A panel of seven men and five women was seated nine days later, with opening arguments begun on April 20. 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. Oh! Copyright 2023 Newsday. He remembered her tattoos, a pickup in Manhattan, and the way she fought for life when he began to strangle her. What it gave me was that he liked to be in control. Violet ONeill, a 21-year-old prostitute, was the first victim Rifkin had taken home to East Meadow in nearly a year. A shy, awkward child, he was a target for bullies. "Joel never expressed any remorse whatsoever to me," said Mladinich. Success breeds repetition. Oxygen's new documentary on Joel Rifkin is part of their 'Serial Killer Week" line-up. "Certain things are very hard to stop," Rifkin said. Joel Rifkins zodiac sign is Aquarius. Mladinich said he and Rifkin, now 62, wrote to each other regularly until they saw each other again in the fall of 1999. It was a half-hearted effort at best. I function better in prison. Abandoned by the father of her two children, Evens found solace in drugs and worked the streets to keep herself well. Rifkin found her tricking on February 27, 1993, stopping for sex in an abandoned parking lot. Instead, he picked up a souvenir howitzer shell and beat her furiously. Chainsaws, people screaming, fine. Dave Insurgent, a member of the 1980s punk band Reagan Youth), and his final victim. In many ways, it was almost like a tsunami.. Wiles Stabile. Thanks to its ruling planet Mars and the fact it belongs to the element of Fire (just like Leo and Sagittarius), Aries is one of the most active zodiac signs. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! 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. According to Joel Rifkin, it was a '25-cent mistake' that finally led to his capture. "Everybody has some kind of fantasy life, whether it's negative or positive. Serial killer Joel Rifkin Rifkin acknowledged that his violent mental images were a little more intense than regular at that time. Would. Next to him is his attorney, John Lawrence of Mineola. Rifkin started his own landscaping business in April 1991, renting space at a local nursery to store his equipment. He never really displayed that. 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. ", "If I didnt kill them, they would have died anyhow. He rolled Soto into the Harlem River, near the spot where Yun Lee had been found 14 months earlier. alaw enforcement source told The New York Daily News at the time. About to leave, he was confronted by patrolmen who accused him of illegal dumping, but Joel persuaded them he was collecting junk instead. Some were on land. Mladinich, Robert. ", 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. 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. (Photo by Neil Schneider/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images), "When we first started talking, it was kind of awkward," said Mladinich. He concealed this arrest from his family. While Jan and Jeanne stayed mostly silent during the court proceedings, even as reporters staked out their now-infamous home, his sister did speak to New York Post reporter Andrea Peyser. 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. I was just in complete shock that someone like him could be arrested for these crimes. After wrestling her body into a plastic trash bag, Rifkin cleaned up the blood and signs of combat in his living room, then lay down and slept for several hours as if nothing had happened. In case there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want you to spend your second life in prison.. There, Rifkin testified himself in a pretrial hearing to contest that his confession was voluntary. 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. "She did not come home this Christmas, so we knew something was wrong.". Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! WebJoel Rifkin was born in in January 20, 1959. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Her family described Soto as a quiet Brooklyn girl who loved to play with her nieces and nephews but said she had a wilder side when she went into the city. When she fell asleep, he clubbed her with the same table leg he had used on Julie Blackbird, then finished the job by manual strangulation. But that all change in 1993 after Rifkin said he made a "25 cent mistake. And Rifkin told WCBS-TV in 2011 that his victim count would have likely been much higher if he hadnt been arrested in 1993. So who were the women who lost their lives to this disturbingkiller? Joel dismembered her body into the East River. I dont think I could now. 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.". 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 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. The odor from the truck was immediately overwhelming, Corcoran said, and troopers peeked in the back to see what was under a tarp. The only 80s action star that would prove victorious against a 21st-century assassin is not a man but a machine. He gave names when he knew them, dates, where he picked them up and, crucially, where he had dumped the bodies. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. In February 1987, Rifkin's adoptive father committed suicide to end the pain of cancer, thereby increasing Rifkins depression. Lockdown. "He said he wanted to feel some remorse or feel some humanity towards them. That one was easy.' 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. Type of Villain John James Rambo is the main protagonist of the 1972 novel First Blood and its 1982 film adaptation. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! But his eventual capture was a total accident as the serial killer wasn't even on police's radar. June 27, 1993. "Some people viewed him as an oddball. Credit: Randee Daddona. Yourself, New Yorks Deadliest Serial Sometimes he would take his victims back to East Meadow, to the house where he lived with his sister and elderly mother. They had destroyed themselves through their lifestyle. Joel Rifkin Rifkin didn't display the typical signs of a budding murderer. ", 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. Real-Life 'Criminal Minds' Attempt To Make Sense Of Serial Killer 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. Thats well over 30 ebooks in one package. Is Joel Rifkin still alive Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! The only thing that makes me feel a little better is to think that perhaps she didnt die in pain.. ", First published on March 27, 2013 / 3:17 PM. 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. ", GARY HEIDNIKS ATTORNEY TALKS INSANE HOUSE OF HORRORS KILLER IN DOC: THERE WAS A METHOD TO HIS MADNESS', Jenny Soto's family. Rifkin graduated from high school in 1977, but he could never quite cut in college, despite sporadic attempts over the next twelve years. 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. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. For the key players in the case, contact with Rifkin was life altering. In the trunk was the decaying body of his last victim. But he accelerated, speeding down the next off-ramp, into the streets of Wantagh. What actor has been killed the most in movies? 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. 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. [2] Early life [ edit] Rifkin's birth parents were both young college students and his biological father was an Army veteran. An addiction to drugs would derail that dreamand influence herto enter the world of sex workand begin topless dancing, according to Newsday. (Photo by Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images), (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos/Getty Images). The rest would be revealed to her on television, hours later, when detectives laid the outline of their case before the media. She was a prostitute, he told the officers. Seventeen women in total were murdered by this shadowy figure but police at the time weren't even aware he existed. 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. Joel picked her up on July 13, 1991, and took her home to East Meadow for sex. "There are a lot of damaged people out there," he said. On July 14 of that year, 31-year-old Barbara Jacobs was found, strangled and rotting, in the Hudson River; her body had been wedged inside a plastic bag, then forced into a cardboard box. He picked Sanchez up in broad daylight, driving her to a Manhattan housing project down by where Macys has the fireworks. After strangling Sanchez during sex, he drove her corpse across the Brooklyn Bridge, seeking a drop-off point. She was actually a woman named Heidi Balch, who had used various identities throughout the years. Her slaying capped his own frenzied acceleration period and left him with embarrassing wounds to explain. "As much as I say I wanted to stop, there probably would've been others. "RifkinonRifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer". They talked about trial strategy and how to present his case. 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. 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. Joel Rifkin - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, where Joel would spend most of his remaining years. With Joels confession in hand, police descended on Jeanne Rifkins home, scouring the premises for evidence. Five more patrol cars joined the convoy, sirens wailing, before the Mazdas driver missed a turn in Mineola and crashed his truck into a telephone pole at 3:36 a.m. Her mother, Florence Orvieto,told The New York Times that she had been saving her Christmas presents for two years until she learned in 1993 that her daughters body had been discovered in a 55-gallon oil drum in Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn. They opened the truck and found Bresciani. Rifkin painstakingly covered up his crimes. Some of the bodies already found had not been classified as homicides, Klein said. 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. Rifkin transferred to the state university at Brockport, a Rochester suburb, in fall 1978. Rifkin initially told investigators that he'd driven to New York City in 1989 to pick up a prostitute named Susie, according to a 2013, While his mother was out of town, Rifkin and Balch returned to his childhood home, where they stayed for the night but Rifkin soon took out his rage on Balch, bashing her in the head with a Howtizer artillery shell and strangling her to death, as recounted on "Rifkin on Rifkin.". Tiffany Bresciani: Rifkins final victim, Tiffany Bresciani, 22, hadmoved to New York from her home in Louisiana to pursue her dream of becoming an actress or singer. WebSusie was still alive, however, and she fought back when he tried to move her, biting one of Rifkins fingers deeply before he strangled her to death. Crack addict Mary Ellen DeLuca, a 22-year-old Long Island native, was last seen alive at 11:00 p.m. on September 1, 1991, when she left a group of friends to earn the price of her next fix. Ahearn saidRifkins lack of concern for his victims haunted him for years and still does. Lawrence said he paid an enormous toll, starting with the day of the conviction. ", "There was always a fascination with strangulations. He has been married to Iva Rifkin since August 28, 1966. Credit: Randee Daddona. The wild chase was on. With this information, they were able to identify even more of his victims, the New York Times reported. Joel couldnt wait to play the deadly game again. Below we countdown to Joel Rifkin upcoming birthday. Police found Evens drivers license at his home. He used the next one on Lorraine Orvieto, a 28-year-old manic-depressive who tried to control her mood swings with cocaine. After strangling Lopez in his car, Rifkin drove through the night to Brewster, in Putnam County, and dumped her corpse along I-84. 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. 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says. He was arrested in Hempstead, in August 1987, after soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman, but he escaped with a nominal fine. Police finally caught up to Rifkin in June 1993, when state troopers spotted his pickup truck without license plates on the Southern State Parkway. Bored and restless, he cut classes habitually, completing only one course in the 1977-78 academic year. He was on his way to dump the body near Republic Airport, he explained, when he was spotted by Ruane and Spaargaren. Is Joel Rifkin Still Alive Or Dead? In custody, Rifkin soon began confessing to other homicides, a total of seventeen, including Bresciani. All rights reserved. His mother chose that month to travel out of state, leaving Joel alone in the East Meadow house. These are more like giant, professionally produced graphic novels. Police just noticed him because his vehicle was missing a license plate. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Rambo: The Franchises 10 Most Brutal Kills. 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. What is the current air quality in Salem Oregon? Lees ex-husband identified the body, sparing her from an unmarked grave. 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. The experience soon explodedinto a full-on addiction, as he blew through all his money picking up hundreds of sex workers. WebWhen a letter arrives from the army, telling Rory that Dawson is missing in action and presumed dead, her world is shattered. 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. For the first time in his life, he made straight As for two consecutive semesters, rewarded by selection for an internship at the prestigious Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, New York. MURDER OF MICHAEL JORDAN'S FATHER EXAMINED IN NEW DOC, RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT SHOCKING INVESTIGATION, Joel Rifkin, New York's most prolific serial killer, is the subject of a new true-crime documentary on Oxygen. Afterward, he drove Evens to the far eastern end of Long Island and buried her in the woods, the only one of his victims who rated a shallow grave. 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. Rifkin Several months later, the football star was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. "Leah was not a throwaway," Evans' friend tearfully says in the special. Stephen Urbanski says Balch worked as a prostitute in New York City and used numerous aliases. I stopped when I got tired.. A chainsaw found in the garage was stained with blood and bits of human flesh. 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. 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. Joel Rifkin was someone who was used to being invisible. Joel Rifkin In its year in review, Newsday described 1993 as Long Islands own annus horribilis the year that violence, abuse, bloody mayhem and sexual perversion tore at the fabric of Nassau and Suffolk Counties suburban life.. A formal suppression hearing was scheduled for November, but Rifkin had other plans. He was only caught because of a small mistake, and he would have kept killing, he admits. Sotos grim fight for life gave Rifkin pause. 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. Serial Killer Joel Rifkin 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. ", "Even when we first spoke at the correctional facility, it was like we had been friends the previous 20 years," he shared. Her mother, Victoria ONeill, told the newspaper she had last seen her daughter on July 16, 1992. Legal Statement. Even before he was sentenced, on May 9, 1994, Rifkin was transferred to Suffolk County, pending trial for the Evens and Marquez slayings. One girl duped him twice, using the same ruse both times to flee with his cash before sex. An odor in Rifkin's truck led to the discovery of a body. I had sex with her, and then I killed her. 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. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. He struggled with confidence and lacked natural athletic ability, a trait that frustrated his father endlessly, according to "Rifkin on Rifkin.". 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. With no money, Rifkin attempted to hold down a job, but that also became another unsuccessful moment in his life. They questioned him for eight hours, but for some reason never recorded the sessions. Her torso surfaced in the Hudson River, wrapped in black plastic, while her arms and legs were found in a discarded suitcase. So altogether that makes 299 kills by one man so far, and theres still two more films to come. It's like my own little nightmare scenarios.". Prison was an exaggerated replay of high school, with constant threats and taunts from other convicts. Rifkin was ultimately sentenced to 203 years in prison, where he remains to this day. Life could only get better, he reasoned. Out of the 17 women Rifkin said he murdered, two have yet to be identified. Throughout the 1980s, Rifkin worked a series of odd jobs around Long Island, seldom staying long at any. "There were no cameras on every block. Family members of his victims either could not be reached or declined to comment. Joel Rifkin is a member of Criminal Does Joel Rifkin Dead or Alive? Despite finding that Wexner should have excluded Rifkins confession to the Bresciani murder--an argument pursued in vain for five years--the appellate court found overwhelming evidence establishing his guilt and refused to overturn any part of his sentence. It also includes the best true crime artwork from around the world. Scattering the remains throughout New York also made it less likely for authorities to notice a pattern. Seven months later, Simpsons name became connected to murder. 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. Rifkin went back to school in spring of 1992, taking uncredited classes at SUNY Farmingdale. He also pleaded guilty to two murders in neighboring Suffolk County. They initiated a traffic stopand a high-speed chase ensues, said Eugene Corcoran, then the State Policelieutenant who supervised the investigation. Her mother, Florence Orvieto,told The New York Times that she had been saving her Christmas presents for two years until she learned in 1993 that her daughters body had been discovered in a 55-gallon oil drum in Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn. Joel Rifkin is currently serving a life sentence. Joel Rifkin telephone. The crowd stops cheering and squirm, while Elaine does damage control. He placed her body into a 55-gallon oil drum and dumped it into the East River. After Rifkin was convicted in Nassau, he was sent to Suffolk where he faced two murder charges. Joel Rifkin, and I am dating Joel Rifkin, laments Elaine, whose coworkers have gotten wind of the creepy coincidence. This guy seems like the real deal.". WebPrison officials decided in 1996 that Rifkin was so notorious that his presence in the general prison population could be disruptive. 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. According to the outlet, Rifkin admitted to the other slayings during questioning. There was none of that. 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. This guy couldnt even count to 10. In his down time, idling between jobs and classes, Rifkin dreamed of becoming a famous writer, churning out fragments of bleak poetry. I think its a wake-up call that there could be lots of Joel Rifkin'swalking around.". So if a body was found in The Bronx, detectives in Brooklyn might not hear about that for weeks, days, even months sometimes never. The main story plot concerned Elaine (Julie Louis-Dreyfus) going out with a likable guy named Joel Rifkin (Anthony Cistaro) at the same time serial Joel Rifkins gruesome exploits were all over the news.