O.J.! He would be eligible for parole only in 2197, at the age of 238. June 29, 1993. Elaines boyfriend had resisted her earlier suggestion to change his name, but now hes ready to make a switch. His mother chose that month to travel out of state, leaving Joel alone in the East Meadow house. They also found a blood-stained wheelbarrow and chainsaw at the residence. Instead, he picked up a souvenir howitzer shell and beat her furiously. He wasn'tcapable of that. Maryann Holloman, age 39, was retrieved from Coney Island Creek in her oil drum on July 9, two days before passers-by found the skeletal remains of Lorraine Orvieto nearby. ", I wanted to be normal. The night he was arrested, Rifkin told troopers where he had picked up the woman found in his truck, Tiffany Bresciani, 22, of Louisiana, and how he had killed her, but troopers wondered if hed done this before, Corcoran said. The recordingsof their conversations are the focus of the special, as Rifkin's horrific killing spree is explored. There was no regret or wanting to bring the victims back. Violet ONeill, a 21-year-old prostitute, was the first victim Rifkin had taken home to East Meadow in nearly a year. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. Do you think I need a lawyer?. He killed mostly prostitutes and drug addicts; he was convicted of nine murders, although he is believed to have killed many more. Rifkins bedroom reading material included a book on the unidentified Green River Killer and news clippings about the case of New York serial slayer Arthur Shawcross. Neighbors had noted a foul odor emanating from the Rifkin garage, where corpses were occasionally stored before disposal, but the stench was attributed to fertilizer and insecticide Joel used on his landscaping job. The 23-year-oldwas wearing only a T-shirt. Their recorded conversations are the focus of a new true-crime documentary titled "Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer," which is part of Oxygen channels "Serial Killer Week.". Jenny Soto was the last victim of 1992, a 23-year-old addict whose many trips to detox never turned her life around. It came from the dead body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, the girlfriend of Dave Rubinstein (a.k.a. It's like my own little nightmare scenarios.". The special revealed that while his mother was out of town, he brought her back home. That one was easy.' By the time Rifkin was done taking guilty pleas throughout the area, he had been sentenced to 203 1/3 years to life in prison. In February 1987, Rifkins father killed himself to end the pain of cancer, and Joel delivered the eulogy at his funeral. Hes not the murderer, she reassures. Joel Rifkin referred to his propensity to kill as "almost an addiction," something forensic psychologist N.G. 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 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. In June of that year, he murdered Bresciani, a 22-year-old who left Louisiana for Los Angeles before arriving inNew York. In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. Rifkins father was chronically ill. A heavy smoker, already afflicted with emphysema, Bernard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in fall 1986. Rifkin had no time to move the corpse, but his mother never knew. So I put it on the backburner But for years, I wanted to know how somebody, who seemed like a very nice fellow, could commit such heinous crimes.". The oil drum was a new kink with Rifkin, used at least four times by his count. Rifkin's lawsuit seeks $50,000 for each of his 1,540 days in solitary confinement (totaling $77 million). I want to show these girls, these prostitutes, have families who care. They didn't realizeone man was targeting sex workers in New York City. Despite a tested IQ of 128, Joel did poorly in school, at least part of his problem traceable to the merciless teasing of class-mates. This includes ebooks of every book and magazine on the site. During the course of the episode, Rifkin underwent a brain scan to see if abnormal brain chemistry could have possibly made him more likely to commit murder. 202.3.109.12 He described all 17 murders in the absence of counsel, writing out the names he remembered, sketching maps to help police find those victims still missing. 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. Throughout his trial and incarceration, Rifkin still could not explain one thing: why. March 27, 2013 / 3:17 PM Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Rifkins first victim of 1993 was Leah Evens, a 28-year-old who lived with her mother in Brooklyn. He picked her up in the city, strangled her after sex at his mothers house and dismembered her corpse in the bathtub. On the far right is Gonzales'daughter, also named Margarita Gonzales. By March 1994 Wexner had heard enough to reject the various defense motions outright and hold Rifkin for trial, scheduled for mid-April. There was another oil drum victim, Joel insists, although he doesnt know her name and cant recall exactly when he dropped her body in the Harlem River. Another 31-year-old victim, Korean hooker Yun Lee, was fished out of the East River on September 23, her body folded inside a steamer trunk. She vowed at the time to be present in the courtroom to let Rifkin and others know that the victims had been more than sex workers. He placed her body into a 55-gallon oil drum and dumped it into the East River. Rifkin was dispassionate, referring to the murders as events or incidents, listing his victims by number. . State Police Sgt. Days later, Rifkin was transferred from Attica to the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora--long known as the Siberia of New York prisons, isolated in the Adirondack Mountains, 350 miles north of Manhattan. In 1989, he killed his first woman. Mary Ellen DeLuca: DeLuca, 22, lost her life on Sept. 1, 1991 after she allegedly complained about having sex with Rifkin after he had bought her cocaine, according to ThoughtCo. Out of the 17 women Rifkin said he murdered, two have yet to be identified. Joel delivered a eulogy at his fathers funeral, moving the mourners to tears, and his depression deepened. Welcome to November, the month when, according to some studies, serial killers and mass murderers are most likely to be born. Joel David Rifkin (born January 20, 1959) is an American serial killer convicted of the murder of 9 women (although it is believed he killed as many as 17), mostly drug addicted prostitutes, between 1989 and 1993 in New York City. Joel David Rifkin: New York's Most Prolific Serial Killer. He managed to completely slip by unnoticed while committing the most vicious rampage New York had ever seen,capitalizing on his own non-threatening anonymity and pursuingvictims who tended to fall through the cracks of society. "As much as I say I wanted to stop, there probably would've been others. Buoyed perhaps by that effort, in August 1999 Rifkin unveiled his plans for Oholah House, a proposed shelter for prostitutes that would include drug treatment, counseling, medical care and job training. This is truly a one of a kind collectors item for anyone interested in the macabre world of true crime, prison art or the strange world of murderabelia. So who were the women who lost their lives to this disturbingkiller? At first he was telling us like he didnt know anything about the body in the back of the car and then he was basically saying that he knew she was there but he doesnt know what happened, former New York State Police Trooper Sean Ruane told CNN in 2018. Police learned their mistake a year later, when Rifkin confessed to her slaying, but number nine remains anonymous, the last Jane Doe. Well, 17 girls thought that, and now theyre dead.. Things seemed to go downhill from there. 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. Over the years, he was also bullied at school, which left him angry and isolated as he desperately sought his fathers approval. Winded from the battle, Rifkin claimed her bra and panties, earrings, ID cards and drug syringe as trophies for his cache. A motorist stopping to relieve himself found Lopez the next day. Real-life romance eluded Rifkin, for the most part. He paid a fine and managed to conceal the incident from his mother, ranging farther afield to seek hookers in Manhattan when he felt the urge. New Yorks worst serial murder case of this century began--or ended--with a routine traffic stop in the predawn hours of June 28, 1993. Pittsburgh woman missing for 31 years found alive in Puerto Rico, School shooting survivor has emotional audition on "American Idol", exclusive 2011 interview with CBS-2's Mary Calvi. The New York Times Next Up Episode 5: Oak Beach 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. ", 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. She was found by a fisherman on July 11, 1992, two months before her family filed a missing persons report. This addictioncrippled him, as he had to to leavecollege before finishing and was unable to ever really hold down a job. They could see part of a hand and the head of Rifkins finalvictim. "They would suspect a serial killer was on the loose and his car would have easily been spotted by cameras.". And I didnt want to infringe on the investigation. "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. Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? Portions of her remains were later discovered inside an oil drum in New Creek in Brooklyn, according to ThoughtCo. Rifkin wedged Lee into the same trunk hed used for Mary DeLuca and dropped her in the East River. Rambo would go on to receive extensive survival and combat training, later becoming a Green Beret in September of 1969. It was a half-hearted effort at best. Throughout the 1980s, Rifkin worked a series of odd jobs around Long Island, seldom staying long at any. Oh please, please, please change your name to O.J.! They could learn life skills, like write a check, parenting skills just how to livetheir lives in a safe way. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Over the next four years, he killed 16 more prostitutes. Curiously, though, the driver of the pickup did not stop. ", "Even when we first spoke at the correctional facility, it was like we had been friends the previous 20 years," he shared. He said he had demanded an attorney 20 times. Legal Statement. And in a moment that really tested the "too soon?" Would Joel Rifkin report to the stadium office? This massive 8.5 x 11 perfect bound book contains over 150 pages of rare interviews, letters, documents, transcripts, art and articles about serial killer, Richard Ramirez (aka the Nightstalker). 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. both were veterans, but Teasle was ruler of his own little fiefdom and wanted to keep it. Rifkin's downfall came about simply because of a "25 cent mistake," as he told the New York Daily News. , After the Giant game, he says, I realized that this this problem isn't going away.. Her mother, Victoria ONeill, told the newspaper she had last seen her daughter on July 16, 1992. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well. It was hell from day one. They cite physical evidence and Rifkin's statements in linking Balch's killing to him. He never relishedtalking about these horrible crimes. Of course, many of the victims had concerned loved ones who were desperately looking for them after they vanished however, many of the bodies weren't recovered until after his capture, so police weren't making a connection in the cases. Thats right. The other parts went into garbage bags and then into his mothers car. In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, where Joel would spend most of his remaining years. (Glass Entertainment Group). Despite his history of morbid fantasy, Rifkin would later claim he had to plan the murder of his first victim, in March 1989. Mary Ellen DeLuca, age twenty- two, had been missing for a month when her nude, strangled body was found in a field upstate, at Cornwall, New York. "Everybody has some kind of fantasy life, whether it's negative or positive. In Joels room, they struck pay dirt, recovering dozens of ID cards, drivers licenses and credit cards, photographs, articles of jewelry, and piles of womens clothing taken from his victims. Joel would not strike again for 15 weeks, and when he did, he would take better care to hide his tracks. I just lost control, he said later. Jenny Soto is one of Joel Rifkin's victims. Wexner gave Rifkin 25 years to life for murder, plus two and one-third to seven years on the lesser charge. assessed at 128, but struggled academically in school due to severe dyslexia. Joel Rifkin, 34, is transferred to District Court 29 June, 1993 in Farmingdale, NY after police said he confessed to killing as many as 17 women. With Rifkins detailed confession, investigators got to work. Brescianis body was found in the back of Rifkins pickup truck after he was stopped by the state police for a traffic violation, The New York Times reported. Failing that, he sought to have the various murder charges consolidated in one Nassau County trial, hoping a hometown jury would be more inclined to find Rifkin not guilty by reason of insanity. Rifkin consigned her remains to the waters surrounding Manhattan. Copyright 2023 Newsday. His other victims included Tiffany Bresciani, Julie Blackbird, Lauren Marquez, Mary Catherine Williams, Barbara Jacobs, Yun Lee, Maryann Hollomon, Leah Evens, Violet ONeill, Mary Ellen DeLuca, Lorraine Orvieto, Iris Sanchez, Jenny Soto, and Anna Lopez, Newsday reported. Rifkin admitted to the 17 slayings after his May 1994 murder conviction in Nassau County. A failure in athletics, Rifkin joined the yearbook staff, and promptly had his camera stolen. On the side, he began collecting books and press clippings on serial killers of whores, including the unidentified Green River Killer and New Yorks own Arthur Shawcross. At least 10 dead after winter storm slams South, Midwest, The Saturday Six: Dental device controversy, scientist's bug find and more, Indonesia fuel depot fire kills 18; more than a dozen missing, Biden had cancerous skin lesion removed last month, doctor says, Tom Sizemore, actor known for "Saving Private Ryan" and "Heat," dies at 61, Defense lawyers in Idaho killings case want gag order kept, Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murders of wife and son. This guy seems like the real deal.". Lawrence said preparing for hearings and the trial with Rifkin was bizarre. He had picked up a sex workernamed Susie, according to a 2013The Associated Pressarticle. The Associated Press contributed to this report. She woke up fighting for her life, kicking the gear-shift hard enough to snap it off before Joel smothered her. I remember I wrote about a boxing match for one of our assignments as journalism students and he photographed the event. According to the special, he killed 16 more sex workers. Is there more than one? Michael Ahearn, then the chief of the Suffolk district attorneys Homicide Bureau, recalled how Rifkin continually corrected him during cross-examination. Serial killer Joel Rifkin led cops to the skeleton of one victim at the outskirts of New York City's Kennedy International Airport. 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. Rifkin had apparently forgotten the date of his fathers death and told police he murdered Barbara Jacobs in August 1991, although her body had been found in July. In case there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want you to spend your second life in prison.. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. Her body was thrown into the East River. Before the trial, Lawrence said, Rifkin established a better rapport with the prosecution psychiatrist, serial killer expert Eliot Park Dietz, than he did with his own mental health expert, forensic psychologist Barbara Kirwin of Huntington. The neighbor always survives to do the interview afterwards. Her case remained unsolved until Rifkin confessed in 1993. His memory was far from perfect. As the hearing dragged on, Rifkins lawyers alienated Judge Wexner by Soshnick repeatedly arriving late for court and unprepared and Lawrence missing whole days. (In fact, the latter name is spelled Aholah.) Rifkin called his plan a way of paying back a debt, I guess, and while the idea drew praise from some quarters --including prosecutor Fred Klein-- most objected to Rifkins inclusion of a Motivation Room where residents would be scared straight with photos of hookers murdered on the job. That was an experience, because Joel aside from the pathological issues had some smarts about him, Lawrence said. One of the bullies who harassed him later called Rifkin an abuse unit. Simpson. 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. It was really unnerving., Marie Alonso, left,mother of Joel Rifkin victim Anna Lopez, shares an emotional moment with Margarita Gonzales,mother of victim Jenny Soto, outside of Nassau County Court in Mineolaon July 7, 1993.