Mary Ann Holloman: Authorities believe that 39-year-old Holloman was killed on January 2, 1992. The victim was prostitute Julie Blackbird, selected for her pseudo-Madonna look. Rifkin drove her home to East Meadow when his mother was again out of town, and they spent the night together. Script writer Peter Mehlman had clearly read reports about how the serial killer was captured. State Troopers who chased down his pickup truck for a routine traffic violation said they found a woman's decomposing body in the back and a driver who confessed to killing 17 women. Cruising Manhattans East Village for hookers one night, at about 10 p.m., he selected a young woman remembered only as Susie. She was a hard-core drug addict, demanding several stops to purchase crack before they drove back to Long Island. I was breathing heavily. The suppression hearing convened before Judge Ira Wexner on November 8, 1993, Soshnick and Lawrence picking up where Sale left off in the effort to quash Rifkins confession. He was arrested in Hempstead, in August 1987, after soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman, but he escaped with a nominal fine. Garden of Graves. The rest would be revealed to her on television, hours later, when detectives laid the outline of their case before the media. Please ignore rumors and hoaxes. Rifkin was booked at Hempstead, where homicide detectives launched a marathon interrogation. They can disappear for months, hetold CBS New Yorkin 2011. If you smell anything decaying in the trunk of his car . Simpson. Barbara Jacobs: Jacobs was killed on July 14, 1991. This addictioncrippled him, as he had to to leavecollege before finishing and was unable to ever really hold down a job. Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. The chase covered about 20 miles through Nassau before Rifkin, a landscaper living with his mother and sister in East Meadow,hit a utility pole on Old Country Road in Mineola. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours per day. That explained Rifkins use of Noxema. A panel of seven men and five women was seated nine days later, with opening arguments begun on April 20. she suggested, inspired by O.J. All rights reserved. New York state troopers Sean Ruane and Deborah Spaargaren were patroling Long Islands Southern State Parkway at 3:15 a.m. on June 28, 1993, when they spotted a Mazda pickup truck with no rear license plate. Joel Rifkin was one of the worst serial killers in New York's history, suspected of killing as many as 17 women between 1989 and 1993. The son of unknown parents, he was adopted by Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin when he was three weeks old. He placed her body into a 55-gallon oil drum and dumped it into the East River. When they signaled for him to pull over, Rifkin kept driving. Please enter valid email address to continue. Her body was thrown into the East River. Bored and restless, he cut classes habitually, completing only one course in the 1977-78 academic year. It didnt fully come home to me what was happening until later., Things went from bad to worse at East Meadow High School. They talked about trial strategy and how to present his case. He struck her on impulse, strangling her while she mouthed something about making a big mistake. It was Rifkins first murder of someone he knew beforehand, and he experienced fleeting remorse. Briefly distracted by a man who passed the car walking a dog, he almost let Marquez escape. Simpson. They drove to a point near the Manhattan Bridge, Rifkin clutching at her throat without the usual preliminaries. But he accelerated, speeding down the next off-ramp, into the streets of Wantagh. "There are a lot of damaged people out there," he said. The experience soon explodedinto a full-on addiction, as he blew through all his money picking up hundreds of sex workers. Violet ONeill, a 21-year-old prostitute, was the first victim Rifkin had taken home to East Meadow in nearly a year. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He was still so tense when he got out of his car that he said he sprained his back. WebRon Rifkin was born on October 31, 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. Driving into Manhattan, he consigned Blackbirds head and torso to the East River, then dropped her weighted arms and legs into a Brooklyn barge canal. The 23-year-oldwas wearing only a T-shirt. When authorities searched Rifkin's East Meadow home, they found all the evidence they needed:clothing, jewelry, drivers licenses, library cards, and credit cards belonging to approximately 10 women. Joel waited more than a year to claim his second victim. Joels parents gave him a car that year, and he used it to troll for prostitutes, first in nearby Hempstead, later in Manhattan. Now, hes claiming that he once didnt believe he could kill. He drifted in and out of jobs, mostly living at home, enjoying one brief relationship with a girl who recalls him as sweet, but always depressed. If he were to receive any money, it would be subject to state laws that earmark most of the award for the families of his victims. Another colleague chimes in, adding Hey, Elaine, listen. Some of the bodies already found had not been classified as homicides, Klein said. ", I wanted to be normal. Discovered the following day, Soto was identified from fingerprint records of her last arrest, police initially suspecting her ex-con ex-boyfriend of the murder. About to leave, he was confronted by patrolmen who accused him of illegal dumping, but Joel persuaded them he was collecting junk instead. He was subtly obnoxious, like his presence annoyed you. Rifkin joined the track team, in an effort to fit in, and was rewarded with the nickname lard ass. Teammates hid his clothes and shoved his head into a toilet bowl. ", JOHN WAYNE GACY LIKED THE POWER OF DEATH, RETIRED DETECTIVE REVEALS IN DOC: IT MADE HIM FEEL LIKE A GOD, Oxygen's new documentary on Joel Rifkin is part of their 'Serial Killer Week" line-up. ", "Even when we first spoke at the correctional facility, it was like we had been friends the previous 20 years," he shared. As per our current Database, Joel Rifkin is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). Evens had been the daughter of a civil court judge and had once attended Sarah Lawrence College. "He always seemed like he was slower or a step behind," Fred Reiter, who lived next door to Rifkin in East Meadow, New Yorkgrowing up, recalls in the special. Wiles Stabile. Hes not the murderer, she reassures. But his eventual capture was a total accident as the serial killer wasn't even on police's radar. Right?, Oh, he was kind of quiet. I love these neighbors, he continues. I remember I wrote about a boxing match for one of our assignments as journalism students and he photographed the event. Rifkin was bullied throughout his school years, an experience that left him feeling angry and isolated. Sheriff Teasle hated Rambo because he represented a threat to his own power base. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! It also includes the best true crime artwork from around the world. A woman whose severed head was found on a New Jersey golf course more than 20 years ago has been identified, and police say the trail leads to a notorious serial killer. Still, Rifkin liked to vary his technique from time to time. Neighbors recalled strange odors emanating from Rifkins garage, but they had assumed he stored insecticides there, for use in his garden and landscaping business. After exchanging letters, the former cop, who served the NYPD from 1983 until 2003 when he retired with the rank of Detective Second Grade, decided to visit Rifkin at Attica Correctional Facility. Winded from the battle, Rifkin claimed her bra and panties, earrings, ID cards and drug syringe as trophies for his cache. Its part of Serial Killer Week, a nine-day event on Oxygen diving into the most fearsome and fascinating criminals of all time. When police later searched his mothers home, they found a treasure trove of mementos that Rifkin had saved from his victims,including drivers licenses, their underwear, jewelry, and other trophies, according to a 2018Newsdayarticle. Whats in a name? A peek inside the tarp revealed a womans decomposing body. How far is Las Vegas from the California coast? This is someone whos trying to show you to be a sadistic killer., Joel Rifkin listens to the guilty verdict against him in Nassau County Court in Mineola on May 9, 1994,in the killingof Tiffany Bresciani. His lawyer Bob Sale sought to have Rifkins confession thrown out on grounds that police could not prove he was ever advised of his rights. Somewhere along the way, he moved from abstract study of the killers into emulation of their brutal crimes. It seemed like the only people who noticed him were his childhood tormenters,he thought. Besides a broken neck, Marquez had fractured ribs, though Rifkin claimed he could not remember hitting her. Lockdown. "Back in the late 80s and early 90s, it really was not hard to get away with such crimes," said Mladinich. Even the parents of his victims didnt seem to miss Rifkins prey. He said he told Rifkin, This is someone who is not trying to work with you and help you. Officers staked out the house in East Meadow, where Rifkin lived with his sister and elderly mother. Seventeen women in total were murdered by this shadowy figure but police at the time weren't even aware he existed. Credit: Randee Daddona. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Other times he killed them in his car. Joels poor grades embarrassed his father, a member of the East Meadow School Board. From the motel, he drove upstate to Orange County and left DeLucas body at a rest stop outside Cornwall, near West Point. Rifkin's prison life In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. In February 1987, Rifkin's adoptive father committed suicide to end the pain of cancer, thereby increasing Rifkins depression. Within weeks, Rifkin faced murder charges not only in Nassau but in the numerous other counties where he had dumped other victims. ", JONBENET RAMSEYS HALF BROTHER STILL WANTS TO FIND HER KILLER: THIS CASE CAN BE SOLVED, New York State Police escort Joel Rifkin, 34, a landscaper from East Meadow, to a holding cell after charging him with second-degree murder in East Farmingdale, L.I. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well. He complained to his landlord, I keep losing all my customers, and by summer he was falling behind on his rent. I had sex with her, then things went bad and I strangled her. Later, he recalled the act as very automatic. DNA tests confirmed her identity. But Susie has never been identified. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. After listless sex, Susie again asked Joel to take her out in search of drugs. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. The crowd stops cheering and squirm, while Elaine does damage control. Rifkins father was chronically ill. A heavy smoker, already afflicted with emphysema, Bernard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in fall 1986. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa. She was found on September 23--eight days before DeLuca--floating past Randalls Island, at the Harlem Rivers mouth. Relieved of his little anxiety attack, Joel moved Bresciani into the cluttered garage, leaving her body in a wheelbarrow. ", Joel Rifkin is currently serving a life sentence. Mladinich said he and Rifkin, now 62, wrote to each other regularly until they saw each other again in the fall of 1999. By March 1994 Wexner had heard enough to reject the various defense motions outright and hold Rifkin for trial, scheduled for mid-April. The Joel Rifkin reference certainly grounds Seinfeld 's episode in its own time, but its the idea that O.J. Long Island psychiatrist Barbara Kirwin deemed Rifkins psychological test results the most pathological she had seen in 20 years of practice. When the troopers used their siren, he appeared oblivious; likewise when Ruane got on the loudspeaker and ordered him to stop. Lorraine Orvieto: Orvieto, 28, disappeared in Dec. 1991. It was the smell of death, and it would linger long after the source had been removed. For the key players in the case, contact with Rifkin was life altering. They questioned him for eight hours, but for some reason never recorded the sessions. As he strangled her, Rifkin recalled, She did nothing, just accepted it. He remembered her murder as one of the weird ones.. She wasnt what they said she was, Gonzales said. We were out every night, her 16-year-old sister Jessy Olmedo said at the time. "We kept asking him, 'What about this one?'" Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans. These girls think, I cant be touched, Rifkin explained. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. Good works notwithstanding, Rifkin had no luck in his bids to escape solitary confinement. Most of Rifkins 20 paintings and sketches depicted wildlife or flowers, but one--titled Guardians Failure--showed a bare foot with a coroners toe tag and an angel weeping in the corner. He wanted to know why he lacked that empathy and humanity. The severed head was found in 1989 in Hopewell, a town north of Trenton. From breaking news to special features and documentaries, the NewsdayTV team is covering the issues that matter to you. June 29, 1993. "You think of people as things.". Copyright 2023 Newsday. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Rifkin had dated Williams twice and enjoyed a great time before the final pickup on October 2, 1992. In 2000, a state appellate court determined that prison officials had not violated Rifkin's constitutional rights by housing him in isolation. The Disturbing Truth Of Serial Killer Joel Rifkin YouTube By Tyler MacDonald / April 1, 2021 10:52 am EST For a span of four years in the early 1990s, serial killer Joel Rifkin left a string of terror across New York City as he satisfied his fixation on strangling sex workers to death. Seven years after he was sentenced to life in prison, an old college friend of Rifkin, unable to understand how a decent-seeming person hid such a twisted side,went to visit him at Attica Correctional Facility. Rifkin was transferred at once to the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow. Five months after Rifkin was caught, "Seinfeld" released an episode titled "The Masseuse" in which Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is dating a man named Joel Rifkin (Anthony Cistaro) at the same time the murderer was drawing headlines. She hailed from Metairie, Louisiana, and had been drawn to New York by dreams of acting or dancing. O.J. The Terminator could easily take out John Wick and he wouldnt even see it coming. Faced with pistols now, the solemn driver gave his license up and stepped out of the car. Rifkin found her on Jamaica Avenue in Queens and drove her around New York until sunrise, shelling out $150 for drugs at various stops. "There were no cameras on every block. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. They enjoy helping others and are good companions until someone close crosses them, then look out! From the Mouth of the Monster. Jane Doe #1: Rifkin killed an unidentified woman in December 1991 by strangling her to death during sex. By the time Rifkin found her, in the predawn hours of June 24, 1993, she was his second hooker of the night--his fourth within two days. Family members of his victims either could not be reached or declined to comment. There was ample room for Jane Doe in the barrel, safely hidden for their ride to the South Bronx, where Rifkin found a district rife with junkyards and rolled her into the East River. His reign of terror came to an end on June 28, 1993 after he was pulled overfor a routine traffic stop by New York State Police, who discovered the decomposingbody of 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani in the back of his pickup truck. Joel couldnt wait to play the deadly game again. Table ranking Historys Most Deadly Events: Influenza pandemic (1918-19) 20-40 million deaths; black death/plague (1348-50), 20-25 million deaths, AIDS pandemic (through 2000) 21.8 million deaths, World War II (1937-45), 15.9 million deaths, and World War I (1914-18) 9.2 million deaths. In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson over the use of a public telephone. Joel Rifkin, and I am dating Joel Rifkin, laments Elaine, whose coworkers have gotten wind of the creepy coincidence. We used him, to be blunt about it, one of them recalled, years later. A pair of womens panties lay on the floor, near a stockpile of rope and tarp. Rambos escape made him look bad and so he had to eliminate that insult to his own overblown ego. The pickup truck Joel Rifkin was driving when he was caught sits at New York State Police Headquarters in Farmingdale on June 28, 1993. Credit: Newsday/Jim Peppler. "There were mini clusters, little sets of three," Rifkin said. Another time, Rifkin made it as far as a local pizza parlor with his date, but the same bullies chased them out, pursuing the couple on foot until Joel and the girl found refuge in a public library. Some were on land. They wound up at a cheap motel, DeLuca first balking at sex and demanding more dope, then rushing through the act, complaining all the while. I had sex with her, and then I killed her. Ahearn saidRifkins lack of concern for his victims haunted him for years and still does. Although Rifkin often hired prostitutes in Brooklyn and Manhattan, he lived in East Meadow, a suburban town on Long Island. He would be eligible for parole only in 2197, at the age of 238. She appeared to have been dead for several days. In every high school, theres a kid that doesnt get girls,but they dont go ahead and murder 17 women.". "Joel was a bit of an eccentric," said Mladinich. Why not? "But I was still an active police officer at the time. Why not? Lawrence said he paid an enormous toll, starting with the day of the conviction. Joel Rifkin Death Fact Check Joel is alive and kicking and is currently 64 years old. (Robert Mladinich). In addition to Rifkin, the episode discusses the phenomenon of serial killers in one of Jerry Seinfelds stand-up routines. After sex, he reportedly bludgeoned her with a Howtizer artillery shell and strangled her to death. They called him The Turtle, mimicking his slouched posture and slow footsteps, seldom missing a chance to make him the butt of cruel jokes. When told his truck had no rear license plate, Rifkin assured the officers it had been present when he left his home, some 40 minutes earlier. An anonymous caller reported Hollomans floating remains to police on July 9, 1992, two days before Orvietos corpse was found. Excluded from team sports and neighborhood games, Joel was the butt of every prank and sadistic joke: bullies assaulted him in school and pulled his pants down, stole his lunch and books, and harassed him constantly. Leah Evans: The body of Evans, a 28-year-old mother of two, was discovered in May 1992 by a family hunting for dandelions off County Road 51 in Southampton, according to Newsday. He is an actor, known for Alias (2001), L.A. Yun Lee: Authorities believe Lee, 31, was strangled to death on September 23, 1991, Thought Co. reports. New York State's most prolific serial killer might not have been discovered on a hot summer night 25 years ago if the license plate on his pickup truck had not fallen off, authorities say. He remembered her tattoos, a pickup in Manhattan, and the way she fought for life when he began to strangle her. Rifkin's lawsuit seeks $50,000 for each of his 1,540 days in solitary confinement (totaling $77 million). Rifkin was dispassionate, referring to the murders as events or incidents, listing his victims by number. Lawrence said preparing for hearings and the trial with Rifkin was bizarre. Rifkin drove the body parts across the state line to New Jersey, dropping the head and legs in the woods near Hopewell. During his trial, Rifkin was represented by Mineola-based attorney John Lawrence. What I found the most interesting was when he said they could also learn how to protect themselves from people like me. He described himself as a wolf in sheeps clothing. My daughter was a very beautiful girl, Victoria ONeill said. He found Iris Sanchez, a 25-year-old crack addict, working First Avenue on Mothers Day weekend. Compatible with Rabbit or Goat. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. As his mother was out of town, he brought her back home. You just wonder about how someone could do what he did and not have any feeling for it, Ahearn said. Instead, he was a rather meek, unassuming child. It was finally too much. ", JOHN WALSHS SON CALLAHAN EXPLAINS HOW HIS BROTHER ADAM'S MURDER MADE HIM DETERMINED TO CATCH BAD GUYS, Jenny Soto, a victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin. "When I heard his name on the radio, I pulled over. get yours now before they are gone forever. To have the normal picket fence and three kids and a dog and a cat and get on with life. We know Blackbirds fate today only from Rifkins confession, and from her diary stashed in his bedroom. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. Her body was never recovered. While psychologists have theorized the emotional distance from his father and the bullying may have contributed to his transformation into bloodthirsty killer, Reiter emphasizes in the special, "In every high school, there's the kid that'sthe last to get picked. Curiously, though, the driver of the pickup did not stop. Prosecutor Fred Klein described Rifkin as a killing machine who acted in deliberate, premediated and methodical ways to carry out his gruesome murders. (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos/Getty Images). The driver wasnt speeding, but the absence of a tag was in itself a minor violation, and they turned the flashers on, prepared to write a quick citation. Aside from books and magazines (no more than 10 per isolation cell), Rifkin had lawsuits to amuse himself.
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