Joel Rifkin

What the record shows

Joel David Rifkin is a convicted serial killer who murdered women in New York City and on Long Island between 1989 and 1993. According to the New York State Police, he admitted to 16 murders beyond the one for which he was arrested, 17 in all. He was convicted of nine murders in jury and plea proceedings in Nassau, Suffolk, Kings, Bronx and Queens counties between 1994 and 1996 and, according to NBC News, is serving an aggregate sentence of 203 years. He is held at Clinton Correctional Facility.

The known victims were women, most of them sex workers picked up in Manhattan, who were strangled after sexual encounters and whose bodies were left in waterways, wooded areas and other sites around the region. According to the Wikipedia article, the first killing was that of Heidi Balch, 25, in early 1989; a head found at a Hopewell Township, New Jersey golf course in March 1989 was identified as hers only in 2013. Other bodies were recovered from New York City rivers and creeks, upstate New York and Long Island between 1991 and 1993. Two victims were never found, and a woman found in a drum in Newtown Creek in May 1992 has never been identified.

The series ended with a traffic stop. According to the New York State Police, at about 3:15 a.m. on June 28, 1993, troopers Deborah Spaargaren and Sean Ruane tried to pull over a 1984 Mazda pickup on the Southern State Parkway because it had no rear plate. The driver fled at up to 90 mph, struck a light pole on Old Country Road after a 20 to 25 minute chase and was taken into custody. An inventory search of the truck found the body of Tiffany Bresciani, 22, who had disappeared four days earlier. At the station house Rifkin admitted to 16 further killings; a task force recovered the remains of 15 victims across 10 jurisdictions.

Rifkin was tried first in Nassau County for Bresciani's murder and raised an insanity defense. According to United Press International, on May 9, 1994 a jury deliberated just over two hours before convicting him of second-degree murder and first-degree reckless endangerment arising from the chase. Judge Ira Wexner sentenced him on June 8, 1994; wire reports described the combined term as 27 years to life. In December 2001 the Appellate Division, Second Department, held that statements Rifkin made at the crash scene after being handcuffed should have been suppressed because they preceded Miranda warnings, but affirmed the conviction in light of the otherwise overwhelming evidence, finding the later station-house confession voluntary.

The other convictions came by plea. In Suffolk County he admitted murdering Leah Evens and Lauren Marquez, both 28, and on September 18, 1995 Judge John Jones imposed two consecutive terms of 25 years to life, according to wire reports in The Spokesman-Review. In Brooklyn he pleaded guilty on December 1, 1995 to three counts of second-degree murder for Lorraine Orvieto, Mary Ann Holloman and an unidentified woman; UPI reported that on December 12 he received life with a 75-year minimum, consecutive to his earlier terms. According to Wikipedia, a further life sentence followed in January 1996 in the Bronx for the murder of Jenny Soto.

On January 25, 1996, Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy added 25 years for the murder of Iris Sanchez, 25, whose body had been found under mattresses near Kennedy Airport. UPI reported that Rifkin, who by then had accumulated 177 years for seven murders, apologized to the victims' families and called himself a monster; the judge noted he was not eligible for New York's newly restored death penalty. In March 2013 Hopewell Township police announced that the 1989 remains had been identified through DNA from the victim's mother as Heidi Balch; NBC News reported that Rifkin would not be charged in New Jersey.

Rifkin was born in New York City on January 20, 1959, and was adopted as an infant by Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin of East Meadow, Long Island, according to Wikipedia. He graduated from East Meadow High School in 1977, attended several colleges without earning a degree and worked as a self-employed landscaper. He was 34 when arrested.