Joel 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 he is believed to have killed up to 17 victims in all. 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. Oxygens Serial Killer Week brings viewers inside the minds of the most notorious criminals of all time. 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. Joel Rifkin is now serving 203 years to life in the Clinton, N.Y. correctional facility. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. I had sex with her, then things went bad and I strangled her. BOB STRONG/AFP/Getty Images Trending News Rifkin could not recall the name of number six, murdered a few days shy of Christmas 1991. Fred Klein, shown in his office at Hofstra Universityon June 13, was the lead Nassau County prosecutor in the Joel Rifkincase. Market data provided by Factset. It worked. 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. Lauren Marquez: Marquez, 28, was found dead in Westhampton. With this information, they were able to identify even more of his victims, the New York Times reported. 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. Rifkin had been bludgeoning or strangling women for five years, dismembering some of them. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us at 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. He gave names when he knew them, dates, where he picked them up and, crucially, where he had dumped the bodies. I couldn't function in the real world then. But Susie has never been identified. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. He was generally unkempt, and a thick layer of Noxema was smeared across his mustache. He was vague on dates, different reports placing the crime 14 months after Susies murder, or late in 1990. 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. However, a drug problem resulted in sex work to feed her addiction, Newsday reported. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Joel David Rifkin: New York's Most Prolific Serial Killer. Rifkin drove her to the same parking lot where he had taken Yun Lee and strangled her during fellatio. Hewent to painstaking efforts to try to conceal the bodies, often dismembering the victims, placing their bodies in oil drums, or throwing them into bodies of water, he would later tell WCBS-TVin 2011. DNA tests confirmed her identity. Lockdown. Officers staked out the house in East Meadow, where Rifkin lived with his sister and elderly mother. Rifkin was arrested for soliciting a prostitute on August 22, 1987 in Hempstead, Long Island. Black-painted Bowie clip-point with 14 or 12 saw teeth, 1 Stick Around (Rambo: Last Blood / 2019), 2 Take A Bow (Rambo: First Blood, Part II / 1985), 7 The Grenade With A Real Kick (Rambo III / 1988), 8 Hammer Smashed Face(s) (Rambo: Last Blood / 2019). O.J. 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. 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. On the early morning hours ofJune 28, 1993, three days after he had killed Bresciani, Rifkin stashed her body in his car's trunk and headed down the Southern State Parkway to dispose of her, the New York Daily News reported at the time. They called him The Turtle, mimicking his slouched posture and slow footsteps, seldom missing a chance to make him the butt of cruel jokes. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Classmates dubbed him The Turtle, after his slouching posture and slow gait. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours per day. In November, he pleaded guilty to the Sanchez homicide in Queens and to three more counts in Brooklyn: victims Orvieto, Holloman and the Jane Doe killed in 1992. 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 trial lawyer, John Lawrence of Mineola, planned an insanity defense, but that allowed Klein to introduce evidence of all of Rifkins murders. trends.embed.renderExploreWidget("TIMESERIES", {"comparisonItem":[{"keyword":" Joel Rifkin ","geo":"","time":"today 12-m"}],"category":0,"property":""}, {"exploreQuery":"q=Joel Rifkin&date=today 12-m","guestPath":"https://trends.google.com:443/trends/embed/"}); Joel Rifkin net worth and salary: Joel Rifkin is a Criminal who has a net worth of $100 Million. The prison van carried him past the high school where he had graduated 16 years before. It was a life far removed from her affluent Long Island home where shed been a high school cheerleader. The son of unwed teenage parents, born in 1959, Joel was adopted by Ben and Jeanne Rifkin at three weeks of age. He was easy to make fun of.. Drawn to the pickups bed by a foul odor, troopers peeled back a blue tarp and found a womans naked, decomposing corpse. Rifkin acknowledged that his violent mental images were a little more intense than regular at that time. He had an I.Q. 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. Put off by the thought of another dismemberment, Rifkin wrapped Jacobs in plastic, folded her into a cardboard box, and placed her in the back of his mothers Toyota pickup. Back in East Meadow, Jeanne Rifkin found officers circling her house by mid-morning. 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. 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. Rifkin picked her up on Allen Street and drove her to the New York Posts parking lot, where he strangled her at 5:30 a.m. From there, he drove back to East Meadow, stopping at stores along the way for rope and tarp, while Bresciani lay sprawled in the backseat of his mothers car. So who were the women who lost their lives to this disturbingkiller? He enjoyed the photography club but turned in his usual lackluster academic performance over the next two years, before dropping out in 1980. As much as I say I wanted to stop, there probably wouldve been others, he admitted. aspect of comedy, the Rifkin episode of Seinfeld aired just five months after his Right?, Oh, he was kind of quiet. I love these neighbors, he continues. Rifkin's downfall came about simply because of a "25 cent mistake," as he told the New York Daily News. As his mother was out of town, he brought her back home. Leah Evans: The body of Evans, a 28-year-old mother of two, was discovered in May 1992 by a family hunting for dandelions off County Road 51 in Southampton, according to Newsday. At this time he became increasingly obsessed with violence, murder, and prostitution. 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. 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. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours a day. Three months later, he killed Leah Evens and left her in rural Northampton, where her skeleton was found on Mothers Day. Joel waited more than a year to claim his second victim. Rifkin was AWOL from his part-time job at an East Meadow liquor store, looking for trouble. Joel Rifkin is a serial killer who went on a string of murders in New York in the 1990s. 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. Sale waived application for bond, knowing it was hopeless, but won a two-week postponement of formal arraignment. Winded from the battle, Rifkin claimed her bra and panties, earrings, ID cards and drug syringe as trophies for his cache. As he strangled her, Rifkin recalled, She did nothing, just accepted it. He remembered her murder as one of the weird ones.. Evens had been the daughter of a civil court judge and had once attended Sarah Lawrence College. The couple was so happy with their son that they repeated the procedure, with a daughter, three years later. or redistributed. Oh please, please, please change your name to O.J.! Something about Joel Rifkin set him apart, an undefined quality that made him an immediate outsider, natural prey to all manner of bullies. 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 admitted to the 17 slayings after his May 1994 murder conviction in Nassau County. Today, Joel Rifkin is 60 years old and serving his life sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. And in a moment that really tested the "too soon?" (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. They initiated a traffic stopand a high-speed chase ensues, said Eugene Corcoran, then the State Policelieutenant who supervised the investigation. He held down various odd jobs, spending much of the little money he made on prostitutes. Rambo would go on to receive extensive survival and combat training, later becoming a Green Beret in September of 1969. Rifkin refused, strangling her when she started to cry. One of the bullies who harassed him later called Rifkin an abuse unit. They can disappear for months, hetold CBS New Yorkin 2011. The special also features interviews with Rifkins childhood friends, investigators on the case, as well as those closest to his victims. 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. Joel Rifkin had killed 17 women, and now he was driving around with one in the back of his truck. He will be eligible for parole in 2197. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. It's like my own little nightmare scenarios.". New York: Pocket Books, 2001. Neighbors recalled strange odors emanating from Rifkins garage, but they had assumed he stored insecticides there, for use in his garden and landscaping business. For the key players in the case, contact with Rifkin was life altering. When told his truck had no rear license plate, Rifkin assured the officers it had been present when he left his home, some 40 minutes earlier. He bought Williams a fix that night, then tried to choke her when she dozed off in his mothers car. Rifkin was dispassionate, referring to the murders as events or incidents, listing his victims by number. I just lost control, he said later. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. [2] Early life [ edit] Rifkin's birth parents were both young college students and his biological father was an Army veteran. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. Through newly revealed interviews from Attica Correctional Facility, New York's most prolific serial killer, Joel Rifkin, reveals exclusive insights into the mind of a monster. Lawrence said he paid an enormous toll, starting with the day of the conviction. 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. He was deployed to South Vietnam in September of 1966 with the 101st Airborne, which he would complete two tours of duty with. Credit: Randee Daddona. The Disturbing Truth Of Serial Killer Joel Rifkin YouTube By Tyler MacDonald / April 1, 2021 10:52 am EST For a span of four years in the early 1990s, serial killer Joel Rifkin left a string of terror across New York City as he satisfied his fixation on strangling sex workers to death. . His memory was far from perfect. 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. In 1989, he killed his first woman. The drivers license identified him as 34-year-old Joel David Rifkin, residing on Garden Street in East Meadow, Long Island. she suggested, inspired by O.J. Instead, he picked up a souvenir howitzer shell and beat her furiously. 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. I couldnt put two nickels together, Rifkin recalled of those years, and most of what he did earn went to prostitutes. 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. She appeared to have been dead for several days. After exchanging letters, the former cop, who served the NYPD from 1983 until 2003 when he retired with the rank of Detective Second Grade, decided to visit Rifkin at Attica Correctional Facility. "I don't know. He offered no resistance as police removed him from the pickup, frisked him for weapons and removed an X-acto knife from his pocket. The argument over whose killings were better reportedly ended when Ferguson punched Rifkin in the mouth. 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. A childless couple from Upstate New York, Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin, adopted him on Valentines Day and named him Joel David. He found Iris Sanchez, a 25-year-old crack addict, working First Avenue on Mothers Day weekend. I want to show these girls, these prostitutes, have families who care. 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. ", "Even when we first spoke at the correctional facility, it was like we had been friends the previous 20 years," he shared. "And a lot of them are dangerous people. 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. Jane Doe #1: Rifkin killed an unidentified woman in December 1991 by strangling her to death during sex. Whats in a name? Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. And she had fake nails and those were ripped off when she fought him.. June 27, 1993. "He was very matter of fact about it. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews with the both killers and experts in the field and more information that any other resource available to date. It did change me personally, he said. The odor from the truck was immediately overwhelming, Corcoran said, and troopers peeked in the back to see what was under a tarp. Seven months later, Simpsons name became connected to murder. It was a trick for handling corpses, to avoid their stench, portrayed by Hollywood two years earlier in the Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs. Fifty percent of the proceeds from sales were earmarked for New Yorks Crime Victims Board, with inmate artists retaining the rest. In June of that year, he murdered Bresciani, a 22-year-old who left Louisiana for Los Angeles before arriving inNew York. As per our current Database, Joel Rifkin is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). Joel Rifkin, meanwhile, killed 17 people a staggering amount of victims that makes him New Yorks most prolific serial killer. I had sex with her, and then I killed her. 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. Williams, a former cheerleader at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, had struggled with an addiction to crack cocaine after her marriage broke up and often turned to prostitution to help support the habit, according to Newsday. Barbara Jacobs: Jacobs was killed on July 14, 1991. Briefly distracted by a man who passed the car walking a dog, he almost let Marquez escape. She had been the mother of two children. Graduating near the bottom of his class in 1977, Joel Rifkin looked forward to college and adulthood. Michael Ahearn, then the chief of the Suffolk district attorneys Homicide Bureau, recalled how Rifkin continually corrected him during cross-examination. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is to think that perhaps she didnt die in pain.. 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.". I remember I wrote about a boxing match for one of our assignments as journalism students and he photographed the event. He never really displayed that. 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. 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. His fantasies about strangling women became more frequent. "And he kept saying things like, 'I killed that one. I wouldn't sleep with my back to him if I were you, cracks a colleague. A chainsaw found in the garage was stained with blood and bits of human flesh. The body of Evans, a 28-year-old mother of two, was discovered in May 1992 by a family hunting for dandelions off County Road 51 in Southampton, according to Newsday. This massive perfect bound Ted Bundy collection includes art, articles, rare interviews, documents, letters, transcripts and the serial killers entire FBI file. Joel Rifkin, New York's most prolific serial killer, is the subject of a new true-crime documentary on Oxygen. ", 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. 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. 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. In Rifkins cluttered garage, detectives followed their noses to a reeking wheelbarrow, extracting three ounces of human blood. NASHVILLE TV PRODUCER VERONICA BOZZAS MURDER EXPLORED IN TRUE CRIME DOC: THE WHOLE THING WAS SENSELESS, O.J. If Ahearn got the location wrong of where he picked up a victim, he said Rifkin became indignant . 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 he is believed to have killed up to 17 victims in all. Simpson. Rifkin was bullied throughout his school years, an experience that left him feeling angry and isolated. 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. Rifkin found Orvieto on December 26, 1991, in Bayshore, Long Island. By March 1994 Wexner had heard enough to reject the various defense motions outright and hold Rifkin for trial, scheduled for mid-April. What is the current air quality in Salem Oregon? A forensic anthropologist was hired to reconstruct the victims face, but Rifkin confessed before the model was finished. The coroner blamed her death on a drug overdose, and Jacobs was buried in Potters Field cemetery, unidentified until Rifkin confessed her murder two years later. Most of Rifkins 20 paintings and sketches depicted wildlife or flowers, but one--titled Guardians Failure--showed a bare foot with a coroners toe tag and an angel weeping in the corner. 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. both were veterans, but Teasle was ruler of his own little fiefdom and wanted to keep it. When police approached the vehicle, they noticed an absolutely overwhelming odor, according to Newsday. Throughout his trial and incarceration, Rifkin still could not explain one thing: why. The couple adopted another child, a daughter, three years later. She fought him, resisting strangulation until he snapped her neck. All rights reserved. Aside from books and magazines (no more than 10 per isolation cell), Rifkin had lawsuits to amuse himself. 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. In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. Please enter valid email address to continue. He didnt speed up, either, but he kept on driving. Hikers found her on May 9 after they spied a withered hand protruding from the ground. "Joel was very calm about it," Mladinich continued. 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. Oholah, Rifkin explained, was both the Hebrew word for sanctuary and the name of a prostitute whose violent death is described in Ezekiel 23:3-10. Rifkin believed his victim would never be found, but he had been careless. (Photo by Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images). Ahearn saidRifkins lack of concern for his victims haunted him for years and still does. Chainsaws, people screaming, fine. He concealed this arrest from his family. 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. The murderous rampage of notorious Long Island serial killer Rifkin came to an end. get yours now before they are gone forever. All of our Serial Killer Magazines and books are massive, perfect bound editions. Is The New York Review the same as the New York Review of Books? In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, New York, where Rifkin would spend most of his remaining years. Prison officials decided in 1996 that Rifkin was so notorious that his presence in the general prison population could be disruptive. Lawrence said preparing for hearings and the trial with Rifkin was bizarre. The Rifkins also adopted a daughter, Jan, in 1962. Corrections officials say that Rifkin is now imprisoned with more than 200 other inmates at Clinton who are not allowed into the general prison population. Jenny Soto's family. When they signaled for him to pull over, Rifkin kept driving. Poor hygiene, chronic absenteeism and general ineptitude blocked the road to advancement. Rifkin found her on May 25, 1992, Memorial Day, working Atlantic Avenue in Queens, and retired to a nearby residential street for sex. ", 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. (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. We were out every night, her 16-year-old sister Jessy Olmedo said at the time. Credit: Newsday/K. The 23-year-oldwas wearing only a T-shirt. Joel Rifkin referred to his propensity to kill as "almost an addiction," something forensic psychologist N.G. 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.