The killing game was over, but the quest for justice had only begun. Rifkin was never on authorities' radar. Rifkin was booked at Hempstead, where homicide detectives launched a marathon interrogation. Julie Blackbird: Rifkin killed again about 16 months later, after picking up Julie Blackbird in 1990 and bringing her back to his home. 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. Evens had been the daughter of a civil court judge and had once attended Sarah Lawrence College. The Seinfeld team wasted no time trying to churn laughs out of one of New Yorks most horrible mass murderers Rifkin is believed to have killed up to 17 women and is the subject of Oxygens upcoming special Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer, airingSaturday, April 10 at 7/6c on Oxygen. In every high school, theres a kid that doesnt get girls,but they dont go ahead and murder 17 women.". Rifkin told authorities he placed her body into a mattress and put it at an illegal dump site near the JFK Airport, according to ThoughtCo. Portions of her remains were later discovered inside an oil drum in New Creek in Brooklyn, according to ThoughtCo. He bought Williams a fix that night, then tried to choke her when she dozed off in his mothers car. There, Rifkin testified himself in a pretrial hearing to contest that his confession was voluntary. 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. He has been married to Iva Rifkin since August 28, 1966. ", I wanted to be normal. Rifkin started his own landscaping business in April 1991, renting space at a local nursery to store his equipment. Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? The only 80s action star that would prove victorious against a 21st-century assassin is not a man but a machine. Rifkin wedged Lee into the same trunk hed used for Mary DeLuca and dropped her in the East River. "And he kept saying things like, 'I killed that one. According to the special, he killed 16 more sex workers. Several months later, the football star was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Ten minutes later, with a call for reinforcements on the air, their quarry missed a turn and crashed into a lamp post at a Mineola intersection. Hes not evil. The argument over whose killings were better reportedly ended when Ferguson punched Rifkin in the mouth. He was arrested in Hempstead, in August 1987, after soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman, but he escaped with a nominal fine. (Glass Entertainment Group). Williams would fill another nameless paupers grave until Rifkin confessed to her murder, six months after she was found. For more on Rifkin, watch Oxygen's special Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer, airing Saturday, April 10 at 9/8c on Oxygen. Rifkin consigned her remains to the waters surrounding Manhattan. Prosecutor Fred Klein described Rifkin as a killing machine who acted in deliberate, premediated and methodical ways to carry out his gruesome murders. Credit: Newsday/K. Lorraine Orvieto: Orvieto, 28, disappeared in Dec. 1991. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Please enter valid email address to continue. Today, Joel Rifkin is 60 years old and serving his life sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Sometimes he would take his victims back to East Meadow, to the house where he lived with his sister and elderly mother. Credit: AP/Pool Photo/ Bill Turnbull. Good works notwithstanding, Rifkin had no luck in his bids to escape solitary confinement. Featuring specials about fearsome and fascinating serial killers, its a cant-miss event for true crime fans. Is there less than 10? they asked Rifkin, Corcoran said. Rifkin painstakingly covered up his crimes. Things seemed to go downhill from there. (Robert Mladinich). Before Rifkin left for college, he drove to New York City where he picked up a sex worker for the first time. Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer Premieres Saturday, April 10th, 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, 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 2018. There was none of that. Somewhere along the way, he moved from abstract study of the killers into emulation of their brutal crimes. 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says. It was nearly 8 p.m. when authorities presented Jeanne Rifkin with a search warrant, scouring her two-story house for evidence against the man who appeared to be New Yorks most prolific 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. After the pair spent the night, once again at his mothers home, Rifkin beat her with a table leg and strangled her to death, according to Biography. There was really no coordination between police precincts. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! But that all change in 1993 after Rifkin said he made a "25 cent mistake. Rifkin didn't display the typical signs of a budding murderer. Violet ONeill, a 21-year-old prostitute, was the first victim Rifkin had taken home to East Meadow in nearly a year. During questioning, Rifkin described her death in clinical detail, but his emotional detachment was not the worst part of the confession. Birthday: January 20, 1959 How Old - Age: 64 Recently Passed Away Celebrities and Famous People. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Winded from the battle, Rifkin claimed her bra and panties, earrings, ID cards and drug syringe as trophies for his cache. 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. He was deployed to South Vietnam in September of 1966 with the 101st Airborne, which he would complete two tours of duty with. Her mother, Victoria ONeill, told the newspaper she had last seen her daughter on July 16, 1992. "There are a lot of damaged people out there," he said. (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos/Getty Images). 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 1988 Rifkin enrolled in a two-year horticulture-study program at the State College of Technology in Farmingdale, New York. According to Joel Rifkin, it was a '25-cent mistake' that finally led to his capture. He then dismembered her body, leaving her head at a New Jersey golf course, where it was quickly found, according to the AP. The Associated Press contributed to this report. (Photo by Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images). At about nine the next morning, Rifkin recalled completely bugging out, beating Blackbird with a heavy table leg before he strangled her. According to the outlet, Rifkin admitted to the other slayings during questioning. Oh please, please, please change your name to O.J.! 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. Joels parents gave him a car that year, and he used it to troll for prostitutes, first in nearby Hempstead, later in Manhattan. or redistributed. Graduating near the bottom of his class in 1977, Joel Rifkin looked forward to college and adulthood. You just wonder about how someone could do what he did and not have any feeling for it, Ahearn said. From 1989 to 1993, a serial killer stalked New York City. Two floaters in as many days suggested a serial killer at large, but New York police had their hands full with 2,000 murders a year in those days, and junkie prostitutes were never high priority. He will be eligible for parole in 2197. They let him go with a warning. The prison van carried him past the high school where he had graduated 16 years before. 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. Would Joel Rifkin report to the stadium office? I saw him as artistically inclined. The severed head was found in 1989 in Hopewell, a town north of Trenton. Check out our sister site VHS WASTELAND. Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. Robert Sale met his new client for the first time at 9 a.m. on June 29, and Rifkin complained that police had taken his glasses and left him with a migraine headache, unable to function. Instead, she wound up hooked on heroin, performing for strangers in strip clubs and cars. An addiction to drugs would derail that dreamand influence herto enter the world of sex workand begin topless dancing, according to Newsday. Motorist Joel Rifkin, now in handcuffs, helped identify the corpse as 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani. He was also an academic failure, suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia despite a tested IQ of 128. Back in East Meadow, Jeanne Rifkin found officers circling her house by mid-morning. Their mistake made Rifkin laugh, explaining that the clumsy cops had counted Williams twice. It was, as Joel Rifkinsaid later, a 25-cent part that brought him down, but it caught the eye of two troopers patrolling the Southern State Parkway. "Joel never expressed any remorse whatsoever to me," said Mladinich. While he was portrayed as a more heroic character in the film, the novel portrays him as a ruthless, psychotic murderer and unlike the movie counterpart, this version of Rambo slaughters innocent people. 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. When flashing red lights failed to stop the driver, they used the loudspeaker, ordering the driver to halt. He gave names when he knew them, dates, where he picked them up and, crucially, where he had dumped the bodies. WebJoel David Rifkin (born January 20, 1959) is an American serial killer, who was sentenced to 203 years in prison for the murders of nine women between 1989 and 1993, though it is believed he had up to 17 victims. Jurors agreed with Dietz, deliberating briefly on May 9 before they convicted Rifkin of murder and reckless endangerment (for leading police on the wild car chase). She was actually a woman named Heidi Balch, who had used various identities throughout the years. Weary of the pain by February 1987, he took a massive dose of barbiturates and died after four days in a coma. Rifkin believed his victim would never be found, but he had been careless. Click to reveal 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. Decomposition made it impossible to determine a cause of death, and she was buried nameless, unidentified until June 1993. Confronting them, she was first told that Joel had been detained after a traffic accident, then that he was jailed for a crime which the officers refused to describe. In addition to Rifkin, the episode discusses the phenomenon of serial killers in one of Jerry Seinfelds stand-up routines. 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.
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