He was living with his mother and sister at the time of his arrest. 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. It was hell from day one. 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. At this time he became increasingly obsessed with violence, murder, and prostitution. Except for his grades, Joel was the stereotypical nerd, in glasses and high-water pants with white socks. (Photo by Jerry Engel/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images). Oh please, please, please change your name to O.J.! Market data provided by Factset. A peek inside the tarp revealed a womans decomposing body. June 29, 1993. At some point in the litany, Rifkin asked DeLuca if she wanted to die, and she allegedly said yes. She was found by a fisherman on July 11, 1992, two months before her family filed a missing persons report. Joel Rifkin telephone. The crowd stops cheering and squirm, while Elaine does damage control. Joel found himself strongly attracted to one of the other interns, a pretty blond, but while he shadowed her at every opportunity, he never found the nerve to ask her out. Type of Villain John James Rambo is the main protagonist of the 1972 novel First Blood and its 1982 film adaptation. He dismembered the corpse as before, placing the head, arms and legs in buckets weighted with concrete; the torso filled a milk crate by itself. And I didnt want to infringe on the investigation. She had been the mother of two children. Another colleague chimes in, adding Hey, Elaine, listen. Three months later, he killed Leah Evens and left her in rural Northampton, where her skeleton was found on Mothers Day. One drivers license belonged to Mary DeLuca, found dead in Cornwall, New York, in October 1991. "I don't know. Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for April 9, Prince Harry's 'attacks' on 'villain' Camilla led to Frogmore Cottage eviction: expert, Film industry reacts to death of 'Saving Private Ryan' star Tom Sizemore: 'You're a legend', Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves take bumpy second flight after 'CHAOS' on Lufthansa plane: 'Wish me luck', Kelsey Grammer wont apologize for the 'difference' that Jesus has made in his life, Person roaming in 'Scream' Ghostface costume prompts multiple police calls. Another belonged to Jenny Soto, fished out of the Harlem River in November 1992. Hikers found her on May 9 after they spied a withered hand protruding from the ground. Despite his confessions and the overwhelming evidence against him, Rifkin pled not guilty at his murder trial. 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. Arraigned for the Bresciani homicide on July 15, 1993, Rifkin repeated his plea of not guilty. Is The New York Review the same as the New York Review of Books? New York. The 21-year-old who was also the mother of a young son had been staying at the time with her grandmother in New York City when she disappeared. We were out every night, her 16-year-old sister Jessy Olmedo said at the time. June 27, 1993. All rights reserved. Rambo: Last Blood is currently in theaters. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. He was still so tense when he got out of his car that he said he sprained his back. ", 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. "Leah was not a throwaway," Evans' friend tearfully says in the special. Is Joel Rifkin Still Alive Or Dead? "Certain things are very hard to stop," Rifkin said. Though Rambo didnt kill anyone in 1982s First Blood, he was basically a psychopath by the end of the James Cameron-scripted sequel; Stallone directed 2008s Rambo with an understanding that the formula works best when distilled to its gun-blazing essence. Some of the bodies already found had not been classified as homicides, Klein said. Rifkin was bullied throughout his school years, an experience that left him feeling angry and isolated. A cemetery posted a personal ad for a goose whose mate died. The only 80s action star that would prove victorious against a 21st-century assassin is not a man but a machine. 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. There was no emotion whatsoever. Fred Klein described Rifkin as a sexual sadist who relished his victims suffering: He got caught red-handed, and now hes using and abusing the concept of mental illness. Lawrence called his client a paranoid schizophrenic who lived in the twilight zone, overwhelmed by violent, irresistible compulsions that took control of his life. Rifkin, for his part, snored through much of the prosecutions case, a performance Lawrence blamed on allergies to the bologna sandwiches he ate in jail. Two other victims remain unidentified to this day. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The cocaine in her system prompted detectives to brand her a drug mule, killed accidentally by the rupture of drug-filled condoms in her stomach. Check out our sister site VHS WASTELAND. "Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer,". 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. Rifkin wedged Lee into the same trunk hed used for Mary DeLuca and dropped her in the East River. 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. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa. He then dismembered her body, leaving her head at a New Jersey golf course, where it was quickly found, according to the AP. Would. Police just noticed him because his vehicle was missing a license plate. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. They never kill the neighbor. Then, as if in a fugue state, he spent the next three days working on his pickup, ignoring the summer heat and pervasive reek of decomposing flesh. Rifkin specifically chose women who wouldnt immediately draw attention if they went missing. 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. BOB STRONG/AFP/Getty Images Trending News At about nine the next morning, Rifkin recalled completely bugging out, beating Blackbird with a heavy table leg before he strangled her. His landscaping business had folded by then, his landlord clamoring for $700 in overdue rent. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. His mother chose that month to travel out of state, leaving Joel alone in the East Meadow house. Somewhere along the way, he moved from abstract study of the killers into emulation of their brutal crimes. Rifkin had his only real girlfriend in Brockport, but the relationship went nowhere, his paramour recalling Joel as sweet, but always depressed. Back at home with his parents, Rifkin tried Nassau Community College again, attending erratically, earning only 12 credits by the time he finally quit in 1984. After the Giant game, he says, I realized that this this problem isn't going away.. By January 1996, Rifkin was scheduled to serve at least 183 years for seven slayings, with 10 counts outstanding. I wouldn't sleep with my back to him if I were you, cracks a colleague. Joel Rifkin was someone who was used to being invisible. Rifkin then asked for paper, a pen, a map and a calendar, and wrote out a list of 17 victims, how he killed them and where he left them. He had an I.Q. Homicide detectives began interrogating Rifkin at 8:25 a.m. on June 28, 1993. Despite his history of morbid fantasy, Rifkin would later claim he had to plan the murder of his first victim, in March 1989. I thought of him as a loner, she subsequently told reporters. O.J.! Credit: Randee Daddona. Mary Catherine Williams, 10 years older than ONeill, had been a high school homecoming queen and college cheerleader in her native North Carolina. In custody, Rifkin soon began confessing to other homicides, a total of seventeen, including Bresciani. It did change me personally, he said. Rifkin was found guilty of nine murders in 1994 and sentenced to 203 years to life. 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. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a2a73bfae92a8aa He dropped her into Brooklyns Newtown Creek, where she was spotted floating with the current, foot protruding from the rusty barrel, on May 13, 1992. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. He is referenced in a "Seinfeld" episode in which Elaine, played by Julia Louis Dreyfus, is embarrassed to be dating a man who shares a serial killer's name. How far is Las Vegas from the California coast? 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. He was very interested in horticulture and interned at the Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park. The drivers license identified him as 34-year-old Joel David Rifkin, residing on Garden Street in East Meadow, Long Island. Doubling back from there, he returned to Manhattan, pitching the arms and torso into the East River. She would not be found until June 1993, when Rifkin drew detectives a map. We know Blackbirds fate today only from Rifkins confession, and from her diary stashed in his bedroom. Rifkins last victim, Tiffany Bresciani, was another southern girl. That explained Rifkins use of Noxema. 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 spent more than four years in solitary confinement I dont care what someone did. In the documentary, readers will learn how Rifkin was a meek, mild-mannered child. Flexing his ego, he fired Sale and retained two new lawyers: former Nassau County assistant district attorney Michael Soshnick and his partner, John Lawrence. Graduating near the bottom of his class in 1977, Joel Rifkin looked forward to college and adulthood. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Distinctive for its long balletic action sequences, 77 people are killed onscreen in the first John Wick, a massive 128 in John Wick: Chapter 2 and a slightly more sensible 94 in John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum. That first murder gave way to many more; he killed 16 more sex workers, often dismembering their bodies and disposing of themin the New York area. It also left Rifkin with a new problem. Simpson wouldnt be associated with murder that truly makes it one of the worst aged jokes in sitcom history. Currently, Joel Rifkin is 64 years, 1 months and 12 days old. These are not the kind of flimsy magazines or tiny paperback novels that you are accustomed to. Rifkin wedged the body underneath a rotting mattress, first relieving Sanchez of her watch and other jewelry. The Joel Rifkin reference certainly grounds Seinfeld 's episode in its own time, but its the idea that O.J. Hopewell Police Chief George Meyer tells The Times of Trenton that New York authorities have no interest in prosecuting the case because Rifkin is already behind bars. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Jenny Soto's family. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. Tragedy plus time equals comedy, so its been said. Throughout the 1980s, Rifkin worked a series of odd jobs around Long Island, seldom staying long at any. 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. 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. Joel Rifkin was an unemployed New York landscaper living a darkdouble life as a prolific serial killer claiming the lives of 17 women, a staggering total. Troopers detected an odor from the back of the truck. Appearing for the state, Dr. Park Dietz--earlier a prosecution witness against Arthur Shawcross, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Hinckley--found Rifkin sick but not insane. "None of them were throwaways.". He said he disposed of the bodies in threes. As much as I say I wanted to stop, there probably wouldve been others,Joel Rifkin said of the likelihood he would have continued to kill if he hadnt been caught in 1993. Yun Lee: Authorities believe Lee, 31, was strangled to death on September 23, 1991, Thought Co. reports. They can disappear for months, hetold CBS New Yorkin 2011. Elaine told her new beau he should change his name. From the motel, he drove upstate to Orange County and left DeLucas body at a rest stop outside Cornwall, near West Point. Joels parents gave him a car that year, and he used it to troll for prostitutes, first in nearby Hempstead, later in Manhattan. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Dave Insurgent, a member of the 1980s punk band Reagan Youth), and his final victim. Her body was never recovered. Please ignore rumors and hoaxes. Orvieto, 28, disappeared in Dec. 1991. Strangled in Joels pickup after sex, she proved the toughest one to kill, he said, breaking all 10 fingernails as she clawed Rifkins face and neck. Police finally caught up to Rifkin in June 1993, when state troopers spotted his pickup truck without license plates on the Southern State Parkway. Hes not evil. According to the special, he killed 16 more sex workers. After listless sex, Susie again asked Joel to take her out in search of drugs. 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. I had sex with her, and then I killed her. 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. Neighbors recalled strange odors emanating from Rifkins garage, but they had assumed he stored insecticides there, for use in his garden and landscaping business. He never really displayed that. A low-speed car case ensued for about 20 minutes, until Rifkin lost control of the car and crashed into a utility pole in Mineola, according to the paper. I was completely numb. In 1989, Rifkin picked up a sex worker named "Susie." This perfect bound Serial Killer Calendar book includes detailed facts and trivia about serial killers for every day of the year. "They would suspect a serial killer was on the loose and his car would have easily been spotted by cameras.". When its Joel Rifkin, the name of a notorious New York serial killer whose brutal four-year murder spree ended when he was caught in June 1993, it was grim grist for an episode of the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld that premiered just five months after his arrest. "Joel was very calm about it," Mladinich continued. 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. We are happy to say that the Serial Killer Trading Cards are back! It was a half-hearted effort at best. When its Joel Rifkin, the name of a notorious New York serial killer whose brutal four-year murder spree ended when he was caught in June 1993, it was grim grist for an episode of the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld that premiered just five months after his arrest. Her mother, Doris Williams, described her daughter to the news outlet as a struggling actress and former high school homecoming queen who had moved to New York City from her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. [2] Early life [ edit] Rifkin's birth parents were both young college students and his biological father was an Army veteran. In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. 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. WebJoel Rifkin was born in in January 20, 1959. "RifkinonRifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer". He held down various odd jobs, spending much of the little money he made on prostitutes. With Joels confession in hand, police descended on Jeanne Rifkins home, scouring the premises for evidence. He enjoyed the photography club but turned in his usual lackluster academic performance over the next two years, before dropping out in 1980. Joel Rifkin, meanwhile, killed 17 people a staggering amount of victims that makes him New Yorks most prolific serial killer. Rifkin admitted to the 17 slayings after his May 1994 murder conviction in Nassau County. New York: Pocket Books, 2001. They called him The Turtle, mimicking his slouched posture and slow footsteps, seldom missing a chance to make him the butt of cruel jokes. What is the current air quality in Salem Oregon? He struggled with confidence and lacked natural athletic ability, a trait that frustrated his father endlessly, according to "Rifkin on Rifkin.". Credit: Randee Daddona. The remains were never found. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Rifkins victim was identified as Tiffany Bresciani, a 22-year-old Louisiana native, tricking in Manhattan the past two years to feed her drug habit. Ruane and Spaargaren called for backup as they pursued their quarry at nearly 90 miles an hour. The couple was so happy with their son that they repeated the procedure, with a daughter, three years later. Why not? Corcoran said it played a role in his promotion from lieutenant to captain. Lauren Marquez: Marquez, 28, was found dead in Westhampton. O.J.! It came from the dead body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, the girlfriend of Dave Rubinstein (a.k.a. Legal Statement. Rifkin had just arrived home when his mother demanded her car keys and embarked on a 30-minute shopping trip, with the corpse still in the trunk. 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. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. He found Iris Sanchez, a 25-year-old crack addict, working First Avenue on Mothers Day weekend. On May 25, 1992, he strangled crack addict Anna Lopez, dumping her corpse in some woods off Interstate 84, in Brewster. Her case remained unsolved until Rifkin confessed in 1993. Ahearn saidRifkins lack of concern for his victims haunted him for years and still does. There were times he would come up with things about the afterlife, or an energy flow he detected leaving his victims, Lawrence said. They also found a blood-stained wheelbarrow and chainsaw at the residence. On December 14, 2001, Rifkin lost his latest appeal of his conviction. In Rifkins cluttered garage, detectives followed their noses to a reeking wheelbarrow, extracting three ounces of human blood. 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. He rolled Soto into the Harlem River, near the spot where Yun Lee had been found 14 months earlier. In addition to Rifkin, the episode discusses the phenomenon of serial killers in one of Jerry Seinfelds stand-up routines. He had picked up a sex workernamed Susie, according to a 2013The Associated Pressarticle. Married to a pro football player in 1986 and divorced the following year, she had come to New York in search of an acting career, but wound up doing drugs and living on the streets. His rage and self-loathing only grew, according to the special. 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. But he accelerated, speeding down the next off-ramp, into the streets of Wantagh. Violet ONeill, a 21-year-old prostitute, was the first victim Rifkin had taken home to East Meadow in nearly a year. He was arrested in Hempstead, in August 1987, after soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman, but he escaped with a nominal fine. I function better in prison. Is there less than 10? they asked Rifkin, Corcoran said. His upstairs bedroom yielded 75 pieces of womens jewelry, photographs Rifkin had taken of several unidentified women, various items of feminine clothing, makeup cases, a womans curling iron, wallets and pocketbooks, plus a mixed bag of ID cards. 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. I think its a wake-up call that there could be lots of Joel Rifkin'swalking around.". She hailed from Metairie, Louisiana, and had been drawn to New York by dreams of acting or dancing. "We kept asking him, 'What about this one?'" Copyright 2023 Newsday. 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. Is there more than one? A 9 a.m. media report cleared up the mystery, and Jeanne phoned her lawyer, who referred her to criminal attorney Robert Sale. Instead, he concocted an elaborate fantasy affair, frustrated beyond endurance when she failed to reciprocate his secret passion. Things seemed to go downhill from there. Rifkin arrived at Attica state prison in February 1996, sporting a black eye from his first assault by fellow inmates while confined on Rikers Island. When police approached the vehicle, they noticed an absolutely overwhelming odor, according to Newsday.