Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. 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 Rifkin murdered17 women, making him New York's deadliest serial killer. His memory was far from perfect. 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. At 39, Mary Ann Holloman was his oldest victim, an addict who sewed personalized G-strings for strippers when she wasnt working the streets. After sex, he strangled her to death. Julie Blackbird: Rifkin killed again about 16 months later, after picking up Julie Blackbird in 1990 and bringing her back to his home. There were times he would come up with things about the afterlife, or an energy flow he detected leaving his victims, Lawrence said. In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, where Joel would spend most of his remaining years. My daughter was a very beautiful girl, Victoria ONeill said. Jenny Soto was the fighter, breaking off her fingernails on Rifkins face before he snapped her neck on November 16, 1992. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Mladinich hopes the documentary will show people to be wary of who they choose to associate with. He dismembered their bodies and disposed theirremains in the New York area. The habit was expensive and she tricked to keep herself supplied. Elaine told her new beau he should change his name. Rifkin planned to offer a defense in Suffolk that being adopted made him what he was, but ultimately he ended the case with the first of numerous guilty pleas to his crimes. The victims who have been identified, from past Newsday coverage: Privacy Policy |Terms of service |Subscription terms |Your ad choices |Cookie Settings |California Privacy Rights |About Us |Contact Newsday |Reprints & permissions |Advertise with Newsday |Help. ", GARY HEIDNIKS ATTORNEY TALKS INSANE HOUSE OF HORRORS KILLER IN DOC: THERE WAS A METHOD TO HIS MADNESS', Jenny Soto's family. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. "Leah was not a throwaway," Evans' friend tearfully says in the special. All of our Serial Killer books are massive, 8.5" x 11" perfect bound editions. In interviews this month, investigators and lawyers shared their memories of the case that stunned Long Island 25 years ago, and the effects it had on their lives. 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. 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. His employer at a local music store described Joel as a total piece of work. Motorist Joel Rifkin, now in handcuffs, helped identify the corpse as 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani. Rifkin found her on Jamaica Avenue in Queens and drove her around New York until sunrise, shelling out $150 for drugs at various stops. "You know, I first learned he was accused of being a serial killer while I was on the Long Island Expressway," he recalled. Rifkin was ultimately sentenced to 203 years in prison, where he remains to this day. Rifkin was eventually sentenced to 203 years in prison for his horrific string of murders. He didn't wet the bed or torture animals or start fires. 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. He never really displayed that. Lawrence said preparing for hearings and the trial with Rifkin was bizarre. Prison officials decided in 1996 that Rifkin was so notorious that his presence in the general prison population could be disruptive. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. Rifkins ninth victim, ironically, surfaced before numbers seven and eight. The 31-year-olds body was later found inside a plastic bag, stuffed into a cardboard box and thrown into the Hudson River. Joel Rifkins zodiac sign is Aquarius. He kept the pills, along with Orvietos jewelry and ID, as souvenirs of the kill. Rifkin started his own landscaping business in April 1991, renting space at a local nursery to store his equipment. 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. From breaking news to special features and documentaries, the NewsdayTV team is covering the issues that matter to you. Following a traffic stop that led to a car chase by police, authorities noticed a. . Her body was thrown into the East River. ", Evidence In The Case Of Serial Killer Joel Rifkin, Explored, 'If I Didn't Kill Them, They Would Have Died Anyhow': How Joel Rifkin Evaded Capture For Years. At some point in the litany, Rifkin asked DeLuca if she wanted to die, and she allegedly said yes. Several months later, the football star was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Joel Rifkin is a serial killer who went on a string of murders in New York in the 1990s. Rifkin went back to school in spring of 1992, taking uncredited classes at SUNY Farmingdale. 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. Theyre never disturbed by the sounds of murdering, just stereo. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours per day. Know About Serial Killer Joel Rifkin's Childhood Throughout the 1980s, Rifkin worked a series of odd jobs around Long Island, seldom staying long at any. Performance & security by Cloudflare. 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, John Wayne Gacy. Rifkin acknowledged that his violent mental images were a little more intense than regular at that time. 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. Mary Ann Holloman: Authorities believe that 39-year-old Holloman was killed on January 2, 1992. Rifkin later claimed that he asked for a lawyer at least 20 times and was always refused, investigators telling him he couldnt speak with counsel until you give us one more homicide. The written transcript of his interview, presumably reconstructed from memory, suggests that Rifkin was offered a lawyer and declined. [2] Early life [ edit] Rifkin's birth parents were both young college students and his biological father was an Army veteran. They could learn life skills, like write a check, parenting skills just how to livetheir lives in a safe way. Simpson. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it.. He picked her up in the city, strangled her after sex at his mothers house and dismembered her corpse in the bathtub. Mary Catherine Williams, 31, was linked to Rifkin after some of her credit cards were found among Rifkins belongings, according to a, She had pieces of skin under her fingernails, her sister Margarita Gonzales told, in 1993. In 1994, Rifkin was sentenced to life in prison. Poor hygiene, chronic absenteeism and general ineptitude blocked the road to advancement. Joel Rifkin was born in the Year of the Pig. She was identified through DNA testing on August 20, 1993. On August 22, 1987, Rifkin was arrested in Hempstead, Long Island, for soliciting a prostitute. Joel Rafkin is still alive. The 23-year-oldwas wearing only a T-shirt. [Sex workers are]easy because they travel a lot. "Water is harder to investigate than land because it washes everything," he said. Officers staked out the house in East Meadow, where Rifkin lived with his sister and elderly mother. The Seinfeld Episode Inspired By A "In an effort to show there was some grain of decency in him, he wrote this manifesto, a proposal really, to establish a facility where wayward women that had been living on the streets could go be safe. Rambo would go on to receive extensive survival and combat training, later becoming a Green Beret in September of 1969. Rifkins father was chronically ill. A heavy smoker, already afflicted with emphysema, Bernard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in fall 1986. A formal suppression hearing was scheduled for November, but Rifkin had other plans. Revenge, jealousy usually theres some human connection [in a murder]. The wild chase was on. Oxygen's new documentary on Joel Rifkin is part of their 'Serial Killer Week" line-up. JODI ARIAS APPEARED FRIENDLY AFTER TRAVIS ALEXANDERS BRUTAL MURDER, EXPRESSED REMORSE FOR HIS DEATH: DOC, Serial killer Joel Rifkin led cops to the skeleton of one victim at the outskirts of New York City's Kennedy International Airport. A Jane Doe victim, thus entombed, was dredged from Newtown Creek, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on May 13, 1992. June 29, 1993. They called him The Turtle, mimicking his slouched posture and slow footsteps, seldom missing a chance to make him the butt of cruel jokes. I stopped when I got tired.. Somewhere along the way, he moved from abstract study of the killers into emulation of their brutal crimes. Rifkin had dated Williams twice and enjoyed a great time before the final pickup on October 2, 1992. Judge Robert Hanophy, passing sentence in the Sanchez case, told spectators: It is not in my power to give Mr. Rifkin the sentence he deserves. State Police Sgt. Jane Doe #2: A second unidentified woman was killed some time during 1991. March 27, 2013 / 3:17 PM Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. He bought Williams a fix that night, then tried to choke her when she dozed off in his mothers car. SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is an official release of the talented artists and writers at SerialKillerCalendar.com. Most killers stick to one method of disposing the bodies, but his mixturemade it easier for him to go undetected, according to the special. A failure in athletics, Rifkin joined the yearbook staff, and promptly had his camera stolen. It came from the dead body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, the girlfriend of Dave Rubinstein (a.k.a. Graduating near the bottom of his class in 1977, Joel Rifkin looked forward to college and adulthood. Joel Rifkin is a member of Criminal Does Joel Rifkin Dead or Alive? He then dismembered Susies body and her remains were scattered throughout New Jersey. In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, New York, where Rifkin would spend most of his remaining years. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Iris Sanchez: Sanchez, 25, was reportedly killed on Mothers Day weekend in 1992. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. "There were no cameras on every block. Rifkin, a former landscaper, was stopped by police on a routine traffic stop when a Long Island officer noticed his front license plate was missing, CBS New York reports. "We kept asking him, 'What about this one?'" (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. Lockdown. Police found Evens drivers license at his home. Rifkin just didn't excel in academia or sports, and so he struggled with feeling like a disappointment to his dad. A childless couple from Upstate New York, Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin, adopted him on Valentines Day and named him Joel David. He was generally unkempt, and a thick layer of Noxema was smeared across his mustache. I just lost control, he said later. Please ignore rumors and hoaxes. "They would suspect a serial killer was on the loose and his car would have easily been spotted by cameras.". And police weren't aware that one man was specifically targeting sex workers in the area. He was vague on dates, different reports placing the crime 14 months after Susies murder, or late in 1990. A telephone call from police told 71-year-old Jeanne Rifkin that her son had been detained after a traffic accident. Evens had been the daughter of a civil court judge and had once attended Sarah Lawrence College. She was found on October 1, nude except for a brassiere, without ID. The drivers license identified him as 34-year-old Joel David Rifkin, residing on Garden Street in East Meadow, Long Island. After graduating from high school, Rifkin, who was particularly interested in horticulture and photojournalism, made several attempts at community college and attended the State University of New York at Brockport, where he worked for a time as a photographer on the school's newspaper The Stylus. get yours now before they are gone forever. Joel Rifkin As the hearing dragged on, Rifkins lawyers alienated Judge Wexner by Soshnick repeatedly arriving late for court and unprepared and Lawrence missing whole days. Stephen Urbanski says Balch worked as a prostitute in New York City and used numerous aliases. 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. They didn't realizeone man was targeting sex workers in New York City. After strangling Lopez in his car, Rifkin drove through the night to Brewster, in Putnam County, and dumped her corpse along I-84. 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. One drivers license belonged to Mary DeLuca, found dead in Cornwall, New York, in October 1991. Instead of keeping him away from prostitutes, the incident made him more devious. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. assessed at 128, but struggled academically in school due to severe dyslexia. DNA tests confirmed her identity. The next time Rifkin made headlines, in April 1998, the news involved sale of his artwork at the New York State legislatures office building in Albany as part of a program to compensate crime victims. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us at ", VIRGINIAS HORRIFYING COLONIAL PARKWAY MURDERS CAN STILL BE SOLVED DECADES LATER WITH NEW LEADS, DOC REVEALS, According to Joel Rifkin, it was a '25-cent mistake' that finally led to his capture. (Robert Mladinich), "I wanted to reach out to him right away after the arrest," Mladinich told Fox News. Rifkin drove the body parts across the state line to New Jersey, dropping the head and legs in the woods near Hopewell. I dont think I could now. Family (1) Spouse Iva Rifkin ( 28 August 1966 - present) Trivia (10) And she had fake nails and those were ripped off when she fought him.. 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. Rifkin initially told investigators that he'd driven to New York City in 1989 to pick up a prostitute named Susie, according to a 2013The Associated Pressarticle. To learn more about Rifkin's killing spree tune in to Oxygen's "RifkinonRifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer" airing Saturday, April 10 at 7/6conOxygenas part ofSerial Killer Week. The obsession with murder had consumed his life and he began using the rented job site as a way station for corpses in transit. Instead, she wound up hooked on heroin, performing for strangers in strip clubs and cars. Before Rifkin left for college, he drove to New York City where he picked up a sex worker for the first time. Birthday: January 20, 1959 How Old - Age: 64 Recently Passed Away Celebrities and Famous People. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, These girls think, I cant be touched, Rifkin explained. According to Robert Mladinich in From the Mouth of the Monster, Joels fantasies included some bondage and some rape, plus a gladiator type thing with two girls that would fight to the death. In some daydreams he raped and stabbed women, but his fantasy victims were silent, just passive about it. After a 1972 viewing of Alfred Hitchcocks Frenzy, loosely based on Londons Jack the Ripper homicides of 1964-65, he fixated on strangling prostitutes. In June of that year, he murdered Bresciani, a 22-year-old who left Louisiana for Los Angeles before arriving inNew York. 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. Joels poor grades embarrassed his father, a member of the East Meadow School Board. O.J.! "Where I am right now today, I know this is the best placefor me," he says. He was also an academic failure, suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia despite a tested IQ of 128. Rifkin's other victims includeTiffanyBresciani, 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,according to a 2018 Newsday article. Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. alaw enforcement source told The New York Daily News at the time. If theres a serial killer loose in your neighborhood, it seems like the safest thing is to be the neighbor, he says. Garden of Graves. And Rifkin told WCBS-TV in 2011 that his victim count would have likely been much higher if he hadnt been arrested in 1993. He is now the district executive for the federal courts in the Eastern District of New York. At about nine the next morning, Rifkin recalled completely bugging out, beating Blackbird with a heavy table leg before he strangled her. I wouldn't sleep with my back to him if I were you, cracks a colleague. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. And if he hadn't been caught, he likely wouldn't have stopped, he admits in Oxygen's new special, "Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer," airing Saturday, April 10 at 7/6c on Oxygen. In Rifkins cluttered garage, detectives followed their noses to a reeking wheelbarrow, extracting three ounces of human blood. ", "Even when we first spoke at the correctional facility, it was like we had been friends the previous 20 years," he shared. Rifkin believed his victim would never be found, but he had been careless. "The only difference is that within 20 minutes, we started talking about murder and mayhem. Instead, he was a rather meek, unassuming child. To have the normal picket fence and three kids and a dog and a cat and get on with life. Theyre perfectionists who enjoy finer things but are not perceived as snobs. He has been married to Iva Rifkin since August 28, 1966. Sometimes he would take his victims back to East Meadow, to the house where he lived with his sister and elderly mother. Lorraine Orvieto: Orvieto, 28, disappeared in Dec. 1991. This addictioncrippled him, as he had to to leavecollege before finishing and was unable to ever really hold down a job. I remember I wrote about a boxing match for one of our assignments as journalism students and he photographed the event. Simpson Murder Joke Aged Horribly If you smell anything decaying in the trunk of his car . 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. Rifkins first attempt at higher education took him to Nassau Community College, on Long Island. Rifkin was transferred at once to the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow. The next to die, Lauren Marquez, was a 28-year-old addict and prostitute, hooked on drugs before she left her native Tennessee for New York City.