Rifkin picked her up at about 11 p.m. on November 16, near the Williamsburg Bridge in lower Manhattan. Rifkins last victim, Tiffany Bresciani, was another southern girl. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Rifkin dumped her body in the Suffolk County pine barrens, where she lay undiscovered until his arrest. How far is Las Vegas from the California coast? 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. Things seemed to go downhill from there. The couple was so happy with their son that they repeated the procedure, with a daughter, three years later. Serial killer Joel Rifkin Jenny Soto: Jenny Soto'sbody later washed up along the rocks of the Harlem River in November of 1992. "Everybody has some kind of fantasy life, whether it's negative or positive. 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. WebWhen a letter arrives from the army, telling Rory that Dawson is missing in action and presumed dead, her world is shattered. 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. Flexing his ego, he fired Sale and retained two new lawyers: former Nassau County assistant district attorney Michael Soshnick and his partner, John Lawrence. With this information, they were able to identify even more of his victims, the New York Times reported. After listless sex, Susie again asked Joel to take her out in search of drugs. 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. Simpson Murder Joke Aged Horribly 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. Even before he was sentenced, on May 9, 1994, Rifkin was transferred to Suffolk County, pending trial for the Evens and Marquez slayings. Do you think I need a lawyer?. According to Joel Rifkin, it was a '25-cent mistake' that finally led to his capture. Tragedy plus time equals comedy, so its been said. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. A motorist stopping to relieve himself found Lopez the next day. He never relishedtalking about these horrible crimes. Joel couldnt wait to play the deadly game again. Every issue of Serial Killer Magazine, every Ultimate Collection, trainscript, FBI file and more! And she had fake nails and those were ripped off when she fought him.. He was eventually acquitted. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. New York: Pocket Books, 2001. He was born on January 20, 1959, the son of unwed college students who were not prepared to start a family. Joel Rifkin Death Fact Check Joel is alive and kicking and is currently 64 years old. 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. Mary Ellen DeLuca: DeLuca, 22, lost her life on Sept. 1, 1991 after she allegedly complained about having sex with Rifkin after he had bought her cocaine, according to ThoughtCo. As his mother was out of town, he brought her back home. Her body was never recovered. Her body was thrown into the East River. Prosecutor Fred Klein described Rifkin as a killing machine who acted in deliberate, premediated and methodical ways to carry out his gruesome murders, The New York Times reported in 1994. On December 14, 2001, Rifkin lost his latest appeal of his conviction. Rifkin started his own landscaping business in April 1991, renting space at a local nursery to store his equipment. An anonymous caller reported Hollomans floating remains to police on July 9, 1992, two days before Orvietos corpse was found. Her mother told the newspaper in 1993 that her daughter had been a happy and outspoken child, who later struggled with drug abuse and began to work as a prostitute. She would not be found until June 1993, when Rifkin drew detectives a map. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours per day. The special revealed that while his mother was out of town, he brought her back home. Five months after Rifkin was caught, "Seinfeld" released an episode titled "The Masseuse" in which Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is dating a man named Joel Rifkin (Anthony Cistaro) at the same time the murderer was drawing headlines. An addiction to drugs would derail that dreamand influence herto enter the world of sex workand begin topless dancing, according to Newsday. Eugene Corcoran, shown onJune 18, was one of the lead investigators in the Joel Rifkin case. His other victims included Tiffany 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, Newsday reported. Joel Rifkin Determined not to bungle the disposal this time, Rifkin went out to purchase cement and a large mortar pan. 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. Instead, she wound up hooked on heroin, performing for strangers in strip clubs and cars. In 1989, he killed his first woman. Even the parents of his victims didnt seem to miss Rifkins prey. Rifkins ninth victim, ironically, surfaced before numbers seven and eight. Your IP: By the time Rifkin found her, in the predawn hours of June 24, 1993, she was his second hooker of the night--his fourth within two days. 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. They can disappear for months, hetold CBS New Yorkin 2011. Joel Rifkin murdered17 women, making him New York's deadliest serial killer. 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. They drove to a point near the Manhattan Bridge, Rifkin clutching at her throat without the usual preliminaries. He was vague on dates, different reports placing the crime 14 months after Susies murder, or late in 1990. In his mind, the grim task was reduced to biology class. To foil identification, Rifkin severed Susies fingertips and pulled her teeth with pliers, then jammed her severed head into an old paint can. 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. (It was still there, waiting for detectives, at the time of Joels arrest.) After a struggle to get the car started and moving, Rifkin drove Williams to Yorktown, a Westchester suburb, where she was found on December 21, 1992. She was a prostitute, he told the officers. 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. Several months later, the football star was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Graduating near the bottom of his class in 1977, Joel Rifkin looked forward to college and adulthood. He would be eligible for parole only in 2197, at the age of 238. It did change me personally, he said. 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. He was vague on the details in later confessions, unable to recall the womans name, if he had ever known it. Rifkin said. ", 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. 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. And she had fake nails and those were ripped off when she fought him.. New York: St. Martins Press, 1993. He was also an academic failure, suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia despite a tested IQ of 128. In 2010, Rifkin was interviewed by ABC's Martin Bashir as part of the Nightline Prime mini-series, Secrets of Your Mind. Rifkin drove the body parts across the state line to New Jersey, dropping the head and legs in the woods near Hopewell. Joel Rifkin This huge, perfect bound copy of SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is chock full of artwork, rare documents, trivia and in depth articles regarding serial murder. 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. Her body was discovered in Cornwall in October 1991, a month after she had been reported missing by her family. In case there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want you to spend your second life in prison.. There was another oil drum victim, Joel insists, although he doesnt know her name and cant recall exactly when he dropped her body in the Harlem River. He was very interested in horticulture and interned at the Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park. Lorraine Orvieto, age twenty-eight, was strangled by Rifkin a few days before Christmas, jammed in a 55-gallon oil drum and dropped into Coney Island Creek, where her body would remain undiscovered for over six months. For the key players in the case, contact with Rifkin was life altering. There was ample room for Jane Doe in the barrel, safely hidden for their ride to the South Bronx, where Rifkin found a district rife with junkyards and rolled her into the East River. A Jane Doe victim, thus entombed, was dredged from Newtown Creek, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on May 13, 1992. 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. Prosecutor Fred Klein described Rifkin as a killing machine who acted in deliberate, premediated and methodical ways to carry out his gruesome murders. To have the normal picket fence and three kids and a dog and a cat and get on with life. Type of Villain John James Rambo is the main protagonist of the 1972 novel First Blood and its 1982 film adaptation. He was living with his mother and sister at the time of his arrest. 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. In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson over the use of a public telephone. He recalls killing one hooker in 1989 and another in 1990, dismembering their bodies and dropping the pieces into Manhattan canals, but the butcher work repulsed him, and he didnt really hit his stride until 1991. Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. He will be eligible for parole in 2197. 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. Authorities say 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Joel Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s. Here is a list of Rifkins victims: Heidi Balch: Authorities believe Heidi Balch was Rifkins first victim but it would take decades before she would ever be properly identified. (Glass Entertainment Group). He said he disposed of the bodies in threes. Simpson wouldnt be associated with murder that truly makes it one of the worst aged jokes in sitcom history. Garden of Graves. As per our current Database, Joel Rifkin is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). Credit: Newsday/K. He found Iris Sanchez, a 25-year-old crack addict, working First Avenue on Mothers Day weekend. 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. Oxygens Serial Killer Week brings viewers inside the minds of the most notorious criminals of all time. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Corcoran said it played a role in his promotion from lieutenant to captain. Credit: AP/Pool Photo/ Bill Turnbull. Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans. Known as Joel the Ripper, he murdered and dismembered at least nine women in New York. Rifkin was eventually sentenced to 203 years in prison for his horrific string of murders. 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. 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. All rights reserved. ", 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. He will be eligible for parole in 2197. Sometimes he would take his victims back to East Meadow, to the house where he lived with his sister and elderly mother. He spent more than four years in solitary confinement before being transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County. Hikers found her on May 9 after they spied a withered hand protruding from the ground. Rambo, one of Sylvester Stallones signature characters, now understands Spanish and somehow raised a Mexican-American girl, Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) whose father abandoned her and mom died of a terminal illness. The crowd stops cheering and squirm, while Elaine does damage control. I couldnt put two nickels together, Rifkin recalled of those years, and most of what he did earn went to prostitutes. "He was very matter of fact about it. 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. WebJoel Rifkin murdered 17 women, making him New York's deadliest serial killer. They called him The Turtle, mimicking his slouched posture and slow footsteps, seldom missing a chance to make him the butt of cruel jokes. Joel Rifkin she suggested, inspired by O.J. In March 1989, Rifkin, who admitted he had often fantasized about strangling women during sex, turned his disturbing ideas into reality. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. [2] Early life [ edit] Rifkin's birth parents were both young college students and his biological father was an Army veteran. It was a half-hearted effort at best. 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.. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Rifkin was bullied throughout his school years, an experience that left him feeling angry and isolated. 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. He offered no resistance as police removed him from the pickup, frisked him for weapons and removed an X-acto knife from his pocket. , After the Giant game, he says, I realized that this this problem isn't going away.. Weary of the pain by February 1987, he took a massive dose of barbiturates and died after four days in a coma. "You know, I first learned he was accused of being a serial killer while I was on the Long Island Expressway," he recalled. But Susie has never been identified. 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. The neighbor always survives to do the interview afterwards. WebJoel Rifkin is now serving 203 years to life in the Clinton, N.Y. correctional facility. "You think of people as things.". From the motel, he drove upstate to Orange County and left DeLucas body at a rest stop outside Cornwall, near West Point. Rifkin's prison life In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. They also found a blood-stained wheelbarrow and chainsaw at the residence. One drivers license belonged to Mary DeLuca, found dead in Cornwall, New York, in October 1991. 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. Unlike Orvieto, Holloman was identified from dental records and returned to her family for burial. Throughout his trial and incarceration, Rifkin still could not explain one thing: why. [Sex workers are]easy because they travel a lot. Susie 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. "Last Christmas (1991) she came home and we begged and begged her not to go back to New York," she said. Joel Rifkin is now serving 203 years to life in the Clinton, N.Y. correctional facility. Motorist Joel Rifkin, now in handcuffs, helped identify the corpse as 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani.