milk Shake Murders Section Front   Add The Milk Shake Murders headlines to your news reader: