Joel Rifkin
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Joel David Rifkin (born January 20, 1959) is an American serial killer who murdered 18 women, mostly drug addicts or prostitutes, between 1989 and 1993 in New York City. Although Rifkin often hired prostitutes in Brooklyn and Manhattan, he lived in East Meadow, a suburban town on Long Island. During his trial, Rifkin was represented by Mineola-based attorney John Lawrence.
Early life
The son of unwed teenage parents, he was adopted by Ben and Jeanne Rifkin when he was three weeks old. (The couple adopted another child, a daughter, three years later.) In 1965, the family settled in East Meadow, New York, where Rifkin would spend most of his remaining years. A shy, awkward child, he was a target for bullies, and he did poorly in school despite having a tested IQ of 128. After graduating from high school, Rifkin, who was particularly interested in horticulture and journalism, made several attempts at community college. He held down various odd jobs, spending much of the little money he made on prostitutes.
In February 1987, Rifkin's adopted father committed suicide to end the pain of cancer, thereby increasing Rifkin’s depression. At this time he became increasingly obsessed with violence, murder, and prostitution. Rifkin was arrested for soliciting a prostitute on August 22, 1987 in Hempstead, Long Island. However, he managed to conceal this arrest from his family.
Rifkin committed his first murder in 1989, killing a prostitute, dismembering her body and tossing it into the East River. Over the next four years, he killed 17 more prostitutes. Sometimes he would take his victims back to East Meadow, to the house where he lived with his sister and elderly mother. Other times he killed them in his car. One of the women he killed was alleged to be the girlfriend of Dave Rubinstein (a.k.a. Dave Insurgent), a member of the 1980s punk band Reagan Youth. Her death arguably contributed to Rubenstein's decision to commit suicide in 1993.
Police finally caught up to Rifkin in June 1993, when state troopers spotted his pickup truck without license plates on the Southern State Parkway. A high-speed chase ended in Mineola, where he crashed into a utility pole which was ironically located directly in front of the courthouse in which he would eventually stand trial. Troopers detected an odor from the back of the truck. It came from the dead body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, his final prostitute victim. At the time, he was an unemployed 34-year-old landscaper.
Rifkin was found guilty of nine murders in 1994 and sentenced to 203 years to life. He will be eligible for parole in 2197.
Rifkin's prison life
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. The argument over whose killings were better reportedly ended when Ferguson punched Rifkin in the mouth.[citation needed] Prison officials decided in 1996 that Rifkin was so notorious that his presence in the general prison population could be disruptive. He was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours a day. He spent more than four years in solitary confinement before being transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County. In 2000, a state appellate court determined that prison officials had not violated Rifkin's constitutional rights by housing him in isolation. Rifkin's lawsuit seeks $50,000 for each of his 1,540 days in solitary confinement (totaling $77 million). If he were to receive any money, it would be subject to state laws that earmark most of the award for the families of his victims. 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.
In popular culture
In the Seinfeld episode "The Masseuse", Elaine Benes dates a man who is coincidentally named Joel Rifkin. Ironically, she suggests he change his name to something less frightening like "O.J." This episode aired before the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial. Although, the reference was most likely to Otis "O.J." Anderson who was a New York Giants running back. Elaine had been looking at a Giants program when she made the comment. Eventually she and Joel split up when he agrees to change his name but refuses to change it to her suggested name, "Remy".
Because of his crimes, Rifkin was referred to by the tabloids as "Joel the Ripper", an obvious reference to Jack the Ripper.
Rifkin stated that he was inspired to strangle victims after watching Frenzy.